As if reading her thoughts WolfStar raised his face from Niah’s and grinned at Faraday. “Again she bears my child,” he said, his voice hoarse with what Faraday recognised as triumph. “And this one I shall raise myself, not leave for some dirt-trodden Plough-Keeper to mismanage.”
Niah wriggled against WolfStar’s body, such a wanton act that Faraday blushed.
“What? Here, my love?” WolfStar laughed. “Did I not sate you last night?”
“A pregnant woman always craves love,” Niah murmured, her hands running down WolfStar’s body.
Faraday turned her face aside, unwilling to watch the spectacle Niah was making of herself. And she a former First Priestess!
Eventually it was WolfStar himself who gently disentangled himself from Niah’s embrace. “Now is not the time, my love. I must speak with Faraday.”
Niah murmured, but she let WolfStar go.
The instant WolfStar was free of her, his entire demeanour changed. He assumed power as others would assume a cloak, his violet eyes darkened and became more intense, his entire bearing more autocratic.
“What happened to Drago?” he demanded.
Faraday just stared at him.
“You were in the Star Gate chamber when Drago killed Orr.”
“I was in the chamber when Orr died,” she agreed.
“Drago had the Rainbow Sceptre.”
Faraday was silent.
“Didn’t he?”
“I was terrified,” Faraday said, her eyes not leaving WolfStar’s face. “Terrified by the violence, the terror, the death. I did not notice what he was carrying.”
“You did not notice?”
You were the one who sent me through Prophecy to die for Tencendor, Faraday thought, her mind closed to his probing. She held his stare. You sent me to die, others released me. I owe you no loyalty.
WolfStar swallowed his anger. Well, perhaps she had not noticed. “What happened to him, Faraday? Did he step through the Star Gate?”
“I cannot know exactly what happened, WolfStar. I was so terrified, and some power beyond my knowing was tearing me apart, retransforming me back to this,” her hand indicated her own body. “I did not notice where -”
“Tell me the truth!” WolfStar snarled, his anger strengthened by his fear. Tell me the truth! he raged through her mind.
He was terrifying, almost beyond control, and so Faraday shivered, and confessed.
“He ran back through the passageways, WolfStar. Which one I am not certain. But he must be in Tencendor somewhere.”
Wolf Star stared at her. Was she telling the truth? He did not know. Could she withstand his need for the truth? He did not know… and all that he did not know was making WolfStar a very, very frightened man.
“Ah, bah!” he said, and, in his manner, vanished.
Niah let out a low cry of disappointment, and threw Faraday a resentful look.
“Well?” StarDrifter asked Faraday as she walked into his quarters.
Faraday ignored him for a moment, then sat beside him on the bed. “Niah will not willingly relinquish Zenith’s body,” she said. “And in this she is aided by WolfStar.”
“You saw WolfStar?”
Faraday nodded, her expression unreadable.
“What did he want? What did he say?”
Faraday hesitated. “Later, StarDrifter, later. For now we must concentrate on finding Zenith.”
“Can you do it?”
“Yes.” Faraday’s voice was now much stronger, and she looked StarDrifter unhesitatingly in the eye. “Yes, I can. But persuasion will not work. We must find a stronger means to free your granddaughter.”
“And the sooner the better.” StarDrifter sat back, his face creased with worry. “Every day I can see the Niah woman grow stronger. And that baby…”
Faraday stared at him. “Yes… the baby! StarDrifter, you have given me an idea.”
And she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
…AM Sixty* Fat Pigs Caelum stood in the cold pre-dawn air, watching the preparations about him. He had slept badly; in truth, he had not slept at all, for fear DragonStar would hunt him down in his dreams. Now his eyes were shadowed, his movements hesitant, and nerves fluttered in his stomach. This would be his first military action. Stars, he thought to himself. I am over forty years old, and by my age my father had battled from coast to coast and won a realm. I? I have but listened to the tales.
True, he had trained all his life for this moment. Not only his father, but every battle-hardened captain, human or Icarü, had been brought in to give the StarSon lessons. He had spent most mornings of his life at weapon practice.
And until this moment he had thought it would all be unnecessary. How could Tencendor ever slip back into war, even in his lifetime?
“I want to see the bastard flayed!” Askam muttered at his side. Before them he could just make out the rising hulk of Kastaleon, although he knew Caelum’s Icarü
vision could see in far more detail. “Is he there, watching for us?”
“The castle is quiet, Askam. I can see a few guards atop the walls, but even they are more likely asleep than not. No doubt Zared is asleep in his bed, dreaming of how he can persuade the Council to accept his ambition.”
His mouth twisted grimly. “I predict he will awake to something of a surprise. Askam, are the units ready?”
“Aye, StarSon. They moved into position an hour ago, as stealthy as stalking cats. When will you give the word to send in the forward scouts? It lacks but an hour until dawn, and soon the castle will be rousing.”
Caelum hesitated, the nerves in his stomach flowering into full-blown nausea. But he was determined to show Zared – nay, all Tencendor – that he could captain as well as his father. Forward scouts? No, he would work it better.
“Keep the scouts back, Askam. We will ride into Kastaleon in full force. Zared does not expect us, and those guards atop the walls are all but asleep.”
“Caelum!” Askam stared aghast at him. “It is surely prudent to send in scouts first? Make sure that -”
Caelum turned from his contemplation of Kastaleon and snapped at Askam. “I know what I am doing! I can cloak us in enchantment so thick that Zared and his men will not see us. They are not expecting us, are they? That fort is as quiet as a grave. Why waste time on forward scouts?”
Askam chewed the inside of his cheek. What Caelum said was true enough, and if he could cloak them in enchantment… Askam suddenly smiled at the thought of finding Zared abed, waking to discover the tip of Askam’s sword at his throat.
“As you order, StarSon. Shall we move out immediately?”
“Wait a moment. I have to cast the enchantment.”
It sickened him even more that he must mask the approach of his units with enchantment, but if it gave them an edge…
Axis had never fought under cloak of enchantment.
Caelum thrust the thought aside. He was not his father, and surely Zared had brought sneakiness upon himself. Caelum twisted the ring about on his finger, although he did not need it to show what Song to sing for a cloak of invisibility. He had used the Song only recently and it was fresh in his mind, but the action calmed Caelum’s nerves. He ran the Song through his mind, then coldness swept over him.
The Song had required significantly more power than when he’d last sung it. Why? Caelum remembered WolfStar asking whether he’d noticed a taint in his power. What was happening? Was it just nerves that had made him expend so much more energy on the Song this morning, or was it something else? Something considerably bleaker? What?
“It is done, Askam. Move them out.”
They had moored their boats four hundred paces north of Kastaleon, hidden both by the darkness and a sharp bend in the river. Over the past hour Askam had sent troops out to surround the castle as best they could without actually being seen. Now, he sent out the order for them to move in.
He and Caelum mounted their horses and set off down the main approach road. No-one within the castle would be able to see or hear them, and there was no reason to try to be quiet. Askam dug his heels into his horse’s flanks, sending the beast skittering across the roadway.
“Peace, Askam,” Caelum said. “We will be there soon enough, and Kastaleon will soon be back under your control.”
“I want to wake Zared with the point of my sword —”
“Enough, Askam!”
Askam subsided into silence as they covered the last hundred paces before the castle. There was still no reaction from within, even though soldiers were pouring in through the gate. Askam smiled a little at the thought of Zared’s surprise on waking at sword-point.
It would be very, very good finally to see Zared fail at something.
Askam wondered if Caelum would strip Zared of his lands for his misdeeds. Would he then receive some? What? Askam wondered… Severin… the gem mines? All his debts could be solved with one signature if he got the gem mines.