She was bait ... but such unbelievable bait that DragonStar started to think that this couldn't possibly

be a trap. Surely the Demons wouldn't expect him to fall for this?

There was a movement at his side. Sicarius, sidling forward to sniff at StarLaughter's skirts.

He nosed about, then lost interest, sitting down to scratch at a spot just behind his right ear.

And then DareWing re-emerged from the gloom at StarLaughter's back. With him he had several members of the Strike Force.

One of them stepped forward. "She is a cold-hearted bitch," the birdwoman said, "but she has given us the one thing we needed to make us believe in her."

"Yes?" DragonStar said after a moment, and then froze in horror as another form emerged from the gloom.

It was one of the Hawkchilds. Star Grace.

"She has brought us the Hawkchilds," DareWing said, "and a highway to the Demons' den."

Qeteb's form flowed back — horribly, for his flesh assumed many loathsome lumps and bumps in doing so — into his handsome, human form.

For the moment he had grown tired of the encasing black armour.

He advanced a step towards the Mother.

"You're a sorry looking cow for all the power and glory you are supposed to represent," he remarked.

Her expression — exhausted, resigned — did not alter, although one hand spasmed briefly within the folds of Her skirts. "I am what you have done to Me," She said. "I am the living representation of the land, and I —"

"Do not have much longer to live," said one of the other Demons, sidling closer. Its pig snout snuffled along the ground, as if it wanted to suck up the Mother's skirts, and perhaps Her with it.

The Mother's mouth trembled in a smile, or perhaps an expression of fear. "No. I do not think that I do."

"With you gone," Qeteb said, and he took a pace forward, "the entire land will be mine."

Both his hands dangled at his side, but his right one shifted and changed, reshaping itself into a gigantic fist some five or six times normal size.

It had hammerheads for fingertips.

"There is the small matter of some remaining resistance," Ur muttered from her bench. Her arms were now so tightly gripped about her pot they were completely white.

Qeteb leaned back his head and roared with laughter. "DragonStar? His useless lieutenants? A Sanctuary full of terrified incompetents? There is no magic left I do not control; or will not, within days.

There is no place anyone can hide. And there is no soul that will not eventually be mine!''''

He was screaming by the end, spitting out words and saliva in a torrent of hatred.

Ur turned her head aside, hiding her expression from the Demons.

Qeteb's massive right hand suddenly shot out and seized the Mother's neck. "Stupid, stunted bitch," he seethed, and the muscles of his arm rippled up and down. "Your time is done."

And his fist tightened.

DragonStar was leading his band down into the bowels of Star Finger when Faraday halted, put a hand on one of the corridor walls for support, and groaned.

She sagged, her moans becoming frightful, and DragonStar wrapped his arms about her.

"Faraday? Faraday? What's wrong?"

StarLaughter looked on, mildly curious. Was it the gloom this far down? Was she a girl who needed light to feed her good temper and optimism?

Faraday screamed.

The Mother began to writhe, although She was obviously making some effort to keep still and accept death.

Her hands half lifted, then dropped as She forced them down.

Her eyes She kept still on Qeteb's straining, reddened face, although panic and fear swam about in them.

Ur leaned forward, and grabbed the Mother's skirt.

Qeteb's fist tightened, and the Mother's eyes bulged in agony.

Faraday was convulsing, and DragonStar did not know what to do. Leagh and Gwendylyr hovered about, their hands patting helplessly, their faces frantic.

Everyone else stood about in a powerless circle.

DragonStar raised his head and stared at StarLaughter, his expression hard.

"It's not me," StarLaughter said, and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what ails her."

More than anything else it was her utter disinterest that convinced DragonStar. He glanced at StarGrace — she also shrugged — and then he looked back to Faraday.

Red weals had appeared about her throat, and her eyes were bulging and agonised.

"In my fist," Qeteb said, turning his face slightly to talk to the other Demons, "I hold the life of the land.

Pitiful, isn't it?"

Blood now stained the neckline of the Mother's robe, running down in rivulets to blotch and dampen its bodice.

"Nothing can stop us now," Sheol said. She had rearranged her snout into a more elegant form.

"Except blindness," Ur said, and Qeteb growled.

"Will blindness save Her, now?" he said, and his fist abruptly tightened.

The Mother's neck broke with a snap.

Ur's face contorted, her hand clenched even tighter within the Mother's robe, and then she sagged, almost lifeless, and let go.