Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 3 – StarMan

“She also said that one day you would give him to the Avar.”

“What?” Axis looked back at the Horned One and his hands tightened protectively about the baby.

“Isfrael is a gift, StarMan, but ultimately he is a gift to the Avar people. Faraday did not live long enough,” and the silver pelt paused to stare at Axis with hard eyes, “to lead them from their exile. Isfrael will eventually do that. He will become the Mage-King of the Avar. You must teach him what you can for as long as you can and, when the time comes, the Avar will take over his care and his training.” .

No, Axis was going to whisper, but the Horned One forestalled him.

“They died for you as well, StarMan.”

Not as many as others, Axis was going to shout, but again the Horned One anticipated him.

“And so did she.”

Axis closed his mouth and bowed his head in silent agreement.

Axis?

He raised his head. The silver pelt had disappeared, and by the tree line stood a white stag. He paused, trembling, as if afraid to be caught in the open, and his dark eyes rolled in apprehension at the sky above, but he eventually overcame his fear and stepped daintily, regally, towards Axis and the baby.

Axis?

Raum?

That was once my name, yes.

Have you come to revile me as well?

I would never do that, Axis. I have come to repay my debt to you.

Debt?

Axis, years ago at the border of the Avarinheim you saved both my life and Shra’s. For that I owed you two lives.

Yes.

gave one back to you then. I told you that Faraday lived.

Axis lowered his head, remembering. Yes.

Now I give you back the second life that I owe you.

Axis raised his eyes.

Faraday lives.

Axis’ eyes widened and his breathing stilled.

But she does not exist in a form that will suit you, StarMan. You may see her occasionally, but you will never speak to her again. You will never touch her again. You will never hurt her again. She runs unfettered, Axis, and she is finally free of you.

The stag paused, trembling again and, as Axis stretched out a silent hand towards him, he bounded away into the trees and was lost to sight.

“No!” Axis cried, and the baby whimpered. “No, come back! Come back!”

Epilogue Nine yws later…

Papa?” “Yes?” Axis looked down into IsfraePs green eyes and smiled. He tightened his own hand about that of his son.

“You don’t like these woods very much, do you?”

Axis laughed uncomfortably, and glanced back to the forest path they had walked down. To either side the great trees reared towards the sky, but the atmosphere was peaceful rather than constricting, and birds and butterflies frolicked among the sunbeams filtering through the emerald canopy. Earlier in the day, he and Azhure had brought their children to the northern rim of Minstrelsea. They had picnicked by the banks of the Nordra, then Axis and Isfrael had entered the forest alone.

They did this twice a year, as they had every year since Axis had returned to Sigholt with the baby in his arms. Although he could never bring himself to ask, Axis suspected that Azhure sometimes travelled these woods with Caelum or Isfrael or their daughter, and perhaps sometimes all three. There was a deep bond between what-had-once-been-Faraday and Azhure, and Axis wondered if Faraday ever appeared to Azhure in her human form.

The one time he had asked, Azhure had looked at him, and then gently changed the subject.

Axis never asked Isfrael.

“Well?” Isfrael pulled at Axis’ hand impatiently.

“I like them well enough, Isfrael. How could anyone not appreciate their beauty? But I feel uncomfortable here, yes. I…” How to explain it to the boy? “The forest and I enjoy different kinds of magic,” and Axis suddenly realised that this was the nub of the matter, “and although we appreciate each other, neither of us is truly comfortable with the other.”

But Isfrael was persistent. “Azhure loves the forest, and it her.”

“She shines over forest and plain and sea alike.” “Yes, I suppose you are right, Papa.”

Axis had never ceased to be relieved that Azhure had accepted Isfrael so well or so quickly into their family. They had been blessed these past nine years with a happiness neither could have anticipated or dared hope for. Their hearts had healed well from the tragedies that had enveloped them, and their family had grown about them, leaping and cavorting and laughing through Sigholt’s corridors and the shores of the Lake of Life.

His family. His children. Five now, yet Axis only ever really thought of three of them as his. The twins remained on the outer. Drago had grown into a surly boy, silent and withdrawn. Obedient, but Axis thought that rebellion lay simmering beneath the outer fragile calm. He showed no trace of his Icarii heritage – even his face had lost its Icarii cast. He had grown no wings, nor had he demonstrated any Icarii Enchanter powers. He’d paid dearly for his treachery, and yet neither Axis nor Azhure, and certainly not Caelum, ever trusted him. They often sent him to stay long months with Belial and Cazna and their two children.

RiverStar was a reserved girl. She kept Drago company, but they were an odd pair. She had grown into her full Icarii heritage, developing wings and Enchanter powers. She was golden and violet, like her aunt EvenSong, and she smiled and laughed and played and hugged both her parents with apparent love.

But she was still reclusive and sometimes sat quietly for hours on end, refusing to play with the other children. She did not harbour resentment or hostility. Not really, but sometimes Axis caught her looking at him with strange eyes, and a shiver would run down his back. When Drago went to Belial’s home in Carlon, RiverStar requested to stay with her grandfather on the Island of Mist and Memory. She got on well with StarDrifter, and he remained largely responsible for her training.

So Drago and RiverStar were absent for long months at a time and, even when there, they were hardly part of Sigholt’s life.

Caelum . . . glorious, wondrous Caelum. He was nearing twelve now, and growing into his full heritage. He had never developed wings – had refused to, saying that neither of his parents had wings and he wanted to be just like them – but he was Icarii in almost every other respect…save in his overwhelming sense of compassion and humility. He would be an Enchanter like no other, Axis thought proudly.

Now Axis’ expression softened even further as he thought of his fifth child and Azhure’s fourth. Three years ago she had conceived and birthed a daughter (another daughter, he vaguely reminded himself). Azhure had called her Zenith, and she had the look of her mother, but Axis did not realise that one of the reasons Azhure’s eyes filled with tears so often when she gazed into her daughter’s eyes was because Zenith gazed back at her with the eyes of a reborn soul.

She too would be an Enchanter, but Axis did not think she would have to wield her Icarii powers to enchant a man’s soul.

“Will FreeFall and EvenSong join us for Caelum’s nameday?”

Again IsfraePs voice sounded a trifle impatient, and Axis tried to rouse himself from his reverie; Isfrael must feel as if he was walking these forest paths alone. It lacked only a week until Yuletide, and the Houses of SunSoar and the Stars often used the excuse of Caelum’s birth anniversary, coupled with the sacred rites of Yuletide, to meet as a family.

“Yes.” Axis smiled at the boy. “And Star Drifter will join us, too.”

StarDrifter had made his home on the Island of Mist and Memory – where Axis assumed he created havoc among the Priestesses of the Order of the Stars. Usually he would have led the Yuletide rites on the Island, but there were other Enchanters who could do so, and this year StarDrifter had elected to join Axis and Azhure in Sigholt for the Yuletide season.

These days Axis spent most of the year in Sigholt. In the two or three years after his final battle with Gorgrael he, as Azhure, had spent a great deal of time at Carlon, as well as travelling about the country, making sure that the new nation of Tencendor emerged strong and vibrant from the chaos and division of the previous thousand years. Most Tencendorians had recovered well after the dislocation of war; the Acharites had settled back into their farming existence, and the Icarii had finally managed to reclaim their beautiful cities amid the waving treetops of the Minaret Peaks. EvenSong and FreeFall, now crowned Talon, had made their home there.

FreeFall, Ho’Demi, Ysgryff, Magariz and Belial managed their territories justly and efficiently, and Axis no longer needed to make his presence felt in Tencendor. He met with the Five formally twice a year, and informally more often, but Axis now spent more and more time behind the soft blue mists surrounding Sigholt, exploring and studying his still expanding powers, talking with the Nine when they came to visit, loving Azhure, playing with their children.