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.