Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 2 – Enchanter

Axis looked where she pointed, dien communed with the eagle. “The toad is strewn with rubble, especially as it nears the centre of Hsingard, but it will still be passable on foot.”

Azhure nodded. “Good.” She bent down and patted Sicarius, speaking to him quiedy. The great beast rose, four of his companions with him, and padded out of the ruins of the Retreat towards Hsingard.

Axis raised his eyebrows at Azhure.

“They go tq sniff out the first few blocks and the roadway,” she said. “If they are clear, then I move the force across this open space.”

After about ten minutes Axis spotted Sicarius trotting a short distance back out of the ruins. He sat down some five or six paces from the entrance to the roadway. Axis touched Azhure’s shoulder and indicated the hound. “Good,” she whispered. “It is clear. Come.” She moved the force across to the outer ruins of Hsingard in groups of one hundred, waiting until each had reached the ruins safely and disappeared before sending the next group out.

Azhure led diem quiedy and as carefully as she could along the street. Most of the buildings were completely destroyed, occasional walls standing desolate and lonely against the grey sky, like the sad ruin of an old man’s mouth. Great blocks of masonry lay tumbled and piled higgledy-piggledy, some strewn across the roadway, where Azhure s command had to climb over or around diem.

Hsingard appeared completely deserted and for the first half an hour of their silent penetration of the city they saw no-one. But Azhure took no chances. She kept all the members of the force to the side of the roadway, as much as she could among the shadows of the ruins. At regular intervals she signalled small groups of archers and swordsmen to wait crouched among die ruins, ready to guard their retreat. The hounds ranged before and beside them, silent, heads to the ground or deep among the tumbled piles, of masonry, serving – together with the eagle that still soared overhead -as an advance warning of attack.

Axis knew Azhure was on edge, worried that they had not yet found any Skraelings, concerned about where diey could be. But her anxiety was not making her impatient, or, conversely, too confident. Axis was impressed. She was doing well. He followed some ten or fifteen paces behind her, his sword drawn, his entire body ready to fight.

Suddenly the nearest Alaunt gave a gruff bark and Skraelings swarmed out of ground-level cracks. Almost before they could draw breath, Azhure and her command were engaged with the wraiths.

Because the Skraelings had wriggled out of cracks virtually underneath the feet of Azhure’s force, the archers among them had no chance to loose a volley of arrows before both swordsmen and Skraelings were so intermixed that the archers risked killing their comrades as much as the Skraelings. But Azhure shouted to the archers to watch the ground, watch the cracks, and after the initial surprise, the archers were able to prevent larger numbers of the Skraelings from emerging from their underground holes.

The archers’ rapid response gave the swordsmen the chance to deal with the initial rush of Skraelings without having to worry about being overwhelmed. Perhaps some fifty or sixty managed to escape to attack the men, and that was not enough to cause them serious concern. With the help of the hounds, it took only a few short, sharp minutes of fighting before the Skraelings lay dead about the roadway. None of the swordsmen had been killed, although two were injured, and Azhure sent mem back to wait at the edge of the ruins with the men she had stationed there.

“DifTerent,” Azhure remarked, bending to inspect one of the bodies of the Skraelings. The Skraelings had almost completely abandoned their wraith-like forms once they came through the cracks. They were fully fleshed, well muscled, and standing as a man. Their naked grey bodies were covered with tough leathery skin which had hardened over shoulders, joints and back into a bony armour, virtually impervious to a sword dirust. Their heads were encased in the same substance – their silvery eyes, once so huge and vulnerable, were now simply narrow slits behind bony protuberances.

As they watched, the Skraeling’s body disintegrated into grey sludge.

“They’re changing,” Axis said. “Gorgrael is building himself a more solid force.”

Azhure stood up. “We outnumbered these seven to one. But what if, next winter, we have to meet an army of hundreds of thousand of bone-armoured Skraelings, almost completely impervious to sword or even arrow?” Axis shook his head. The thought horrified him. “Then perhaps we ought to find out where these came from,” Azhure said. “Let’s call the Icarii in. There is no point holding them back now. The Skraelings know we are here. Theod,” she called to one of the unit leaders among the swordsmen, “tell the men to keep their eyes sharp as we move along, the road. If there is an entrance to below ground, then I want to know about it.”

Theod nodded and turned to the men. They were attacked three more times as they moved along the road to the city centre, but now the men knew what to look for most kept their eyes to the ground-level cracks in the tumbled masonry and the Skraelings were unable to surprise them as they had at first. But each time they emerged, Azhure and her force had a sharp battle on their hands. Before leaving the Urqhart Hills Azhure had ordered that each man construct himself a brand from the low gorse bushes, and now she directed that two of the squads of archers sling their bows over their shoulders and light their brands.

When the Skraelings attacked again, Azhure led the two squads of archers, wielding their flaming brands now rather than bows, into battle alongside the swordsmen. Behind her the four remaining squads of archers kept their arrows trained on the ground-level cracks where the Skraelings emerged, making sure that as few of them escaped from their underground holes as possible.

Azhure found herself fighting alongside Axis. She laughed exultantly as she rammed the brand she carried into the face of a Skraeling as Axis seized another and thrust his sword deep into one of its eye cavities. He pulled his sword free and stuck Azhure’s Skraeling as it lay writhing on the ground.

“A service,” he cried, grinning at her exultation, then abruptly leaned forward, unmindful of the battle going on, and kissed her fiercely. The next instant they were fighting back to back as more Skraelings lunged at them with their teeth and claws, leaning against each other, still laughing, more aware of each other than of the creatures they fought. Both felt invulnerable and immortal. Nothing could harm them while they stood back to back, leaning each against the other. Once the Skraeling attack had finally diminished, Axis turned and seized Azhure. “I love you,” he whispered. “Never doubt that.” Then he was gone to help the swordsmen kill the final few Skraelings left standing.

Azhure gazed after him, unable to believe what she had just heard, then she lowered her eyes to stare at the flaming brand she carried. What did it mean, that he loved her? What did he mean? Love her or not, Axis would still go to Faraday. She was his future, not Azhure.

The insistent barking of one of the Alaunt broke Azhure s reverie and she looked over to where a hound was scrabbling at a shadowed pile of masonry a little further down the road. “Cover me,” she said to her archers, and walked down the road to the Alaunt. She squatted beside him, her hand on the hound’s back, and peered into the jumble of stone blocks. There was a solid blackness behind the fissure that the hound had his nose jammed into, and Azhure pulled his head back and thrust her brand into the crack. A flight of steps, still looking remarkably intact, led below.

Excited, Azhure waved over several men and set them to clearing the entrance to the steps.

She felt Axis at her back, and she glanced at him. “What do you think?”

“Dangerous, but your decision.”

“Then we go down. Carefully.” She looked at the men behind her. “I will take one squad of archers and thirty swordsmen only. And the pack of Alaunt – they will be more useful than a hundred men if it comes to a fight within this dark corridor. The rest of you stay here. If we are not back by,” she glanced at the sky, “mid-afternoon, then leave without us. But until then, watch this entrance. Do not let any Skraelings creep down after us. I want only to worry about what lies before us, not what creeps at our backs.”

“And me?” Axis asked.

“I am in command here, and I cannot risk you down this hole. You have a greater chance of survival out here in the open than you would cramped below. You stay.”