“Walk, damn it,” said the guard, pushing Axis in the small of the back so that he
stumbled forward. “Armat awaits.”
Axis walked forward, concentrating on remaining upright, and thinking that if ever he
met these guards with his hands unbound they would live to regret their treatment of Inardle.
They led Inardle and Axis—Inardle several paces forward so that Axis had no way of
catching her eye—through the encampment toward a rust-red tent erected at the end of three long
horse lines. Axis spent the time looking about, studying the encampment.
Armat had set up a tight camp, and Axis thought, more than grudgingly, that any general
capable of this might well prove a formidable opponent on the battlefield.
A camp always reflected the quality of its leadership.
Axis kept his head high as they walked, although it galled him that many of these men
would know him, and see him humiliated in this fashion, and he wondered if they gloated or
were embarrassed.
Just before they reached Armat”s tent, Axis saw Insharah standing ten or twelve paces
away, partway behind a horse.
Axis sent him a cold look, then ducked inside the tent flap as the guard behind gave him a
shove.
What he saw inside appalled him.
Armat standing in the center of the tent commanding attention, was nothing more or less
than Axis had expected. But Lister? And Ravenna?
“Maximilian”s suspicions were true, then,” Axis said, staring at Ravenna. “You are a
traitorous bitch, and once I had thought better of you.” He turned his head to Lister, standing
toward the back of the tent. “Your falseness, however, doesn”t surprise me. I remember
counseling Isaiah against you.”
“Words of swaggering bravado,” said Lister, “do nothing to bolster either your position
or your reputation, Axis. I”d advise you to keep quiet and see if you can”t reclaim some dignity.”
That stung, and Axis felt his cheeks redden. “Where is your companion in treachery,
Vorstus?” he said.
Lister said nothing, but his eyes slid to a large bloodstain on the carpet.
“Dead?” Axis said, incredulous.
Lister gave a small shrug of his shoulders. “Armat felt a lesson needed to be learned.”
Stars! Axis looked away, toward Inardle, who was being held to one side.
Her rough treatment at the hands of the guards had pulled apart her attempts to stitch her
clothing together, and her torn tunic had fallen away from her side, exposing her stitched wound and most of one breast.
Axis glanced at her face, knowing she would be humiliated. Besides himself, Armat,
Lister, and Ravenna, there were four or five other soldiers within the tent, and Axis could see at
least two of them grinning toward Inardle.
He looked again at Lister. The man had been Inardle”s lover. Had he no feeling left for
her? How could he allow this?
“I thought I”d have a few words with you, Axis SunSoar,” Armat said, “before I have you
killed. You are of little use to me, and Lister advises that we”d all rest a little easier with you
dead than alive.”
“And is this what you counseled, Ravenna?” Axis said, and she colored and turned her
eyes away.
“You do not speak until I require it!” Armat said. He looked behind Axis. “Risdon…if
you please.”
Armat”s second-in-command brushed roughly past Axis and walked over to Inardle. With
three or four brutally rough movements, he tore away all her clothing, leaving her utterly naked
before everyone within the tent.
She closed her eyes, and Axis saw her cringe within the guard”s grip.
“I can, and will, do a great deal worse to her,” Armat said, “if you do not cooperate,
Axis.”
“Lister! ” Axis hissed. “For the gods” sakes! Have you no pity? She was your—”
Armat stepped forward and hit Axis across the face with his fist. Had it not been for the
fact that the guard behind Axis still held his bound arms, Axis would have fallen over. As it was,
his vision grayed for a moment, and he felt blood run down his chin and neck from a cut on his
cheekbone.
“I have some questions you can answer, Axis,” Armat said conversationally. “I am still
going to kill you, but in answering them truthfully you can spare Inardle some indignities that I
am certain Risdon would love—” the word rolled off Armat”s tongue with a bleak lasciviousness
“—to inflict upon her. Do you understand me?”
Axis shook his head, trying to clear his vision.
“Do you understand me, Axis?” Armat said, gesturing to Risdon, who grabbed at
Inardle”s breasts.
“Yes, I understand you!” Axis said. “Please, leave her alone.”
A small smile filtered across Armat”s face. “Good. Now, to details. What is the strength
of the Icarii with Maximilian?”
Axis did not immediately answer, and Armat nodded to Risdon, who motioned the guard
holding Inardle to step to one side. Risdon then stood behind Inardle, sliding his hands about her
body and pulling her back against his own body.
One of his hands slid down her belly, toward the fine blond hair at her groin, as he
simultaneously lowered his face, grabbing at her shoulder with his teeth. Inardle cried out,
struggling uselessly against him.
“I am not sure of exact numbers,” Axis ground out, unable to tear his eyes away from
Inardle”s humiliation, “but over the past weeks some two and a half, perhaps three thousand
Icarii have joined my father—”
“StarDrifter SunSoar,” Ravenna said, her voice calm, “now Talon of the Icarii.”
“And are they just pretty drifters?” said Armat. “Or do they constitute some danger? How
many Enchanters do they have among them? Although,” Armat said, turning to address his
remarks now to Ravenna, “I cannot think their magic very useful, if all Axis can do to save this
petty creature is to mouth useless words.”
Axis felt more angry, and more useless, than ever. Most of what he could do now with his
power would be utterly useless against the weapons within this room. He might be able to save
himself, but not Inardle.
He was also very wary of Ravenna, for he knew she commanded powerful skills that he
had no doubt she would use against him.
“I believe Lister overestimated Axis” powers,” Ravenna said. She caught Axis” eyes with
that, and for an instant he wondered if she were more ally than enemy.
“Answer my questions, Axis,” Armat said, holding out a hand as if to signal to Risdon
again.
“There are forty or fifty Enchanters among the Icarii with Maximilian,” Axis said. “We
have only just rediscovered our power, and are learning to use it properly. We are not, as you
have realized, at our best right now.”
“All the more reason to kill him quickly, and any Enchanter we find,” said Lister.
“I concur,” said Armat. “But back to my little interrogation. What are the Icarii doing
with Maximilian, Axis?”
“They are traveling with him to Elcho Falling,” said Axis. “My father wants to reform the
Icarii nation, and thought to use Elcho Falling as a base.”
“Very pretty,” Armat said. “Now tell me, Axis, why did Maximilian allow so many men
to desert so willingly?”
“I doubt he had any damned choice.”
Armat gave a little shrug. “I heard he waved them good-bye and wished them well.
Why?”
“Maximilian is a man who does not hold others against their will.”
“He must have something planned,” Armat said.
“Then it must be subtle, and I do not think subtlety something you can grasp, Armat.”
Armat gave Axis a cold look, then spun on his heel, and strode over to where Risdon still
held Inardle. He grabbed Inardle out of the man”s grasp and threw her to the floor.
Armat grabbed one of her wings, held it so that it spread out before him, then stamped
down on it with all his strength.
Bones and tendons snapped, the sharp cracks and pops appalling in the confines of the
tent, and Inardle screamed, writhing and twisting away from Armat, causing her wing yet more
damage as he had not let it go.
“What is he planning?” Armat hissed.
“I don”t know!” Axis shouted. “I don’t know! ”
“He doesn”t know,” said Lister.
“Fuck you,” Armat said to Lister in a calm voice. He let Inardle go—Risdon immediately
snatched her back into his grip, causing her to almost black out with the pain from her broken
wing as he crushed it between their bodies—and strolled back toward Axis.
“How many of the Lealfast are left?” Armat asked.
“Does it matter?” Axis said. “They”re damned useless, as you have proven.”
Armat turned back toward Inardle.
“I have no way of estimating the dead,” said Axis hurriedly, “but I sent some fifteen
thousand flying off to lick their wounds. I think they are somewhere in the lower Sky Peaks.
Most of them are in a state of shock or injury. They are useless.”
“And that must be the first utterly truthful thing you”ve said to me since you came into