lop-sided bloodstained grin. 'You dropped something." He held up a

crossbow bolt.

Steve stared at it incredulously then glanced quickly down at the

crossbow. The steel bowstring was still drawn back ready for release

but there was no bolt in the firing slot I Christo I It must have been

thrown out when he'd used it to batter Black-Top and Steel-Eye to the

ground or when he'd dropped it! Shit!

Flanked by his two clan-brothers, Motor-Head broke the two

quarterstaffs, one over each thigh, and tossed the pieces aside.

'No more games, carrion!" He took another step towards Steve and held

up his huge, six-fingered paws. 'Take a good look at these hands!

They are going to tear your eyes and your lying tongue out of your

head, then they are going to crush your sharp-edged little face like a

rotten yellow-fist I' Steve edged back towards the hidden rifle. I am

not going to make it, he thought tiredly. After all this... I am not

going to make it! Oh, sweet Christopher!

In the same moment of time that encompassed Motor-Head's step towards

Steve, Clearwater's hands took on a life of their own. They tore

themselves away from her neck and mouth and pulled her arms outwards

onto the ground. Her eyes snapped open and the chilling cry of the

summoner issued from her throat. The earth answered, yielding up its

secret strength. The full force of the Third Ring of Power flowed into

her body to be shaped by her will...

Below the bluff, about a mile east of the settlement, Mr Snow and

Cadillac led the homeward run across the rolling plain. Mr Snow did

not hear Clearwater's cry, but his finely attuned senses heard the

earth answer. He signalled the party of warriors to halt. They

crouched, listening instinctively for any sounds that signified

danger.

And then they all heard it. A low, distant, deep-throated rumbling.

But this was not from the sky, this was earth-thunder! The ground

shivered as some unseen force, like buried lightning bolts, zigzagged

through the earth beneath them in the direction of the settlement. The

M'Call Bears groaned and fell on their faces, seized by the paralysing

primal fear that afflicted all Mutes; a distant race memory ora time

when the earth rose up and the sky exploded with blinding white

rain-fire that burnt flesh from bone, the grass from the earth, and

turned the world to dust.

Wordsmiths were supposed to be made of sterner stuff.

Mr Snow hauled Cadillac off his knees as he babbled a plea to Mo-Town

to spare them all from the wrath of the Lord Pent-Agon. 'No need for

that! Come on, get those legs moving! We've got to get back." Mr

Snow hurried forward, pushing Cadillac ahead of him. 'Go on! Run!

Run!" Above them in the settlement, at that self-same instant, the

rumbling earth-thunder grew louder and louder. The ground beneath

Clearwater shuddered violently, then rose quickly to form a hillock,

overturning Mr Snow's hut in the process, flattening itself abruptly,

then splitting apart on either side of her body with an ear-shattering

roar. All over the plateau, terrified M'Calls scrambled out of their

huts and threw themselves face down, men, women and children huddling

together as they hugged the earth and begged Mo-Town to save them.

Moving with terrifying speed, a large fissure zigzagged away from

Clearwater's prostrate body across the plateau towards the main cluster

of huts then, before any damage was caused, it turned sharp left and

raced up the slope towards the bluff.

Once again, it was in the same moment of time that Steve decided to

stake everything on one last desperate gamble.

Pulling the trigger to release the taut bowstring, he hurled the

crossbow at Motor-Head's chest and made a break for the rifle. As the

bow flew through the air and Steve turned and ran towards Blue-Bird,

the drum roll of earth-thunder shook the ridge and caused the three

Mutes to become rooted to the spot. With a dry, spine-chilling

cracking noise, the fissure reached the bluff as Steve