StarMan (77 page)

As she approached Axis and Shra she dropped her eyes to the girl.

"Shra," she smiled, and rested a hand on her shoulder. Then, very slowly, she raised her eyes to Axis'

face.

"Axis."

"Faraday." He wondered if every time they met after long absences it would be before large crowds of potentially hostile people. This scene reminded him uncomfortably of the afternoon he had seen her enter the hall in Gorkenfort to stand by Borneheld's side as his wife. Now he did not lust after her as he had then, but he would still have liked to hold her, to embrace her, and to whisper that he loved her.

For he did love her. He could admit that to himself now. It was not what he felt for Azhure - he could never love another woman the way he loved Azhure - but his love for Faraday was like a still, cool lake in the hot, tangled jungle of his existence. He would never remain true to it because he could never be sated by it, but now and
again
he would like to touch it, to rest by her side, to draw strength from her stillness.

But he could not touch her now, not in front of the assembled Avar, so he merely inclined his head, and hoped that somehow she understood.

She lifted her hand from Shra's shoulder and reached out for his. Her skin was cool, and he was afraid to press her fingers too firmly. She was far more fragile than he had ever seen her before - what had so drained her that it left hollows under her cheeks and her skin so translucent? But her fragility only added to her beauty.

Her fingers trembled in his, and he wondered if she were as calm as she appeared.

"My friends," Faraday addressed the Avar, but she did not turn her eyes from Axis'. "I present to you Axis Rivkahson SunSoar, StarMan of Prophecy. He is the one for whom Plough, Wing and Horn have waited for so long, and he is the one who will heal the hurts that have torn our peoples apart for so long."

Now she did wrench her gaze away from Axis and look at the Avar. "Will you give him the aid he needs to defeat Gorgrael?"

A man stood from the front ranks. He was muscular and swarthy, with greying brown hair, and he wore a tunic with branches embroidered about its hem.

Faraday took one of his hands in hers and nodded at him. The man reached out and took Axis' hand with his, so that the three stood in a triangle; Shra stood slightly to one side of Axis and Faraday.

The man met Axis' eyes without hesitation. "Yes, the Avar will give the StarMan the aid he requires."

Some of the tension left Axis' shoulders.

"Will the Avar give blood to aid the StarMan?" Faraday asked. Startled, Axis' eyes flew to her face.

"Yes," the man said. "The Avar will give blood to aid the StarMan."

No! Axis wanted to cry out, but he said nothing, and Faraday carried on, her voice resolute.

"Will the Avar seek out that which they have created for the StarMan?"

"Yes."

Faraday paused, and now the corners of her mouth lifted in a slight smile. "Will the Avar give that which is needed to form the Rainbow Sceptre?"

"Yes, the Avar will give freely to the StarMan."

Faraday leaned over and brushed the man's cheek with her lips. "Grindle, Leader of the GhostTree Clan, I would present you to Axis, StarMan."

Then she repeated the words to Axis, presenting Grindle. "Grindle is Shra's father," she added, and Axis smiled at him.

"Now," Faraday said, "I would present you to the other Clan-Leaders."

As they slowly moved along the front ranks of the Avar, Faraday introduced each Clan-Leader by his name and the name of his Clan, and with each, hand that gripped his Axis understood that each man made the same pledges that Grindle had mouthed aloud. It was so different to his last meeting with the elders, Banes and Clan-Leaders of the Avar that Axis felt as if he were in a dream. Any moment now this veil of civility would drop and their hostility would shine forth.

But it didn't. It was then Axis realised that something fundamental had changed among the Avar.

Something had been accepted, and it wasn't only himself.

When the introductions were done Faraday and Shra each took him by a hand and drew him back towards the circle of stone, halting some fifteen paces away.

Axis glanced at them both, puzzled, but they motioned him to silence, and then looked at the stone circle.

He followed their eyes. As it had been on Beltide night, torches flickered about the upright stones; beyond he could just see the shape of the Earth Tree looming. Everything else within the stone circle was shadowed. What was going to happen now?

Something moved beyond the stone archways.

Faraday tensed at his side, but Axis did not look at her. Figures were moving slowly about the trunk of the Earth Tree, but even Axis, even with his Enchanter-enhanced vision, could not make them out. He felt Faraday tremble, and this time he did look at her.

Tears were rolling slowly and silently down her cheeks, but she shook her head slightly when she saw him looking at her.

He turned back to the stone circle, feeling the silence of the Avar behind him almost as a weight.

A figure shuffled into view and Faraday, as Axis, gave a low cry of horror. It was Ogden, but an Ogden so warped and contorted by sickness that Axis took an involuntary step forward.

"No!" Ogden cried hoarsely, holding up an unsteady hand. "No, Axis! Stay back. You must
not
touch us!"

"Oh, Stars!" Axis mumbled, stricken by the sight of the Sentinel. His hair had all but fallen out, only a few wisps clung above his ears. His skin was reddened, covered in running sores, his face so bloated that his eyes were almost swollen shut, and

his mouth hung open as he fought to breathe. Even from his distance Axis could hear the breath bubble in his lungs.

Veremund and Yr struggled out behind him, and their condition was, if anything, even worse.

Faraday took a harsh breath and looked away momentarily. Yr was almost unrecognisable - where were the sharp blue eyes, the irrepressible humour, the knowing smile now?

Gone, gone into the same well of pestilence that consumed Ogden and Veremund.

Now Zeherah - and even the stoic Avar silence crumbled when she appeared, and a low moan rippled about the grove. Zeherah could no longer walk, and she had to drag herself from the circle, her fingers clawing into the dirt, her legs dragging uselessly behind her.

"I have to help!" Axis said, appalled, but Shra hauled at his hand as he stepped forward.

"You must not touch them!"she hissed. "Let them alone, Axis," she continued more gently, "for they know what they do."

Axis halted, staring at the horror before him, then he dragged his gaze around to Faraday. "Did you know?" he whispered.

She shook her head slowly, her eyes not leaving the group before them. "No. I...I knew that they were here - they arrived unseen several hours ago and disappeared into the stone circle - but I did not realise ..."

Axis swallowed and looked back at the Sentinels. Their eyes glittered strangely in the darkness.

Golden from Ogden and Veremund, sapphire from Yr, ruby from Zeherah. Glittered with jewel-bright colours.

"Power has corrupted the bright eyes' hearts," Axis whispered to himself, understanding at last.

Then Jack emerged. He walked more upright than the others had, but then he had the staff to support him. Otherwise, Axis was sure, he would have crawled like Zeherah. He struggled forward, stopping to catch his breath where the other four Sentinels rested, then he came forward a few more steps.

"Hail, StarMan," he rasped, and Axis Inclined his head, unable to answer.

"We have come a long way," Jack said, and then, unaccountably, he laughed.

It was a horrible sound, feverish and cackling, and Axis could not stop himself from wincing. "What has happened to you?"

"Happened?" Jack's laughter stopped as suddenly as it had begun. "Happened? Why, StarMan, we but follow the Prophecy. Do you not need your Rainbow Sceptre?"

"The Prophecy tells me so, yes."

"Yes, the Prophecy tells you that you must wield it against the Destroyer. Well, this is Fire-Night, and this Fire-Night will see the construction of your Sceptre."

"I have been told that you will use the power of the ancient Star Gods who crashed and burned the first Fire-Night," Axis said. "Is that what has corrupted you?"

"Yes." Jack paused, his head drooping, obviously debating within himself whether to tell Axis anything else. "StarMan, perhaps I should not tell you this, but I will. I do not want the knowledge to die with us."

To one side Faraday wiped her eyes. She did not want the Sentinels' last view of her to be of tears.

She remembered how they had once told her on the Ancient Barrows that no-one would have to sacrifice more than they. Well, here stood their sacrifice revealed for all to see . . . and yet Faraday wondered if they were as all-seeing as they sometimes had pretended, or if there was yet a greater sacrifice to be made.

"StarMan." Jack gripped his staff still harder and tottered another step forwards. "Be wary of what lies in the depths of the Sacred Lakes. The ancient gods had power that we can only dimly comprehend, which you - yes, even you - should be wary of. Treat the Lakes with respect, Axis, and never think to go exploring."

If what stood before him was the inevitable result of such explorations, then Axis had no wish to go exploring at all. He nodded.

"Good. Now, Axis, you must not interfere with what we do. This will be our ultimate gift to you . . .

and we give it willingly and with love. After . . . after we have finished, then it will be the Avar's task to finish crafting the Sceptre for you."

Jack looked at Faraday. "Lovely lady, we wish you well in all that you do. You ..." his voice broke, and Jack had to struggle to master it. "You have done so well, and we are so proud of you. Yours has been the most difficult and the most lonely task of all. Remember
all
that the Mother has taught you, lovely lady, and may you one day find the love and the peace that you deserve."

Faraday could hold herself no longer, and she broke down into great sobs. Axis put his arm about her, and Faraday leaned against him, but she stretched out a trembling hand towards the Sentinels. "I am sorry for all that I said to you in Carlon," she sobbed. "Forgive me. I did not understand."

Now Jack appeared close to tears, and his emerald eyes dimmed. "We have always loved you," he said, then he turned away. "And we always will."

Faraday almost collapsed, and Axis had to wrap both his arms about her to keep her from falling.

Shra whispered something in Faraday's ear, and she nodded, took a deep breath, and stood upright again.

"I'm all right," she muttered and, reluctantly, Axis let her go.

Jack had reached the other Sentinels, and now they sat down in a circle. Jack took his staff and, with the last of his strength, struck it into the ground so that it stood upright in the centre of their circle.

Then they took each other's hands, bowed their heads, and . . .

"No/" Faraday screamed, and Axis seized her again, terrified she would dash to their side. "No/"

But the Sentinels did not hear her. As one they chanted, soft and sad, their voices infused with the music of wind and wave.

The staff burst into fire. It flared so bright that Axis had to shut his eyes and turn away. The next instant he felt a terrible heat sear his body and he dragged Faraday back eight or nine steps, shouting at Shra to shelter behind him.

When he found the courage to look back, the five Sentinels were pillars of fire surrounding the burning staff, and he looked away again; not because of the heat, but because he could not bear to watch their deaths.

It was only when he felt the heat die down that Axis turned around. Staff and Sentinels had disappeared, and in their place bright coals were heaped in a glowing pyramid. Occasional spurts of flame shot out, sometimes golden, sometimes ruby, sometimes sapphire or emerald.

The coals hummed, not with music but with power, and Axis stared, unable to look away. Gradually his arms loosened about Faraday and she stood upright, her tears gone now, her face ravaged with grief.

The coals popped and hummed, and very, very gradually their heat dissipated, and the flames lessened. The sense of power about them faded.

Eventually Axis walked over to the coals. The pyramid had crumbled into a heap of blackened ash, still glowing here and there, but cooling rapidly in the night air.

Without knowing why he did it Axis sifted about the ash with a booted foot.

He turned over a pile of ash in the centre of the heap and then stilled.

Glowing in what had been the very centre of the pyramid was the head of Jack's staff. Previously it had been tarnished, now it glowed bright silver. It was decorated with patterns of swirling lines, and into its body were set five gems - two golden, one sapphire, one ruby and one emerald.

Axis bent down and picked it up. It was cool to his fingers, and about the size of a man's clenched fist, but far heavier.

It was the head of the Rainbow Sceptre.

He shifted it in his hands, and its gems sent multicoloured rays of light flaring about the grove. The rays hummed with strange power. And in his mind Axis could hear the Sentinels laughing; low and pleasant, as if they had heard some particularly fine jest.

Axis folded his hands about the head of the Sceptre and the light died. He took a deep breath and looked up. Every eye in the grove was fixed on him. What now?

"Now," Shra said matter-of-factly, "we will give you a rod with which to wield the gaudy toy you hold in your hands."

She walked past Faraday, past Axis, and into the circle of stone. Beyond the arches she paused.

"Father, will you come with me? I shall need your height. And you too, Axis." She considered a moment.

"Faraday, come, for you shall sing to the Earth Tree."

Grindle joined Axis and Faraday and they stepped into the circle of stone. Shra had walked over to the trunk of the Earth Tree, and they joined her there.

"Faraday," Shra said, "will you sing to the Earth Tree?"