Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 2 – Enchanter

Jack took a step back, stunned. “Master!” he whispered.

WolfStar placed a calming hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Jack, listen to me. There has been some unpleasantness. Do not mention that you have seen me.”

Jack stared at WolfStar a moment, then lowered his head in submission. “As you wish, Master.”

The next instant WolfStar had gone.

“See here,” StarDrifter said a few minutes later, pointing to an illustration in the book he held, “this is a representation of the fourth order of the …”

“Axis!”

Both StarDrifter and Axis’ heads shot up. It was Azhure’s voice, and she was screaming in terror.

“Axis! Axis!”

Both Enchanters dropped the books they were holding and ran outside.

Azhure ran through the tents towards them, Caelum screaming in her arms, five of the Alaunt hugging her heels.

“Axis!” She was so terrified that her breath came in great heaving sobs, unable to speak. All Axis could get from Caelum was a pure wail of terror.

“Azhure?” he demanded, seizing her shoulders. “What is it? What is if?”

“MorningStar,” StarDrifter whispered, his eyes on Axis’ tent some three or four away from where they were standing.

Azhure did not answer, but simply burst into tears.

Axis shared one frantic look with his father, then they were both racing as fast as they could for the tent.

Both Axis and StarDrifter stopped, horrified beyond words or emotion, a pace inside the tent. MorningStar’s body lay just beyond the centre of the tent. Her arms were neatly arranged by her side, as if someone had taken care to lay her out neatly, but her head had disappeared in a disgusting mess of blood, bone fragments and brain tissue. It had been completely crushed. Even Axis, used to the wounds of the battlefield, felt physically sickened by the scene.

Azhure stumbled into the tent behind them, shielding Caelum’s head from the sight of MorningStar’s body. Slowly words started to fall out of her between sobs. “I was on my way back to our tent… then I heard Caelum start to scream…I hurried…ran…and found…I didn’t know what to do…what could I do?…I grabbed Caelum and ran…”

Axis leaned back and put his arm about her just as Belial, Magariz, Rivkah, YsgryfF and Embeth all rushed into the tent. All stopped abruptly, their faces appalled at the sight of MorningStar’s death.

His face hard and emotionless, Axis lifted Caelum from Azhure’s arms. He cuddled the baby, soothing him both with Song and with power, reassuring him. Gradually the baby’s screams began to lessen.

Caelurn was the only witness.

My son. Shush. You are safe. Safe, safe, safe. Who did this to MomingStar?

For a moment he received nothing from his son.

A dark man.

Do you know his name?

Axis could feel his son’s hesitation. MomingStar called him WolfStar.

Caelutn. Did you see his face?

No. His cloak was drawn tight about his face.

“WolfStar?” StarDrifter said. “WolfStar did this?”

He touched me with his mind, Caelum thought reflectively. Such a gentle touch. He said that he loved me.

When StarDrifter finally returned, grief-stricken, to the tent he had shared with his mother, he found that The History of the Lakes had vanished. No matter how hard he or any others looked over the next weeks, they never found it again.

Much, much later, when the moon had risen and MorningStar’s body had been removed and the tent cleared, Axis and StarDrifter sat together on the sandy shores of Grail Lake. Axis had given Caelum and Azhure a calming enchantment, and now both slept deeply in Rivkah’s tent – the one she now openly shared with Magariz. Axis ordered his own tent burned; he could never use it again now.

For a long time both father and son sat in silence, watching the drift of the moon over the dark waters of the Lake.

Axis heard his father take a deep breath, and he reached over and took StarDrifter’s hand. “I know how close to MomingStar you were,” he said softly, hoping to get Star-Drifter to talk. StarDrifter and MomingStar had often argued, their temperaments and personalities were so similar, but there was a deep bond between them that both encompassed and went beyond love.

“I cannot believe she could have died like that,” Star-Drifter whispered, his eyes on the small waves lapping at their feet. “She was always the one most concerned about WolfStar, always the one fretting about who he was, in what body he hid…perhaps she had a premonition that she would die by his hand.”

“WolfStar,” Axis did not want to think about him – or about MorningStar’s thoughts on who WolfStar might be. Not Azhure.

“Not Azhure,” StarDrifter said. “It could not be her.”

“No,” Axis replied. “She had no opportunity to teach me as a child, did she? She was born and raised in Smyrton while I grew in Carlon.”

Both Enchanters clung to that, both so deeply in love with the woman that they would cling to any excuse not to consider her as WolfStar.

“Rivkah, Magariz, Belial, Ysgryff, Embeth,” Axis said slowly, thinking aloud. “All were in the tent within moments of us. All must have been close.”

“No,” StarDrifter said. “Not Rivkah. She never had the opportunity to teach you as a child.”

“Perhaps she did, StarDrifter. All those months and years she spent away from Talon Spike. How do you know that they were spent with the Avar?”

“Axis, you can’t be serious,” StarDrifter said. “Not Rivkah.”

Axis sighed. “Not Azhure, not Rivkah.”

“The others?” StarDrifter asked.

“The others. All older than me. All had access to me as a child. I lived with Embeth and Ganelon as a child from the age of eleven, and she would have seen me at an earlier age at court. Magariz has admitted himself that he knew me as a baby in Carlon when he was a member of the palace guard, and later its captain. He also possibly has had access to Gorgrael via Gorkenfort. Belial? Eight years older than I, and who knows if he ever saw me at an age earlier than fifteen or sixteen when I joined the Axe-Wielders and he was commander of my unit?”

“Ysgryft?” StarDrifter said quietly.

“Ysgryff,” Axis mused. “Perhaps the perfect disguise. Over the past few weeks we have learned, to our mutual surprise, that the baronial family of Nor has kept the Temple of the Stars protected for the past thousand years. YsgryfF himself constantly refers to small parts of Icarii culture that should be unknown to any save the Icarii, and he knew that Raum was transforming.”

“He did?” StarDrifter asked.

“I came across Ysgryff one night just before we reached the Silent Woman Woods, offering the Bane comfort. He knew what he was going through.”

“What better place to hide yourself for thousands of years,” StarDrifter said slowly, his eyes back on the water again, “but among the baronial family of Nor. Access to most of the holy sites, and especially the Island of Mist and Memory. You must admit, Axis, that YsgryfF is far more than he seems.”

Axis gave a short laugh. “Listen to us, StarDrifter. All we know is that WolfStar is not me and he is not you. We both provide each others alibi. Otherwise we have a smorgasbord of suspects. Most have had the opportunity, and who knows what motive WolfStar has for returning? And what was he doing with Caelum? \Vhy my son?”

StarDrifter expelled a short breath in frustration. “Axis, you have never told me the third verse of the Prophecy.”

“It was meant for my ears only. Anyone else who hears it simply forgets it within a moment or two.”

“Tell me,” StarDrifter urged. “Perhaps I will remember it. Perhaps there is some understanding I can cast upon it.”

Axis raised his eyebrows, but he recited the third verse for his father.

StarMan, listen, for I know That you can wield the sceptre To bring Gorgrael to his knees And break the ice asunder. But even with the power in hand Your pathway is not sure: A Traitor from within your camp Will seek and plot to harm you; Let not your Lover’s pain distract For this will mean your death; Destroyer’s might lies in his hate Yet you must never follow; Forgiveness is the thing assured To save Tencendor’s soul.

StarDrifter frowned. Already the words were warping themselves in his mind. “I cannot …” he muttered, perplexed.

“The third verse tells me what I must do to defeat Gorgrael,” Axis explained patiently. “But that is no of import to anyone save myself. But the verse also warns me that there is someone who pretends love for my cause, but who will eventually betray me to Gorgrael.”

“WolfStar.”

“It must be. But who is it? Which disguise does WolfStar wear? StarDrifter.” Axis’ voice almost broke with his frustration. “It could have been anyone within the camp, or even anyone from Carlon who had crept out during the night. How many suspects do we have within the immediate vicinity? Seventy thousand? Eighty? More?”