Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 2 – Enchanter

Belial started to move towards the table, but Arne indicated he would fetch Jack a goblet. Since their arrival at Sigholt Arne had made himself Belial’s general personal assistant, although Belial was sure that when Axis reappeared Arne would resume service with him.

Jack sipped the wine Arne handed him with pleasure. He had spent the past three weeks exploring the surrounding hills and cliff faces in detail, searching for what he knew must be there. Finally he put his wine down.

“Each of the Sentinels are associated with one of what were known as the sacred Lakes of Tencendor, Belial. There were four, now there remain only three. You have seen one of them, Grail Lake — although Arne has seen two. The remaining two sacred Lakes are Cauldron Lake in the heart of the Silent Woman Woods, and Pembroke Lake in the highest valley of the Bracken Ranges. All are magical, and the Skraelings – who hate water of any sort — will stay far away from them. The Keep of Sigholt sat on the very edge of the most powerful of the four Lakes – the Lake of Life.”

Jack chewed his lip, debating whether to tell them the rest, then made up his mind. The Lake’s secrets would be revealed soon enough anyway.

“But the Lake of Life has been drained,” he continued. “It has disappeared. And with it has gone its Sentinel, Zeherah.” Belial shifted impatiently. “Yes, I can understand the Sentinels’ alliance with the Lakes. I’m aware that the Skraelings dislike water, and I suppose that they would dislike magical Lakes more than ordinary water. But since the water has now disappeared, why don’t they attack?”

Jack shrugged. He had discarded his peasant garb and now stood clothed in a fine green woollen tunic and trousers edged with scarlet that would have done a minor noble proud. “Some of the magic lingers, Belial. Enough to discourage them from an attempt on the Keep itself.” That the Keep was also magical Jack did not tell Belial and Magariz.

“But they might one day surmount their dislike enough to attack?” asked Magariz, limping over to the window again.

“Perhaps.” Jack sighed, worry straining his face. “Especially if Gorgrael decides the garrison might be a worthwhile enough target.”

“Gorgrael has spread himself thin,” Belial said slowly. “We were hardly bothered in the journey south to Sigholt. My guess is that we damaged him so badly above Gorkenfort that he’s concentrating on maintaining his hold, rather than extending it.”

“I agree. We’re probably safe for the moment, perhaps for the entire summer coming while Gorgrael reinvigorates his Ghostmen. But…” Jack paused.

“But?” Magariz prompted, one heavy eyebrow raised. “But I need your help. I want to make Sigholt secure against the Skraelings, a strong base for Axis as he builds the forces necessary to beat the Destroyer back. And …” he hesitated. “And I want to see if I can find Zeherah. Belial, Magariz, if I cannot find her then we may as well turn our backs and let Gorgrael occupy the whole of Tencendor – or Achar, as you still call it. We need the five – Axis needs the five — to defeat Gorgrael.”

“So,” said Reinald wearily from his comfortable chair by the fire. “I suppose you want to reflood the Lake.”

Belial and Magariz looked at him in surprise, then turned back to Jack.

Jack nodded. “Yes. If the Lake is reflooded, then Sigholt will be all but impregnable except to Gorgrael himself – and even he would hesitate to ask for entry at the Keep’s gates.” If Gorgrael got as far as the gates. “And reflooding the Lake may bring Zeherah back.”

“You’re not sure,” Magariz said.

Jack suddenly looked ashen and worn out. “No. I am not sure. She was tied to the Lake, but not completely. She could have left it, as all the other Sentinels have currently left their Lakes. If it was drained — by one of the criminal Dukes of Ichtar, I suspect — that would not of itself automatically have killed her. She could have continued to haunt the Lake site, grieving, but not mortally wounded. But there is no sign of her at all.”

For long moments there was silence, then Arne broke in with his customary bluntness. “How do you intend to reflood the Lake?”

Belial smiled. Trust Arne to ask the practical question.

“I have spent the past three weeks making sure that it can be done, Arne,” Jack replied. “There’s a narrow gully behind Sigholt that runs back into the Urqhart Hills about half a league. It is overgrown with shrubs and weeds now, but I think that once it was a waterway.

“The gully leads into a small cavern. Inside the cavern there is a blockage of rocks. It is too neat, too regular to be natural. I think it is a plug placed over the spring that fed the Lake. If we can remove it then the water will once more flow down to the Lake.”

“Can we?” Belial asked. “Do you think we can unblock it?”

“You have three thousand men, Belial. If we can’t do it with three thousand, then no-one will ever do it.” Jack paused. “But it is not simply the blockage in the cavern itself. We will have to clear the gully of some of the obstructions that have fallen from the rocky walls since the water stopped flowing, and we will have to clear a path about Sigholt itself.”

Belial frowned. “What do you mean?”

Jack came and stood before the fire. “There is a deep depression about Sigholt that has been filled with rubble and boulders. I think the water flowed down through the gully until it reached Sigholt, then divided in two to flow completely about the garrison, forming a natural moat before it flowed into the Lake. With the water surrounding Sigholt on all sides, this garrison will be virtually impregnable.” And will be reinfused with the source of its magical power, Jack thought. Sigholt will live again.

“Well, tomorrow we’ll take several of the engineers we have with us and go inspect this gully and cavern, Jack. Magariz, you can organise a detail to inspect this rubble-filled moat that surrounds the walls of the garrison. We will know by tomorrow eve if this feat is possible.”

And whether or not we manage to unblock this spring, reflood the Lake and find this missing Zeherah, thought Belial, at least the attempt will keep the men fit and busy.

That it did. With only five hundred men left on garrison duty – not that, according to Jack, Belial even needed to keep five hundred assigned to that task — two and a half thousand set to the unblockage of spring, gully and moat. For twelve days they laboured, fifteen hundred on the moat, and a thousand on the gully and inside the cavern where Jack claimed the spring was.

Eight days after they had started Belial and Magariz stood at the outer edge of the moat and peered inside. A deep, wide watercourse had been uncovered, its sides and floor paved with great slabs of greyish-green rock, fitted together in a patchwork of incredible subtlety and beauty. Even though the builders had not used any mortar, the joints between slabs were so tight that Belial could not even get the blade of his knife between them.

“No stone mason today could create such fine joinery and not use a single handful of mortar,” Magariz said quietly.

“I wonder how much Jack knows about this Keep that he does not yet tell us, my friend,” Belial said.

Magariz looked up. Today the wind was a little lighter, and he had discarded his heavy black cloak. “Belial, I worry less about what mysteries the Keep might hold than how we’re going to get into it should the men currendy working in the cavern unblock the spring and allow the water to flow. At the moment we have no bridge worthy of the name.”

As the moat had been uncovered, Belial had ordered that a rudimentary bridge be erected across the divide. But it was flimsy and only carried men on foot. The moment a surge of water rushed through it would be destroyed.

“I’d better start the men on building a more permanent replacement,” Belial said wearily. “Although where we will find the timber needed for such a structure I do not know.” The fifteen hundred working on the moat were close to exhaustion, and Belial had wanted to give them a few days’ rest before he sent them to relieve those still labouring in the gully and cavern. But a bridge was vital.

“No need,” said Jack behind them. Covered in grey rock dust, Jack looked as tired as Belial’s men. His chest heaved as if he had been hurrying. “When the water flows, Sigholt will create her own bridge.”

” What?” Magariz and Belial said together. Jack smiled. “Sigholt is a cunning lady. She was created by ancient Icarii Enchanters. Trust her.”