Here, surprisingly, for they'd had the furthest to fly, the three Wing of the Strike Force had arrived before the dark column from the Maze ...

The more surprising, for the creatures sent to Cauldron Lake had less distance to travel than those who troubled Leagh and Gwendylyr.

But then again, the crystal forest was still standing, and mayhap it still exerted some degree of fear in the minds of the creatures, enough to make them drag their malformed feet more than they would have done.

Perhaps it was the memories floating about the Keep, perhaps something else, but Dare Wing and Goldman had, in the few short hours they'd been there, formed a partnership very much like that of Ogden and Veremund.

The Wing of the Strike Force arrived to find the two fighting over who exactly had washed the dishes resulting from their meal.

"You must have done it," DareWing was saying, "for I did not!"

"You undoubtedly did," Goldman said crossly, "for I know that I did not, and who else is there?"

"Ahem," said KirtleBreeze, leader of the three Wing, but nevertheless shifting from foot to foot in embarrassment.

DareWing and Goldman looked up at the birdman standing in the doorway of the Keep, annoyance etched into each of their faces.

"What are you doing here?" DareWing said. "I thought that—"

"DragonStar sent us to aid you," KirtleBreeze said.

"Aid us?" Goldman said. "We need no aid!"

KirtleBreeze shot a look behind him. "If I might suggest —" he began, then got no further, for the sounds of battle interrupted him.

KirtleBreeze stepped back into the night and disappeared, and Goldman and DareWing rushed forward, colliding in the doorway and scrabbling at each other before finally managing to get through.

The Keep was surrounded by thousands of demonic creatures, humanoid and animal.

Most of them were writhing on the ground with arrows to their eyes and throats.

"Not bad," Dare Wing said, and nodded as he folded his arms and stood back to survey the slaughter.

"They could have let us do something,'" Goldman said, and Dare Wing turned his face to his companion and grinned.

"The next battle will be ours, my friend."

"Aye, so it will be. So it will be," and Goldman's hand drifted down to stroke the crest of the lizard at his side.

Faraday barely coped with the creatures sent to harry her.

Their instructions were not to attack and destroy, but to whisper.

And Qeteb had instructed them well.

As Faraday had backed into her pile of rubble, hundreds of blackened, grinning creatures had completely surrounded the pile of stones.

They settled down on bellies and haunches, some with heads resting on paws, and they grinned and gleamed their reddened eyes at her.

"Qeteb won't be long," they said, a horrible chorus of voices rising and whispering into the night. "He won't be long at all."

"And he can't wait to get his hands on you," a cat said to one side, and the entire mass of creatures tittered.

"He'll make a real woman of you," an old crone murmured, and ran her hands lovingly over and under her own sagging dugs. She raised crazed eyes to Faraday. "He's done wonders withNiah."

"He'll take you within the Maze," said a bull. "He'll make you a queen. Remember Gorgrael?

Remember what he did to you?"

The bull leered, foam dripping from his slavering mouth. "Qeteb will be a real bull for you, m'dear. In every way."

"You speak lies and illusions," Faraday said, keeping her voice calm although she was appalled by what they said. How much did they know? How much did Qeteb know?

"Everything," an adolescent boy said. "Isfrael told him, y'see. Isfrael told him how best to use his mother, for the only reason his mother exists is to make a useful sacrifice."

"Will DragonStar save you, do you think?" asked the old crone. Her fingers were now dug so deep into her flaccid breasts that flesh oozed up between them. "Or will he offer your throat for Tencendor?"

"He will save me," Faraday said.

The mass of creatures howled with laughter.

"We can hear the fear in your voice," a small reptile finally managed to say through its chortles, "and we know the reason for your fear. You are not sure, are you!"

"I am sure of one thing," Faraday said, finally, utterly, unbearably angry, "and that is of —"

The bull did not allow her to answer. "You have a choice," he said. "You can succumb and the pain will end ... reasonably fast. Or you can fight and tear yourself apart in the effort to free yourself. Which will it be?"

Faraday's mind jerked back to the test she'd undergone when she and DragonStar's other witches had sat under the crystal-columned dome in Sanctuary. Then she had answered ... then she had answered ...

Gods, then she had answered that the thorns should choose for her!

But she could not give that answer here, for it would warn Qeteb of the methods that she and her companions meant to use against the Demons.

"I will succumb," Faraday said softly, her soul screaming with every word, "for that is what I have always done."

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" screamed the horde, and they surged forward.

Faraday could do nothing to stop them, for she was overcome with despair and sorrow. Yes, she would succumb, for isn't that what she always did? Isn't that what fate demanded of her again? Isn't that what —

She lost consciousness.

Atop the rubble of Star Finger, DragonStar lowered his head and wept for her courage and for her despair.

"Now," he whispered, "please gods in heaven, now!"

When Faraday opened her eyes again, it was to the concerned gaze of a Wing Leader.

"My Lady Faraday," he said. "The beasts are either dead or driven back. You are safe."