Axis had no idea from where she'd managed to acquire the clothes. Did the Emerald Guard carry with them, as standard rations, gauzy silky textiles in case they should encounter a ball?
"Inardle," Maximilian said, giving her a nod of greeting, "perhaps we could talk later, once we have struck camp. Meet me in my command tent for a meal tonight." Then he looked past her. "Garth! Come, my friend, ride with me and tell me all your adventures."
Axis pulled his horse in beside Inardle's as Maximilian and Garth rode on ahead.
"You look very well," he said.
"Garth and Zeboath have given me great care," she said.
"The wing...it looks vastly improved."
"Yesterday Garth and Zeboath changed the splints. Now, at least, I can bend it."
"And...it is healing well?"
"No," Inardle said after a slight hesitation. "Two of the tendons have not been healing as well as they should."
"Will you be able to fly?"
"I don't know."
That would hurt, he knew. "But perhaps you can still travel through the air in your more magical guise."
"Not if I can't fly."
Stars, Axis thought, the Lealfast's command of the Star Dance was fragile indeed.
"Well," he said, "at least you ride a horse skillfully." That was no idle compliment. Inardle sat a horse with the natural ease and strength of a born horsewoman.
She didn't respond.
"Where in the world did you get those clothes?" Axis eventually asked as they merged with the back units of the main convoy.
Inardle turned her head and smiled at him. "Not all my command of the Star Dance is as fragile as you seem to think."
It was late afternoon, and Maximilian gave the command to make camp. Axis had been riding forward with one of the Isembaardian units, but now he rode back to find Inardle, who he'd left riding with the supply wagons.
"How much luggage have you managed to acquire in the past week?" Axis said with a hint of a grin.
"Have you several trunks stuffed with garments as fine as that you wear now?"
"Just a small pack," Inardle said. "Garth and Zeboath have given me several jars of creams to rub into my wing."
"It still pains you."
"At times," she replied.
"Well, I'll get my body servant, Yysell, to put your pack into my tent for the time being, until we can arrange a sleeping place for you. You can wait there, too, if you like, until it is time to see Maximilian. Ah, here's Yysell now."
Axis spent the next two hours making sure the campsite was secure, setting guards about its perimeter, and receiving reports from several of the Strike Force about Armat's position.
The general was still well behind them, but close enough that a small force could attack, and Axis didn't want to take any chances with security.
It was just past dusk when he got to his own tent, a command tent almost as large as Maximilian's. There was the glow of a lamp inside, and a shadow as Yysell moved about, setting out fresh clothes and a hand basin and jug of water.
Axis lifted the tent flap and walked inside. Yysell turned from the side table and smiled, ducking his head in greeting, but it took Axis a moment longer to spot Inardle, who had seated herself on a stool in the shadows.
"Yysell has made you comfortable?" he asked her.
"Indeed," she said, "he has been very kind."
"Will you be eating here tonight, my lord?" Yysell said.
Axis shook his head. "We'll be eating with Maximilian."
Yysell bowed his head, and left.
"Did Yysell give you water to wash with?" Axis said as he shrugged off his jacket and then his shirt.
"Yes, thank you. Axis, can you arrange somewhere for me to sleep, please?"
"Yysell can hunt you out a small tent, if you like," Axis said, splashing water over his face and then his chest and shoulders. "I don't want you bedding down around the fires with the soldiers."
"Thank you. How far are we from Elcho Falling?"
"Possibly a week."
"And Eleanon? Have you news?"
"No. But I have heard of no disaster, so he and his fighters must be in the lower Sky Peaks."
She nodded, but didn't say anything, and Axis watched her carefully as he soaped his chest and arms.
Inardle had her eyes downcast, but she was still aware of his regard. She shifted on her stool, rearranging her wings self-consciously, then finally lifted her eyes as Axis started to towel himself dry.
"You didn't say good-bye to me," she said. "In the camp, when you left. I made you feel uncomfortable.
I'm sorry."
Axis pulled on the fresh shirt Yysell had laid out for him, then the jacket. "It is time to go," he said.
"Maximilian wants us in his command tent."
This was not going to be easy for her, Axis thought as they entered the tent. While she had met Ishbel and Maximilian before, she knew that their perception of her would be colored by Armat's catastrophic rout of the Lealfast.
It would have helped if Inardle had looked a little more demure, or perhaps less arrogant, but tonight she was all Lealfast and all pride, and very much on the defensive.
She also looked lovely in her silvery-gray fabrics with her crownlike silver hair and the gentle rim of frost about her eyelashes.
Axis instantly saw Ishbel and Salome raise their eyebrows.
It was going to be an interesting evening.
"Good," said Maximilian. "Everyone's here. Do you all know Inardle?"
Axis helped himself to a glass of wine and stood back, watching as Maximilian took Inardle's elbow and guided her amongst the small crowd, introducing her to those she had not yet met. The difference between her and the other Icarii present--StarDrifter, Salome, and BroadWing--was quite noticeable.
Inardle was a little taller, slimmer, and almost ethereal beside them. She had an aura about her that whispered of the frozen wastes, and just sometimes, when she moved, she acquired a faint translucence.
She trailed glamour and mystery behind her.
The Icarii were generally regarded as extremely exotic by the non-winged races, but Inardle took that exoticness to far greater heights.
Axis couldn't take his eyes off her.
"StarDrifter is Talon of the Icarii," Maximilian said as he introduced her to him, "and Axis' father."
Inardle glanced at Axis as Maximilian said that, her only sign of nervousness thus far.
"StarDrifter," she said, inclining her head.
"We must talk sometime," StarDrifter said, his tone a little too cool, "about reintegrating the Lealfast back into the Icarii. It's time you came home."
"The Icarii are not our home," Inardle said. "We do not recognize your--"
"You cannot think yourself Skraeling, surely," StarDrifter said. Then, after a small, theatrically horrified pause, he added, "Do you?"
"StarDrifter," Axis said, giving his father a hard look, and stepping over to hand Inardle a glass of wine.
"This really isn't the time."
"I do not blame your father for not thinking highly of me," Inardle said, setting the glass of wine to one side.
She turned slightly so she could look Maximilian in the eye. "My Lord of Elcho Falling, I must offer you my apologies for what happened when Eleanon--"
"You owe me no apologies," said Maximilian, "and you do not need to answer for Eleanon's error.
Inardle, if your fellows have the same reserves of dignity and courage that you possess, then there may be hope for them yet." His mouth curved in a gentle smile. "Welcome to my table, Inardle. You appear to have impressed Axis," he sent an amused glance at Axis as he said this, "so now I look forward to being impressed as well. Will you sit on my right?"
Axis found it an intriguing meal. Maximilian was open and friendly enough with Inardle, as were Ishbel and Garth, but they were the only ones. StarDrifter verged on the openly hostile, Salome was not much better as she took her lead from StarDrifter, BroadWing ignored Inardle
the entire evening, and Ezekiel clearly couldn't have given a damn about her and talked almost exclusively with Egalion, who was seated too far away from Inardle to do anything but give her an occasional intrigued glance.
It was an interesting reaction, Axis thought. The people who were most at ease with Inardle were those clearly less threatened by her...and they were the non-Icarii among the gathering. Axis had wondered what it might take for an Icarii to feel intimidated, and now he had his answer.
An Icarii who had evolved further.
And by mating with a Skraeling, no less.
Axis had his own problems with the Skraeling blood connection, but the more time he spent with Inardle the less it bothered him.
The meal progressed, the conversation meandering along inconsequential paths, until Maximilian settled back in his chair and turned the conversation to darker matters.
"Inardle, Axis tells me that Lister, along with Ravenna, is now with Armat."
"Yes."
"I do not know Lister well, although he has had a profound influence on my life," Maximilian said. "But you were once his lover, I believe. How do you understand his sudden defection to Armat?"
"Lister is a difficult man to know," Inardle said. "I shared his bed, but he was so secretive...I admired him greatly, and he was companionable, but there were depths to him that I never understood. His desertion into Armat's camp could mean anything. I just don't know, Maximilian, I am sorry."
"The Lealfast were his servants," Salome said.
"No," said Inardle, "we were not. We traveled with him because we felt that our ambitions coincided--to aid the Lord of Elcho Falling. Once we had a choice between Lister and Maximilian," she gave Maximilian a small smile, "then our association with Lister was over. Perhaps--"
She broke off suddenly, and looked down at the table.
"There was no excuse for Lister's desertion of you in Armat's camp," Maximilian said. Then, to cover the awkward silence, he leaned forward in his chair and addressed Axis.
"Will you find a duty for Inardle, Axis? She tells me she is mostly healed of her injuries now, save for her wing, and she surely can prove of some use to you."
"Inardle can serve as my second-in-command," Axis said. "My lieutenant."
All movement and sound ceased, and all eyes stared at Axis.
"I have overall command of disparate forces," Axis said, his tone as nonchalant as if he were discussing his breakfast order with Yysell, "and I need someone who can act as my eyes and ears, who can report back to me, who can convey my orders--"
"A kind of secretary," Salome said, with a somewhat condescending smile.
"--and who can give orders on my behalf, knowing my own wishes in any given situation where I can't be contacted," said Axis. "Inardle will need some instruction and guidance, but I think she can--"
"Stars, Axis!" StarDrifter said. "She'll order Maximilian's entire army into a massacre if she gets half a chance!"
"That was utterly uncalled for!" Axis snapped.
"StarMan," BroadWing began, his tone tight, half risen from his stool. "You cannot place the Strike Force in a position where they may need to take orders from--"
"A Lealfast?" said Axis. "You take them from me easily enough, and Inardle has the same amount of Icarii blood as myself."
"The Lealfast are utterly unknown to us!" BroadWing said, sinking back onto his stool and sending Inardle a cold look. "Who knows where their true loyalties lie? We cannot trust her, Axis."
"Trust is both earned and learned," Axis said. He was aware that no one knew much about the Lealfast, but trust had to start somewhere, and Inardle had endured enough over the past weeks for him to take that step. He was not overly surprised at the strength of BroadWing's reaction, but hoped Inardle's strengths would gain BroadWing's acceptance over time.
"I am not asking you to hand over your soul this very night, BroadWing," Axis continued, "but I do expect you, and Ezekiel, and Egalion, and even StarDrifter when it comes to military decisions, to respect what Inardle says as if I had said or ordered it. She will be my voice. Have I made myself clear?"
"StarMan," StarDrifter said, "you owe Inardle nothing, you were not responsible for what happened to her in Armat's camp, and you don't need to make recompense to her now. Not in this manner."
"Inardle," Axis said.
She was sitting in her chair, very still, very watchful, and Axis thought he could see both apprehension and excitement in her face.
There was no triumph there, and for that he was very grateful.
"Yes, StarMan?" she said.
"When BroadWing led the Strike Force in our rescue, he used a stratagem known as the spiral attack formation to rout the Isembaardians who pursued us. BroadWing, could you describe to Inardle how that works?"
BroadWing sent Axis a black look, but he complied, explaining to those at the table how the Strike Force used four waves of bowmen and women to attack the horsemen, spiraling silently down from the moonless sky.
"It was a flawless attack," Axis said. "Inardle, under what circumstances would you not use the spiral stratagem?"
Almost as one, all eyes swiveled back to Inardle.
"Not ever on the same men you had used it on before," she said.
"Why not?" said BroadWing.
"Because having suffered under it once," Inardle said, "they'd be expecting it again. And while the spiral formation is patently very effective when used with the advantage of surprise, given any other circumstances it might prove deadly to the Strike Force."
"How so?" said Axis.
"All the Icarii are packed relatively closely together. They'd be extremely vulnerable to attack from archers on the ground."
"As happened with the Lealfast in Armat's gully attack," BroadWing said.
"Yes," Inardle replied softly, holding BroadWing's gaze.
"She's got a good head on her shoulders, BroadWing," Axis said. "As do, I suspect, most of the Lealfast. She'll do."
BroadWing gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, but he dropped his eyes, and Axis knew that was as much of an agreement as he was likely to get from the man tonight.
But it was enough.
"Are you certain you want this?" Maximilian asked, very quietly.
"I am certain," Axis said, and Maximilian nodded.
"As you wish, then," he said, rising from the table. "And if you will all excuse me..."
Axis asked Inardle to wait for him in his tent, then sought out his father as he left Maximilian's tent.
"What are you doing with that woman, Axis?" StarDrifter said.
"I--"
"Have you no thought for Azhure? No sense of loyalty or love for her?"
Axis thought that was a bit much coming from a man who had spent his life cheating on Axis' own mother.
"She fascinates me," Axis said, "and she has great potential."
StarDrifter sneered.
"Stars, StarDrifter, what do you have against her?"
"She is Skraeling!"
"No, she's not," Axis snapped, "and she's not Icarii, either. You can't try to bring her under your control. You are not her Talon, as you are not the Lealfast's. Yes, the Lealfast are shitty warriors, but so also was the Strike Force when first I took command of it. Of all the sins of which the Lealfast might be accused, this must be one of the most easily amended. Get used to her, StarDrifter. Both she and her people will be around a little longer."
"And Azhure?" StarDrifter said, bringing the conversation back to the battlefield he wanted. "How will she feel, knowing you betray her with a Skraeling?"
"Azhure is dead," Axis said. "Dead, StarDrifter! I've had to come to terms with that, and so also must you. Yes, I want Inardle. I've watched you with Salome, and I yearn for the warmth and comfort of a woman by my side again. Inardle intrigues me as no other woman has since I came back from death. I'm not going to waste what there is of this life wallowing in guilt merely because I want a little of what once I
had with Azhure."
; "Then, by the stars, I hope you are not betraying every single one of us because you lust for that creature."
"I know what I am doing," Axis snarled, then strode off.
Axis paused for a few minutes before he reached his tent. He was still angry and emotional after the scene with his father, and didn't want to walk into the tent so wrought up that he ruined any chance he might have at broaching the distance between Inardle and himself.
He knew he should not have been surprised at StarDrifter's--or anyone else's--reaction. StarDrifter had been emotionally involved with Azhure himself, was very loyal to her, and was never going to react well to Axis becoming involved with someone else.
Especially not a someone as controversial as Inardle.
Half Skraeling, distant, unknowable, and already part of a military debacle, she was, indeed, a contentious choice for Axis' second-in-command.
He grinned to himself, calming down. Inardle was certainly much lovelier than his former second-in-command, and best friend, Belial. Belial had been so...un controversial. Everyone had liked him, and had gotten on well with him.
Inardle...
"Well," Axis murmured to himself, finally walking toward the tent, "it will be interesting, indeed."
Inardle was sitting on a stool by the brazier when Axis entered. She stood up, looking wary.
"Do you want the job?" Axis said. "Do you want some responsibility?"
"What makes you think I could do this? I can't--"
"Don't ever let me hear you say `can't' again. You can--you just need training and experience."
"But why me? For the stars' sakes, Axis, Georgdi would be better, even Zeboath!"
Axis laughed. He gestured to Inardle to sit down again, and pulled up his own chair by the brazier.
"Zeboath is a fine man, and everyone likes him. He would make a lousy second-in-command to me."
"And yet I would? How?"
"Because you have a much harder edge to you. People may not like you so much, but they will learn to respect you. I think also you can make decisions under pressure, and I need that."
Inardle stared at Axis. "How do you know you can trust me?"
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