Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 2 – Enchanter

Axis turned his gaze from the fire to Magariz’s face, his blue eyes cold. Azhure laid down her bow and Belial also watched Magariz carefully. Even Ogden and Veremund ceased their chattering.

Magariz, uncertain, glanced at Axis, but Axis waved his hand languidly. “You do not have to hold your tongue on my account.”

“Princess,” Magariz sighed, hesitating. How to talk about Borneheld?

“After I served my time with the palace guard, Priam sent me to serve with Borneheld soon after he became Duke. Borneheld gave me the command of Gorkenfort, a lonely and wearying place, some ten years ago —”

“You were in the palace guard at Carlon?” Axis interrupted.

Magariz laughed. “And led it the last two years I was in Carlon, Axis. Why? Do you find me familiar?”

Axis only just managed to resist swearing in surprise. Magariz must have been in Carlon when Axis was a child growing up in the Seneschal. Axis had often played in the back corridors of the palace when Jayme was there. Magariz must have had access to him as a child! Could he be the traitor in his camp? Could he be WolfStar? Axis took a hasty mouthful of wine. The thought was almost as unsettling as the notion that it might be Azhure.

Magariz smiled at Axis, misunderstanding the reasons for his stare. “You were a mischievous child, Axis. I once found you in the stable, tying all the horses’ legs together with a long ball of twine.”

Axis forced a light-hearted grin to his face. If Magariz was WolfStar, then he would possibly have had access to the northern wastes above Gorkenfort. Access to the northern wastes and to Gorgrael. No! He had to stop this! Had to stop staring every friend in the face, trying to see the traitor lying beneath.

Magariz, still unaware of Axis’ inner turmoil, touched Rivkah gently on the arm. “Rivkah, I am sorry. You wanted to know about Borneheld. Well, he is a complex man. Though often harsh, he does try to be fair. He is organised, disciplined, and has a strong sense of right and wrong. When I knew him he always tried to do what he thought was right, always. He is too narrow-minded, but that is the way he wasbrought up. He does not know how to love, but that is because he was never loved.”

Rivkah put her embroidery down, her face blank. “He is crazed in his jealousy of Axis, true, and for several reasons. Rivkah, you loved Axis’ father, not his, and he believes you abandoned him for StarDrifter.” Rivkah opened her mouth to deny that, but Magariz forged on. “As far as Borneheld is concerned, your death while giving birth to your unknown lover’s child constituted abandonment.”

Blinded by the tears in her eyes, Rivkah winced and cried out softly as a pin stuck deep into her thumb. Was Magariz talking of Borneheld…or of himself?

“Borneheld is also jealous of Axis because Axis has the charm that Borneheld never had and will never have, and Borneheld has always been aware of his sad lack of charisma.” Magariz paused. “And Borneheld suspects that Axis is the better war leader than he is – and fighting is the one thing Borneheld feels he is reasonably good at. At Gorkenfort Borneheld watched Axis daily earn the adulation of his soldiers, and that cut deep, very, very deep. Now Borneheld is probably consumed with jealousy that Axis, his hated half-brother, is the fabled StarMan, the one who is prophesied to save Achar.”

Aware of the emotions he had already sparked, Magariz wondered if he should go on. “And then there is Faraday,” he said very, very quietly. Both Axis and Azhure stilled. “Does Borneheld realise that Faraday loves Axis? If so, then it will deepen Borneheld’s anger and jealousy…perhaps beyond reason.” Magariz hastily drained his wine glass, wishing he’d kept quiet.

“If Borneheld has one serious flaw, Magariz, one thing we might exploit, what would you say that to be?” asked Belial.

“Besides his consuming resentment of Axis? Borneheld’s major fault is that he is too set in his ways, too rigid. He will not, cannot, change his attitudes. The Forbidden will always remain the Forbidden, never potential allies. He is a sad man and will feel abandoned by a world that changes about him.” “A sad man, Magariz?” Axis’ voice was harsh. “Misunderstood? Tell that to FreeFall SunSoar who felt Borneheld’s sword slice open his heart. You witnessed that murder, and by your own confession it was what decided you to turn to my cause. Borneheld is marked by death, do not try to turn him into a martyr to a lost world now!”

“Enough!” Rivkah cried, and abruptly stood from her chair, the silks and material tumbling from her lap in a bright flood to the floor. “Enough! I wish I had never asked about Borneheld!”

She turned on her heel and hurried towards the door. Both Axis and Azhure made as if to go after her, but Magariz waved them back. “It was my fault,” he said quietly, and limped after Rivkah.

He caught her just outside the door and took her hands. “Rivkah, I am sorry. I did not think too carefully on what I said. If I appeared judgemental, then I did not mean to be. These past years were —”

“I am such an inconstant woman, and such a bad woman,” Rivkah whispered, distraught. “You were right to speak of abandonment to me. I deserved no less.” “Rivkah -”

“I never loved Searlas, you know that.” “Yes, I know it.” “I never wanted to marry him.” “Yes, I know that, but —”

“I was not untrue to Searlas at all when StarDrifter landed on that roof, was I, Magariz?” He was silent, his eyes dark.

“I was untrue to you. You have never remarried, Magariz, and yet I have betrayed you twice, once with Searlas and once with StarDrifter. The two sons and the daughter I bore should have been yours.”

“Rivkah. You know that I would not have expected you to remain true to our vows. Not after what happened.”

Rivkah blinked the tears from her eyes. Too late to cry now about the mistakes of over thirty years ago.

“I wonder how people would react, Magariz, if they knew that you are my legal husband, not Searlas, not StarDrifter.” There. The words were said.

For the first time in many years Magariz let his mind drift back to that long-ago night in Carlon. Rivkah was an impetuous fifteen year old, and he an equally impetuous seventeen. Rivkah had rushed down to his room, furious that her father, King Karel, had just promised her to Searlas, Duke of Ichtar. Determined to defy her father and Searlas, Rivkah had whispered her plan to her friend. They had fled via poorly lit passageways and unguarded doors to a small Worship Hall in the seamier quarter of Carlon. There a Brother, old and careless, had accepted the gold Rivkah thrust into his hand and married them. Magariz remembered how he’d taken Rivkah back to his bare room in the lower regions of the palace where, awkward and shy, they had both lost their virginity.

But the next day Karel had unexpectedly spirited Rivkah northwards and forced her into marriage with Searlas. What to do? If Magariz spoke out he could endanger both their lives and if he kept quiet he would lose Rivkah forever. So young, Magariz could do nothing but grieve for the brief love he had lost. Two years later, when Rivkah had died in childbed of her second son, Magariz had taken to his room and wept, swearing that his single night with Rivkah would last him a lifetime. When her foundling bastard son had arrived in Carlon under the care of Jayme, Magariz had taken every opportunity he could to play with the child. And he had always wondered, until he had actually set eyes on Borneheld, whether her eldest son was his or not. But Borneheld was the image of Searlas, and Magariz was grateful that he did not have the guilt of Borneheld on his conscience as well.

Rivkah pulled her hands from his, interrupting the memories. “We can never recapture the past, Magariz, or strive for what might have been. We cannot prove our marriage — if indeed we would want to now after so many years. But there is always the future, and,” she smiled, “there is always the fact that since Azhure moved to Axis’ bed, I have lain cold and lonely at night. No-one, in this crowded Keep, has come to share my quarters. My chamber lies in an isolated corridor, my Lord Magariz, and should you decide to wander down it one night, I doubt that you shall find the door to my chamber locked.”

Then she was gone.

ParleyThey stood in the central map-room of the Keep of Sigholt — Axis, his senior commanders and his father and grandmother. All stared at Arne, standing grey and haggard after riding for three days for Sigholt.