Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 2 – Enchanter

As Azhure and Rivkah disappeared into the crowd, Raum touched Axis’ arm. “Axis.”

Axis glanced at Raum and brought his conversation with FarSight to a close. “You have done well, Crest-Leader. Speak with me in the hour before dusk, well before the Beltide rites begin.”

FarSight nodded, saluted, then left.

Axis turned. “Bane Raum?”

“Axis, it is time that I introduced you to the Avar Banes, the Clan Leaders, and the Earth Tree. Are you ready?”

Axis nodded, briefly touching the blood-red sun on his fawn tunic for reassurance.

As Axis approached the great circle of stone that surrounded and protected the Earth Tree with his father and Raum, he grew more and more tense. Of all the races, Axis knew the Avar would be the most difficult to win to his cause. A thousand years previously the Axe-Wielders, under the direction of their BattleAxe and the Seneschal, had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of trees, decimating the great forests of Tencendor.

And Azhure was probably right in surmising that the Avar would deeply resent the fact that the StarMan had been born of the Icarii and the Acharite races, not of the Avar. Their blood ran in Gorgrael, the Destroyer, but not in Axis, their saviour.

Axis dearly needed Faraday to help win the Avar to his cause. He would not be able to do it on his own.

The Avar Banes and Clan Leaders waited for Axis inside the stone circle. Axis felt their eyes on him as he walked towards the centre of the Earth Tree Grove. His eyes drifted in awe towards the Earth Tree as she soared above the encircling protective stone. Her Song hung in the air, not loud enough to stifle or inhibit conversation, but sufficiently to drift through the thoughts of everyone within the northern Avarinheim, and to keep back Gorgrael and his Skraelings.

While the Earth Tree was far more sacred to the Avar than to the Icarii, both races revered it deeply. It was the living symbol of the harmony that existed between the earth and nature; if that harmony was disrupted, the Earth Tree sickened. But the Earth Tree could also act. On the night of Yuletide, StarDrifter and Faraday, Tree Friend, had woken the Earth Tree from the slumber in which she had spent several millennia. Earth Tree had immediately realised that her grove was under attack from the creatures of Gorgrael and had responded with her Song. The Skraelings had died as one mass, breaking apart under the force of her anger. Now, awake and aware, Earth Tree continued to sing, protecting the entire northern Avarinheim from the incursions of Gorgrael and his creatures.

Now she waited for the StarMan, as did the Banes and the Clan Leaders of her people.

Each branch of the Earth Tree was covered with densely packed waxy olive-green leaves, and the ends of her branches drooped with fat trumpet-shaped flowers, some gold, some emerald, some sapphire and some ruby in hue. The Earth Tree, thought Axis, is as colourful as a rainbow. And as mysterious. StarDrifter had told Axis that not even the Avar knew the full extent of the Earth Tree’s power or of her purpose. They simply revered her and protected her. All the most sacred rites of both Icarii and Avar were conducted under her spreading branches.

“Who built the circle of stone?” Axis whispered to his father as they drew closer. It was massive, each stone ten paces in height and three in width, with similar sized stones laid across their tops to form a series of archways.

“No-one knows,” said StarDrifter. “Some say the Star Gods built the circle during a night ringed with fire, some say that the circle was constructed by a long-forgotten race of giants. Now, go ahead with Raum. I will wait for you here.”

As they stepped through an archway Axis was struck by the feeling of sanctity within the circle – that this was a holy place no-one could doubt. A group of Banes waited by the Tree, and Axis felt both their nervousness and hostility.

The Sentinels, Ogden andVeremund, waited to one side of the Avar. Somehow, no-one ever rejected the Sentinels.

Raum motioned Axis to a halt and stepped forward to greet the gathered Avar.

A small woman, of dark and delicate form with a garland of flowers and leaves about her forehead and wearing a long loose robe of light rose wool, stepped forward and kissed Raum on both cheeks.

“Bane Raum,” she said. “It has been so long. We have missed you greatly. Be well and welcomed back among us. And do not leave us again so quickly.”

“Bane Barsarbe,” Raum replied, “I am well and am heartened to find you well yourself.” He smiled, stepped back and gestured to Axis.

“You know whom I bring,” he said clearly. “Axis SunSoar. StarMan and son of StarDrifter SunSoar and Princess Rivkah of Achar. Welcome him.”

Barsarbe hesitated, then stepped forward and kissed Axis on both cheeks. “Be well and welcomed among us, Axis SunSoar, StarMan,” she said. “We are pleased that you have torn yourself from the lies that bound you and have found both your parents and your heritage.”

“Thank you, Bane Barsarbe,” Axis replied. “I hope that I will be able to fulfil both your people’s and the Prophecy’s expectations of me.”

There was an awkward silence until one of the Clan Leaders stepped forward. He was a tall man, as dark and swarthy as Raum, but much more heavily muscled. “Erode, of the SilentWalk Clan,” he said, his stare hostile. “We understand your wish is that the people of the Horn, Wing and Plough unite to drive Gorgrael from these lands?”

“It is the only way,” Axis said. “It is the way the Prophecy describes. It is my task to build the bridge of understanding that will bind the three races as one.”

Again, silence from the Avar. Above them the Earth Tree sang her Song, strong and joyous, unperturbed by the tense meeting underneath her branches.

“It is strange,” another Avar finally said, a Bane by the look of her, “that the Prophecy should ask us to follow one who once wielded the axe.”

Axis kept his voice even. “But I stand before you now as the StarMan, not as the BattleAxe.”

“A warrior.” This from a Bane almost as forbidding as Erode.

“Yes,” Axis said. “Can you think of one better trained to face Gorgrael? The StarMan needs to be a warrior.”

“Violence,” said Barsarbe. “All warriors breed violence.”

Axis remembered that Barsarbe had been particularly cool towards Azhure, even after her efforts had saved countless Avar atYuletide. “Gorgrael will not come at you with words,” Axis snapped, his tone harsh. “Already he has murdered your people. Would you spend the rest of your lives fleeing, or hiding under the pretty leaves of the Earth Tree?”

Barsarbe’s eyes flashed furiously and she opened her mouth to speak, but Axis had not finished. “I promised the Icarii I would lead them back into Tencendor. I promise you the same. Do you want to replant your trees across the barren plains of Skarabost? Would you like to walk in shade all the way to the Mother? Or would you prefer to seek comfort in the legends and memories of the past, and condemn future generations of the Avar to skulking at night in order to reach the Mother? Do you want to regain your heritage, or have you lost your heart for such an adventure?”

Axis had not meant to be so forthright or so challenging, but he found the Avar’s studied aversion to violence intensely irritating. How did they think they were going to rid themselves of the threat of Gorgrael? Throw flowers? Shout “Peace!”?

“We wait for Tree Friend,” Raum said gently. “We have always believed that Tree Friend will lead us back into our homelands rather than the StarMan. It is Faraday who must lead us to you.”

Axis forced himself to relax. Anger would get him nowhere.

“It is our understanding,” Barsarbe said, “that you intend to war against the Acharites before you turn against Gorgrael.”

“There are those among the Acharites, principally Duke Borneheld and the Seneschal itself, who will oppose any moves to unite the three races against Gorgrael. I must…persuade…them, by any means I find necessary, that such an attitude is foolish. If that means war, as I believe, then so be it.”

Barsarbe glanced at Raum, then turned and looked at the Avar. “We will not help you in your war against Borneheld,” she said, turning back to Axis.

“Damn it!” Axis snapped, “Faraday Tree Friend is with Borneheld. Don’t you want to free her?”

“Why didn’t you bring her out of Gorkenfort?” Erode shouted, stepping forward aggressively. “Why is she not here with you now?”

“We had to battle our way out of Gorkenfort,” Axis said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “I judged her chances to be better if she remained with Borneheld. And there was no way I could seize her from Borneheld without risking her life.”