Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 3 – StarMan

He walked slowly about the circle, the shaft glowing pale golden in the night and lighting his face. “We have already farewelled MorningStar, as those murdered here, in fitting ceremonies. Tonight we cleanse Talon Spike itself and rededicate its spirit. For ancient generations the mountain was a summer pleasure palace for the Icarii, and then it became a safe-haven…and a goal.”

As he walked he reached out to touch the faces of those he passed, gazing deep into each one’s eyes, as if he wanted to touch their very souls. As he passed Azhure, running his fingers lightly over her face, she felt his eyes sear into hers, and she inhaled and trembled. In daily life it was too easy, she thought, to forget just how powerful StarDrifter was.

“But now the time has come for Talon Spike to be reborn,” StarDrifter continued. “Time for us to think anew about what service this mountain can do us…and how we can serve it. FreeFall SunSoar, Talon-Elect, will you speak?”

FreeFall, the tore about his neck, now stepped a pace out from the circle. Stars, but he is beautiful, Azhure thought. He looks like a god himself with his pale gold hair and violet eyes and those white, white wings at his back.

“Talon Spike waits for a new direction…and a new name. StarDrifter has suggested that the mountain complex now be used as a place of contemplation and study, a place where Icarii can come to examine and debate the mysteries. I concur. It will become a fitting monument to MorningStar and to her love of mysteries enlightened. The mountain shall become a place of libraries and halls, of music and enchantments, of tremulous discoveries and lingering silences. And it shall have a new name, for the Talon will now rule from his palace in the Minaret Peaks. Its new name shall be -”

“Star Finger,” Axis said to the side.

FreeFall stood with his mouth gaping. It was not the name he and StarDrifter had chosen.

“Star Finger,” Azhure said clearly, and her eyes met Axis’.

StarDrifter looked sharply between the two of them, then at FreeFall. “Star Finger,” he said.

“Star Finger,” FreeFall repeated, and the name was murmured about the circle as tongues and hearts embraced it.

Then FreeFall stepped back and StarDrifter began to sing in the ancient and sacred language of the Icarii. He sang spells and enchantments that would protect Star Finger from further depredations and would encourage all those who worked and lived within her to thrive in her harmony and peace. His voice was sweet and true, not as powerful as the force he had unleashed in the Temple of the Stars, but moving and inspiring nevertheless.

When he had finished he lifted a brand and, in the act of lifting it, somehow lit it. He raised the brand above his head and cried to the stars. “Let the Star Gods witness the cleansing fire!” Then he sent the flaming brand hurtling down the shaft.

One by one the others stepped forward, the brands bursting into fire the moment hands lifted them, and all echoed StarDrifter’s cry and sent their brands plunging down the shaft. As they dropped their brands, the Icarii moved to stand in one corner of the peak.

Finally only Axis and Azhure were left, and StarDrifter gestured to them impatiently.

Axis looked at Azhure, then turned to StarDrifter. “You have asked the Star Gods to witness, Father.” StarDrifter’s eyes widened in shock at the parental appellation. “And so they shaJJ. Will you call them?”

What are you trying to do, Axis?

Call them, Father.

StarDrifter stared furiously at his son, angry that he would upset the ritual. But to argue now would only corrupt the ritual further and risk contaminating it altogether, and so, with obvious bad grace, StarDrifter cried once more to the stars.

“I call upon Adamon, God of the Firmament, to witness the cleansing of Star Finger!”

“And I accept with honour,” a deep voice said, and Adamon stepped out of the darkness into the starlight about the shaft. Like all others on the peak, he was dressed in a long white linen robe, but he had a circlet of light in his dark hair, and his eyes radiated with the glory of the stars themselves.

He stood near the shaft and looked at StarDrifter.

StarDrifter stared at him, his chest heaving in great breaths, then he turned his eyes back to the stars.

“I call upon Xanon, Goddess of the Firmament, to witness the cleansing of Star Finger!”

And Xanon, similarly clothed in linen and circlet and power, stepped forth and smiled gently at StarDrifter.

His voice becoming ever hoarser, StarDrifter called in turn on the Gods of Sun, Fire and Air to witness, and Narcis, Silton and Pors stepped forth.

Then StarDrifter called on the Goddesses of Water and Earth to witness, and Flulia and Zest stepped forth.

Now the seven gods stood in an almost complete circle about the shaft. Two spaces remained.

StarDrifter stared at the seven gods, distraught. “The names of the Goddess of the Moon and the God of Song have not been revealed,” he whispered, “and I cannot call on them to witness, lam sorry.”

Adamon returned his gaze steadily. “You know them well, StarDrifter. Call them to witness and they will stand forth.”

“I do not know …” StarDrifter began, then he looked at the two empty spaces, and then . . . then he looked at Axis and Azhure waiting patiently in the shadows.

Both were gazing at him, and both had compassionate expressions on their faces.

“I. . .” StarDrifter stopped again, unable to speak. He felt faint, disorientated.

“Speak, StarDrifter,” Azhure said, “for you have nothing to fear.”

“I call upon Azhure, Goddess of the Moon, to witness the cleansing of Star Finger.”

She smiled. “I accept with honour, StarDrifter,” and she stepped forward to fill one of the last two remaining spaces. As she did so a circle of light appeared in her hair, and her eyes blazed with the glory of the stars.

StarDrifter dragged his gaze away from her and towards his son. My son, he thought, my son. “I call upon Axis, God of Song, to witness the cleansing of Star Finger.”

“I accept with honour, Father,” Axis said, his eyes holding StarDrifter’s for a moment of such all-consuming love that StarDrifter literally swayed with emotion.

Axis stepped forward to take his place among the Nine, and as he did so the light burned in his own hair. Then the Nine took each other’s hands and raised them above their heads, and as they did so fire burned about the shaft, then they brought their hands down sharply and the fire speared into the mountain. Those still inside reported a great light that enveloped the chambers, halls and spaces of the complex – and in that instant Star Finger became a place truly blessed of the gods.

StarDrifter blinked and saw the Nine still there, their hands upraised, the light shining in their hair.

He blinked again and they were gone, and Axis and Azhure were at his side.

“I did not know,” he said, “but, knowing you, I understand.”

They sat on the rock ledge of the mountain, a cliff at their feet, the glacier and Icebear Coast before them. On one of the distant ice floes an icebear gambolled; it was missing one ear.

“Do you remember what I asked you when last we sat here?” Azhure said.

The wind caught at her unfettered hair, and Axis smoothed it away from her face. “Yes. Yes, I do. You asked if it bothered me that I would live so long.”

“And you said that it did, that it bothered you that you might sit here in five hundred years and not be able to recall the name of the lovely young woman who sat at your side and whose bones now crumbled into dust.”

They were both quiet, and Axis turned his eyes back to the view before them.

“And now …” He entwined his fingers with hers.

“Now we face a longer and stranger future, but we will face it together.”

He grinned, and with his free hand he caught at something floating in the air. It was a Moonwildflower, and he tangled it within her hair. “I promise I will come home to you, Azhure.”

Her fingers tightened briefly, painfully, about his. “Come home,” she said. “Come home.”

He kissed her and changed the subject. “When will you leave?”

“This afternoon, Axis. I will take Caelum and the Alaunt and the horses and traverse the alpine passes to the Icescarp Barren. From there we will ride for Sigholt.”

“Ride with the Moon, Azhure.”

She nodded, and smiled. “And you?”

He laughed. “Me and Arne? Arne has developed no more respect for me since he has heard some of the whispers about us that are being bruited about the mountain. He grimly tells me