"Qeteb spoke through your mouth," Faraday said softly. Her hands were clutched before her, twisting and writhing as if they, too, might be in the grip of some demonic possession.
"He said ... he said that he could take possession of your mind at will."
DragonStar closed his eyes and tipped his head back to rest against the back of the chair. Gods, what had he done? Let his confidence get the better of him! Let his arrogance lead them all into ruin!
And Qeteb could take possession of him at will?
"I cannot believe that," DragonStar said, opening his eyes and staring at the five gathered about him.
"He spoke to us," Faraday said. "DragonStar, it was not you."
DragonStar closed his eyes again. He remembered how Qeteb had reached claws into his mind as he'd sat at that table, but he'd not known that he'd ... he'd ...
DragonStar was suddenly filled with such a repugnance he leaned forward and retched. Stars in heaven, was this how a woman felt when she'd been raped?
Faraday swayed forward, then hesitated, and it was Azhure who put her arm around DragonStar's shoulders.
"What we are afraid of," Azhure said, "is that we, or any who speak to you or take your orders, may not be aware that Qeteb speaks through you."
"We will always look at you and wonder," Faraday said.
DragonStar wiped his mouth, jerking his eyes to meet hers. "You cannot trust me?"
"How can we trust you?" Goldman said. "Is this you now, or a cunning persona of Qeteb?"
DragonStar stared, then rose unsteadily to his feet. "You have no choice. You must trust me."
"How 'no choice'?" Axis said. His hand had finally drawn the sword, but he kept the blade flat against his leg.
"Because if you choose not to trust me, then Qeteb automatically wins. But if you choose to ignore what he says he can do, then you have an even chance of coming through. Either I am who I say I am, or I have lost my wits and voice and body to Qeteb. Even chance."
There was a silence.
"Besides," DragonStar continued, his voice hard, "no-one has any idea if Qeteb can indeed take possession of my mind and voice at will. When he did so just then he had me at his mercy in his lair. Can he repeat that trick when I am on my own territory and in possession of my own body?
"Dammit, you have no choice but to hope and to trust! If you decide to abandon me now then you will automatically sign your own, and this land's, death warrants!"
Axis and Azhure looked at each other, and Faraday dropped her eyes. Only Goldman and Gwendylyr continued to regard DragonStar with a steady gaze.
"He's right," Goldman suddenly said. "We have no choice but to trust DragonStar. If we do, then we may win and we may fail, but if we don't, then we guarantee our failure."
Gwendylyr nodded. "I agree."
She remembered how DragonStar had aided her when they'd all been trapped in Qeteb's illusion. Gwendylyr would not abandon him now.
Axis sighed, and sheathed his sword. He attempted a small smile. "I hate the odds, DragonStar. I loathe them. But you are right. None of us have a choice."
Azhure, her hand still on DragonStar's arm, nodded, and gave his arm a slight squeeze, but did not speak.
DragonStar looked at Faraday.
She stared at him, and gave a bright, utterly false smile.
She looked like a glass statue that would shatter at any moment.
"Of course I trust you, DragonStar," she said, and in that one, calamitous sentence, DragonStar knew he had lost her.
"Niah," DragonStar said. Only a moment had passed since Faraday had spoken, but in that moment a chasm had opened between them. "It has something to do with Niah."
"Isfrael went to Qeteb with some information about Niah," Goldman said. They'd all resumed their seats again, but the mood between them was stiff and uncomfortable. How long, DragonStar wondered, before any kind of trust can be rebuilt between us? Qeteb did well... very well indeed.
"There was something he told Qeteb about Niah," Goldman continued, his face creasing in thought,
"that has made Qeteb so confident he thought he had the leisure to toy with DragonStar, and with us through DragonStar."
"Toy?" wondered DragonStar, and then furthered wondered when — or even if — he should tell his witches of the consequences if they failed against the Demons. No, he must tell them. But not yet... not yet.
"Something about Niah," he said, remembering Qeteb's words, "that will enable Qeteb to
'eat' Sanctuary and destroy all of us. What? Azhure, can you help?"
Azhure shrugged helplessly. "Niah is much changed since I knew her. Death warped her soul so much that she has lost any —"
"Oh dear gods!" DragonStar leapt to his feet so abruptly that his chair fell over. "Oh dear gods in heaven!"
No-one could speak, all shocked by the look of horror on DragonStar's face.
DragonStar groped behind him for the chair, righted it, and
