“Hear me!” Axis shouted above the roar. “No other child born to me will supplant Caelum as my heir. He is my firstborn, and as bastardy has left no stain on my soul or on my claim to found the Throne of the Stars, then it leaves no stain on his soul or on his claim as my heir!”
Faraday sat, weaving back and forth through her own personal nightmare. Not only had Axis disported himself with another woman to the extent that he had got a son on her – and another on the way! – he had honoured the woman with great titles, great responsibilities, and had named her son as his heir, disinheriting any child Faraday would bear him.
She suddenly realised the full extent of the betrayal. Not only Axis’, but all those about her. Everyone must have known of this! Everyone! Yet no-one had told her. Why? Why? Why had they let her believe the lie that Axis still loved her, still wanted her?
Borneheld’s final words to her on the parapets of the palace in Carlon came back to Faraday. Axis did not truly love her at all. If he did, then he could not have done this to her.
Betrayal Confronted”W:
need to speak, Faraday,” Axis said, and Faraday turned to stare at him, her green eyes blazing with pain and betrayal.
“Yes,” she said bitterly, “we do need to talk. But I hardly think this is the place for it, do you?”
And so they were rowed back in silence to the palace, where they climbed staircases and walked corridors in silence until Axis closed the door to their chamber behind them.
“We should be present at the celebrations,” Axis said.
” We should be at the celebrations, StarMan? I hardly think there is any place there for me, do you?”
Axis flinched inwardly, although he kept his face impassive. Why hadn’t he told Faraday about Azhure earlier? How do you tell the woman who has waited and suffered for you through two long years that you had fallen so deeply in love with another that you couldn’t give her up?
“Faraday,” he said again, and stepped forward and took her shoulders gently in his hands.
“Let go of me!” Faraday hissed, twisting her body away from him.
“Faraday, let me explain.”
“No,” she said, and Axis could feel her rage. “/ shall explain to you. Axis, I can understand that for virtually two years we have been torn apart one way or another. That we have gone our separate ways for much of those two years. I can understand that perhaps you dallied with other women. Mother knows, Axis, I can understand that — especially after I married Borneheld. But what I cannot understand, Axis, and what I find so hard to forgive, is how you treated me today.”
“Faraday,” Axis tried to soothe, reaching out for her but halting his hand at the last moment. “You will be my wife. I promised to marry you, and I will.”
“Being your wife means nothing]” Faraday screamed, her face twisting into ugly lines, “when that woman across the Lake is your wife in everything but name!”
She took a deep breath and worked to bring her temper under control. “Wife. What does that mean, Axis, when that woman across the Lake is Queen in everything but name! Over the past year at least, and longer by the look of that baby, she has shared your life, shared your adventures, shared your bed. Now you have given her the power, the recognition,” she laughed a little, “even Spiredore, and you have given her your son. Again she is pregnant with your child. Do not try to tell me that she does not continue to share your bed and your heart, Axis.”
Axis looked down at the floor. There was nothing he could say.
Faraday stared at him, a muscle leaping in her throat.
“She was the one to stand on the dais with you, Axis, not me. She was the one who took the cheers of the nation with you. Not me. Marry me, Axis? What a joke! Even as your wife, / would be the mistress, not her. She has everything. I have nothing. You humiliated me today, Axis. Can’t you see what you did?”
Axis raised his head and looked at her. “I did not think to betray you, Faraday. Azhure was a friend when I needed one badly. She understood that I loved you …”
“You talked about me to her?” Faraday whispered. What other cruelties did this man have to deal her?
“… and she fought to resist me. Faraday, do not blame her in this. I am the one at fault.”
Faraday’s eyes brimmed with tears. That Axis sought to protect Azhure and not himself told Faraday how deeply he loved her. “Strangely, Axis, I do not. I know how easy it is for a woman to fall in love with you. If I seek to apportion blame, then I must blame you.” She turned away.
Axis stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms about her, gently rocking her. This time she did not throw him off.
“Will you give her up?” she whispered.
There was a pause. “I cannot,” Axis muttered eventually.
“Do you feel anything for me?”
“Faraday.” Axis turned her around so he could look in her eyes. He gently brushed some of the tears from her cheek with his hand. Wasn’t this where they had started two years ago? “If I said I loved you, I would not lie. But what I feel for you and what I feel for Azhure are so different. But I meant what I said, Faraday. I do want you for my wife.” He bent to slowly kiss her cheek, her neck, the soft rise of her breasts.
Liar, she thought. Liar. You want Azhure, but, honourable man that you are, you feel bound by the vows that you made to me so long ago. And how much do you want me because I bring the trees behind you? Do you fear, Axis SunSoar StarMan, that if you do not placate me with marriage then I might not fulfil my part of the bargain? That the Prophecy itself might fail if I failed?
Oh, Mother, Faraday cried to herself. You are the only one who has not betrayed me. All she wanted now was peace in the Sacred Groves, all she wanted now was to sit in the warm sunshine on the wooden seat in the nursery, Ur beside her reciting names and histories.
But for now Axis’ fingers were sliding open the fastenings at the back of her dress. Does he think to placate me with his body? she wondered vaguely, but she did not resist him. One last time, perhaps, one last time.
Into Spiredore zhure lay sleepless in her tent, staring through the l-\ darkness. The excitement of the previous day had JL. -A.kept her tossing and turning in her camp bed for most of the night. Axis had held Caelum above his head and proclaimed him his heir — and named him Azhurson! The clamour from the throats of the tens of thousands present had surrounded her like the roar of the Nordra as it escaped the Forbidden Valley. And he had named her Guardian of the East, and given her Spiredore.
As she stood down from the dais Azhure had glanced again at Faraday. She was rocking backwards and forwards, her face pasty white, her green eyes enormous. Azhure had almost cried out with pain herself.
Axis was back in Carlon with Faraday this night, but Azhure was no longer jealous of her. Somehow Azhure knew that it would not be long before Axis was back this side of the Lake, come to visit his Lover in Spiredore.
Spiredore! Such a magical gift! It had been stripped of all the trappings of the Seneschal — and now it waited for her.
Throwing the blankets back, Azhure swung her legs over the side of the bed. She had not had the chance to go inside Spiredore yesterday — the celebrations for Tencendor had started immediately after Axis had closed the official ceremony and Azhure had been whirled into them by StarDrifter who, withYsgryff, had competed for her attentions all evening and into the night. She had slept a few hours, but now was awake – ready to investigate what she had been given.
Mama?
Azhure slipped a shawl over her white nightgown and leaned over Caelum’s cot. “I am going to investigate Spiredore, Caelum. Do you want to come too, or are you still so tired you will whimper and fidget and distract me?”
/ will be good, Mama.
Azhure smiled with love and picked her son up, nestling him close to her breast.
The camp was quiet now; hours before, all the revellers had fallen exhausted into their beds, or simply to the ground. Barefoot, and with only the shawl over her nightgown and a lamp in her free hand, Azhure picked her way through the camp, then up the grassy slopes to where the towering walls of Spiredore stood. Several of the Alaunt made to follow her, but she motioned them back. There was no danger in Spiredore, and she wanted to be alone with Caelum on her first visit.