“A „gloomy” enchantment?”
“An enchantment meant to disguise, hide, conceal. Gloomy. Worse, when flying back to
this column we detected some of it here as well. I think that someone within this column has
aided the generals in their escape. Concealed them with enchantment. Who might that be, do you
think?”
Ravenna, Axis thought immediately, remembering StarDrifter”s stories about how
Ravenna had used her powers to help Maximilian and his party move unseen through the vast
bulk of Isaiah”s army on their way to Sakkuth.
“Who? ” said Eleanon.
Axis hesitated, and Eleanon nodded.
“The woman who interrupted Maximilian in his command tent,” he said. “Ravenna was
her name, yes?”
“I don”t know, Eleanon. I know she has the power, as does her mother, Venetia, who is
with us.”
But Venetia would never have done this.
“I”ll talk to Maximilian about it,” Axis said, and Eleanon nodded, accepting it.
“Eleanon,” Axis said, “can you see through the enchantment?”
Eleanon gave a slow shake of his head. “It is something we cannot understand. We
cannot see through it. If your generals are still out there, Axis, and I suspect they are, then they are disguised from both you and me, I think.” He paused. “Until they decide to attack.”
“They would think twice about attacking a column this size.”
“I don”t think so. I think they might feel they”d stand a good chance that most of this
column might join them rather than fight.”
Axis did not immediately reply. Eleanon was likely right. Whatever Maximilian had said
and done to this point had merely delayed the inevitable test of loyalty.
“I hope to the stars above that Isaiah and Bingaleal and your comrades with them manage
to help in Isembaard,” Axis said finally.
Another shrug from Eleanon. “They will do what they can. The Lealfast will help the
Isembaardians to escape, Axis, wherever they can. But they will not fight the Skraelings.”
“What? ”
“Did you think Bingaleal was leading the Lealfast down there as an avenging army,
Axis? We will do many things for the Lord of Elcho Falling, but we will not lay hand or sword
to the Skraelings.”
Axis tried very hard to control his temper. “Have you told Maximilian that?”
“He has not asked.”
“I am damned sure he thinks that you will one day aid him against the Skraelings! How
can you—”
“You know why we cannot,” Eleanon said quietly.
Axis fell silent.
“They are our blood,” Eleanon said. “We hate them, but we pity them, too. We cannot
touch them. Whatever harm we do to them, we do to ourselves.”
Axis took a deep breath, turning away and looking back toward the column. It snaked
very slowly forward, a huge dark stain on the snowy landscape, although here and there Axis
saw units peeling off to right and left to make camp for the night.
“Would you like to know who we are, Axis SunSoar? Would you like to hear precisely
what happened to those Icarii who were so long ago lost to the snowy wastes?”
Axis turned back to him. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, I would like to know.”
CHAPTER NINE
On the Road to Serpent’s Nest
What do you know of our origins?” Eleanon asked. He had led Axis some distance from
the now dozing horse, and they stood in the midst of a vast snowy expanse, both horse and army
appearing as if far away.
Axis realized that Eleanon was using a little of the Star Dance to create this effect (and
using it in such a strange, strange way) but was not perturbed by it.
Anything to know better Eleanon and the Lealfast.
“My father told me that during the Wars of the Axe in Tencendor, thousands of years
past, the Icarii were driven north into the Icescarp Alps,” Axis said. “There the majority decided
to make their home, but a small group, numbering some fifty or sixty, believed that the Icescarp
Alps were not safe enough, and decided to push even further north.”
“Seventy-two Icarii, to be precise,” said Eleanon. “My forebears. Look.”
He waved a hand, and Axis repressed a gasp. In the middle distance, between where they
stood and the Isembaardian army struggled west, a group of several score Icarii had appeared.
They struggled forward through deep snow, several of their number falling occasionally and
having to be helped to their feet by their comrades.
“They were exhausted,” said Eleanon, so softly that his words did not intrude upon the
scene before them. “They could no longer fly. They”d been traveling north, north, north for
weeks.”
“What kept driving them? They must have known they were traveling into hell.”
“Arrogance. Pride. A disinclination to return home to say they were wrong. Who knows?
But look, see now, help came.”
The group struggled forward, but now they glanced over shoulders and to each side with
anxious eyes.
There was a light snow falling about them, and in it Axis could see…
“Skraelings!” he hissed.
“Aye, Skraelings,” said Eleanon. “But the Icarii were in luck, for this year there was a
glut of snow rabbits, and the Skraelings were well fed. And see, the Skraelings left them food,
that they might survive.”
The Icarii had come upon a small pile of headless snow rabbits. There was hesitation, and
discussion, but soon they fell to their meal, tearing the rabbits apart and eating them raw.
Axis winced. The Icarii must have been desperate indeed to resort to such barbarity.
“The Skraelings do have some kindness in them, Axis,” said a new voice, and Axis
turned to look at Inardle, who had appeared at Eleanon”s shoulder.
He thought again how striking she looked. He noted also that whereas Eleanon”s
expression radiated distance and haughtiness, Inardle”s was softened by the faintest hint of
vulnerability.
She was…hypnotic, and while Axis realized he was staring, he could not move his eyes
from her.
Inardle gave Axis a half-shy smile, and he wondered at it: genuine or ingenuous?
He inclined his head in greeting, then returned to the conversation. “Kindness is not a
quality I have ever associated with Skraelings.”
“Nonetheless,” Inardle said, and she nodded back to the vision, “they left them food, day
in and out, and even helped the Icarii build shelters.”
Axis could hardly believe what he saw. Skraelings emerged from the freezing mists,
some bearing rocks, some bearing blocks of ice. With these, and the snow about them, they
helped the Icarii build low rounded shelters. The Icarii were obviously wary in the extreme, but
they accepted the help, and were glad of it.
Without Skraeling assistance they would have died.
Time passed. Axis could see it in the way the snow moved about the collection of low
shelters, built up against one aspect then drifted away again.
“There was talk among the Icarii about returning to the Icescarp Alps,” Eleanon said,
“but the general consensus was that the Acharites, with their axes, would have murdered their
fellows left behind. They felt it was too dangerous to return.”
“Besides,” Inardle said, “they were getting used to the frozen wastes. And…”
Axis looked at her. She was gazing at the tableau before them with an expression that
was part grief, part yearning.
“Besides?” he said.
“Besides,” Inardle said, “one of the Icarii, a young enchantress called SummerStar—”
She looked at Axis now, and she smiled, the expression so warm and glorious that Axis”
breath caught in his throat.
“Imagine a name like that,” she said, “amid an existence like this!” She waved a hand
back at the group of icy shelters. “Imagine…well, SummerStar formed an attachment to the
Skraelings. She pitied them, and believed that good could come of them. She befriended those
that she might.”
Axis was now looking back at the tableau before him. He knew where this story would
go, and he felt sick to his stomach. He didn”t want to hear it— see it—but knew that he must.
A young Icarii woman had emerged from one of the shelters. She was very lovely, and
Axis could see a sweet expression on her face.
“She was very naive,” said Eleanon, “but good-hearted and well-meaning.”
“And have not half the disasters of our worlds, Axis,” Inardle said, her tone now bitter,
“been caused by the naive and well-meaning and good-hearted?”
Again he glanced at her, and saw embittered grief clearly in her eyes.
“Look, Axis,” Eleanon said. “Look.”
SummerStar was now sitting with a group of Skraelings. Just seeing her sitting so calmly
there, with the terrible ice wraiths with their over-sized heads and slavering jaws and great
silvery orbs for eyes, deepened Axis” nausea.
Gradually the Skraelings rose and drifted away, until there was only one remaining with
SummerStar.
She reached out and laid a hand to its cheek.
Axis literally gagged. For a moment he stood, half bent over, hands on thighs, trying hard
not to retch.
He felt a soft hand on his shoulder.
Inardle.
“She only meant well,” Inardle said, very softly. “SummerStar only ever meant well.”