who it was? DragonStar, or Qeteb? Who was it now saying, "We must go forth into the wasteland?"

DragonStar, or Qeteb?

Katie, and her desire to protect the girl at all costs, was all that was left for her. Illogically, even though she was not sure who was going to lead her back into the wasteland, and what might be waiting for them there, Faraday wanted to keep Katie with her. If only Katie was with her, then she would find some way to protect her, some way to keep her from harm. The vision she'd had many, many weeks ago of the armoured man — Qeteb — slicing open Katie's throat with a kitchen knife returned night after night to haunt her.

Faraday would let nothing harm Katie. Nothing.

"Faraday," Azhure said gently, putting her hands on Faraday's arm, "I will look after Katie as if she were my own."

"As if she were your own?" Faraday hissed. "You were never good at playing the caring mother, Azhure!"

"Faraday," DragonStar snapped, "that is enough!" He stepped forward and took Faraday's other arm, pulling her away from Azhure and the rest of the group.

"Faraday," DragonStar said in a low voice as he pulled her, stiff and resisting, over to a far corner of the chamber, "if you cannot trust me then we might as well lie down and offer our throats to Qeteb here and now."

She was silent.

"You have let me lay by you at nights," DragonStar said, his voice softer now, "and let me love you.

You trusted me then. Trust me now."

She stared at him with hard eyes, and then tried to pull away from him.

He grabbed her before she could walk away, hanging on to her arm and speaking hard and low into her ear; she would not look at him.

"You will know in here," he tapped her breast with his other hand, "when it is DragonStar who speaks to you, and when — if— it is Qeteb. You will know that!"

Faraday finally turned her eyes to him. They were wide, stricken, and so frightened that DragonStar felt his chest constrict.

"I want more than anything in this world, or in the thousand worlds that surround and touch ours, to be able to trust you, DragonStar. Yet to think that by trusting you I will be laying down and offering my throat to yet another demonic lover terrifies me."

DragonStar felt his heart break. "Gods, I love you, Faraday," he whispered, his mouth almost touching her ear. "I will never harm you, I will never offer you to Qeteb to save Tencendor. Please, gods curse it, please believe me."

"I will try," she said, a tear finally escaping from an eye. "I will try, DragonStar."

She pulled away again, and this time DragonStar let her go.

He wondered if he would ever have her back.

Was there nothing that could be saved from this chaos?

"I wish you luck," DragonStar said, gripping Axis' hand and arm, "with your self-appointed task."

"As I wish you well with yours," Axis said.

They fell silent, each staring into the others' eyes, each wondering if this was the last they'd see each other, and if this was one of the last moments of hope that Tencendor would have.

Azhure stepped forward and briefly, but fiercely, hugged DragonStar, then she turned and embraced the other four who would leave with him.

Katie clung to Azhure's skirts, and Faraday embraced the girl so tightly she squeaked in protest.

Azhure had to prise her loose from Faraday's grip.

"Let nothing happen to her!" Faraday said to Azhure, and Azhure touched Faraday's cheek with her fingers.

"I promise to do my best for her, Faraday. Will you accept that?"

Faraday hesitated, then nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. Azhure's best was better than virtually anyone else's. But even though Faraday knew she left Katie in the best of hands, she still hungered to be able to watch her herself.

"I love you," she whispered to the tiny girl.

"Love DragonStar instead," Katie said. "He needs it as much as I do."

Faraday's face closed over slightly, and she straightened and stood back, turning her face to look about her.

They were standing at the entrance to the valley of Sanctuary: Axis and Azhure, Zared and Theod, and DragonStar and his group. Behind DragonStar sidled Belaguez, anxious for war; the Alaunt, sitting, but very evidently impatient for action as well; and the blue-feathered lizard, irritably combing out some of the feathers on his off-hind leg. His emerald and scarlet crest was rising up and down so rapidly his plumage appeared blurred.

Zared was holding Leagh, as Theod held Gwendylyr; hard and angrily (why did their wives have to go?}, desperately, knowing they would, in all likelihood, never see them again.

"We will meet again," Gwendylyr tried to reassure Theod, "in the Field of Flowers, if nowhere else."

"And if the Demons get into that, as well?" Theod said. "If they destroy the Field? If they destroy everything else, Gwendylyr, and if they control the power of the Enemy, then they will inevitably get into the Field."

Gwendylyr clung to Theod, burying her face in his chest, fearing the truth of his words, and totally unable to speak.

Theod met Zared's eyes over her head. They were as hard, as angry, as implacable as his own.

Of the entire group, only Goldman seemed at ease, bending down and ruffling the thick hair on FortHeart's head, and clucking to her as if she was a child.

The hound relaxed into his hand, seemingly grateful for the reassurance.

"What will you do?" Axis asked DragonStar.

DragonStar shrugged a little. "What I must. And you?"

Axis smiled slightly. "This place must have some other way out. I cannot believe the Enemy built Sanctuary without a back door."

A back door to where? To what? DragonStar wondered, but said nothing. He gripped Axis' hand and arm again, then let go.

"Goldman, girls ... it is time we left." And he adjusted the Wolven where it hung over his shoulder, raised his sword, and drew the door of light.

"Come," DragonStar said, "let us dare Spiredore one last time."

Chapter 28

Destruction

The Mother sat on the bench outside Ur's cottage and contemplated death. Even the mere contemplation of Her utter annihilation seemed out of place, let alone the imminent reality of it.