Zared glanced again at Herme, and saw that doubts remained. Had they all been infected?
His hand tightened about his knife.
"How can we get across?" Faraday said. "Look at the water!"
The waters of Grail Lake were simmering. Great bubbles slowly broke across the surface.
Faraday jerked, and pressed closer to Drago in horror. A huge slimy tail rose lazily in the air above the water, then slammed down again.
The water was not boiling, it was full of ... of ...
"Eels," Drago said. "Grown to gigantic proportions under the Demons" careful nurturing."
The water roiled, and several heads appeared. Fully five paces long and two wide, the eels had yawning mouths filled with razored, yellowing fangs. One of them had the remains of a cloak caught between its teeth, and as Faraday watched a neatly severed human leg dropped from the folds of the cloth and splashed into the water.
All three eels instantly lunged back into the water, fighting over the delicacy.
512 ."There"s a boat tied to the pier," Drago said, apparently unconcerned by what he"d just witnessed. "And large enough for our variety of furred and feathered companions as well."
Faraday pulled away from him. "No!" She hugged Katie tight to her, and buried the girl"s head protectively in the folds of her skirts. Katie twisted her head about slightly to gaze quietly at Drago.
"We will never get across alive!" Faraday said. "Do you want to kill this sweet child before she has a chance to live?"
Katie now twisted her face about so she could look at Faraday.
"Faraday - " Drago began.
"No!"
"Faraday," Drago"s voice became firmer. "Trust me. We can get across."
Faraday stared at him, her eyes panicked. She could not believe that Drago was prepared to risk the live of Katie with such equanimity.
A movement to their right broke the stand-off. It was the feathered lizard - now, Faraday observed, far larger than any of the hounds - climbing carefully into the boat. It settled itself at the prow and began to preen, totally ignoring the glistening hump of an eel that had surfaced four or five paces out into the Lake.
Sicarius, FortHeart as ever at his shoulder, leapt in after the lizard, and the next moment the boat rocked as the remaining Alaunt and the cats all leapt in at the same time. The lizard raised its head, its emerald and scarlet crest flaring, and hissed irritably at them.
There were three s.p.a.ces left clear on the benches.
"Trust me!" Drago said, and held out his hand.
Faraday stared at him, then at the boat packed with sundry animals, then back at Drago.
She swallowed.
Drago gave a small smile. "Faraday, the worst that can S13.
happen is a rapid annihilation, and the best is an exhilarating ride. Will you risk it?"
His hand waggled a bit.
Faraday lowered her eyes, and made as if to speak to Katie, but the girl pulled free from her and ran to the boat, climbing in.
"Katie!" Faraday cried.
"I think," Drago said, "that you have been outvoted. If you do not wish to risk the journey, I can always leave you here. No doubt Spiredore will keep you safe and warm."
Faraday"s cheeks reddened, and she marched stiff-backed past Drago and climbed into the boat.
His smile gone, Drago unmoored the boat and pushed it out into the water as he jumped in. He settled down in the remaining s.p.a.ce, placed the staff carefully under the bench, unshipped the oars, and rowed strongly for the opposite sh.o.r.eline.
Instantly the water came to life about them.
An eel reared out of the water, its huge head blocking out the sun, and lunged down at one of the Alaunt.
But in the instant before it seized the hound in its fangs, its head fell off, glancing off the side of the boat into the water.
The boat swung wildly, not only from the blow struck by the falling eel"s head, but also because a half- dozen other eels began fighting over the head and body of their fellow.
Gripping her seat tightly with one hand, and Katie as tightly with the other, Faraday stared wildly about, trying to see from what direction the next inevitable attack would come from.
"How ... what happened?" she gasped.
"Watch," Drago said, and pointed behind her.
Faraday twisted about, desperately trying to keep her balance, and saw that the lizard was sitting alertly in the prow. Another eel reared just to her right, and Faraday flinched, but not before she saw a shaft of brilliant light sear through the eel"s head, sending it tumbling back into the water.
514.
Again an eel reared out of the water, and this time Faraday saw exactly what happened. The lizard raised one of its claws and arced it through the air in a great cutting motion. As it did so, its diamond talons flared with light, and the beam flashed through the s.p.a.ce between lizard and eel cutting off the monster"s head.
Faraday looked back to Drago, absolutely astounded. "I had no idea it could do that," she whispered.
"I told you to trust me," he said, and his face relaxed into a wide grin.
Even Faraday could not resist that smile. Her mouth twisted, twitched, and then her resistance crumbled and she smiled. Katie clapped her hands delightedly, and the lizard joined in the fun by slicing off two eels"
heads with a single flashing arc of light.
It was the last they were troubled by the eels. Whether the other eels had learned from the fate of their companions, or they were too busy feasting on the remains of those others, the boat sailed serenely across to the other side of Grail Lake.
As they neared the section of the city walls that rose directly from the waters, Drago lifted the oars from the water and let the boat slow to a glide.
"Carlon is ringed thirty deep with the Demons" minions. We could fight our way through - I am sure the lizard would prove more than useful - but I would prefer to arrive in a slightly more anonymous manner. I remember stories of the night my father bested Borneheld in this place. Did he not enter through a postern gate somewhere close to the water"s edge?"
"Yes." Faraday did not particularly want to remember those eight days spent in the lie of Axis" arms, but she could not avoid it. First Gorkenfort and memories of Borneheld, and now Carlon and the shade of Axis"
betrayal. What was Drago doing, dragging her to every site in Tencendor bound to stir up unwanted and painful memories?
"Yes?" Drago prompted.
515 r "Ah." Faraday shook herself out of her train of thought. "Yes, Axis told me about it, as did Rivkah and Yr.
It should be ..." she twisted about so she could see the approaching sheer wall, "... it should be just beyond that corner there, tucked into an alcove that lies deep under a rounded tower. Yes. There!"
Drago leaned back into the oars, and the boat swung close to the tower. Five paces away he shipped the oars securely, and clambered forward to the prow, pushing aside sundry hounds and cats as he did so. A chorus of indignant grunts and yowls followed his pathway.
Once at the prow, Drago leaned over the form of the lizard, who had curled up and was watching proceedings carefully with one of its light-absorbing black eyes, and caught the iron ring by the door, tying the boat up with swift, sure movements.
Then he seized the door ring, and pushed.
The door swung inwards - - and instantly Drago was knocked to his face, only avoiding falling in the water by the most strenuous of actions, by the mad rush of lizard, hounds and cats for the open doorway.
Drago hauled himself back into a safe position, and looked back to Faraday. Both she and Katie were bent almost double in silent paroxysms of laughter.
Drago grinned himself, shaking his head slightly, then he held out his hand and silently helped Faraday and Katie, both still giggling, into the door.
"If you disbelieve me," Theod spat. "Then kill me now! I have nothing left to live for!"
Zared again locked eyes with Herme, and then he sighed and placed both his hands stop the table. "I cannot believe you anything else but my friend. I am sorry for doubting you."
Theod"s face did not relax. "And so when do we ride north? Ride to save -"
516.
"My friend," Zared said as gently as he could, "we will not be riding north. By this time there will be nothing left to save . . . and you know as well as I that we can"t help those who have been -"
"Coward!" Theod shouted, and stumbled to his feet. "I will ride back myself if I -"
He stopped, and stared at the door.
Zared and Herme turned to see what had quieted Theod. They, too, stilled. Sitting in the doorway, its tail swishing softly to and fro behind it, was an enormous blue-feathered lizard which had a brilliantly coloured plumed crest on its head.
Norden had somehow managed to escape beyond the doorway, and they could see him edging slowly back down the corridor. He stopped and turned, as if he had seen someone. But Zared"s, Herme"s and Theod"s attention was now all on the lizard.
It hissed, and Theod took a step back from the table.
His chair crashed to the floor behind him.
Zared rose to his feet, his hand now finally drawing his dagger.
"What?" he asked hoa.r.s.ely. "Have the creatures gained entrance?"
"Not yet," a voice said, and Drago stepped through the door and - rather carefully - around the lizard.
"But it seems to me that the miasma of despair has truly worked its horror within this room."
He stopped and looked at the three men. "Tell me, why so sad?"
Drago and Faraday sat on two chairs before the fire, Katie at Faraday"s feet, their various creatures curled up about the room, and grieved silently as first Zared and then Theod spoke of the disasters that had befallen them.
"Why do you weep?" Theod said to Drago as he finished his tale. "Have you not returned successfully from the dead?"
*517-.
Drago hesitated in his reply, Theod"s words making him pause for thought. "I grieve for all this land, Theod, and for you and Zared and Herme." Theod"s mouth twisted, and he turned his face aside.
Faraday rose from her chair and walked over to a far wall, ostensibly to inspect a wall hanging, in reality to sorrow for Leagh in semi-privacy. Leagh! She didn"t deserve such a dreadful fate. But then, who did? Did Drago truly know what he was doing, allowing Tencendor to be so ruined, and its people to be so decimated?
Katie, still sitting by Faraday"s chair, looked between Drago and Faraday, her beautiful eyes swimming with grief herself. No-one grieved more for Tencendor and its peoples than did Katie.
Drago sighed. "Faraday and I bring good news. Sanctuary is open -"
"- for those still able to enjoy it," Theod put in.
"Surely that must be enough!" Faraday cried, turning back from the wall. "Those left must be saved. Theod, how many are left in the western ranges, do you think?"
He shrugged, almost uncaring in his cynicism and grief. "It has been over a week, more, since I left. Zared thinks all must now be ... gone. I agree with him."
He paused. "I went north to rescue twenty thousand, and ended by leading all to their deaths. Every one of them. Gone."
"Including the Strike Force," Drago said, and looked into the fire.
Including the Strike Force. His eyes stared dreamily into the fire. The Strike Force, lost to the forces of madness.
"Where is this Sanctuary?" Zared asked, uncertain of Drago"s reaction to this disastrous news. "And how do we reach it?" He eyed the girl curiously, but was not inclined to ask about her. One small girl amid the tragedy that currently engulfed them was a problem that could be left to later, more leisurely times.
518.
Faraday glanced at Drago, still deep in thought, and answered, "Sanctuary lies under Fernbrake Lake."
"That would be death for anyone trying to reach it from Carlon!" Theod cried, and turned and slammed his fist into the mantelpiece. "Have you not seen how hemmed in we are? How we sit and wait for starvation to claim us."
"The trip to Sanctuary will take little more than two hours for most people," Drago said, and looked up.
Theod merely raised his eyebrows disbelievingly.
"Spiredore," Drago said softly.
"You can work Spiredore?" Zared said. "But I thought... Axis said -"
Drago shrugged. "He should have trusted in Spiredore more. At the least it would have saved him, Azhure and Caelum a difficult journey to Star Finger."
"How is Caelum?" Herme asked. "Have he and his parents found any solution to the Demons?"
"Caelum has the means to do what he must," Drago said. "And I do what I can to make the path easier for him."
Zared glanced at Faraday, who had dropped her eyes into her lap at Drago"s statement, then looked back to Drago.