Not before time, Borneheld thought. Not before time. He had worked hard to conclude this treaty with the Corolean Ambassador — and the troops which the Emperor had promised him would win him back his country.
“Some more wine?” he inquired politely, although he disliked having to waste such good wine on this constipated vegetable. “It is of the finest quality.”
The Silent Woman Dream
It was the last week of Harvest-month, only eight weeks before Axis had to fulfil his side of the contract with the GateKeeper. Axis’ temper grew shorter day by day as he realised how little time he had before his bargain died. But his army had now grown so vast it could not possibly move at the same speed as Axis’ former Axe-Wielders had been able to. As tents were erected at a site just south of the Silent Woman Woods, Axis remembered how his Axe-Wielders had taken three days to traverse the distance between the Silent Woman Woods and the Ancient Barrows. His thirty-one thousand had taken just on nine days to travel the same distance.
Axis sighed and stared at the Silent Woman Woods. He had not objected when his father, grandmother and sundry other Icarii Enchanters had flown into the woods earlier that morning. There was little of danger within the Silent Woman Woods to harm the Icarii, and much to fascinate them, though three Wing of the Icarii Strike Force had accompanied them. Surprisingly, both Ogden andVeremund had shrugged when Axis had asked them if they wanted to ride in, saying that they would return to the Silent Woman Keep one day, but not this one. Raum, beside them, had stood staring longingly at the Woods from beneath the deep overhang of his hood, but had turned away shaking his head when Axis asked him if he would walk among the trees. “Later” was all he had said.
Axis walked slowly towards his tent, preoccupied. His relationship with Azhure was becoming more strained the closer they came to Carlon and to Faraday. Every night between the Ancient Barrows and the Silent Woman Woods Azhure rolled herself and Caelum into her bedroll and turned her back on him. One night Axis had laid his hand on Azhure s shoulder and murmured into her ear. “Do not lock me out of your life, Azhure, I do not intend to let you go.”
She had been silent for a long minute, and Axis had thought she was pretending to be asleep. But she had finally spoken. “You and I have lived together almost a year, and every day I have fallen a little more deeply in love with you. Do not blame me if, now that you draw closer to Faraday, I try to reconcile myself to losing you.”
“You will not lose me -” Axis started, but Azhure rolled over and stared him in the eye.
“I will lose you the moment Borneheld dies, Axis. No matter how much you protest that you love me, I know that one day you will let me go entirely for Faraday. Forgive me, Great Lord, if occasionally I allow myself a little self-pity.”
At that she had rolled back towards Caelum and determinedly shut her eyes, refusing to respond as Axis stroked her and whispered protestations of love for her.
Damn her! Axis swore as he stepped carefully around ropes and tent stakes, perhaps it would be better if I just let her go! But even as the thought crossed his mind, Axis knew he could not do it. Not now that she had bitten so deeply into his soul.
As the night thickened about the Silent Woman Woods, the Cauldron Lake slowly began to boil. A deep golden mist rose from the Lake’s surface and drifted through the trees towards the camp site of Axis SunSoar’s army.
Deep into the night, Axis opened his eyes. For a long time he lay on his back, staring at the dark canvas stretched above him, listening to Azhure breathe deeply by his side.
He was not sure if he dreamed or if he was awake.
Finally Axis rolled out of his blankets and stood up. He considered waking Azhure – for something strange seemed to be about to happen — but decided against it. She had been looking tired and drawn of late and needed her sleep.
Axis ducked his head low and pushed the tent flap back. The camp was shrouded in a thick golden mist. Strange. Perhaps this was a dream. He stepped outside the tent and straightened up. A glint of gold caught his eyes as he dropped his arm from the tent flap. How strange! He was dressed in his golden tunic with its blazing blood-red sun. The one Azhure had stitched for him so long ago in Talon Spike. But why was he wearing it now?
Axis contemplated his appearance, then shrugged. This was a dream, and anything could happen in a dream.
He walked through the camp. About him the camp fires had burned down to glowing coals – no flames leaped to challenge the intruding mist. The Alaunt lay in a sleeping circle about the tent Axis shared with Azhure. None stirred as he walked past, though their sides fell up and down as they breathed deep in their own dreams. Guards, both within the camp and at its perimeter, gazed straight ahead as if in a trance. They did not challenge Axis as he walked slowly past.
None of this troubled Axis. It was a dream, after all.
Slowly, very slowly, Axis moved on, pausing at Belial’s tent and glancing in. Belial lay deep in sleep, twisted into his bedroll beside a dark-haired young girl who travelled with YsgryfFs retinue. A red wool dress lay thrown carelessly across the foot of the blankets. Axis’ mouth twitched. Had Belial found a woman who could take his mind off Azhure?
Axis let the tent flap drop and went to the next tent. Like Belial, Magariz also lay twisted with a woman, but this one Axis knew. Rivkah. His mother.
Axis stood a long time staring at the outline of their entwined bodies beneath the blankets. Was this simply a figment of his sleeping mind? He told himself this was only a vision, and, even if it did speak of truth, why should he speak out against this? But something, deep inside him, told Axis this was a development that should – must – concern him. It bespoke danger, although Axis could not see what kind.
Axis let the canvas of the tent flap slip from his fingers, and he resumed his slow walk through the tents and camp fires, winding his way past sleeping forms towards the perimeter of the camp. Nothing moved. Even time seemed not to breathe within this mist.
Beyond the camp Axis turned towards the Silent Woman Woods, perhaps a hundred paces away. When he had camped here on his journey towards Gorkenfort, he had kept his Axe-Wielders as far from the trees as practicable. Then he and his had feared the trees. But as fear of the Forbidden had lessened and died among those who rode with Axis SunSoar, so also dread of trees and shadowed places had been replaced with acceptance, and even a mild curiosity. When the forests were slowly replanted within eastern Achar — Tencendor — Axis had no doubt that Acharite men and women would walk its paths along with the Avar and the Icarii.
A movement in the mist ahead caught his eye. Movement? In this, the most motionless of dreams? A figure walked ahead, almost totally obscured by golden tendrils of mist. Axis tried to walk faster, but the mist clung heavy to his limbs, weighing them down, and it felt as though he were striding through thigh-deep water.
As he gained on the figure ahead of him, Axis could finally see that it was Raum. He was naked and now Axis could see how his body had twisted almost completely out of shape. Great misshapen growths humped out of his back and chest, and his limbs were twisted and- malformed. His face, when he turned, was so warped it was almost unrecognisable, and he lurched rather than walked, rolling from one leg to another, his pace so unsteady that Axis feared he would fall at any moment. He quickened his own pace as much as he was able, thinking to aid Raum.
But before Axis could catch Raum the Bane abruptly halted and bent down. Axis saw the flash of a knife, then Raum lifted something in his hand. It was the body of a hare. The Bane dipped the fingers of his hand into the open cavity of the hare’s chest, then lifted his fingers to his face and chest.
Axis finally caught up with the Bane and stepped to his side. Raum had drawn thick lines of blood down his face, the middle line centred on his nose, the two companion lines running down either cheek. Three more lines ran down his chest, ending at his nipples. The thick blood had clotted among the hairs of the Bane’s chest and its warm coppery freshness clung to Axis’ nostrils.