Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 3 – StarMan

“We are a pacific people,” Barsarbe said.

“We are fools!” Now Shra was truly angry, and it was not only at Barsarbe that she directed her anger. “We cling tenaciously to our creed of non-violence, yet we are ready enough to project violence when it suits us. Barsarbe condemns Azhure for the violence that trails her, but did none of you feel the violence that the trees themselves projected so very recently? Did none of you hear the death that the forests sang…led by the Earth Tree who now stands so ‘peaceful’ behind me?”

“They slaughtered our enemies!” Barsarbe spat.

“So does Azhure!” Shra cried. “How could you stand there and pretend distaste for her actions in Smyrton? She saved your life as she saved mine and Faraday’s! Avar, listen to me! Azhure slew Artor the Ploughman for our sakes, and protected Faraday. If there are forests below the Avarinheim now, then it is largely due to Azhure’s help. Have you forgotten the Yuletide slaughter already? Have you forgotten who did so much to save us then?”

“We are safe in our forests, Shra,” Barsarbe said, battling to control her temper. All could be lost if she slapped the child as she so richly deserved.

“Our forests, Barsarbe?” Shra whispered, tears gathering in her eyes. “We do not own these forests, they merely tolerate our presence. If the Avarinheim and the Minstrelsea allow other feet to walk their paths, then who are we to demur?”

“Allow the Plains Dwellers to share our forests, Shra?” Barsarbe grabbed the child’s arm, giving her a rough shake. “I have listened enough!”

Grindle sprang to his feet. “Barsarbe, let my daughter go! I have heard her speak, and she has shamed me, if not you! Gorgrael is of our blood, and his destruction is our responsibility as well as that of the people of the Plough and the Wing.” He put his hands on his daughter’s shoulders and attempted to pull her away from the Bane’s grip.

But Barsarbe was not prepared to let go. Her fingers sank into the flesh of Shra’s upper arm and the girl cried out.

“For the Mother’s sake -” Grindle began, but Barsarbe shouted him down, her delicate face contorted with hate.

“She has been left to run too wild and free, Grindle! I shall have to walk with your Clan awhile to make sure that she receives the chastisement she so obviously needs.”

Grindle let his daughter go and reached for Barsarbe instead. Appalled by both Grindle’s actions and Barsarbe’s treatment of Shra, Brode stepped between them and hauled the man away. Barsarbe still gripped Shra’s arm painfully, and her mouth twisted with satisfaction as Erode pushed Grindle back several more paces.

“The Avar are in a pitiful state,” she said, turning towards those who sat still and horrified by the scene before them. “We have been contaminated by the violence that Azhure has brought into this forest. It is not surprising that the two who have had so much to do with Azhure – Grindle and Shra -should now so champion her cause.”

“This is all it is about, Barsarbe,” Shra said, blinking back tears of pain, “Azhure. You hate her so much that you are prepared to lead our people into despair to sate your hate.”

“I am prepared to preserve our people!” Barsarbe cried. “My people, can you not see that I am right? Can you not see that the best hope for us rests in turning our backs to the pain beyond the forests? We are safe here. Gorgrael cannot touch us here. Let’s leave it at that. We do have the right to refuse the StarMan when he asks for our help.”

To many of the Avar her words made sense. The world beyond the forest was too frightening to risk. Others were more hesitant.

“It was one of our women who birthed Gorgrael,” Grindle shouted. “Don’t any of you feel responsibility for that? Shouldn’t we help right the wrong we have bred?”

Barsarbe ignored him, scanning the crowd with anxious eyes. Whose words would they support?

“If we do not agree to help Axis then he cannot defeat Gorgraei,” Shra said, her soft words reaching every ear in the grove. “And if Axis dies then the world will crumble about us. Even the forest will eventually wilt under Gorgrael’s relentless onslaught.”

“She lies!” Barsarbe shouted. “We will always be safe within the forests!”

“For this generation, and perhaps the next,” Shra replied, “but what when Gorgrael’s power has grown even stronger than it is now? Should we condemn our descendants to lingering death because we did not have the honour or the stomach to act?”

“Let the trees decide,” Barsarbe called with deadly calm. “Let the trees decide the truth.”

I have won, she thought exultantly. / have won! The trees will never decide for Axis or Azhure. She let Shra go.

“You would put yourselves to a Test of Truth?” one of the other Banes asked.

“Yes,” Barsarbe said. “A Test. Do you agree?”

All Avar children who showed the potential to become Banes were administered a frightening test when they were only toddlers, so frightening that many children did not survive it. Despite this, the Avar continued to administer it, because only through this test could they determine which children had the potential to become truly powerful Banes.

But what Barsarbe was suggesting was far worse. The Test of Truth had rarely been administered in Avar history, and certainly not within the past three or four hundred years.

“We are faced with the fork in the path,” Barsarbe said. “Let the Test provide the answer for you.”

“No!” Grindle cried and reached for his daughter. This time Brode let him go.

“No,” he repeated, now down on his knees with his arms about Shra. “There is no need, Barsarbe.”

“There is every need,” she said. “I am certain of the truth, of the path we should take. But I can see that some among you

yet demur. This decision is too important to be taken without unanimity. A Test will convince doubters.”

“And will kill one of you,” Grindle said, his arms tightening around Shra. He had already lost her mother in this grove; he did not want to risk Shra as well.

“Do you fear for your daughter’s life?” Barsarbe asked scathingly.

“I am willing,” Shra said.

“I agree,” said a male Bane after a pause, and the one next to him nodded. “So do I.”

“And I.”

“I will agree.”

And, at first hesitantly, then with greater certainty, the Avar agreed to the Test.

As the last of the voices subsided Barsarbe turned and smiled coldly at Shra. “Let us begin.”

They were taken to the Earth Tree, where each stepped out of her robe and, naked, was bound to the tree by ropes. Then, surrounded by the power of the Earth Tree and the Banes before them, they were thrust into the Test.

The forest was calm and quiet, not like it was in the test both had taken as two year olds. Then the trees had crowded them, hindering their efforts to escape the horror that chased them through the forest.

Now the air lay still and heavy with moisture, as if before a storm. Leaves hung listlessly, and every footfall was an affront to the lassitude that gripped the forest.

They walked separately, about forty paces apart. Occasionally one would glance at the other, then her eyes would slide away again. Each wished she were clothed; not through any sense of shame, but because a robe would give her the means to wipe hands moist with apprehension and the warm, damp air.

Neither spoke.

r Neither knew how long or how far they walked, but at the same instant both became aware that mist drifted through the trees; each took a last glance at the other, knowing they would never see each other again. Each wondered at her wisdom in suggesting or agreeing to the Test.

Each knew there was no escape now.

The mist thickened and coiled about them until both stumbled blinded into tree after tree, even though they walked cautiously. Bark and rocks scratched at their skin and hair; both quickly suffered a dozen small wounds that stung rather than hurt, worried rather than frightened.

The mist thickened until even the sound of the other’s footfalls was lost.

She no longer held her hands out before her, preferring to wrap both arms about her body. The cold penetrated to her bones, and she did not know how much longer she could keep going. Her hair hung heavy and dripping over her shoulders, and her feet were numb.

Where was the Test? When would she be judged?

She knew she was right, despite the way the other had sought to manipulate her people. She knew that to make the wrong decision now would be to fate the Avar to a slow and lingering death.