StarMan (67 page)

In the nine days since Xanon had told Axis of Caelum capture, Axis had buried his concern for wife and son i activity. He had moved his force hard north for Gorkenfon although he was careful not to over-tire them, nor to outpac their supply column.

The further north they moved the more bitter became thi weather. It was cold for mid-Flower-month but when Axi; complained about the wind sweeping down from the north Magariz grinned darkly and said that even in the warmest o summers the snow barely melted in Gorken Pass.

"And many parts of Ravensbund remain dusted with snow through much of the mid-year," Ho'Demi added.

Axis grumbled, he was tired of fighting through constani winter, but Belial only grinned. "Tencendor lies free, my friend,

and even here the sun shines for most of the day. Already Flower-month lives up to its name across Ichtar, and the crops must be close to harvest below the Nordra. If you cannot stand another month or two of snow, driving these wraiths into the sea, well then, perhaps you ought to go home and sit before a fire with a blanket about your knees."

"If I have to spend my time seated before a fire with a blanket over my knees, Belial, then I shall insist that you sit with me to pass the time of day. Perhaps you could knit."

Belial smiled, but he did not continue the repartee, thinking of the reports they had received so far.

The Skraeling host had apparently abandoned Gorkentown and fort. They could not all have crammed inside the ruins, and Timozel must have decided that he would prefer to battle in the wind-swept wastes of Gorken Pass.

"Here they are," Belial heard Axis mutter by his side, and he looked up. With a rustle of wings and a rush of air, SpikeFeather TrueSong settled down into the snow before them. He was followed by two more scouts, the other five flying on to their units stationed at the rear of the ground force.

SpikeFeather bowed. He'd insisted on leading the scouting parry, and Axis had acquiesced without demur. Over the past weeks and months, SpikeFeather had grown into his command and, although, like all Icarii, his face remained youthfully un-lined, experience and confidence hardened his eyes and mouth.

"StarMan."

"Crest-Leader. What news?"

SpikeFeather drew in a sharp breath between his teeth. "They wait, StarMan, about a league up the pass. They are massed in formation, and they wait patiently...well away from the river, which is free of ice."

Axis frowned in thought. Could he use that? "Close to the cliffs of the Alps, SpikeFeather?"

"Not really. They are, oh, at least five or six hundred paces from the cliffs."

Axis exchanged glances with Belial, then turned back to SpikeFeather. "Did you see Timozel?"

"No. He could be anywhere among that mass."

"IceWorms?"

"Yes, but at the back of the force. I cannot think how Timozel would use them."

Axis nodded slowly. IceWorms were useful for breaching defences and little else. "And Gryphon?" he asked softly.

"None," SpikeFeather replied. "We," he nodded at the two scouts behind him, "flew the entire length of the Pass, only a hundred paces over the heads of the Skraelings and close to the canyons and traverses of the Alps, but we saw no sign of them. We..." he faltered a moment, recalling, "we constantly expected attack, but none came."

"You were foolish to risk your lives, SpikeFeather," Axis snapped.

"You had to know, StarMan." SpikeFeather's voice was equally terse. "If we had drawn them out then you would have known where they were."

"Then where
are
they?" Axis said. Timozel undoubtedly had them so well hidden that Axis' force would not discover them until the moment the abominations landed on their backs.

"StarMan!"

Axis, with Belial and the other commanders, wheeled their horses about as they heard the shout.

A horseman galloped towards them from the rear of the encampment. "StarMan," he panted as he reined his horse to a halt, "the Enchantress!" And he turned and pointed behind him.

Axis dug his heels into Belaguez's flanks and the stallion leaped forward; within a heartbeat he was gone, galloping across the plain towards the as-yet tiny figure in the distance.

They met in a flurry of snow and wind and joy several hundred paces south of the encampment, their horses colliding, the hounds baying about them. Axis leaned forward

and swept Azhure from her horse, his eyes laughing in relief and love.

Then his eyes widened as he felt the bundle on her back.

"He is asleep," she whispered, "leave him be for the moment."

Axis smiled, tightened his arms and pulled her close.

"How?" he asked eventually, leaning back from her slightly.

She kissed his cheek, and then his mouth again. "Do you remember your dream nine nights ago?" she whispered, and smiled at the shudder that swept his body. "I walked with the Moon that night, and I walked into Gorgrael's dreams and eventually into his chambers. Listen," and she put her mouth to his ear and whispered.

Axis burst out laughing. "Vixen! I almost feel empathy for my brother, for you have tortured me ceaselessly since you first walked into my life. But," his arms reached about her, "Caelum is safe, and you are here, and Xanon tells me that you battled with Artor and bested him."

"And Faraday has finished the planting and the trees sing -but you must know that."

She felt him withdraw from her slightly. "And Faraday is well?"

"Well enough, husband. She rests now in the Sacred Grove, with the Horned Ones and the Mother, for she has been through great travail for your sake. She will join you for Fire-Night in the Earth Tree Grove."

Axis ignored that. "And the trees will assist in our battle with the Skraeling host?"

Azhure grinned and snuggled back into his body. "We shall see soon enough, methinks, when we ride into battle."

Axis said nothing for a few minutes as he revelled in Azhure's warmth and presence. He had worried constantly about her and about his son, and he had not realised how much it had affected him until this moment, when both rested safely within the circle of his arms.

His thoughts turned back to Caelum's kidnap.
How did Gorgrael seize him?

He felt Azhure shiver, and, as she spoke slowly and softly in his mind, his own body tensed and shook, so great was his fury.

"I will
kill
him!" he hissed.

Azhure's arms tightened. "No. Axis, I was so angry myself...I have stripped him of his Icarii powers."

She outlined the processes she'd used to make DragonStar's human blood dominant. "And now he is just the cuddly, beautiful baby that Cazna thought him all the while. He is back in the nursery with River-Star, for there is no damage he can do now. Poor baby, I could feel her puzzlement as she tried to penetrate the fog of his mind."

Axis was still not appeased by the measures Azhure had taken, but he was willing to admit she was right. If he had been there . . . Axis knew full well that DragonStar might easily be dead by now. "We shall have to watch him as he grows, my love. I still do not trust him."

"Nor I. But at least his power has been blunted."

Axis nodded and rested his chin in her hair for some time, his eyes on the army spread out before him.

"We cannot find the Gryphon for you to hunt," he said.

She leaned back at that. "Axis . . . when I left Gorgrael writhing out his frustration upon the floor I felt his anger leap after me. He could not catch me, but hours later I felt his rage find new direction. Talon Spike."

"Oh Stars," Axis groaned, "I had hoped that RavenCrest and BrightStar and all those who stayed with them might yet be safe. Are they still there?"

Azhure knew he meant the Gryphon. "I don't know. I have not been able to feel them for many days now. Perhaps I shall have to content myself with sticking Skraelings on the morrow."

Timozel sat in the cave high in the rocky walls of Gorken Pass where he had secreted himself from the far-seeing eyes of the Icarii scouts, and chewed his thumbnail.

Where are they?he questioned Gorgrael.

I do not know, Timozel,and Timozel could feel the fury and frustration and fear in Gorgrael's mind.

How could anyone lose seven thousand Gryphon?

No
doubt Axis will attack in the morning, Master. I would prefer to have those Gryphon
overhead when he does.

Do you think me a fool, Timozel?and the man reeled from the flaming rage that Gorgrael sent his way.

I want those Gryphon to shred his army as greatly as you do. Yet I can do nothing until...

Abruptly his words broke off.

Master? Master?

Timozel! I have them!

It had taken more than eight days for the befuddled yet rabidly angry Gryphon to find their way through the maze of shafts and corridors to the upper reaches of Talon Spike. They had hunted ceaselessly in that time, searching for the Icarii. They could smell them, yes they could, so surely they were just around the next turn, behind the next door. The shadows teased and tantalised them, and the Gryphon crawled through every space they could find.

And they found nothing. Now biting hunger fed their fury, and as they climbed higher and higher in a seething mass, their anger intensified until it glowed from their eyes and steamed with their breath and their shrieks tore through the mountain. Then, as the first of them crawled out onto the flight balcony of Talon Spike, Gorgrael finally managed to touch their minds again.

West! West! Haste! Haste! Where have you been?

Chasing shadows, Master,they whispered back.
Talon Spike is clear . . . we think.

Then fly! Fly! Fly! Great feeding awaits you in Gorken Pass. Manlings a-plenty mass for the feast -

but you shall have to fight back the Skraelings.

We shall eat them, too.

Save your thunder and your anger for the battle, my beauties. Now, FLY!

And the Gryphon, waiting for their fellows to emerge from the mountain, massed about its peak. As the mountain groaned under their weight they launched themselves into the air, spinning about Talon Spike in a maddened black cloud until, as the final few of their brethren emerged from the mountain, they wheeled as one and flew west into the night sky.

Nothing would stop them feasting now.

oDreamers in the SnowMagariz stood fidgeting in the pre-dawn light as Belial's man fumbled with the buckles on his master's armour.

"Peace, Magariz," Belial said. "I am almost fastened up."

"I admit I cannot wait until this day is over," Magariz said.

"And I, my friend, and I."

All about them men readied for war, and when Belial glanced at Axis and Azhure's tent he could see the shadows of movement within.

Belial's man stood back and Belial straightened and looked at Magariz. "Nervous, my friend?"

"Deathly afraid, more like."

"There is no shame in admitting to fear," Belial said. "I hardly slept myself. But think of it this way, Magariz. Either we will be dead by this evening or we won't. And if we lose the field, if Timozel's forces win the day, then I don't want to be alive to witness the destruction that will sweep Tencendor."

"You sink into philosophy again, my friend," Axis said cheerfully, and Belial turned to look, then started.

Axis had emerged from his tent dressed in his golden tunic with its blood-red sun blazing across his chest. Across his shoulders flowed the red cloak, and the rising dawn light caught golden flecks in his beard, trimmed close to his cheeks, and in his hair combed neatly back into its braid. His hand rested on his sword hilt, and Belial realised that Axis still wore Jorge's sword.

"Perhaps I shall get to stick Timozel with it today," Axis said.

"Have you gone mad?" Belial hissed. "Where's your armour? Axis, you will fall in the first minute if you attempt to ride into battle dressed like that."

Axis' lightness faded. "I want them to know who they face, Belial, and I want them to know where I am. And," his smile returned, "I shall not need armour."

Belial opened his mouth to retort, but just then Azhure stepped out of the tent, Caelum clasped in her arms. She paused to speak quietly with a man-at-arms, then stepped to her husband's side. "Belial, Axis and I have spent much of the night talking. We have revised the battle plans somewhat."

"Oh,
damn
it!" Belial snapped. "We spent hours last night working those plans out to the finest detail, and now you say lightly that you have revised them? Without thinking to consult your commanders?"

"Belial," Axis said, "We apologise for any lack of thought. Yes, we should have consulted you, but it was so late when we had finalised things in our own heads that it would have been pointless waking you."

" was awake most of the night, anyway," Belial said.

Magariz stepped forward. "Tell us, Axis. What have you dreamed up that makes you leave your armour behind?" Axis always wore armour for major action, as did all his men, and even Azhure wore chain mail when she entered the fray; Magariz could remember she wore as heavy a complement of chain as any man during the Battle of Bedwyr Fort.

"I have sent for SpikeFeather and Ho'Demi," Azhure said. "I want them here."

"And then we will explain," Axis said, taking Caelum from Azhure's arms and laughing with him over some shared thought.

Belial stared at them. When they had sat about the campfire last night, sharing food and ideas, Caelum had almost been inseparable from his father, clambering about his lap or sometimes sleeping quietly in his arms. He shuffled in his heavy armour. It always took an hour or so to get used to, and after eight or nine hours of chafing and rubbing it was a relief to be divested of it. But it was not the weight of his armour that concerned him now.

Why was Axis so cheerful? Belial had fought by his side for many years now, and they had survived more battles together than Belial cared to remember. Always, whether before a march or a battle, Axis was snappy - it was his way of releasing tension - and Belial had never seen him this relaxed before.

What
had
those two planned?