10 The Crystal Forest

      StarLaughter stood and stared. She could hardly believe the beauty of the crystal forest. She lifted one hand and stroked the trunk of the tree nearest her. It was cool and solid, but somehow vibrant.

      “Exquisite,” she said.

      The Demons were grouped two or three trees beyond her. StarLaughter could see their dark and distorted forms through the transparent trunks.

      “Dangerous,” Barzula said. He had his arms wrapped about himself, and his golden eyes flickered uncertainly at the trees.

      StarLaughter walked up to them, slipping a little on the glassy footing, and noting that the golden leaves of the trees — and how smooth and silky they felt! — were exactly the same shade as Barzula’s eyes.

      “Dangerous?” she said. “How so?”

      Mot rounded on her, baring sharp teeth, but he pulled himself up at the look of surprise on StarLaughter’s face.

      “A trap,” he said, and waved his hand about. A thousand hands reflected back at him from a myriad of trunks and branches. “This is a trap designed by the Enemy.”

      StarLaughter frowned, and tightened her hold on her son. “You must not let it harm him.”

      “Fear not, Queen of Heaven.” Sheol slipped an arm about StarLaughter’s shoulders and gave her a brief hug. “No harm shall come to your son. Now …”

      Her tone suddenly brisk, Sheol turned to Rox. “How do we proceed? Which way?”

      Rox shrugged. “Down. Everything slopes down. The Enemy’s craft is down. What we need is down.”

      “Then why do we still stand here?” StarLaughter asked, raising one eyebrow. She shifted her son to a more comfortable position, and took a step forward. “Can’t you use your power to scry out the … the place?”

      Rox looked at the others. “Shall I? It is my time — my power grows each minute as terror feeds off this pitiful land.”

      “We need to move,” Raspu agreed. “If we stand about and wait the trap will only snap shut.”

      But will it snap shut the instant we move? Sheol shared her thought with her companion Demons, but not with StarLaughter.

      Rox looked her in the eye. There is only one way to find out.

      Sheol nodded. “We must risk it. Let loose your terror, Rox. Shatter these trees, and find the hiding place for us.”

      Rox smiled. He shifted so that he stood with his feet wide apart, and tipped back his head. His grin widened, became more feral, then he spread his arms out wide, his fingers trembling slightly … and screamed.

      Terror raged through the trees. Every nightmare possible, every fear imaginable, every horror that was ever conceived, flooded rampant through the crystal forest.

      Far away, hidden at the edge of the crystal trees at the point where it joined the waterways, WolfStar cried out and sagged to the floor. His breath cramped in his chest, his eyes bulged, and his limbs trembled.

      His hands convulsed, and tightened about the tiny, cold corpse he carried.

      “No!” he whispered, and then gagged.

      In yet a different part of the crystal forest, the Survivor leaned against a tree, and grinned. His brown eyes danced with merriment.

      “Predictable,” he whispered. “But foolish. Very, very foolish.”

      Terror raged through the crystal forest. It bounced and jangled through the trees — and then it reflected, reflected back toward its source a thousand times stronger than it had been born.

      Straight back to the Demons and StarLaughter.

      It hit them with unimaginable force.

      Every one of them, StarLaughter included, fell to the crystal floor, bruising flesh and jarring joints, their mouths opening for screams that never came because of the sheer weight of the terror that consumed them.

      The baby slid out of StarLaughter’s arms, rolling downhill until he slammed against a tree and lay still.

      Completely still, his eyes wide open and blank, unaffected by the terror that assailed those who cared for him.

      As quickly as the terror had hit the group, it dissipated. Rox had withdrawn his power in the extremity of his own fright, and once the source was shut off, so the terror dimmed until there were only faint shadows left to chase each other through the forest.

      Mot was the first of the Demons to recover. He struggled to his feet, his pallid flesh quivering.

      “I had always wondered how the Enemy had trapped Qeteb,” he said hoarsely. “Now I know. They must have used his own power against him. They must have reflected it back at him!”

      Sheol bared her teeth, arched her neck, and then howled, letting the sound echo through the forest a full minute before she shut her mouth with a snap.

      “Then, knowing, we are the stronger,” she said. “No-one can ever use that trap against us again. Come, rise, and we shall set off on foot to find our stolen treasure.”

      StarLaughter came out her fugue with a start, and suddenly realised that her child was missing. She cried out, then spotted him some paces away. She scrambled over on her hands and knees, ripping the hem of her robe where it caught under one knee, and gathered him into her arms, crooning softly.

      “Was he hurt?” Raspu asked.

      StarLaughter shook her head. “He is well, see how well!”

      The five Demons were now gathered about her in a circle. They stared down at the unmoving infant, then lifted their eyes and stared at each other.

      And smiled.

      The Survivor ran one hand back through his silvered hair.

      Then he straightened his black leather jacket with a tug at its hem.

      “Good,” he said. “Good girl.” He patted the tree affectionately. “That scared them! Now, we may as well let them have what they want, and let them leave. No use holding them up any more than we have already.”

      The Survivor smiled slowly to himself. “But that was fun to watch.”

      Then he tensed, his eyes on a far distant form moving stealthily from tree to tree. He caught a brief glimpse of golden wings, and coppery hair.

      WolfStar!

      Noah swore. He hoped the Enchanter wasn’t going to make a nuisance of himself.

      He stilled, watching the distant form carefully. Noah suddenly realised that WolfStar had outlived his usefulness by many, many years.

      “Something should have been done about you a long time ago,” he murmured.

      Then suddenly Noah’s face blanched, and his right hand clutched at his chest, and he forgot all about WolfStar as the craft wreaked their deadly havoc within him.

      In the end, it wasn’t the Demons that Noah had to fear at all.

      Sheol stood talking quietly to Rox, making sure he hadn’t been harmed too greatly by the sudden reflection of his power, then turned and gestured to StarLaughter and the other Demons.

      “Come. Let us waste no more time here than we must.”

      She turned and walked deeper into the forest, her feet slipping and sliding on the treacherous floor.

      After an instant’s hesitation, the others followed her.

      They found the going difficult and nerve-wracking.