Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 2 – Enchanter

“I will let neither go!” Axis seethed. “There is no need. They will both accept the other. It has been done before.”

“But not with such women!” Belial’s voice rose now. “Both are wondrous in their own right, but both will fade and die if forced to share you!”

“I hardly think …” Axis began, but both men were distracted by a shout from the line of tents.

YsgryfF, his face livid with fury, strode towards Axis and Belial as they stood on the shore of the Lake, dragging a slight Nors girl with him.

“Oh gods, no,” Belial whispered. “Cazna!” YsgryfFs handsome face was so twisted with anger that it was almost unrecognisable, while the girl, dressed in a bright red wool dress, was wearing an expression of sulky rebellion. Ysgryff drew to a halt some four or five paces away from Axis and Belial, and started to shout at Belial.

“Do you realise what you have done, you low-born oaf? Did you not stop to think what you did when you ravaged my daughter’s virtue?’

“Daughter?” Belial said. Cazna wasYsgryff’s daughter? “Daughter!” YsgryfF shouted. “Daughter! Did you think her some camp whore? Did she act like some camp whore? Did you not stop to consider what you did when you dragged her into your bed?”

“I —” Belial began but YsgryfF did not give him the chance to explain.

“Of what value is she now? None! What sort of marriage can I arrange for her now? None! Some hurried and secretive affair with a ploughman who has been paid to overlook her swollen belly?”

Again Belial tried to interrupt, appalled at the inference that he had got Cazna pregnant, but Cazna overrode her father.

“Father,” she said, low but firm. Axis noticed that she had inherited her fathers striking looks to the full. “Belial did not seduce me. I seduced him. The night of the treaty-signing in the Ancient Barrows I went to his tent and lay waiting for him in his bedroll.”

Belial smiled slightly. Will I ever forget what I felt when I entered my tent that night and saw her lying there, waiting for me?

Ysgryff stared at his daughter in horror. “What did I raise,” he said, “that she should treat me like this?”

Belial stepped forward and took Cazna’s hand. “Ysgryff, there has been little harm done.” He hurried on as Ysgryff opened his mouth in horror yet again. Little harm done? “I have already asked – your daughter – to marry me.”

Axis raised his eyebrow. Belial had thought to castigate him over his treatment of Azhure when all the time he had been busily violating the Baron of Nor’s daughter?

“Marriage? Do you think that will heal the hurt and the shame you have dealt my family?” Ysgryff shouted, although he was having a great deal of trouble maintaining the facade of his temper. If he played the part of the enraged father well enough, he would be able to get Belial to accept Cazna without a single gold piece as dowry.

“I have accepted,” Cazna said, watching her father carefully. She already had her suspicions about her father’s display of righteous rage. Her hand tightened about Belial’s.

“Well,” Ysgryff said, pretending to be slightly mollified. “How do I know that he means it? Was it just a ploy to bring you to his bed?”

“I hardly think you have behaved well, Belial,” Axis said, speaking for the first time since Ysgryff had dragged his daughter forth to accuse Belial. “I think that perhaps you have treated Cazna rather badly, don’t you?”

Belial glared at Axis. He knew perfectly well that Axis was referring to their previous conversation with that remark.

“Then find me two more witnesses, Axis,” he retorted. “And I will wed Cazna here and now. / am not afraid to grace the woman I love with vows of lifelong love, partnership and honour.”

Axis stared at Belial, standing calm and straight with the Nors girl close to him, then he spun on his heel and strode off.

“I cannot take you with me, so I will leave you in command of the camp and the army,” Axis said carefully. “FarSight Cut-Spur will be your second-in-command.”

“I understand,” Azhure said, folding her cloak for the third time, then shaking it out and starting all over again.

They were in the tent that they now shared with Rivkah and Magariz, and this was the first time Axis had found a chance to talk with Azhure alone for many days. Caelum had gone with Rivkah for an evening stroll by the waters.

“Damn it,” Axis swore softly, and strode over to Azhure, tearing the cloak from her hands and throwing it to the ground. “What is wrong, Azhure? What has came between us these past months?” How long since he had touched her, kissed her, lain with her? Not since the night he had signed the treaty with Ysgryff and Greville at the Ancient Barrows, and how many weeks was that?

“What has come between us? She sits in her pink and gold palace across the Lake. Faraday.”

“Azhure,” Axis said, taking her chin gently in his fingers and forcing her to meet his eyes. “Azhure, I love you, you know that. You will always be a part of my life.”

She twisted away. “It is a hard thing you ask of me, Axis.”

“What? To stay with me? To be my Lover? You love me, you can do no less.”

“I wish I could have found the courage to walk away from you before this,” she said.

“Walk away from me? Who to? Belial?”

Azhure whipped her head back, her eyes wide.

Axis seized her chin again. “If you try to leave me, I will track you down. Believe it! No-one will take you from me!”

Azhure stared at him. How could a man who could show so much compassion to strangers show such a face of cruelty to her?

“Azhure,” Axis moderated his tone as he watched the effect his words had on her. “Do you love me?”

“Yes,” she whispered, unable to deny it.

“Then you would be miserable away from me. Azhure, listen to me. Marriage to Borneheld’s widow will further cement my claim to the throne of Achar. Besides, the Prophecy binds me to Faraday, and I need Faraday to bring the Avar and the trees to my cause. I cannot abandon her, Azhure, and I will not. Not when she has done so much for me, and will do so much more. But my heart belongs to you. Never belittle yourself, or your effect on me, Azhure. ”

He bent down and kissed her lips softly. “If I was not already bound by vow to Faraday then I would not hesitate to marry you, Azhure. Believe it.”

“Yes.” Azhure believed it.

“Azhure, I will not hesitate to acknowledge you, my love for you, or your role in my success thus far. I love you, and your son will be my heir. Walk tall and proud.”

“Go,” Azhure whispered, “go to Faraday. I cannot fight the Prophecy.”

After Axis had left her, and walked down to the shore of Grail Lake and the boat that waited to take him to Faraday, Azhure walked out of the tent, took Caelum from Rivkah, and wandered through the camp, pausing to chat now and then with a member of her command. She wore a cool, confident smile on her face and didn’t let a single ray of her grief shine through. Sicarius trotted at her side, his eyes golden and seeing. Once she had inspected the camp and made sure all was in order Azhure shared a meal with Cazna, and envied the young woman that she had captured her husband’s heart intact.

The Chamber of the Moons» s twilight deepened into dark, people started to fileL\ into the Chamber of the Moons. Servants, guards-/- Ajnen, courtiers, kitchen maids, stableboys – all weredriven by the presentiment that something strange would takeplace this night in the Chamber of the Moons.

They moved silently, none speaking, none feeling the need to. As the night drew on perhaps two hundred stood, still and noiseless, circling the Chamber, leaving its centre free.

Borneheld sat on his throne atop the dais, his face expressionless, sword drawn and resting on his knees. On the stone edge of the dais sat Faraday, green skirts spread about her, shoulders square, face serene, hands folded smoothly in her lap. Like her husband, Faraday stared straight ahead. Waiting.

In a group of four to the left of the dais stood Timozel, morbid; Gautier, a thin sheen of sweat across his face betraying his inner fears; Jayme, pale; andYr, as serene as her mistress, feeling the presence of the Prophecy strongly in the night.

The only light in the Chamber was an inadequate ring of blazing torches round the pillars. They threw more shadows than light, and those shadows provided the only movement.