Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 3 – StarMan

Belial took a deep breath, considering the possibilities. “The Western Ranges would be an obvious place, but we have too many scouts and troops through the ranges for them to hide there. Eastern Aldeni? In the curve of the Nordra that holds Kastaleon?”

Magariz shook his head. “No. The scouts have covered that territory.”

“They could be hiding beneath the snowdrifts,” Belial insisted. “Waiting.”

All three men shivered at the thought of snowdrifts corning alive around them.

” pray that is not the case,” Axis said. “Anything else?” He looked at his two senior commanders, but both shook their heads after a few moments’ thought.

“Well.” Axis turned to the brazier. “I am not going to stay around here to be trapped. Alert your commands. We pull out at dawn and move south again. If they want to eat us, then they’ll have to come to us.”

Axis lay in his bunk, wrapped as tightly in his blankets as he could, dozing lightly. For a long time he dreamed of Azhure, of her smell, of her laughter, of the way she felt in his arms. She rarely left his thoughts, and he wondered vaguely if she would have laughed at the three of them this evening and tossed her head and said that she knew where the Skraeling force was. But she was way to the south now, and had StarDrifter to watch over her, and he hoped that within a few months she could join him. If he was still alive.

He muttered and twisted and forced his thoughts to something else. Unwanted, a vision of Faraday filled his mind. She looked sick, tired, almost as sick as Azhure had with her twins. But she was smiling at someone, and Axis felt that she was all right. At least she is well out of this, he thought, for there are no Skraelings in south-eastern Tencendor to tear her throat out.

The problem of the Skraelings filled his mind again and Axis opened his eyes and stared at the canvas flapping in the wind above his head.

They had to be somewhere. He let his mind drift, let it wander as it would, asking only that it drift across what it knew of the terrain of western Tencendor. They did not have long to hide, he thought. A week or two, and you cannot move a vast army very far in that time. He had Icarii scouts over Aldeni as soon as the weather cleared. He frowned, trying to remember exactly how long the storms had lasted. Perhaps three weeks from the time they attacked Jervois Landing.

Where could an army go in three weeks? He had moved reasonably fast from the Three Brothers Lakes to Jervois Landing, yet that had taken him four weeks.

Dammit! Think, man!

Ho’Demi was out there. Several parties of the Ravensbund scouts had left his force at the Three Brothers Lakes and had scattered in different directions. The only contact Axis had with any of them was the occasional touching of-minds he had with Ho’Demi.

Yes, Ho’Demi was out there somewhere, sworn to serve both the Prophecy and the StarMan…and Axis hoped his sense of loyalty was stronger to the StarMan than it was to the Prophecy. But Axis hesitated to reach out to him. Ho’Demi would contact him if he needed to, and Axis did not want to disturb the Ravensbund chief unless he had something useful to impart.

For a long time Axis’ mind wandered back and forth, drifting to Azhure for a time, then to Caelum. He relaxed

towards sleep, imagining that Azhure was wrapped in these blankets with him, imagining the ways they could find to pass the night. He sighed and shifted slightly under the blankets. No, there was no better way to spend a murky night than with . . .

His eyes flew open and his body jerked so violently he almost fell off the narrow bunk. By the gods themselves, why hadn’t any of them thought of that!

Ho’Demi! his mind called. Ho’Demi, are you there? Where are you? Ho’Demi}

Ho’Demi?

Ho’Demi cursed as he leapt into full wakefulness and hit his head on the top of the tiny ice-eave he was secreted in. StarMan?

Ah, Ho’Demi, I startled you. Forgive me.

No doubt the StarMan had good enough reason to wake him with such abruptness. But Ho’Demi could not stop the shortness of his next query. He had been comfortably asleep for the first time in days. What is it?

Ho’Demi, where are you?

In a bloody ice-cave.

Silence.

Ho’Demi rubbed the top of his head, the smear of blood on the tips of his fingers not improving his temper. Far west.

Thank the Stars. Axis could not disguise the relief in his mind. Are you close to the Murkle Mountains?

Yes. A day’s march, two at the most.

Ho’Demi. Listen to me. I have had an idea.

“A cursed time to have an idea,” Ho’Demi muttered to himself, but he listened anyway.

Acting only on a hunch, and knowing he and his thirty thousand could be dead if he was wrong, the next morning Axis gave orders to move west rather than south. Towards the Murkle Mountains.

Cauldron Lake None of her companions could doubt that Yr was ill. Her eyes and cheeks were feverish, her skin splotchy, her hair dull, and she was given to bouts of shivering that almost knocked her off her feet when she was walking.

But she would smile sweetly at their gentle inquiries, and say, “I am well enough.”

None pressed too hard, and none touched her. All knew that the power would corrupt, and every day the power radiated out of Yr with increased virility. Zeherah watched her keenly; she would be the last to visit the final Repository of the, Gods in the Lake of Life, and consequently she would have to bear the greatest burden of care and comfort.

The five Sentinels had walked slowly across the northern Plains of Tare to the Silent Woman Woods. They had taken almost six weeks, for no-one wanted to tire Yr too much. They travelled silently and usually at night, avoiding all inhabited areas, their eyes introspective, their mood sombre but not sad.

Now they stood at the edge of Cauldron Lake in the Woods. The previous night the Keep had held and comforted the Sentinels as it had previously comforted Faraday. For the first night in weeks Yr had managed a sound and almost pain-free sleep.

Now it was the turn of Ogden and Veremund, and the other three deeply regretted that the corrupting power would undoubtedly consume the brothers’ irrepressible humour as it

had Yr’s tart wit. They all knew and accepted their fate. But they all had regrets.

“I regret the passing of so much life,” Ogden said, his hands folded before him, his eyes unblinking on the soft golden lake before him. “I have enjoyed it all so much.”

“I never expected to make so many friends,” Veremund said beside him. “I did not expect to discover that I would love the StarMan as a friend as well as revere him as the One named by the Prophecy.”

The brothers sighed, then spoke as one. “We shall miss riding the open plains, and we regret that we will spend no more evenings about the campfire listening to Axis sing, and watching him smile.”

“You will see him again,” a gentle voice said behind the small group, and they all turned. It was the Prophet, again in his silvery magnificence, and the Sentinels smiled and bowed slightly.

He stepped forward, kissed Yr softly, then turned to Ogden and Veremund. The Prophet stepped towards Ogden first, took his face in his hands and kissed him as gently as he had Yr.

“You will be beloved for always for the sacrifice you now make,” he said. “And you will always rest in my heart. I could not have asked for better than you.” Then he repeated the action and benediction with Veremund.

Silent tears slipped down the brothers’ faces. As with Yr, they were deeply honoured and grateful that the Prophet chose to be with them at this moment.

As the Prophet stepped back, Jack moved forward to farewell the two brothers, then Zeherah kissed them and murmured words of farewell.

Yr stayed where she was.

“Are you ready, brother?” Veremund asked, and Ogden nodded and took his hand.

Then the two Sentinels stepped into the golden lake.

They did not have quite the same journey as Yr had in Grail Lake, for the waters of Cauldron Lake had long since evaporated amid its enchantments. But once they reached the Repository, this one clear of silt and thus revealed in its full glory, they went through the same procedure as she had, pressing the jewels in ordered sequence to gain admittance. And, after walking the Repository’s corridors, they too found the Well of Power, and first Ogden, and then Veremund, leaned down to receive the Power.