"He just came to," one of the healers said quietly, rising from Mark's side.

Ikawa knelt beside his friends. The healer had closed the wound, but was unable to expend more energy to knit the bone since so many required her attention. The arm was padded and bound tightly in a splint.

"I heard what she said," Mark whispered.

"So you know."

Mark nodded.

"You gave me a scare," Ikawa said, trying to smile. "We were flying out to give you cover and some of your folks thought we were the enemy."

"That's the last I remember."

"Walker saw you fall. You took a little water before we got you out."

Mark smiled feebly. "Kind of hard to believe we lost."

"But we haven't," Ikawa replied.

"Sure as hell seems like it," Kraut said, his voice sad and distant. "We're all gonna die in about another ten minutes."

Ikawa looked up at Kraut and the others.

"Yet it's worth it in the end. We all should have died back in China, when we were enemies. Instead we came here, and found our power, our loves, our adventures--and far more, we learned that we are brothers. Shigeru and Walker, who once hated each other, would now lay down their lives for the other."

Shigeru and Walker looked at each other nervously.

"Ah hell, Captain, the big lug needs someone to look out for him, that's all."

The men laughed.

"So we have found that. We are all fated to die some day. Yet as a samurai, as a warrior of Allic, I find this a fine moment to choose that death. For we will die saving a world that is precious to us."

He paused, and saw Leti coming to the edge of the group.

"And we die together as friends."

"It's time, my love." Her thought whispered through his mind.

"I cannot tell you how much I love you," Ikawa thought in reply. "You are my joy beyond words, beyond thoughts."

"On the other side of the sea we will meet again. I will wait for you there."

The two looked at each other in silence.

"It's time," she whispered, this time out loud.

The warriors looked shyly at each other, exchanging handclasps.

Ikawa looked down at Mark again. "Good-bye, my brother. If we should succeed, just remember..."

He found he could no longer say the words.

"But I'm going with you." Mark forced a smile.

"Captain, that's kind of crazy," Walker announced. "You're busted to hell."

"I'm going with you," Mark insisted. Weakly, he tried to struggle to his feet, then looked imploringly at Ikawa, who gazed at him with a sad smile of understanding.

"Shigeru, give him a hand."

The wrestler strode forward and gently lifted Mark onto his feet. Mark looked back at Kochanski and Smithie, who were still unconscious.

"Let's get going." Mark's voice was cold and even.

The group turned away and followed Leti back to where a team of sorcerers had formed around the Heart.

From out of the crowd, Giorgini pushed his way through and came to stand before Mark.

"Mind if I fight alongside you?"

Mark looked over at Boreas, who nodded.

"Of course," Mark said, and a broad grin crept across Giorgini's features.

"At least Imada will be saved his life of humiliation," Shigeru said darkly. The wrestler had been stunned to hear of his friend's betrayal and openly wept at the news. His mood was now grim.

"Yeah, I can't believe it," Walker sighed. A quizzical look crossed his face, and he reached into his tunic and pulled out a slip of paper.

"Funny--just before we lifted to attack I saw him scribbling something, and then he gave this to me.

Looks like Japanese or something."

Walker held out the paper. Saito took it and unfolded it.

"She destroyed my life, though I am still living," Saito read. "Now I shall finish it all for both of us.

Good-bye, my friends."

"What is he up to?" Kraut asked, looking at Ikawa.

"He was a boy with honor," Ikawa said evenly. "Perhaps he thought he could still do something. I think our friend was not a traitor, but just someone who could no longer see the world clearly," and then he could say no more.

"Say, anybody got a cigarette?" Walker ventured, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I remember that," Kraut laughed. "Here we're getting our butts blasted off during the siege of Landra and you're pulling out cigarettes. Shit, I could go for one."

The group chuckled, trying to control their nervousness.

Leti smiled at the offworlders.

"I'll be with the Heart," she said evenly. "Boreas, can you fly?"

The demigod nodded, but all could see that his strength was gone. The blow he had suffered would have killed any normal human, or even a sorcerer.

"We'll stay low," Leti told her command. "They must have a picket screen out ahead. We punch through, and move as fast as we can. I want to try and get this straight over the palace, but if that is impossible, at least to the base of the city wall. As I said before, if there's time I'll give a minute's warning. Then you are free to escape, but if I fear we are being overwhelmed I will strike this," and reaching into a pouch by her waist she pulled out a red crystal, "against the Heart without warning."

"Do you all understand?"

No one replied.

"Then let's move!"

The sorcerers surrounding the Heart lifted into the air, holding on to the rope netting which encased their burden. Ikawa swung in by Leti's side as she rose a scant dozen feet into the air and then started forward.

Leti looked over at him.

"Do you remember our first night together?" her thoughts whispered through his mind.

He smiled.

"Then let us think of those things once again."

The group pressed in toward the city.

From a wooded grove half a mile forward, six sorcerers rose and started back toward the city.

"They're on to us," Ikawa shouted. "Keep our formation close!"

As they streaked low over a village, a quick flurry of bolts shot up from sorcerers on the ground.

Ignoring the strikes, the attack force pushed in.

"Those lousy bastards," Walker shouted.

Looking over his shoulder, Ikawa saw that a sizeable fraction of the group had turned away to flee in the opposite direction.

"Ignore them!" Ikawa shouted. "Their lives will be far worse than whatever we shall face."

Skimming iow against light opposition, Ikawa dodged down between a row of trees, sending a flock of golden birds in every direction with his passage. It was a glorious moment, that now filled his entire world. He had felt this before, this certainty that he was about to die, and with the coming of that moment, never had he felt so alive, so completely bonded to his world and the magnificent splendor of it.

The picket line of sorcerers kept falling back, trading long-range shots with the advancing group. The city was now less than two miles ahead. Just another couple of minutes was all that they would need.

Ikawa felthis heart soaring. Perhaps they could break all the way through, and his comrades could still escape while he and Leti finished what had to be done.

"Here they come!" Shigeru snarled.

Looking forward, Ikawa was stunned. A cloud of demons and sorcerers rose above the wall to greet them.

Staggered by the intensity of the power now revealed, Patrice felt as if she had torn open the entire world to his presence. Surging and coiling, Gorgon pushed against the last flimsy barrier.

It exploded into a wall of fire.

The temple floor swayed beneath her feet, the arched buttresses overhead cracking.

Gorgon stepped through into the world of Haven.

He was the essence of fire, the creator of torment, his flaming limbs dripping with oily smoke, his fangs oozing a green, sulphurous glow, his eyes like flaming diamonds.

He leaned back and laughed, the booming of his voice counter-pointed by the shrieking calls of his minions, who groveled before him in a terrible ecstasy of lust.

And in that instant she knew.

He lowered his head and looked at her with sardonic bemusement. "Does my form still please you?" he whispered.

She said nothing, standing proud, alone, her mind screaming to her that all the dreams, all the desires had, after all, been only an illusion.

"Come to me," he snarled. "I wish to take you here, now. My servants can watch, for I have promised them this sport."

His mouth curled in a dark leer, flames running down its sides. A fiery hand reached out to grab her.

"We were to rule together as equals," Patrice snapped, backing away. "There's still a battle to be fought outside these walls."

Gorgon laughed, and looked over at his servants.

"Go out and finish them," he snarled. "I'll be along shortly."

The demons poured out of the room, shouting triumphantly, eager for battle.

Gorgon looked back at Patrice. "No one is my equal," he boomed. "Be my servant and submit to all my wishes now--or die. And if you die, I will enslave your soul in torment."

She raised her shield and leveled a bolt of flame into his face.

It seemed to stun him; he drew back. She fired again and the terror started to rise in her as she continued to pour out her strength, screaming in rage at him.

Ever so slowly, he raised his hand and pointed it at her.

A single shot took her off her feet, slamming her against the wall, her gown scorched, her shield gone.

"You are mine--Haven is mine--it isall mine, " Gorgon laughed, rising over her.

"For God's sake, keep moving!" Walker roared, his shield glowing white hot. "We've got to keep moving!"

Crouching low on the ground, Ikawa slammed a burst into a demon hovering above the group. The shot seemed to have little effect as the demon, roaring his defiance, threw a bolt straight at Ikawa.