They seemed to travel for hours before they became aware of the golden mist thinning.

Chapter Nine

The Runestaff

As THE GOLDEN mist diminished, Hawkmoon blinked his eyes, for they were now assailed by all manner of colourswaves and rays making strange configurations in the airand all emanating from a central source.

Narrowing his eyes against the light, he peered around him. They hovered near the roof of a hall whose walls seemed constructed of sheets of translucent emerald and onyx. At the centre of the hall rose a dais, reached by steps from all sides. It was from the object on this dais that the configurations of light originated. The patternsstars, circles, cones and more complex figuresshifted constantly, but their source was always the same. It was a small staff, about the length of a short sword, of a dense black, dull and apparently discoloured in a few places. The discolorations were of a deep, mottled blue.

Could this be the Runestaff? Hawkmoon wondered. It seemed unimpressive for an object of such legendary powers. He had imagined it taller than a man, of brilliant coloursbut that thing he could carry in one hand!

Suddenly, from the side of the hall, men thrust themselves in. It was Shenegar Trott and his Falcon Legion. The little boy still struggled in Trott’s grasp and now

the laughter of the Count of Sussex began to fill the hall.

“At last! And it is mine! Even the King Emperor will not dare to deny me anything once the Runestaff itself is in my hands.”

Hawkmoon sniffed. There was a fragrant, bittersweet smell in the air. And now a mellow humming sound filled the hall. The Great Good Ones began to lower himself and D’Averc until they stood high on the steps, just below the Runestaff. And then Count Shenegar saw them.

“How…?”

Hawkmoon glared down at him, raised his left arm to point directly at him. “Release the child, Shenegar Trott!”

The Count of Sussex chuckled again, recovering quickly from his astonishment. “First tell me how you arrived here before me.”

“By means of the help of the Great Good Onesthose supernatural creatures you feared. And we have other friends, Count Shenegar.”

Trott’s dirk leapt to within a hairsbreadth of the boy’s nose. “I would be a fool, then, to release my only chance of freedomnot to say success!”

Hawkmoon lifted up the Sword of the Dawn. “I warn you, Count, this blade I bear is no ordinary instrument! See how it glows with rosy light!”

“Ayeit is very pretty. But can it stop me before I pluck one of the boy’s eyes from his skull, like a plum from the jar?”