Sinner (39 page)

S
he sat weeping, disconsolate, as the ferry bobbed and bumped against the pier of shadow-Pirates’ Town. About her pirates and their wives and chickens moved slowly, trancelike, not aware of her, not caring.

Zenith did not think she had the heart to continue. Was life worth all this effort and pain? Why not let Niah have her life and be done with it.

“Ah, Zenith! There you are. Here, take my hand. Let me help you from this ferry.”

Zenith raised her eyes. Faraday was kneeling on the pier, leaning down, a hand extended, a lovely smile on her face.

“Take my hand, Zenith.”

Zenith sat and wished it would all be easier.

“Take my hand, Zenith.”

Zenith sighed, prepared for the pain, and took Faraday’s hand.

They crept through the streets of shadow-Pirates’ Town, each step agony. The mist of the shadow-world made everything seem so unconnected that Zenith wondered if she had any existence at all.

“StarDrifter is waiting, Zenith.”

“StarDrifter?”

“We are on the Island of Mist and Memory. You forget, this is his home. Tomorrow night you will be close enough to him that he can join us.”

“Join us?” Zenith stumbled as her toe caught a rock, and she spent a moment crying in despair.

Faraday hugged her close. “Assuredly, sweet girl. His power has not been strong enough for him to join us earlier, but here, StarDrifter can reach us.”

Zenith almost smiled. “I would like that.”

Faraday smoothed back Zenith’s hair. “And so would he. Come, another step. Yes, that’s it. And yet one more. Tonight I would like us to reach the long road that leads to Temple Mount. And from there, only a night or two more.”

Suddenly she laughed, the sound ringing through the mist, giving substance and meaning to Zenith’s existence.

“Fancy, Zenith, how Niah must be trembling in her sleep! Do you know that your mother came to see her during the daylight hours? They spoke for some time.”

Zenith showed the first spark of interest that Faraday had seen in her for a very long time. “Really? What did Azhure want? What did she say?”

“She crooned over her mother, and Niah told her how wonderful it was to be reborn, and she patted her swelling belly, and said that the baby grew apace. And…”

“And?”

“And Azhure asked her why her eyes were so ringed with shadows, and Niah said that her sleep was troubled with strange dreams, undoubtedly a result of her pregnancy.”

Faraday paused, and helped Zenith for a while in silence. When she did resume speaking, her voice was hard. “Neither mentioned you, Zenith. Neither mourned you.”

The next night, as Zenith sat in her half-existence beneath a great drooping malayam tree at the edge of the jungle that covered the southern half of the island, she heard footsteps, and then laughter. She raised her head, wincing at the effort.

Down the road from Temple Mount, their steps light and joyous, walked Faraday and her grandfather, in all his silver and golden splendour.

“StarDrifter!” she cried, and he bent down and pulled her into his arms and held her so tight that Zenith knew she must be alive, after all.

“StarDrifter believed in your existence when all others did not,” Faraday said quietly to one side. “It was he who convinced me to look for you, Zenith. It was his belief in you that kept you tied to this shadow-land, his belief in you that did not let you wink out of existence.”

Zenith burst into tears and held StarDrifter as tightly as he did her. Every tear left a trail of pain down her cheek, but all she felt was the strength of StarDrifter’s love and belief.

He believed in her more than she had believed in herself.

She burst into fresh weeping, and StarDrifter murmured to her, stroking her hair, her wings, her back. He looked over her head at Faraday, standing weeping herself now.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you so very much.” For this moment StarDrifter had put aside his concerns about the beacon and the Demons. Zenith was all that mattered, Zenith was his entire world, and nothing, nothing else held any relevance.

That night they reached the foot of Temple Mount.

Niah retired to her chamber early, wishing WolfStar would come to her. She could not shake the feeling of
dread that lay so heavy across her shoulders, and yet she knew not what caused it.

Was it fear for the baby, so vulnerable at this early stage of development?

Niah wandered about her chamber, unwilling to go to bed, yet not knowing why she feared it so much. She paused by the bed, her hand twitching at the coverlets, then she moved away again, her head high, eyes searching.

“WolfStar?” she said, but he did not answer.

Niah knew he had a great worry that kept him occupied somewhere else, but just tonight…tonight she wished he could have been with her. She wished that –

“Niah?” His voice, husky with desire, broke into her reverie and he stepped from the shadows.

“WolfStar!” She flew into his arms, and he laughed and kissed her.

“What ails my love? Why call with such desperation?” He kissed her, and laughed at her fears of the night.

“No desperation now that you are here, WolfStar. Oh, hold me, tell me I am safe!”

“Forever in my arms,” he whispered, and carried her to the bed. “Forever I promised you, and forever it shall be.”

Faraday, wrapped in power and the darkness of the chamber, sat and watched them. She cursed Niah for calling WolfStar this night, and she cursed WolfStar for answering.

Would it make a difference? Faraday did not know. She had gone to Zenith in the shadow-lands before now when WolfStar lay sleeping at Niah’s side…but tonight was the night that Zenith hoped to step from the shadows into the light.

It would be dangerous under the best of circumstances. And WolfStar’s presence made it close to
the worst of circumstances. What if he woke and realised what was happening? He surely had the power to banish Zenith completely, not only from this world but from the shadow-lands as well. Banish her to a place where Faraday would never be able to find her.

Where she would be lost forever.

There was a silent movement at the door, and Faraday turned her head slightly.

StarDrifter.

He walked silently to her side, and she lifted a hand and took one of his.

In this room, with WolfStar present, they could not even use the mind voice without waking him.

Faraday summoned her power, and she and StarDrifter entered the shadow-lands.

Through the night they toiled with Zenith up the thousand steps to the plateau of Temple Mount. On flat ground Zenith found every forward movement agonising; on a flight of steps her pain was close to being unbearable.

But she was determined. Tonight. Even if WolfStar lay there sleeping.

StarDrifter and Faraday put their arms about her, and lent her their love, and she took another step.

They stood outside Niah’s chamber. Zenith was shaking with fatigue, but her mouth was a thin line of determination, and her eyes glittered with hatred.

For Niah, for the woman who would destroy her.

Tonight she would end it.

Faraday met StarDrifter’s eyes, then she nodded at Zenith.

StarDrifter put his hand on the handle and pushed open the door.

Zenith lifted her head and stared.

Stared at the Enchanter lying tangled with
her
naked body. Stared with loathing at
her
hand resting on
her
swollen belly.

Zenith’s lip curled, and she growled, and…

Disappeared.

Frantic, StarDrifter clutched at Faraday. Her fingers dug tight into his arm, cautioning him into utter silence, and then she dragged them back into the world where WolfStar and Niah lay sleeping peacefully on the bed.

Except now, as they discovered when they opened their eyes in that world, some of that peace had dissipated.

WolfStar still lay sleeping, but Niah had gone rigid in his arms. Her eyes had opened wide and were staring at the ceiling, although Faraday and StarDrifter knew she saw nothing.

Niah’s entire body trembled…and then
rippled.
Rippled again, and then jerked.

WolfStar stirred, and Faraday again grabbed at StarDrifter and pulled him back into a darkened corner, cloaking them in power.

WolfStar opened his eyes, blinked, and looked at Niah.

She lay still now, one hand curled protectively over her belly.

WolfStar smiled, stroked the hair back from her brow, and settled back into sleep.

When he had relaxed completely, the woman on the bed opened her eyes and stared into the corner where Faraday and StarDrifter stood.

It is done
, she whispered in their minds, and the hand that had rested so protectively over her belly now rose, clenched into a tight fist, and slammed down hard.

Zenith rolled over and gagged, but she raised her hand again, and struck herself as hard as she could.

WolfStar rolled over, rising out of his sleep, and, desperate now, Zenith half fell out of the bed, grabbed at a heavy candlestick on a table, raised it, and drove it into her belly.

This time she could not help but cry out with the pain.

StarDrifter could bear it no longer. He leaped from the corner, leaped from the protecting cloak of Faraday’s power, and to Zenith’s side. “Zenith!”

WolfStar roared into full wakefulness. Not yet grasping the full import of what was happening, though understanding that something was dreadfully wrong, his power reached out and slammed StarDrifter into a far wall.

Zenith backed away, inching from the bed on her buttocks and hands and feet.

Even from the corner Faraday could see the spasms that quivered across her belly.

“Hurry, Zenith,
hurry!
” she whispered.

Zenith moaned, and doubled over, clutching at her belly.

“Niah!” WolfStar was at her side. “Did he hurt you? What has he
done?
”

“The baby!” Zenith gasped, and rolled completely over, moaning again.

She left a pool of blood gleaming behind her.

“Niah?” WolfStar whispered again, his mind refusing to believe what was happening. “Niah?”

Zenith grunted, once, twice, and then a third time. Her fingers scrabbled at the floorboards. She grunted again, curled into a tight ball.

WolfStar bent over her, and then somehow sensed Faraday in the corner.

“Help her!” he cried.

Faraday smiled. “With pleasure,” she said, and bent down to Zenith’s side. She was grateful her heavy hair hung down to hide the satisfaction that crossed her face.

Zenith, her hands bloodied, pushed Faraday back, then grabbed at something between her legs.

Then, in a move so appallingly fast WolfStar had no hope of stopping her, Zenith seized the tiny, bloody body and struck him across the face with it.

“
Take your lover
,” Zenith screamed, “
and enjoy her into eternity!
”

WolfStar backed away in confusion and horror.

Zenith hefted the tiny, battered body once more and flung it at him.

It hit his head with a sickening wet smack, and then flopped to the floor.

WolfStar, his face smeared with blood – and worse – slowly lowered his eyes.

There, lying at his feet, was the undeveloped body of a tiny baby girl. Bruised. Battered. Unmoving. Unbreathing. Her skull crushed beyond all repair.

“Niah,” Zenith said flatly, her eyes glittering hatred. “Dead at last.”

B
eyond the Star Gate darkness swirled among the stars like tainted smoke. Entire galaxies had been lost, star systems obliterated, the very music of the Star Dance itself dulled.

The observers knew that the universe itself was in no danger, it was just that the closeness of the TimeKeeper Demons to the Star Gate meant that it was hard to see beyond their influence to the stars.

But that knowledge was no help – especially when the Star Dance itself was so muted by the Demons’ presence.

“Look how close they come!” Adamon cried. “How long before they totally block out the Star Dance?”

Axis lifted his eyes from the horror in the Star Gate and stared at him. He’d never seen Adamon anything other than totally composed. To now see him so agitated was in itself almost more terrifying than witnessing the TimeKeepers creep so close to the Star Gate.

“How long before all Enchanters – and
us
– lose touch with the Star Dance?” Adamon said, more quietly now.

“WolfStar,” Axis said, determined to try to find something that could aid them. “You can use the Dark
Music. Has that been dulled by the approach of the TimeKeepers, too?”

WolfStar ignored the question. He stared into the Star Gate, his expression so bleak that Axis thought he looked as though hope itself had been torn from him.

“WolfStar?” he asked softly.

WolfStar’s head snapped up. “
What?
” he snarled.

“I asked if the Dark Music has been dulled by the approach of the TimeKeepers.”

WolfStar took a deep, shuddering breath. “I apologise. My thoughts were…elsewhere. But, to answer your question, yes. If we can’t prevent these Demons breaking through the Star Gate
soon
then we shall shortly be powerless to do so at all. And if they do break through, then nothing will prevent them ravaging at will.”

And my son leads them, Axis thought numbly. My
son
! He brings the destruction not only of Tencendor, but of the Star Gods and every Enchanter alive with it.

“What of Caelum?” Axis said. “If we lose all power, then so will Caelum. How can he stop them then?”

WolfStar shrugged. “I’m sure we can find some way to get the Sceptre back for him –”

“Hope will not win this day,” Axis said. “I, for one, have had enough of this vacillation. WolfStar, it is time we studied this Maze Gate. And then it is time we actually
did
something. Will you take us there?”

WolfStar nodded, and turned away.

SpikeFeather started as the three suddenly appeared at the head of the steps leading down to the Maze. He’d spent the past few weeks either trying to decipher the Gate’s message – an uneasy task at best – or wandering the waterways, trying to access the sites of the other craft. The search had been a miserable failure, and his attempts to decipher the Gate not much better.

It was a most frustrating Gate.

Beside him sat WingRidge. WingRidge had appeared a few days ago – his fifth visit in the time SpikeFeather had been down here – although the captain had maddeningly refused to say what his exact business was. In fact, it was infuriatingly impossible to get WingRidge to say much at all.

Yet even so, the lines of worry about his eyes and mouth were far easier to decipher than the mysteries of this Gate.

Adamon and Axis walked down the steps slowly, unable to conceal their amazement at the sight of the city-maze before them. Everything within the city – streets, buildings, roofs, doors, windows – formed part of an incredibly intricate labyrinth. It stretched into a hazy distance, leagues of twisting, winding madness.

“How could
anyone
find their way through that?” Axis whispered, stopping halfway down the steps and staring.

“The idea was that nothing should ever find its way
out
of it,” WolfStar said.

“Qeteb’s soul lies in there?” Adamon said.

WolfStar nodded. “Somewhere. If they need to reconstitute him completely then the Demons must hunt it down.”

And suddenly, as clear as a temple bell on a snowy night, WolfStar knew what he had to do. Life parts lay scattered all over Tencendor – just waiting to be used. On any dead body that needed reviving.

Niah!

Axis studied him carefully, wondering at the emotions raging across WolfStar’s face. “So the Maze is intended not only to keep Qeteb
in
, but to keep the Demons
out.
”

WolfStar composed himself; whatever had distracted him now seemed put aside. “Partly.”

He hesitated, then indicated that they should join SpikeFeather and WingRidge by the Gate. “But I think the Maze serves other purposes as well – although I have never been able to decipher exactly what. Ah, wait!”

WolfStar stopped Adamon and Axis on the final few steps. “Look!” He pointed towards a distant quarter of the Maze. “Those streets and that tenement complex are new. The Maze is growing. Faster than I’ve yet observed it.”

Adamon glanced at Axis. “In response to the approach of the Demons,” he muttered, and then they negotiated the last five or six steps and joined an awed SpikeFeather and an impassive WingRidge.

SpikeFeather bowed deeply to Adamon and Axis, murmuring a greeting.

“Peace,” Adamon said. “We have not come to disturb your contemplations, SpikeFeather, but to scry out this Gate for ourselves. And you,” he turned to the captain of the Lake Guard, “are WingRidge?”

WingRidge inclined his head.

“WolfStar tells us you are devoted to the Maze.”

“Devoted to the StarSon, Adamon,” WingRidge said.

“Then why are you not above ground helping him in his battle with Zared?” Axis asked harshly.

WingRidge’s composure did not falter. “I, as the entire Lake Guard, serve the StarSon as we see best. Sometimes, Axis, that way is not immediately apparent to outsiders.”

Axis held his tongue, although he resented being called an outsider. He knew from his own experiences that many who acted in the best interests of Tencendor sometimes took mysterious paths whose purposes were not immediately apparent.

“The writing has shifted,” WolfStar murmured, moving to the Gate. “Changed.”

Axis and Adamon followed him, and studied the mysterious characters. They were so alien, almost
incomprehensible – yet scattered symbols made a subtle sense.

“Here,” WolfStar said quietly. “And here, here, and here, and yet again here.”

Axis followed his finger. WolfStar pointed to identical symbols that depicted a star surmounted by a sun. “StarSon,” Axis said.

“Caelum,” WolfStar agreed. “The Gate mentions him again and again.”

“WolfStar,” Adamon said, stepping back so he could view the entire Gate. “Does the Gate show what must be done?”

“Yes,” WolfStar said.

WingRidge regarded him wryly. Yes, the Gate
does
show what must be done, he thought. But have you got the translation right, oh vaunted Enchanter?

“Well, what does the Gate
say?
” Axis asked.

WolfStar studied it closely. “It shows Caelum,” he said quietly, “battling to save a world disordered by the Questors. Here it speaks of peoples lying down in the streets to die of despair, here they capitulate to terror, here to hunger. It speaks of a world where the Demons run rampant, where Qeteb rises from the grave, where hope and joy exist not even in memory.”

“And yet if Caelum – if
we
– lose our powers when the Demons break through the Star Gate, then how can he master them?” Adamon paced back and forth. “What hope has he?”

“The Rainbow Sceptre contains its own powers,” WolfStar said. “With that, with the power of the ancients, Caelum
can
master them! Remember the ancients managed to contain Qeteb in the first instance. Adamon, Axis, that Sceptre is our only hope. See how the Gate intertwines the symbol of the StarSon with that of the Sceptre time and time again! The Sceptre
must
be
Caelum’s only hope. Our power is likely to be useless before the Demons and certainly before Qeteb. But with Caelum wielding the Sceptre…”

“And yet Drago has the Sceptre, and uses it to help drag the Demons through the Gate and enslave us all.” Axis’ voice tightened in frustration. “And Caelum is entangled with Zared.”

“Axis,” Adamon asked very quietly, speaking as tactfully as he could, “
can
Caelum deal with this threat? He has so very little experience.”

Axis opened his mouth, then snapped it closed again. Finally, reluctantly, he spoke. “Caelum needs the experience and, dammit, the
confidence
of winning this conflict with Zared. He must deal with Zared on his own, and he
must
win. He needs to be trained to deal with the Demons and Qeteb – but I dare not drag him away from his fight with Zared. To do that would totally destroy his confidence.”

“And there would be no need for Caelum to meet these Demons if we manage to stop them first,” Adamon said.

WolfStar looked away from the piece of script he was studying. “What do you mean?” And if the Demons
were
stopped, would that give him free rein to gather together the life parts he needed?

“I am talking of warding the Star Gate so the Questors cannot break through – even if they hammer on the other side.”

“Can we do that?” Axis asked.

Adamon suddenly looked very tired. “It would take all our remaining power, and then more. Axis, we would need the help of a hundred of the most powerful Enchanters, as well as Isfrael’s assistance.”

“The trees,” Axis said. “We will need the magic of the trees behind us.”

“We will need
everything
we can bring to bear to stop these fiends,” Adamon said quietly. “Because if we do not stop them at the Star Gate, then I fear they will turn Tencendor into a wasteland of desolate souls in their quest to reform Qeteb.”

“I pledge my every power, my last effort, in the building of those wards,” WolfStar said fiercely. “We
must
stop the Demons!”