In this soft light it looked part silver, part rosy, and it reminded Axis a little of the pyramids the Lealfast had given Lister and Isaiah.
She looked very vulnerable, and very lovely, even through the bruises and grime.
Axis realized he was staring, and looked away.
"You can't use that power to aid us escape?" Zeboath said to Axis. He probably looked the best of the quartet, but even so his eyes were ringed with exhaustion and his skin was unnaturally pale.
Axis gave a little shake of his head. "While I have managed to reconnect to the Star Dance, it is in a different manner than previously. The Dance is all about me, but far more subtle than what I could hear when it thundered through the Star Gate. I am still learning to use it in this form, learning its nuances. I
have nowhere near the power I had as StarMan--" he grinned "--even though that title is once again being bandied about, and only a tiny percentage of what I commanded as Star God. Inardle, no doubt, would sneer at my limited capabilities. The Enchanter cannot rescue you from this pit, Zeboath, but I hold out hope for the man."
"I do not sneer at you, Axis," Inardle said. "I could not have provided that light with my own command of the Star Dance." She paused, glancing at him with an awkward expression. "Thank you for the light. It is most welcome and more than comforting."
Axis felt a little ashamed of his anger toward her earlier; she was not to blame for Eleanon's stupidity.
"You use the Star Dance differently from Icarii Enchanters," he said to her. "Would you explain to me how?"
Inardle sat thinking for a little while, and Axis thought she struggled with the Lealfast's general tendency toward wrapping themselves in mystery in order to bolster their own importance.
Eventually, however, Inardle spoke.
"Before the Star Gate was destroyed," she said, "you used music to access the Star Dance. You literally heard the Star Dance, and thus your command over its power was vast. Now, I believe you access the Dance by vision, by `reading' it in the fall of dust motes, the way a woman's skirt ruffles in the wind, the clouds in the sky."
"Yes," Axis said, "and in suddenly realizing we can read it, we realize the Star Dance is still all around us, and once again we allow it to filter through our bodies. It is a paler version of what once we heard, but it is still there."
"We are not so fortunate," said Inardle, moving ever deeper into her deception. "I, like all the Lealfast, need to literally feel the movement of the Star Dance--wind, usually. In here, in this windless pit, I am powerless. Even when outside among the elements, our use of the Dance is limited. We could not, for example, do what you just did in providing light. Our abilities are largely centered on movement, on the ability to fly with the Dance through the air. It is pretty, and useful, but limited in scope. Possibly that is because..."
"Of your Skraeling blood," said Axis. "But then, I had a human mother and am only half Icarii, and that has not affected my ability to use the Star Dance. My wife, Azhure, is the same. She is exceptionally powerful, but also had a human mother."
"The Skraeling blood corrupts us," said Inardle. "It limits us."
"You are very ambivalent about your Skraeling heritage," said Axis.
"We want more than anything to escape it," Inardle said. She paused, then spoke again. "You asked once why we are so loyal to Maxel as Lord of Elcho Falling."
"You spun a pretty tale about legends and whispers, as I remember," Axis said.
"It was true enough, but there is more depth to it. We loathe our Skraeling blood, loathe it." She paused, her teeth gleaming in the low light. "Almost as much as we despise our Icarii heritage. We yearn for the day when we can be free of both Skraeling and Icarii blood and be pure Lealfast, not half-breeds. We want to own our heritage and our blood, not be indebted to two races who loathe us for the taint of the other.
"Those icy whispers told us that the only one who had enough power to manage this for us was the Lord of Elcho Falling. We have yearned for him, Axis. We thought him the one who could save us, offer us the salvation of our own identity, our own future. But..."
"But?" Axis said.
"But now we hear that Maximilian wields only a fraction of what the ancient Lords of Elcho Falling once commanded."
"Who told you that?" Axis said.
Inardle shrugged. "General camp gossip," she said. "Is it true?"
Now it was Axis who hesitated. "Yes."
Inardle sighed. "Then there is no hope for us, Axis. None. Who else can aid us, if not Maximilian?"
Axis didn't respond to that, and the group sat quietly for a while. They could hear the sounds of the encampment above them, horses moving, men talking and occasionally laughing, the clatter of cooks'
pans and weapons being cleaned.
Axis found himself focusing on the clatter of cooks' pans, and the faint aroma of meat cooking, and tried to forget how hungry he was.
Some time passed, then everyone jumped as a grating noise came from above them.
Several of the large logs of wood rolled away and daylight flooded the pit.
A soldier leaned in: Risdon.
"Armat wants to see you, Axis."
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Armat's Camp, the Central Outlands
Several soldiers jumped down into the pit, trampling on Georgdi's and Zeboath's legs, who were not quick enough to rise.
Axis cried out, grabbing at one of the soldiers, but the next instant was himself grabbed from behind and thrust against the crumbly earth wall of the pit as his hands were tied behind him.
"Get the woman, too," one of the guards snapped.
"For the stars' sakes," said Axis, "Armat can't need anything from--"
"Keep quiet," said the guard directly behind Axis, and put his hand into the center of Axis' back and pushed him into the wall again, so that Axis had to spit out dirt in order to keep breathing. "Keep that mouth shut or I'll take out my anger on the woman. Understand?"
Axis was fuming, but he kept quiet. He tried to make eye contact with Inardle, to reassure her, but she was not looking at him, and was the next moment lifted roughly in the air for a guard on the surface to haul upwards.
The man grabbed one of her wings, lifting her by that, and she cried out in pain.
Axis turned around, about to protest, but the guard hit him on the side of his jaw with the hilt of a dagger, and Axis sagged, rendered half insensible by the blow.
Rough hands grabbed him, too, and he was hauled up to the surface.
"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 this tent," Armat muttered.
"There was a force of some twenty thousand that went south into Isembaard to aid refugees," said Axis.
"We don't know what happened to those. We don't, Armat. Isaiah was with them, and they have all, apparently, been killed by whatever it is that now controls Isembaard."
"A toddler with a reed could kill the Lealfast," said Armat. "If they are dead it doesn't signify that what waits in Isembaard is of any concern."
Fool, thought Axis, hoping that Armat was about to murder himself by ordering a march back south through the Salamaan Pass.
"Malat?" Armat said, surprising Axis with the question. "The state of the Central Kingdoms?"
"Malat has taken a small force to go back and see," Axis sai
d. He glanced at Lister, knowing that Lister knew this information and that he couldn't lie. "While Pelemere was destroyed, as was much of the western parts of the Central Kingdoms, I believe the rest of the Kingdoms escaped fairly unscathed from the Skraeling invasion."
"So Malat could raise an army?" Armat said.
"Not enough to bother you," Axis said.
Armat grunted. "Perhaps." He turned and looked to Lister. "Has he told the truth?"
"Mostly," said Lister. "As he understands it."
"What are you doing, Lister?" Axis said. "Why turn on Maximilian like this? I had thought you'd dedicated your life to grooming him for Elcho Falling. And why allow such treatment of Inardle? She was your lover! Do you have no feeling for her at all?"
That was quite a speech, and Axis was sure that Armat would punish him for it, but Armat seemed unconcerned, and motioned to Lister to answer.
"Inardle is immaterial," said Lister. "There is too much at stake to waste energy on her." He looked at Inardle. "I am sorry, my dear. I was quite fond of you, but there is far more here than you can comprehend."
Lister looked back to Axis. "As there is much you do not know, nor comprehend. Ravenna and I are certain that Maximilian has been corrupted, and--"
"For stars' sakes, Lister--you cannot surely have been seduced by Ravenna's jealousy of Ishbel?"
"This goes far beyond Ishbel," Lister said quietly. "I liked her, too, as once I liked Inardle. But Ishbel needs to die if this land is to be saved. Maximilian cannot see that."
"You're going to march on Elcho Falling, aren't you?" Axis said. "Armat, have you told your men that?
They were not happy to march to Elcho Falling with Maximilian while Isembaard was being eaten; they'll not do it for you!"
"Silence!" Armat shouted. "You have no idea of what this army will do for me!" He looked at the guards.
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