"Let me finish," he said. "You have decided you want to find WolfStar to throw yourself into his arms, while you have managed to convince the Hawkchilds that you remain committed to his death."
"They would accept no other arguments," StarLaughter said.
"True," DragonStar said, "but what will happen if the Hawkchilds realise that you are double-crossing them? Or if you get away with that, what will you do when you all happen on WolfStar?
You want to love him, the Hawkchilds want to kill him. It's bound to be a mess, StarLaughter."
"Leave that to me," she said. "All that need concern you is that I and the Hawkchilds work on your behalf —"
"Until the Hawkchilds realise you're tricking them," DragonStar said a little dryly.
"And who will tell them, DragonStar? Who?" She sighed. "You do not need to concern yourself about me, or the Hawkchilds, or even WolfStar. Help us to find him, and then turn your back. You get what you want, and I will get what I want."
And the Hawkchilds, thought DragonStar? What do you plan to do when everyone finally meets up with WolfStar?
She pressed herself against him, burying her fists in the folds of his shirt, her face upturned to his, her eyes blazing. "WolfStar and I — what a team! We can best the Hawkchilds, and then ... then ..."
StarLaughter lapsed into silence, her mouth open, her eyes moist with emotion.
DragonStar stared into her face, and with a sudden shock realised that she was either completely mad, or absolutely, frighteningly sane.
And DragonStar did not know which he feared more.
"StarLaughter," he finally said. "I need something solid to convince me that I can trust you. For all I know, you are still in league with the Demons."
"What would convince you of my genuineness? The secret to the Demons' destruction?"
"That would help."
She sighed. "I thought you already knew that."
"You thought wrong."
She thought a moment before she spoke. "If there is one thing I have learned about the Demons during my sojourn with them — and Qeteb behaves as do the others — it is that they are one-dimensional only."
" One-dimensional ?"
StarLaughter gave a small smile. "They are boring. Predictable. They are pure evil, true, but that is all they are. Completely one-dimensional. DragonStar, if you want to defeat them, then make them two-dimensional."
"I have no idea what you mean —"
She turned her face fully to his. "Give them a choice, DragonStar, and they will fall apart.
Perhaps."
He was silent, thinking. Was this the weapon his witches could use against the Demons?
"Give them a fork in their straight and narrow roads, DragonStar, and you may be able to confuse them enough to choose the path leading to their doom rather than yours."
Chapter 32
Revival
The Demons were angry beyond any anger that had ever filled them in previous millennia. And of all five, Qeteb was angry beyond compare.
Fury consumed him.
Rage ate his entire soul.
Revenge, destruction, the blight and devastation of all that still somehow survived: these were his only thoughts.
Now!
"They escaped me!" he bellowed across the land.
Well, so what if they had? They could escape nowhere he would not eventually find them.
If they were in Sanctuary? Then he would consume Sanctuary! He would shred it! Ravage it! Vomit forth its remains into the interstellar wastes to float lonely for eternity!
If they hid somewhere in a secret cave or dungeon?
Then it would not survive his might and power. What devastation he had wreaked on Tencendor to this point was but a foretaste of what he would eventually do.
Qeteb smiled. What he would eventually do with the power of the Enemy. He would turn the Enemy's own power back on them and laugh as they screamed.
Qeteb had never been this powerful in his entire existence, nor ever this potentially powerful. He could feel the power he'd eaten in the Sacred Groves ripple through him, making him stronger, more magical... more dangerous.
And soon he would revel in the power of the Enemy.
