Urbeth waved a hand. "I have grown used to the fact that I must, apparently, save the day whenever everyone else gets themselves into a hopeless muddle. So, review the situation for me. You!"

She pointed at Zared. "What does this Sanctuary contain?"

Zared stared at Axis, and then looked back to Urbeth. "Ah ..."

"Speak up, dammit! For all we know Qeteb might be chewing his way down through that make-believe sky right now!"

"Sanctuary contains all the Tencendorian peoples that were left sane after the Demons' initial push through into the land, and before Qeteb's final resurrection. All its peoples, and all its animals."

One of Urbeth's daughters — they had also assumed human form — moved forward to stand before Zared. "And by all its animals you mean ...?"

Zared lifted his hands, not quite knowing how to explain. "Everything that DragonStar's witches —"

"DragonStar's witches?" Urbeth asked sharply.

"His 'helpers', I suppose you could call them," Axis said. "Those who share the same source of power that he does. Acharite power — the power of the Enemy."

Urbeth smiled. "Ah. Good."

"Faraday and Leagh," Azhure put in, moving to stand and link arms with Axis, "DareWing, the Strike Leader, and Goldman the Master of the Guilds of Carlon. Lastly, there is Gwendylyr, Duchess of Aldeni."

"An eclectic bunch!" Urbeth said. "But I suppose DragonStar knew what he was doing. But you were saying, Zared, everything that DragonStar's witches ...?"

"Could pull into Tencendor before Qeteb's final resurrection," Zared said. "Deer, sheep, bloated creatures from Bogle Marsh —"

"Which Sanctuary has most genially recreated for them," FreeFall put in under his breath. All this discussion was making him impatient.

"Insects, birds ... everything," Zared finished.

Urbeth shared a glance with her two daughters. What a clutter! And they were going to have to fix it!

She turned back to Axis. "And so you were ... what was it... looking for a back door?"

"Yes."

"And what, pray tell," Urbeth said softly, walking up so close to Axis her face was only a handspan from his, "were you going to do then?"

He held her grey gaze, although it was not the easiest thing he'd had to do in his life.

"I don't know."

Urbeth returned his stare, then gave a soft laugh. "You 'don't know'. You were going to lead this entire zoo out this 'back door' ... to what? Instant madness at the hands of the Demons?

Were you going to lead them back into a wasted Tencendor, Axis? What in stars names were you going to do?"

"I was going to judge that circumstance when I encountered it!" Axis shouted.

Urbeth did not flinch.

"I suppose you have a better idea?" said Axis, no less hostile.

"Of course," she said, and smiled.

Axis was not to be placated by a smile. "Well?" he snapped.

"Behold," Urbeth said, and, turning to one side, she waved a hand through the air.

Instantly, the garish turquoise tiling of the balcony floor rose up in ridges and dips.

Everyone, save Urbeth, her daughters, and Ur, who still sat quietly, her arms about her pot, gasped in astonishment. Urbeth had created a relief map of Tencendor.

Urbeth moved so she could point out individual features. "Qeteb has wasted all this portion," she said, and with a sweep of her hand indicated the bulk of Tencendor. "Coroleas still lies safe, although it, too, will be consumed if Qeteb manages to best DragonStar. The Demons' influence extends some way out over both the Andeis and the Widowmaker Seas, perhaps a league's distance. The Corolean fishing industry has been badly affected, and the Emperor is not pleased."

Axis grunted. The diplomatic disasters of the situation did not concern him. "What else remains clear?"

Urbeth hesitated, glancing at her daughters. "The icefloes of the Iskruel Ocean are still navigable, although growing more unsound by the hour."

"If Coroleas is still free," Azhure said, "can we go there? Can you get us out of here, Urbeth? Into Coroleas?"

Urbeth did not answer immediately. "Coroleas is a possible destination, although not entirely desirable. The Emperor will be entirely displeased at the sudden influx of guests, two-, four- and eight-legged."

"He'll just have to put up with —" Axis began.

"But there is a better place for us to go," Urbeth said. "Here," and her finger moved. "The tundra to the extreme north-east of Tencendor."

"What!" Axis exploded. "But that's frozen! How can we survive there? And that territory is full of ..."

he trailed off, remembering what Urbeth had earlier said about the Skraelings.

"Skraelings," Urbeth said. "Yes. It is also very close to Tencendor, and the way south is relatively unrestricted now the forests have gone."

Behind her, Ur moaned, and hugged her pot tighter.

"But the biggest positive is the Skraelings," Urbeth finished.

"Why?" Axis said.

"Because I think we can come to some arrangement with them," Urbeth said, and Ur cackled with laughter.

"One that might not be entirely to their liking," she said, and then Urbeth and her daughters, and Katie also, who still sat with Ur, were laughing as if the entire future were clear of Demons and shadows alike.

Chapter 34

WolfStar Feels Beter

Urbeth said the tundra, and so the tundra, Axis supposed, it had to be. As for the Skraelings, Urbeth (and Ur, whom Axis privately thought was more than slightly senile) remained silent on that point, and said that it would be easier to show than explain.

Skraelings. Stars! Axis thought he had seen the last of them when Azhure and the eastern forests had destroyed Gorgrael's Skraeling army in Gorken Pass. But they'd all forgotten that the Skraelings came from the far north-eastern frozen tundra, and Axis supposed that a breeding population would have survived there even after the debacle of Gorken Pass.