Then he turned and shuffled out of sight again.
Axis stared after him, then felt Azhure slump even more heavily against his side.
“Stars,” he said, “I hope you are what you look like.” He scooped Azhure back into his arms and nervously walked towards the bend; only the fact that the hounds had seemed relaxed kept him from turning and trying to negotiate the bloodied mess of the cavern floor.
Around the bend a small fire glowed in the centre of the tunnel; about it sat four men and three women, all elderly, all clad in miners’ rags.
The man who had invited Axis waved. “Sit.”
Slowly Axis lowered himself to the floor, keeping Azhure close beside him. She roused as she felt the floor beneath her arid looked about. “Why -” she began, but the old woman closest to her pressed a flask into her hands.
“Drink, Lady, drink. It will refresh you.”
Azhure did as she asked, and indeed she seemed to rouse. She pressed the flask into Axis’ hands and he took a sip as well, feeling a warmth like brandy-fire spread through his stomach. Without a word he handed it back to Azhure, his eyes on the seven sitting about the fire.
“Who are you?”
“Currant cake?” Now a man on the far side of the fire leaned forward, and passed a plate around towards Axis. “Just baked, good sir, and still warm.”
Axis hesitated, but Azhure murmured at his side, and he reluctantly took the plate. Nine cakes sat there.
“Take one,” Azhure whispered, helping herself, “and pass the plate along.”
Already she seemed stronger and sat up without any need for support. Axis glanced at her, then took a cake and passed on the plate. Each of the seven miners took one.
Azhure bit into her cake and instantly her back straightened and her eyes flared with life. She chewed, crumbs at the side of her mouth. “Eat,” she mumbled about her mouthful.
Eyes still wary, Axis slowly raised the cake to his mouth and bit into it. Almost as soon as he tasted the sweet cake strength flooded through him and he jerked in surprise, managing to keep his mouth shut and chewing only through an extraordinary effort.
“Welcome, Axis.” One of the women extended her hand and Axis took it, still overwhelmed by the strength the cake gave him.
“My name is Xanon,” she said softly, and Axis stopped chewing and stared at her.
A rag dropped to the floor, and then another. The hand that he held was hard and calloused one moment, smooth and round the next. Her smile broadened, and the creases of her face smoothed out, and Axis realised he was staring into the face of one of the loveliest women he had ever seen.
He swallowed, and Xanon laughed. Half rising, she leaned forward and kissed him.
He trembled, and Azhure shot Xanon a sharp look, but then the others were rising and taking his hand and kissing him on the mouth and murmuring greetings, and about them rags fell to the floor and skin firmed and pallor assumed lustre.
As the last leaned back, the Circle of the Stars on Azhure’s finger flared into such brilliance all had to squeeze their eyes closed until the light died down.
“We are Nine,” Adamon said. “Finally, we are Nine.”
They sat for time unknowable, talking, laughing, sharing, until finally Adamon stood and extended his hand to Axis, helping him to his feet. Fully recovered now, Azhure stood beside him and took his hand once Adamon had released it.
“I may not have the chance to speak with you before you move to meet Gorgrael,” the God of the Firmament said softly. “Know that we watch and hope. May the Stars shine on you now and forever more.”
Axis nodded, unable to speak. He had felt such a sense of homecoming among this group that he thought he could hardly bear it. Azhure’s hand tightened about his own.
“When you do meet Gorgrael, none of us can help you,” Zest said, stepping forward. “Not Adamon, not Xanon, not myself, not even Azhure. It must be you and he alone.”
Narcis laughed and rested his hand briefly on Axis’ shoulder. “And make sure you win, Axis. Your place among us is sure only if you win. Otherwise …”
“Otherwise Gorgrael will take it,” Xanon said, keeping her distance this time. “And I do not think Azhure wants to be standing there holding Gorgrael’s hand!”
“I have no intention of leaving her, Xanon. I will prevail.”
She smiled. “Axis. Be wary. We all have our limits. You have seen tonight how use of her power can exhaust Azhure.” Her smile died. “And you have felt first-hand what happens when you exceed or misuse your own powers. Be wary and be thoughtful. That is all I want to say.”
Axis nodded soberly, about to say something himself, but then, astoundingly, the seven were gone, and the tunnel was empty of any save Axis and Azhure and the patient hounds.
They looked at each other, laughed, and climbed towards the surface.
When they arrived, it was to find that the night had passed and the sun shone high overhead. Only Ho’Demi’s feeling that Axis and Azhure were well had kept him from sending down search parties to find them.
Above them the black dot that had been circling for.over a day drifted off on the wind.
Gorgrael Considers Gorgrael sat back in his chair, his feet extended towards the fire, and considered. For hours he had ridden in the Gryphon’s mind, watched with the Gryphon’s eyes, heard with her ears.
And what he had seen and heard made him wonder if he shouldn’t be considering a minor revision in his plans. Had brute force been the correct tack? Would not some subtlety have been more appropriate? Well, maybe so, but it was not too late, certainly not too late.
So he sat back and thought.
And he mostly thought about that raven-haired woman who rode at Axis’ side. The Gryphon he had sent scouting was one of the original two and Gorgrael had hated to risk her (the massive pack of Gryphon waiting in the corridors would give birth later this week and soon he would have seven thousand at his disposal), but he had been frantic for information. Timozel had withdrawn so far to the north that any information he could send his master was weeks outdated, or so useless he might as well not have sent it at all.
What was Axis up to?
Where was he?
What force did he have at his disposal?
And how much further did that bitch have to plant before the hated trees were joined to the Avarinheim? Already winter had all but slipped from Gorgrael’s grasp below the Gorken
Pass, but even that would not matter if he could only use what intelligence he had to cripple Axis’ plans.
His Gryphon scout had not been able to garner much – a nest destroyed and some breeding stock massacred – but what little she had seen and heard would prove more than useful.
Who was that raven-haired woman?
Who…?
Why had Axis smiled at her with such affection when Faraday was his Lover?
What was that bow slung about her neck, and what power was held by the pale hounds who ran before her?
Who…ahl Gorgrael leapt out of his chair, slipped and would have fallen had not the talons at the tips of his wings caught on the mantelpiece and saved him from an ignominious slide across the floor.
But he did not care, for a memory had quietly surfaced…a memory that Gorgrael had buried because he did not think it significant when events of greater moment had surrounded it.
But perhaps this was the event of greatest moment.
When Axis had taken Carlon from that fool, Borneheld, Gorgrael had sent a Gryphon to scout over Grail Lake. She had done well, and reported many profitable facts, but she had made a fatal error. She was experienced, experienced in the taste of man-flesh from the trenches of Jervois Landing, and she had thought to taste sweet flesh again when she had seen the unprotected mother and child standing atop the white tower. So she had attacked, and everything she had seen until the moment of her death had been faithfully shared with her master.
Now Gorgrael stood twitching with excitement before the fire, recalling the Gryphon’s death. She had angled in from the sun, a good tactic, for the woman had not seen her until it was almost too late. But instead of tearing the woman to shreds, the Gryphon had instead been seized and…and unravelled. It was the only word Gorgrael could use to describe the Gryphon’s death. The enchantments that had gone into her making had been unravelled, and it had been that woman – the same who now rode by Axis’ side – who had done it.