Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 2 – Enchanter

The door was unlatched, and Azhure slipped inside, closing it quietly behind her. For a moment she simply stood and stared. From the outside Spiredore was obviously very large, but it appeared ten, twenty times the size inside. She walked into the centre of the tower and looked up, holding her lamp high. Stairwells, balconies, overhangs, all swirled to dizzying heights above her. Rooms, chambers, open spaces, all opened off the balconies surrounding this atrium. None of the myriad floors and balconies were level or even, jutting out in irregular squares, triangles, circles. It was an amazing sight, and should have been an eyesore, but somehow it achieved a subtle harmony that gave the interior of Spiredore great beauty.

“Stars,” Azhure said. “I could get lost up there and wander about for days.”

“Actually, it’s quite easy to find your way, once you know the trick,” a voice said lightly behind her, and Azhure spun about, the lamp swinging so violently in her hand that shadows leaped and danced about the atrium. Her hand tightened defensively about Caelum, who gave a squeak of protest.

An Icarii birdman walked towards her, an open book in his hand, as if he had been reading when surprised by Azhure. He was one of the most captivating Icarii she’d ever seen. His face was vibrant with power, far more so than Star-Drifter’s face, and she realised he must be an Enchanter. Great violet eyes laughed at her from underneath a tumbled crop of dark copper curls. Behind him stretched golden wings; and not just dyed that shade, Azhure thought, numbed by the beauty of this birdman, they actually appeared to be made of beaten gold.

“I’m sorry,” he said, closing the book with a snap. Azhure caught brief sight of the title…something to do with the Lakes. “I startled you.” A contrite expression crossed his face. “And I shouldn’t be here either. Axis ceded you Spiredore yesterday, and I am the intruder.”

“You were at the ceremony?” Azhure asked, her hand lessening its grip about Caelum.

“Yes,” he said. “I was there, but some distance from you, I thmk.”

“I have not seen you before,” Azhure said. “And you have a face one could not easily forget.”

“As you have a face, Lady Azhure, that no man, Icarii or Acharite, could easily forget. You are a woman for whom your own Prophecy should be written — it is a shame that you must share one with Axis. Perhaps I will write one for you one day.”

Azhure laughed. The man had a charming, if cunning, way with words. She shared the Prophecy with Axis? “Why have I not seen you before?”

The birdman’s smile faded a little and his eyes became sad. “Ah. Azhure. I have been away. A long, long way away. I have only come home recently. That is why you have not seen me.”

He stepped forward. “May I hold your baby for a moment? He is such a beautiful baby.”

Azhure hesitated momentarily, then let the birdman lift an unresisting Caelum out of her arms. The Icarii Enchanter cuddled the baby, whispering to him, and Caelum stretched curious hands to the man s face, poking and prodding till the birdman laughed and handed Caelum back to Azhure. “All babies are curious, but he more than most, I think. You have a magnificent son, Azhure, and he a magnificent mother.”

Azhure blushed and smiled. Abruptly she remembered he had not told her his name, and she opened her mouth to ask, but in the instant before she spoke the birdman took Azhure s arm and led her towards the first of the stairwells that twisted up into the heights of the tower, sundry balconies and chambers opening off it.

“I was going to tell you how to work the magic of Spiredore, Azhure.”

Azhure smiled. Magic? How wonderful it would be if this Enchanter told her how to use Spiredore.

“My dear child,” he said, as they reached the foot of the stairs. “It is very simple. If you wander willy-nilly in Spiredore you will, as you thought, get completely lost. You must decide where you want to go before you start to climb the stairs, and then the stairs will simply take you to that place.”

Azhure s frown deepened. “But how do I know where I want to go if I don’t know what the tower contains?”

The birdman laughed and his hand slid up her arm a little. It was very warm, his palm and fingers like rough silk, and Azhure found herself leaning a little closer to him.

“Then you have a lot to learn, Azhure.” His tone became softer, deeper. “A lot to learn.” He rested his arm on her shoulder, his fingers gently stroking her neck. “Where would you like to go, Azhure. Where? What would you like to see?” Azhure smiled dreamily. His hand was soothing, his gentle breath on her cheek comforting. “I would like to see the view from the rooftop,” she whispered. “I would very much like to watch the sun rise over the Avarinheim from the top of Spiredore.”

“See?” he laughed, and the sound broke the spell between them. “You do have at least one destination – and you can spend the rest of your life investigating Spiredore. It was built just for you, Azhure. Just for you. Eventually you will remember where to go.”

She smiled. “Your flattery goes too far, sir. Built for me? Why, this tower has stood for thousands of years, and I am only twenty-eight.”

“Just for you,” he whispered, and then he leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. It was a deep, absorbing kiss, and Azhure was in no hurry to break it — it was the birdman who eventually drew back.

He laughed shortly. “I should not have done that, Azhure. It was Unclean. But I was always the one to break rules. You must forgive me. Now,” his manner became brusque, “if you wish to watch the sun rise from the rooftop you will have to begin to climb now. Sunrise is not long away.”

Following his instructions, Azhure thought of the rooftop and began to climb, but, only a few steps into the stairwell, she turned and looked back down at him. “How did the Seneschal ever find their way about Spiredore?”

The birdman laughed. “To them, sweetheart, it was simply an empty shell. They built their own chambers and stairs, floors and libraries, but they never saw the true tower that you see before you now. They did not have the magic to see it. Now, go. Sunrise awaits.”

Azhure nodded, and turned back into the stairwell. When next she looked down, the birdman had gone.

WolfStar backed against the doorway out of Azhure’s sight, listening to her footsteps for a long time. What a remarkable woman – and what a son she had birthed.

As Azhure’s footsteps slowly faded above him, WolfStar abruptly vanished.

Azhure stood atop Spiredore and watched the sky lighten to the east over the Avarinheim forest, her son cuddled comfortably in her arms. Her hair was loose, and the wind whipped both her nightgown and her hair about her lithe form. Above her head the morning stars whirled. Beneath her bare feet the tower gently hummed to itself. Azhure had come home.

From Out of the Dawning Sun…

* s Azhure had not been able to sleep, neither could £\ Axis. For hours he lay by Faraday’s side, close but not /. touching, knowing she was awake as well, yet unable to speak to her as she was unable to speak to him. Finally, silently, he rolled out of bed, pulled on his breeches and boots, and went to talk with StarDrifter.

They stood on the balcony of StarDrifter’s room, drinking in the cold dawn air as they gazed across Grail Lake.

“What are you going to do?” StarDrifter asked.

“I am vowed to Faraday,” he said. “I must marry her.”

“And Azhure?”

“I will not let her go. I cannot.”

Both Enchanters could see Azhure atop Spiredore with their enhanced vision. The wind whipped her hair back from her face, and the white nightgown billowed about her body. She was laughing with Caelum, and pointing into the dawning sun as it rose above the distant Avarinheim.

“What does she have,” StarDrifter mused, “that both of us cannot resist her?”

“It is as though she contains the Star Dance within her,” said Axis softly, and StarDrifter dragged his eyes away from Azhure at the tone of his son’s voice. “Through her I can touch the Star Dance more powerfully than I can through any Song. StarDrifter, it is as though I hold the very Stars in my hands every time I hold her, as if it is their music that embraces me. Every time I lie with her, StarDrifter, the music grows louder.”

StarDrifter was astounded at what Axis had revealed. He could touch the Star Dance through Azhure, through her body? Who, what, was she? He stared at his son, his eyes wide, his mouth half open.