thread, drawing Elionbel to him.

Gurgling with victory he pointed a bone black finger at a narrow crack high up above their heads. 'There is the

doorway. There is the doom-slit of your torment, Marcherwoman!'

Elionbel looked up at the sulphur-stained yellow rocks that rose in sheer columns on either side of a narrow crack and shrank back. 'No!' she whispered, crouching beside her mother.

Krulshards hooked his fingers into the weave of Elionbel's cloak and lifted her roughly to her feet. 'You are lost, Marcherwoman, these are the last moments of your daylight.

n.o.body shall see you vanish into the darkness. Thanehand has not overtaken us on the road!'

Elionbel turned her head desperately searching the barren shale slopes without hope. She cried out in desperation, 'Thane! Thane!'

The Nightmare laughed, sneering with victory as he wound the life thread between his fingers and dragged her up through the narrow crack. Kerzolde and Kerhunge lifted and pushed Martbel after their master but, in the last glimpse of daylight before the darkness swallowed them, Elionbel thought she saw an owl rise silently from the weatherbleached branches of a single pine tree that grew in the shadow of the foul entrance.

'Tell Thane!' she called. 'Tell Thane!' but the darkness m.u.f.fled her voice, deadening all hope, as Krulshards hurried them forward.

'Nigh/shards!' he called, summoning the guardians of the City of Night. 'Come to your master. Come to me!'

Far away in the depths Elionbel heard dry rattling footsteps and screams of delight. Foul fumes blew all around them, choking bitter scents that made Krulshards dance with delight.

'Blind beasts,' he crowed licking at the cold black walls, 'your master has the Elionbel as a lure to trap Thanehand.

Soon he will come, and with his death we will reopen the Gates of Night and destroy the daylight of all Elundium.'

Martbel screamed, arching backwards in pain. 'Elton!' she

cried, falling heavily on to her knees, 'it is beginning. Help me!'

Kerzolde bent, sniffing at Martbel's skirts and tugged at the folds of Krulshards' malice. 'Master, Master, the seed is flowering!'

'Show me the seed!' Krulshards shouted, pushing aside the first of the Nightshards that had gathered around him.

Kerhunge gripped Elionbel's wrists and pulled her away from Martbel as far as the life thread would allow.

'Mother!' she cried, struggling helplessly against the Nightbeast's strong claws.

Krulshards took one giant stride and tore Marbel's skirts into shreds. 'Where is the seed?' he hissed, crouching on his haunches, staring without pity or shame at her stretched pulsating belly. Eagerly he dug his fingernails into the highest point of the dome. 'Where is the seed?'

'Soon, Master, soon,' soothed Kerzolde, easing the Nightmare'

s hand away and motioning four Nightshards to hold the woman down.

'What shape will it be?' Krulshards whispered, watching Martbel's belly contort as she fought against the claws that held her.

'The shape of a man, Master,' Kerzolde began to say, but he stopped, pointing excitedly with his broken claw at a small blood-soaked split that had begun to open in the angle between Martbel's legs. 'It has begun, Master!'

Martbel lifted her head, her eyes glazed with pain and

pushed. With all her strength she pushed, trying to force the foul burden out. 'Help me, help me, Elion!' she screamed, grinding her teeth as the Nightmare's seed clawed at her insides. Far away she heard Elionbel call out in the darkness.

'Remember your promise!' Martbel shouted through the blinding pain. 'For all Elundium's sake, kill it!'

Grunting with the effort, she pushed again and again until suddenly her stomach split, and through the blinding pain she saw a face, leering and blood-wet, through the broken birth

asack. 'No!' she screamed, thrashing her head from side to side, fighting helplessly against the claws that held her, but the Nightmare was almost born. Freeing first one longfingered hand then the other, tearing savagely at the edges of the birth sack, it emerged. Lifting its head it cried out, shrill and piercing in the darkness. Krulshards leapt backwards and the Mghtshards gathered in a tight circle and trembled. Stepping forwards Krulshards carefully lifted the baby free, holding it up as far as the birth cord would allow. He stared at it, turning it this way and that.

Looking down he frowned. 'How can this seed be as powerful as me? The life thread traps it to the Marcherwoman!'

'No, Master, it is the way of the people of Elundium; once the seed is born the thread must be severed before it withers away.'

Bending, Kerzolde took the birth cord in his teeth and quickly bit through it. Standing up and wiping a trickle of blood from his chin, he smiled at the baby. 'You must name him, Master. He is your heir to the darkness.'

Krulshards leered as the Nightshards crowded around him in the darkness and lifted the baby above his head. 'Kruel! I name you Kruel, Master of Nightmares, Lord of the Night!'

Kruel turned his head and stared at his father and made:~: soft gurgling noises. Kerhunge, in awe of the birth, eased his grip on Elionbel and, forgetting her, stepped closer to see hiss Master's seed. Elionbel saw her chance, and silently slipping a hand underneath her skirts drew out the narrow-bladed: dagger she had long kept hidden. Without a moment's hesitation she lunged forward, the dagger held firmly in both a, hands.

Krulshards saw the flickering metal and s.n.a.t.c.hed they baby into the folds of the malice. Kruel turned his wrinkled: infant head and screamed, high-pitched and piercing, as the] folds of the

malice closed about him. :]

The mountain trembled, the floor buckled, rippling beneath their feet. Krulshards, holding the baby tight

282.

it..

against his chest, reached out with his other hand and snapped Elionbel's dagger, melting the bright metal between his fingertips. 'There is a new power in the darkness,' he cried, forcing Elionbel down on to her knees. 'A new power that shall have all Elundium as his own.'

Lifting the baby out of the malice he held him above his head and shouted out his name, 'Kruel! Kruelr You shall be the Lord of Darkness!'

Kruel waved his tiny arms, flexed his long fingers and gurgled with delight, turning his head slowly towards Elionbel.

He fell silent and stared at her through ice-cold pale eyes, then opening his mouth he screamed, sending a tremor deep through the City of Night, making the tall columns of sulphurous rock that marked the secret entrance sway backwards and forwards.

Kruel screamed again, louder and more piercing, pointing at Elionbel with his long fingernails and the columns of rocks shattered, cascading down over the loose yellow shale into the dark valleys below.

'A new power in the darkness!' laughed Krulshards, turning towards the long dark road that led up into the City of Night.

'Bring the Marcherwomen to the high chamber,' he ordered, cuddling the baby, touching the bright pink wrinkled skin on its face.

'Gently, Master, babies are very fragile and break easily.'

Krulshards turned his head, dead locks of lank hair fanning out across the malice. 'The power! Did you feel the power when he screamed!'

'Yes, Master,' answered Kerzolde touching the baby's arm, 'Enough power to move this mountain.'

Krulshards frowned, looking down at the tiny baby. 'How do

we feed so small a mouth?'

'Master,' Kerzolde whispered, pointing back at Martbel where she lay unconscious and b.l.o.o.d.y across Kerhunge's shoulders, 'the baby must feed from his mother, drinking her - life force, until he is big enough to eat.'