one, stepped through the door.
―No,‖ Isfrael shouted. ―No, this is madness! We can survive, I guarantee it!‖
―Isfrael.‖ Faraday‘s soft voice.
―Isfrael,‖ she repeated, and he raised his eyes to hers.
She opened her arms. ―I love you, Isfrael. Do you not remember me saying those words
to you?‖
―It‘s too late,‖ he said. ―Way too late.‖
The line of Avar moved rapidly through the door. To one side stood Faraday, to the other,
Isfrael. They stared at each other, neither willing to let go the other‘s eyes, the shifting Avar
flickering shadows over their faces.
Why don‘t you let me love you? Faraday thought, but all she received in reply was a wall
of implacable silent hatred from her son. She had abandoned him, and now she had disinherited
him, and Faraday knew she had undoubtedly alienated her son forever.
One child, she thought. Fate gave me but one child, and look what I have done to him!
The last Avar clan group stepped into the doorway, hesitating briefly, as if not wanting to
leave these two alone.
Then they were gone.
―You should not have done that,‖ Isfrael said quietly, but with malevolence vibrating
through his voice. ―You should not have done that.‖
And then he, too, was gone.
Gone to nurse his hatred and resentment within Sanctuary.
―Oh, Shra,‖ Faraday whispered into the empty grove. ―What have I done?‖
Faraday lowered her face and turned it to one side.
When she raised it again she was alone in the grove.
Alone, save for a pleasant-faced woman in late middle age standing just before the circle
of stone about the Earth Tree. Her dark brown hair was greying and coiled loosely about Her
head. She had cheerful blue eyes and a friendly smile with slightly crooked ivory teeth. She wore
a soft pale blue robe, belted about Her waist with a rainbow-striped band.
The Mother.
―Mother?‖ Faraday said, and suddenly the Mother was before Faraday, and folding her in
Her arms. Faraday wept, and clung tighter.
―Daughter,‖ the Mother said, ―do not grieve.‖
Faraday leaned back and made a poor effort at wiping the tears from her face. ―Do not
grieve? The land is desecrated about us, and worse is to follow. These forests will become
wasteland, and you…you…‖
The Mother hugged her again, then took Faraday‘s face in Her warm hands. ―You are a
dear girl,‖ She said, ―to worry so much about an old woman like Me. Ah.‖
Her face took on a mock grave expression. ―Here you are, lecturing to your son about
paths which must be taken, and yet you do not dare the path yourself? You will not open the gate
never opened?‖
―What do you mean?‖
The Mother laid a hand on Faraday‘s breast. ―Follow your own path, Daughter. Follow
your heart.‖
Faraday averted her eyes. ―I cannot. If I…if I allow myself to love Drago, then he will
betray me.‖
The Mother shook Faraday‘s face slightly until the woman looked back at her. ―Trust,‖
She said.
Faraday did not answer.
―If Tencendor is to be redeemed, and brought through the darkness,‖ the Mother said,
―then it will need love to do so.‖
―As Axis betrayed me, so will Drago—‖
―Silence!‖ The Mother frowned in annoyance. ―Have you never thought, you simpleton,
what rewards an honest love will bring you?‖
―Drago says he will never betray me, but he will…for Tencendor. How can you say he
won‘t?‖
―I can only say to you…trust. Until you learn to dare, you will never learn to live. What
is this you exist in now? Some half-life, not daring a single risk? Faraday… take that risk, and
learn to laugh!‖
―And death is worth that laughter? Noah told me that by aiding Drago I would either gain
complete and lasting happiness and peace, or annihilation. I cannot risk annihilation again,
Mother! I cannot!‖
The Mother‘s fingers dug deep into Faraday‘s cheeks, and Faraday gasped in pain.
―Why are you so determined to seek annihilation then, girl? Drago offers you the path to
lasting peace and happiness…yet you are so preoccupied with annihilation you will accomplish it by sheer strength of will! Curse you, Faraday!‖
Faraday was again silent, remembering what Drago had said to her when they‘d parted.
Your Sanctuary is in my heart.
―If you don‘t risk it,‖ the Mother said, ―then you will surely achieve annihilation. And yet
you dare to castigate Isfrael for not daring the unknown and instead choosing the safe path to
sure destruction. You are the agent of your own destruction, my girl, no-one else.‖
Faraday averted her eyes from the Mother.
―Isfrael did not inherit his stubbornness only from his father, methinks,‖ the Mother said
softly.
Faraday sighed. ―What will happen to you when Qeteb rises? Can he touch you? What
about the Earth Tree?‖
―The Earth Tree‘s roots stretch down very, very far…down to unknown caverns. Do you
understand Me?‖
―Yes.‖
―Good. The Earth Tree will watch her daughters burn and crumble into ash, and she will
be mightily enraged. But you don‘t truly believe that everything about this forest will die. Do you?‖
Faraday managed a wan grin. ―You are a very wily Mother.‖
The Mother laughed and finally released Faraday. ―I will return to the Sacred Groves, and
close the paths behind Me. The Demons, even with Qeteb, cannot bother Me there. I shall sit and
drink tea with Ur and we shall chat about babies. But here…I want you to have this.‖
The Mother unwound the rainbow-striped band from Her waist and belted it loosely
about Faraday‘s. ―Remember me with it.‖
She leaned forward, kissed Faraday softly on the lips, and then She was gone.
Faraday blinked, and realised that cold stars circled about her. She‘d been standing all
night in the Earth Tree Grove and was chilled through. Shivering, she closed her cloak about her,
but as she moved she felt something about her waist.
The Mother‘s band…but something more. There was something inside it.
Faraday slowly unwound it.
Nestled inside the band, warm and snug, was the arrow that Drago had shot over the mass
of crazed people in the Western Ranges, its shaft now strangely flexible.
But the arrow was not what made her eyes widen in wonder. Around the arrow‘s shaft
was wound a small and fragile sapling. It had a spray of fine roots at one end, and an equally fine
spray of tiny oval-shaped leaves at the other.
Faraday raised her face and looked at the Earth Tree.
It was gone.
68
Mountain, Forest and Marsh
Spiredore deposited Gwendylyr on the very peak of Star Finger. Disorientated, for
Gwendylyr had never been to Star Finger—or, indeed, the Icescarp Alps—she turned slowly
about, studying the view and the flat surfaces about the huge shaft that dropped away into the
mountain, then halted abruptly.
A man stood by a doorway leading to a stairwell. Dressed entirely in black, he had the
lithe figure of a swordsman, a hint of the slightly alien features of an Icarii, and faded blond hair
above equally faded but penetrating blue eyes.
He was tense, and a hand rested on the hilt of a sword that hung from his weapons belt.
―Who are you?‖ he asked, his voice hard.
His features reminded Gwendylyr of Drago. ―You are Axis StarMan,‖ she said, and
bowed slightly. ―My name is Gwendylyr, Duchess of Aldeni, and I have come here to show you
the path to Sanctuary.‖
Axis stared, trying to take in both the presence of the black-haired woman, and the words
she spoke.
―Sanctuary?‖ he said, stalling for time.
Gwendylyr withdrew the cube of light from the pocket of her robe and expanded it into
the glowing doorway.
―Through here, via Spiredore, lies Sanctuary,‖ she said. ―Lord Axis, there is only a day or
so left before Qeteb rises, and—‖
―Caelum will stop him.‖
Gwendylyr paused and regarded Axis. ―Maybe, and maybe not. Will you risk all who
inhabit this mountain?‖
There was a movement behind Axis, and an extraordinary woman stepped up the
stairwell to join him. She had hair so black it was almost blue, and the most beautiful, and
powerful, eyes Gwendylyr had seen in any living person.
―My Lady Azhure,‖ she said, further introducing herself, and bowing with just a hint
more respect that she‘d given Axis. ―Sanctuary awaits.‖
―Lady Gwendylyr,‖ Azhure said, ―that is a most spectacular enchantment, and one I
cannot fathom. How is it so?‖
Another man and woman had now emerged from the stairwell. They may not have
radiated power, but they nevertheless radiated such an aura of wisdom and experience that
Gwendylyr knew they must be the elder Star Gods, Adamon and Xanon.
―It is hard for me to explain in the necessary few words, Lady Azhure,‖ Gwendylyr said,
―but it is a product of the Acharite enchantment revived through death.‖
―What?‖ Axis snapped.
With admirable patience, Gwendylyr told them all she‘d learned from Faraday and
Drago, and explained to them the power that Acharites could command once they‘d passed