70.WapeofTenceDdor The Demons pushed their mounts until the black beasts" breathing rasped through their throats and their flanks heaved in hungry effort for air. The Demons pounded their heels into flanks, their fists into shoulders, and every so often they would lean down and bite as deeply as they could into the snake-like necks jerking and weaving before them.
The StarSon was at the Maze! They could feel him!
The Demons growled and hissed and spat. The StarSon thought to destroy them, but it was he who would be destroyed.
Nothing would stop them now!
At least nothing once the StarSon had been destroyed.
They"d not thought him this powerful, nor this resourceful. From where had he drawn his power? He"d emptied not only Carlon, but the entire land of good feeding, and taken the prey into a cunning hiding place that the Demons could not yet espy.
The StarSon must be destroyed! The StarSon must be destroyed!
He must die . . . die ... die!
It was all they could think of. Kill the StarSon before he discovered too many of the Enemy"s secrets. Kill him, and then nothing could ever seize this land from them. For a million years the TimeKeepers had been seeking a haven, a 707-.
land they could truly call a home, and this was it. This was home. This was their home, and no petty Icarii prince was going to deny them.
And so they rode, desperately, hatefully, and faster and faster until they were only a blur over the landscape. With every stride they drew closer to the Maze, with every stride they drew closer to the Dark Tower, and there lay their salvation, there lay Qeteb"s soul, there lay their destiny.
They were now so close to the Maze - a few leagues, no more - that they could draw power to themselves, power to pull themselves forward, faster, faster, faster . . .
And all the time the Dark Tower sang to them.
Come to me! Come to me! Come to me!
The dark Demons came.
WolfStar thought this wild demonic ride would kill him. His internal injuries, constantly worsened by successive rapes, were being pounded into a desperate state by the bounding and jouncing of his mount. He was still slung on his belly over the beast"s back, his wrists and ankles tied underneath the beast"s own belly, his wings bouncing and trailing through the air.
Blood dribbled from his mouth, staining both the beast"s flank and the landscape through which they pa.s.sed.
StarLaughter rode her beast as a maniac. Excitement consumed her to the point where she"d lost all coherent thought. She sat bolt upright, her tattered and filthy gown snapping in the wind of her pa.s.sing, her hair tangling in her wings behind her, one hand buried in her beast"s mane, the other raised aloft as if in triumph.
A constant thin wail trailed from her open mouth.
StarLaughter was riding home.
The Qeteb-man and the Niah-woman sat their beast pa.s.sively, although they swayed rhythmically to the surge of its gait. The Qeteb-man"s fingers still groped up and down the body of the woman he held before him, and even though his thick tongue trailed wetly from a corner of his mouth, his eyes were blank and, as yet, purposeless.
*708 .
The Maze, now inextricably married to the blackened twisted streets and tenements of Carlon, hove into view, and as one the Demons shrieked and screamed, beating their mounts into further efforts until the foam that flew from the snake-headed mouths became thickened with blood.
The Resurrection was nigh.
Nothing would stop them now!
Caelum and DragonStar stood atop Spiredore and watched the dreadful cloud roll closer.
Caelum felt ill, not only at the approaching horror, but also at the destruction about him. Carlon - gone!
And the land . . . the land was a desecration.
He dropped his eyes to the seething ma.s.s of animals about the Maze.
"Is there anything left?" he asked softly.
DragonStar shook his head. "Tencendor is empty of coherent and cogent life, Caelum. We," his mouth smiled very slightly, "are the only two left."
"Qeteb will destroy this land," Caelum said. "He will murder it!"
"Yes," DragonStar said. "But you understand why that is necessary?"
Caelum was quiet a long while before he finally nodded. "And after I... after I..."
He could not bring himself to complete the question.
"Then," DragonStar said, "satisfied the StarSon can no longer irritate their plans for utter hegemony, Qeteb and his companions will rape and destroy this land until nothing remains. Not even hope. They will make for themselves a world fit for their society. Caelum . . . do you understand?"
"Yes." Caelum looked his brother full in the eye. "They will not do that if they think you are still alive.
They need to think you dead."
709-.
Caelum"s face took on an expression of utter despair. "There are no words that can be said at this moment, brother, but so many words that need to be said. I -"
DragonStar took Caelum"s face between his hands and smiled with exquisite loveliness and gentleness.
"There are no words that need to be said, Caelum."
Caelum stared into DragonStar"s deep violet eyes, and saw in their depths not only power and surety, but something far, far lovelier.
The rich field of flowers.
"Will I -?" he began, and DragonStar leaned forward and kissed him softly on the mouth.
"Yes," he said. "Yes, you will."
Caelum gripped DragonStar in a fierce hug, and tears flowed freely down both the brothers" faces.
"I am glad," Caelum whispered, "that I have finally known my brother, DragonStar."
The cloud rolled closer.
"Where must I go?" Caelum asked.
"I will show you."
The Demons screamed and shrieked and wept in their overweening hysteria. For so long, so very, very long they had been riding towards this . . .
And now it lay before them.
As the Demons rode to within a half-league of the Maze Gate they began to change. All resemblance of human bodies vanished, and they took on shifting, lumpish forms that one moment resembled eels, the next grossly deformed frogs or dogs. Appendages wove forth from all aspects and every shifting plane of their bodies, some tentacle-like with pop-eyes at their extremities, others like grasping many-fingered hands.
They barked and howled and slurped, slipping in and out of one grotesque transformation after the other.
WolfStar retched, but StarLaughter whooped and screamed with joy.
710.
Such power! Such revenge!
And soon her son would come into what was rightly his!
Above wheeled a cloud of Hawkchilds, screeching with the Demons. They swept over Spiredore and saw -.
The StarSon! The StarSon atop the white, white tower!
What does he do? Sheol asked of them.
Nothing. He stands, his hands on the parapet, and waits. Fool! He but waits for his death!
And all the time the Dark Tower wept and wailed and sobbed: Come! Come! Come!
The Demons swept under the Maze Gate and it did not hinder them.
They swept through the Maze, and neither did its conundrums impede them. Indeed, their way was as an avenue, wide and smooth and kind, leading them directly to the Dark Tower. Behind them swept the vast army of slavish animals and lost souls, finally free to join their master.
The Maze filled with the demonically insane, a great sweeping tide of fury and darkness.
The Demons paid the horde no attention. They were almost out of control. They gibbered and s...o...b..red, scratching deep gouges of joy into their mounts" necks, and still the black beasts ran, ran straight for the Dark Tower.
The door to the mausoleum swung open, and Demons and mounts and their companions together swept in.
On his tower, Caelum sighed and stepped into the stairwell. "Take me to the Maze Gate," he requested.
The Demons sat their mounts still and silent.
They stared at the tomb with the black armour spread out atop it.
The Demons had once again regained their humanoid forms. Tears trickled down their faces.
It was very hard to believe that, after all they"d been through, the time and the trouble and the trials, they were finally here.
711 .
Silently, reverently, they climbed down from their mounts.
StarLaughter also slid down, and strode over to WolfStar. "Watch," she murmured as she cut his bonds and pulled him down from his beast into a heap on the black marble floor. "Watch as your son gains his heritage!"
The Demons helped the Niah-woman and the Qeteb-man to dismount. The Niah-woman they took over to the side, out of the way, and indicated that StarLaughter stand with her.
StarLaughter obeyed, dragging WolfStar over at her heels, and smiled cruelly at her husband. "See," she said, "what will become of our son."
The Demons grouped reverently about the Qeteb-man and guided him towards the tomb. Once there they patted and fondled him, and then each Demon picked up a piece of the armour and, mumbling strange words in an even stranger tone, laid it against Qeteb"s flesh and tied it to his body.
It fit perfectly - but not because the armour fit Qeteb. Instead, as successive plates were fitted against his body, the Midday Demon"s flesh swelled to horrible proportions to fill every s.p.a.ce inside the armour.
The air grew heavy, and WolfStar could not stop a dreadful sense of oppression sweep over him.
StarLaughter, intent on watching her son, let the chain tethered to WolfStar"s collar drift unheeded to the floor.
Slowly, very, very slowly, WolfStar backed away, his fingers fumbling at the loathed collar until it fell to the floor.
He backed into the shadows of the pillars, and wondered: Should I escape? Or attempt some rescue of Niah?
Completely unaware of WolfStar"s slow drift away, one of the Demons fitted another piece of armour to Qeteb"s body, and again flesh swelled to meet metal for a perfect fit.
Now there was only the visor to go.
Sheol lifted it from the tomb, aided by Mot, and raised it over Qeteb"s head.
712 .
WolfStar stared from the shadows. Qeteb"s face was transforming into something hideous as the Demons slowly lowered the visor.
G.o.ds! WolfStar could not bear to look any further, and pushed his face against the cold floor.
Silence, and then a faint clunk as the visor was secured into the neck and shoulder fittings of the armour.
Everything left above in the land of Tencendor paused, and then turned in the direction of the Maze.
The forests fell silent, the waves ceased to batter the rocky sh.o.r.eline of the Icebear coast, the animals crowding the Maze outside the Dark Tower fell to their bellies, the Hawkchilds settled on the top of the Maze"s walls and folded their wings.
Seated atop his white stallion, the StarSon lifted his eyes and wept.
Underneath the stallion"s hooves, the great bridge of Sigholt groaned and fell silent.
A great roar pounded forth from the heart of the Maze.
I am reborn!
Qeteb raised his black-metalled fists and thrust them above his head. / am reborn!
WolfStar dug his fingers into his ears and screwed his eyes tight shut, praying for death!