Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 3 – StarMan

A handsome young man’s face laughed back at him, merry eyes and coppery curls.

Axis frowned in puzzlement. “Who…?”

“Ah!” The young man snapped his fingers in contrition. “Forgive me. Thus I appeared to Rivkah in her youth – a troubadour who sang her songs of such beauty about the mysterious Forbidden races that when StarDrifter alighted on Sigholt’s roof she accepted him instantly. I prepared the way, you see. Planned.”

Who. .

The cloak twirled again, and now a middle-aged face haggard with toil and sadness stared down at Axis. Dark hair flopped untidily over features shadowed with a two-day growth of beard. He scratched irritably at his whiskers, and Axis saw his hands were knobbed and calloused with years of labour.

“Don’t toy with me. I’ve never seen …”

“Never seen me? Oh! Oh!” And he grinned. “Forgive me yet again, Axis. Thus I appeared to Azhure in her youth.”

He bowed in mockery over Axis. “Alayne the blacksmith at your service, m’Lord. I kept Azhure occasional company through her suffering.”

Axis’ face twisted with anger, and his hands clenched tighter about the boot at his throat, but before he could move or say anything, the Dark Man abruptly threw off his cloak, letting it flutter away in the wind.

Mild blue eyes, thinning brown hair, a form riddled with age and arthritis.

He roared with laughter as he saw the expression on Axis’ face. “The perfect disguise, BattleAxe! And the perfect spot for manipulation!”

“Moryson!'”

“Aye, Moryson. I could have been Brother-Leader, but that would have been too obvious and far too dangerous – I could have been exposed there. But as First Assistant . . . ah, that was cunning itself. Poor Jayme. He thought it was he who had the ideas, who formulated the plans, but. . . but I was there all the time, whispering, planting ideas, suggesting courses of action. Advising.” He cackled gleefully.

“Why, Axis, why do you think Jayme decided to visit Gorkenfort at the precise time that Searlas spirited Rivkah there to give birth?” Moryson leaned down and rested his hands on his knee above Axis. “And who suggested that, instead of drowning her bastard in a pail of water as Searlas wanted, we take him into the Seneschal instead? Who suggested you would be the ideal choice for BattleAxe?”

“And you taught me as a baby?” Axis’ voice was dangerously quiet.

“I rocked you and sang to you for years, Axis, and you lay there and listened. You were an easy baby to teach, as easy as you find Caelum now.”

Axis’ body tensed under Moryson’s foot, and the man laughed. “And who, Axis, who suggested that you be sent to the battlefront at Gorkenfort via the circuitous route of the Silent Woman Keep and Smyrton?”

“To find the Sentinels and Azhure?”

“Oh,” Moryson whispered, “you always were the quick learner.”

He stepped back quickly and, as Axis scrambled to his feet, he cast aside the disguise of Moryson and assumed a far older deception.

Axis stopped, stunned by the transformation.

Before him stood a beautiful Icarii birdman, clad in a shimmery silver suit that flashed blue over the curves of his body as he moved. Behind him stretched silver wings, and his face wore an expression of such utter knowledge and sadness that Axis’ breath caught in his throat.

“So I appeared to the Sentinels,” he said, and Axis blinked at him in confusion.

“As the Prophet,” he explained.

“Why?” Axis whispered. “Why the Prophecy? What was the point of all this? Tell me before I go mad!”

The Prophet’s form shimmered, and WolfStar assumed his true image. “Will you sit with me, Axis, and talk? The Sacred Grove will wait a while longer, and your promise to Faraday will not be compromised by the delay of yet another hour or so.”

“Do you know everything?”

“Most,” WolfStar said. “Yet even so, the Prophecy has managed to surprise me occasionally. Sit, Axis, and talk with me.”

Reluctantly, Axis sank to the ground and forced himself to relax. “Well?”

“Well… what?”

“Tell me about the Prophecy. Why did you create it? Was it just idiot gabble for your amusement?”

WolfStar sighed and ran his fingers through his coppery curls. “Idiot gabble?” He laughed shortly and stretched one golden wing slightly, then he folded both wings against his body. “Oh, the Prophecy has meaning, Axis, deep meaning.”

He settled comfortably. “I did not actually ‘create’ the Prophecy of the Destroyer, although I ivas the one to write it down.” He grinned. “Think, Axis, of when you read the Prophecy in the Silent Woman Keep. The last fingers to trace so closely over that page were mine.”

Axis waved a hand impatiently and WolfStar sighed. “There are things that would take me years to explain, Axis, and you have to grow before you can hear them anyway, so I will not attempt to explain them here. I died…you know how…and I was laid to rest in my Barrow among the others – with my death we were nine.” His eyes locked with Axis’ for an instant. “I walked through the Star Gate and entered another existence.”

He stopped, and for some time there was silence between them.

“I existed,” WolfStar said eventually, and Axis jumped, for he could see stars circling in the Enchanter-Talon’s eyes. “I cannot say more than that. But while I…existed…there came to me certain knowledges. Knowledges that made it imperative that I re-enter this world.”

“Wait.” Axis leaned forward, and whatever antagonism he had for WolfStar vanished in his thirst for knowledge and understanding. “Some time ago Veremund told me your story.”

WolfStar’s face remained expressionless, although a nerve twitched in his throat.

“He told me of how you had been fascinated in your youth by the possibility of other worlds beyond this one. You surmised that each sun was paired with a world, perhaps like ours, that circled it, as ours does. You looked at the multitude of stars in

the universe, and surmised that a multitude of worlds also existed. The others thought it was crazy, but I wondered. WolfStar…what did you find beyond the Star Gate?”

WolfStar smiled slightly. “Do you ask if I found other worlds, Axis? Well…conceivably. But that is a story that waits for another day. It was,” his voice slowed, “perhaps one of the reasons I returned.”

He shook himself and the smile died. “Enough. I returned because among the knowledges that came my way was the knowledge that the world I loved and served . . . yes, Axis, I did love and serve Tencendor despite my actions . . . faced terrible troubles. A time of turmoil. Of war. An age when it would be torn asunder. Nothing could stop these troubles. But something could be done to help repair the damage.” “The Prophecy?”

“Yes. The Prophecy existed beyond me. I did not create it. It found me and used me as it used so many others. It persuaded me back through the Star Gate and I, in my role as the Prophet, have been its servant ever since. I recruited the Sentinels, I wrote it down, I watched the nation I loved fall apart as the Prophecy said that it would, I fathered Azhure, and I have worked constantly to ensure the success of the Prophecy.” “Manipulated.”

“Yes!” WolfStar spat. “Manipulated. I will stop at nothing to ensure its success, and I let no trivial emotion or consideration of right or wrong get in the way of the Prophecy!” “WolfStar,” and his hand plucked at his golden tunic. “Yes?” WolfStar growled. “Do you see these bloodstains here?” WolfStar peered, then waved his hand. “Those? Bah!” And Faraday’s blood disappeared. Somehow that angered Axis more than anything else. “Does guilt vanish that easily, WolfStar?” he snarled, and he seized WolfStar’s forearm.

WolfStar stiffened, but he did not throw Axis off.

“That was Faraday’s blood, WolfStar! Faraday! Who died instead of Azhure!”

“Yes,” WolfStar said quietly.

“Did you manipulate her into GorgraePs den?”

There was utter silence across the tundra. Far, far away Axis could…feel…the grey waves rolling against the Icebear Coast, but their sound had faded into silence. There was nothing but the featureless snow fields and WolfStar…WolfStar staring into his eyes.

“Yes,” he said, voice and face calm. “I did.”

Axis’ fingers spasmed and dug further into WolfStar’s flesh, but the Enchanter-Talon showed no response.

“Yes?” Axis whispered. “Yes? You murdered her!”

“You pitiful fool!” WolfStar shouted, and wrenched his arm from Axis’ hold. “Would you rather the entire Prophecy had collapsed at that point? Would you rather that Gorgrael had Azhure embraced in his talons?”

Axis stared at the Enchanter.

“Listen to me,” WolfStar said, his patience exhausted. “Gorgrael could have won, would have won, if he’d had Azhure instead of Faraday. Evert as powerful as she is now, Azhure would have been no match for him; he would have overpowered her . . . and killed her. Could you have maintained your concentration, maintained your hold over the Star Dance flooding through the Sceptre if it had been Azhure with her throat and belly ripped open before you?”