StarDrifter knew who it was they had gone to meet. He did not know what kind of a hope Drago provided, but if Faraday believed in him, then StarDrifter thought he might have the courage to do likewise. Stars, but he hoped they’d survived the Demons’ arrival. Faraday might well have the power to cope with them…but Zenith? StarDrifter prayed Faraday had shown the sense to keep Zenith well back. They’d not fought so long to save her from Niah to lose her now.
“There must always be hope,” Axis said quietly. “Fate always leaves a hope somewhere. And I intend to find it.”
“And Faraday,” StarDrifter said. “Did she say where she and Zenith would—”
“She said that we should wait for her here, and she would eventually rejoin us,” Zared said. “She said we were not to go near Cauldron Lake, for that was where the Demons would strike first.”
StarDrifter nodded, and tried to relax. Faraday would keep them all well. She must. He suddenly realised how deeply worried he was about Zenith, and he frowned slightly.
“How does she know that?” Azhure said. “Is she somehow in league with them?”
“Faraday has always put this land before her own needs and desires,” StarDrifter said sharply. “And you, Azhure, should know that better than anyone else here. Have you forgotten she died so you could live?”
Azhure’s cheeks reddened, and she dropped her eyes.
“Enough,” Axis said. “Caelum, you are our hope.”
“Me?”
Axis looked about. “Caelum, my friends, can we sit? We all have information to share, and my legs have lost their god-like endurance.”
Leagh took his arm, and then Azhure’s, and led them towards a fire set mid-distance between two trees where it could do no harm. “Sit down, and rest those legs.”
“What do you mean, I am your hope?” Caelum said, watching his parents. He had refused food, and had waited impatiently until Axis, Azhure and StarDrifter had eaten. They had very obviously had little in the past few days.
“Not only our hope, my son, but Tencendor’s.” Axis stalled for time, wiping his fingers carefully on a napkin that Leagh handed him. He hesitated, then looked his son in the eye.
“There is much I did not tell you while you were so entwined in hostilities with Zared. But now that I see you both sit side by side, in peace, it gives me the strength to say what I hesitated to speak previously.
“Caelum, I cannot say all the details, but for now listen to me well. All of you listen to me well. Beneath each of the Sacred Lakes lie Repositories, all heavily warded and defended, and in each of these Repositories lies the various life parts of the Midday Demon, Qeteb.”
Axis continued on in a low voice, telling of the Maze Gate, and of its age-old message that the Crusader was the only one capable of defeating the Demons. Forty years ago it had named the Crusader as StarSon.
“It waited for a year after you were born, Caelum. It watched and waited until it was sure, and then it named you, StarSon, as Tencendor’s hope.”
“The hope of many worlds,” StarDrifter said reflectively, “if these TimeKeepers can so effortlessly move through the stars.”
“But how?” Caelum’s eyes flickered between his parents and then about the rest of the group. “How? I have no power left! Nothing! How can I meet—”
“Caelum, be still…and believe.” Azhure rested her hand on Caelum’s knee. “There is hope, and there is a weapon you can wield.”
Caelum said nothing. He dropped his eyes to where his hands fiddled with a length of leather tack.
“The Rainbow Sceptre,” Azhure said. “It contains the power of this world and the power of the Repositories…the power that currently still traps Qeteb.”
“Unfortunately, mother,” Caelum said, his voice heavy with sarcasm, “Drago stole the Sceptre. Took it to the Demons. Should we just ask for it back?”
“The Sceptre has ever had its own agenda,” said yet another voice to the side of the clearing, “and to blame Drago for its machinations is surely pointless.”
Everyone stared, voiceless.
Across the clearing stood Faraday, Zenith slightly behind her left shoulder, Drago standing by her right, his entire body tense and watchful.
Just behind them were the pale shapes of the two donkeys, their long ears pricked forward curiously.
“Zenith!” StarDrifter breathed, locking eyes with the woman, but before he could move, Axis rose to his feet.
5
The Prodigal Son’s Welcome
Axis stared, and—in a single flash of thought—remembered. He remembered the years of pain and suffering that had been needed to defeat both Borneheld and Gorgrael. The men and women who had died in order to reunite Tencendor. The lives that had been ruined by those who had thought to seize power illegally. He remembered how he and Azhure had fought to rebuild a life, not only for themselves and their family, but for an entire nation.
He remembered how they had thought themselves free of grief and treachery.
But here before him stood the son who had spent his time in Azhure’s womb plotting how best to kill both elder brother and father. Here was the son who’d conspired with Gorgrael, who had murdered RiverStar, and who had single-handedly wrought the complete destruction of all Axis had fought so long and hard for.
Here. Before him. Standing as if he thought to ask for a place among them.
And beside him, Faraday and Zenith. Had both been corrupted by his evil, both seduced into supporting his treachery? His lover and his daughter—had they no loyalty for Axis either?
“You vile bastard,” Axis said, very quietly but with such hatred that Faraday instinctively took a half-step in front of Drago. “How dare you present yourself to me?”
And then he leapt forward.
Herme stepped forward to stop him, but Axis spun about and slammed a fist into his face, knocking him to the ground. As Herme fell, Axis grabbed a knife from the Earl’s weapons belt and strode forward again.
Zared jumped to his feet, but was pulled back by Caelum, and both tumbled to the ground.
“No!” Faraday cried, taking another step forward, but Axis shoved her to one side. Faraday stumbled back against Zenith who had to wrap both arms about her to prevent her falling.
Before anyone else had time to move, or even cry out, Axis seized Drago, slammed him back against a tree, and buried the knife a half-finger’s depth into the junction of Drago’s neck and shoulder.
One of the donkeys brayed, and both pranced nervously.
“I should have done this forty years ago!” Axis cried, and he stabbed the dagger as deep into Drago’s neck as he could.
Drago gagged, uttered a low, choking cry, then sagged against the tree trunk as his father wrenched the knife out.
Axis drew it back for the final, killing blow.
Blood pumped out of Drago’s neck.
Faraday jerked out of Zenith’s arms and tried to grab Axis’ hand or arm, but he was too strong for her, and threw her to the ground, overbalancing himself.
“Axis!” Zared yelled, scrambling to his feet again, but this time both Askam and Caelum grabbed him and wrestled him back a pace or two.
“For the Stars’ sakes, Zared,” Caelum cried, “let my father end this now!” He hooked a foot under Zared’s leg, and toppled him to the ground.
Leagh dropped to her husband’s side, shooting Caelum a hard look. At the same time Zenith knelt by Drago, her joy at seeing StarDrifter alive completely forgotten in her concern for her brother. She grabbed at the hem of her cloak, tearing a section free, and folded the material into a thick square, using it to try to stifle the blood seeping from Drago’s throat.
Everyone else stood, helpless and unsure, wondering who was right, wondering what could be done, wondering whether or not another death would truly help.
Axis recovered his balance from Faraday’s attempt to push him over, drew his arm back—and found it seized from behind in sharp, murderous teeth.
Sicarius. The le
ader of Azhure’s Alaunt.
No-one had seen him move, and no-one knew where he’d come from, but now the hound pulled Axis to the ground, and stood over him, snarling and snapping.
“Sicarius!” Azhure buried her hands in the loose skin of the hound’s neck and tried to pull him off, but the hound would not budge.
Azhure tugged desperately, unable to believe Sicarius’ savage assault. What was the hound doing? To attack Axis?
“Drop the knife, Axis!” StarDrifter yelled. “Drop the damned knife or that dog is going to kill you!”
Then, ignoring Axis completely, he fell to his knees beside Drago, adding the weight of his hands to those of Zenith to try and stop the bleeding. He locked eyes briefly with Zenith, then turned slightly to Faraday who was now at Drago’s side also.
“What were you thinking of to enter this glade with Drago at your side?” StarDrifter hissed. “Didn’t you even think that Axis might not welcome his son home with open arms?”
Faraday shook her head helplessly, and StarDrifter made a small sound of disgust. She should have known better.
Zenith, absolutely shaken at the violence, drew comfort from the weight of StarDrifter’s hands over hers, and hoped they would staunch the bleeding enough to give Drago a chance of life.
StarDrifter lifted his eyes to hers and, although he did not smile, the lines about his eyes crinkled slightly in warmth.
“I am more than pleased to see you again, beloved Zenith,” StarDrifter murmured. “You are well?”
She nodded, and StarDrifter looked back to Drago. The bleeding was slowing—Axis’ knife must have struck his son’s clavicle rather than one of the neck veins. If he’d managed that, Drago would be dead already, for even the pressure of a thousand hands at his throat could not have stemmed the damage.
He gestured to Faraday to help Zenith apply pressure to the wound, touched Zenith’s cheek briefly in reassurance, then slowly stood and walked over to Axis.
His son had dropped the knife, and Sicarius had retreated to sit tense and watchful several paces away. His golden eyes flickered between Axis and Drago.
Everyone else was absolutely still, as watchful as the hound.
Azhure was down by her husband, her arms about him, supporting him into a sitting position. “StarDrifter,” she began, “what—”
StarDrifter ignored her. He thrust his right hand forward into Axis’ face. It was smeared with Drago’s blood. “Look at this!” he said. “Your son’s blood, Axis, by your hand!”
“Did you never see the wounds on Caelum’s body once Azhure rescued him from Gorgrael?” Axis said quietly. “Did you never see his blood? And now, look upon the blood smeared across this land, StarDrifter, and tell me that my ‘son’,” he spat the word, “does not deserve to die for it.”
Drago cleared his throat. “I have come back to help,” he said in a hoarse whisper.
“Then die!” Axis threw back at him, pushing Azhure’s arms aside and rising to his feet. “That would help considerably.”
The wound in Drago’s neck had now almost stopped bleeding, and Faraday left Drago’s care to Zenith. She rose and walked slowly forward. “There has been too much death in this world, Axis, for you to want to add to it.”
“Have you ever thought that by killing Drago now we might stop further death?” he snarled back.
In response, Faraday lifted her head and stared about at each and every person present. “I want you all to know, and this I pledge on the blood that I shed for Tencendor, and for you, Axis and Azhure, that I will stand responsible for Drago’s actions. I trust him, and I ask that you give him the benefit of the doubt. Drago wants to help, he can help. Let him.”
“He murdered RiverStar!” Caelum said, stabbing a finger at Drago. “And stole the Sceptre and provided the means whereby this land now stands decimated. Trust him?”
Faraday looked at him, then turned to StarDrifter standing beside her. “StarDrifter? I—”
“And I,” Zenith put in fiercely from where she knelt by Drago’s side.
“We both,” Faraday corrected herself, “believe Drago deserves a chance to prove his worth, and his loyalty. He did not murder RiverStar, and if he fled with the Sceptre, then that was at the Sceptre’s doing, not his. It needed to go to the Demons and so it manipulated Drago’s mind to get there. Drago has done regrettable things in the past, but he deserves a chance to redeem himself.”
“Redeem himself?” Axis said. “Stars, Faraday! How can you stand there, protecting this misbegotten evil? No doubt he has regained his Icarii powers in return for aiding the Demons—how else could he have manipulated Sicarius into defending him? Does he now covet the Throne of the Stars itself? Has he promised you a place beside him? Is that why you aid him?”
“Believe me, father,” Drago said, his voice a little stronger now, “all my Icarii power has been burned completely away. I have nothing left save my need to help right the wrongs I have done.”
Axis ignored him. He stepped forward to stand belligerently in front of Faraday. “How can you aid him?” he repeated.
Sicarius shifted forward slightly, and noticeably tensed.
“You go too far, Axis!” StarDrifter put his hand on his son’s shoulder, and wrenched him back a pace. Faraday had suffered too much violence in her life to have more visited upon her now.
“How can you accuse this woman, of all people, of aligning herself with the Demons?” StarDrifter continued. “Must I remind you that she died for you?”
He whipped about and stared now at Azhure, her face as cold as Axis’. “And you, Azhure. Have you forgotten?”
StarDrifter turned back and looked at Drago. “If Faraday walked in here with Qeteb himself and said that a spark of goodness rested in his breast, and that she would support him, then that would be enough for me. Drago, do you truly repent for what you did to Caelum?”
“Yes.” Drago’s eyes were on Caelum standing rigid eight or nine paces away, not StarDrifter. “I am not the hunter you fear, Caelum,” he said. “I come here to offer you my aid in whatever you have to do to defeat the Demons as some recompense for my actions against you so many years ago.”
“And why should I believe that?” asked Caelum.
“None of us believe that,” Axis said.
Azhure opened her mouth to speak, but was forestalled by Zared.
“I believe Drago deserves the chance,” he said. “Axis, have you or Caelum even thought of the fact that Drago is the only one among us who has had any firsthand experience of these Demons? Dammit, why kill that knowledge and potential help?”
“I think Zared speaks some sense,” DareWing FullHeart said, finally braving his say. “Faraday, you ask a great deal of everyone here. I do not think,” his mouth quirked and he gestured about the gathering, “that many here are ready to place their trust in Drago. Most of us have troublesome doubts. But most of us are prepared to trust you. Of everyone within this clearing, you are the one who deserves our full trust.”
Axis’ mouth hardened, and he turned his face away.
“If you say you will stand responsible for Drago’s actions,” DareWing finished, “and that he deserves the chance to finally help instead of hinder, then I will trust you and I will give Drago that chance.”
“And I,” StarDrifter said quietly, looking Faraday directly in the eye. Then he dropped his gaze to Drago. “Don’t fail her.”
Be his trust, the Survivor had said, be his trust. Suddenly Faraday knew what he had meant.
Axis started to say something, stopped himself, then stared at the ground for several moments, battling his fury.
Finally he raised his eyes. “Where is the Sceptre?” he said flatly. “If Drago hands the Sceptre to Caelum, then I will give him his chance.”
“I do not know the Sceptre’s will, nor do I know its location,” Faraday said. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” Axis stared at her. “Sorry! A trifling word to use as excuse for defending a traitor and a murderer!” br />
“No! Wait!” Drago struggled to his feet, the front of his tunic horribly bloodstained, his face white. He leaned heavily on Zenith, and looked about.
Where was the staff? Surely that was the Sceptre, transformed?
“Well?” said Axis.
“Wait…” Drago cast his eyes frantically about. He had it when he stepped into the clearing, he was sure…had it fallen from his hand when Axis attacked him? Where…
“You were ever the consummate play-actor,” Axis said, hate and sarcasm infusing his voice and face.
Drago stopped his search to stare at his father. “I—”
“I have had enough of you and your lies!” Axis said, and turned back to Caelum.
He took a deep breath, and calmed himself. “We still have hope, Caelum. Adamon and the other gods have gone to Star Finger and await us there. If we go to the mountain we will have the advice and knowledge of the past six or seven thousand years that is stored there. There must be something secreted in the damned mountain that can help us! Besides, I cannot help but believe the Sceptre will find its way to the StarSon in time. It is fated thus, and thus it must be.”
Unnoticed, the donkeys twitched their ears slightly, and one of them dipped her head to the ground, as if trying to hide unwanted mirth.
Caelum nodded, comforted by the surety in his father’s voice. “And now that the Demons are through and no longer blocking the Star Gate, there’s every chance that we might be able to regain a part of the Star—”
“The Star Gate has been destroyed,” Zenith said, wishing she did not have to say it. “We will never hear the Star Dance again.”
To one side StarDrifter groaned and sank to one knee, head in hand.
Axis’ face worked, and he shot Drago a look of such utter malevolence that his son had to turn his face aside, but Axis finally managed to speak relatively calmly.
“Then there is no point in lingering here. StarDrifter, I say to you, and to you, DareWing, and to you, Zared, that if you want to believe Faraday’s assurances then I cannot stop you—but don’t try to stop my efforts to help this land! Azhure and I will take Caelum back to Star Finger. Already, Adamon and the others who were once gods gather there.