and her breasts jiggled in their too-tight bodice. ―No one knows, Faraday. Rivkah flatly refused
to tell. She had not wanted to marry Searlas in the first place, and most people assumed that this
was her way of ending the marriage. Well, Searlas was furious—as he had a right to be. He had believed that Rivkah would be safe at Sigholt—there is no garrison bolted tighter in Achar—and
his suspicions immediately fell upon the garrison guard and servants. It is said that he had half of
them tortured before he came out of his black rage. He had Rivkah sent to the Retreat in
Gorkentown far to the north in a futile effort to keep the birth secret. Futile, because news of the
pregnancy had already reached Carlon and the entire court knew that Searlas was not the father.
The old king Karel, Priam and Rivkah‘s father, was equally livid. He told Searlas that he could
do with Rivkah what he wanted. But in the end Searlas didn‘t have to do anything. Rivkah died
in childbirth.‖
Faraday‘s eyes misted and she twisted her napkin in her lap. ―Oh, how tragic!‖
―Tragic my foot,‖ Devera snorted. ―It was the best thing that could have happened. Well,
the best thing that could have happened was that the bastard child had died at birth as well, but
that was not to be. Searlas flatly refused to acknowledge him. King Karel, and then Priam after
him, refused to even mention Rivkah‘s name, much less acknowledge that her bastard son is of
their blood.‖
―But who took care of the baby? What became of him?‖
―Brother-Leader Jayme, then attached to the royal household, was at the Retreat in
Gorkentown when the boy was born. He took the child into the Seneschal as his protégé, hoping
that the boy would eventually take orders and become a reclusive brother attached to some
retreat in a dusty corner of Achar. It seemed the best solution and relieved both the King and the
Duke of Ichtar of an embarrassing problem. But Axis had no penchant for the Brotherhood, and
every penchant for the sword and the axe. After training in arms at a noble household for several
years Axis joined the Seneschal‘s Axe-Wielders when he was seventeen and, five years ago
when Jayme was elected to the position of Brother-Leader, Axis received the appointment of
BattleAxe from his patron. Jayme pretended not to see the horrified looks at court, arguing that
despite his relative youth Axis was the perfect man for the job—which he has certainly proved to
be. So now the court has to live with a royal bastard, who everyone hoped would fade into
obscurity, holding one of the most elite military posts within Achar. Rivkah‘s shame refuses to
go away.‖
Faraday looked at the Brother-Leader. ―Ah, I had heard that Brother Jayme was a good
and kind man, but this story is proof of it. To take a young babe no-one else wanted and give him
home and family. Artor bless him for that.‖
Axis noticed the young woman staring at him when he passed by her table but thought
little of it. He stepped lightly onto the dais, keenly aware of the sudden tension his arrival had
caused in many members of the royal table. He clenched his right hand into a fist above the
golden axes on his left breast in the traditional salute of the Axe-Wielders and bowed low before
Priam.
―My King, may Artor hold you in his care.‖
―As He may you, BattleAxe,‖ Priam replied tersely.
Axis straightened from his bow and looked Priam directly in the eye. Sheer courtesy on
the king‘s part should have made him offer Axis food and wine and a place at the royal table at
this point; the position of BattleAxe was one of great honour within the realm. But Axis noted
with some grim humour that the king‘s sense of courtesy was noticeably absent when dealing
with his sister‘s bastard. Queen Judith fidgeted nervously with a tassel on her velvet sleeve,
staring at a distant point across the chamber. Her dead sister-in-law‘s fecundity, whether in or out of marriage, was a continual reproach to her own barrenness.
―Your presence is most unexpected,‖ Priam said, carefully folding his napkin and
dabbing delicately at the corner of his mouth.
Axis‘ mouth twitched. ―Obviously sire, for I see you have begun dinner without me.‖
Priam stiffened, slowly lowering the napkin to the table. ―And what has brought you
home from Coroleas so precipitously, BattleAxe?‖
Axis had taken six cohorts of Axe-Wielders south into the neighbouring empire of
Coroleas over two months earlier to help the Coroleans with their eternal problem of vicious
summer raiders from across the eastern seas. It was a mission with dual purpose, to strengthen
the diplomatic ties between Achar and Coroleas and, more importantly to Axis, to continue
giving his own Axe-Wielders vital combat experience. Axis had now taken his command south
on seven different occasions to help the Coroleans with both sea-raiders and internal rebellions.
These successful forays had earned Axis his reputation as a brilliant commander in just five short
years.
But eight days before Axis had received an urgent message from Jayme asking him to
bring himself and his Axe-Wielders home. The message had not said what was wrong, and Axis
had fretted about it for the five days it had taken the ships carrying the Axe-Wielders to sail from
Coroleas to the port of Nordmuth in Achar. He had left his Axemen to travel at a more leisurely
pace from Nordmuth and ridden virtually nonstop to the Tower of the Seneschal, exhausting
himself in the effort. Arriving late this afternoon, only to find that Jayme was attending Priam‘s
nameday banquet across the Grail Lake in Carlon, Axis had cursed the extra time it took to cross
the lake. He sincerely hoped Jayme hadn‘t called him home just to add his own good wishes to
Priam‘s nameday celebrations.
―I but follow the Brother-Leader‘s orders, sire.‖ Bland as it was the remark was designed
to irritate Priam. For many hundreds of years the Acharite monarchs had chafed that the
Axe-Wielders, as a wing of the Brotherhood of the Seneschal, remained under the supreme
control of the Brother-Leader rather than the monarch. Axis risked a glance towards Borneheld.
His half-brother was furious to see him here, and was gripping the stem of his golden wine
goblet so hard Axis thought it might bend or snap at any instant. There was nothing but bitter
enmity between the two brothers.
Axis looked back at Priam, thinking that the man‘s curls made him look effeminate and
ineffectual. ―Sire. May I say that the passing years only add to your elegance and majesty?
Permit me to offer my congratulations on your nameday celebrations. I‘m sure you must find it a
great comfort to be surrounded by your entire family on this joyous occasion.‖ He paused, his
level gaze once more on Priam, calmly ignoring the white faces at his slight stress on the word
―entire‖. ―If I might have your leave to speak with the Brother-Leader, sire.‖
Priam stared at Axis, his entire body rigid, then took a deep breath and dismissed him
with a curt wave of his hand.
Axis bowed again. ―Furrow wide, furrow deep, sire.‖
―Wide and deep,‖ Priam muttered stiffly as Axis bowed again and moved around the
table to speak with Jayme privately.
Borneheld let out a furious breath and turned to Priam. ―Why in Artor‘s name did Jayme
have to recall him!‖
Priam laid a restraining hand on Borneheld‘s arm and spoke quietly, repressing his own
temper at the BattleAxe‘s remarks. ―No matter, nephew. It is as well, perhaps, that he is here.
The latest news from the north is not good and we may well have to use both his expertise and that of his Axe-Wielders.‖
It was not the most diplomatic thing to say to Borneheld. Although control of Achar‘s
regular army was theoretically in Priam‘s hands, Borneheld was their day-to-day commander. He
had dedicated his life to the sword and was a clever military theorist if a somewhat untested
combat commander. Priam had recently awarded Borneheld the title of WarLord of Achar; many
said more in recognition of his position as heir to the throne than his demonstrated skill as a
commander. To suggest that Borneheld might require Axis‘ assistance to cope with the threat
from the frozen wastes to the north of Gorkenfort was to throw salt into a gaping wound. The
Axe-Wielders followed Axis with a loyalty, a devotion and a single-mindedness that Borneheld
both coveted and resented. Borneheld wanted nothing more than to see the Axe-Wielders
disbanded and incorporated into his own command. But he could do nothing. And meantime he
watched the reputation of the Axe-Wielders flower under the leadership of Axis. Because of their
time spent fighting in the Corolean Empire, they had accumulated more real combat experience
in five years than Borneheld had managed in fourteen years. It did not help that, while Borneheld