“Say again what you saw, RuffleCrest.”
RuffleCrest bowed his head in shame. He sat at the great circular table in the Privy Chamber, and about him sat Crest-Leaders, Princes, Chieftains, Enchanters and, halfway around the table from him, the StarMan himself, the Enchantress by his side. He had never been in such exalted company before, and he could feel their power keenly.
And, to his utter disgrace, he could hardly remember a thing.
He did not know that much the same had happened to SpikeFeather TrueSong when Axis had recreated him. SpikeFeather and his Wing had been returning to Sigholt from a scouting mission over Hsingard when they had been attacked by a pack of Gryphon; only SpikeFeather and EvenSong, Axis’ sister, had survived, yet SpikeFeather had been so badly injured that by the time EvenSong had got him home to Sigholt he had been heartbeats away from death. But he had been lucky, as RuffleCrest had been, for Axis SunSoar was there to greet him and to recreate him.
SpikeFeather had remembered nothing of the attack that had all but killed him.
“I can recall so little,” RuffleCrest said, and to one side FarSight CutSpur, the senior Crest-Leader of the Icarii Strike Force, leaned forward and motioned irritably for RuffleCrest to speak up.
RuffleCrest’s face reddened in mortification, and he repeated his words in a louder voice. “I can recall so little, StarMan.” In his lap, hidden by the table, his hands twisted around and about each other. “I can recall Jervois Landing being struck by an ice tempest so appalling that four of my Wing were frozen mid-air. I can remember day after day huddled about fires, unable even to step outside for fear of instant death in the winds. I remember…” his voice faltered and FarSight frowned. RuffleCrest hurriedly cleared his throat and went on. “I remember a sudden calm, and I remember Earl Jorge shouting at me to fly to Carlon with a message for you, but I cannot remember what that message was. I am ashamed to admit my incompetence,” he finished on a whisper. “I should have died with my command.”
Axis stood up, remembering SpikeFeather’s experience. He walked about the table, his commanding presence pulling every eye to him.
RuffleCrest blinked, awed that this powerful man should regard him so kindly.
“RuffleCrest,” Axis said as he reached the birdman. “It is hardly your fault that you do not recall. I probably muddled your memory when I recreated you, and if anyone should writhe so in mortification it should be I, not you.”
“You saved my life, StarMan.”
“Aye, that I did,” Axis said, placing a restraining hand on RuffleCrest’s shoulder to prevent him from rising. “And because of the life that currently suffuses you, I will be able to recall the memory of what happened for all gathered in this chamber. A small enchantment, RuffleCrest, do not tense so.”
But RuffleCrest had tensed in excitement rather than nervousness. He would trust the StarMan with his life—had done so—and if the StarMan could help him recall what everyone about this table needed to know, then RuffleCrest would be indebted to him twice over.
Axis stood behind RuffleCrest, resting both his hands on the birdman’s shoulders, and began to sing. All the six Enchanters present recognised the Song of Recall that he sang, but it was sung with such consummate skill and power that most were left agape with astonishment, even StarDrifter. Every time his son demonstrated his power it left StarDrifter almost breathless, sometimes with pride, oftentimes with envy.
The air over the centre of the table shimmered and formed a grey haze. Everyone’s eyes turned from Axis to the vision appearing before them. In the grey haze appeared the form of Jorge, twisting away from the window as he shouted at RuffleCrest to get his Wing out of Jervois Landing. Every military commander in the room, Axis and Azhure among them, involuntarily winced at the fear and desperation on Jorge’s face. Perhaps Jorge had erred in staying by Borneheld’s side for so long, but he was an exceptional commander and a brave man, and if so much fear twisted his features and clouded his eyes then it surely meant that Jorge knew his death was close.
Then the view shifted and changed, and the watchers flew with RuffleCrest as he lifted the remaining seven of his Wing out of the building and circled briefly above the town.
“Mother!” Belial cried as he saw what horror invaded the town.
Of them all, only RuffleCrest did not see, for Axis had worked the enchantment so that the birdman would not re-live the horror that had almost killed him.
They flew with RuffleCrest as he led his Wing south, and each and every one of the watchers paled when the Wing was attacked by the Gryphon. As they saw with RuffleCrest’s eye the birdwoman explode in a shower of red spray, Axis cut off the enchantment. They had all seen enough.
He glanced at Azhure. Although pale, she seemed composed.
RuffleCrest looked about the table. “Did it work?” he asked, puzzled by the distress evident on the faces about him.
Axis patted his shoulder. “Yes, RuffleCrest, it worked well. You have done remarkable duty in bringing us this message, and for your bravery I thank you and honour you.”
RuffleCrest flushed with pride, but he could also hear dismissal in the words, and knew that the commanders in this room would prefer to discuss his message privately.
He stood, and Axis took his hand and arm briefly. “You will need to rest, RuffleCrest. Your body and spirit still have to heal after the trauma you have endured.”
RuffleCrest saluted Axis, then the commanders about the table, then he turned and left the room. All could feel his relief as he finally slipped through the door.
“Well, my friends?” Axis said.
Belial took a deep breath. “Jervois Landing would have been destroyed in under half an hour with the force that invaded it.”
“We could all see from the aerial views,” Magariz said, “how the canals were frozen and how the Skraelings and IceWorms had invaded the town from just about every avenue. Neither Jorge nor his command would have been able to resist.”
“And Jorge knew that,” Azhure said. “He knew he was going to die. I am glad for his sake that RuffleCrest managed to get through.”
Axis sat back down. “How long ago?” he asked. “How long ago did Jervois Landing fall? FarSight, how long would it take for someone in RuffleCrest’s condition to fly south to the Western Ranges?”
FarSight thought. “Perhaps two or three days, StarMan. He would hardly have rested, so desperate would he have been to escape as far as he could from the Gryphon.”
“No rest?” Belial was amazed. How could a birdman, almost crippled, fly for two or three days without rest?
“All birdmen have deep reserves of stamina, far more than humans,” replied HoverEye BlackWing, one of the senior Crest-Leaders present. “Besides, there would have been a wind at his back. Much of the time RuffleCrest would have drifted in the air currents, almost asleep.”
“So,” Axis said, focusing everyone’s attention back on the critical issue. “Four days ago at most Jervois Landing was attacked and destroyed by a massive Skraeling force. They must have moved—”
“Axis,” Magariz interrupted. “Can you recall that vision with RuffleCrest gone?”
Axis nodded.
“There was something about the Skraelings that I saw when RuffleCrest was in the air. Can you recall it?”
Magariz’s voice was urgent, and Axis quickly recalled the vision of Jervois Landing and its surroundings, half of the Skraeling force still massed outside the town, the other half penetrating deeply between the houses.
“Yes,” Magariz said. “Yes! Axis, my friends. Look at the Skraeling force. What is it that is so different about them?”
“Well,” Azhure began, “the Skraelings themselves are different. Axis and I saw Skraelings in Hsingard that looked like this. Fully fleshed, almost armoured with those bony protuberances. Magariz, we told you about this.”
“Yes, yes, I know of that, but this is not what I mean,” Magariz said. “Come now, surely you can see it?”
Under
standing suddenly replaced the confusion on Axis’ face. “By the Stars, Magariz! That is not a mass of Skraelings at all. Look, here and here and here,” his finger stabbed into the grey vision as it hung over the table, “they are formed into regular units. This is an army under tight discipline, not the chaos that we have been used to previously.”
“Yes,” Magariz said. “Gorgrael has got himself a good WarLord, it seems.”
“I cannot imagine any of his SkraeBolds effecting this remarkable transformation,” Axis said, frowning as he thought this through.
Azhure suddenly remembered WolfStar’s comment about the Traitor of the third verse of the Prophecy having already made his move. She chewed her lip anxiously. She had yet to tell Axis of the encounter and resolved to do so this evening. Had the Traitor done this? And if so, who was he?
“Look!” FarSight cried, living up to his name. “Look to the west. This is not the main force attacking Jervois Landing at all, but merely a detachment from the force that is already moving south into Aldeni!”
Everyone looked to where he pointed. Axis went grey with shock. A massive column (and column again, not a seething mass) of Skraelings and IceWorms were slowly moving across the frozen system of canals.
“Are there any more shocks for me?” he asked, desperate to end the hateful vision, but only after they had gleaned all the information from it they could.
For a few minutes longer they stared into the visionary landscape before them, then, one by one, they shook their heads. RuffleCrest had not circled for long; it was a miracle that his mind had stored this much information.
“Well,” Axis said as he stopped the enchantment and the vision faded from view. “We march. It is all we can do.”
“Where?” FarSight inquired politely, but with a discernible edge to his voice.
“North!” snapped Axis. “And exactly where north above the Western Ranges I will rely on your farflight scouts to tell me!”
Later that day, Axis and Azhure stood by the open windows of the Indigo Chamber, the chamber they used as their sleeping apartment. The sun had set many hours ago, but moonlight sparkled across Grail Lake and a soft breeze blew in their faces.
Together with the rest of the commanders they had spent the afternoon and early evening completing the plans to move Axis’ army north. Military preparations were already well under way, and in the morning the extended supply column would head for the Western Ranges. Within a day at the most, the ground force would begin their long trek north. A day after that the bulk of the Strike Force would follow; several Wings were to be left in Carlon as a protection force and to assist the Icarii in their move south.
“I will soon be gone,” Axis said.
Azhure sighed. “My squads of archers will work well under Ho’Demi’s command, Axis. They have trained extensively with the Ravensbund archers these past months, and I trust Ho’Demi more than any other to use them well.”
Axis nodded. “Well, you will not lack for company while I am gone. Both Rivkah and Ysgryff can assist you.”
Although Ysgryff was a valued commander Axis did not want to risk every commander he had in the ride north. Besides, Ysgryff could make himself just as useful here.
Now Azhure laughed and Axis frowned at her, puzzled.
“I was just thinking, Axis, here I am being left in charge of a realm when…what—some two years ago—I was but the daughter of the Plough-Keeper of an isolated Skarabost village.”
Axis smiled too. Once Azhure had worried that, as a peasant woman, she had no place by Axis’ side, but he knew now that she was beyond that old concern.
“I sensed some of your thoughts this morning while we sat in council,” Axis said, becoming serious again, and Azhure lifted her head. “You want to tell me something.”
Azhure turned away from the view and looked into Axis’ eyes. How she would miss him when he was gone! “I will not stay in Carlon for long, Axis.”
“I know, Azhure,” he said. “You will go to the Island of Mist and Memory.”
Azhure started. “How did you know that?”
“You have been fixated on the island ever since you remembered Niah’s message to go to Temple Mount to find the answers about your father.”
“Yes, but there is more.”
“Spiredore?”
She turned away; how could she keep anything from him? Axis caught his breath at the beauty of her profile in the moonlight, and he reached out and lightly touched a tendril of her hair where it drifted about her neck.
“Yes, Spiredore. Axis, I spoke with WolfStar while I was there.”
Again, Axis had guessed as much. Azhure had been very introspective since that day she’d spent in Spiredore.
“He told me that I would discover much of my power there.” Briefly Azhure informed Axis of what WolfStar had said about the ring and the power it represented.
“Well, I hope you can uncloak some of your mysterious past on the island, Azhure. I hope you discover more of who you are.”
Azhure thought back to the expression on WolfStar’s face as he stared at the ring. “He was stunned to see me wearing the ring, Axis. Stunned.”
Axis put his arm about her shoulders. “I find it reassuring to discover that WolfStar can still be surprised.”
Azhure leaned back into his arm, relishing its warmth. “He was also aghast that you—that we—should think he was the Traitor of the third verse of the Prophecy.”
Axis frowned. “Do you believe him?”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I do. I think that the Traitor is the one who has reorganised Gorgrael’s armies for him.”
Axis did not speak. For so long he had assumed that the Traitor of the Prophecy, the one who would betray him to Gorgrael, was WolfStar. But if not WolfStar, then who?
“He said that the Traitor had already made his move, that he was already with his master, but that he had not yet committed the final betrayal.”
Axis shivered, and he wondered what lay ahead for him. “Azhure, StarDrifter will undoubtedly want to go to the Island of Mist and Memory with you.”
“Oh, Axis! Surely not!” Irritated, Azhure moved away from the circle of Axis’ arms and into the room. The last thing she needed was StarDrifter making a nuisance of himself.
“Axis,” she turned back to look at his dark outline by the window. “I need to be by myself on the island. I don’t need StarDrifter there!”
As relieved as he was by her reaction, Axis also had to plan for every eventuality. And, if things did not go well in the north…
“Azhure, whatever happens you will hardly be by yourself. There are thousands of pirates. There are the Priestesses of the Order of the Stars. FreeFall and EvenSong are at the Temple already.”
FreeFall and EvenSong had moved there almost immediately after Axis and Azhure had married. Since his return from death, FreeFall had become increasingly given to the mystical, and EvenSong had been excused from her duties in the Strike Force to go with him. No-one wanted to separate them again.
“And there will undoubtedly be scores of Icarii Enchanters, and perhaps ordinary Icarii, who will fly down to the island in the near future. Azhure, it will shortly be as crowded on that island as it is here in Carlon.”
“But…StarDrifter!” Azhure knew that StarDrifter still hungered for her, that he had never recovered from his disappointment and anger when Azhure had chosen Axis on that Beltide night eighteen months ago. He had never ceased to let Azhure know that he still wanted her, and that, should the opportunity arise…
“Azhure.” Axis walked over and took her gently by the shoulders. “Believe it or not, I have good reason for wanting StarDrifter to go with you.”
He could see by the expression on her face that she did not believe him, or did not want to believe him.
“I will not be there for the twins’ birth, my love. And you know that without an Icarii blood relative to talk them through all three of you could die.”
All Icarii babies, aware well be
fore they were born, were terrified by the process of birth and needed one of their parents to reassure them and talk them through. Rivkah had almost died in Axis’ birth because StarDrifter was not there for them.
“I will surely be in touch with my own power by then,” Azhure said. “I will talk them through.”
“And if you’re not? And even if you are, Azhure, we both know that neither of these babies particularly likes us. Would they listen to you? Listen to them, now!”
He paused, and both felt the feelings of resentment and hostility that emanated from their unborn twins. Every day those feelings increased.
“When they were forced to endure what we both went through the day I broke through the block in your mind,” Axis said, “they must have been wounded gravely. It twisted their perception of us.”
“But why do they dislike me so?” Azhure said, her hand on her belly. It was so unfair, she thought, after she had fought to keep them through this long, difficult, lonely pregnancy. How many times could she have just let them slip from her body?
Axis was silent a long moment. “Because you forgave me and because you chose to continue to love me,” he finally said very softly. “That is why they cannot forgive you.”
Azhure stared at him, feeling instinctively that he was correct, but hating the explanation.
“And that is why you need StarDrifter, Azhure. Already he spends an hour or two singing to them each day. They like him, they trust him, and they will listen to him. Damn it! I ask you to let StarDrifter talk them through the birth not for his sake, not even for the babies’ sakes, but for yours!”
Axis cupped her face in his hands. Stars! How difficult this was to say, but how desperately it needed to be said. They might not have much longer together, and Axis could not shake his growing premonition of doom.
“Azhure, you know how much I love you.”
Azhure smiled. “You do not need to tell me, Axis, I—”
“Shush, beloved, and listen to what I say to you now. There is a second, far more important reason why I want StarDrifter to accompany you to the Island of Mist and Memory. StarDrifter and I may have had our differences and our envies, but he is my father, and I love and trust him. Azhure, each day I feel a sense of doom growing stronger and stronger within me. No! Listen to me. I do not know if I can defeat this force that masses to the north. This morning we both saw its size, strength and effectiveness. If I cannot master my powers before we meet, then I fear that we will be defeated.”