Watch ... a voice echoed through their minds, and the air rippled before them, and they saw Isfrael standing in the circle of stumps, talking to Qeteb. They could hear no words, but they saw him gesture emphatically towards Niah.
"Niah," whispered DragonStar. " What is it about Niah?"
They saw the Demons gather about Qeteb ... and then they saw Qeteb produce the wooden bowl.
Faraday gave a low cry, her free hand clasped to her mouth, her eyes wide with horror.
"Can he get to the Sacred Groves using that bowl?" DragonStar hissed at her, and Faraday nodded.
"With the Demons' power behind him, yes!"
And then the vision gave truth to her words, for they saw Isfrael use the bowl, and then vanish.
The vision faded, but as it did so, there was a clunk on the floor before them, and there was the bowl.
Brimming with clotted blood.
The blood that will run through the Sacred Groves, whispered the voice in their minds.
Faraday let Gwendylyr go and lunged for the bowl, but it vanished the instant before she could grab it.
"DragonStar!" she said, standing up and turning about.
"We need to get out of here," he said, and reached for their hands. "Get back to our —"
No.
The atrium and the doors and corridors rippled, and then vanished, and in the instant before they, too, vanished, DragonStar shouted: "It is an illusion! There is nothing to fear!"
There is everything to fear, fool.
Each felt the comfort of the others' hands evaporate, and the four found themselves standing in individual corridors.
Each twisted around, trying to see from which direction the danger would come down the bland, pastel-walled hallways.
DragonStar stared, and then half-smiled. Two could play at this game. He closed his eyes, concentrated, and in the next moment two insubstantial hounds appeared at his side.
Sicarius and FortHeart.
"I have lost my comrades," DragonStar said. "Hunt."
The hounds scented the air, and then they bounded down the corridor, DragonStar close behind them, the lily sword in his hand.
He fought down his apprehension. Why hadn't he found the time to tell the other three of what he'd learned about the Book?
But he had not had the time, and DragonStar knew he would have to find them before the Demons either killed them, or took control of their minds.
Faraday turned about, and found herself face to face with two Demons.
At least, that's what she supposed they were, although they had taken the form of a broom and a rake.
Both were enormous, twice the size of any broom or rake Faraday had ever seen. Their handles were constructed of rough, splintery wood, three times the thickness of her wrist, and while the rake had teeth made from razor-like bear claws, the broom had bristles of nails.
Each had elongated eyes towards the top of their handles, and each had tiny, clawed hands protruding out just beneath their eyes.
"We've come to help you tend the field," one of them whispered in a sing-song voice. "We've come to do our very, very best!"
They rushed towards her.
Faraday fought down her fear, and did not flinch. She reacted with pure instinct, as she had when confronted with the rat when trying to help the people of Carlon.
"Have you ever smelt the scent of the Field?" she asked pleasantly, and cast towards them every memory she could dredge up of the overwhelming fragrance of the billions of flowers.
The rake and broom screamed, and then crumpled.
"Bitch!" one of them said, and then vanished with its companion.
Faraday blinked her eyes, and then turned slightly to see Axis and Azhure leaning over her.
She twisted back to DragonStar's form, and grasped his hands tighter.
"Come back!" she said. "Come back!"
DragonStar and his hounds found Gwendylyr in tears, hunched over the still forms of her twin boys.
"They are not what they appear to be," he said, and, as he spoke, the boys rose, their faces taking on the likenesses of long-snouted dogs.
Sicarius and FortHeart snarled, stiff-legged.
