“Gather the unit and Wing commanders in the courtyard after noon,” Axis told Belial, “and I will address them there. Arne. A word?”
Arne paused, listened to Axis, and nodded briefly.
Soon the rooftop was empty save for the three Icarii Enchanters and Rivkah.
“And what secrets did you learn from the Ferryman?” StarDrifter asked eagerly.
“Many secrets, StarDrifter, and most I have promised not to reveal.”
StarDrifter s mouth hardened into a thin line. “Are they so terrible?”
“No. They are quite simple. But I vowed not to reveal them, and I will not. However,” Axis paused and scratched the eagle under its beak, “what I can tell you is terrible enough.”
MorningStar walked over to her grandson. “What?”
Axis sighed, and all noted how tight and tense the skin was under his eyes. “In Talon Spike, MorningStar, you theorised that there was another SunSoar Enchanter, an Enchanter who, for his or her own purposes, had taught both myself and Gorgrael.”
MorningStar nodded. “Yes?”
“I can now tell you who it is.”
Both StarDrifter and his mother visibly tensed. Who?
“It is WolfStar SunSoar, come back through the Star Gate.”
StarDrifter and MorningStar paled in shock, unable to say anything. Rivkah shook her head. Of all Enchanter-Talons to step back through the Star Gate, it had to be WolfStar. What had the Icarii done to deserve this?
Steps sounded in the stairwell and MorningStar and StarDrifter jumped nervously.
“I asked Arne to send the Sentinels up,” Axis explained. “Perhaps they can help explain what WolfStar might want, why he came back.”
“Axis? What is it?” Ogden asked, noting the tension.
Briefly Axis told the Sentinels about WolfStar’s return.
“WolfStar!” Veremund muttered. “But Axis, why are you so sure?”
Axis related how he had discovered the illusion of WolfStar’s statue in the Chamber of the Star Gate, and how the Ferryman – Axis did not give them his name — had realised WolfStar had come back through the Star Gate. He paused and looked around. “It is more than time you told me WolfStar’s story, and explained why you fear WolfStar so much. I need to know why he has come back.”
“It would sicken me to tell the entire tale,” MorningStar said. “Veremund? Will you speak of WolfStar?”
Veremund nodded. “WolfStar’s story belongs to a lost world, Axis, a world of four thousand years ago. WolfStar was a remarkable Icarii Enchanter who, at the extraordinary age of only ninety-one, succeeded as Talon of Tencendor.”
“There was always rumour about his succession at such an early age,” Ogden interrupted. “His father was young and fit, only some two hundred years old, and should have lived hundreds more years. But…”
“He fell out of the sky one fine afternoon,” MorningStar finished for him. “And no-one claimed the arrow that feathered from his chest.”
“Murder, or accident?” Veremund mused. “Who knows? WolfStar had an alibi – he was in council with several of the Crest-Leaders at the time – but it was rumoured and is now generally believed that he planned, if not executed, the murder of his own father.”
“He wanted the throne. Badly,” Jack said, gazing out across the Urqhart Hills so none could see his face.
“Yes. He wanted the throne badly, Jack.” Veremund sounded annoyed at the constant interruptions. “WolfStar, ever since he was a flightless child, had been fascinated by the Star Gate. Access to the Star Gate was much more open then, although only a Talon and his heir were allowed completely free use of it. WolfStar would spend hours, sometimes days, simply staring into the Gate. He was consumed with the idea that the universe contained other worlds.”
Axis looked up in surprise. Other worlds? The thought had never occurred to him, but now he felt a tug of curiosity.
“Other worlds,” Veremund repeated. “WolfStar surmised that each sun was paired with a world, perhaps like ours, that circled it, as ours does. He looked at the multitude of stars in the universe, and surmised that a multitude of worlds also existed.”
“Crazy,” StarDrifter muttered.
“For years WolfStar had lived with his obsession, and then, suddenly, he was Talon. Now he felt he could do something about it. The Icarii had long talked about the possibility that someone could step through the Star Gate, and survive to step back through it.” Veremund laughed quietly. “But who would be the first to try? One day WolfStar approached the Assembly and asked permission to send an Icarii child, one with Enchanter talent, through the Gate. He claimed it was better to waste the life of a child, if waste it would be, than the life of a fully trained Enchanter.”
There was horrified silence around the rooftop, as there had been in the Icarii Assembly that long-distant day.
“The Assembly, as you might expect, refused WolfStar permission to so sacrifice one of their children.” Now Veremund was almost whispering. “But WolfStar s obsession was consuming him, and perhaps now he was slightly mad. He was determined to step through the Star Gate and explore other worlds, but he also wanted to be able to step back into this one. And he needed to know he could step back. One day a young Icarii child, only fourteen years, went out flying and never returned. He was mourned; it was believed that perhaps he had suffered a fatal wing cramp while flying. But then, a few weeks later, another child disappeared, and then another. Then someone realised that all three had possessed Enchanter powers. And then someone accused WolfStar of child murder.”
Veremund paused for breath. “WolfStar, defiant and very sure of his own powers, said that it was not murder, but necessary experiment. The secrets of the Star Gate must be solved. He asked what would happen if one day a race from another world wanted to invade our world through the Star Gate? What would happen if someone else, something else, discovered the secrets of the Star Gate, and Gates like it, before he did?”
Axis rocked on his feet at the idea. WolfStar’s methods may have been appalling, but were his concerns so crazy as the others seemed to think? He started to speak, but Veremund continued.
“WolfStar claimed it would only be a matter of time before one did come back. Dear ones, WolfStar was an Enchanter-Talon, and he was very powerful. Far from feeling remorse for the three children he had murdered to this point, NWolfStar produced a roster of children, all with Enchanterpowers, whom he proposed to send through the Star Gate one by one until he found one who could come back.”
Bile rose in Axis’ throat as he thought of his own son growing safe in Azhure’s womb. How would he have felt, sitting among the Icarii, listening to his child’s name read out by WolfStar as the fifth, or sixth, or twenty-sixth child to be sacrificed to the Enchanter-Talon’s mad obsession?
“As I said, WolfStar was powerful, very powerful, and by now none dared challenge him. All, I suppose, hoped that a child before theirs would be the one to come back.”
“I don’t believe it,” Axis whispered. “They let their children be murdered? How could they? How many?”
“He sent a further two hundred and seven children tumbling to their deaths in the Star Gate, Axis,” said Veremund. “Some only as old as three or four, the oldest about sixteen. He sent his own niece, daughter of his younger brother. He sent,” and Veremund almost did not say this, knowing how much it would pain those listening, “he toppled his own wife, heavy with child, through the Gate.” Axis went as white as the snow eagle. “Why?” “Because WolfStar thought his wife’s body might serve as some protection for the child within. WolfStar knew his wife carried an extraordinarily talented child, and he hoped the unborn child might be able to succeed where other children had failed. It was a procession of death, Axis. The Icarii parents wept and grieved and lamented, but still they brought their children to the Star Gate as WolfStar demanded.”
“Part of the reason why the Icarii are so sensitive about WolfStar,” MorningStar explained brokenly, “was that our ancestors did not try to stop him. Virtually an entire generation of Enchanters was lost.”
Veremund was glad the tale was almost at its end. “WolfStar almost crippled the Icarii race with his obsession. So many died, and those left were emotionally and mentally
scarred. Many parents who had lost children threw themselves from high rocks in their grief, dashing themselves to death on the hard earth.”
. “And did WolfStar discover the secret, Veremund? Was all this sacrifice worth it?” Axis asked, his voice hoarse with emotion. He was descended of such mad blood?
“No. None ever came back. WolfStar would stand on the lip of the Star Gate and scream abuse at the children who had gone through, scream at them to take their courage in their hands and make the effort to come back.”