Sara Douglass – The Axis Trilogy 3 – StarMan

The birdman tensed, but he was not afraid. He did not think the Ferryman would demand a painful death. He waited, holding his breath, but nothing happened.

Exhaling slowly, he finally opened his eyes. Between the Ferryman’s outstretched fingers he could see the ancient Charonite’s face stretched in a crazy grin.

“What did you think I was going to do?” the Ferryman cackled. “Smite you between the eyes with a hitherto well-concealed mace?”

He dropped his hand and smiled at SpikeFeather. “A life, SpikeFeather, and you thought I meant to take your life!”

“Well, what do you mean to do?” SpikeFeather said, furious. He had been prepared to meet his death with dignity, and he did not like the laughter with which his gift was greeted.

You are right, SpikeFeather TrueSong. Forgive me.

The Ferryman straightened, sober, and placed his hand back over SpikeFeather’s face. “SpikeFeather,” he said. “I meant only the use of your life. A life is a priceless thing, but only if it walks and breathes. A life snuffed out is worth nothing at all. Do you understand?”

SpikeFeather nodded slowly under the Ferryman’s fingers. “You want me to offer you the use of my life.”

“Yes. Good. But your life will still largely be your own. SpikeFeather, I would make use of your life to aid the Charonites. We are few now, and our own lives are bound to these waterways. But we have knowledge, much useful knowledge, and I think that it is time we shared some of it. You are yet a young birdman, but in some years I will summon you back to the waterways. And then I will teach you. Will you accept that?”

SpikeFeather nodded again as the Ferryman dropped his hand. “I accept, but I thought you taught Axis all you knew?”

“I taught him many things that he needed to know,” Orr said, “but I certainly did not teach him everything. The rest I will pass on to you, SpikeFeather TrueSong.”

SpikeFeather felt his eyes fill with tears. “Thank you for my life, Ferryman.”

No. I thank you for your life, SpikeFeather. Then he turned and settled himself in the lead boat, folding his cloak about him.

“Ready?” he called to the children, and they nodded dumbly, overawed by the Ferryman.

“Well, then,” he said, “let us go,” and the boats moved of their own volition towards the archway in the far wall. As they went, the Ferryman looked over his shoulder, and SpikeFeather thought he could see the gleam of a smile beneath his hood.

As the first boat passed beneath the archway SpikeFeather heard one of the children speak.

“Ferryman, do you mind if we sing?” “I would be honoured,” the Ferryman said, and to Spike-Feather’s mind, it sounded as if he truly was.

He spiralled up and up, hardly having to work himself, letting the warm wind that rose out of the depths of the world lift him further into Talon Spike. After reaching the lower chambers of the complex, it was only another hour before he was standing in the all-but-deserted Assembly Chamber of Talon Spike.

Here, seated calmly and quietly, were some eighteen hundred Icarii who, the members of the Wing informed him, refused to leave Talon Spike. The rest had gone.

SpikeFeather strode into the centre of the violet-veined, golden marble floor, horrified by the group’s obvious intention to die. His eyes circled the Chamber, able to name every face he saw. At the last one he stopped.

RavenCrest SunSoar, Talon of all the Icarii, slowly rose to his feet. He was dressed in the royal violet robes, and he wore the jewelled tore of Talon about his neck. Beside him BrightFeather sat calmly, also in her robes and jewels of office.

“We have decided to die here,” RavenCrest said. “We were all born here, and we are all Elders. Here we will also die.”

“RavenCrest -” SpikeFeather began, but RavenCrest held up his hand.

“We will not flee, not from the life we have known. There is a new world, a new order out there, but we do not think we want to be part of it. Maybe the Gryphon will come, maybe not, but whatever happens, here we will remain.”

“RavenCrest, there is no need for this. All can escape. If you but follow me -”

“No,” RavenCrest said, then he reached behind his neck and undid the jewelled tore. “I believe that Axis has handed FreeFall back his heritage. Give this to my son. He will be Talon now, and he will be a great Talon. I wish I could have seen him again, SpikeFeather, but that was not to be.”

“Stars damn you!” SpikeFeather screamed, refusing to take the tore. “This does not have to be!”

“This is how we want it to be,” BrightFeather said softly from her seat. “Don’t we all have the choice to do what we will with our lives? If we choose to die, can you stand there and say we are wrong?”

SpikeFeather sobbed, blaming himself for their intransigence, but he could not fault them. Not when he had freely offered his own life to the Ferryman. “Please,” he begged, going down on his knees, his red wings spread out behind him. “Do not do this!”

RavenCrest knelt before him and cradled SpikeFeather’s face in his hands. “Go, SpikeFeather. Take your Wing and go. Here, take this now,” he pressed the tore into SpikeFeather’s reluctant hands, “and keep it safe for FreeFall. Kiss him for me, and kiss EvenSong too, and berate them fiercely if they have not already married. SpikeFeather, promise me that when these wars are over, when all the death is done, the Icarii will come back here, and light funeral pyres in our memory, and wipe the blood from the walls and reconsecrate this place in the name of the Star Gods and in the name of those who have lived here and died here and were happy here.”

SpikeFeather lifted his head back and screamed, but RavenCrest spoke over the echoes.

“Promise me this, SpikeFeather, promise me that above all others you will reconsecrate this wondrous place, which has nurtured us and loved us, to MorningStar SunSoar, my mother, for above all others, she was beautiful and beloved.”

Axis and Azhure were bathing in the waters of the Lake of Life, laughing gently beneath the light of the moon, when they turned their heads, astounded.

Floating towards them across the Lake were thirteen boats, each filled with softly singing children.

The Ferryman was nowhere to be seen.

The Clearance of Ichtar The six hundred Icarii children were boarded out with families in Lakesview. Most families had taken in one or two children, keeping brothers and sisters together; now the children spent their mornings at school with the Acharite children (and there had been a flurry trying to find the desks and stools to accommodate them all) and their afternoons exploring the fragrant hills surrounding the Lake. They did not seem to miss their parents overmuch and never complained. When SpikeFeather arrived back in Sigholt he talked with many of them, and he told Axis that he thought they had been changed by their trip through the waterways of the UnderWorld.

Axis wondered what Orr had said to them, and wondered further if he had taught them anything. But the children only looked at him with puzzled eyes when he asked, and eventually he stopped worrying, smiled, and told them to run and play.

Axis had been upset but not entirely surprised by SpikeFeather’s news. RavenCrest had never been comfortable with the changes that Axis’ presence brought, nor with the knowledge that he lived during the time of the Prophecy of the Destroyer. Axis fingered the jewelled tore that SpikeFeather handed him, his eyes thoughtful.

“Perhaps if I go north myself,” Azhure said. “Perhaps I can persuade them to leave.”

“No,” Axis said, raising his eyes. “No. I cannot spare you. How long would it take for you to travel north and then return?”

“I could find the entrance to the waterways,” she said, trying not to believe him but knowing he was right.

“And where is it?” Axis gestured out the window over the Lake. “J do not know, and yet I know more about the waterways than any other here. SpikeFeather?”

“StarMan?”

“I presume you tried to persuade RavenCrest to leave?”

SpikeFeather was silent. How to put into words his frantic appeals? “I tried,” he eventually said, and Axis nodded, seeing the pain in his eyes.

“Azhure, you were never particularly close to RavenCrest. If SpikeFeather could not persuade him, then you surely could not. He has made his choice, and those with him.” He sighed, and gave the tore back to SpikeFeather. “RavenCrest entrusted this to you, SpikeFeather. Keep it safe…for when it is needed. When…when we know…I shall send for FreeFall. He will have to tear himself from the Island of Mist and Memory and assume his regal duties. There is nothing we can do about Talon Spike. We have warned, and SpikeFeather has saved the majority, but there is nothing we can do.”