Enchanter

by Sara Douglass

  Axis watched with his Enchanter’s vision as first Borneheld then, after a long pause, Faraday turned and left the parapets of the castle.

  “When?” Belial asked.

  “Tonight. I have waited long enough. It will be tonight.”

  Belial nodded. “How?”

  “Rivkah knows a way in. A secret way. We will approach across Grail Lake.”

  “Who?” Belial asked.

  “Me. You, Ho’Demi and Magariz. Jorge. Rivkah.”

  “Rivkah?” Belial was stunned.

  Axis’ eyes were as cold as the water. “She must come. She must witness. One of her sons will die tonight. She must be there.”

  Belial shivered. “Who else?”

  “The Sentinels. They will need to be there.”

  “To witness?”

  Axis shook his head, his eyes far away. “They can serve to witness, yes, but they will be there primarily to wait.”

  Belial frowned. Axis was in a strange mood, very strange. “Wait? Wait for what?”

  “A lost love, Belial. A lost love.”

  “And that is all you will take?”

  Again Axis shook his head. “StarDrifter, I think, although he may get in the way. But he wants to come. EvenSong. She must come too. To wait, like the Sentinels. Arne, and perhaps some five or six men-at-arms. Ravensbundmen, I think.”

  “You’ll need a merchant ship to carry that lot across,” Belial muttered.

  Axis clapped Belial on the back. “Seventeen, perhaps eighteen, my friend. A good rowboat will get us there.”

  “You’re not going to take Azhure?”

  Axis’ face hardened. “Someone will need to stay in command of this camp, and I hardly think she will want to come.”

  “Axis,” Belial hesitated. “Be careful you do not treat Azhure too badly in this. She loves you too deeply to be able to watch you sail across that Lake tonight with a calm and understanding heart.”

  Axis took a deep breath, fighting to control his temper.

  “Be careful, Axis,” Belial said, knowing that he was going too far, “Azhure is held in high regard by many within this camp. Hurt her, and you will hurt many.”

  “Including you?” Axis did not care if Belial saw his temper now. “How much do you love her, Belial?”

  Belial held Axis’ furious stare without flinching. “I will not deny that I loved her once. But there was no point feeding a love and a desire when Azhure could see none but you. It would have destroyed me, and I was not yet ready to die. But I still care for her, as does Magariz, and Rivkah, and Arne, and a thousand others I could name. Axis,” Belial’s voice was low, but steady. “We all care too much for her to watch her slowly die of wretchedness when you marry Faraday. Either let her go, or let Faraday go. You will destroy both of them if you continue in your desire to have them both.”

  “I will let neither go!” Axis seethed. “There is no need. They will both accept the other. It has been done before.”

  “But not with such women!” Belial’s voice rose now. “Both are wondrous in their own right, but both will fade and die if forced to share you!”

  “I hardly think…” Axis began, but both men were distracted by a shout from the line of tents.

  Ysgryff, his face livid with fury, strode towards Axis and Belial as they stood on the shore of the Lake, dragging a slight Nors girl with him.

  “Oh gods, no,” Belial whispered. “Cazna!”

  Ysgryff’s handsome face was so twisted with anger that it was almost unrecognisable, while the girl, dressed in a bright red wool dress, was wearing an expression of sulky rebellion.

  Ysgryff drew to a halt some four or five paces away from Axis and Belial, and started to shout at Belial.

  “Do you realise what you have done, you low-born oaf? Did you not stop to think what you did when you ravaged my daughter’s virtue?”

  “Daughter?” Belial said. Cazna was Ysgryff’s daughter?

  “Daughter!” Ysgryff shouted. “Daughter! Did you think her some camp whore? Did she act like some camp whore? Did you not stop to consider what you did when you dragged her into your bed?”

  “I—” Belial began but Ysgryff did not give him the chance to explain.

  “Of what value is she now? None! What sort of marriage can I arrange for her now? None! Some hurried and secretive affair with a ploughman who has been paid to overlook her swollen belly?”

  Again Belial tried to interrupt, appalled at the inference that he had got Cazna pregnant, but Cazna overrode her father.

  “Father,” she said, low but firm. Axis noticed that she had inherited her father’s striking looks to the full. “Belial did not seduce me. I seduced him. The night of the treaty-signing in the Ancient Barrows I went to his tent and lay waiting for him in his bedroll.”

  Belial smiled slightly. Will I ever forget what I felt when I entered my tent that night and saw her lying there, waiting for me?

  Ysgryff stared at his daughter in horror. “What did I raise,” he said, “that she should treat me like this?”

  Belial stepped forward and took Cazna’s hand. “Ysgryff, there has been little harm done.” He hurried on as Ysgryff opened his mouth in horror yet again. Little harm done? “I have already asked—your daughter—to marry me.”

  Axis raised his eyebrow. Belial had thought to castigate him over his treatment of Azhure when all the time he had been busily violating the Baron of Nor’s daughter?

  “Marriage? Do you think that will heal the hurt and the shame you have dealt my family?” Ysgryff shouted, although he was having a great deal of trouble maintaining the façade of his temper. If he played the part of the enraged father well enough, he would be able to get Belial to accept Cazna without a single gold piece as dowry.

  “I have accepted,” Cazna said, watching her father carefully. She already had her suspicions about her father’s display of righteous rage. Her hand tightened about Belial’s.

  “Well,” Ysgryff said, pretending to be slightly mollified. “How do I know that he means it? Was it just a ploy to bring you to his bed?”

  “I hardly think you have behaved well, Belial,” Axis said, speaking for the first time since Ysgryff had dragged his daughter forth to accuse Belial. “I think that perhaps you have treated Cazna rather badly, don’t you?”

  Belial glared at Axis. He knew perfectly well that Axis was referring to their previous conversation with that remark.

  “Then find me two more witnesses, Axis,” he retorted. “And I will wed Cazna here and now. I am not afraid to grace the woman I love with vows of lifelong love, partnership and honour.”

  Axis stared at Belial, standing calm and straight with the Nors girl close to him, then he spun on his heel and strode off.

  “I cannot take you with me, so I will leave you in command of the camp and the army,” Axis said carefully. “FarSight CutSpur will be your second-in-command.”

  “I understand,” Azhure said, folding her cloak for the third time, then shaking it out and starting all over again.

  They were in the tent that they now shared with Rivkah and Magariz, and this was the first time Axis had found a chance to talk with Azhure alone for many days. Caelum had gone with Rivkah for an evening stroll by the waters.

  “Damn it,” Axis swore softly, and strode over to Azhure, tearing the cloak from her hands and throwing it to the ground. “What is wrong, Azhure? What has come between us these past months?” How long since he had touched her, kissed her, lain with her? Not since the night he had signed the treaty with Ysgryff and Greville at the Ancient Barrows, and how many weeks was that?

  “What has come between us? She sits in her pink and gold palace across the Lake. Faraday.”

  “Azhure,” Axis said, taking her chin gently in his fingers and forcing her to meet his eyes. “Azhure, I love you, you know that. You will always be a part of my life.”

  She twisted away. “It is a hard thing you ask of me, Axis.”

  “What? To stay with me? To be my Lo
ver? You love me, you can do no less.”

  “I wish I could have found the courage to walk away from you before this,” she said.

  “Walk away from me? Who to? Belial?”

  Azhure whipped her head back, her eyes wide.

  Axis seized her chin again. “If you try to leave me, I will track you down. Believe it! No-one will take you from me!”

  Azhure stared at him. How could a man who could show so much compassion to strangers show such a face of cruelty to her?

  “Azhure,” Axis moderated his tone as he watched the effect his words had on her. “Do you love me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, unable to deny it.

  “Then you would be miserable away from me. Azhure, listen to me. Marriage to Borneheld’s widow will further cement my claim to the throne of Achar. Besides, the Prophecy binds me to Faraday, and I need Faraday to bring the Avar and the trees to my cause. I cannot abandon her, Azhure, and I will not. Not when she has done so much for me, and will do so much more. But my heart belongs to you. Never belittle yourself, or your effect on me, Azhure.”

  He bent down and kissed her lips softly. “If I was not already bound by vow to Faraday then I would not hesitate to marry you, Azhure. Believe it.”

  “Yes.” Azhure believed it.

  “Azhure, I will not hesitate to acknowledge you, my love for you, or your role in my success thus far. I love you, and your son will be my heir. Walk tall and proud.”

  “Go,” Azhure whispered, “go to Faraday. I cannot fight the Prophecy.”

  After Axis had left her, and walked down to the shore of Grail Lake and the boat that waited to take him to Faraday, Azhure walked out of the tent, took Caelum from Rivkah, and wandered through the camp, pausing to chat now and then with a member of her command. She wore a cool, confident smile on her face and didn’t let a single ray of her grief shine through. Sicarius trotted at her side, his eyes golden and seeing.

  Once she had inspected the camp and made sure all was in order Azhure shared a meal with Cazna, and envied the young woman that she had captured her husband’s heart intact

  .

  57

  THE CHAMBER OF THE MOONS

  As twilight deepened into dark, people started to file into the Chamber of the Moons. Servants, guardsmen, courtiers, kitchen maids, stableboys—all were driven by the presentiment that something strange would take place this night in the Chamber of the Moons.

  They moved silently, none speaking, none feeling the need to. As the night drew on perhaps two hundred stood, still and noiseless, circling the Chamber, leaving its centre free.

  Borneheld sat on his throne atop the dais, his face expressionless, sword drawn and resting on his knees. On the stone edge of the dais sat Faraday, green skirts spread about her, shoulders square, face serene, hands folded smoothly in her lap. Like her husband, Faraday stared straight ahead. Waiting.

  In a group of four to the left of the dais stood Timozel, morbid; Gautier, a thin sheen of sweat across his face betraying his inner fears; Jayme, pale; and Yr, as serene as her mistress, feeling the presence of the Prophecy strongly in the night.

  The only light in the Chamber was an inadequate ring of blazing torches round the pillars. They threw more shadows than light, and those shadows provided the only movement.

  Everyone waited.

  On Grail Lake the boat moved through the smooth waters.

  All on board were absorbed in their own thoughts.

  Axis thought of Azhure one moment, Faraday the next. He thought of Borneheld, and the end they would make of it tonight. He thought of FreeFall and of Zeherah, and of the bargain with the GateKeeper.

  Belial thought of the duel ahead and of his wife. He had wed Cazna there on the shores of Grail Lake this afternoon, and the pledges he made had tasted right in his mouth. He thought of the life they would make together when this Prophecy had ground itself to a close. Would they settle in his home province of Romsdale? Or in one of the three manors Cazna had had bestowed upon her? Belial’s thoughts saddened. He prayed Cazna could be all he hoped.

  Rivkah and Magariz thought of Axis, and of the duel that they would witness tonight. Rivkah had not wanted to be there, but knew that she had to be. She had brought both men into this world, and she would witness one of them out of it tonight. She hoped it would be Borneheld. She was glad she had Magariz with her tonight, glad that they no longer needed to hide their love for each other.

  As the boat slid through the darkness Rivkah looked into the water. She snatched at Magariz’s hand and indicated with her eyes. Far into the depths of the Lake a line of double lights glowed as if marking a road. The boat glided directly above. Every now and then the row of glowing lamps would diversify into circles and arrows, reminding Rivkah vaguely of the swirls and lines on the faces of the Ravensbund people. They glowed welcomingly, and Rivkah fought the urge to slip into the water and swim down to meet them. She had often sailed these waters at night when she was a girl, but she had never seen lights such as these before.

  Jack, Ogden and Veremund had seen the lights as well, but none were puzzled. There it lies, thought Jack, and Ogden and Veremund silently agreed with him. Our fate.

  All three knew what they would soon witness, and they hoped that tonight would provide the final stroke for the war between Axis and Borneheld, for the war which had riven Achar apart.

  But why, thought Veremund, why go through with this, when the fifth is still lost? Ogden squeezed his brother’s hand, and Jack placed his own hands on the shoulders of the two Sentinels. Trust, he thought, it is all we can do. Trust.

  Arne thought of Axis and he thought of traitors. He thought of backs, and he thought of Axis’ back. Sometimes when he looked at Axis he thought he could see a knife emerging from between his shoulder blades. Sometimes he thought he could see Axis’ hands covered in blood, but he could not tell whose. Arne’s eyes darted about the boat. Where the traitor’s hand? Where? Who?

  At the very stern of the boat sat StarDrifter and EvenSong, both a little uncomfortable, both trailing their wings slightly, in the cool waters. StarDrifter thought of his mother, of her excitement at finding The History of the Lakes, of her death before she could read it. He thought of MorningStar’s crushed head and of WolfStar who lurked somewhere among them. Who?

  EvenSong thought of FreeFall. She had fought to put him out of her mind this past year, even to the extent of seducing Belial one night in Sigholt and again this Beltide night past. But nothing had worked, not even Belial’s ardent love-making, and tonight the memories of FreeFall seemed closer than ever before. FreeFall, she thought, leave me to live the rest of my life without you. Let go my heart. Soar back to the stars where you belong.

  Jorge sat shoulder to shoulder with the impassive Ravensbund chief and the six Ravensbundmen who accompanied Axis. Over the past months Jorge had grown to respect the Ravensbund people where once he had only loathed them as savages. Nevertheless, Axis had picked a peculiar force to invade with, a strange one indeed. Magic and enchantments and alien vows with unseen faces have more to do with the selection for this mission than fighting skill. And why me? Why me? I am too old for this. Too tired.

  The boat came to a small and forgotten postern door set low in Carlon’s walls. It was a little-known gate that Rivkah remembered from her childhood. Once, many generations ago, it had been used for courtiers who wished to enter and leave the palace as secretly as they might. Rivkah had discovered it as a child, and had sometimes come down here late in summer evenings to sit with her feet dangling in the cool waters of Grail Lake. Was the gate still here, unblocked, unlocked? It opened into a stairwell and narrow corridor which eventually led to the main hallways of the palace. Perhaps, Rivkah pondered, it had been built hundreds of years ago for the very purposes of this Prophecy.

  Axis lifted his head to the night sky and whistled softly. A sudden rush of wings signalled the arrival of the snow eagle on Axis’ outstretched arm.

  The boat rocked gently as it bum
ped against the stone wall and Arne crept forward and worked the latch on the gate.

  It swung silently open, revealing a rectangle of darkness. Axis was suddenly, vividly reminded of the rectangle of light that sat behind the GateKeeper, and he pondered the similarities. This was a Gate into the Prophecy as surely as that golden Gate in the UnderWorld was a doorway into the world beyond.

  Arne tied the boat to a ring to one side of the gate and disappeared into the darkness for some minutes. Everyone sat quietly, waiting. Axis gently stroked the eagle’s feathers, calming it and himself. Earlier Belial had apologised to him for his ill-considered words about Azhure and they had grasped hands, friends once more. Axis had complimented Belial on his new bride. Both men were relieved that their friendship had been restored on this, the most critical of nights.

  Arne reappeared. “The place is deserted,” he said. “I scouted well ahead. Nothing. No-one.”

  “No guards?” Belial queried.

  “They will all be in the Chamber of the Moons,” said Axis quietly, and although he was not sure why he said it, he knew it to be true. “Waiting. Come.”

  They moved quickly and quietly through the lower corridors of the palace.

  The eagle was becoming more and more restless the further they moved into the palace, and Axis soothed and stroked it. StarDrifter and EvenSong, as nervous about being trapped where they could not fly as the eagle, were grateful the instant they moved out of the tight and narrow lower passageways; their wings had scraped painfully in places against cold and damp stone.

  As they moved further and higher into the palace the group passed small numbers of servants. As soon as the servants saw the party was headed by the golden man with the eagle, they slunk back against the walls, their eyes great and solemn. One or two bowed slightly as Axis, his eyes fixed straight ahead, passed them without comment or recognition.

  There were no guards. No fighting. Borneheld was willing now that it should come down to the duel.