Sara Douglass – The Serpent Bride – DarkGlass Mountain Book 1

destruction as I went. Have you forgot who fathered Gorgrael? Who—”

“Who fathered Axis,” said BroadWing, his voice calm and even.

“Axis was no savior,” StarDrifter said. “He was a golden hero who restored the Icarii and

Tencendor, but who then allowed everything to slide into bleakness again.”

“And that is why I am here now, arguing with you,” BroadWing said. “Axis was never

the man to lead the Icarii, but I think you are.”

StarDrifter gave a soft, hollow laugh.

“I have seen you at your very best and at your very worst,” BroadWing said. “I know to

what extremes of dissipation you can sink, and the heights to which you can rise.”

“And today you have seen me at my very worst,” StarDrifter said. “How then can you sit

here and argue so passionately that I have the qualities for Talon?”

“I think today he has seen you at your very best,” Maximilian put in quietly.

“Maximilian is right,” BroadWing said. “You stood there before Salome and accepted

responsibility for your actions. I know enough about what happened in Coroleas that I am well

aware that you could very easily have shifted blame onto Ba”al”uz, but you didn”t. You accepted

whatever Salome chose to deal you. That was the action of a mature man, StarDrifter. Not some

feckless, uncaring dissipate. And I have seen you in…”

BroadWing”s voice broke, and he had to pause and clear his throat. “I was present in the

Assembly Chamber of Talon Spike that day, so many vast years ago, when you addressed the

assembled Icarii race. Do you remember it, StarDrifter? Do you remember that day?”

StarDrifter took a moment to answer. “I sang for you. I sang of the Wars of the Axe, of

how the Icarii had come to be imprisoned in the Icescarp Alps.”

“And you sang of hope, and of how the Icarii could rise again, and regain that which was

lost. Stars, StarDrifter, you had the entire Icarii race in tears, you held them in the palm of your

hand, you owned us. That day was when you and RavenCrest, your brother, and our Talon at the

time, persuaded us to accept Axis as our StarMan.”

BroadWing”s voice dropped very low. “But you were so astounding, so powerful, that we

would have done anything that day, StarDrifter. Anything for you. You were extraordinarily

beautiful and powerful, and you reminded us of how extraordinarily beautiful and powerful we

could be. You can do that again.” An infinitesimal pause. “You must.”

StarDrifter said nothing.

“You take Salome,” BroadWing said, “and you take that child, and you rebuild the

SunSoar dynasty, and you rebuild the Icarii pride and race. You lead us to a new homeland, and

back into the Star Dance, StarDrifter, or else we will all perish in hopelessness.”

“I am a hopeless messiah,” StarDrifter said.

“You are all we have,” BroadWing said, and he smiled. “And you will be more than

enough.”

“And Salome,” StarDrifter said, his words argumentative, but his voice now resigned.

“She is hardly likely to—”

“Salome is the best wife you could ever hope for,” BroadWing said. “I have heard of her

cruelty and dissipation, but today we saw the better part of her, too. Salome did not accuse or

attack you for what happened to her, for what she had lost, but for her son—the loss of his life

and future.”

“She has great strength,” put in Maximilian, earning himself a black glance from

StarDrifter.

“And I think she has great compassion,” Maximilian added, softly, daring StarDrifter to

throw him another look.

“Salome is a far better mate for you than Rivkah ever was,” said Broad-Wing, naming the

Acharite princess on whom StarDrifter had fathered Axis, “or Azhure, or her and Axis” daughter,

Zenith, or any other of the women you have thought to have loved. Fate…no…I am prepared to

say stronger here, the Star Dance, has led her to you, and you to her, and then the both of you

back to the Icarii people. Take a deep breath, right now, StarDrifter, and accept both Salome and

the Talon torc of leadership.”

Maximilian watched StarDrifter curiously, wondering what he would do.

The Icarii prince sat in silence for a long time, staring across the fire to where Salome

lay; then, without looking at BroadWing, he held out his hand to the birdman, and BroadWing

gripped it.

They held the grip for a long moment, then both let go and sat back, and Maximilian

passed them the flask of wine.

So passed the leadership of the Icarii to StarDrifter SunSoar.

The three men sat there for another hour in silence, occasionally taking sips of wine.

Finally StarDrifter rose, and went to Salome.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The FarReach Mountains, Southern Kyros

Salome was too emotionally and physically exhausted to sleep. She lay there, drifting

between wakefulness and drowsiness, listening to the murmur of voices coming from across the

campfire, and turning over in her mind the events of the day.

It had not eventuated quite as she”d expected.

Salome wasn”t quite sure what she had expected, for she”d never been precisely clear in

her own mind about what she would do to StarDrifter when she found him, but today”s events

hadn”t fitted any of her imagined scenarios.

She had expected StarDrifter to justify and excuse and evade, and he”d done none of

those things.

She”d expected him to strike back at her, to be angry and judgmental, and he”d done none

of those things, either.

She had never imagined, never, the revelations the day would bring.

He was Embeth”s unknown lover.

StarDrifter was her grandfather.

That had numbed Salome as nothing else could have.

StarDrifter was the lover who had deserted Embeth, who had left her to die birthing his

child.

Salome felt as if this should make her hate him even more.

But, astoundingly, it didn”t. Perhaps that was because all her emotions appeared utterly

dead.

The naming of her father meant nothing to her. Salome supposed she”d heard the name

WolfStar somewhere, but she”d paid so little attention to the world beyond the intrigues of the

Corolean court that she could not recall what she”d heard.

“Would you like me to tell you about WolfStar?” StarDrifter said softly behind her, and

Salome jumped, her heart pounding painfully.

“I”m sorry,” he said, for what must have been the hundredth time that day. “I startled you.

I thought you were awake.”

He sat down on the ground beside her. “Do you mind if I share the blanket, and your

hearth bedding?”

Salome couldn”t believe he”d ask that. She struggled to rouse some indignant anger, but

she was so spent that she couldn”t raise the effort, and so when StarDrifter took her silence for

assent and lifted the blanket and crawled under beside her, pulling her back against his body, all

she could manage was an affronted stiffness.

At least she had her back to him, but all that meant was that StarDrifter could curl the

more effectively about her own body.

“WolfStar lived many thousands of years ago,” StarDrifter said, very softly. Salome

thought he was infusing his voice with something else. A melody perhaps. Was he trying to fool

her with some Icarii trickery?

Trickery or not, as StarDrifter continued speaking the gentle melody in his voice soothed

away both her irritation and stiffness, and she gradually relaxed against his warmth.

This wasn”t how she”d envisioned ending this day, either.

“He was then, and remains to this day, the most powerful Enchanter the Icarii had ever

produced,” StarDrifter continued.

“He was a SunSoar?” Salome asked, surprising herself with her interest.

“Yes. And Talon. An Enchanter-Talon.” StarDrifter laughed very softly, washing warm

breath over the back of her neck. “Enchanter-Talons have ever been the most troublesome to the

Icarii people. I can”t think why Broad-Wing now wants another one.”

The last meant nothing to Salome, but she did not comment.

“WolfStar developed a fascination with the Star Dance,” StarDrifter continued. His arm,

where it lay about her waist, tightened fractionally. “Do you know what that is, Salome? Have

you ever felt it?”

“No,” she said, and StarDrifter sighed, fanning more breath against her neck.

“You are an Enchanter as well, Salome,” he said. “Hasweb was undoubtedly one, too.

Your lives should for many years have been dictated by the Star Dance—the music the stars

make in their dance about the heavens. That music infiltrated every aspect of our lives, our very

souls, and Enchanters used it to weave such magic…

“Ah, but all that was lost during the devastation of the wars of the Timekeeper Demons.

They destroyed the Star Gate, through which the music of the stars filtered, and we lost the Star

Dance. That happened some five or six years ago, so you must have lived for twenty-five years

or more with the Star Dance washing about you. Are you sure you have never—”

“I have never felt a thing. It means nothing to me.”