neither great nor small, Enchanter, nor easily counted. They are myriad. Lady,‖ he inclined his
head slightly back towards GoldFeather, ―I find it hard to talk to you of our lives, such as they
are, along the waterways. Not because I do not wish to, but because I cannot find the words to
explain to you. We are…different…to when we first began to explore the waterways so many
millennia ago. Then we were close kin to the Icarii…now, I am not so sure. The waterways are
strange, and they have led us places that we did not always want to go.‖
Raum, sitting halfway back in the boat, spoke. ―Ferryman, may you find peace.‖ The
Ferryman bowed slightly at the Bane as Raum continued. ―Have you mapped the waterways? Is
there an easy way to find your way about them?‖
The Ferryman considered. ―Bane, you are welcome to my boat. It has been rare that we
have one of your people visit. Map? Why do you ask? Is not the way of the waterways plain for
all to see?‖ He sounded genuinely puzzled at Raum‘s question and again StarDrifter nodded slightly to himself, but wary now to keep his thoughts well-guarded.
Now the Ferryman spoke first. ―You have seen the Sentinels, Bane?‖
―Yes, two. Jack and Yr. At the Mother.‖
―Ah,‖ the Ferryman‘s face broke into a wide smile.
―Yr is my daughter. She was well?‖
―Yes, Ferryman.‖ Raum was genuinely astounded, as were most others who listened.
―She looked well.‖
―Good.‖ He paused, and an expression something like embarrassment crossed his face.
―Lady,‖ he addressed GoldFeather, ―I have perhaps been remiss in not asking a price for the
Ferryman.‖ Her eyes widened, but the Ferryman continued. ―Since it is now too late to negotiate
a price, will you grant me a boon?‖
GoldFeather‘s face remained wary. ―What is it?‖
―Lady, I would ask that you acknowledge your identity as Rivkah, not GoldFeather.
Rivkah is needed to walk the land of Tencendor and to aid your son, GoldFeather is not. This is a
heavy price I ask from you, but I fear it is a necessary one.‖
GoldFeather considered. When she had fled to the Icarii she had shed the name of Rivkah
and adopted the name GoldFeather in an attempt to totally forget her former life and start anew
with the Icarii. Rivkah? She had not thought of herself as Rivkah for thirty years. Rivkah was a
young girl betrayed and murdered by the power games played in upper Acharite society. She
looked at StarDrifter. He was considering her carefully, his face unreadable. She raised her
eyebrows at him and he gave a slight shrug, as if to say it mattered not to him, it was her choice
to name herself GoldFeather and it would be her choice to return to Rivkah. He had loved her as
both.
Rivkah turned to the Ferryman. ―I will grant you what you ask.‖ But Rivkah had not lived
almost forty-eight years amid the intrigues of both upper-level Acharite and Icarii societies
without learning to exact blood for blood. If the Ferryman believed this would cost Rivkah a
high price then Rivkah also determined to exact a price from the Ferryman. ―As I have freely
given you this boon I ask one of you. Grant that if my son Axis should need your assistance, in
whatever manner, you will help him. Do this for Rivkah.‖
The Ferryman‘s nostrils flared and he barked sharply in harsh laughter. ―You have
learned well, Rivkah. Blood for blood. And for blood, your boon is granted. Now, I will not talk
any more. There is much to contemplate before we arrive at Talon Spike.‖
The Ferryman fell silent and refused to answer another question.
55
THE ASSEMBLY OF THE ICARII
StarDrifter eased his aching muscles into the steaming water, holding his breath until his
body had adjusted to the temperature, then relaxed and let himself float away from the side of the
pool, his wings stretching down deep into the water and flexing slowly to keep him comfortably
afloat. Over the past week most of his wounds had closed over, healing well, and only the
deepest of the tears in his chest still kept him awake at night. Until this point in his life
StarDrifter had always revelled in his youth and vibrant health, but the SkraeBold attack had
brought him uncomfortably close to the death he had previously felt was so far away.
Death rarely entered the Icarii mind. They lived so long, and generally retained their
health and mobility until the very end. Then, over a period of only a few weeks, they simply
faded, as if some bright sun inside them had finally run out of combustible fuel. The dead were
mourned briefly, intensely, and then the Icarii got back to living life to the fullest. Until the
attack on Earth Tree Grove few Icarii had met violent deaths over the past thousand years, and
none were left alive from the Wars of the Axes to remind the younger generations what it felt
like to watch friends and family struck down in the prime of their life by cold steel.
But since the return to Talon Spike all Icarii had done a lot of soul searching. There had
been many dead to mourn. Children, roostmates, and parents had died. Others had been terribly
injured and would carry scars for the rest of their lives. They had watched each other being torn
to pieces. And what had they done about it? Virtually nothing but give in to blind panic. The
vaunted Icarii Strike Force had been made to look incompetent. The Icarii searched for
explanations. Crest-Leaders shouted at Wing-Leaders, Wing-Leaders shouted at individuals
within their Wing and Talon RavenCrest shouted at everybody. Councils were convened to
discuss what could be done, argued futilely for hours, and were then disbanded with nothing
decided. The Enchanters, StarDrifter among them, met, wept over the dead farewelled in the
groves of the Avarinheim, and wondered what they could have done differently. StarDrifter, in
an agony of guilt, had all but abased himself before his fellow Enchanters for not realising
sooner that Earth Tree, if awoken, could help them. The other Enchanters had refused to let
StarDrifter assume all the blame; in the end it had been his action, even when so terribly injured,
that had helped save them. His and Azhure‘s.
StarDrifter, now completely relaxed, opened his eyes and looked about the Chamber of
Steaming Water. Great hot mineralised waters bubbled up through the deep fissures of Talon
Spike and fed this pool in its huge Chamber in the depths of the mountain. The Icarii loved the
waters, and usually came here several times a week to soak their cares, such as they were, away.
StarDrifter looked for Azhure and EvenSong. They had come down to the Chamber with
him—Azhure had first seen the hot water the day that they had arrived in Talon Spike and had
come back every day since.
The Ferryman had not talked again after GoldFeather—Rivkah—had won his promise to
assist Axis. StarDrifter smiled as his eyes searched for his daughter and Azhure among the Icarii
disrobing at the steps leading down into the water. Rivkah had thought quickly, and StarDrifter
doubted if any had won such a major concession from the Charonites for a thousand years.
Eventually the silent Ferryman deposited them in a Chamber seemingly identical to the one that
they had summoned him from, pointed to an identical stairwell leading upwards, and floated off
again.
A spasm of remembered pain crossed StarDrifter‘s face as he recalled the climb up those
Star-damned stairs to the top. It had taken them almost half a day and by the end their legs felt as
though they would fall off. The stairwell had opened out into a long disused tunnel that had, after
further long hours of walking, led into one of the storage Chambers in the very deepest part of
the Talon Spike complex. It had been another climb of several hours before they had met anyone
to alert them to their presence. They‘d arrived in Talon Spike only hours after the last waves of
Icarii from Earth Tree Grove landed, and RavenCrest had been astounded by the rapidity of his
brother‘s journey and impatient to hear an explanation. But StarDrifter did not have to feign
bone-deep weariness to wave him off and promise to discuss it another day. If he did. StarDrifter
felt that it might be better to keep the details of the UnderWorld secret a little longer. Perhaps he
might discuss them with FreeFall. The boy had a sharp mind and might see a shadow and a
movement where for StarDrifter there was only brightness.
StarDrifter finally caught sight of EvenSong and Azhure as they left their robes and
towels on a granite bench and stepped into the water. The two women, close in age, had become
friends since their arrival in Talon Spike and, along with Raum, Azhure had moved into the