The blue glow gathered, fulminated in many-coloured patterns, pulsing andglowing, until Lythande stood within the light; and there, in the Place That IsNot, seated upon a throne carved apparently from sapphire, was the Master of theStar.

'Greetings to you, fellow star, star-born, shyryu.' The terms of endearmentcould mean fellow, companion, brother, sister, beloved, equal, pilgrim; itsliteral meaning was sharer of starlight. 'What brings you into the Pilgrim Placethis night from afar?'

'The need for knowledge, star-sharer. Have you sent one to seek me out inSanctuary?'

'Not so, shyryu. All is well in the Temple of the Star-sharers; you have not yetbeen summoned; the hour is not yet come.'

For every adept of the Blue Star knows; it is one of the prices of power. At theworld's end, when all the doings of mankind and mortals are done, the last tofall under the assault of Chaos will be the Temple of the Star; and then, in thePlace That Is Not, the Master of the Star will summon all of the Pilgrim Adeptsfrom the farthest corners of the world, to fight with all their magic againstChaos; but until that day, they have such freedom as will best strengthen theirpowers. The Master of the Star repeated, reassuringly, 'The hour has not come.You ace free to walk as you will in the world.'

The blue glow faded, and Lythande stood shivering. So Rabben had not been sentin that final summoning. Yet the end and Chaos might well be at hand forLythande before the hour appointed, if Rabben the Half-handed had his way.

It was a fair test of strength, ordained by our masters, Rabben should bear meno ill-will... Rabben's presence in Sanctuary need not have to do with Lythande.He might be here upon his lawful occasions - if anything of Rabben's could besaid to be lawful; for it was only upon the last day of all that the PilgrimAdepts were pledged to fight upon the side of Law against Chaos. And Rabben hadnot chosen to do so before then.

Caution would be needed, and yet Lythande knew that Rabben was near ...

South and east of the governor's palace, there is a little triangular park,across from the Street of Temples. By day the gravelled walks and turns ofshrubbery are given over to predicants and priests who find not enough worshipor offerings for their liking; by night the place is the haunt of women whoworship no goddess except She of the filled purse and the empty womb. And forboth reasons the place is called, in irony, the Promise of Heaven; in Sanctuary,as elsewhere, it is well known that those who promise do not always perform.

Lythande, who frequented neither women nor priests as a usual thing, did notoften walk here. The park seemed deserted; the evil winds had begun to blow,whipping bushes and shrubbery into the shapes of strange beasts performingunnatural acts; and moaning weirdly around the walls and eaves of the Templesacross the street, the wind that was said in Sanctuary to be the moaning ofAzyuna in Vashanka's bed. Lythande moved swiftly, skirting the darkness of thepaths. And then a woman's scream rent the air. From the shadows Lythande couldsee the frail form of a young girl in a torn and ragged dress; she was barefootand her ear was bleeding where one jewelled earring had been torn from the lobe.She was struggling in the iron grip of a huge burly black-bearded man, and thefirst thing Lythande saw was the hand gripped around the girl's thin, bonywrist, dragging her; two fingers missing and the other cut away to the firstjoint. Only then - when it was no longer needed - did Lythande see the blue starbetween the black bristling brows, the cat-yellow eyes of Rabben the Halfhanded!

Lythande knew him of old, from the Temple of the Star. Even then Rabben had beena vicious man, his lecheries notorious. Why, Lythande wondered, had the Mastersnot demanded that he renounce them as the price of his power? Lythande's lipstightened in a mirthless grimace; so notorious had been Rabben's lecheries thatif he renounced them, everyone would know the Secret of his Power..

For the powers of an Adept of the Blue Star depended upon a secret. As in theold legend of the giant who kept his heart in a secret place outside his body,and with it his immortality, so the Adept of the Blue Star poured all hispsychic force into a single Secret; and the one who discovered the Secret wouldacquire all of that adept's power. So Rabben's Secret must be something else ...Lythande did not speculate on it.

The girl cried out pitifully as Rabben jerked at her wrist; as the burlymagician's star began to glow, she thrust her free hand over her eyes to shieldthem from it. Without fully intending to intervene, Lythande stepped frem theshadows, and the rich voice that had made the prentice-magicians in the outercourt of the Blue Star call Lythande 'minstrel' rather than 'magician', rangout: 'By Shipri the All-Mother, release that woman!'

Rabben whirled. 'By the nine-hundred-and-ninety-ninth eye of Ils! Lythande!'

'Are there not enough women in the Street of Red Lanterns, that you mustmishandle girl-children in the Street of Temples?' For Lythande could see howyoung she was, the thin arms and childish legs and ankles, the breasts not yetfull-formed beneath the dirty, torn tunic.

Rabben turned on Lythande and sneered, 'You were always squeamish, shyryu. Nowoman walks here unless she is for sale. Do you want her for yourself? Have youtired of your fat madame in the Aphrodisia House?'

'You will not take her name into your mouth, shyryu!'

'So tender for the honour of a harlot?'

Lythande ignored that. 'Let the girl go, or stand to my challenge.'

Rabben's star shot lightnings; he shoved the girl to one side. She fellnerveless to the pavement and lay without moving. 'She'll stay there until we'vedone. Did you think she could run away while we fought? Come to think of it, Inever did see you with a woman, Lythande - is that your Secret, Lythande, thatyou've no use for women?'

Lythande maintained an impassive face; but whatever came, Rabben must not beallowed to pursue that line. 'You may couple like an animal in the streets ofSanctuary, Rabben, but I do not. Will you yield her up, or fight?'

'Perhaps I should yield her to you; this is unheard of, that Lythande shouldfight in the streets over a woman! You see, I know your habits well, Lythande!'

Damnation of Vashanka! Now indeed I shall have to fight for the girl!

Lythande's rapier snicked from its scabbard and thrust at Rabben as if of itsown will.

'Ha! Do you think Rabben fights street-brawls with the sword like anymercenary?' Lythande's sword-tip exploded in the blue star-glow, and became ashimmering snake, twisting back on itself to climb past the hilt, fangs drippingvenom as it sought to coil around Lythande's fist. Lythande's own star blazed.The sword was metal again but twisted and useless, in the shape of the snake ithad been, coiling back toward the scabbard. Enraged, Lythande jerked free of thetwisted metal, sent a spitting rain of fire in Rabben's direction. Quickly thehuge adept covered himself in fog, and the fire-spray extinguished itself.Somewhere outside consciousness Lythande was aware of a crowd gathering; nottwice in a lifetime did two adepts of the Blue Star battle by sorcery in thestreets of Sanctuary. The blaze of the stars, blazing from each magician's brow,raged lightnings in the square.

On a howling wind came little torches ravening, that flickered and whipped atLythande; they touched the tall form of the magician and vanished. Then a wildwhirlwind sent trees lashing, leaves swirling bare from branches, batteredRabben to his knees. Lythande was bored; this must be finished quickly. Not oneof the goggling onlookers in the crowd knew afterwards what had been done, butRabben bent, slowly, slowly, forced inch by inch down and down, to his knees, toall fours, prone, pressing and grinding his face further and further into thedust, rocking back and forth, pressing harder and harder into the sand ...