Battleaxe

  Belial nodded tersely, and ran along the battlements, shouting for the archers to come forward.

  Axis looked back at the disintegrating body of the IceWorm, and then checked on the progress of the other four. His eyes slipped towards the two SkraeBolds and for one frightening moment he could not see them. Then his eyes caught a movement down at the gates.

  Azhure collided with body after body, some Icarii, some Avar, some Skraeling. Sometimes blood-reddened hands reached out to her in appeal, sometimes blood-reddened claws reached out to her in a mad lust of hunger. Azhure stumbled ahead, her hands pressed against her face, her legs somehow carrying her through the throng, Pease’s agonised, dying face before her always. A Skraeling reached for her and caught her by the shoulder, spinning her around. As Azhure felt the claw bite deeply into her shoulder rage suddenly flared and exploded through her numb terror. Her hand brushed the back of an Icarii warrior, slowly collapsing to the ground beside her. Her fingers tangled among the feathered arrows in the quiver on his back and, without thinking what she was doing, she grabbed one of the arrows and pulled it out of the quiver, plunging it towards the Skraeling’s eye.

  The arrow burst the silver orb as satisfactorily as a plague boil that begs to be lanced and bright blood spurted forth over Azhure’s face and neck.

  “The eyes!” she screamed, the triumph of her voice commanding more attention than the scream itself. “Strike them in the eyes! The eyes! They die!”

  She tugged the arrow out of the disintegrating wraith’s eye socket and turned to the wraith mauling an Avar man next to her. Grabbing the wraith’s head until it bent back, she plunged the arrow into its eye. Then she turned again and again, screaming all the time, seizing wraith after wraith, plunging the arrow down again and again. Those who heard her took up the cry. Soon, in an ever-widening circle, the Avar and the Icarii began to fight back. Knives and arrows were loosed and used. Wraiths started to die. The Crest-Leaders could finally launch their Strike Force into action with orders to close on the Skraelings from above and behind, seizing their heads and plunging arrows directly into their eyes. Panic spread among the wraiths.

  The SkraeBolds leaned into the two iron barred wooden gates of Gorkentown, legs straddled, hands placed as far apart on the wood as they could. They sang a broken tune, horrible to listen to, dark and destructive music that split the air about them.

  Axis moaned. Their song tore deep inside of him, and only by running the tune of the Icarii ward of protection through his mind could he stop the dreadful effects of their singing. For a distance of some twenty paces along the wall either side of the gates men dropped their weapons to tear at their ears, some screaming in pain, others writhing silently on the stone pavement of the battlements, blood trickling from their ears and eyes. More and more Skraelings clambered over the top of the wall, feasting well on the defenceless men.

  Axis was powerless. The ward of protection kept the Skraelings from him but not his men, who collapsed into uselessness and death as the Skraelings hooked themselves into their flesh.

  Axis turned back to the gates. The SkraeBolds had not moved, but frost ran from their hands across the wood. The wood splintered, the sound a dreadful crackling accompaniment to the SkraeBolds’ music. Within minutes the gates would crack apart. Axis ran to the internal battlements, looking down at the unit of men stationed inside the gates. The SkraeBold’s music hadn’t yet reached them in force, though many scratched at their ears as they stared in horror at the splintering wood.

  Axis leaned down as far as he could, screaming at the men above the general hubbub of battle and the sound of the cracking wood. Get back, he screamed. Seek shelter. As one the men ran to look for defensive positions further into the town.

  Axis turned back to the battle. Several of the IceWorms lay dead and split on the ground, but a hundred paces further west one of the IceWorms reared its head among a hail of arrows, wavered for a moment, then heaved obscenely, once, twice, a third time, and then spewed forth hundreds of Skraelings deep into the town. Axis felt sick to his stomach. He prayed that the units stationed among the twisting alleyways of the town would be able to contain the Skraelings, but even as he prayed he saw a second, a third, and, horrifyingly, a fourth IceWorm rear their heads above the walls and spew forth their cargo.

  Below him the gates splintered completely, then fell, tearing from their hinges in a scream of tortured metal.

  “Damn you, StarDrifter!” Axis screamed into the night, “why are you not here to show me what to do! Damn you!”

  The defences of Gorkentown were breached.

  SkraeFear attacked StarDrifter in such a fury of razor-sharp beak and taloned hands, feet and wing tips that had the Enchanter not managed to pull his head back he would have been decapitated by the SkraeBold’s beaked jaws. His ward of protection no use against the SkraeBold, he was pushed to the ground by the force of the creature’s attack, and felt lethal talons pierce his flesh.

  “Think that your pitiful wards are enough to withstand me, Enchanter?” SkraeFear hissed close to StarDrifter’s ears. “Do you think that you are stronger than your son? Fool!”

  StarDrifter’s body was wracked with pain as the SkraeBold’s talons sank deeper into his flesh, jerking and tearing as its claws clenched tighter. He fought to retain his grip on the power of the Star Dance but the pain was so dreadful that his mind slipped. His vision blurred even as the SkraeBold tore at his wings with his beak; there was nothing he could do against such an attack. A grey mist gathered at the edges of his vision.

  Then the SkraeBold hissed and writhed in surprise and pain and StarDrifter felt the grip of its talons loosen. With a final supreme effort he pulled himself free and rolled to one side. A woman was hunched over the SkraeBold, twisting an arrow into the base of the creature’s neck.

  The SkraeBold had its hands to the arrow, trying to pull it out, ignoring the woman for the moment. StarDrifter launched himself to help her, crying out in agony as he felt his wings flap uselessly behind him. He pushed himself forward nevertheless, grabbing the woman about the waist and hauling her away from the SkraeBold. Any moment it would attack the woman and she wouldn’t stand a chance against its taloned malice.

  StarDrifter, even as the SkraeBold had seemed within an instant of taking his life, had suddenly realised how he could help…if he lived long enough. Half dragging the woman, half leaning on her for support, StarDrifter stumbled towards the still burning circle of stone, sobbing in relief that the Skraelings had delayed their attack until the stone had lit. All that was keeping Gorgrael’s creatures from the Earth Tree was the circle of enchanted flame.

  “Do not breathe!” he croaked as he dragged the woman towards one of the burning archways, “do not breathe as we go through!” He clamped a hand over her nose and mouth as they tumbled through, feeling the flames sear his flesh and feathers, tucking his tattered wings as close to his body as possible—he did not want to go up as a living torch if his wings caught fire.

  Still holding on to the woman he stumbled towards the Earth Tree. Raum ran towards him, catching him by the shoulders. Relatively unmarked himself, the Bane’s face twisted with horror at the sight of the Enchanter’s injuries.

  “StarDrifter! Let me help you.”

  “No time!” StarDrifter muttered, close to collapse. He finally let go of the woman and leaned on Raum. “Quick. We have to get to the Earth Tree. There is a chance…a chance…if this Tree Friend of yours truly exists…that we can put a stop to this slaughter and save both our peoples and the Avarinheim.”

  Raum exchanged a stricken glance with Azhure. “Help me,” StarDrifter cried, and between them Raum and Azhure dragged him to the Earth Tree.

  “Raum, I will need you to help me reach this girl, what did you say her name was?”

  “Faraday.”

  StarDrifter nodded, the grey haze closing in on him again.

  Raum looked desperately at Azhure. “Azhure, support him—careful! His wings are terribly injured!
”

  Azhure knelt behind StarDrifter and helped him into a sitting position, carefully pulling his bloodied wings to either side of her. She could see that many of his wounds were open to the bone.

  The pain woke StarDrifter from his mental fog and, after a moment, he leaned back against her, grateful for her support. “Thank you,” he said quietly, looking at her. “What is your name?”

  Raum started to speak, but StarDrifter seized his arm and forced him to silence. The Enchanter kept his eyes riveted on Azhure’s face. His blood loss made him light-headed, but there was something about the woman that called to him. Did he know her?

  “My name is Azhure, StarDrifter.”

  “Azhure.” StarDrifter nodded and turned back to Raum, wrapping the Bane’s hand in his gently and placed his other hand on the Earth Tree’s trunk. “Give me your support in this, Bane Raum, and help me to find Faraday. You know her, I do not. With her help, we will make Earth Tree sing as she has not done in millennium.”

  Through their interlinked hands Raum felt the Icarii Enchanter bend his mind and will to the Tree, loving it, calling to it, asking it for aid. Raum placed his own free hand against the Tree, called on the Tree, the Horned Ones and the Mother for aid, and summoned Faraday. The Earth Tree, rarely aware of what happened in the world of moving beasts, briefly turned her mind from contemplating those mysteries she found buried deep in the earth with her roots and those that ruffled past her leaves carrying the faint vibrations of the Star Dance and listened to both the Icarii Enchanter and the Avar Bane. Tree Friend? Tree Friend walked? For a while she contemplated this new mystery, then she drifted back into her slumber again.

  Faraday, terrified, sat huddled in her chamber, holding tightly to Yr. Timozel stood guard at the door, his sword drawn, showing no obvious doubts about his ability to hold back a hundred of the Skraelings should they come swarming up the corridor. The attack on the fort and town felt like it had been going on for hours, yet Faraday was dimly aware that only an hour had passed since the Skraelings had launched themselves against the walls of Gorkenfort. The screeching and wailing of wraiths, the shouts and screams of men, tore at her ears, and she buried her head in Yr’s shoulder. Yr’s face was white and pinched, and her lips moved silently and unceasingly as she prayed to the Prophecy that they all might somehow survive this terrible attack. She rocked Faraday slowly back and forth, as much to comfort herself as to comfort the girl.

  Suddenly she felt Faraday stiffen in her arms and cry out softly, almost as if in pain.

  “Faraday?”

  Faraday mumbled something very softly, and Yr felt the girl’s hands clench at her back. “Faraday? What’s wrong?”

  Timozel turned from the door. “What is it?”

  “Raum?” Faraday whispered.

  Yr forced a smile to her face. “It is nothing, Timozel. Faraday merely fears, as do I.”

  Timozel frowned, then turned back to his post.

  Yr bent back to Faraday and pulled her head back a little so she could see Faraday’s eyes. The girl had a slack and vacant look on her face, as if her soul was elsewhere.

  Faraday fought through a sea of pulsing emerald light, pulled by such a feeling of pure need that she could not resist. She had never feared the light previously, but now it was so strong, so angry, that she quailed. Faraday realised that the light was not angry with her, but with something else. She frowned. It was angry but it did not know how to strike.

  A voice spoke to her. A low, musical voice, full of magical shadowed cadences. “Faraday?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, turning slowly through the pulsing light, trying to find the source of the voice.

  Another voice spoke, and this one she knew. Raum.

  “Faraday. We need your help.”

  “Raum!” she cried, her voice full of joy.

  “Faraday. Listen to StarDrifter.”

  “Faraday.” The voice spoke again, very close now. Beside her stood the most beautiful winged man, so pale skinned and feathered that he glowed almost silver in this emerald light. He was smiling and holding out his hand to her, his pale blue eyes compelling her to trust him. She could not resist. She took his hand.

  “Tree Friend,” he said “Will you help your Icarii and Avar neighbours in their hour of need? Will you sing to the trees and ask them to live?”

  “Gladly,” she whispered. She would have laid down before the Skraeling host to have her throat torn out had he asked her.

  His wings beat gently and she could feel him pulling her down a long spiralling tunnel of green and silver that swirled about them. They spiralled further and further until they were hovering over a huge glade; a massive tree stood at the centre, surrounded by a flaming circle of stone. About the rest of the glade there was a battle going on, but Faraday could not see it very well, all but the tree and the circle of fiery stone was a blur.

  “Faraday,” said the Enchanter, StarDrifter. “This is Earth Tree. She is very powerful, very vital. To her is connected the life of the Forest Avarinheim. If she dies, or even if she remains indifferent, the Avarinheim will die. Faraday, will you sing to her? Will you wake her out of her indifferent slumber? Will you ask her to protect those who love her and who depend on her for their survival? Gorgrael strikes into the heart of the Avarinheim, Tree Friend. Will you try to save it?”

  “Gladly,” Faraday answered again. She could deny this Enchanter nothing.

  They landed softly at the base of the tree. There she saw three dim figures, a woman crouched behind another of the Icarii, an Avar male holding the hand of the Icarii. Both the Icarii and the Avar had their hands on the tree and were concentrating on it with all their might. They paid her no attention, although the woman looked up, wonder on her face. Faraday smiled reassuringly at her, instinctively knowing she would like this woman.

  “Come with me,” StarDrifter said gently. “Come with me and touch the Tree.”

  Faraday laid her hand on the Tree, the Enchanter’s hand warm on hers. “Sing,” he commanded. “If you do not wake her with your song then all will die.”

  Faraday sang. She did not know where the song came from, but she could feel herself drawing on the power the Mother had given her in the garden. StarDrifter began to sing beside her, his voice weaving in and out of hers until they created wondrous patterns with their voices, patterns that hung about in the air between them, patterns that penetrated deep into Earth Tree.

  Earth Tree had waited thousands of years with no-one to sing this song to her. It was her own song, the song she had composed in her youth and then given to the Mother for safe-keeping. She sighed, caught deep in the memories the song evoked, memories of when the Avarinheim was young, when all was hope, all was joy. Then she slowly, reluctantly, let go of the great mysteries she had been contemplating and started to rise to awareness. The closer she rose to the surface, the further distant from the great caverns of the centre of the earth into which her roots hung, the more she realised that something was wrong. The Avarinheim was under cruel attack, had been for centuries, and was now under even worse. Loathsome creatures swarmed in the very glade she called home.

  Earth Tree screamed in fury.

  Faraday almost lost contact with the Tree and her song faltered, but StarDrifter’s hand kept hers pressed close to the Tree, and his voice missed not a beat, encouraging her to keep singing as the Earth Tree’s scream of rage reverberated about them. Faraday realised that it was imperative that the Earth Tree not lose control to the point where she would use her fury to destroy friends as well as foe. The only way Faraday could do that was to speak to her with Song, speak to her with enchanted music. Her voice strengthened.

  StarDrifter’s song started to alter, first only a note here and there, but then entire phrases. Faraday altered her own song to support his, and, in the space of one incredible heartbeat, Earth Tree joined them, her thunderous voice lifting over the entire northern Avarinheim. As she caught the song StarDrifter and Faraday fell silent, awed by the majesty a
nd power of the Earth Tree as she sang her Song. The Song of her Making.

  The entire Earth Tree Grove was blanketed by the awesome sound. All movement stopped, and then, as one, the Skraeling mass broke apart. Skulls burst, eyes popped, hands fell from arms, and torsos smashed to the ground as legs broke asunder. The two SkraeBolds who were whole dragged their stricken companion, still with the arrow protruding from his neck, back from the circle of fire, screaming defiance at the Tree, yet totally unable to challenge it. Gorgrael had not given them the power for this. With a final scream of defiance they vanished.

  Those that were left among the Avar and Icarii scrambled to their feet and turned to the tree, their weary faces filled with awe and wonder.

  “She sings, beautiful woman,” StarDrifter whispered and turned to Faraday. “Thank you, Faraday. Between us we brought both the music of the Stars and the music of the Mother to wake the Earth Tree. She sings now, and she will ward the Avarinheim with the strength of her protection. Gorgrael will not have such an easy route south as he had hoped.”

  Faraday touched his face with gentle fingers. “You are StarDrifter, Axis’ father. He looks for you, Enchanter. He needs you. Will you come to help him?”

  “You know him?”

  Faraday’s beautiful smile spread across her face and she laughed innocently, still unaware of the power her smile could have on a man. “I love him, Enchanter. You have a beautiful son.” But suddenly she felt the power fading, felt herself losing her grip on StarDrifter’s hand. She spiralled gently upwards into the green and silver tunnel. “Help him, StarDrifter,” she called desperately. “Help your son!”

  “Help him, StarDrifter,” Faraday mumbled, twisting in Yr’s arms. “Help your son!” Then she gasped, her eyes flying open into Yr’s, and fainted dead away.