Pease,‖ Barsarbe broke in suddenly, standing at the entrance to the tent and looking coolly at
Azhure. The two Avar women stopped laughing and looked away from Azhure although
GoldFeather smiled reassuringly at the young woman. Barsarbe turned her attention to Grindle‘s senior wife. ―Fleat, will you assist me? Raum refuses to lie abed any longer, and he insists on
joining us for the evening meal. Well, I suppose it is time we heard what he has to say.‖
The two women supported a still-ashen Raum out of the tent. His leg was tightly bound
and splinted, and he found it awkward to swing as he hobbled to the fire. Raum sank gratefully
down by the fire. Obviously still in some pain, he managed to smile at the women and children
gathering in some excitement about him. Grindle himself stalked back into camp and peered
anxiously at Raum.
―Brother, are you well?‖
―Thanks to the skill of Barsarbe and the good care of Fleat and Pease, yes, I will be well,
Grindle.‖ The deep lines around his mouth and the unnatural pallor of his skin partially belied his
words, but the spark of life burned bright in his eyes, and his mouth retained a quirk of humour.
Grindle looked relieved and joined the others around the fire. ―I would never have let an
Axe-Wielder catch me, brother,‖ he said mildly.
―He stayed behind so that Shra and I could escape,‖ Azhure said, stung that Grindle
should even jest about Raum‘s inability to flee the BattleAxe.
Both Grindle and Barsarbe looked at her sharply, annoyed that she had spoken, and
Azhure subsided, regretting her interruption. Even the three older children aped their father and
stared at her with a total lack of tolerance. GoldFeather patted Azhure‘s arm in sympathy; of all
the others about this campfire, GoldFeather knew what it felt like to be an outsider among a
people who had no understanding of the culture that had shaped her. GoldFeather had found her
first years among the Icarii hard.
Fleat gave Raum a mug of the herbed tea the Avar brewed and drank at every
opportunity, and the Bane drank it down gratefully. For a long moment he looked into the fire,
then he sighed and spoke to the group.
―There is much I have to tell you,‖ he said, ―and much of it is bad. What is not bad is, to
say the least, puzzling.‖ He took Barsarbe‘s hand as she sat beside him. ―Barsarbe, it is as we
feared. The Prophecy is awake and walking. Gorgrael has indeed been born, and is even now
preparing to push his forces south and destroy all before him.‖
Everyone about the fire gasped, save Azhure, who looked mystified. All the Avar knew
of the Prophecy of the Destroyer, and the talk at the last Beltide Meet had been primarily
concerned with the fear that the time of the Prophecy of the Destroyer was finally upon them.
―How can you be sure?‖ Barsarbe asked, after a worried glance at Grindle.
Raum took a deep breath. ―The Sentinels walk abroad. Shra and I met two of them at the
Mother.‖ If Raum‘s previous statement had stunned the group, now they were wide-eyed with
shock. Raum described his meeting with Jack and Yr at Fernbrake Lake and explained how they
had told him that the Prophecy was awakened, and that the StarMan was even now beginning to
stir to meet Gorgrael.
―Where is he?‖ Barsarbe asked urgently.
Raum shrugged. ―I do not know. The Sentinels were reticent when it came to the actual
identity of the StarMan. He walks, as does Gorgrael, but I had the sense from them that the time
is not yet arrived that he can meet Gorgrael. Perhaps he has still to break through the walls that
the lies have built about him.‖
―And what else did the Sentinels have to say, brother?‖
Raum thought for a moment. ―They talked of their two companions left travelling with
the BattleAxe of the Axe-Wielders and of many other things, Grindle. But it is not so much what
they had to say, Grindle, but who they had with them.‖ He paused and looked at the ring of faces staring at him. ―They were at the Mother for a specific purpose. They had brought with them a
young Plains Dweller, a woman called Faraday, to present to the Mother.‖
―Sacrilege!‖ hissed Barsarbe.
Raum put his hand up. ―That was how I reacted, Barsarbe. But the Sentinels invited me to
test her and I did.‖
―You put her to the test?‖ Pease gasped.
Raum nodded. ―She was exceptionally strong. My friends, the Sentinels believe, as I do
now, that she is Tree Friend. The forest sang for her. That has never happened before.‖
For a while there was total silence as the other Avar digested this piece of news. Ever
since the Wars of the Axe, when the Avar were pushed behind the Fortress Ranges and the
southern Avarinheim slaughtered before the axe, it had been legend among the Avar that one day
Tree Friend would appear; a man or woman who would lead them back across the Fortress
Ranges and enable them to re-establish themselves and the Avarinheim on the barren plains that
ran down to Widewall Bay. But that Tree Friend should be a Plains Dweller, of the race that had
slaughtered both the Avar and the Avarinheim, was unthinkable!
Raum could see the thoughts and emotions running across the faces of his fellow Avar
about the fire.
―After the test,‖ he continued softly, knowing as he spoke that his companions did not
really want to hear the words, ―I bonded and presented her to the Mother as I did Shra. We
walked the pathways to the Sacred Grove, and the Horned Ones were there and greeted her and
called her Tree Friend.‖
He stopped and let them absorb the news. GoldFeather found the news easier to accept
than they did. She knew the Avar placed all the hopes of their race in the long-hoped-for Tree
Friend. To find that Tree Friend was of the hated Plains Dwellers was a hard blow for them to
absorb. GoldFeather frowned a little as she remembered the name, Faraday—what was it that
Raum had said to the BattleAxe about Faraday? Azhure still looked totally mystified, and
GoldFeather looked at her and indicated that she would explain later. She looked back to Raum.
Strange days were upon them.
―Where is Tree Friend now?‖ Barsarbe finally, reluctantly, asked.
―She is travelling north to Gorkenfort.‖
GoldFeather‘s head rose sharply and she stared at Raum, her eyes hard, ―where she is to
marry her betrothed, Duke Borneheld of Ichtar.‖
GoldFeather gave a strangled moan, her hands flying to her mouth, her eyes distressed,
and everyone looked at her, startled. ―What is it, GoldFeather?‖ Azhure asked, concerned. She
had never seen GoldFeather anything less than totally composed.
GoldFeather took Azhure‘s hand and grasped it so strongly that she crunched the bones
of Azhure‘s fingers. Azhure‘s mouth tightened a little with the pressure, but she said nothing.
Grindle leaned forward. ―GoldFeather? What is it?‖
GoldFeather fought to compose herself. While some of the Avar, mostly Banes, knew
that she had come of a high-born Acharite family, none knew her true origins or name.
GoldFeather had buried her past completely behind her when she‘d gone to live with the Icarii.
But now Borneheld…Borneheld. Before this morning she had hardly thought of him in almost
thirty years, then first she had feared Borneheld was the BattleAxe, and now Raum mentioned
his name again. Hardly coincidence. Was the Prophecy going to pull her into its frightening
entanglements as well?
―I knew his father once,‖ GoldFeather finally managed to say, trying to reassure the
group with a small but unsuccessful smile. ―He was a hard and humourless man, more
comfortable in his armour with his enemy at the point of his sword than wasting time in needless
pleasantries. I cannot imagine that Borneheld will be anything less than his father. The Prophecy
moves in mysterious ways.‖ Again the Duchess of Ichtar will become friend to the Forbidden,
she thought to herself.
Raum looked at GoldFeather, concerned by her sudden pallor, yet knowing that there was
still more he had to tell the group. News that would confuse, perhaps frighten them, even more.
―My friends, Tree Friend is not the strangest news I have to tell you. You know that Shra
and I were captured by the villagers of Smyrton. They imprisoned us for four days in foul
conditions. Shra was near death.‖ Pease looked stunned, and her arms tightened about the little
girl, who was now awake and listening to Raum avidly. ―On the afternoon of the fourth day the
villagers brought the Seneschal‘s BattleAxe to see us. Shra was no more than an hour from
death.‖
Barsarbe looked as if she wanted to say something, ask Raum some questions, but he
stalled her with a raised hand. ―No, Barsarbe, let me finish what I have to say to you. I held her