It was a worm, wriggling and writhing in complete harmony with Qeteb, slick and moist, covered in the oils and juices of its reincarnation.

Rox's homecoming soul.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Qeteb screamed, stabbing one finger down towards Niah's still supine body.

"There! In her womb! There!"

And the worm saw, and rejoiced.

It spiralled closer, slowly, slowly, slowly, and then suddenly it became a blur of movement, dropping (squelching) down to the ground before Niah, humping and wriggling, making frantic mewling sounds, desperate ... . "Yes! Yes! There! There!"

And the worm saw, and went. It wriggled up to Niah's feet, and forced them apart.

It began the final journey up the valley of her legs, moving to its sweet haven between her thighs ...

Qeteb roared with laughter. "This is what I will do to you, DragonStar!"

And the worm wriggled home, and disappeared.

Niah's belly roiled.

And DragonStar screamed, and retched, and Leagh pressed his hand even harder against her belly, and said, "Use me, DragonStar, use the flowers."

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, stared at her, and then felt what throbbed forth from her belly.

Life. Wonder reborn.

And DragonStar used it.

Niah's body convulsed, once, twice, a third time, and then it lay still. One of its hands twitched.

Qeteb flung himself into the air, tumbling down from Sigholt's tower like a deranged acrobat determined upon his own destruction.

He landed next to Niah, a jerking, black thing all arms and legs and grinning face, and he grabbed at her arm. "Wake up! Wake up!"

And Niah did.

She turned her exquisitely beautiful face to Qeteb and she smiled with a frightful malevolence.

Niah's body, controlled from within her womb by Rox's soul.

"This feels good," the Rox-Niah said, and it spoke with the voice of Rox, harsh from disuse and the fright and loneliness of his death. It raised itself up on an arm, and waggled its tongue experimentally.

"Two bodies to control."

"The outer will be disposed of when you grow enough to wriggle your way free again," Qeteb said.

His form flowed and reshaped itself into the handsome man clad in grey and ivory. "Now, how do you feel?"

The Rox-Niah — Roxiah — sat up and furrowed its brow thoughtfully. "Strange. Odd ... as if ..."

"As if you have access, perhaps, to a new and strange power?" Qeteb asked eagerly.

"Yes ... yes, that's it. It feels," Roxiah twisted its features into an expression of hate and loathing,

"familiar."

"Indeed, my sweet," Qeteb said, "for 'tis the power of the Enemy."

And Roxiah opened its mouth and roared, and all beasts left in Tencendor quavered and wailed.

Except those surrounding DragonStar.

Lifting his hand from Leagh's belly, calm and assured now, he stared into the ceiling of the basement chamber, as if he could see right through it to the sky above.

"Why not come and get us, Qeteb," he said, and grinned. "If you can find us!"

Qeteb screamed, and lurched to his feet. Roxiah rose as well, and the Demons, now a complete circle of six, capered and reeled about.

Why not come and get us, Qeteb. If you can find us!

"Fool! Fool!" Qeteb screeched. "I have better things to do before I come to eat you!"

DragonStar smiled, and kissed Leagh gently on her forehead. "Good," he said. "It will be the sweeter for the waiting."

Chapter 33

Urbeth's Plan

"The Skraelings?" Axis said. "What do you mean, 'the Skraelings'?"

Urbeth stood up, and suddenly she was an icebear no longer, but the tall woman of grey and silvered hair.

A circle of stars blazed from her left hand.

"The Enchantress," Azhure said, and dipped her head in reverence.

"Ah," Urbeth said, "no time for such polite niceties now. We have work to do." She walked over to the balustrade and looked at the scene before her. "Pretty, but ultimately destroyable. I can't think what the Enemy were thinking of."

"They were thinking," Axis said, "of a means to give us a respite."

"Mayhap so," Urbeth said, and turned back to face him. "But what now?"

"Well..."

"Ha! Haven't an idea, have you?"

Axis grinned, and folded his arms nonchalantly. "No. But I think that you do."