Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 3 – StarMan

“But?”

“But your son told me the visitor was true. A friend. And I trusted him. I trusted his judgement.”

Azhure frowned. “Caelum told you the invader was true?”

“No, Enchantress. Your other son. DragonStar.”

Cazna jumped as the door to her apartments flew open. Azhure strode in, Caelum…Caeluml…in her arms. Behind her hurried Rivkah, slightly out of breath with the rush, Reinald, the ancient and years-retired cook of Sigholt, and Sol Baldwin, the captain of the Keep’s garrison.

“Where is he?” Azhure asked, her voice dangerously quiet. In her arms Caelum, fully awake, stared at Cazna, then dropped his eyes to the floor.

“You’ve got him back!” Cazna cried, genuine relief in her voice, and some of the hardness in Azhure’s eyes faded. She had not been sure about Cazna’s involvement, but now she understood the girl had been an unwitting dupe of DragonStar’s manipulations.

“Yes,” Azhure said, “I have him back. Now, where is my other son?”

Cazna smiled. So Azhure wasn’t so hard of heart towards Drago as she pretended in Axis’ presence. Well.

“I will fetch him for you,” she said, and hurried into one of the lesser chambers. She bent down over Drago’s crib – and almost recoiled at the expression on the baby’s face.

“Drago! What’s wrong?”

She reached down for him, horrified at the tension in his little body. Was he ailing for something?

The baby almost growled as Cazna lifted him out, and he extended his arms and legs so stiffly that Cazna had to carry

him some distance away from her body as she rejoined the others.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” she said, her eyes concerned.

“I do,” Azhure said. “Cazna, what I am going to do will not be very pleasant, and I do not want to befoul your apartments with the memory of it. But I need you as a witness, as I need Rivkah and Reinald and Sol. Come, we will go to the roof. This will need to be done in the open air.”

Caelum cried softly at the mention of the roof.

Either you come with me to the roof, my love, or I will leave you in the care of one of the nurses. Which will it be?

Caelum shuddered, but he feared being left alone more than he feared the memories of the roof. The roof, Mama.

What I will do there will be…unpleasant…but I think you will benefit from the witnessing.

Yes, Mama.

Azhure had already sent a servant to the roof, and when the group arrived they saw that a table had been set out, a snowy cloth laid over it.

The servant had disappeared, but two Icarii Enchanters, visiting from the south, were waiting there.

They nodded silently at Azhure. She had spoken in their minds to call them to the roof, and they had some inkling of what was about to occur.

“Azhure?” Cazna asked, growing more disturbed by the moment. “What’s going on?”

She looked at Rivkah, but the woman seemed as ignorant as she. But something bad was about to happen, Cazna was suddenly sure of that, because Azhure’s face was set into hard lines and even Rivkah was stiff and uncomfortable. Reinald and Sol, also uneasy, stood behind Rivkah, their hands folded before them, their eyes downcast.

“Cazna,” Azhure said, “lay DragonStar on the table and divest him of his wraps and clothes.”

“Azhure -” Cazna began.

“Do it!” Azhure snapped, and Cazna jumped.

She walked to the table and laid Drago down, but he screamed the moment she laid a hand to his wraps.

“Azhure!” Cazna pleaded.

“Do it!”

Trembling, Cazna pulled the blankets from around Drago’s vulnerable body, dropping them to the paving, then she unbuttoned his soft suit and pulled it over his shoulders and down his body. When she removed the swaddling linens he lay fully exposed to the morning sun and the eyes of the watchers.

“Now collect the blankets and clothes, Cazna, and stand back with the others.”

Cazna looked frantically about the roof. Was no-one going to help the baby? Her eyes shifted to Azhure. What was the woman going to do? There was death in her eyes.

“Azhure,” she said, her voice edged with dread, “do you mean to harm your son? He’s but a -”

“Do not even think to counsel me, Cazna!” Azhure hissed, taking a step forward. “Your over-soft mind has proved fertile ground indeed for someone with such strength of ill-will as DragonStar. Now, stand hackl”

Without any further protest, Cazna joined Rivkah, and the older woman took her hand.

Azhure took a deep breath, calming herself. She cradled Caelum gently in her arms; the boy’s eyes never left DragonStar. “For what I will do here today I need witnesses,” she said, “and for you to understand you will need to hear all that is being said.”

She exchanged glances with the Enchanters and they nodded slightly, knowing what it was she wanted them to do.

“All Icarii babies are born with minds as sharp as an adult’s,” she explained for the benefit of the three humans present who, save Rivkah, did not understand these things. “DragonStar’s mind is even more acute, because he carries the powers of an Enchanter. He can not only think, but

communicate with the mind voice.” She paused. “But I want you all to hear what it is he is saying, so that any misunderstandings can be cleared away. My friends,” she spoke to the Enchanters, “Axis once told me there was a Song for making the mind voice audible to human ears.”

“Yes, Enchantress,” one replied, his face grave. “My companion and I can make all that is thought spoken.”

“Good. You may commence,” she said, and soft music filtered through the air. Within an instant it had disappeared again, but those with Icarii blood could feel the power that drifted about.

“Whore!” DragonStar’s voice roared around the roof, “continually offering your body to the man who so abused you!”

Everyone flinched, but Cazna was stunned by the words and voice. Surely the Enchanters were making this up? No baby could be filled with this much bitterness…surely?

“I would take that as a compliment,” Azhure said calmly, “if I thought that concern for me lay behind its rough language.”

“You do not deserve such a son as me!”

“And with that I could not agree more.”

“f should be the heir, not hel”

Azhure remained silent, letting DragonStar damn himself.

“I am the more powerful, the more deserving! I should have the glory and the accolades of heir!” He paused, his hatred and envy rippling across the roof. “Caelum was planted in sweet virgin flesh. /? I was seeded in a body tarnished by frequent use.”

Utterly repelled by her son’s words, Azhure shifted her eyes back to Cazna. “Can you understand why Axis and I did not want DragonStar near Caelum?”

Cazna nodded dumbly, her eyes shocked.

“Stupid bitch,” DragonStar remarked casually, and Cazna burst into tears.

Azhure looked back to DragonStar. No wonder her pregnancy had been so troubled, with this much hatred seething inside her. “Do you know who we are, DragonStar?”

“Yes,” he replied instantly. “I know that you are Moon, Azhure, and Axis is Song.”

His words rocked the two Enchanters. Azhure glared at them, daring them to falter with their enchantment, and after a moment they recovered.

Rivkah stared, her lips parted in astonishment.

“And you are a fool, DragonStar,” Azhure said, shocked to find tears in her eyes. She took a breath and composed herself.

“Did you manipulate Cazna to bring you to the roof the day Caelum was snatched?”

“Yes.”

Azhure was appalled at his confidence. “And did you call Gorgrael through the mists, and lie to the bridge?”

“Yes.”

Far below the bridge stirred. “You were not true,” she called. “Why?”

“Why?” Azhure echoed.

“Because I know I must be first.” He paused, considering. “You are powerful, Mama, if you managed to rescue Caelum.”

Azhure closed her eyes. Never before had he called her Mama.

“DragonStar, I cannot let such a crime go unpunished.”

Shockingly, DragonStar laughed. “And what will you do to me, Mama? Throw me from the parapets? Smother me before these witnesses? Send me away? If you do that then one day I will return. Only death will stop me. Are you prepared to kill me, Mama?”

Cazna’s eyes flew to Azhure’s face, fully expecting an affirmative answer.

“No,” Azhure whispered. “I cannot do that, although if you were standing here in my place then it is what I would expect from you.”

DragonStar laughed again. “Then you will not halt me. You are too soft.” He had relied on this, it had given him the confidence to admit his wrongdoing. His heinous crime might well deserve heinous punishment, but no mother could visit such a punishment on the child of her body. And certainly not Azhure, who had suffered so much herself.

DragonStar had planned well.