Zenith's hand tightened on StarWalker's arm. "Where is the sick room?"
"Oh, it's too far for you to be troubling yourself —"
"I don't think so, StarWalker. Where is the sick room? I might as well make myself useful."
"Zenith," StarWalker said, finally looking her in the eye, "you do not want to go there."
"Why? Is the patient so infectious? And if so, then what are you doing wandering the corridors with a bowl full of infection in your hands?"
"Zenith," StarWalker was now leaning close, her eyes wide and full of an emotion that Zenith could not quite read. "Zenith ... DragonStar found WolfStar within the wasteland. He brought him back —
frightfully injured by the Demons. I ... I did not want to tell you."
Zenith was so shocked she could not say anything for a moment. WolfStar ... here? In Sanctuary? She had hardly thought of him since she'd come down to Sanctuary herself; somehow her mind had come to the unconscious conclusion that he'd been killed by the Demons and she need never worry about him again. But now ...
"WolfStar?" she whispered.
"There is no need for you to be concerned," StarWalker said, laying the bowl on the ground and taking both of Zenith's hands in hers. "He is kept under close guard. He can't be a danger to you now."
Gods, Zenith thought weakly, does everyone know about his rape of me? Has everyone else been told that WolfStar is here, and is everyone wandering about thinking, Poor Zenith, we must keep this from her in case she shatters?
"Where is he?" Zenith said, looking StarWalker in the eye.
"I don't think I should —"
"Where is he?"
StarWalker hesitated, then spoke. "He's being kept in the underground chambers in the complex next to the apple and plum orchard."
Zenith nodded slowly; she knew it. StarWalker must be heading back to the series of herb storerooms that were situated on the second level of this building. If Zenith hadn't happened across StarWalker, nor pressed her for details, she would never have known about WolfStar.
"Thank you, StarWalker," she said, absently, disengaging herself from the woman's grip.
"He won't harm you," StarWalker said.
"I'm sure he won't," Zenith said, and abruptly turned and walked away.
She sat in her darkened room for many hours. Thinking. Remembering. Trying to decide on some course of action.
Zenith was stunned at her own reaction to the news that WolfStar had been found and then secreted within Sanctuary. She would have imagined she might have felt fear, or anger, or even repulsion.
But she felt none of these. All she felt was an overwhelming desire to see him.
Why? To gloat perhaps. To spit in his face? To finally lay aside the memory of his repulsive rape and then misuse of her body as he encouraged Niah in her attempts to control it?
Zenith didn't know, and that was what distressed her most of all. She had thought anger and revenge would have been at the forefront of her mind ... but all she found herself thinking of was the single glimpse she'd had of WolfStar at Fernbrake Lake. She'd been horrified by his condition — but she hadn't felt any anger or repulsion when she'd seen him, had she?
"No, no," she muttered, her hands twisting in her lap, "I was distracted by the sight of Niah, that's all.
I would have been angered and repulsed if I hadn't been distracted by Niah."
Zenith rose and paced about the room. She badly wanted to talk to someone, but there was no-one left. Faraday, Gwendylyr and Leagh were each preoccupied with their own problems and their newly-discovered roles and powers, while Azhure, although she'd been closer and warmer to Zenith in the past few days than
Zenith could remember in many years, was still not a confidante. Not for this, and certainly not where WolfStar was concerned. Azhure might superficially acknowledge WolfStar's failings (murder, manipulation, treachery, rape ... the failings of any mere mortal) but he was nevertheless her father, and she had emotional ties with WolfStar that precluded any detached discussion of him.
Besides, Zenith could not get out of her mind the fact that Azhure had also encouraged the Niah-soul's attempt to take over Zenith's body.
StarDrifter? Could she go to StarDrifter? Zenith found herself standing before the door to the corridor. She trusted him more than any. She loved him. He would be understanding.
About WolfStar?
"Why am I feeling this way?" Zenith whispered. "Why?" She felt as though some mean-spirited giant had taken an enormous wooden spoon and stirred up her entrails. She was a mass of conflicting emotions, and yet she could not identify any of them.
And she did not know what to do, nor who to talk to. Was it just mention of WolfStar, or was it that combined with her feelings of disassociation and uselessness which had been growing for weeks now?
Zenith closed her eyes, gripped the door handle tightly, and made up her mind.
She had to talk to someone.
She turned the handle, opened the door, and walked into the corridor, vanishing into the gloom.
Chapter 25
Into the Sacred Groves
"I am not sure it was such a good idea to goad the StarSon," Sheol said. "Nor tell him about the Sacred Groves. And most certainly it was not a good idea to let him know how vital the individual combats between us and his are!"
Sheol's mouth pouted in a show of petulance that Barzula, Mot and Raspu privately thought would bring her to a very, very bad end.
