“Azhure?”
She turned from the lamp she was lighting and smiled. “Yes?”
“How long have I been gone? Or should I,” he grinned, “hazard a guess from the roundness of your belly?”
Azhure coloured. “It is the first week of Bone-month, Axis.”
He sighed and turned away, rubbing his face tiredly. “Late. I had not thought to be gone so long. There is so much to be done.”
“You will need your rest,” Azhure said, putting down the lamp she was carrying and starting to edge for the door. The sooner she was gone from here the better.
Axis toyed with the fringe of a lampshade. “Azhure, there is one more thing I would ask of you,” he said.
“Yes?”
Axis raised his pale eyes. “Stay with me. Be my lover.”
Her whole body stiffened. “No, I cannot,” she whispered. Why had she let herself be caught like this?
Axis walked over, his eyes locked in Azhure’s. She went rigid as he approached, but he walked straight past her, his arm brushing hers, closed the door, and turned back. “And why is that? Why can you not stay?”
Azhure had spent months putting her arguments together for this moment. Where were they now? Increasingly desperate, she blurted, “Because I am a simple peasant girl and you are an Icarii Enchanter.”
Axis took a step closer to Azhure. “The simple peasant girl stayed behind in Smyrton,” he said, “and before me is the woman who has mastered the Wolven.” And the woman who sent me reeling among the Stars at Beltide. Would he feel the Star Dance through her body again when he lay with her? “Stay with me. Dance with me.”
Azhure swallowed. “I am mortal, short-lived, and you will live for hundreds of years. You have seen how StarDrifter and Rivkah’s marriage foundered on this. There is no hope for us. No hope.”
Axis stepped yet closer. “I may be dead in a year or less, Azhure. What does a five-hundred-year lifespan count for when events of such magnitude threaten to envelop us all? And we are not StarDrifter and Rivkah. Stay with me.” He smoothed a tendril of hair back from her cheek.
Azhure took a deep breath and closed her eyes, balling her hands into fists as she tried to ignore the soft stroking of his fingers. “Faraday,” she said tightly.
Axis kissed the tender spot at the junction of her jaw and neck. “Faraday is many months and many leagues away. Stay with me.”
“Faraday loves you!” She felt his teeth against her skin, and it brought memories and desires flooding back.
“Faraday’s love for me does not stop her sharing her bed with Borneheld. Stay with me.”
“Faraday loves you, and you her!”
Axis laughed softly and untied the laces of her nightgown. “What is love, Azhure? Can you tell me? Stay with me. Dance with me.”
He tilted Azhure’s head and kissed her mouth. “It is too late to be talking of remaining true when you stand here heavy with my child. Besides, Faraday is a noblewoman, a lady of court. She accepted my previous lover and she will accept you. Stay with me.”
“Axis, do not ask this of me!”
“Azhure.” He leaned back slightly, his hands slowly pulling the nightgown down over her shoulders and breasts, his fingers stroking. “What reason is there for you to go? You are my friend and my helpmeet, my ally. You fill my eyes and my thoughts. You carry my child. And you love me—you cannot deny that. Would you deny me my child, deny the child its father? What reason is there to go? Stay with me. Feel the power of the Star Dance through my fingers, through my hands, through my body. Be my lover.”
Azhure could not resist. She had fought as best she could. Axis was right, Faraday was far away, and Azhure would deal with it when she had to.
“Yes,” she whispered, and in his darkened corner of existence the Prophet laughed loud and merrily.
They lay still and quiet on the bed, both awake, both unwilling to slip into sleep and waste the night in unconsciousness. After a while Azhure felt Axis’ hand caress her belly again, and she finally spoke.
“Axis, the baby hardly moves. They say that you must sing to it, awaken it, teach it.”
Axis kissed her cheek. “Our child is a boy. I can feel it.”
“You can? A boy?” Azhure laughed, and her own hand stole down to her belly. “A son.”
Axis smiled at her excitement. “What would you like to call him? If I am to sing to him, awaken him, we should really grace him with his name.”
Azhure rolled over a little so that she faced Axis. “You would let me name him? Don’t you want to name him yourself?”
Axis gently ran his hand around her back, slowly stroking her skin, feeling the ridged scars. She had endured so much pain already in life, so much rejection, so much uncertainty. And now she had carried his child for over six months without any support from him. “Tell me what you would like to name him.”
Azhure did not have to think about it. “Caelum.”
“Why Caelum?”
“When I was a small girl, after my mother had left me,” Azhure said, “there was a blacksmith who would come to Smyrton every two weeks to ply his trade. A big man. Dark. He called himself Alayne and he was kind to me. He told me stories, and for many years he was the only friend I had. Caelum…Caelum was the hero of his favourite story. The name is appropriate, surely. It means…”
“Stars in heaven, Azhure, I know what it means,” Axis murmured. He had thought he’d led a lonely life, but his loneliness was nothing compared to the misery of Azhure’s childhood. He had enjoyed the love and support of so many Brothers within the Seneschal, not the least Jayme himself. All Azhure had were the fortnightly visits of a blacksmith who was occasionally kind to her and who told her stories of mythical heroes.
“Caelum is a fine name,” he said finally.
“Axis,” Azhure suddenly said. “Promise me you will never steal this baby to give to Faraday to raise!”
Axis sat up on his elbow, appalled. How could she think that he would do such a thing? Unbidden, StarDrifter’s words from many months ago in Talon Spike echoed through his mind, “In ages gone past Icarii birdmen simply took the babies of human–Icarii unions and never spared a thought for the women who had struggled to birth their children.” Did Azhure fear he would do that to her?
“Listen to me,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “I will never take our son from you. Both of us have suffered because our parents were torn from us. Do you think that I would perpetuate the same pain on our son? Azhure, hear me, I swear on everything I hold dear that I will never, never, take our son from you. Believe me!”
Azhure finally let go of her fears. She reached up and cupped Axis’ face in her hands. “Then awaken our son, Axis, and tell him that his parents love him dearly and will never desert him.”
Axis sat up and pulled Azhure against him. He put his arms around her and placed his splayed hands over her belly.
“Awake, Caelum,” he said clearly, and began to sing.
Azhure closed her eyes and let his Song envelop her, feeling their baby—Caelum—stir to wakefulness in her womb. He twisted and turned so his entire body pressed against the outer wall of her womb, as close to Axis’ hands as possible. The sensation was so exquisite it went way beyond the description of words.
How could she ever have considered Belial’s proposal? Azhure wondered. How could she ever have believed she could walk away from Axis? Beltide had been a point beyond which there was no turning back. No longer would she attempt to deny her love for this Enchanter who held her now.
Rivkah had told Azhure that it was a tragedy for a human woman to love an Icarii Enchanter, to be entrapped in a love which would cause only pain, but Azhure hoped these months with Axis and their son in Sigholt would somehow store up enough love and happiness to see her through the inevitable suffering. Azhure’s body relaxed completely against Axis’, letting the rhythm of the Song he was singing wash through her, feeling her baby respond to his father.
After a long while Ax
is stopped, and he smiled and whispered into Azhure’s ear. “You have grown a wonderful son within your body, Azhure. Speak to him. Speak to your son. He loves you and would hear your voice.”
“Me? But I thought it was only the Icarii father who could speak to babes still in the womb. Me? Why would he want to listen to me?”
“He loves you,” Axis repeated, smiling against her ear. “You are his hero. He will hear you. He is awake.”
Azhure slid her hands down over her belly, and Axis’ covered hers. What would she say? Slowly, hesitantly, then with more confidence and joy, Azhure spoke to her son.
30
“LET FLY THE STANDARD!”
Rivkah hurried along the corridors of Sigholt, increasingly fretful. She had woken early to find Azhure gone, her side of the bed stone cold. Her clothes were still lying draped casually across the chair—Azhure was still in her nightgown. Had she gone for a midnight stroll through Sigholt and suffered some mishap—a fall perhaps? Was Azhure now lying injured some place?
Rivkah turned down the main corridor and hurried towards the stairwell that led to the roof. She halted by the door to the main apartment. The door was closed and nothing seemed amiss. But there was something…different.
Rivkah suddenly realised what it was as the faint odour of lamp oil registered. Had Azhure gone in there? Was she now asleep—injured, perhaps—on the floor? Rivkah gripped the door handle and stepped into the central chamber.
Lamps had indeed been lit, but had now burned down. Rivkah glanced about the chamber and took a deep breath. She had not been in these apartments since returning to Sigholt, and they brought back a flood of memories. Searlas is long dead, she told herself firmly, and stepped further into the room—and saw Azhure’s nightgown lying in a pale puddle in the centre of the floor. She turned her head towards the open door to the bedchamber, then walked slowly over and stepped through.
Azhure and Axis lay asleep on the bed, Axis’ arms wrapped protectively around Azhure. Well, thought Rivkah, a curious stillness in her mind, you did not run far enough or fast enough, did you Azhure?
Axis opened his eyes and stared at Rivkah standing just inside the doorway. He gently disentangled himself from Azhure; who murmured a little as he left the bed. He paused to pull the sheets over her before he hugged his mother.
“Welcome home to Sigholt,” Rivkah whispered, holding her son tightly to her. “Did the Ferryman teach you well? Did you learn his secrets?”
“The Ferryman still plies his boat along the waterways, Rivkah. He is well.” Axis brushed some stray silver wisps of hair back from his mother’s forehead. “Does anyone else know I am here?” he asked.
“No.” Rivkah paused and glanced at Azhure, still asleep.
“She carries a beautiful son, Rivkah.”
“She was very worried. Have you sung to him?”
“Yes,” Axis replied softly, remembering.
“Rivkah?” Azhure murmured sleepily behind them. “Is that you?”
Rivkah let her son go and sat down on the bed beside Azhure, stroking her hair.
Azhure knew exactly what she was thinking. “I will be happy, Rivkah. Do not fret for me.”
Rivkah’s face hardened. They were both so young and both so sure that life would work out exactly as they hoped. Well, already plans and vows lay shattered across the floor. Could they not see that?
“Azhure, it grows late, and Belial has called a meeting of his commanders in the map-room. You must dress. I’ll bring your clothes here.”
“Axis,” Rivkah turned to him, “Belial would be more than pleased to see you. He has long fretted about your absence.”
Axis nodded. “Then shall we surprise him, Azhure? Let me see what Belial has done with my command over the past eight months.”
“And while you are in conference I will tell StarDrifter and MorningStar you have arrived,” Rivkah said, rising from the bed.
“They are here?” Axis asked sharply.
“Yes. They arrived some time ago.”
“Good,” he nodded, “for I must talk with them.”
Belial paced about the map-room. Where was she? Magariz, Arne, FarSight and two of his Crest-Leaders had been here almost a quarter of an hour, chatting about inconsequential matters. Well, Belial fumed, if her pregnancy was going to make her sleep in during the mornings, then perhaps…
The door opened and Azhure stepped into the room.
“You’re late,” Belial snapped. “I…”
Axis stepped into the room behind Azhure. “I am afraid that was my fault, Belial.”
Belial gaped at Axis, then he strode across the chamber and enveloped his friend in a great hug. “Axis!”
“Eight months’ absence is too long, my friend,” Belial said, finally stepping back. “I am glad to have you back.”
Axis turned to Magariz. “Magariz!” They gripped hands. Axis’ warmth for this man who had abandoned lifelong loyalties to follow his cause was only slightly less than for Belial. Without Belial and Magariz Axis’ cause would be almost hopeless. Axis touched the blood-red blazing sun on Magariz’s chest. “Azhure has been wrapping you in her designs, I see.”
Axis greeted Arne, then FarSight and the two other Crest-Leaders. Their black uniforms, although similarly emblazoned with the blood-red blazing sun, made them look forbidding and dangerous and Axis wondered how their training was going.
After all the greetings were done, Axis gestured to the others to take their places about the table; it was clear that Axis had assumed full command the instant he’d walked into the chamber.
Axis placed his hands on the table, stared about the table, then said quietly to Belial, “Tell me.”
Talking in confident tones, Belial informed Axis of the status of Sigholt and of his command, now a combined one of Acharites and Icarii, ground and air combatants.
Axis nodded occasionally, raised his eyebrows in silent query at other times. Belial had worked wonders, and Axis was impressed—and grateful. The Icarii were doing well, learning the skills they would need in battle. The Lake had awakened both Keep and hills. When Belial described Azhure’s work with the archers, her abilities as a fighter and as a commander, Axis was not surprised. As Axis and Azhure shared a look, Belial quickly moved on to the growing number of refugees who flocked to Sigholt. Word of the Prophecy was spreading, and proving potent.
“I could not have asked for a more capable or a more courageous group of commanders than the seven of you,” Axis said. “I thank you with all my heart for what you have done here in Sigholt and for what you have done for me personally. If I emerge victorious then it will be your victory as much as mine. Belial.” He looked at his friend. “To you I owe the greatest debt. You accepted me for what I was when I was consumed with self-doubt about my heritage. You saved my life from Borneheld and engineered not only my escape from Gorkenfort, but the escape of an army as well. You took that force and built me a base here in Sigholt which nothing my enemies enjoy can rival. Belial, my friend,” he reached across the table and gripped Belial’s hand, “I thank you.”
“Now.” Axis leaned back and spoke to the rest of the group. “What do we control? What is the state of the Skraelings? Borneheld’s men? What do you know?”
Magariz lifted a map from the rack behind him and unrolled it across the table. His hand swept over the Urqhart Hills in an arc from north to south. “We control most of the Urqhart Hills, except the extreme north and north-west, which the Skraelings occupy. We also dare not approach too close to Hsingard, which the Skraelings have destroyed. The HoldHard Pass is ours, as is the territory spreading south from the Pass to the Nordra. Below the Nordra we can move fairly easily in the northernmost parts of Skarabost, but we do occasionally skirmish with the outer patrols from Jervois Landing in the north-western parts of the Seagrass Plains. We have supply routes stretching into Skarabost, which should remain open unless our access to the Nordra is cut off.”
“A good start,” said Axis. “And the rest?�
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“We face problems from both Gorgrael and Borneheld,” Magariz said slowly. “Intelligence from the farflight scouts shows that Gorgrael builds his forces. We hurt them badly above Gorkenfort, and for months the Skraeling masses were scattered all over Ichtar, too disorganised to push further south. But now Gorgrael has regained control and rebuilt his forces. Skraelings, under firm direction now, mass below Hsingard in an effort to break through Borneheld’s defences at Jervois Landing. A smaller force also builds in the northern WildDog Plains. Gorgrael obviously plans a two-pronged attack into Achar this winter. Not only past Jervois Landing, but also through the WildDog Plains. I only hope Borneheld can hold them at Jervois Landing, because I suspect most of our efforts this winter will be directed at keeping the Skraelings from pushing south through the WildDog Plains.”
This was bitter news for Axis. He had hoped to move his own forces into southern Achar during the winter while Borneheld was occupied at Jervois Landing. But now it appeared that if Borneheld was going to be occupied with the Skraelings, so was he. Axis knew he could not let Gorgrael succeed in his push through the WildDog Plains. But his agreement with the GateKeeper would last only a year and a day before it lapsed and FreeFall would never be reborn. He had to be in Carlon before then.
“And Borneheld?” he asked. “What has he done at Jervois Landing? How has he equipped his forces? What is his strength?”
“Axis, Borneheld now commands over twenty thousand men in Jervois Landing, and…he controls the force as King. Priam died some months ago.”
Axis went rigid with shock. “King?” He took a deep breath. “I can just imagine how Borneheld seized the throne,” he muttered bleakly. Now Borneheld would be immeasurably more dangerous. “But how did he manage to find a force of twenty thousand? How?”
Magariz explained about the Ravensbundmen and the extra forces that Borneheld had scavenged from about Achar. Then, as Axis’ shoulders slumped, he briefly explained about the system of canals Borneheld had ordered built between the Nordra and Azle rivers.
Enchanter Page 28
