The Hall erupted. The Icarii, always excitable, whooped and screamed with joy. They were taking the next step on the long road home! South! South towards those high places so long denied them and towards the lost Icarii sacred sites! StarDrifter's face was tight with excitement. Lead us home, Axis, he prayed silently, lead us home.

The dark man started to shoulder his way through the crowd towards the dais. In the general hubbub, few noticed the strange man who passed through their midst.

The Acharites among them, particularly the newer arrivals, looked a litde discomfited. They were unsure of the Icarii, unsure of the new order. Most had worked well with the Icarii at Sigholt, fought side by side with them. But what would happen when the war was won? Would they lose their homes to the Icarii? Would the greater number of the Icarii, still in Talon Spike, seek to revenge themselves on the Acharites for the Wars of the Axe and their thousand-year exile?

"It will not be the old Tencendor but a new one," Axis shouted above the Icarii jubilation. "A new Tencendor! One where all races will live side by side."

Azhure caught a slight movement at the front of the crowd, and she gasped in shock. Axis followed her startled eyes.

The dark man stepped to the edge of the dais and stared intently, almost feverishly, at Axis and Azhure.

"Will you take me south? South to Faraday?" "Raum!" Azhure gasped. "Wliat has happened to you?"

A week later, the beginning of Thaw-month, Axis' army moved out of Sigholt and down through the HoldHard Pass. They stayed in the Pass only a league before swinging south through the Urqhart Hills towards Gundealga Ford. It was a calculated risk, but Axis didn't want to be delayed at the Smyrton ferry crossing as the army units were slowly ferried across. At least they could cross Gundealga Ford in a day, then swing east again to relative safety. And, unlike Borneheld, Axis had the advantage of the Icarii Strike Force who could both warn and protect should Axis' force be threatened by another. Axis could hardly believe how large his command had grown. He had led some three thousand men out of Gorken-fort before going into the Icescarp Alps alone. Now, fifteen months after Gorkenfort, his force numbered almost seventeen thousand.

Trundling along behind the mounted and winged force was the supply train, perhaps a thousand packhorses, several dozen sturdy wagons, and sundry cooks, physicians, servants and, no doubt, Axis thought, a dozen or so whores as well. A large number of the Ravensbund women also rode with the supply column, although the majority of the women and children had remained behind in Sigholt and Lakesview. Riding the wagons much of the day were also those Icarii, mainly Enchanters, who had chosen to go south with Axis, StarDrifter and MorningStar among them. Axis was still concerned about the Gryphon. If the Strike Force was not about, either flying ahead to scout the terrain before them, or lagging leagues behind to cover the rear of the army and supply column, then the Enchanters were grounded, complaining, to the supply wagons. Two of Azhure's squads of archers and several units of mounted soldiers travelled with the supply column for protection.

Leading the supply column were the Sentinels, Ogden and Veremund atop their ever-placid white donkeys, Jack riding a quiet brown mare. In the wagon immediately behind them rode Raum, feverish and distraught much of the time.

He was transforming into a Horned One, Ogden and Veremund had explained to a concerned Axis and Azhure, and his transformation was connected in some as yet ill-defined way with Faraday. Normally Raum would not have dared to leave the Avarinheim in the middle of transforming, but he was desperate to reach Faraday. Somehow she held the key to his successful transformation.

Raum's entire head looked as though a giant had grasped it in his hands and forcibly rearranged the bones. His forehead bulged unevenly and was covered with transparent down. Just above his hair line what appeared to be nubs of bone glistened whenever he turned his head. His nose was broad and long, his mouth twisted, and his teeth grown yellowed and square. Despite his frightening appearance, Raum's eyes still glistened black and friendly underneath his heavy brows. The Raum inside,- Azhure realised, was no different despite his external appearance.

Azhure usually rode with her archers in the main column of Axis' army, although she sometimes reined Venator back to wait for the supply column.

Caelum was always with her, generally securely fastened in a sling about her back. Over her shoulder was slung the Wolven, and at her side ran the Alaunt hounds, pleased beyond measure to be out of the confining Keep and running free across the plains. They could almost smell blood on the wind.

Axis spent most of the day at the head of his force. Belial and Magariz sometimes rode with him, at times further back in the column of soldiers, sometimes further back still with Ho'Demi and his ten thousand, all mounted on the sturdy, shaggy yellow horses of the northern ice plains. Despite their bells and chimes, the Ravensbundmen moved silently.

Sigholt and the people of Lakesview had been left protected with a token force of five hundred men. Roland, sick but cheerful, was put in overall control, promising Axis that he would remain alive until Axis could reclaim his home. Axis had spent a day and a night wrapping Sigholt in enchantments with the help of the bridge, collapsing exhausted in his bed to sleep two days and nights at the end of it. A thick blue mist surrounded Sigholt and its environs, leaving the Keep itself, the town, the Lake and the immediate hills in clear and sunny air. The mist had been created using various Songs of Moisture and Muddlement. Any stranger looking for Sigholt would ride about in circles for hours, confused and bewildered. Only those the bridge knew could find their way through.

Sigholt was safe, and Axis was on the move. Finally, he breathed, I am moving. He had to have gained control of Achar by the first day of Bone-month, six months away, or else all would be lost.

Far overhead, the eagle soared, also glad to be moving, but unable to understand why.

Once past Gundealga Ford, Axis swung his column east and south through Skarabost, bypassing Smyrton completely. Somewhere south Earl Burdel waited with an unknown force. Axis signalled to the farflight scouts far above. Find Burdel. He had been burning and murdering in Borneheld's name for months, and now it was time to stop him. Burdel would be the first obstacle Axis had to counter in his bid to reforge Tencendor.

Bad News/ f ~V~^ " fhat?" Borneheld whispered, appalled. \ JL

I "What did you say?"

V V The Corolean soldier licked his lips, uneasy. "The peasants living in the scattered hamlets to the east of the Nordra, Sire, report that two weeks ago a massive force crossed the Gundealga Ford from the Urqhart Hills and swung east into Skarabost. It was so large that it took many hours to pass, even though the force was moving swiftly."

The soldier paused. "The peasants said that the force moved with ghostly silence, but it was composed of men and horses, not wraiths. They said a golden-haired man on a grey horse led the force -"

"Axis!" Borneheld swore.

"- and that both Acharites and strange dark men on yellow horses made up his army."

"Ravensbundmen!" Borneheld's face darkened in fury, and Gautier hurriedly waved the Corolean scout away.

"Two weeks'." Borneheld snarled, and flung a pile of dispatches to the floor.

"He could be anywhere!"

Jorge prudently waited for Gautier to say something first. The King had gone into such a fury after the desertion of both the Ravensbundmen and Duke Roland that Jorge had believed he was on the verge of an apoplectic fit. Now Borneheld trusted no-one about him save Gilbert and Gautier, and spent much of the time he wasn't actively involved in fighting muttering about treachery. Yet Jorge was still in Jervois Landing; much as Borneheld might wish to, the Earl was still too valuable to dispose of in a fit of temper.

Why am I still here? Jorge asked himself, watching Borneheld pacing the room. Why haven't I just rolled out of bed one dark night, got on my horse, and ridden for Sigholt? Because Jorge believed Achar still needed a voice of sanity about Borneheld, and he wasn't completely sure Gautier and Gilbert always gave Borneheld the soundest advice. Gautier sometimes advised only for his own advancement, while Gilbert doubtless made sure Borneheld's decisions were the best for the Seneschal...but not always the best for Achar.

If Jorge was unsure of Borneheld's fitness to rule, he was still not completely sure about Axis, either. Jorge found it hard to set a lifetime's prejudices and teachings aside. For almost seventy years he had believed that the Forbidden were foul and polluted beasts whose only thought was the destruction of Achar.

He had grown up with the legends of the times before the Wars of the Axe when the Forbidden had made life miserable for Artor-fea^ing people. Yet now this Prophecy demanded that Acharites accept the Forbidden back into their homelands and form an alliance with them so that, united, they could defeat the invader from the north. For weeks Jorge had struggled with himself, yet every dawn brought further uncertainties. He wished Roland were still here.

"We go after them!" Borneheld snapped.

"Sire! No!" Gautier and Jorge cried in unison.

Gautier stood, extending his hand in appeal. "It would be too dangerous for us to try and follow Axis into Skarabost."

"Do you think that I cannot deal with the few scattered communities of peasants we are likely to find, Gautier?"

Gautier paled. "That is not what I meant, Sire!"

"I think what Commander Gautier meant, Majesty," Jorge said, "was that Axis has two weeks' start on us. He could be anywhere. Skarabost is a large province. We could ride around there for months and not find him."

"So you want me to simply sit back and let Axis have the eastern half of Achar!"

"Sire," Gautier said, battling to stay calm, "Earl Burdel has a force of almost six thousand in southern Skarabost. Perhaps it is not as large as Axis' force, but it is, at worst, enough to severely damage Axis. At best Burdel might be able to stop Axis altogether, especially if he manages to trap him as he crosses the Bracken Ranges into Arcness."

"We could still ride into Skarabost," Borneheld retorted, his temper barely restrained, "and help Burdel. Catch Axis in a pincer movement."

"Skarabost is so big," Gautier argued, "and we do not have any reliable information on where Burdel is. Our communications with him are poor. In all likelihood we would miss both Axis and Burdel, and ride about in circles in Skarabost."

"Tiring your army, Sire, when it badly needs rest and reprovisioning," Jorge added.

"And if Burdel doesn't stop him?" Borneheld grumbled.

"Then there is still Baron Greville of Tarantaise and Baron YsgryrF of Nor, Sire. Axis would still have to fight his way through both Tarantaise and Nor."

Borneheld stared at Gautier. "Those two are about as trustworthy asYsbadd's famous whores. And neither is much of a fighting man. Anyway, how do you know where Axis is heading? Have you perchance seen his itinerary?"

"Sire," Gautier said. "There can be only one place Axis is heading. Carlon."

There was deathly silence in the room.

Gilbert's eyes widened, appalled. Axis and his Artor-forsaken force were heading for Carlon? There was only one cohort of the Axe-Wielders left to protect the Tower of the Seneschal! And how loyal would those Axe-Wielders prove, when confronted with their former BatdeAxe?

"Carlon," Borneheld breathed. Somehow he'd never contemplated that Axis would be so daring. Carlon?

"He has to be heading there," Gautier said, "He would expect you to have your forces tied to Jervois Landing. If he captures Carlon, then he has us as good as defeated. But to reach Carlon Axis will have to ride in a wide sweep through Skarabost, Arcness, Tarantaise and Nor. He will have to subdue eastern Achar before he can capture Carlon — no commander in his right mind would want to leave problems at his back that could attack him later."

"But if you chase Axis through Skarabost you risk losing him altogether."

Jorge spoke strongly now. "He will almost certainly reach Carlon first. And once you have lost Carlon you have lost Achar. Your best course of action would be to ride for Carlon. Better to secure your capital than gamble on finding Axis somewhere in the wastes of Skarabost." Dammit! Borneheld had to see the sense behind that! Carlon was too important a prize — Artor! but it was the key to Achar itself!

"Artor," Borneheld whispered, his face grey. "You're advising me on a course of action that could see me lose the entire east to Axis? What would that leave me? Western Achar? Have you forgotten that treachery and ill-luck already cost me Ichtar? A third gone to the wraiths, and you tell me that I would be better off losing another third to Axis?"

No-one spoke. Who was brave enough to remind Borneheld he was now in the weakest position he had ever been in? Who was foolhardy enough to remind him that Axis probably not only had a strong force behind him, but possibly now held the upper hand? Lose eastern Achar to Axis? Better that than Carlon. But it would leave Borneheld with only a tiny proportion of his kingdom. Less than a third, perhaps even only a fifth. Gautier and Jorge wished they were anywhere rather than in this room. Both wished they were three years into the past, when all was as it should be and no-one had heard of Gorgrael, wraiths, or the Artor-cursed Prophecy.

Gilbert stepped from his shadowed corner, his face sallow in the late afternoon light. "Borneheld, you have no choice. I add my voice to those of Gautier and Jorge. Carlon is vital. VitaP. If Carlon falls to Axis, then the Seneschal also falls. I do not have to remind you what that might mean."

Indeed Borneheld did not have to be reminded. The Seneschal was one of his main supporters. Indeed, he would not be King if...if ...

Borneheld forced his mind away from the guilt. "And you would be content to let the Forbidden crawl over eastern Achar, Gilbert? What would your Brother-Leader say to this?"

"He would say that united the King and the Seneschal will have a good chance of winning Achar back, from Axis and Gorgrael. Have you forgotten the lesson of the Wars of the Axe? We drove the Forbidden out of Achar once, we can do it again. These are dark days, Borneheld, no-one denies that. What we need is a King who can lead us out of them."

Gilbert's words infused Borneheld with determination. "Yes, these are dark days, gendemen. And I am the one to lead us out of them." He laughed, the sound harsh in the room. "Imagine what would have happened if that lily-livered Priam had still sat the throne of Achar, gendemen! Artor must have indeed meant me to lead Achar out of the shadows and into glory if he struck Priam down in the prime of life."

Yes, that was the message of Timozel's visions, wasn't it?

Borneheld's mind was now made up. The Skraelings had all but retreated into Ichtar, and only a token force could man the defences. Yes. He would ride for Carlon with the majority of his army. He would wait for Axis to ride into the Plains of Tare and meet him there. Borneheld's mouth curled. He would finally enjoy meeting his brother on the battlefield. They had waited all their lives for this confrontation.

"We ride for Carlon within the week, gentlemen. There we will make our stand. From there we will begin our march into victory over both Gorgrael and Axis."

Contemplations of a Rag DollIn the

eight weeks since they'd left Sigholt Axis' forces had swung east through northern Skarabost, then south in an almost direct line through the centre of the province. Axis had to curb his impatience to move faster. He was determined not to wear his army out on a march that left them facing battle weakened and tired.

Frustratingly, Burdel's force retreated before them. There had been some minor skirmishes with the rearguard of his men, but they had not managed to push Burdel himself to battle. He no doubt intended to make a stand either in one of the passes of the Bracken Ranges, where the defending force would have the advantage, or in his home province of Arcness, probably in the heavily fortified city of Arcen itself.

Burdel also had another very good reason for riding out of Skarabost before Axis' invading force. For at least six months Burdel had been running a campaign of retribution in Skarabost. Determined to stop the spread of the Prophecy, and equally determined to stop local villagers drifting north to join Axis' rebel base at Sigholt, Borneheld had given Burdel a free hand. "Do whatever you need to stop those village idiots who wish to join Axis," Borneheld's orders to Burdel had stated. "Do whatever you have to do to kill word of the Prophecy. And do more than you have to in order to cut Axis' supply routes into northern Skarabost."

For the past five months, as groups of refugees drifted into Sigholt, Axis had been hearing horrific tales of Burdel's campaign of terror through the province.

Now, as he rode through the Seagrass Plains, the winter-sown crops just starting to shoot their heads above the last of the spring snow, Axis had a chance to see Burdel's handiwork for himself. Village after village had been razed to the ground, sometimes only on vague rumour that someone there had recited the Prophecy. In other villages, the houses had been left standing and the majority of the villagers left alive, but crosses lined the approaches to the village, and crow-picked cadavers hung from ropes and nails. It was sickening. Wherever they found villages where people remained Axis spent a few days, his army helping to rebuild houses and the confidence of those left alive.

It helped that Axis' name had been well-known and widely praised as BattleAxe. Now he commanded a vastly different force, but he received as much

- if not more - respect. Not only was his force numerically superior to the Axe-Wielders, but Axis had grown immeasurably in assurance and authority. With his stunning red cloak, the outline of the blazing sun stitched in gold across its back, Axis looked like a King as he walked among the villagers, talking to them quietly, and most remembered that he was the son of the Princess Rivkah and would have been a prince in his own right, save for the stain of bastardy. This man did not look like the skulking rebel or the desperate felon they'd been warned against.

Unlike Burdel's loose command, Axis kept his army under strict control. They always camped well away from the villages they came to, careful not to trample growing grain crops, and they moved into a village only to help rebuild homes and barns. Axis could not rebuild the lives of those rotting on crosses, but he did have them cut down and buried. It was a thankless and stomach-turning task.

As each village slowly began to take shape again, Axis often had Rivkah come and talk to the villagers about her life among the Icarii. The Princess Rivkah's name was well remembered, and her presence generally overawed the local peasants, but Rivkah spoke well and persuasively, letting these people know that the Icarii were hardly the gruesome creatures of legend at all, but living breathing creatures as the peasants were, who shared many of the same problems, and who laughed at many of the same things. Depending on how-well a particular village had reacted to Rivkah's words, Axis would often call in several of the less intimidating Icarii to talk to the villagers too.

Whatever village they were in, the villagers always reacted the same. There would be a few moments of shocked silence as the first Icarii landed into the square before them. EvenSong was usually among them, for she was good with the peasants of the Seagrass Plains, and would alight among them, all gold and violet, laughter and smiles. It would invariably be the children who approached the Icarii first, crying out to be allowed to touch their wings. Reassured by the Icarii reaction to the children, perhaps a few of the elderly women, braver than most, would come forward, and then, finally, the entire village would flock about the Icarii, listening in awe as one or more of the Icarii started to sing, stroking their soft wing-backs, exclaiming over their beautiful and alien faces.

Slowly, slowly, and not alivays successfully, Axis tried to reeducate the people of Skarabost about the Forbidden. Resistance to the idea that the Forbidden were acceptable people rather than demon-spawned horrors was strongest in those villagers which still had a resident Plough-Keeper, the Brother assigned to a village by the Seneschal to instruct them in the Way of the Plough.

Generally these Brothers warned the villagers back from both Axis and any Icarii who happened to be about.

Axis well knew that the military campaign to win Achar would probably be the easiest part of his campaign to reunite Tencendor. Much harder would be persuading a reluctant people to accept those who they had been taught from the cradle to loathe. The Seneschal had over a thousand years' head start on Axis, and a tight grip in the poorer rural areas of Achar. Sometimes worry about how he would be able to persuade the Acharites to accept first the Icarii and then the Avar kept Axis awake well into the night.

Axis was happiest, as were the Icarii, when they camped alone under the night skies among the endless grasses of the Seagrass Plains. Most camps were of one night's duration only, and instead of erecting tents they would sleep rolled into blankets or wings on the hard earth, the stars reeling above them. The skies were clearing the further south and the further into spring that Axis rode, and by mid-Flower-month, when they were approaching southern Skarabost, the skies were invariably clear day and night. As he had when riding at the head of the Axe-Wielders, Axis would often pull out his small travelling harp about the camp fire at night. Axis' voice had improved even more with his training as an Icarii Enchanter, and his camp fire was one that many vied with each other for the privilege of sitting around. Azhure, her son at her breast, would sit and smile as she watched Axis over the flames of the fire. Her love for him increased daily, and she put aside any thought of where they were headed. She did not know that once Faraday had sat across a camp fire and listened to Axis sing, loving him as Azhure now loved him.

There was one night when Axis made sure that his army was well clear of any village. The first day of Flower-month. Beltide. For the first time in a thousand years, Beltide was celebrated in Achar. The Icarii, two thousand strong, built large bonfires and the Ravensbund people, who also celebrated Beltide, cooked for an entire day. The Acharites, puzzled by this celebration but infected with the suppressed air of excitement that both the Icarii and the Ravensbund people exhibited, accepted StarDrifter's invitation to partake of this most sacred rite. The night was long, and filled with beauty and music. MorningStar led the rites, assisted by one of the younger Enchanter Icarii women travelling with the SunSoar command, and their sensual and haunting dance celebrating the resurrection of the earth after the death of winter brought Icarii, Ravensbund and Acharite to their feet in union, dancing with them, seeking partners among the throng.

It was a special night for Axis and Azhure. They distanced themselves from the main revelry, taking their son and a blanket to a small hollow where they lay and recreated the magic of that night a year ago, while their son slept. Their blood sang strong and clear each to the other, as it had Beltide a year past, and as it had every other night since, when they made love. Axis wondered again at the extraordinary way Azhure made him feel, at how close he came to the Star Dance as he moved deep and certain within her body.

What Axis did not realise was that Azhure could hear and feel the Star Dance too. It was one of the reasons she had not been able to resist him when Axis had returned from the UnderWorld, one of the reasons she would find it all but impossible to walk away from him, why she would accept any role, no matter how demeaning, if it kept him returning to her bed. The music consumed her, making her blood surge as wildly as the moon-driven tides against strange coasts. But Azhure never mentioned how she felt to Axis. Having known no other man, Azhure simply assumed that all women felt as she did when they lay with a man they loved.

On a night like Beltide, when the magic of the earth was strong in the air about them, and the stars spun closer to them than they did on more ordinary nights, the Dance sounded so loud and so clear in Azhure s mind that she lost herself among it, revelling in the ecstasy and power of the Dance and the beat of distant tides. She grasped at Axis' back and shoulders and stared into his eyes, and all she could see were the Stars within them, stretching back into infinity, and all she could hear was the beat, beat, beat of the waves.

She did not know that her eyes contained as many Stars as did Axis', nor that Axis was as lost in her eyes as she in his.

And she most certainly did not know of the waves that wept and cried and called her name along the coasts of Tencendor even as she cried and called Axis'

name.

That night they conceived their second and third children, but that night the Prophet, watching, did not laugh at all.

In the last week of Flower-month Axis sat Belaguez atop a small rise and frowned at the sprawling manor house below him. It was the handsomest residence that he had yet come across in Skarabost, and he had come out of his way to see it. Behind him, and surrounding the manor house at a distance of three or four hundred paces, his army lay encamped.

Belonging to Isend, Earl of Skarabost, Faraday's father, the manor house was not defended, only having a head-high brick wall about the building itself.

Isend was not a fighting man, and Axis knew he would always retreat rather than stay and defend his home.

Behind Axis, some dozen or so paces, Azhure sat Venator, her eyes on Axis'

back.

Axis turned and stared at Azhure, then signalled her and the commanders about him that he would ride down to the house alone.

He cantered Belaguez down the slope, then slowed him to a walk as he rode through the gardens. The spring flowers and shrubs were blooming among miniature trees, pruned so that they grew no more than shoulder height. The gravel of the paths was neatly raked, as if the gardeners had been out only this morning. Axis rode through the ornate black iron gates, dismounted, and tied Belaguez to the railings. Then he continued on foot, his blood-red cloak billowing out behind him. As he stepped onto the shaded verandah, his boot heels loud on the terracotta tiling, the front door swung slowly open. A woman in her late twenties stood there, waiting calmly for Axis to approach. She was very much like Faraday, with the same green eyes and chestnut hair.

Axis stopped as he reached the door, groping for words. He had not thought what he would say when he got here -or even what he actually wanted.

The woman smiled at him, and it was Faraday's smile. Axis' heart lurched in his chest. How could he have forgotten the beauty of her smile?

"You are Axis, I presume," she said, her voice low and confident. "Once BattleAxe, now something a little more strange, I think." She looked at his cloak and the emblem blazing across his chest. "And far more colourful than once you were."

She held out her hand. "Welcome to Ilfracombe, Axis. My name is Annwin, daughter to Earl Isend, wife to Lord Osmary. I do hope you have not come to burn my home to the ground."

Axis took her fingers and kissed her hand. "I thank you for your welcome Annwin, and I assure you that I have not come to burn Ilfracombe to the ground. Is your father home?"

How strange, Axis thought, that we should both be acting as if this is nothing more than a polite social visit. Please, madam, ignore my army. I take it everywhere.

Annwin stepped back and motioned Axis inside. She led him down a dim and cool corridor into a reception room, waving Axis into a chair and taking one opposite.

"I regret my father is not home, Lord Axis. Earl Isend is in Carlon." Her eyes gazed steadily into his. "With my sister."

Axis was glad that Isend was not here. He did not think he could deal with that simpering fop now. Isend had arranged and then pushed Faraday's marriage with Borneheld with no thought but his own gain.

"Do you know her?" Annwin's face remained coolly polite. "The Queen?"

"I met Faraday in Carlon some eighteen months ago. She accompanied myself and the Axe-Wielders some distance into Tarantaise where, through some misfortune, she became separated from my command."

"You were careless, Axis." Now Annwin's voice and eyes were hard. "Faraday is a precious gem, beloved of her entire family and of most in Skarabost. You are not the man rumour touts if you could so easily have lost Faraday to misfortune."

Axis' face tightened. "There are forces moving beyond the walls of this peaceful house, Annwin, that perhaps you do not understand. Both Faraday and myself have been caught up by the Prophecy to use much as it pleases."

Annwin inclined her head, in a show of civility.

"I met her again in Gorkenfort," he continued. "It was a hard place, but she made it beautiful simply by her presence. It was only with her help that so many escaped the horrors of the Skraeling army that lay in wait outside the forts walls."

"I have heard the story of the fall of Gorkenfort," Annwin said slowly. "It is said that the fort was betrayed by treachery within. By your treachery, Axis."

"We all fought for the same thing, Annwin - to keep the Skraelings from Achar. But we were too weak. No-one could have saved Gorkenfort, and yet no-one betrayed it either. We simply went our different ways once we had escaped."

"You to the shadowed mountains of the Forbidden."

"To Talon Spike, yes. It is the mountain home of the Icarii. Do you know of the Prophecy of the Destroyer?"

Annwin dropped her eyes. "Yes," she admitted.

"I am the StarMan mentioned by the Prophecy, as I am sure rumour has bruted it about Skarabost by now. I currently ride with my army to unite the three races of Ten-ceiidor. Only then can we defeat Gorgrael."

Annwin's eyes glittered with anger. "Child's lies, I do not —"

Axis broke in. "And Faraday also has her part to play. She is beloved of the Sentinels, and of Avar, the People of the Horn. The Horned Ones who wander the Sacred Groves, the magical glades of the Avar, consider her their Friend."

Annwin's eyes widened. "Faraday?" she stuttered. "Faraday is caught up in this?"

"Yes, but don't tell Borneheld. I don't think he would take it very well."

Annwin was quiet a very long time. "Faraday is Queen," she said finally, "in Carlon. She is not happy married to Borneheld. Do you march to Carlon?"

Axis nodded.

"Will you free her from Borneheld, Axis?"

"I will marry her, Annwin, when I take the throne of Achar," he said. "It is all I have ever wanted." And the Stars forgive me for that lie, he thought to himself.

But for so many months it was all I thought that I would ever want.

"Ah," Annwin breathed, her eyes glistening. "So."

"Annwin, I wonder if I might sit awhile in Faraday's room."

Surprised by the request, Annwin simply nodded. "Come. I will show you."

Axis sat a long time in the simple room which had been Faraday's as a child.

Here, surrounded by her memories, he could finally think about her without the deep guilt over his betrayal of her love making him shove all thought of her to one side.

He hummed the Song of Recall, and watched as glimpses of Faraday as a young child, growing to maturity and beauty, flickered before his eyes. He smiled. She had been an awkward child, her hair carroty, her face long and freckled. But she had been joyous and giving, qualities she had not lost as she transformed through girlhood into the beauty she was now. There were numerous childish disappointments and frustrations. The loss of a beloved cat. A storm that ruined a picnic. Her mother's gentle chidings at selfish tempers. But happy memories predominated. Faraday had grown to womanhood in this room contented and loved.

Axis had not lied when he told Azhure he loved her. But did his love for Azhure undermine what he felt for Faraday?

Or did the two simply exist side by side? Was he, poor fool, in love with two women? Both so different that he could love one of them without compromising his love for the other?

"Yet I have never told Faraday that I loved her," Axis said aloud, seeking excuses for his behaviour. "So perhaps she assumes too much in thinking that I do."

He had never told Faraday he loved her. That was true. He had said many things to Faraday, he had intimated that perhaps he loved her, but he had never actually spoken the words.

"And she was the one who chose to run away at the Ancient Barrows, fleeing to Borneheld's side and marrying him," Axis reasoned aloud. "How then could she expect me to wander chaste and desolate through the rest of my life?"

Axis sat on Faraday's virginal bed a long time, voicing soft excuses for his behaviour through the room, until finally his eyes fell on a soft rag doll, lying legs and arms akimbo on the floor. It reminded him of everything Faraday had gone through. She had been pushed and manipulated by so many — by Isend, by the Sentinels, by the Prophecy itself, even by Raum, and certainly by himself, that she had almost no control over her own life. Like the rag doll, Faraday lay lost and forgotten in Carlon, waiting only for some other force to come along and fling her about according to its will.

"You bastard," Axis whispered to himself. "How can you try to justify the way you have betrayed Faraday?"

But the fact remained; Axis could not right the wrong he had done Faraday by removing Azhure from his life. He loved both, in totally different ways, and he would have both.

And both would have to learn to accept it.

He sighed and stood up. Perhaps coming here had not been such a good idea after all. It had only gnawed at his conscience, and Axis had so many things to worry about now he did not need a wounded conscience to cope with as well.

"Faraday," he murmured as he picked up the rag doll and sat it straight and comfortable on a chair.

CarlonBorneheld stared out the window of his private apartments in the palace at Carlon, refusing to look Jayme in the face.

The Brother-Leader was furious and did not bother to hide it. What was the use of assisting this...this oaf to the throne if all he could do was sit still and lose almost half the nation to Axis?

"He has captured Skarabost," Jayme fumed, his normally implacable face strained and lined with anger. "And is moving down towards the Bracken Ranges. Arcness and Taran-taise wall fall next. And you just sit there and say 'let him'?"

Borneheld took a deep breath and watched a crow circle high above the walls of Carlon. If he ignored Jayme for long enough the man might simply go away. Borneheld was beginning to get very, very irritated with this bothersome priest. He had been King almost a year now, and the Seneschal's dark manipulations which had seen him gain the throne seemed very far in the past.

The world had changed. Power had shifted away from the Seneschal. Perhaps Jayme did not yet realise that.

"I sit here and say 'let him'," Borneheld suddenly snapped, "because I have no other Artor-forsaken choice!

"I have been fighting across Ichtar and the north of Aldeni for more months than I care to remember, Jayme, while you

have sat here like a spider in your web, pulling people each and every way you want them to go. You think you understand what lies at risk here? What issues are at stake? Forgive me, Brother-Leader, but I did not see you walking the battlements of Gorkenfort as Ichtar collapsed about me. I have not seen you trudging ankle-deep through mud and sludge in the trenches at Jervois Landing as Skraelings surged down from the north. You have NO idea of what it is like to command an army that is half dead from fatigue and sad-heartednessl"

Jayme did not flinch as Borneheld surged from his chair and shouted in his face. The old man stood straight and tall, his robes of office hanging in thick blue folds about him, a jewelled sign of the Plough hanging from a heavy golden chain about his neck. "No, I was not there to watch you lose Gorkenfort," Jayme said, "and I was not there to watch you let the Forbidden chase the Skraelings back from Jervois Landing. I understand you lost close to half your army when the Ravensbund savages packed up and left one night, Borneheld? Forgive me, but I would have made sure that ample watch was kept over such savages."

Borneheld's hands clenched at his sides and he kept himself from hitting the Brother-Leader only through a supreme effort. "The Ravensbundmen accounted for only a third of my forces," he hissed, "and I had posted a guard. But the Ravensbund have lived too close to the Forbidden for too many years, and undoubtedly used enchantments to slip past the encircling troops."

"Then if you still have some twenty thousand men, Borneheld, it does not explain to me why you keep them fat and idle in Carlon while Axis swings south and west. Surely an army is to be used. Or do you enjoy watching the Forbidden swarm back over the territories that the Seneschal won for you a thousand years ago?"

Now Jayme's temper was re-emerging. What was Borneheld thinking of to let Axis get away with so much? Jayme didn't care that Gilbert had counselled Borneheld to move his army to Carlon. All he wanted was Axis stopped.

"I cannot risk abandoning Carlon to Axis," Borneheld said, "which is exactly what I will do if I ride off to the east without a clear idea of where the bastard is.

Axis will come here eventually. He has to, if he still thinks to seize the throne from me. So," Borneheld lowered himself back into his chair, "I shall sit here and wait for him. When Axis arrives, his troops shall be tired and battle-wearied, nursing blisters on their feet and a dozen small wounds each from the battles they have fought to win their way this far. I, meantime, will await them with troops rested and refreshed."

Jayme slowly shook his head, staring at Borneheld. He had thought, as had Moryson, that Borneheld represented the Seneschal's best chance of survival.

How was the Seneschal going to survive if Axis thundered at the head of an army across the Plains of Tare towards the Tower of the Seneschal?

"Need I remind you, Borneheld, that the Tower of the Seneschal rests on the far side of the Grail Lake? Axis will decimate the Brotherhood before you can rally your army to the front gates of the city."

"Well, it shouldn't worry you" Borneheld said. "You spend most of your time here in the palace, anyway. You and your two advisers. But rest easy. I shall meet Axis on the Plains of Tare well before he approaches your white-walled tower."

Jayme tried to collect his thoughts. Everything was going so badly. He remembered the time, so long ago now, it seemed, when he had first heard rumours of trouble to the north, of strange ghost-like creatures who nibbled and chewed fully armoured men to death in minutes. How could he have foretold then the disasters that would envelop Achar? Ichtar was gone, lost to Gorgrael.

Soon everything east of the Nordra would be gone, lost to the Forbidden and the one who led them. And what did that leave? A relatively narrow strip of land to the west of the Nordra? A pink and gold city?

"At night, Borneheld," Jayme said softly, "I can hear the weeping souls of those poor tormented wretches who have been overwhelmed by Axis and the hordes of Forbidden that he directs. Do you know what he does to them, Borneheld? Do you know the pain the poor wretches of Skarabost have suffered as that wretched army overwhelms village after village? Children are sacrificed for the plunders of those flying vermin he calls friends. Women are forced to yield their bodies, then their lives. Men watch their families die, then are gutted and strung up from poles and doorframes by their bowels, to die themselves from pain and shock and loss. Does that not concern you, Borneheld? How can you sit here and say 'Let him come'? Artor alone will judge you on this."

Borneheld fidgeted nervously. He'd been having nightmares since he returned to Carlon. He dreamed that anonymous, pale hands held out the ensorcelled chalice for him, whispering entreaties to him to drink. He dreamed of wandering the halls and chambers of the palace, the whispers and laughter of the court following him.

And he dreamed of a stern-faced woman, black-haired and raven-eyed, who sat at a counting table, two bowls before her, a gleaming rectangle of light behind her. She raised her eyes as he approached, laughing as she recognised him. "I await your presence before my table, Borneheld, Duke of Ichtar."

In vain would he protest that he was Duke of Ichtar no longer, but King of Achar.

"Your blood names you a Duke of Ichtar, Borneheld," she whispered. "And your blood condemns you. Your death approaches from the east. Watch for it."

Borneheld fidgeted and looked out the window, fancying he could see Artor staring at him from the massed clouds sliding down from the north.

Faraday sat, half asleep, as Yr brushed her hair out. Unlike Borneheld and Jayme, Faraday regarded the slow approach of Axis and his army as a gift. A gift from the Mother, for Faraday had long since abandoned Artor and his cruel and shallow ways. Each day brought fresh rumours from the streets of Carlon. Axis had won through to Arcness in a battle deserving of the gods in the Bracken Ranges. Axis and his army had been penned up in an isolated glen high in the Bracken Ranges and had fallen into a mighty lake and drowned — Faraday had smiled when she heard that one. Axis and his army had proclaimed a new land and a new nation in Skarabost. Had he proclaimed Ten cendor so soon? Faraday had thought Axis would wait until he reached Carlon, until he reached her, before he would do that. Yr heard most of the rumours from the captain of the guards, a darkly virile man. She also heard most of the facts — or as much of facts as anyone in Carlon could get — about Axis' drive south through Skarabost.

"And of what do you think, my sweet?" Yr murmured as she brushed Faraday's burnished gold hair out with long and languid strokes.

"You know perfectly well that I think of Axis, Yr. It is rare that I think of anything else these days."

Borneheld had returned to Carlon a month ago. On his arrival he had granted Faraday an audience, relieved her of most of her court duties, completely disregarding the fact that Faraday had virtually run Achar while he had been ensconced in Jervois Landing fighting the Skraelings, briefly inquired after her health, and then dismissed her. He had not required Faraday's presence in his bed, and Faraday had heard that he had taken a mistress - none other than the blowsy woman who had accompanied her father, Isend, to court.

Freed from most of her onerous court duties and Borne-held's attentions, Faraday now had her time almost exclusively to herself, and she used it to good purpose, spending the larger part of most days in the glorious garden of Ur or wandering entranced through the enchanted forests that spiralled out from the Sacred Grove. Each time she wandered them she found different things — a new glade she had not seen previously, a creature that was more impossibly beautiful than any other she had met before, a mountain more mysterious and fascinating than the rest. But always she ended up at the gate to Ur s garden, and the woman would emerge from her cottage, or wave at her from her sunny garden seat, and Faraday would smile and enter and begin another lesson.

Lessons with Ur mainly consisted of learning the names and histories of the tens of thousands of Banes represented by the tree seedlings gently swaying in their tiny terracotta pots. Ur would pick up a pot, hand it to Faraday, and tell her of the Bane who had transformed into this tree.

Faraday found that as she listened to Ur speak, as she murmured the Bane's name to herself, she formed a bond, a friendship, with the seedling. As she would never forget the name or the history of a friend, Faraday knew she would never forget the name and the past of each of these seedlings as she heard them from Ur's lips. It did not matter that there were some forty-two thousand of them.

They were magical hours, the hours spent with Ur in the garden nursery of the enchanted woods, hours when Faraday was healed of so much of the pain that she had suffered, and given the strength to survive so much of the pain she had yet to endure.

Raum whimpered behind his hood as he rode his wagon south with Axis. It was all he could do not to cry out loud, and that he managed to keep even mildly sane was due to the support of the three Sentinels who often sat by his side.

Each bent what power he had to aid Raum through this transformation that it seemed would take months instead of weeks. And it was taking place so far from the Avarinheim. What would happen, Raum worried, if he transformed completely while so far from the shaded walks of the trees? So far from the Mother, from Fernbrake Lake? Would he wither and die under the unremitting sun and wind of the Seagrass Plains?

"Why me?" he had whispered one day when the pain had finally ceased, when Faraday had finally left the Sacred Grove. "Why am I tied to her like this?

Why do I transform only when she uses her power?"

It was Jack who answered. "You were the one who bonded her to the Mother, Raum. And she was the one who renewed your bonds with the Mother.

Perhaps that is what binds you, why you are so tied to her power."

Raum shrugged inside his cloak. His face was now so misshapen that he kept it hidden. Axis often sat by his side at night, soothing him to sleep with his harp and his enchanted music. But very little could soothe Raum through this dreadful transformation.

Faraday was not unaware of Raum's pain. She sensed it every time she used her power to enter the Sacred Grove and the enchanted forests that surrounded it.

Sometimes Faraday wandered the enchanted forest, feeling Raum's pain, knowing that he was transforming, wishing she could help him. She asked the Horned Ones what would happen to Raum, what she could do to help.

"Nothing," the silver pelt answered. "Nothing. Raum's transformation is different because of the bond between you, and because your grasp of the power of the Mother and of these woods is so great. What can you do to help?

Wait until Raum manages to find the Avarinheim again, or one of the surviving remnants beyond what remains of the forest. Wait until Raum is ready to step into the Sacred Grove, wait until he is ready to complete the transformation —

then pull him here with all your power, help him with every ounce of your strength. Raum cannot reach you until he reaches the power of the trees, and he is currently far from any trees that can help him. Wait. Watch."

Faraday turned away, grieving for Raum, but knowing there was not much she could do for him. She knew he was trying to find her, and she hoped for his sake that he would not take too long.

Faraday did not now need the enchanted bowl to move between this world and the Sacred Grove. Her command of her power had increased to the point where she could simply will herself into the emerald light that led to the Sacred Grove. She did not know what to do with the bowl. She had suggested to the Horned Ones that she give it back to them.

"You will find a use for it, Faraday," they had counselled. "Keep it."

So she had kept it, pleased that she did not have to give it back, and it now sat on the dresser in her chamber. To any ordinary eye it simply looked like a rather plain wooden bowl, hardly fit for a Queen, but it daily reminded Faraday not only of the enormous task that awaited her, but of the comfort the bowl and the Mother had given her in days past.

She smiled atYr as she put the brush down. "Axis comes, Yr. I can feel it. In a few short months he will be here. Oh, Yr, I can hardly wait until we are together!"

Axis' Salutary Lesson

In the dark hours before dawn the Icarii Strike Force had lifted off. Burdel's men were entrenched themselves in the steep, rocky passes of the Bracken Ranges, and nothing save an airborne force could dislodge them without massive loss of life.

But this was a battle Axis was highly uneasy over. It was too likely to reopen old wounds and old hatreds. Axis loathed having to set the Icarii Strike Force on humans. He had wanted to use them as little as he could, hoping that the Acharites would the more easily accept the Icarii if they did not perceive them as an invading force. This battle was a risk, but it was a risk Axis had been forced to take. The Icarii were the only ones who could effectively clear the slopes of the Bracken Ranges with minimal losses.

Now Axis paced back and forth, his blood-red cloak wrapped about him.

Every three or four strides he looked up at the Bracken Ranges rising in the rapidly lightening sky. He knew what was happening in the narrow passes of the Ranges, for the eagle circled high overhead.

"Well?" Belial's face was almost as strained as Axis'. Axis blinked, cleared his vision, and stared at Belial. "It goes well. Burdel's force had no idea what was attacking them when the Icarii sent down their first volley of arrows. They could not see, and simply shot blindly into the sky."

"Casualties?" Magariz asked.

"Five Icarii have taken arrows in the wings and are limping their way home or are safe among the ridges. The others evaded well. The casualties are all on Burdel's side. I think," Axis' eyes assumed a dreamy quality, and Belial and Magariz knew he was seeing through the eagle's eyes again, "that Burdel is pulling his men out as fast as he can. The passes will be clear for us by noon."

"Pulling back to Arcen?" Belial queried.

"Undoubtedly." Axis shrugged. "We will not be able to catch them. It will take at least a day to get this army moving into the lower Ranges, and several days to get through. What remains of Burdel's force is more lightly armoured and much more mobile. He will be able to race to Arcen and slam the gates shut well before we're through the Ranges."

Arcen was Burdel's capital in Arcness. It lay some ten leagues south of the Ranges, surrounded by the grazing lands of the province.

"A siege then," Magariz remarked.

Axis sighed. "Yes, a siege." Axis had ridden through Arcen on his way north to Smyrton almost two years earlier. The city had high walls, thick battlements and a good militia.

Axis knew he had to be very, very careful with Arcen. Sieges always tended to drag out over months, and Axis could not afford to encamp himself and his army outside Arcen for the next six months. Neither could he afford to ride by and open his rear to possible attack from Burdel sometime in the future. Arcen would have to be conquered.

Azhure walked up. "Can you send the Strike Force after Burdel as he flees across the plains towards Arcen?"

Axis glanced at her. Azhure had left Caelum with Rivkah in the camp and walked only with Sicarius as company. She looked slim and fit in her grey and white uniform, the Wolven slung over her shoulder, her hair tied back into a plait rolled in the nape of her neck.

In the two weeks since Axis had visited Faraday's childhood home relations between him and Azhure had been, if not cool, then slightly businesslike. Even their lovemaking, on those few nights when there had been the time or the privacy, had lacked the usual laughter and had become intense, almost fierce.

Both felt Faraday's closing presence keenly.

"No." Axis turned back to the Ranges. "Most of the Strike Force are too tired.

They have been on the wing for close to five hours now, and I want them to remain above the passes to watch for stray remnants of Burdel's force. To send them flying after Burdel as he flees across the plains towards his home base would drive them dangerously close to exhaustion." And expose them to the watching eyes and itchy tongues of countless peasants and townsfolk, Axis thought. The last thing he wanted was to have half the population of Arcness watch as the Icarii rained death down on Burdel. It would simply confirm their worst fears about the Forbidden and the Seneschal's teachings.

"No," he repeated, contemplating the siege ahead. "Let's go. By the time we get this army on the move the Strike Force should have cleared the passes."

He forced the problem of the siege to the back of his mind and smiled at Azhure.

"Come," he took her hand, "we have a pleasant ride through the hills before us."

"You did well, FarSight," Axis said, reining Belaguez to a halt before the exhausted birdman.

Most of the Strike Force were now on the ground in the passes, although several dozen circled far overhead, keeping a watch over Burdel's retreat. It was early afternoon, and the Icarii had been flying and fighting for almost twelve hours.

FarSight looked up. His dark face was lined and there were pouches of weariness under his eyes, but the expression on his face was one of quiet pride.

His force had done a fine job, and he knew it. That dark day in Talon Spike when Axis had painfully outlined each and every flaw within the Icarii Strike Force seemed several lifetimes ago. FarSight now headed an elite fighting force.

"BurdeFs men did not fight well, but they fought tenaciously. It took an hour longer than I had calculated to flush them out of their rocks."

Axis dismounted and sat down beside FarSight. "And those of the Strike Force who were struck by arrows?"

FarSight shook his head with relief. "Two will not fly for some time, but the other three were only slightly hurt. A week's rest and they will be fighting fit again."

"EvenSong?" Axis' sister had returned to the Strike Force for fighting duty for this attack.

"Fought well, as did SpikeFeather. I think, when the opportunity arises, I shall give him a Crest to command. He is too valuable now to waste on a Wing.

His experience with the Gryphon, and his somewhat unconventional recovery, seems to have hardened him." "Axis!"

Axis jerked his head up. It was StarDrifter, alighting on a nearby rock. His face was flushed with excitement, and his great silver and white wings fluttered behind him. He hopped down and strode over. "Axis, I know I should not be here, but I could not help myself. Do you know how close we are to Fernbrake Lake from here? Only several hours' flight, if that!" "No," Axis said. "We can't afford to have any Icarii flying about the Bracken Ranges without any protection and vulnerable to whatever stray forces Burdel or Borneheld has inthese hills."

StarDrifter's face coloured in anger and his body stiffened. "The Icarii have waited a thousand years to return to their homeland and the sacred sites lost to them, Axis," he said.

"Then another few weeks or months won't make any difference," Axis snapped. "Curse your impulsive nature, StarDrifter. It is too dangerous for you to fly off on a whim to view Fernbrake Lake. I cannot afford the Icarii to guard you.

Don't you realise how exhausted FarSight and his Strike Force are? They need days to recover, and in a few days' time we will be long gone from the Bracken Ranges. Think, Star-Drifter, damn you!"

StarDrifter star-ed at his son, then FarSight, seeing clearly how fatigued the birdman was.

"StarDrifter," Axis continued, "we head south. We will undoubtedly ride straight through the Ancient Barrows and by the Silent Woman Woods. You cannot see every sacred site you have lost in a week. You have your lifetime ahead of you to recover your heritage. Have patience. First I have to win this land for you."

StarDrifter hesitated, then nodded. "I apologise Axis, Far-Sight. I did not think. Two years ago I never thought that one day I would have the opportunity to see the lost sites of Tencendor again. Now that we are so close ..." His voice drifted away.

Axis relaxed, knowing -what StarDrifter was trying to say. StarDrifter and MorningStar, as all other Enchanters, were beginning the arduous task of recovering the lost sites of the Icarii people - the Ancient Barrows, tombs of the twenty-six Enchanter-Talons, Star Gate, buried beneath the barrows, the Silent Woman Woods, their Keep and the Cauldron Lake, Spiredore and the Island of Mist and Memory. That last Axis knew the Icarii yearned after almost as much as the Star Gate, yet it might well prove the hardest to win for them. In any case, they had some bitter fighting to conduct before the Icarii could recover it. As StarDrifter wandered off, Axis watched as the first units of his army wound their way through the passes.

Burdel succeeded in retreating to his capital, and by the time Axis and his army reached the city of Arcen, it was shuttered and bolted tightly.

Axis focused on the eagle soaring above the battlements of the city a league away. People scurried back and forth atop the walls, pointing nervously at the approaching army. Axis thought he even saw Burdel himself, a tall and spare man, almost ascetic, standing still and silent as he shaded his eyes against the sun and stared at the approaching black stain across the Plains of Arcness. Axis had taken pains to keep the Icarii well back, and most were still resting in the lower reaches of the Bracken Ranges. The main part of the Strike Force would join Axis' army later that night, when the people of Arcen would be blinded by the darkness.

Belaguez stamped impatiently and rattled the bit in his mouth. Axis smiled and patted the horse's neck, then turned and waved Belial, Magariz and Ho'Demi forward.

"Well?" he demanded as they drew their horses to either side of Belaguez.

"How would you solve this problem?"

"I have no experience in sieges," Ho'Demi said. "The closest I have come is waiting for an kebear to emerge from his snow cavern in the morning. Me? I would sit cross-legged before the gates, spear in my lap, arid simply wait for someone to come out." He waved the problem over to Magariz.

Magariz shrugged. "It is difficult, Axis. You have no siege engines and Burdel has, in all probability, planned and provisioned for a siege."

"We could sit here and simply wait them out," Belial said, then winced at the expression on Axis' face. "And wait, and wait, and wait. We could be here for years."

You do not know the extent of it, Axis thought, his eyes tracing the flight of the eagle overhead. We are now past mid-Rose-month and I have only three and a half months left to fulfil my contract to the GateKeeper. I can waste but a week or two here at the longest.

Axis was silent, his eyes focused on the tiny figure of Burdel. shall have to rely on some sweet words to open those gates, he thought. That and a litde enchantment.

Axis swung his gaze back to his three most senior commanders. "Here is what I want you to do."

By evening Axis' entire army, supply column included, had surrounded Arcen outside the striking range of arrows shot from the city's walls. The army set up camp as though it intended a long and patient wait, and Axis ordered his own command tent to be erected opposite the main gates into the city. Above the tent floated his golden standard, the blood-red sun blazing in its centre. Axis strode about in the evening light, wearing the golden tunic under the red cloak, loose and relaxed, laughing and joking with those of his commanders who talked with him, one or two of the Alaunt constantly by his side. He was unarmed.

From the walls of their city the people of Arcen watched. Axis' every movement, as that of his army, was noted and remarked upon. Most had admired Axis as BattleAxe, and many had met and liked him when he had stayed in Arcen briefly two years previously. Two or three Arcen-based traders, who had traded with Axis and his force while they were still in Sigholt, were questioned again and again about the man and his army who now besieged Arcen. Three of the men Belial had sent out from Sigholt some fifteen months previously to spread the word of the Prophecy were also in the city. For the past two months they had resided in Arcen, spending most of that time drinking quietly in the city's various inns and taverns and spreading word of the Prophecy among the townsfolk.

Axis spent a pleasant evening about camp. Azhure, Rivkah, Ho'Demi and his wife, Sa'Kuya, and Belial and Magariz joined him for dinner, the Acharite women wearing brightly coloured gowns and Azhure bouncing a laughing Caelum on her lap throughout the meal. To all intents and purposes Axis was relaxed, confident, and prepared for a longwait.

When they rose in the morning, Axis surprised Azhure by asking her to wear the long black gown she'd worn on the night of the reception in Sigholt.

"You brought it with you?" he queried, and Azhure nodded, puzzled. "Then wear it, Azhure. And leave your hair loose."

He strode out of the tent and Azhure rose, washed, and dressed as requested. She smoothed the elegant black gown over her hips and rested one hand briefly on her belly. She suspected she was pregnant again, but she had not told Axis. Azhure smiled humourlessly to herself. Undoubtedly she would find herself face to face with Faraday sooner or later, and Azhure wished desperately that she did not have to do it with her belly bulging again with Axis' child.

Faraday would find the idea of a lover hard to accept; a lover pregnant with her husband's child would be even worse.

Azhure emerged from the tent eventually, feeling slightly silly dressed in the elegant gown, and saw Rivkah standing to one side. Axis had obviously given Rivkah similar instructions, for his mother stood wearing a gown almost identical to Azhure s, looking every inch the Princess of Achar.

"Azhure," Axis' voice sounded behind her and Azhure jumped. "Your bow."

He handed her the Wolven and her quiver of arrows, and Azhure slung them over her shoulder, feeling even more ridiculous. The ring of soldiers, Achante and Ravensbund, encircling the town stood ready, their weapons hanging loose from their hands, their eyes fixed on the walls before them. Axis spoke quietly to Belial, Magariz and Ho'Demi, then motioned Rivkah and Azhure close.

"You and are going to talk to the good people of Arcen," he said. "Rivkah, I want you to address them — take your lead from what I say."

Rivkah, puzzled, nevertheless nodded in agreement.

"Azhure, notch one of those blue-fletched arrows in the Wolven and try your best to look like a fairy creature yourself. Few within Arcen will have seen such a beautiful woman approach their gates to threaten them with bow and arrow before. Come," he waved both women to his side. "Let us go and talk to the people of Arcen. Do not fear for your safety, I can protect us from anything they might throw our way."

There was a stir on the walls as the three figures approached on foot. Here was Axis, looking like a sun god in his tunic and cloak, with him walk two black-clothed women, both handsome, both queenly. What did it mean?

Burdel stood atop the wall close to the bolted gates. He was unnerved, both by the extent of Axis' army, and by the approach of these three figures. He straightened his back, refusing to let his nervousness show. Axis' army had no siege engines and Arcen was provisioned to wait out a year-long siege, should that be necessary. Burdel was reasonably sure he was in a stronger position than Axis.

Axis halted some fifty paces from the walls, noting the eagle's position.

"Greetings, Burdel," he called cheerfully, and his enchanted voice carried magically about the entire walls and drifted down into the city itself. "It is a fine morning, and a good one to talk."

Burdel opened his mouth to call down insults but Axis continued before he had a chance to speak. "And greetings to you, Culpepper Fenwicke," he called, naming the mayor of the city. "I see you standing inside the gates and I would have words with you. Please, would you climb the walls so I can the more clearly meet your eyes?"

There was a collective gasp from the people of Arcen. How could the man see straight through iron-reinforced wood?

Culpepper Fenwicke, a stout grey-haired man of middle years, slowly climbed the ladders to the top of the walls, moving to stand next to Burdel. He had met Axis when he'd ridden his Axe-Wielders through Arcen on his way to Gorkenfort and had formed an instant respect for the man. His respect now deepened tenfold. How could Arcen withstand a man such as this? "It is good to see you again, Axis."

Burdel muttered an expletive under his breath. What was the fool thinking of to say such a thing?

Axis called back as if he had simply run into Fenwicke in the streets of Arcen on a fair day. "It is good to see you again, Culpepper. How is your lovely wife?

Igren?"

"She is well, Axis," Fenwicke muttered as Earl Burdel shifted angrily by his side.

"I am pleased to hear that. She entertained myself and my lieutenant Belial, who waits behind me, very hospitably on our journey through here the year before last. Now, Fenwicke, I have not much time to spend on further pleasantries and you and I find ourselves in a somewhat awkward situation here."

Fenwicke spread his hands helplessly. Awkward wasn't the word for it!

"Culpepper Fenwicke, I speak to you not as my friend, but as the mayor of this fine city. It saddens me to say this, but it appears that you harbour dangerous criminals within."

The mayor cleared his throat. "Criminals, Axis?"

"Criminals, Culpepper Fenwicke, who may have persuaded you that myself and my army represent something of a threat. Culpepper, I do not want to threaten you or yours. I simply want Burdel. I have pursued him through most of Skarabost and now I finally have him cornered in your fair city. Do not make me destroy your city, Culpepper Fenwicke, for the sake of one criminal and his henchmen."

Burdel's hands clenched on the stone batdements. "You are the criminal, Axis," he shouted. "You are the misbegotten son of the Forbidden! You seek to destroy Achar and the peaceful life we lead within it."

Axis ignored him. "Culpepper Fenwicke, and you good people of Arcen. I have standing by my side my mother, the Princess Rivkah of Achar. Perhaps she can clarify some of your misapprehensions."

Axis' words caused a stir within the city. Rivkah? Alive?

Rivkah, cool and calm, stepped forward. As she spoke, Axis wrapped her voice with enchantments so all could hear.

"Culpepper Fenwicke, I greet you and your good people well. I speak on behalf of my son, Axis SunSoar. Many of you will know of the myths and rumours that surrounded his birth. Many will be surprised to find that I am alive.

I did not die in Axis' birth, as you were led to believe, but was left to die on the slopes of the Icescarp Alps by none other than Brother-Leader Jayme and his adviser, Moryson. They stole my son, and they tried their best to murder me."

The city stood still, mute with astonishment. The Brother-Leader of the Seneschal? Party to attempted murder?

None disbelieved Rivkah, because Axis had quietly run the Song of Truth-Seeing through the city. The Song forced people to see what was true, not what was false. It was a powerful Song, requiring its user to manipulate a significant proportion of the Star Dance, and it had weakened Axis badly.

"Axis is the StarMan, good people of Arcen. Perhaps you have heard of the Prophecy of the Destroyer?" Most had, because both northern traders and Belial's men had ensured that the Prophecy was quietly spread about the city.

"He is the son of myself and one of the great Princes of the Icarii people - the people who rescued me from certain death. If I stand before you now, it is only through the goodwill of the Icarii people. They do not bring death and destruction, good people, but hope and joy for the future. Axis is no criminal. He acts only for the truth. He is incapable of anything less. He does not seek to destroy Achar and your peaceful lives. He seeks to unite those who have been riven apart. He seeks to create a new land of unity and of lasting peace. A land built on truth, and not on the lies of the Seneschal. Listen to him, for he is the only one who can save you."

She finished and bowed her head, then smiled at her son and stepped back.

"Good people of Arcen," Axis resumed. "Earl Burdel is the one who is guilty of trying to destroy the peace of this land. He has ridden his force through Skarabost and has tortured, burned and murdered all those who sought to follow the way of truth. Truth-seekers have ever been persecuted, and none more cruelly than those in Skarabost. Burdel has acted, it is true, under the orders of your King, Borneheld - but his own spite and cruelty have driven him to extremes even beyond those his master called for. Good people of Arcen, doubt not that I speak the truth. See."

The air in the open space between Axis' encircling soldiers and the walls of the city shimmered and shifted. Culpepper Fenwicke, as all who stood on the walls, save Burdel, cried and muttered in horror.

Arcen was now ringed by a ghostly circle of crosses and wooden frames.

Hanging from each were the torn and twisted bodies of those whom Burdel had ordered murdered. Some had been nailed to their frames, others hung from ropes slung under armpits and around necks, their eyes and tongues bulging as they had slowly suffocated to death.

"See," Axis whispered, his own eyes gaunt with the fright-fulness of it, and his whisper reached into the heart of every man, woman and child within Arcen.

Even those within the city who could not see over the walls experienced ghastly visions of their northern neighbours' dreadful deaths.

Burdel had been responsible for this?

"No," Burdel tried to shout, but his voice did not rise above a hoarse whisper.

"Listen," Axis whispered, battling to control the power that was needed to produce these visions, trying to stop it from consuming him completely.

Then, in a nightmare that surpassed even the vision of the bodies strung to die, each of the ghostly images spoke, spoke whatever had last crossed his or her mind as they slipped towards a grateful death.

One whispered the name of his sweetheart, raped and strung up on the cross next to his, dead an hour before him and already eyeless from the attentions of the crows. Another murmured Burdel's name, a curse before dying.

Yet another cried out for his children, burned to death within his home. Another cried Burdel's name and wished on him the same death as she suffered. One old woman wondered what she had done in her life to die in this manner. A child whimpered and wondered at the gaping hole in her chest where a soldier had thrust a careless spear. Another man whispered Axis' name and called on him to save him. The woman next to him took up the cry, and soon the entire circle of murdered souls about Arcen were crying Axis' name, crying out to him to save them, crying out to him to avenge their death.

Axis swayed on his feet, not only from the power that he struggled to control, but also from the horrors that the murdered souls revealed. He had no control over what they said, he could only release what they had actually been thinking at the moment of their deaths. And that flood of thought was horrifying to listen to. Azhure and Rivkah stepped close to Axis, each taking his arm, each supporting him.

"I can stand no more!" Axis rasped, and he let go the enchantment. Abruptly the circle of bodies strung up about the city of Arcen vanished, but their cries and laments seemed to linger in the air and in the memories of the people listening for hours - and in some cases, for years - to come.

Men and women broke down and wept in the streets of Arcen, and more than one of the militiamen standing on the walls had to put his spear or bow aside and turn aside to lean for comfort on his neighbour, Axis took a deep breath and stood straight. "I am all right," he said to Azhure and Rivkah, and reluctantly they let his arms go. "Azhure," he said, "I rely on you now, do not fail me. Take your bow."

Azhure nodded, and Axis raised his head and spoke again. "Culpepper Fenwicke. You harbour a criminal within your ranks. I ask that you give him and his senior commanders to me. You heard the souls of the people as they died.

They cry out to me to avenge their deaths. I can do no less."

"No!" Burdel shouted, amazing even himself with the strength of his voice.

"No! Fenwicke, I am your Earl and overlord. You must listen to me. I order you to listen to me! He," Burdel pointed a shaking finger at Axis, "can do nothing to us. We are all safe behind these walls. Eventually he will simply go away.

Fenwicke, I order you not to listen to him."

"You are wrong, Earl Burdel," Axis called. "I have asked Culpepper Fenwicke and the citizens of Arcen to cooperate with me, for my fight and my grievance is not with them. Indeed, wish all of them well. I do not want to fight them. But know this, Fenwicke, if I am forced to fight I can decimate your fair city."

Axis indicated Azhure. "I command a force of archers such as you have never seen before. They could mark every man, woman and child within your fair walls. We do not need vision or an unobstructed view to mark with deadly certainty. In the streets behind you there is a cart piled high with baskets of fruit. At the top of the pile is a basket full of overripe melons. The topmost melon has been marked. Watch."

Azhure, watch with me. See? This is what the eagle sees.

A vision of the interior of Arcen flooded Azhure s mind.

Trust in me, A zhure, and trust in what the eagle sees. The cart is directly behind the gates. Do you see?

"Yes, I see."

Then aim.

Almost in a trance, Azhure raised the Wolven. She sighted along the arrow, but she did not see the walls before her. Instead she saw the great fat overripe melon sitting atop the cart of fruit as if the walls did not exist.

Jrust in me. Trust in yourself.

Azhure let fly the arrow, and every man along the walls traced its arc with their eyes. It flew high above the walls, then dropped straight and true into the melon, exploding it in a shower of juice and bright red pulp.

"And so might every head in Arcen be marked, Culpepper Fenwicke. I do want to threaten you, for, as I said, my quarrel is not with you but with the man who stands by your side. Give him to me."

/ thank you, Azhure.

Burdel struggled and shouted, but Fenwicke was adamant. It had not been the arrow that persuaded him, but the cries of those that Burdel had murdered.

If Burdel could do that to the poor people of Skarabost, how long would it be before he turned on the people of Arcen? Best hand him over to Axis SunSoar now. Those few soldiers who came to Burdel's aid were tied and bundled outside the city gates with Burdel, his two sons and his three surviving commanders.

Axis would let none of them live — not after what he had witnessed. The soldiers were killed instantly with quick blades to the back of the necks. But Burdel, his sons - both of whom had ridden with their father in Skarabost - and the three commanders did not escape so lightly.

"Culpepper," Axis said, turning away from Burdel for a moment. "You know what I must do."

Culpepper Fenwicke nodded. "I know. I accept it." "Good. Belial, have cause to erect six crosses. These men will die as the people of Skarabost died."

Belial, his face pale but determined, nodded and walked away. Within moments the sound of saws and hammering could be heard.

Axis turned back to Burdel, who stood stiff and defiant. "Perhaps I should ask you if you have anything to say, Burdel."

Burdel hawked and spat at Axis. "I hope that Borneheld gut-knifes you and leaves you to linger at death's door for days as the juices of your bowels slowly poison the rest of your body."

Axis ran slow eyes over the Earl. "I hope that thought comforts you as you hang a-dying, Burdel," he said and turned away.

Axis glanced at Burdel's sons as he walked away a few paces. They were Burdels only children. That was good. In the new nation of Tencendor he would have no place for the aggrieved sons of nobles whose fathers had died in Borneheld's cause. Axis was deeply thankful that Isend had no sons. He would not have liked to kill Faraday's brother, but he would not have hesitated to do so.

The six men were strung up naked to the splintery crosses, held by ropes underneath their arms and about their necks. Lead weights were tied to their feet and then they were left with only their consciences for company.

They took several hours to die as the weight of their bodies augmented by the lead weights pulled their chests apart, their lungs slowly filh'ng with blood, and they did not die quietly or prettily. Axis stood there the entire time, his face expressionless. He wondered what, if anything, the GateKeeper would say to them as they approached. Perhaps, knowing their crimes, they went through a different Gate to the one Axis had seen.

"A salutary lesson," he whispered as the last of the men gurgled and died.

Baron Ysgryff's Surprise

From Arcen, Axis moved his army towards the Ancient Barrows at the boundary of Tarantaise and Arcness. Though exhausted by the exercise of so much power at Arcen, Axis had not wanted to delay. Time was slipping through his grasp, and day after day as they rode south Axis' eyes would drift to the eagle soaring above.

It would be a long time before the people of Arcen would forget the sight of the ghostly souls crying out Burdel's name in accusation, and five thousand of Arcen's militiamen had begged Axis for permission to join his force. Let them make what restitution they could for Burdel, they argued, and Axis had reluctantly accepted their offer.

For the first two days after Arcen, Azhure rode silently by Axis' side. She had been physically nauseated by Burdel's death and Axis was concerned for her. But Azhure had kissed him and told him that she would be well, and had stayed close to Axis because she was so worried about his health. Both she and Rivkah had seen how damaging the power of the Star Dance had been on his body and how injurious the sight of the dead souls crying out his name had been on his spirit.

Axis had felt responsible for so many of those who had died, and his conscience troubled him sorely. If he'd moved south faster, could he have saved a few of those who'd cried out his name?

No wonder he had been so harsh on Burdel, Azhure reflected, hoping he'd never turn on her with such cold anger.

A day out of the Ancient Barrows two of the Icarii farflight scouts returned with appalling news.

"An army awaits you the other side of the Ancient Barrows, Axis SunSoar,"

one of the scouts reported, his wings trailing dismally in the grass behind him.

"Perhaps some eight thousand, maybe nine thousand, in strength ..."

"Mounted men," the other scout broke in. "Fully armoured, both riders and horses. Equipped with lances, pikes, swords. They stand like a wall of steel, waiting for you to emerge from the Barrows." "Who?" Axis asked sharply.

The two scouts described the pennants that the army flew, and Axis glanced at Belial and Magariz to his side.

"Barons Ysgryff of Nor and Greville of Tarantaise," Magariz said. "Borneheld must have positioned them there to delay our passage across Tarantaise and the Plains of Tare."

Axis nodded and sat back in his saddle. Nine thousand men? Axis' force now numbered over twenty-two thousand, but a heavily armoured force of nine thousand would be more than a nuisance. This time, he thought bleakly, I'll have no choice but to use the Icarii Strike Force.

"Most of the men must be from Nor," Magariz continued. "Greville's Tarantaise is so sparsely populated he would struggle to raise a hunting party, let alone an army. Nor, on the other hand ..."

"Is one of the most densely populated regions of Achar," Axis said slowly, continuing Magariz's train of thought. "Ysgryff has decided to put aside his dancing boys, it seems, and take up the arts of war." Well, at least he had finally come to Borneheld's aid, Axis thought sourly. Borneheld could have used those men a lot sooner.

Azhure had ridden up to the group as Magariz and Axis had been talking. An army of Nors men awaiting the other side of the Ancient Barrows? They would be her mother's people, the people who had bequeathed Azhure her exotic face and hair. She felt suddenly queasy.

"We camp a half a league out of the Barrows," Axis said quietly, "and prepare for batde on the morrow."

But on the morrow, as they advanced towards the Barrows, Axis called the column to a halt, surprised. A single horseman rode slowly out of the Barrows, and as the figure drew closer Axis could see that it was not a man at all, but a woman, riding graceful side-saddle.

"By all the gods," Axis muttered, stunned, as the woman drew closer. It was Embeth, Lady of Tare.

She reined her horse in a few paces away and she and Axis stared at each other. They'd been lovers once, and friends for longer. As he stared at her, Axis realised how close he was to a final confrontation with Borneheld. Carlon lay just weeks away...beyond the army on the other side of the Barrows. Embeth finally smiled. It had been almost two years since she'd seen Axis. Two years, she thought, and look what changes those years have wrought.

The horse was the same, and the blond hair and the beard, but so much else seemed to have changed. His eyes were colder, harder, older. The black of the BattleAxe was gone, as were the twin crossed axes. Now he dressed in a fawn tunic and breeches, a blood-red sun blazing across his chest, a cloak of the same shade draped about his shoulders. He had ridden out of her life across Tarantaise, and now he would ride back into it from out of the dawning sun.

Her smile faltered slightly. The sight of Axis reawoke many emotions she had thought dead. "Axis. It is good to see you." Axis nodded, his eyes boring into Embeth's deep blue ones. "And good to see you, Embeth. But a surprise."

"Nor and Tarantaise await beyond the Barrows," Embeth said, her voice, gratefully, remaining steady and cool.

"I know."

"Yes. We saw your, ah ..." How was she to refer to the strange and hauntingly lovely creatures she had seen in the sky yesterday?

"They are Icarii, Embeth. You saw some of the Icarii farflight scouts yesterday."

Embeth considered that for a moment. Faraday had told her much about Axis' heritage, but until now it had never really sunk in. "Yes," she repeated. "We saw some of your Icarii farflight scouts yesterday."

"We?" Axis said softly. "Do you ride with Nor and Tarantaise against me?"

Embeth sensed the danger seeping across the space between them. "I ride with Nor and Tarantaise, Axis, but we ride to join you, not oppose you."

Axis was so stunned his mouth hung open until he recovered and closed it with a snap.

"Of course," Embeth continued, her voice deep with amusement, "both Baron Ysgryff and Baron Greville have some conditions."

Axis' mouth twisted wryly. "Why am I not surprised to hear that?"

"I rode out alone because we felt that you were less likely to send an arrow through me than if either Ysgryff or Greville rode out. Will you meet with them?"

"Belial, Magariz, what do you think?" Axis asked. "Should meet with these two Barons, or should I decide that it's a trap and attack anyway?"

"I would not trap you," Embeth retorted. "We have meant too much to each other for me to do that."

A black-haired Nors woman suddenly rode up, accompanied by the most extraordinary man Embeth had ever seen. He had blue lines tattooed across his face, a red blazing sun in the centre of his forehead, and rode the ugliest horse this side of the gates of the AfterLife. Embeth glanced again at the woman. Only the fact that she carried a bow slung across her shoulder made her reconsider her first thought that she must be one of the Nors whores who inevitably attached themselves to wandering armies.

"We have no choice," Belial said after a pause. What would those two women find to say to each other? "We parley. I admit I'm tempted by the thought of nine thousand heavily armoured horsemen."

Axis nodded. "Magariz?"

"I concur," Magariz replied. "I find myself grateful that Nor and Tarantaise wait to talk rather than fight." As with most of Axis' army, he had spent an unsettled night, tossing and turning in his sleeping roll. Magariz was a trained man of war, but even so, he disliked the idea of fighting against men he had once called friends. He knew that many within Axis' force felt the same. They would fight, but it would be hard and dispiriting.

Axis nodded. "Ho'Demi?"

Embeth swung her eyes to the blue-lined savage. Was he a Ravensbundman?

"I will brew and serve the Tekawai tea myself," he said solemnly. "Tekawai is a sacred drink vital to the success of any parley."

"I shall look forward to sipping Tekawai with you and with my potential allies," Axis replied, and looked at Azhure. "Well, Azhure-heart? Do you agree with your fellow commanders?"

The use of the endearment surprised everyone present. Axis' personal relationship with Azhure normally never intruded upon their relationship as army commander and subordinate. Axis used the endearment deliberately to inform Embeth of the relationship between Azhure and himself, and to let all know that he was not going to hide his love for Azhure. She would stand by his side, both as a respected commander in her own right and as his Lover.

Embeth was stunned. Lover and commander in his army? Axis turned his cold stare back her way, watching her reaction. Drawing on all her experience as a lady of court, Embeth calmed her face and squared her shoulders. Damn him!

What about Faraday?

"I have no desire to fight if I do not have to," Azhure said, hiding the turmoil in her own heart. He had acknowledged her in front of this woman and her fellow commanders! "I say we parley."

"Then we parley," Axis said to Embeth. He straightened in the saddle. "We meet in the cleared space of the Ancient Barrows."

"They already await you there," Embeth replied, her eyes drifting back to the woman. She had not thought Axis' tastes to run to Nors women, at least not to the extent that he would publicly acknowledge this one. Well, Embeth had heard tales of the abilities of Nors women and she supposed this one must be better than most. Without another word she swung her horse around and dug her heel into its flank.

They met that afternoon within the semicircle of Icarii tombs. The waiting army had erected a huge tent in the centre of the space, a gaudy arrangement of multicoloured layers and silken tassels. A typical piece of Nors finery, Axis thought as he reined Belaguez to a halt before it, but he heard Ho'Demi sigh in admiration. He had brought a number of both Acharite and Ravensbundmen with him and, as he dismounted, StarDrifter, FarSight CutSpur and EvenSong lifted down from the sky, to the astonished whispers of the Nors and Tarantaise men present.

"We will save your Tekawai for later," Axis murmured to the Ravensbund chief as they entered the tent. "Perhaps we can celebrate a new alliance with it this evening."

The interior of the tent was cool and dim, and Axis had to blink several times to adjust his vision. YsgryfF, dark and handsome and some fifteen years older than Axis, stood to one side in a silken brocade tunic and breeches. Well, at least he's not dressed for war, Axis thought as he bowed slightly. Greville stood by YsgryfF's left hand, a man approaching old age, paunchy and sallow-skinned, but with clear blue eyes that missed nothing. He matched Axis' bow with exactly the same degree of coolness Axis had afforded him. Embeth stood a little further into the tent, together with what Axis guessed by their attire to be several of the Barons' military commanders.

As Axis stepped further in a woman emerged from the shadows at the back of the tent. She was frail and ethereal, with light golden hair and porcelain skin.

She wore a gown stiff and black with mourning.

"Judith!" Axis bowed with a little more respect this time. Were Nor and Tarantaise the two whom Judith had intimated in her letter would turn to Axis'

cause?

"Axis." She smiled coolly, inclining her head.

Baron YsgryfF stepped forward. Ye gods, but Axis looked the part, he thought, noting the tunic and cloak admiringly. His eyes caught those of the dark-haired woman at Axis' back and YsgryfF smiled and winked at her. Well!

The man had taste. His countrywoman, no less! YsgryfF stared at her a moment longer. Why did her face seem familiar? Why did her eyes recall so many memories of his childhood? So much laughter?

"Axis," he said smoothly, turning away from the Nors woman and running his eyes curiously over the Icarii. He had never thought to see the Icarii before he died - and one of them an Enchanter! "Please, be seated." YsgryfF waved at cushions spread about the canvas floor of the tent, and the group spent a minute or two settling themselves comfortably.

"So," Axis finally said. "You have come to join with my cause."

"Well," YsgryfF said. "Perhaps that is taking it a little too far, Axis. We have come to, ah, negotiate. Let me be frank

with you. Greville and I have no wish to back the loser in this conflict between you and your brother. Judith has persuaded us that yours is the cause not only most just, but most likely to succeed."

There lay the nub of the matter, Axis thought wryly. Justness had little to do with it. Ysgryff merely wanted to make sure he backed the winner.

"So," Ysgryff continued. "I wonder what you could offer Greville and myself should we decide to ally ourselves with your cause."

Axis stared at him coldly. "Apart from your lives?" Ysgryff rocked back, angered by Axis' words. "Our lives? You go too far, Axis!"

"Perhaps you have not heard of Earl Burdel's fate, Ysgryff. Burdel thought to oppose me. This is what happened to him." Axis waved his hand, and an image formed in the space between them of Burdel, his sons to either side of him, hung naked and dying on the cross outside Arcen.

Ysgryff paled, not only at the sight of Burdel's death, but also at the evidence of Axis' power.

"Think not that I conjure lies, Ysgryff," Axis said softly. "I am sure you have contacts who can confirm the truth of what you have just witnessed."

"You broke Arcen?" Ysgryff asked. His fingers toyed with the tassels of his cushion. Axis was stronger than he had realised. Well, that was nothing but good. He, as so many others, had waited a long, long time for this moment and this man.

"Arcen ceded itself to me without a fight, Ysgryff. Skarabost and Arcness are mine. If you force me to ride through your shiny soldiers behind you then I will do it. You may delay me a few days, but that is all you will do." Axis' tone hardened. "I have not come here to bargain with you, Ysgryff, Greville. I have come simply to accept your aid. It is your decision whether to ride with me or against me."

Ysgryff dropped his eyes, but Greville stared at Axis. He had expected Axis to fall over himself with gratitude that he andYsgryff had offered to parley with him. He had expected to wring considerable concessions out of the man —

perhaps trade concessions, perhaps even more territory for the two of them to divide between themselves. They had not counted on the self-confidence of the man, nor on his undoubted power. Already Icarii and Ravensbund rode with him.

And if Axis could seize Skarabost and Arcness then he would undoubtedly be able to seize both Tarantaise and Nor.

"Gentlemen," Judith said softly into the silence as Greville joinedYsgryff in dropping his eyes to the floor. "I have some information that may make the decision easier." She and Embeth had not yet told anyone save Faraday of Priam's death-bed wish, nor, indeed, had they told anyone of what they suspected about his death. "I have no proof, but I believe Priam was murdered, probably by Borneheld in concert with the Seneschal."

Eyes about the room widened and breathing stilled. Borneheld had murdered his uncle? Axis was the least surprised. He had seen Borneheld murder FreeFall.

"As he died, Axis," Judith took a breath, "Priam named you his heir. Axis, you have a rightful claim to the throne of Achar, and I will be prepared to swear to the truth of that statement on any sacred relic presented to me."

"Axis," said Embeth. "You are the rightful King of Achar. It is Borneheld who is the pretender. Not only pretender, but murderer. The present Queen, Faraday, will also be prepared to swear that Borneheld murdered Priam."

If Judith had thought Axis would be gratified that Priam had finally recognised him, she was as disillusioned as Greville.

"Priam refused to acknowledge me for thirty years," Axis said harshly. "He left it late indeed to acknowledge my worth and my blood. And for that he paid the price."

Judith bowed her head. Axis had a right to be bitter.

"Nevertheless," Axis continued in a softer tone. "I thank you for your words and for your support here today. I grieve for you that you had to lose your husband in such a cruel manner." Axis knew that Priam and Judith had loved each other, and now was no time to tell Judith that Axis would have as cheerfully waged war on Priam if he had obstructed his purpose as he was now doing on Borneheld.

Axis turned back to Ysgryff and Greville. "Well?"

Ysgryff shrugged expressively at Greville and turned his smoky blue eyes towards Axis. They were, Axis realised, precisely the same shade as Azhure's.

"Then we are here to aid you, Axis."

"Then I welcome you to my cause, gentlemen," Axis said. "Of the lands of the two earls that I have passed through thus far, one of them has been completely dispossessed, and the other I executed. It gives me a pleasant feeling to be able to speak to the lords of the next two provinces and know that I will leave them both their lands and their lives."

YsgryfF and Greville recognised the underlying threat. Do not think to betray me, for then both your lands and your lives will be forfeit.

Axis watched the impact of his words sink in. Good. They understood him.

"But the negotiations are not yet concluded," he said, surprising Ysgryff and Greville. "I am willing to cede you some concessions. Exclusive rights to control Achar's trade with Coroleas, Ysgryff?"

Ysgryff's face brightened. He and his province would be richer than he could have ever dreamed. "I thank you, Sire," he said, giving Axis the benefit of the regal title.

Axis' mouth twitched. Who said that respect could not be purchased?

"Greville, I imagine that you would appreciate exclusive fishing rights to Widewall Bay? As well as rights to control the grain trade of eastern Achar?"

It was as rich an offer as that made to Ysgryff, even though Greville had less to offer Axis in terms of arms and men. "It is generous, Sire," Greville said carefully. "Perhaps overly so. Sire, do not take my words amiss, but I wonder why you are so generous when, as you have made explicitly clear, you could have had Ysgryff's and my lives without overly troubling yourself."

Axis nodded. "Perhaps you are right to be suspicious, Greville. Gentlemen, you must know that I aim not only for the throne of Achar, but to unite the three races of Acharite, Icarii and Avar?"

"We have heard as much," Greville said, even more cautiously. Judith and Ernbeth, who had heard it from Faraday, had told both Barons of the Prophecy and its implications.

Ysgryff simply stared at Axis, his hands now still.

"I aim to recreate the ancient land of Tencendor, a land where the three races can once again live in harmony. The Icarii and the Avar will move back down into parts of what is now Achar, and, gentlemen, I am afraid that both of you stand to lose much of ydur territory."

Both Barons narrowed their eyes and Axis went on quickly. "I remind you of the trade, fishing and grain concessions I have granted you," he said. "Those concessions will make both of you, as your people, rich. You can well afford to lose a little territory - and I assure you, I only want to take the barren and troublesome bits that you have little use for."

"Tell us, Axis," Greville said, leaning forward, his blue eyes sharp. "What exactly will we lose...and to what?"

"Thus far I have done all the talking," Axis said. "Now, perhaps, it time for me to introduce my father, StarDrifter SunSoar, Enchanter and Prince of the Icarii people."

"Prince" was not a title the Icarii normally used, but it was one that the Barons would understand, and it roughly described StarDrifter's royal connection.

Eyebrows shot up as Axis introduced StarDrifter as his father. So this was the lover whom Rivkah had taken? This is who had cuckolded Searlas into becoming the laughing stock of Achar?

StarDrifter watched the curiosity blossom across the faces before him and inclined his head. These were the ones who had trampled roughshod over the Icarii and Avar sacred lands for so many generations?

"Both the Icarii and the Avar have deep attachments to some parts of the land you now call Achar," he began, shifting his gaze slowly from one to another.

"The Avar forest, the Avarinheim, once stretched as far as the Widewall Sea, and my people lived scattered over most of southern and eastern Achar. But we do not expect that you will give us all the land you have cultivated, nor would we wish to demand it."

Axis knew that StarDrifter had spent much time consulting carefully with Raum over this matter, and he knew that the pair had come to a workable arrangement which should not alienate too many of the Acharites.

"The Avar would wish to replant the forests in certain areas," StarDrifter continued. Axis repressed a smile. Despite his heavy-handedness at it, StarDrifter was threading a little of the Song of Harmony into his voice. MorningStar would be proud of you, Axis thought, for using the water music so effectively when you find it so hard.

"Parts of eastern Skarabost, eastern Arcness and," StarDrifter paused a little,

"the larger part of Tarantaise."

Ah, Greville nodded, no wonder Axis is willing to grant me so many concessions. Well, Axis was also right when he said that he only wanted the barren and troublesome bits. And what was the majority of Tarantaise, if not broad and useless grass plains? Perhaps the fishing and grain rights would be worth the loss of so much territory.

"We would also want the Bracken Ranges, but that is neither here nor there as far as you two are concerned."

StarDrifter looked about him and smiled, and both Embeth and Judith gaped at the sudden beauty and virility of his face. No wonder Rivkah, may she rest in peace, had succumbed to him.

StarDrifter s smile widened until even the two Ban. affected by it. "And here we sit among some of the tomt- ^i our most revered Enchanter-Talons, or Kings.

This is also a deeply holy site for us, and we would want to regain control of the Ancient Barrows and the swathe of territory that stretches down to and surrounds the Silent Woman Woods. Greville, will you agree to the loss of some two-thirds of your territories for the concessions that my son is willing to grant you?" StarDrifter did not mention Star Gate. There was no need for the Baron to know what lay beneath their feet.

Greville thought about it. The fishing and grain rights would more than adequately compensate for the land that this StarDrifter requested on behalf of his people and the Avar. And so few people lived in the northern and eastern parts of Tarantaise that hardly any would be displaced. Most of his people lived closer to Tare and to the south-western border of Tarantaise and Nor. He took a deep breath. Besides, Axis did not have to offer him anything at all. He could simply have taken it.

"I agree and I accept," he said firmly, and leaned forward and offered StarDrifter his hand. "You are welcome to the areas you have requested."

StarDrifter shook Greville's hand, relieved. Like Axis, he wanted the Acharites to cede their land willingly rather than have it forced from. them.

"And for control of trade with the Corolean Empire," Ysgryff said dryly and with evident concern, "I suppose you want the majority of Nor?" Nor was a much richer and more densely peopled province than Tarantaise, and Ysgryff was not sure that he wanted to hard over the larger part of his province to these Icarii or Avar.

StarDrifter's smile faded a little. "I would ask for only one thing from Nor, YsgryfF."

Ysgryff raised his eyebrows inquiringly.

"Pirates' Nest."

Ysgryff only managed to keep his mouth shut with a supreme effort. Axis was prepared to allow Ysgryff rich trading concessions for that sea-lapped rock infested with pirates? What secret treasures did Axis think the island hid? What did he know of the island?

"No hidden treasures, Ysgryff," Axis said softly, and Ysgryff allowed an expression of excitement to filter across his face at this further exhibition of power and ability. By the sacred gods themselves! The time was here!

"No hidden treasures, but simply one of the most sacred sites of the Icarii People. StarDrifter?"

"We know the island as the Island of Mist and Memory, Ysgryff. We had our Temple of the Stars on the island, and we believe that, beneath the pirates' filth, its ruins must still be there. We would like to reclaim the island and rebuild the temple."

YsgryfTs face had gone white and he was having obvious difficulty breathing. Both StarDrifter and Axis wondered if it was the sudden revelation that Pirate's Nest held an ancient Icarii temple.

They were both wrong.

Ysgryff took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. Courage, Ysgryff, he thought to himself, it is time to step forth from the shadows. It is time for a thousand years of deception and secrecy to end. This is the time, and this is the man.

"The Temple still stands," he said, and now it was both StarDrifter and his son's turn to look stunned.

"The Temple still stands. The pirates have left it alone." Until StarDrifter had mentioned it himself, Ysgryff had been determined not to break the code of silence that protected the Temple of the Stars. He had first heard of it when a baby, and first visited it when a young boy. This was the first time in his life he had spoken of it to an outsider.

StarDrifter's eyes filled with tears. This was more, far more than he could have hoped for, but Ysgryff was not yet done.

"Nor has supplied the nine priestesses for the past thousand years, StarDrifter. The nine still wander the walks and paths of Temple Mount. The Library still contains its ancient scrolls and parchments. The Dome of the Stars still protects the First Priestess —"

Forgotten in the shadows behind Axis, Azhure shuddered as if the cold fingers of memory gripped her soul. She thought she heard the crash of waves against towering cliffs.

The Dome...the Dome!

Azhure? Azhure? Is that you?

What had happened in the Dome? Tears filled her eyes, and she turned her head aside.

"— and the Avenue still stretches straight and shaded towards the Temple of the Stars. The Star Dance still lingers among the orchards and the vines and fills the otherwise empty Assembly of the Icarii."

StarDrifter could not believe what he was hearing. Did the entire Temple complex still stand unviolated? And Ysgryff? By the Stars themselves, StarDrifter breathed, Ysgryff — indeed, perhaps the entire Nors people — knew far more about the Icarii than the Seneschal had ever known.

Not only StarDrifter, but all the Icarii present had been stunned by Ysgryff's intimate knowledge of the complex on Temple Mount and particularly of the nine priestesses. The Icarii themselves rarely ever mentioned the nine priestesses of the Order of the Stars. Even Axis had barely heard of them. Yet here was the Baron of Nor prattling on as if he were well acquainted with Icarii mysteries.

"Do not think all the Acharites have forgotten the ancient ways. Even my elder sister took her turn as one of the priestesses. StarDrifter, had you asked for the Island of Mist and Memory for nothing I would willingly have ceded it to you.

As it is," Ysgrff grinned at Axis, "I now have control of the richest trading routes in Achar."

Axis smiled weakly back. Never underestimate your enemies, Axis, he told himself. And never underestimate your allies, either.

"However, I am willing to be generous." Ysgryff was enjoying himself hugely. "For the trading rights I am willing to beg the pirates to permit the Icarii to land on their island."

And yet, Ysgryff thought to himself, looking Axis in the eye and hoping the man was still reading his every thought, I still have the last laugh, because the pirates' occupation of the Island of Mist and Memory was only ever intended to protect the Temple of the Stars from the Seneschal. No Brother of the Seneschal would ever have stepped foot on the island knowing that he was likely to end up in some pirate's cooking pot.

"I'm sure the Icarii will not mind granting some of the island to the pirates, Ysgryff," Axis said, the smile now completely gone. He had underestimated this man badly, and the man's obvious service to the Icarii sacred site humbled him.

"Seeing how they have done the Icarii such a great service."

StarDrifter turned and looked at his son strangely.

That evening was one of the happier occasions of the march south. Extra tents were hastily erected in the open space and several bullocks - purchased from a passing herdsman - were slaughtered and roasted whole over spits. The Barons and Axis invited their commanders and sundry guests to the feast and to witness the signing of the treaty between them, a treaty that also gave so many of the Icarii and Avar sacred lands back to them.

It was, Axis thought as he bent to add his signature to the treaty, a most auspicious occasion. With one simple signature, in his twin role as heir to both the Acharite and the Icarii thrones, so much of the bitterness and hatred of the Wars of the Axe and the subsequent thousand-year period had been undone.

The Icarii were free to start moving south again, and, hopefully, the Avar would follow. Once they had Tree Friend to lead them, of course.

All I have to do now, Axis sighed, handing the pen over to a hooded Raum, is defeat both Borneheld and Gorgrael.

Axis had asked that Raum co-sign against his name on behalf of the Avar.

Raum had cried with relief when StarDrifter and Axis told him that the Avar would be allowed to replant so much of the ancient forests. The forests had once stretched to the Nordra as well, but Raum had known that it would be unrealistic to expect the Acharites to give up so many of their rich grain lands, and so he had proposed a compromise. The forests would one day stretch down the eastern side of Achar to Widewall Bay, extending westwards only to include the Bracken Ranges and the Silent Woman Woods. It was enough, Raum thought, as he made his sign as a Bane, a leaping deer, and his sign as a member of the GhostTree Clan, a pair of entwined branches.

The Barons stepped up next to add their signatures. Ysgryff took the pen from Raum and signed his name with a flourish. He then handed the pen to Greville, who did not hesitate to add his signature to a document-that would make himself and his people rich on grain and fishing concessions.

As soon as the treaty and its copy was signed, Ho'Demi solemnly helped his wife, Sa'Kuya, to serve Tekawai.

Once Sa'Kuya had picked up her own cup, Axis raised his Tekawai in a toast.

"To Tencendor," he said. "May all the trials ahead be as simply and amicably solved as this treaty was parleyed."

"To Tencendor," the gathered crowd chorused, draining their Tekawai at a gulp, then reaching with somewhat indelicate haste for more alcoholic sustenance.

Both Ho'Demi and Sa'Kuya smiled as they retrieved their cups. What a crowd of savages they found themselves among.

And then they set about enjoying themselves.

If Embeth and Judith thought they had received all the shocks they were going to get, then they were in for yet more surprises. As they chatted quietly in a corner of the main tent, a handsome middle-aged woman approached them, a young baby of some six or seven months in her arms.

Judith looked at her in some puzzlement. The woman's face seemed somewhat familiar.

"Judith." The woman smiled, and Judith frowned. This stranger was addressing her with a little too much familiarity!

"Do you not remember me, Judith?" the woman asked. "Do you not remember how we used to steal peaches from the cooks in the kitchens of the palace in Carlon when we were children? How we used to chase the pigeons from the courtyard at dawn?"

"Rivkah!" 'Judith breathed, unable to believe that her closest girlhood friend, whom she had thought dead some thirty years, now stood before her.

Rivkah smiled and embraced Judith briefly. Then she stood back and took her first good look at the woman. Judith looked wan and fragile, her skin papery and translucent. She had always been delicate, but now she looked like a dream-image which would be shattered by a simple puff of breeze.

Judith, overwhelmed to find Rivkah standing here before her, began to cry silently, reaching out her hands for Rivkah, almost as if she would not be able to believe that she was really there until she could touch her.

"Shush," Rivkah said. "Axis should have said something. It was remiss of him. Judith, I am sorry beyond telling to hear of Priam's death."

"He was your brother as well as my husband," Judith said through her tears.

"We have both suffered loss through his death."

Rivkah said nothing for a moment, but when she spoke her voice was hard.

"Axis tells me that you blame Borneheld for Priam's death."

Judith reached out a trembling hand. "Oh, Rivkah, I forget so easily that Borneheld was your son. I...I do not mean ..."

Rivkah was instantly contrite. "Judith, I do not chide you for blaming Borneheld. I disassociated myself from my eldest son the instant he slipped from my body. I have no intention of bonding with him now, or of acknowledging him.

Knowing his father, I can well believe that Borneheld murdered to gain the throne. He murdered my brother as well as your husband, Judith, and I cannot forgive him that. Do not fret that you accuse him."

As Judith and Rivkah s conversation turned from Borneheld to mutual friends, Embeth let her eyes slip about the room. It was so strange, being here in this company. The Icarii dominated the room, their extraordinary beauty and grace, as well as their wings, catching Embeth's eyes at every turn. It was the men among them who commanded her attention, however. Men like StarDrifter, who, when he caught her looking at him, had such a knowing look on his face that Embeth felt her legs weaken. It was easy to see who Axis had inherited his magnetism from. She hastily looked away, but found her eyes being dragged back to the Icarii Enchanter. He was still looking at her.

Embeth closed her eyes, clenching her fists by her sides, trying to break the spell he had woven about her. By Artor, she breathed, these Icarii will wreak havoc among the loose morals of court. When she opened her eyes again StarDrifter had turned away, and Embeth breathed a little more easily. She saw Belial, smiling gently at a young Nors girl, perhaps seventeen or eighteen, who chatted animatedly to him. She wore a bright red dress of fine wool that highlighted her pale skin and blue eyes and contrasted with her black hair. When

Magariz stopped momentarily to catch at Belial's arm and indicate a group of soldiers and Crest-Leaders a little further away, Belial shook his head and pulled his arm free, moving a little closer to the girl. Embeth raised her eyebrows. So he preferred the company of a young girl to that of fighting and drinking comrades?

The soft chiming of bells caught Embeth's attention. Many of the Ravensbundmen, some with wives, were also present, and Embeth watched them, fascinated, for a long while. Each had different patterns tattooed into his or her face, but all had the blazing sun emblazoned across their foreheads.

Embeth wondered at the Ravensbund devotion, that they would mark themselves so for Axis. Their black hair glistened blue and green as the lamp light caught the glass among their braids, and they marked their passage through the throng with soft chimes and whispers. Behind the Ravensbundmen were a group of three men who, someone had whispered to Embeth, were the Sentinels mentioned in the Prophecy. Embeth regarded them curiously as they chatted to Baron Ysgryff, almost as if they were old friends.

Axis caught Embeth's eye, and she watched him move among the crowd for a while. The Nors woman was by his side again, laughing and chatting familiarly, not only with Axis, but with most of those he spoke to. She was wearing a black gown, startling in its simplicity, cut low over her breasts and clinging to her slim form. Her hair hung loose down her back. She looked stunning. A true Nors woman, Embeth thought, refusing to admit to herself that she was bitterly jealous.

She did not realise that, to one side, Belial had turned from the lovely young Nors girl and was watching her with some concern. Whispering an excuse to the Nors girl, Belial slowly began to move through the crowd towards Embeth. The girl stared after him, her face losing much of its radiance as she watched Belial move away.

At the same moment Azhure turned and saw Embeth staring at her. Smiling and touching Axis' arm for a moment, murmuring a word or two of excuse, Azhure also began to make her way through the crowd towards Embeth.

"But, Rivkah, explain this baby," Judith asked finally, and Embeth turned back towards the two women. The baby was very handsome, chubby pale cheeks beneath a loose mop of black curls. Smoky blue eyes regarded the women solemnly.

Rivkah smiled. "Judith, Embeth, I would like you to meet my grandson, Caelum."

Embeth's heart thudded painfully. She did not need mystic vision to know who had bred this child.

Azhure joined them in a rustle of silk, and Rivkah turned and handed Caelum across as he wriggled and laughed at the sight of his mother. "And this is the woman I regard as my daughter, Azhure."

Embeth's ill feeling only increased. Wormed her way into both Axis' and his mother's hearts.

"How nice to meet you, Azhure," Judith said.

"And you are Axis' wife?" Embeth asked.

"No. No, I am not. But we are lovers," Azhure said coolly. She knew who Embeth was, and who she once had been. "And Axis does not hesitate to acknowledge me"

Embeth took a sharp breath at the woman's emphasis on the last word. Her eyes glittered angrily, but before she could respond, Belial stepped up to the group and put a restraining hand on her arm.

"Azhure," he said, "I'm sure Axis would appreciate both you and Caelum back at his side as he speaks to Baron Ysgryff."

Azhure nodded stiffly. "I am sorry, Embeth," she said. "My remark was uncalled for." Then she was gone.

"Do not be fooled by her Nors looks, Embeth," Belial said in an undertone.

"She means far more to Axis than you give her credit for."

Embeth dropped her eyes as Azhure rejoined Axis. He had turned and smiled at the woman with such love that she had felt a painful jolt of memory. Ganelon had once smiled at her with love, but never Axis. Axis had offered her friendship, no more.

"I have been a fool, Belial. Come, talk to me of some of your exploits over the past two years."

Baron Ysgryff bowed low over Azhure's hand and smiled at her.

"You are my countrywoman, Azhure," he said. "I knew when you walked into the treaty tent earlier this afternoon beside Axis that I would be able to refuse him nothing. I am but wet clay when faced with such beauty." He turned a little to Axis, although he kept his grip on Azhure s hand. "She is your most dangerous weapon, Axis. Use her well and your enemies will all fall at your feet."

Axis laughed. "You are quite the courtier, Ysgryff."

Azhure smiled graciously. "My mother was a Nors woman, Baron, but I was born and bred in northern Skarabost."

"Your mother?" Ysgryff raised his eyebrows. "Lost to us in northern Skarabost? Please, tell me her name. I might have known her."

A look of deep distress crossed Azhure's face and she snatched her hand from Ysgryff's fingers. "She died when I was very young," she stammered, white-faced. "I cannot remember her name."

Axis slipped a hand about her waist, concerned at Azhure s reaction. Why did she say her mother had died? Had she heard something of her mothers fate after she had run away with the pedlar?

"Azhure, I apologise if my remark caused you distress," Ysgryff said hastily.

"Please, accept my belated condolences. Your mother must have been very beautiful if I can judge anything by her daughter's beauty."

Azhure relaxed slightly and her face regained some colour. "Yes," she said,

"she was very beautiful." Her eyes became dreamy. "She would talk to me of many things."

"Of strange and faraway lands, perhaps? Of seas and tides and long pale beaches?" YsgryfFs voice was curiously insistent.

"Yes. Yes, she had seen many wonders."

"And what did she tell you about these strange lands, Azhure? What did she show you?"

"Flowers," Azhure said, her voice curiously dull. "Many flowers.

Moonwildflowers. Yes. She liked those. And hunting...and...moonlight... and...the Dome ..." she whispered. "The Dome. I remember the Dome."

Axis glanced at Ysgryff, puzzled, and he tightened his arm about Azhure's waist. Had she had too much wine?

Azhure blinked at the pressure of Axis' arm. "Oh, Ysgryff, it was so long ago.

I cannot remember. Her tales are lost in the mists of memory."

As is her name, Ysgryff thought. As is her name. All the priestesses lost their names the day they took their final vows. But what was one of the nine doing in northern Skarabost? And which one was if? The first opportunity Ysgryff got he would be making some very specific inquiries at the Temple of the Stars.

Meanwhile he had a Sacred Daughter standing before him. He must determine her age - that would make his inquiries the easier.

"Then, Azhure, if such things are lost to you, perhaps you will let me tell you of your mother's homeland?"

"I would be delighted," Azhure said. "Please, tell me about Nor. I have often wondered what my mother's people are like."

No wonder, Ysgryff thought, Axis had taken up with this woman. Did he know what he had won for himself? Did he know what the gods had given him?

Apparently not, for otherwise the man would not have hesitated to marry her.

r Every so often Ysgryff's eyes would drift to the child in Azhure's arms, equally fascinated by the baby as he was by his mother. This was a magical line indeed.

In Carlon, Borneheld was enjoying himself immensely. Before him sat the Corolean Ambassador, almost as thin as the pen he held poised in one hand. The man's dark eyes skimmed over the page before him.

"Where do I sign, Sire?"

"Here," Borneheld pointed with his finger. "And here."

The Ambassador signed perfunctorily, then handed the pen to Borneheld, watching as the King of Achar signed the document as well. The man was almost obscene in his haste.

As soon as he had finished Borneheld sat back, feeling a deep sense of peace and security. Let Axis come for me now, he thought, let him come and see what a surprise I have in store for him. "When will the Emperor begin to send the troops, Ambassador?"

"Most of the troops are waiting to embark, Sire," the Ambassador said.

"They should be here within two weeks."

Not before time, Borneheld thought. Not before time. He had worked hard to conclude this treaty with the Corolean Ambassador — and the troops which the Emperor had promised him would win him back his country.

"Some more wine?" he inquired politely, although he disliked having to waste such good wine on this constipated vegetable. "It is of the finest quality."

The Silent Woman Dream

It was the last week of Harvest-month, only eight weeks before Axis had to fulfil his side of the contract with the GateKeeper. Axis' temper grew shorter day by day as he realised how little time he had before his bargain died. But his army had now grown so vast it could not possibly move at the same speed as Axis'

former Axe-Wielders had been able to. As tents were erected at a site just south of the Silent Woman Woods, Axis remembered how his Axe-Wielders had taken three days to traverse the distance between the Silent Woman Woods and the Ancient Barrows. His thirty-one thousand had taken just on nine days to travel the same distance.

Axis sighed and stared at the Silent Woman Woods. He had not objected when his father, grandmother and sundry other Icarii Enchanters had flown into the woods earlier that morning. There was little of danger within the Silent Woman Woods to harm the Icarii, and much to fascinate them, though three Wing of the Icarii Strike Force had accompanied them. Surprisingly, both Ogden andVeremund had shrugged when Axis had asked them if they wanted to ride in, saying that they would return to the Silent Woman Keep one day, but not this one. Raum, beside them, had stood staring longingly at the Woods from beneath the deep overhang of his hood, but had turned away shaking his head when Axis asked him if he would walk among the trees. "Later" was all he had said.

Axis walked slowly towards his tent, preoccupied. His relationship with Azhure was becoming more strained the closer they came to Carlon and to Faraday. Every night between the Ancient Barrows and the Silent Woman Woods Azhure rolled herself and Caelum into her bedroll and turned her back on him.

One night Axis had laid his hand on Azhure s shoulder and murmured into her ear. "Do not lock me out of your life, Azhure, I do not intend to let you go."

She had been silent for a long minute, and Axis had thought she was pretending to be asleep. But she had finally spoken. "You and I have lived together almost a year, and every day I have fallen a little more deeply in love with you. Do not blame me if, now that you draw closer to Faraday, I try to reconcile myself to losing you."

"You will not lose me -" Axis started, but Azhure rolled over and stared him in the eye.

"I will lose you the moment Borneheld dies, Axis. No matter how much you protest that you love me, I know that one day you will let me go entirely for Faraday. Forgive me, Great Lord, if occasionally I allow myself a little self-pity."

At that she had rolled back towards Caelum and determinedly shut her eyes, refusing to respond as Axis stroked her and whispered protestations of love for her.

Damn her! Axis swore as he stepped carefully around ropes and tent stakes, perhaps it would be better if I just let her go! But even as the thought crossed his mind, Axis knew he could not do it. Not now that she had bitten so deeply into his soul.

As the night thickened about the Silent Woman Woods, the Cauldron Lake slowly began to boil. A deep golden mist rose from the Lake's surface and drifted through the trees towards the camp site of Axis SunSoar's army.

Deep into the night, Axis opened his eyes. For a long time he lay on his back, staring at the dark canvas stretched above him, listening to Azhure breathe deeply by his side.

He was not sure if he dreamed or if he was awake.

Finally Axis rolled out of his blankets and stood up. He considered waking Azhure - for something strange seemed to be about to happen — but decided against it. She had been looking tired and drawn of late and needed her sleep.

Axis ducked his head low and pushed the tent flap back. The camp was shrouded in a thick golden mist. Strange. Perhaps this was a dream. He stepped outside the tent and straightened up. A glint of gold caught his eyes as he dropped his arm from the tent flap. How strange! He was dressed in his golden tunic with its blazing blood-red sun. The one Azhure had stitched for him so long ago in Talon Spike. But why was he wearing it now?

Axis contemplated his appearance, then shrugged. This was a dream, and anything could happen in a dream.

He walked through the camp. About him the camp fires had burned down to glowing coals - no flames leaped to challenge the intruding mist. The Alaunt lay in a sleeping circle about the tent Axis shared with Azhure. None stirred as he walked past, though their sides fell up and down as they breathed deep in their own dreams. Guards, both within the camp and at its perimeter, gazed straight ahead as if in a trance. They did not challenge Axis as he walked slowly past.

None of this troubled Axis. It was a dream, after all.

Slowly, very slowly, Axis moved on, pausing at Belial's tent and glancing in.

Belial lay deep in sleep, twisted into his bedroll beside a dark-haired young girl who travelled with YsgryfFs retinue. A red wool dress lay thrown carelessly across the foot of the blankets. Axis' mouth twitched. Had Belial found a woman who could take his mind off Azhure?

Axis let the tent flap drop and went to the next tent. Like Belial, Magariz also lay twisted with a woman, but this one Axis knew. Rivkah. His mother.

Axis stood a long time staring at the outline of their entwined bodies beneath the blankets. Was this simply a figment of his sleeping mind? He told himself this was only a vision, and, even if it did speak of truth, why should he speak out against this? But something, deep inside him, told Axis this was a development that should - must - concern him. It bespoke danger, although Axis could not see what kind.

Axis let the canvas of the tent flap slip from his fingers, and he resumed his slow walk through the tents and camp fires, winding his way past sleeping forms towards the perimeter of the camp. Nothing moved. Even time seemed not to breathe within this mist.

Beyond the camp Axis turned towards the Silent Woman Woods, perhaps a hundred paces away. When he had camped here on his journey towards Gorkenfort, he had kept his Axe-Wielders as far from the trees as practicable.

Then he and his had feared the trees. But as fear of the Forbidden had lessened and died among those who rode with Axis SunSoar, so also dread of trees and shadowed places had been replaced with acceptance, and even a mild curiosity.

When the forests were slowly replanted within eastern Achar — Tencendor —

Axis had no doubt that Acharite men and women would walk its paths along with the Avar and the Icarii.

A movement in the mist ahead caught his eye. Movement? In this, the most motionless of dreams? A figure walked ahead, almost totally obscured by golden tendrils of mist. Axis tried to walk faster, but the mist clung heavy to his limbs, weighing them down, and it felt as though he were striding through thigh-deep water.

As he gained on the figure ahead of him, Axis could finally see that it was Raum. He was naked and now Axis could see how his body had twisted almost completely out of shape. Great misshapen growths humped out of his back and chest, and his limbs were twisted and- malformed. His face, when he turned, was so warped it was almost unrecognisable, and he lurched rather than walked, rolling from one leg to another, his pace so unsteady that Axis feared he would fall at any moment. He quickened his own pace as much as he was able, thinking to aid Raum.

But before Axis could catch Raum the Bane abruptly halted and bent down.

Axis saw the flash of a knife, then Raum lifted something in his hand. It was the body of a hare. The Bane dipped the fingers of his hand into the open cavity of the hare's chest, then lifted his fingers to his face and chest.

Axis finally caught up with the Bane and stepped to his side. Raum had drawn thick lines of blood down his face, the middle line centred on his nose, the two companion lines running down either cheek. Three more lines ran down his chest, ending at his nipples. The thick blood had clotted among the hairs of the Bane's chest and its warm coppery freshness clung to Axis' nostrils.

Raum's eyes widened. "Have you been called also?" he whispered.

Have I been called? Axis wondered sluggishly, unable to collect his thoughts.

"I do not know why I am here."

"You are here to witness, Axis SunSoar," a voice said behind him, and Axis swivelled around as if in slow motion. The three Sentinels, Jack, Ogden andVeremund, stood three or four paces away, each dressed in a plain white robe that hung down to bare feet.

"Have you been called?" Ogden wondered aloud. "You must have been, else you would not be here. Tread carefully where you go, Axis SunSoar, and do or say nothing that will offend your hosts."

Ogden stepped forward and kissed Raum softly on the cheek, slightly smearing one of the lines of blood. "Be well, dear one," he said. "Find peace where you go."

Jack andVeremund also stepped forward, kissing Raum on the cheek and repeating Ogden's blessing. "Find peace," Veremund muttered a second time, tears glistening in his eyes, and Axis noticed, with some surprise that Raum's eyes also glittered with tears. What was going on?

"Raum finds his home and his peace tonight, Axis SunSoar," Veremund said,

"and you have been called to witness. You have walked the Sacred Grove once before and tonight you will re-enter. By invitation, this time."

Axis remembered the dream that had visited him the previous time he had slept outside the Silent Woman Woods. Then he had found himself in a dark grove peopled by frightening and dangerous creatures. The Horned Ones. Axis felt a small tremor of anxiety, but he had grown since that night two years ago.

He knew more, and he was more.

Axis nodded. "Will you come with us?"

"No," Jack replied. "This is for Raum and yourself alone. Be at peace."

Impatient now, Raum turned to the opening among the trees. "Come," he said, and Axis followed him into the forest.

They walked slowly through the dark trees, the mist dissipating as they moved into the Silent Woman Woods. Colours shifted about them until Axis breathed deep in excitement -the light among the trees had lightened and brightened until they were walking through a tunnel of emerald light. Even the forest floor beneath their feet had disappeared so they were completely suspended in the emerald glow.

"We walk through the Mother," Raum muttered hoarsely, his eyes bright, almost feverish.

Axis could feel the power floating about him, and he shivered. It was good that this was a dream, he thought, for otherwise this power would perturb him.

This was the source of the power that Faraday had used to give Axis and his three thousand the means to escape and then destroy much of the Skraeling force surrounding Gorkenfort. Axis remembered the emerald flame he had summoned to destroy the Skraelings and he took a deep breath of awe —

Faraday must be powerful indeed to handle such forces as drifted through this emerald light!

They walked until Axis suddenly realised that he could feel leaves and twigs under his feet again. At exactly that moment the emerald light started to mottle and shadow about him, resolving itself into close, dark trees. Stars whirled across the dark velvety sky above them.

"The Sacred Grove," Raum whispered beside him, and Axis realised with a start that this was the first time in months he'd heard Raum speak in a voice that held no shadow of underlying pain.

Before them the trees opened into the circle of the Sacred Grove, and both Raum and Axis slowed. Power drifted among the trees. Unseen eyes watched. It no longer felt like a dream. All traces of the mist had disappeared long before in the brilliance of the emerald light, and Axis understood that he stood here in the Sacred Grove in reality.

He felt gaudy and overly conspicuous in his gold and red. For the first time since he had accepted the golden tunic from Azhure, Axis felt slightly uncomfortable in it.

"You will never feel comfortable here, Axis my heart," a woman's voice said quietly beside him, "because your power is tied to the stars, and this power emanates from the earth. From the Mother."

Faraday walked slowly out of the trees to one side, wearing a loosely draped robe of peculiar shifting greens, purples and browns. Her long chestnut hair lay thick and loose over her shoulders and down her back.

"Faraday?" Axis whispered, completely forgetting Raum on his other side.

"Faraday?"

She smiled and touched his arm gently. "How long, Axis? Twenty months?

Too long, my love. But wait. I must greet Raum."

She stepped past Axis and wrapped her arms about Raum, laughing and crying at the same time, murmuring to him as she hugged him close, softly stroking his face as if she could soothe away the bumps and lesions that marred it.

Axis stared at her. Faraday seemed different from when he had last seen her. No longer was she the innocent girl who first caught his eye at Priam's nameday feast in the Chamber of the Moons. Nor was she the beautiful but sad woman he remembered as Borneheld's wife. There were lines of pain about her eyes that Axis did not remember, and lines of humour at the corners of her mouth. Both experience and power had changed her. Would this Faraday accept Azhure?

Axis hastily clouded his thoughts - Faraday had demonstrated only a moment ago that she was as capable as he at reading the mind of another, and Axis did not want her finding out about Azhure from his unguarded thoughts.

What would be the best way of telling her?

"Why do you frown, Axis? This is the first time we have seen each other for a very long while, and this is a very special moment that I have asked you here to witness. It is one of the few occasions that I could invite you here and the Horned Ones would accept your presence. You are almost as closely linked to Raum as I am."

"You asked me? You were responsible for pulling me into this dream?"

Faraday smiled and slipped her hand about Axis' arm, entwining her fingers through his. "No dream, Axis. The dream is the husk of your body which awaits you in your camp beyond the Silent Woman Woods. Now, be silent. We are both here only to witness - for the moment, at least."

Raum stumbled into the centre of the Grove, moaning again, as if his pain had returned. Faraday's hand tightened around Axis', warning him to keep silent.

Raum dropped to his knees, his head twisted to one side, his hands held out as if in supplication.

Nothing moved, save the stars that whirled overhead and the watching eyes that shifted among the trees.

Raum screamed, and Axis' entire body jerked. Be silent, Faraday's stare said, then she shifted her eyes back to Raum.

Now he twisted about on the grass, caught in the throes of a dreadful suffering. Another scream rent the Grove, then another, and Axis realised that a dark stain was spreading about Raum's twisting body. Blood! Axis shuddered at Raum's agony. By the Stars! he thought, Azhure was right about these people.

They preach a life of non-violence, but their very lives and culture exude violence.

Azhure? a voice asked in his head, and Axis jumped guiltily, screening his thoughts again.

A woman who lived with the Avar for a while. Now she earns her keep as an archer in my army.

Faraday smiled. A woman archer — indeed!

Raum screamed again. His voice had lost its earlier pain-purified clarity and was now harsh and guttural. The blood about him was spreading, and now Axis could see that it seeped from every orifice in his body and, in places, from tears in the skin stretched over painfully tight joints.

All Banes, whether male or female, must die to transform, Axis. What we witness here is both Raum's death and his renewal. All witness. But Raum must do this on his own. None can help him.

Axis wept silently. He liked Raum, had felt a special bond with the Bane. He remembered the moment his eyes had locked with Raum's in the cell beneath the Smyrton Worship Hall. Remembered the understanding that had passed between them. That was the day he had not only met Raum for the first time, but had also met...Axis blanked out his thoughts only just in time.

Who'? Faraday asked in his mind.

Shra, Axis replied. The Avar girl.

Faraday's eyes misted. She had also met Shra at Fernbrake Lake, the Mother. Raum had bonded both her and Shra at the same time.

Raum had not the breath to scream now, although agony still gripped his body. His breath came in harsh gasps that reached Axis and Faraday clearly across the Grove. They stilled, as every eye watching did. After a few minutes Raum's breathing all but ceased, although his body still jerked convulsively. His head had twisted about so that his great dark eyes, streaming tears of pure blood, stared directly into Axis'. Axis felt as though they somehow accused. He saw himself as Raum must see him. Standing close to Faraday, while Raum knew well that Axis had taken...Stars! Axis gave a great groan.

Shush! The moment of transformation is dose now, Axis. Be still. Do not fear for him.

Axis shielded his eyes from Raum's unblinking stare and screened his thoughts from Faraday, guilt consuming him. Guilt, but determination also. He would not suffer like this once Faraday knew about and had accepted Azhure.

Faraday gasped as Raum sickeningly, appallingly, exploded.

Axis could not stop himself from crying out in horror as a fine spray of blood and tissue arced through the Grove.

By his side Faraday flinched, although she managed not to cry out. Instead, a look of utter amazement spread across her face. "Mother!" she cried in shock.

She had known Raum would transform, but not like this. Not into this!

Axis raised his eyes and stared at the spot where Raum had, but a moment before, lain convulsing in pain. All traces of blood had gone. Instead, a magnificent white stag lay there, its head drooped so that its nose rested on the ground.

Axis' head jerked, his eye caught by a movement at the edges of the grove.

One of the half-man half-stag creatures he remembered from his dream - a Horned One with a magnificent silver pelt - had stepped forth and was walking over to where what-had-been-Raum lay curled in the soft grass. He bent down, extending a hand to touch the stag's forehead, and for an instant the stag bowed its handsomely antlered head under the Horned One's touch.

As the Horned One stepped back a great cry erupted from the watchers among the trees. The Horned One threw his

head back and screamed, the cry turning into myriad exultations.

"Raum," Faraday muttered brokenly by Axis' side. Raum had not transformed into a Horned One at all, but into the Sacred Stag of the Enchanted Woods. "Oh Raum," she breathed. "I always knew you were special, and I have been blessed beyond measure to witness this."

She did not yet fully realise that it had been her own use of the power of the Mother and the Sacred Grove that had effected this transformation.

"I don't understand," Axis said.

Faraday paused before she answered, recalling some of Ur's teachings.

"Occasionally," she said, "once every hundred generations, there is a Bane of such purity and goodness who, when he transforms, does not transform into a Horned One but into a Sacred Stag - the most magical and fey of the creatures of the Sacred Grove."

"The Avar revere the stag," Axis said softly, recalling his own teaching in Talon Spike. "The stag plays a central, pivotal role in the Yuletide celebrations. It is his sacrifice, his blood, that gives the sun the ^strength to be reborn. All Banes identify with the stag."

Faraday nodded. "Yes. The leaping deer, or stag, is the emblem of all Banes." She paused, and when she resumed her voice was choked with emotion.

"I am so glad that Raum's purity of heart and soul have been rewarded in this manner. Now the Sacred Stag will run through the Enchanted Wood again.

Mother, you have blessed all of your children."

Slowly the Raum-Stag rose to his feet, rocking a little as he got used to balancing on four legs instead of two. Gradually other Horned Ones drifted from the tree line, reverentially moving to greet the Sacred Stag.

For a long time Axis and Faraday stood silently, observing the acceptance of the Sacred Stag into the holy community of the Sacred Grove.

Eventually Faraday's hand tightened once more about Axis' arm. "Come,"

she whispered, and Axis reluctantly let her lead him into the centre of the Grove where the Horned Ones milled about the Stag.

As they drew close the Horned Ones regarded Axis with ill-concealed hostility.

So, they still dislike me, Axis thought. I will ever have trouble with the trees.

Do not fear, beloved, Faraday reassured him. They will learn to accept you.

"Who are you?" the whisper rose around Axis. "How did your feet find the paths? Why do you stand so close to Tree Friend?"

His feet followed mine along the paths. The Stag's mind-voice echoed through the Grove as he stepped forward and tipped his anders in greeting.

"I am Axis Rivkahson SunSoar," Axis said eventually. "Once BattleAxe -"

The Grove was filled with hisses.

- but now released from the lies that bound me. I am Axis SunSoar, StarMan. I reforge Tencendor to stand against Gorgrael."

"What do you do here?" a voice asked from deep among the group of Horned Ones.

"He is here because / invited him," Faraday said firmly. "And you should greet him well. He is the StarMan, and I brought him here this night to meet you. One day you will work on his behalf against Gorgrael. Both his efforts and mine will see the forests replanted into Tencendor."

The silver pelt nodded and spoke. "We have been watching you, Axis SunSoar. We have watched and observed." He stared into Axis' eyes, and, though Axis stared defiantly back, he wondered how much the Horned Ones had observed.

The silver pelt bared his teeth, and Axis hoped that it was the Horned One's equivalent of a grin. "You have already won for Tree Friend the right to replant most of the ancient forests."

By Axis' side Faraday gasped in surprised pleasure. She did not know, as the Horned Ones obviously did, of Axis' treaty with the Barons Ysgryff and Greville.

"For that we thank you," the silver pelt finished, swinging his eyes to Faraday. "But much pain lies ahead." There was too much knowledge in those eyes for Axis' liking.

"Forgive us if we do not yet welcome you into the Grove with open hearts,"

the silver Horned One said, "but perhaps one day your wife can bring you back.

She will always be welcome."

He turned and placed his hand lightly on the Stag's shoulder. "Welcome to our community, Holy One," he said. "Come. We have the secret forest paths that your hooves crave."

Axis, blinked, startled. The Horned Ones had completely vanished, and with them had gone the Stag - Raum.

Faraday smiled into Axis' eyes and, consumed with guilt, he bent to kiss her.

"No," she said, drawing back. "Not while I am still married and vowed to Borneheld. Will you come to free me soon?"

"Yes," Axis whispered.

She took a step back from him. "Free me soon, Axis. I have waited so long for you. Too long." Her smile died. "I have hungered so long, and yet you look so different. Not the same man who left me in Gorkenfort. What have you done since then, Axis SunSoar? Who have you become? Do you still love me?"

Axis opened his mouth, desperately searching for words. Instead of speaking, he simply stretched out his hands towards her. Mist began to drift about the Grove.

"Do you still want me?" Faraday whispered. Why did her voice sound so frightened?

"Yes," Axis replied. Yes, he did still desire her - she was a beautiful woman, and her power called to him. Well, perhaps desire would be enough for her.

"Then hurry," Faraday said. "Hurry!"

The mist thickened and congealed about them, and in the space of only two heartbeats both Faraday and the Grove were completely obscured.

He closed his eyes and strained desperately forward.

"Faraday!" he called, and opened his eyes straight into Azhure's stare, leaning over him as he twisted about in the blankets.

"You have been dreaming," Azhure said flatly, "but now it is morning."

She turned away and began hurriedly to dress, keeping her back to him as she pulled her tunic over her head. The scars down her back ridged and bunched as Azhure twisted into the tunic, and Axis watched her silently, the emotions of his dream lingering still. What was he going to do?

Azhure stood and picked up her son. "Breakfast cooks on the fire outside,"

she said, avoiding Axis' eyes. "If you continue to lie there it will spoil."

Then she pushed aside the tent flap and was gone.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, too late.

Then it is War, Brother?

He kept Belaguez to a walk as he rode through the ranks of his army. On their right flank Grail Lake glittered in the distance, the pink walls and the silver and gold rooftops of Carlon rising like a fairytale backdrop behind it. On its shores waited the Tower of the Seneschal — Spiredore.

It was the third week of Weed-month. Over the past month Axis had painstakingly marched his army slowly from the Silent Woman Woods across the Plains of Tare. Borneheld had sent nothing to stop them.

Ahead of him Magariz and Belial sat their horses patiently, their mail coats gleaming as brightly as Grail Lake itself, and for a moment Axis' eye lingered on Magariz.-The vision of his mother sleeping in Magariz's arms still returned to bother Axis at odd moments. He had observed Rivkah and Magariz carefully over the past weeks. If they did spend the occasional night together then there was little hint of it in their daytime relations.

Axis hastily averted both his eye and his thoughts. Rivkah could choose as she wished. Why should a dalliance with Magariz bother him?

Belaguez had almost reached the front ranks now, and Axis saw Azhure. She sat Venator slightly to one side of Magariz, as beautiful in her weapons and mail as she was naked in his blankets. Yet over the past five or six weeks the most Axis had seen of Azhure's body had been her naked, scarred back. Ever since Axis had awoken calling Faraday's name Azhure had grown ever more distant and silent with him. She still lay by his side at night, but remained stiff and unyielding.

Axis burned for her, more than he could have ever imagined burning for any woman. She occupied his thoughts almost constantly, and the deepening distance between them was slowly driving him mad. No woman he had wanted before had denied him like this. To have her breathing softly by his side night after night, completely untouchable, drove him to distraction.

As Axis passed Azhure turned her head slightly, refusing to look him in the eye.

Axis' mouth thinned and he reined Belaguez to a halt some four or five paces beyond his commanders. He forced Azhure from his mind and lifted his eyes.

Borneheld sat at the head of his army five hundred paces away as it lay huddled about Bedwyr Fort and the sharp elbow of the Nordra where it turned south towards its mouth into the Sea of Tyrre.

Today Axis would give Borneheld his last chance to back down, to agree to join Axis in fighting against Gorgrael. Of course, Axis sincerely hoped that Borneheld would elect to fight him instead, for Borneheld still had to die, and Axis preferred it to be as a result of battle rather than cold-blooded murder.

Yet...yet... Borneheld could not die here on the field. If Faraday wasn't present then the GateKeeper's contract could not be fulfilled.

"Come," he said to Belial and Magariz, and spurred Belaguez forward. Behind them rode Arne, carrying the golden standard, the wind whipping and crackling the material so that the blazing sun actually seemed to spit and hiss like an angry fire.

None of the men were armed, and all were unhelmeted.

As Axis and the three who accompanied him rode across the open field between the two armies, a small group of horsemen broke away from Borneheld's army and rode to meet them.

As the two small groups of horsemen approached each other Rivkah kicked her horse forward and joined Azhure. Their eyes were glued to Axis' retreating form.

"Have you told him yet?" she asked.

Azhure shook her head. "He does not need to know, Rivkah. He has too much to worry him at the moment for me to add to his concerns."

"He has every right to know, Azhure. How can you deny him this knowledge?"

Azhure turned to Rivkah, angry now. "I understand your concern, Rivkah, but this a problem for myself and Axis. After the battle for Tencendor has been won, then I will tell him."

Rivkah shook her head, her face lined with worry. What was Axis planning to do about Azhure and Faraday? He was as touchy on the subject as Azhure was about her pregnancy.

Slowly the two groups of horsemen converged. It is Gun-dealga Ford all over again, thought Belial as he reined his horse back to a trot, except the purpose of this meeting is to declare the truce null and void - and to make sure everyone understands this fight will be to the death. Finally Axis and Borneheld's bitter feud would reach its bloody conclusion.

Axis and Borneheld halted some seven or eight paces apart and stared into each other's eyes. Axis' blood-red cloak flapped about his golden tunic, Borneheld wore a regal golden circlet above his gleaming bronzed WarLord's armour. What would this world have been like, Belial wondered suddenly, if only one and not the other had been born? Both were largely what they were because of the rivalry between them. Would Borneheld have been so hostile to the Forbidden if Axis had not led them? So full of doubts if he did not have the golden rivalry of his brother to overshadow him? Would Axis have been so willing to subject Achar to civil war if Borneheld had not been King? So desperate to reach Faraday if she had not been Borneheld's wife?

"Well, brother," Axis said, "it seems the time for treaties and truces has well and truly died."

"Have you made your peace with your dark and malevolent gods, Axis?"

Borneheld sneered. "Shortly you will meet with them face to face."

Axis forced a smile to his face, and watched as Borneheld's own face darkened in anger. "Brother, I have asked to meet you this one last time to offer to you again the chance to fight under my command so that we may both repel the invader."

"You are the invader, Axis," Borneheld sputtered angrily. "And / am here to repel you."

"Then it is war, brother? You would prefer that I now move to complete your humiliation?" Axis broadened his smile. "Borneheld, surely you realise that I now control more of Achar than you do?"

"I see the standards of the traitors Ysgryff and Greville flying in the ranks behind you, Axis. What did you offer them to make them renege on their duty to their King and to their god?" Borneheld snarled.

Each new example of traitorous activity drove Borneheld close to despair, and none so much as Ysgryff and Greville's defection. Why was Artor betraying him like this? Artor? Artor? Do you still listen, Artor? Are you still there?

Over the past weeks Borneheld's nightmares had got so bad that he hardly dared lay his head down at night. The evil-eyed black-haired witch, a-waiting at her counting table, appeared night after night, beckoning to him with her long white fingers.

Sometimes she held out a begemmed chalice, brimming with water.

During the day Jayme, as his advisers, bolstered Borneheld's conviction and his belief in himself, but Borneheld wondered if their consciences troubled them late into the night too. And well might they desperately try to bolster my courage and belief, Borneheld thought cynically, because I am all that now stands between them and disaster. My army is the only thing that stands between Axis and the Tower of the Seneschal. Even Jayme has laid aside his ill-temper in the face of Axis' army.

"Ysgryff and Greville came willingly to my cause," Axis said, noting the dark shadows under Borneheld's grey eyes. "As did all my army. Every one at my back loves me, Borneheld, and loves my cause. Can you say the same? / do not have to hire men to fight for me."

Borneheld relaxed on his horse. At least this Axis did not know. "I have concluded an alliance with the Corolean Emperor, Axis. Hourly there arrive ships from Coroleas bringing me reinforcements. If you think to attack me, Axis, then delay not. Each day, each hour you wait, adds to my strength."

The only indication of Axis' surprise was a slight tightening of his hands about Belaguez's reins. An alliance with Coroleas? Axis had long feared this. The Corolean Empire had massive resources in both gold and manpower -if Axis did not defeat Borneheld quickly and decisively, then he could be bogged down in southern Achar in a disastrous war of attrition for months to come. Not only was there the GateKeeper's contract to fulfil, but Axis also worried deeply about Gorgrael and his continuing development of the Skraelings. Every day Axis wasted in southern Achar brought the likelihood of disaster in the north closer.

Axis glanced behind Borneheld. Jorge and Gautier had accompanied him to meet with Axis - but if Jorge and Gautier were in Carlon, who was left to effectively command the defences at Jervois Landing?

And what had Borneheld offered the Emperor for a military alliance?

Borneheld could read the query on Axis' face as soon as it crossed his mind.

"Nor, brother. I offered him Nor."

"Well, I hope the Emperor does not lust too badly for Nor. He shall not have it." Axis' smile had gone completely now.

"I doubt we have much else to say to each other, Axis," Borneheld said, and wheeled his horse away.

"Wait!" Axis' voice was sharp. "There is someone waiting behind who wants to speak with you."

Borneheld pulled his horse up and turned as a lone figure spurred its horse forward from the front ranks of Axis' army.

"Someone you have wanted to meet for a very long time," Axis added.

A silver-haired woman drew close, slowing her horse. She was very handsome, fine-boned. Borneheld's frown deepened.

"Rivkah," Axis said, smiling at her, and Borneheld literally lurched in his saddle with shock. "Our mother wants to speak with you, Borneheld. She wants to see you once more before you die."

Rivkah walked her horse over to Borneheld and slowly reached out and touched his cheek. Her face was impassive.

"Mother?" Borneheld whispered. Now she was closer he did not doubt that this was his mother. She had Priam's eyes, and her face was an older version of the portrait of her he had in his apartments. Her memory was almost as important to him as was his devotion to Artor. And now here she sat before him, her fingers running gently down his cheek, her face expressionless, her grey eyes cool.

"Borneheld," Rivkah said. "I had wondered what my eldest had made of himself. Now here he sits before me." He was the image of Searlas, she thought, and abruptly she shivered.

As Rivkah remembered how much she loathed his father, her fingers, once gentle, now pinched Borneheld's cheek sharply, and he pulled away in shock.

Rivkah's eyes had hardened and narrowed so that her gaze was now flinty and angry.

"You murdered my brother, Borneheld!"

"You abandoned me to a cruel and heartless childhood, Mother," he retorted, trying to turn the accusations against her. "How could you have done that?"

"Easily," Rivkah said. "/ was the one trapped in cruelty and heartlessness. I never cared for you or your father and I revelled in the chance to make a life for myself, a new family, among others."

"Then be not surprised that I have turned out to be the man I am,"

Borneheld said, gaunt and shadowed. "Be not surprised that I have done the things I have done."

Everyone listening stiffened in shock. Was this an admission of guilt regarding Priam's death?

"If you do not like what you see before me, then blame yourself. was not the one who ran away to let me grow unrestrained and unloved in a cold household."

"I did not abandon you in quite the way you seem to think, Borneheld,"

Rivkah said finally. "I was forced from your side to give birth to Axis in a cold and cheerless room. Then my newborn son was hurried from my side and my ears filled with the lie that he was dead. I was dragged, desperate and bleeding, to die on the slopes of the Icescarp mountains. Borneheld, why don't you ask Jayme and Moryson how I got there? And Borneheld, please pass on to them my wish that we soon meet. There is a small matter of attempted murder that must surely weigh heavily on their minds. Perhaps, before they die, they might wish to confess to both me and their god." Her face was cold.

"No," Borneheld whispered. He did not want to be forced to believe the lie that Axis had told him at Gundealga Ford. He did not want to believe that Jayme and Moryson were guilty of trying to murder his mother. But they had planned other murders with ease, had they not?

"I have no doubt that they are men easy with murder, Borneheld," Axis said.

"Are you safe from their plots?"

Borneheld gave a wordless cry and wrenched the head of his horse about.

"You ask if it is war, brother? It has always been war between us, and I long for the moment when your death puts an end to our rivalry and hatred!"

For a long agonising moment he stared at Rivkah, then he booted his horse and galloped back towards his army.

Gautier turned after him, but Jorge hesitated.

"Princess Rivkah," he said, bowing slightly in his saddle. "I am well pleased to see that you survive and look so well." He turned back to Axis and spoke but one word. "Roland?"

"Roland is as well as can be expected. He rests easily at Sigholt."

"Ah," Jorge said, his eyes far away, then they refocused on Axis. "Axis, if I do not survive this battle, will you tell him that I have valued his friendship above all else during the past few years?"

Axis stared at the Earl of Avonsdale. "Jorge, why don't you join me? You have heard Borneheld. The man is either mad or a murderer, and quite probably both."

Jorge thought of his family, his daughters and son and their children. If he spurred his horse to join Axis they would all be dead by morning.

"Ah," Axis said. "Does Borneheld now have to take hostages to ensure the support of his commanders?"

Jorge's eyes filled with tears. "I wish you well, Axis. That is a strange thing to say to the commander of an opposing force, is it not? But I do wish you well, Axis."

"And I you, Jorge," Axis said. "And I you."

Battle Evef f lies, Borneheld," Jayme said soothingly. "All/JX

lies. Axis probably now wields sorcerer's powers, JL JLcertainly if he now reads minds as easily as yousuggest. How much effort would it take for him to conjure avision and attach it to some strange woman's face? Now, now, Borneheld. Be calm. Think rationally."

Jayme looked over at Moryson standing patiently across the room. Both men, as the larger number of the Brotherhood, had taken permanent refuge in the palace in Carlon. That Jayme had been forced to virtually abandon the Tower of the Seneschal to Axis' army appalled him. The remaining cohort of Axe-Wielders surrounded the Tower, but Jayme doubted they could hold out for long against the forces arrayed before them.

But that was not Jayme s current concern. Borneheld had come back from his foolish meeting with Axis in a dither about some woman who claimed to be Rivkah.

Jayme squared his shoulders and stared at Borneheld. The man had succumbed to an attack of conscience. Artor damn him! Jayme thought savagely.

Why develop a conscience at this late stage of his life?

"Majesty," Moryson said, stepping forward from his corner. "I can only echo what Jayme has said. Why believe a man who is undoubtedly in league with demons? What has he done for you to trust him? Betray you at Gorkenfort? Send his flying monstrosities to worry you at Jervois Landing? Seduce away some of your most senior — if unreliable -commanders? Why trust a man like that?"

Borneheld looked at Moryson, desperate to believe him. Moryson's open face and clear blue eyes, his habitually mild expression and soft voice reassured him a little.

"Always before the dawn is the darkest hour," Moryson continued. "Now is your darkest hour, Borneheld. Artor waits to see if you are capable of leading Achar and the Seneschal through it. Borneheld." Moryson stepped close now and laid a calming hand on the King's shoulder. "I bless the luck which brought you to our aid at this moment. Who else could lead us through?"

Well, Borneheld, Jayme thought as he watched Moryson pat the man soothingly on the shoulder, you only live because we cannot find the man to replace you. As yet, my King, we still need you, although I fear that we made a grave mistake in elevating you to such a powerful position. Oh Artor, perhaps we should simply have continued with Priam? The man was a fool, but generally manageable.

A feeling of peace and tranquillity flooded through Borneheld. Yes, Moryson and Jayme were right. How could he have listened to Axis? The man was evil to the core.

Gautier, silent while Moryson and Jayme had reasoned with Borneheld, now stepped forward. "Sire. I have some thoughts regarding our plan of action on the morrow."

"Yes?" Borneheld asked. It was late, but he did not want to go to sleep. "A plan?"

"Let me explain ..." Gautier began.

In another corner of the palace Faraday sat silent while Yr brushed out her hair.

"I can feel Jack, Ogden and Veremund," Yr said. "They are close. Soon we will be reunited." She put the brush down.

"Although what the four of us can do I do not know. With Zeherah absent, lost, the Prophecy will undoubtedly fail."

Faraday stood and walked over to the window overlooking Grail Lake. Far away, so far distant that she could almost not see it, she could discern the flickering points of light which marked the first ranks of Axis' camp.

Since she returned from the Grove Faraday had been consumed with worry about Axis' feelings for her. He had hesitated when she'd asked if he still loved her. Even then he had really only said he desired her. Faraday's eyes filled with tears. Borneheld had desired her, and that desire had brought only pain and hate. She wanted to be loved before anything else.

"I thought he loved me," she said, her eyes on the camp.

Yr put a comforting hand on Faraday's bare shoulder. "Faraday, sweet heart," Yr began softly. "He has been away a long time. You have both grown in different directions. Axis has become an Icarii Enchanter - no longer is lie the Battle-Axe you fell in love with. And no longer are you the girl who stared at him so innocently in the Chamber of the Moons. I have no doubt Axis was astounded to find you so changed. Sweeting, perhaps all you both need is a little peace to get to know each other again. After all, what time have you ever managed to spend alone? What time have you had to get to know each other? Fear not, Faraday. Your time awaits you."

"Do you think so, Yr?" Faraday turned to the Sentinel, hope illuminating her green eyes. "Do you really think so?" What Yr said made sense. Both Axis and she had undergone their own transformations — but they could soon learn to re-love each other.

Another watched the distant camp fires that night as he paced the rooftops of the palace of Carlon. Timozel seethed with fury and resentment. Battle loomed on the morrow and Borneheld insisted he remain behind - remain behind! - to guard Faraday lest some feathered evil try to carry her off.

/ am the man of vision, Timozel thought furiously, pacing back and forth across the rooftops, / am the one Artor has indicated should lead the battle on the morrow!

A great and glorious battle and the enemy's positions were overrun — to the man (and others stranger who fought shoulder to shoulder with them) the enemy died. Timozel lost not one soldier.

"Me!" Timozel muttered and stopped abruptly, his dark cloak swirling about him. "Me/"

Remarkable victories were his for the taking.

And yet thin-faced Gautier would ride at Borneheld's side, but not Timozel.

"You will lose if you do not let me fight for you," Timozel said, more calmly now. "Lose. Stay behind yourself, Borne-held, and let me command Gautier and your army. / am the man of vision, /am the man of victory!"

But were his visions wrong? Misleading? Had he misinterpreted them? Was Borneheld, the fool, not the Great Lord for whom he would win so many victories?

His name would live in legend forever.

"Yes!" Timozel muttered ecstatically.

Axis sat, smiling, before the dancing fire, bouncing Caelum on his knee.

Every day his son grew more fascinating than the day before. He was talking in short sentences now, and crawling about whenever he got the chance. Only this morning Axis had been forced to rescue him from beneath Belaguez's agitated hooves.

"Caelum," Axis whispered into his son's ear, and brushed back the child's mop of unruly black curls.

"Papa!" Caelum cried, and then shrieked with laughter as Axis began to tickle his stomach and back.

Azhure, sitting to one side, looked on and couldn't help but smile. Axis, glancing up, reached across and took her hand. "Azhure, let us not go into battle distanced as we have been. Do you want to reconsider your decision to stay with me?"

"No," she said softly. "I do not want to reconsider my decision, Axis. But I fear it. I fear the future very much."

"Mama!" Caelum reached out both arms for Azhure. "Azhure!"

Caelum had never called Azhure by her given name previously, and Azhure laughed in sheer delight, dropping Axis' hand to lift their son into her arms.

"Azhure!" Caelum cried again, and spoke to his mother with his mind as well. /

will never forget your name.

Azhure's eyes filled with tears as she hugged Caelum.

"Why should he say that?" Axis asked. Gael urn's words had sounded in a faint echo through his mind as well.

Caelum turned and regarded his father solemnly with his great blue eyes.

Because Azhure has forgotten her mother's name, she fears that one day I snail forget hers. She fears that as we both live on far past her own lifespan we will forget her name as her bones crumble into distant memory.

Axis' mouth dropped open, astounded both by the length of his son's thought and by his perception, and he lifted his eyes to Azhure. Was that what was wrong?

"Faraday will live with you, Axis," Azhure said. "You will both live into legend, as will Caelum. Eventually you will forget me. Am I mentioned by the Prophecy?

No. Yet Faraday is die wife who will hold her husband's slayer in joy at night."

"By all the gods that walk the distant paths of the stars, Azhure, / will never forget you! I swear it?'

Nor will I forget, Caelum whispered into her mind. Nor I.

"It is why I fear the future with you, Axis," Azhure said. "Because, in the end, I will not share the future of either you or my son. Faraday will, but I will not."