Enchanter (18 page)

Azhure had been the only one to sleep well that night, and Axis had lain awake for many hours, watching her gently breathing. Wondering.

Four days out from Talon Spike Axis abruptly stopped on the path, his face tight with concentration. Then he smiled, laughed, and called ahead to Raum.

"Raum! I hear her! I hear her! She sings beautifully!" Raum turned back to Axis and smiled. Although he could not hear what Axis did, he knew what it must be. Earth Tree. Earth Tree singing her Song, the Song that had destroyed the Skraeling attack on the Earth Tree Grove at Yuletide, the Song that now protected the entire northern Avarinheim against Gorgrael. If it had not been for StarDrifter and Faraday, Earth Tree might still be asleep and the Skraelings might well have eaten their way through the Avarinheim by now.

Two days later Raum began to catch the first faint strains of Earth Tree's Song himself, and two days later yet, Rivkah and Azhure started to pick it up.

Ogden andVeremund had begun to hear it about the same time as Axis.

The night before they reached the foot of the Icescarp Alps, the group ate a splendid meal of roast partridge stuffed with breadcrumbs, cheese, raisins and almonds, and relaxed about the magical fire.

"Tell me of how you bonded Faraday to the Mother," Axis asked Raum, reluctantly lifting his eyes from the firelight glinting through Azhure's hair. "There is so little I know about her. So much I want to comprehend."

Faraday's connection with the Mother, with the power of the earth and of nature, was one of the deeper mysteries that Axis did not yet understand. There had been so little time or opportunity at Gorkenfort for Faraday and Axis to talk.

And Axis needed someone to speak of her, to remind him how much he loved her. Once her image had been so vivid in his mind, now he had to struggle to recall the exact shade of her hair and the timbre of her laughter.

Raum hesitated a little, then began by explaining the significance of the groves to the Avar people and how those Avar children who had the potential to become Banes had to be presented and bonded to the Mother. Fernbrake Lake, one of the four magical lakes in Achar, lay deep in the Bracken Ranges far to the south of the Avarinheim, and the Avar people had to travel secretly through the hostile Skarabost Plains to reach the lake they called the Mother.

"And Rivkah helped you in this?" Axis asked, smiling at his mother.

"Yes," Raum said. "For many years now she has spent the summer months with us, often helping to take a child or two through to the Bracken Ranges."

"And yet none in Achar knew that the Princess Rivkah walked among them,"

Axis said, his eyes on the flames. "Did you never want to return to your home, Rivkah?"

"I thought my life dead, Axis. I thought you dead. Had I known you lived I would have kept walking until I reached the Tower of the Seneschal and its BatdeAxe."

For a while there was silence, then Azhure prompted Raum to return to the story of the night he had bonded Faraday to the Mother. Ever since Azhure had seen the vision of Faraday awakening the Earth Tree on the night of the Yuletide attack, she had been fascinated by Faraday.

Raum told the story as if every moment of that night was seared into his memory. How he had tested Faraday at Jack andYr's insistence and, to his shock, had found she talked to the trees as easily as if she had been Avar-born.

He told them how Faraday had bonded instantly to the Mother, how the Mother herself had wakened the lake and how he, Faraday and the child Shra had walked into and through the lake, to the Sacred Grove.

All listened intently, astounded by Raum's tale.

"You walked through emerald light into the grove?" Azhure asked, her blue eyes wide. This was magic beyond anything she had yet seen.

Raum told them of how the Horned Ones had greeted Faraday, and how the most ancient and sacred of them all, the silver pelt, had given Faraday the bowl of enchanted wood.

"The bowl is a way for her not only to reach out and touch the Mother,"

Raum explained, "but also to reach the Sacred Grove whenever she feels the need."

"She has been blessed," Azhure said, admiration and wonder evident in her voice.

Raum let his hand rest on Azhure s shoulder. He had become very attached to this lonely woman and wished that the Avar had accepted her. She had saved his life, but Raum's
regard for Azhure went much deeper than gratefulness. "Yes, Azhure, she has truly been blessed."

Axis' eyes lingered on Raum's hand. He raised his gaze to the Bane's face slowly. "Is Faraday's only role in Prophecy that of Tree Friend, Bane?"

"She has many things to do, Axis," Veremund answered for Raum. "As do you. Concentrate on your own path, and let others find theirs as the Prophecy guides them."

Axis nodded. "Has Faraday used the enchanted bowl, Raum? Has she stepped back into the Groves?"

"Yes," Raum answered. "Yes, she has. Several times. Each time Faraday uses the bowl I can...feel it."

Ogden and Veremund both studied the Bane closely. You can feel it?

wondered Ogden. And I would wager that you can feel it changing you, can't you, Bane Raum? How long before you, too, feel the urge to wander the paths of the Avarinheim all by yourself, wander until the pain in your body and your skull drives you mad? Until you are transformed? Do you feel it yet, Bane? Do you know?

Azhure sighed and sat back. She envied Faraday greatly. Not only did she have Axis' love, but she had a major role to play in the Prophecy, a role that would one day see her walk at Axis' side. Azhure might love Axis herself, but she knew her love would not be returned. Axis would never be her lover. Faraday and Axis were both heroes, and they would walk together into legend and immortality. She was only a human woman, scarred in mind and body, doomed to drift without a true home or a lifetime lover.

The next day the party walked down from the mountains and into Beltide.

The pigs abandoned Sigholt five days before Beltide.

Saddened, Jack stood and watched as the fifteen who had kept him company for the last three thousand years rolled and grunted their way across the bridge. He had always known they would go one day, always known they would pick the day. What better time to choose than these days when the Prophecy walked?

But Jack was excited as well as saddened. The pigs would only leave him to seek the Blood.

For three days the pigs trotted resolutely along the HoldHard Pass, stopping only to rest or nose around the rocks for whatever they could find to eat. But they did not waste much time foraging for food. Soon there would be better eating than stiff weather-worn grass, so aged and wizened it took true hunger to make it palatable.

On the fourth day the pigs emerged from the HoldHard Pass and turned north-east. For another day and night they trotted.

On Beltide, as the day darkened towards dusk, the pigs began to change.

Their limbs lengthened, their bodies became sleeker, their coats lighter. Their teeth began to glint and their mouths began to grin.

As the moon emerged they began to lope, but they made no sound. They would not begin to bay until they had caught the scent they had waited so long for.

Above, the moon gleamed and lit their way before them.

BeltideAs they closed the distance between the last of the alps and the Avar groves, Axis drew closer to Azhure. "Azhure, what do you think of the Avar?" he asked.

Azhure thought for a moment. "They are a reserved people, Axis, and they do not accept strangers easily. They are very peaceable and reject those who embrace violence."

Axis nodded. If the Avar had rejected Azhure because of her involvement in her violent father's death, then how would they feel about a former BattleAxe of the Axe-Wielders?

"They are reserved," Azhure repeated. "Shy. They have learned over centuries of persecution to fear the Plains Dwellers, as they call ..." She almost said "us", "the Acharites. They protest to loathe violence, but ..." Her voice trailed off.

"But they have an aura of violence about them?"

Azhure glanced at Axis, startled. "Yes. I had not thought of it that way before. But...yes. They put their children through a frightening test to see if they have the ability to become Banes — a test that kills many of them. And sometimes the Banes themselves can threaten violence. When I was a girl in Smyrton and stumbled upon Rivkah and a Bane taking two children past the village, the Bane was so angry that I think Rivkah only just managed to prevent him.

from killing me. Yes," she paused, "they protest violence, but they exude it."

"When I walked into the Sacred Grove in my dream," Axis said, "the feeling of hatred and inherent violence was overwhelming - of course," he laughed humourlessly, "I was BattleAxe, then."

"Do you still fear the reaction of the Avar, Axis? You do not walk into their groves as BattleAxe but as the StarMan."

"Perhaps, but they still have reason enough to distrust me. They will not be easy to win over."

"They are ashamed that it was their blood which birthed Gorgrael but not you," Azhure said softly so Raum, walking just ahead, would not hear. "The Icarii and the Acharites have accepted and will accept you because you have been born of their blood. But to the Avar you will not only be foreign, but also frightening." She paused. "Axis, don't be too confident. The Avar will not be as ready to follow you as the Icarii were."

Axis was taken aback once again by her perceptivity, but did not say anything. Like Ogden andVeremund, more and more he found himself wondering if Azhure was the peasant woman she first appeared to be. An odd memory resurfaced. Strangely, the few times Azhure had discussed Hagen, she had never referred to him as her father.

"Azhure," he said, hesitant.

"Yes?" Azhure replied, her face open and uncomplicated.

"Was Hagen your father? Your real father?"

"What a thing to ask! Of course," she said, but her voice sounded forced.

"Who eke?"

Axis began to say something, but Azhure broke in. "Look, Axis! We're almost there. How I'm looking forward to seeing Fleat and Shra again!"

The sacred groves and surrounding forest were a confusion of Icarii and Avar as the small party finally arrived in the early
afternoon of Beltide. The bulk of the Icarii had arrived an hour earlier -and were now laughing and exchanging greetings with the Avar. As they pushed through the crowds, StarDrifter hailed them. "Axis! Rivkah! Azhure!"

Smiling hugely, StarDrifter embraced Axis and then gave Rivkah a warm kiss on the cheek. "I am glad to see that you arrived well and in time for Beltide," he said, giving Azhure a light and blameless kiss on the cheek as well. "Did you travel without incident?"

Raum nodded and grasped StarDrifter's arm. "You look cheerful, StarDrifter.

Should I assume that... ?" He let the question hang in the air between them.

Both Icarii Enchanters and Avar Banes had been worried about the arrival of spring. The SkraeBold attack on Yuletide had disrupted the rites before they were completed and many feared the sun would not regain the strength it needed to break through the grip of Gorgraels unnatural winter. What if spring did not arrive? Was there any point in holding Beltide if there was no spring to celebrate?

"Raum," StarDrifter said, stepping closer to the Bane so he could be heard above the din. "Gorgrael's power is strong and winter has a grasp on the northern regions, but Earth Tree sings, and even though we could not finish the Yuletide rites, the sun has strengthened enough to allow the earth to reawaken.

Spring has begun. It will be weak and many areas will experience a cold summer, especially Ichtar, but the Banes tell me that the sun will shine strongly over the Avarinheim. Your people will be well."

"And Achar?" Axis broke in. His plans would have to be drastically altered if Achar remained in the grip of ice. "Will winter break in Achar?"

"Yes, Axis," StarDrifter replied. "It will be a cool summer and the crops may not flourish as well as hoped, but it will be a summer. Gorgrael's power has not spread as far south as we had feared."

Axis relaxed visibly. "Good."

StarDrifter looked at his son carefully. Apart from informing the Assembly of his intention to seek further training with the Charonites, Axis had not talked to anyone about his plans after Beltide. All knew that he meant to unite the Icarii and Acharite nations, but to do that he would have to face Borneheld. When?

How?

"Strike-Leader!" FarSight CutSpur's voice cut across Star-Drifter's thoughts.

"You have arrived. Good."

Axis turned and conferred with the Crest-Leader. He did not want the Strike Force to leave the Beltide rites as exposed as they had at Yuletide, and he confirmed with FarSight the plans they had made in Talon Spike for both air and ground patrols of the northern Avarinheim.

As Axis and FarSight talked, Azhure frowned and peered through the throngs of Avar and Icarii.

"There," Raum pointed. "The GhostTree Clan usually pitches its tents under that stand of trees. Remember?"

"Do you think I should...?" she started, nervous.

Raum smiled reassuringly. "They will be pleased to see you, Azhure.

Especially Fleat and Shra. Go on, now."

Azhure took a deep breath and headed in the direction Raum had pointed.

Fleat and Shra might welcome her, but what about Grindle? And Barsarbe, if she was with them?

Rivkah hurried after her. The GhostTree Clan had been Rivkah's surrogate family for years now, and she always looked forward to seeing them. Besides, Azhure looked as though she might need some support.

As Azhure and Rivkah disappeared into the crowd, Raum touched Axis' arm.

"Axis."

Axis glanced at Raum and brought his conversation with FarSight to a close.

"You have done well, Crest-Leader. Speak with me in the hour before dusk, well before the Beltide rites begin."

FarSight nodded, saluted, then left.

Axis turned. "Bane Raum?"

"Axis, it is time that I introduced you to the Avar Banes, the Clan Leaders, and the Earth Tree. Are you ready?"