Enchanter

by Sara Douglass

  “Being your wife means nothing!” Faraday screamed, her face twisting into ugly lines, “when that woman across the Lake is your wife in everything but name!”

  She took a deep breath and worked to bring her temper under control. “Wife. What does that mean, Axis, when that woman across the Lake is Queen in everything but name! Over the past year at least, and longer by the look of that baby, she has shared your life, shared your adventures, shared your bed. Now you have given her the power, the recognition,” she laughed a little, “even Spiredore, and you have given her your son. Again she is pregnant with your child. Do not try to tell me that she does not continue to share your bed and your heart, Axis.”

  Axis looked down at the floor. There was nothing he could say.

  Faraday stared at him, a muscle leaping in her throat.

  “She was the one to stand on the dais with you, Axis, not me. She was the one who took the cheers of the nation with you. Not me. Marry me, Axis? What a joke! Even as your wife, I would be the mistress, not her. She has everything. I have nothing. You humiliated me today, Axis. Can’t you see what you did?”

  Axis raised his head and looked at her. “I did not think to betray you, Faraday. Azhure was a friend when I needed one badly. She understood that I loved you…”

  “You talked about me to her?” Faraday whispered. What other cruelties did this man have to deal her?

  “…and she fought to resist me. Faraday, do not blame her in this. I am the one at fault.”

  Faraday’s eyes brimmed with tears. That Axis sought to protect Azhure and not himself told Faraday how deeply he loved her. “Strangely, Axis, I do not. I know how easy it is for a woman to fall in love with you. If I seek to apportion blame, then I must blame you.” She turned away.

  Axis stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms about her, gently rocking her. This time she did not throw him off.

  “Will you give her up?” she whispered.

  There was a pause. “I cannot,” Axis muttered eventually.

  “Do you feel anything for me?”

  “Faraday.” Axis turned her around so he could look in her eyes. He gently brushed some of the tears from her cheek with his hand. Wasn’t this where they had started two years ago? “If I said I loved you, I would not lie. But what I feel for you and what I feel for Azhure are so different. But I meant what I said, Faraday. I do want you for my wife.” He bent to slowly kiss her cheek, her neck, the soft rise of her breasts.

  Liar, she thought. Liar. You want Azhure, but, honourable man that you are, you feel bound by the vows that you made to me so long ago. And how much do you want me because I bring the trees behind you? Do you fear, Axis SunSoar StarMan, that if you do not placate me with marriage then I might not fulfil my part of the bargain? That the Prophecy itself might fail if I failed?

  Oh, Mother, Faraday cried to herself. You are the only one who has not betrayed me. All she wanted now was peace in the Sacred Groves, all she wanted now was to sit in the warm sunshine on the wooden seat in the nursery, Ur beside her reciting names and histories.

  But for now Axis’ fingers were sliding open the fastenings at the back of her dress. Does he think to placate me with his body? she wondered vaguely, but she did not resist him. One last time, perhaps, one last time.

  62

  INTO SPIREDORE

  Azhure lay sleepless in her tent, staring through the darkness. The excitement of the previous day had kept her tossing and turning in her camp bed for most of the night. Axis had held Caelum above his head and proclaimed him his heir—and named him Azhurson! The clamour from the throats of the tens of thousands present had surrounded her like the roar of the Nordra as it escaped the Forbidden Valley. And he had named her Guardian of the East, and given her Spiredore.

  As she stood down from the dais Azhure had glanced again at Faraday. She was rocking backwards and forwards, her face pasty white, her green eyes enormous. Azhure had almost cried out with pain herself.

  Axis was back in Carlon with Faraday this night, but Azhure was no longer jealous of her. Somehow Azhure knew that it would not be long before Axis was back this side of the Lake, come to visit his Lover in Spiredore.

  Spiredore! Such a magical gift! It had been stripped of all the trappings of the Seneschal—and now it waited for her.

  Throwing the blankets back, Azhure swung her legs over the side of the bed. She had not had the chance to go inside Spiredore yesterday—the celebrations for Tencendor had started immediately after Axis had closed the official ceremony and Azhure had been whirled into them by StarDrifter who, with Ysgryff, had competed for her attentions all evening and into the night. She had slept a few hours, but now was awake—ready to investigate what she had been given.

  Mama?

  Azhure slipped a shawl over her white nightgown and leaned over Caelum’s cot. “I am going to investigate Spiredore, Caelum. Do you want to come too, or are you still so tired you will whimper and fidget and distract me?”

  I will be good, Mama.

  Azhure smiled with love and picked her son up, nestling him close to her breast.

  The camp was quiet now; hours before, all the revellers had fallen exhausted into their beds, or simply to the ground. Barefoot, and with only the shawl over her nightgown and a lamp in her free hand, Azhure picked her way through the camp, then up the grassy slopes to where the towering walls of Spiredore stood. Several of the Alaunt made to follow her, but she motioned them back. There was no danger in Spiredore, and she wanted to be alone with Caelum on her first visit.

  The door was unlatched, and Azhure slipped inside, closing it quietly behind her. For a moment she simply stood and stared. From the outside Spiredore was obviously very large, but it appeared ten, twenty times the size inside. She walked into the centre of the tower and looked up, holding her lamp high. Stairwells, balconies, overhangs, all swirled to dizzying heights above her. Rooms, chambers, open spaces, all opened off the balconies surrounding this atrium. None of the myriad floors and balconies were level or even, jutting out in irregular squares, triangles, circles. It was an amazing sight, and should have been an eyesore, but somehow it achieved a subtle harmony that gave the interior of Spiredore great beauty.

  “Stars,” Azhure said. “I could get lost up there and wander about for days.”

  “Actually, it’s quite easy to find your way, once you know the trick,” a voice said lightly behind her, and Azhure spun about, the lamp swinging so violently in her hand that shadows leaped and danced about the atrium. Her hand, tightened defensively about Caelum, who gave a squeak of protest.

  An Icarii birdman walked towards her, an open book in his hand, as if he had been reading when surprised by Azhure. He was one of the most captivating Icarii she’d ever seen. His face was vibrant with power, far more so than StarDrifter’s face, and she realised he must be an Enchanter. Great violet eyes laughed at her from underneath a tumbled crop of dark copper curls. Behind him stretched golden wings; and not just dyed that shade, Azhure thought, numbed by the beauty of this birdman, they actually appeared to be made of beaten gold.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, closing the book with a snap. Azhure caught brief sight of the title…something to do with the Lakes. “I startled you.” A contrite expression crossed his face. “And I shouldn’t be here either. Axis ceded you Spiredore yesterday, and I am the intruder.”

  “You were at the ceremony?” Azhure asked, her hand lessening its grip about Caelum.

  “Yes,” he said. “I was there, but some distance from you, I think.”

  “I have not seen you before,” Azhure said. “And you have a face one could not easily forget.”

  “As you have a face, Lady Azhure, that no man, Icarii or Acharite, could easily forget. You are a woman for whom your own Prophecy should be written—it is a shame that you must share one with Axis. Perhaps I will write one for you one day.”

  Azhure laughed. The man had a charming, if cunning, way with words. She shared the Prophecy with Axis? “Why
have I not seen you before?”

  The birdman’s smile faded a little and his eyes became sad. “Ah, Azhure. I have been away. A long, long way away. I have only come home recently. That is why you have not seen me.”

  He stepped forward. “May I hold your baby for a moment? He is such a beautiful baby.”

  Azhure hesitated momentarily, then let the birdman lift an unresisting Caelum out of her arms. The Icarii Enchanter cuddled the baby, whispering to him, and Caelum stretched curious hands to the man’s face, poking and prodding till the birdman laughed and handed Caelum back to Azhure. “All babies are curious, but he more than most, I think. You have a magnificent son, Azhure, and he a magnificent mother.”

  Azhure blushed and smiled. Abruptly she remembered he had not told her his name, and she opened her mouth to ask, but in the instant before she spoke the birdman took Azhure’s arm and led her towards the first of the stairwells that twisted up into the heights of the tower, sundry balconies and chambers opening off it.

  “I was going to tell you how to work the magic of Spiredore, Azhure.”

  Azhure smiled. Magic? How wonderful it would be if this Enchanter told her how to use Spiredore.

  “My dear child,” he said, as they reached the foot of the stairs. “It is very simple. If you wander willy-nilly in Spiredore you will, as you thought, get completely lost. You must decide where you want to go before you start to climb the stairs, and then the stairs will simply take you to that place.”

  Azhure’s frown deepened. “But how do I know where I want to go if I don’t know what the tower contains?”

  The birdman laughed and his hand slid up her arm a little. It was very warm, his palm and fingers like rough silk, and Azhure found herself leaning a little closer to him.

  “Then you have a lot to learn, Azhure.” His tone became softer, deeper. “A lot to learn.” He rested his arm on her shoulder, his fingers gently stroking her neck. “Where would you like to go, Azhure. Where? What would you like to see?”

  Azhure smiled dreamily. His hand was soothing, his gentle breath on her cheek comforting. “I would like to see the view from the rooftop,” she whispered. “I would very much like to watch the sun rise over the Avarinheim from the top of Spiredore.”

  “See?” he laughed, and the sound broke the spell between them. “You do have at least one destination—and you can spend the rest of your life investigating Spiredore. It was built just for you, Azhure. Just for you. Eventually you will remember where to go.”

  She smiled. “Your flattery goes too far, sir. Built for me? Why, this tower has stood for thousands of years, and I am only twenty-eight.”

  “Just for you,” he whispered, and then he leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. It was a deep, absorbing kiss, and Azhure was in no hurry to break it—it was the birdman who eventually drew back.

  He laughed shortly. “I should not have done that, Azhure. It was Unclean. But I was always the one to break rules. You must forgive me. Now,” his manner became brusque, “if you wish to watch the sun rise from the rooftop you will have to begin to climb now. Sunrise is not long away.”

  Following his instructions, Azhure thought of the rooftop and began to climb, but, only a few steps into the stairwell, she turned and looked back down at him. “How did the Seneschal ever find their way about Spiredore?”

  The birdman laughed. “To them, sweetheart, it was simply an empty shell. They built their own chambers and stairs, floors and libraries, but they never saw the true tower that you see before you now. They did not have the magic to see it. Now, go. Sunrise awaits.”

  Azhure nodded, and turned back into the stairwell. When next she looked down, the birdman had gone.

  WolfStar backed against the doorway out of Azhure’s sight, listening to her footsteps for a long time. What a remarkable woman—and what a son she had birthed.

  As Azhure’s footsteps slowly faded above him, WolfStar abruptly vanished.

  Azhure stood atop Spiredore and watched the sky lighten to the east over the Avarinheim forest, her son cuddled comfortably in her arms. Her hair was loose, and the wind whipped both her nightgown and her hair about her lithe form. Above her head the morning stars whirled. Beneath her bare feet the tower gently hummed to itself.

  Azhure had come home.

  63

  FROM OUT OF THE DAWNING SUN…

  As Azhure had not been able to sleep, neither could Axis. For hours he lay by Faraday’s side, close but not touching, knowing she was awake as well, yet unable to speak to her as she was unable to speak to him. Finally, silently, he rolled out of bed, pulled on his breeches and boots, and went to talk with StarDrifter.

  They stood on the balcony of StarDrifter’s room, drinking in the cold dawn air as they gazed across Grail Lake.

  “What are you going to do?” StarDrifter asked.

  “I am vowed to Faraday,” he said. “I must marry her.”

  “And Azhure?”

  “I will not let her go. I cannot.”

  Both Enchanters could see Azhure atop Spiredore with their enhanced vision. The wind whipped her hair back from her face, and the white nightgown billowed about her body. She was laughing with Caelum, and pointing into the dawning sun as it rose above the distant Avarinheim.

  “What does she have,” StarDrifter mused, “that both of us cannot resist her?”

  “It is as though she contains the Star Dance within her,” said Axis softly, and StarDrifter dragged his eyes away from Azhure at the tone of his son’s voice. “Through her I can touch the Star Dance more powerfully than I can through any Song. StarDrifter, it is as though I hold the very Stars in my hands every time I hold her, as if it is their music that embraces me. Every time I lie with her, StarDrifter, the music grows louder.”

  StarDrifter was astounded at what Axis had revealed. He could touch the Star Dance through Azhure, through her body? Who, what, was she? He stared at his son, his eyes wide, his mouth half open.

  The Gryphon circled high overhead. It was a mission fraught with dangers and traps, she knew, but it was an important mission, and Gorgrael had not wanted to trust it to a SkraeBold. Gorgrael had sent her south to spy out Carlon. What was Axis up to? Gorgrael had asked the Gryphon. What state his forces? Where were they? Could Gorgrael attack through the trench systems of Jervois Landing and expect little resistance from Axis?

  To these questions and others the Gryphon had relayed her answers as best she could. Most forces were still concentrated about Carlon, and the soil was still red east of the city from a mighty battle. Borneheld lay dead and rotted on the refuse heap. Axis strode golden and assured and spoke at length of Tencendor. The woman, Faraday, walked by his side. Icarii and Acharite mixed freely. And Spiredore—Spiredore had wakened in much the same way that Sigholt had awakened. Tencendor was waking about Axis, and if Gorgrael wanted to move, he’d best do it quickly.

  The Gryphon had finished her surveillance of Carlon and its surrounds and was ready to fly home and out of danger, but her attention was caught by the woman and baby atop Spiredore. There was something strange about them…strange…but the Gryphon did not quite know what it was. Should she fly closer for a look? Should she attack? There was no-one else about, and the Gryphon was confident of success. A woman. Alone. No weapons. Tasty.

  And the Gryphon had the distinct advantage of being able to attack from out of the dawning sun.

  She communed with Gorgrael with her mind, asking permission to ravage.

  Gorgrael could see no harm in it.

  Azhure stood atop Spiredore and laughed at Caelum. He was reaching out to the sun, it seemed so magically close, his eyes wide with wonder and joy.

  She turned to look at the dawning sun, and blinked. There was a dark spot spinning out of the red orb. Puzzled, Azhure stared…and then screamed, wrenching Caelum to the floor of the roof in a futile attempt to protect him with her body.

  Both Axis and StarDrifter saw and heard Azhure scream.

  “Gryphon!” Axis crie
d, appalled. “Azhure!” he screamed…and vanished.

  StarDrifter stared at the spot where Axis had been—then back at Azhure. The Gryphon was clearly hurtling down towards her now—and Azhure was surely dead if he did not do something very, very soon.

  Without a single thought to his own safety StarDrifter lifted off the balcony and streaked towards Spiredore.

  Axis materialised into a screaming fury of blood, bone, feathers and thick grey mist. He stared about him frantically—what enchantment could he use to overcome an attacking Gryphon?

  A scream whipped through his consciousness and his vision began to clear. The scream had been Caelum’s, and the sound was one of primeval terror.

  “Caelum!” he shouted, and fought his way through to the sound. “Caelum!”

  As he struggled through the grey mist Axis felt power being wielded on the rooftop, dark power, the power of the Dance of Death. How could he combat that? Were Azhure and Caelum dead already? He could hear no more sounds, save a peculiar splintering, tearing sound—oh gods! Was the Gryphon already feeding on their bodies?

  He stumbled into an area free of mist, and the first thing he saw was Azhure, Caelum clinging desperately to her, lying with her back against one of the far walls of the parapets. She had a nasty wound along one arm, as if the Gryphon had struck as she raised an arm to protect her face, but otherwise appeared to be uninjured.

  About five paces in front of her, the Gryphon lay writhing and twisting. For one stunned moment Axis thought an invisible beast was attacking the Gryphon, but then he realised that the beast was in the grip of an enchantment, and that this enchantment was literally ripping the Gryphon apart.

  The enchantment used was of the Dark Music.

  Behind him Axis dimly heard StarDrifter alight and scream his name, but his attention was all on the Gryphon and on the dark enchantments that were being used to tear it apart.