Enchanter

by Sara Douglass

  “Faraday is so powerful, so magical,” Azhure began, but Ysgryff took her by the shoulders and shook her slightly. “There is no-one who can compare to you, Azhure! Axis risks losing his soul if he lets you fade away!”

  It was a very strange thing for Ysgryff to say, and Azhure stared at him until Ysgryff’s handsome face relaxed into a smile, and he patted her cheek playfully.

  “Come, lovely lady,” he said lightly. “Great happenings await us at Spiredore.”

  It was a twenty-minute walk to Spiredore, and Azhure, Caelum in her arms, moved slowly through the throng, Baron Ysgryff at her side. Axis had reserved seats for them at the very front of the crowd. People smiled and ducked their heads as Ysgryff and Azhure moved past them. Both were richly dressed and obviously noble, and the child in the woman’s arms radiated such an aura of greatness that many gasped in wonder.

  A dais had been erected at the foot of the tower of Spiredore and to its right a group of chairs were set up. Belial, Cazna, Magariz and Rivkah were already there, and they rose to greet Azhure and Ysgryff as they approached.

  “You look splendid,” Rivkah whispered in Azhure’s ear.

  “I look pregnant,” she grumbled back quietly.

  Belial kissed her cheek softly in greeting and glanced at her stomach, saying nothing, yet Azhure saw the flash of pain in his eyes.

  Ho’Demi and Sa’Kuya arrived, both wrapped in snow-white icebear furs, the very tips of the fur tinted sky blue. Their hair was freshly plaited and greased, and more chips of blue and green glass and bright brass chimes hung among their braids than ever before. They looked splendidly savage with their blue tattooed faces and blood-red suns blazing at all from the centre of their foreheads and they kissed their friends and comrades enthusiastically. All the Ravensbund people had been looking forward to this day for a very long time.

  The Sentinels, five now and content, sat to the left of the dais. Jack sat very close to Zeherah, and, although no-one had ever seen them touch, few had any doubts that their relationship was closer than that shared by any of the other Sentinels.

  “My friends,” called a voice slightly, and then StarDrifter alighted on the grass, followed immediately by EvenSong, FreeFall and FarSight CutSpur. Azhure had heard the tale of how FreeFall had been brought back from the dead in the Chamber of the Moons. EvenSong, shy but obviously excited, had brought FreeFall to talk with Azhure one evening, and Azhure had delighted in the birdman’s company. He had been quiet and amusing, and had carried with him an air of such haunting beauty that most who found themselves in his company simply wanted to sit and watch him. Azhure had been no exception.

  FreeFall had been so altered by death and reincarnation that the air of mysticism which most Icarii wore was strengthened tenfold in him. He remembered nothing of his time in the Halls of the Dead, and had only the vaguest memory of flying as an eagle. Axis, apparently, had refused to tell anyone of the mysteries he had concluded in the UnderWorld that had seen both FreeFall and Zeherah restored to the living world.

  RavenCrest, still in Talon Spike, had received the joyous news of his son’s return from the dead several days ago. He had not been able to fly south for the ceremonies to reforge Tencendor, but Azhure hoped that RavenCrest would remeet his son again as soon as possible.

  Azhure turned from regarding FreeFall and EvenSong and looked straight into StarDrifter’s level eyes. She stilled at what she saw there. He stepped forward and embraced her, but with a shock Azhure felt his hand suddenly press hard against her belly and felt the light touch of power throb through her for an instant. She drew back silently; this was not the time or the place to make a fuss. And Azhure did not want for a moment to admit to herself the slight thrill of pleasure that both his touch and his power had given her.

  “Azhure!” StarDrifter whispered so that only she could hear. “You are a wondrous gift to the SunSoar family! You carry not one but two babes within you. A son, and a daughter. Both will be Enchanters. Ah, Azhure, you are an enchanted woman yourself!” In the entire history of the Icarii race, only twice before had an Icarii woman given birth to twins.

  Azhure’s eyes widened. Twins! “Thank you, StarDrifter,” she murmured and sat down in the chair behind her. What he had done to her was an undoubted intrusion, but both his touch and his words had comforted and strengthened Azhure at a time when she desperately needed both comfort and strength.

  StarDrifter sat down beside her, Ysgryff hurrying to take the seat on her other side, and Azhure smiled as she settled Caelum comfortably on her lap. The boy was dressed in a suit of dark red velvet that matched her dress and, with his mop of black curls and blue eyes, looked every bit as striking as his mother. Another son and a daughter, Azhure thought. Can she do that for him?

  She? Caelum’s thought intruded into her mind. She? Who is this ‘she’ who you have thought about so much recently? Is it Faraday?

  Pay attention, Caelum. Your father will be here soon.

  StarDrifter had caught the exchange and was so stunned he literally rocked on his chair. He stared at Azhure. How did she do that? How? The ability to speak with the mind voice was one shared only by the most powerful of Enchanters—many of the lesser Icarii Enchanters never mastered the ability.

  “Axis,” Azhure said softly, breaking StarDrifter’s thoughts.

  A boat had drawn up to the shore and Axis and Faraday were stepping out. Azhure took a deep breath when she saw Faraday. She looked as wondrous as she had appeared in the vision Azhure had seen at Yuletide when StarDrifter had summoned Faraday to awaken the Earth Tree with him. She was dressed in a cream silk gown, heavily brocaded, its square neckline emphasising her pale breasts and neck. Oh Stars, thought Azhure in despair, she is so beautiful!

  Faraday’s face, indeed, her whole carriage, exuded happiness and contentment. She walked by Axis, touching his arm now and then, the dress swaying out from her hips slightly as she walked. Every smile she gave Axis, every step she took by his side, shouted her love for the man.

  Axis looked fit and relaxed. He wore the golden tunic, the blood-red sun blazing in the centre of his chest, over the red breeches—now cleaned of any trace of blood. A golden sword swung by his side, and his hair and beard had been trimmed and brushed so that they caught the afternoon sun and glinted almost as gold as the material of his tunic.

  The murmur of the tens of thousands gathered behind them grew to a swell of sound as Axis and Faraday approached the dais, and Azhure felt tears spring into her eyes. Faraday was so much the Queen that Azhure suddenly felt small and insignificant.

  StarDrifter took her hand. “You are SunSoar as much if not more than Rivkah,” he said. “You will always find a home and a welcome among us should you need it.”

  At the edge of the dais Faraday relinquished Axis’ arm as he mounted the platform, moving to sit with the Sentinels.

  “Why does she not stand with him?” Azhure asked. She moved Caelum closer to her stomach, delaying the moment when Axis would see her pregnancy.

  “Borneheld is only a week dead,” Ysgryff answered. “His bones are still to be completely picked clean on the refuse heap.”

  Beside him Azhure shuddered. As Axis had requested, Borneheld’s body had been thrown to rot on the refuse heap and, as dusk fell on the day of his death, Gautier had joined him. Gautier had paid dearly and long for the crucifixion of the three Ravensbundmen in Jervois Landing.

  “So it is better that Faraday sit apart from him rather than at his side. Otherwise people might talk,” Ysgryff concluded.

  Faraday smiled at the Sentinels as she sat down among them. Then her eyes drifted about the front row of chairs. She caught Rivkah’s eye and smiled and nodded. She had enjoyed getting to know Rivkah very much. Both, as former Duchesses of Ichtar, had much in common and many memories to share. Faraday glanced at StarDrifter. Ah, his knowing eyes were enough to make any woman blush. And who was that striking Nors woman sitting by his side? She held a beautiful child, a boy, in her lap, and she smiled and
chatted with Baron Ysgryff and StarDrifter. Faraday frowned a little. Was this the courageous Azhure who she had heard some gossip about? None of the gossip had mentioned a son—or how beautiful the woman was. A flash of gold at the corner of her vision caught Faraday’s attention and all thoughts of the raven-haired woman faded from her mind.

  Axis strode to the front of the dais and the crowd hushed. He bowed in the traditional Icarii greeting, turning to include all present. As he turned to the right he looked down at the row of chairs holding his closest friends and allies and smiled. His eyes caught Azhure’s and she held her breath, her hands tightening about Caelum.

  Axis straightened and faced the crowd. He slowly lifted a hand, his fingers beckoning.

  Azhure gasped, as she heard Rivkah do so some few chairs further down. Both women recognised the gesture instantly. StarDrifter had used it to Rivkah and Azhure in his efforts to seduce both of them, and Axis had used it to Azhure, both at Beltide in the groves and on the rooftop of Sigholt after he had returned from the UnderWorld.

  But now Axis was intent on seducing an entire nation, and from the intakes of breath that Azhure could hear behind her, she guessed he was doing a reasonable job of it.

  “My people,” he said simply, and his voice carried over the mass of people that stretched almost the entire way around the eastern and southern shores of Grail Lake. Enchantments Axis might have used to make his voice, and perhaps even the sight of him, carry about the crowd, but StarDrifter realised that those were the only enchantments that Axis was using. As with his success in the Icarii Assembly, Axis intended to reforge Tencendor using the sheer force of his personality.

  “My people. A thousand years ago a nation died in this land. All suffered because of it—the Acharites, the Avar and the Icarii. One people lost beauty and music from their lives, and they lost the shadowed paths where once they had walked in search of mysteries and love. Two other races lost their homelands and those sites that remain holy to them to this day. My people,” and all present understood Axis meant all three races, “let me tell you about the land of Tencendor that was lost to all of us.”

  Then he began to sing. Azhure remembered how StarDrifter had sung to the Icarii Assembly in the first week she had arrived to live with the Icarii. Then she had thought his voice wonderful, magical. She had heard Axis sing before, too, but only softly to the accompaniment of his harp about a camp fire at night. Nothing she had heard before, whether from StarDrifter or from Axis, was quite as remarkable as how and what Axis sang now. Caelum sat still in wonder on her lap, his eyes locked onto his father, his little mouth open in a round “O” of astonishment. The baby inside her, babies, twisted slightly, hearing their father’s voice at its full power for the first time, and they reacted strongly to it.

  Axis sang of Tencendor, and where he had got the knowledge for it Azhure did not know. He sang of its beauties and of its music. Of the cities that had been lost, and of the woods and parklands that had withered and died over the past thousand years. He sang of the games that had once been held between the three races, and of the sky races that the Icarii had held to amuse the Avar and the Acharites. He sang of the learning and knowledge that Tencendor had fostered, of the schools and academies, of the study of the Stars and of the mysteries as well as of more mundane problems that, once solved, had improved life for all. He sang of the adventures that all had participated in, of the life and the loves, the music and the harmony, the flowers and the leaves.

  But then Axis’ voice changed slightly. It became sorrowful, and Axis sang of how distrust had destroyed the harmony between the races. He sang of how the Acharites had come to envy the Icarii and fear the Avar. Of how the Icarii had not realised that they sometimes unwittingly assumed an elite role within ancient Tencendor society, and how, knowingly, they sometimes laughed at the Acharites for their inability to fly.

  “The Icarii ruled over ancient Tencendor society,” Axis said, reverting to his speaking voice that, nonetheless, sounded every bit as beautiful as his singing voice. “And eventually that caused problems. I want to reforge Tencendor, yes, that is true, but I want to create a new Tencendor where the Icarii are but one race among three, where all three will share the wealth and delights of this new land. My people, I am the StarMan and it is my role to lead this new land into the future. I combine blood of the royal houses of both Icarii and Acharite peoples,” and Axis explained for the benefit of those few who had not yet heard his story how he had been conceived and by whom. “I am both Icarii and human, I combine the compassion of the human with the arts of the Icarii. I am both human and Icarii,” he repeated, “and my issue combines both Icarii and human.”

  Faraday frowned in some puzzlement. Combines? Surely, will combine?

  “It will be my House which will lead the new nation. Not the House of SunSoar and not the House of Achar, but…” he paused, “the House of the Stars.”

  All—Icarii, Acharite and Ravensbund—stared at him, open-mouthed.

  “Friends,” Axis continued, “many of you do not know me, but many do. Many have fought with me, whether in the Axe-Wielders or my new-forged command. Many of you know me. You know what sort of man I am.

  “My people,” and again he held out his hand in the gesture of seduction, “will you stand with me to forge Tencendor? Will you accept me to lead you back into what was and forward into what will be? Will you ride at my back to defeat the Destroyer? To drive Gorgrael from this land so that we might all create the new land of Tencendor together? Will you stand behind the House of the Stars and behind the StarMan? Will you offer me your loyalty? Your hearts? Your voice?”

  For an instant the entire field was silent, then, far back in the crowd, someone screamed, “StarMan!” and in the next heartbeat the entire field had taken up the chant. “StarMan! StarMan! StarMan! StarMan!”

  Azhure sat in her chair, breathless with excitement, listening to the sky erupt about her as the crowd chanted to their StarMan. Ogden and Veremund wept with joy and clasped each other’s hands.

  “Brilliant stroke, dear boy,” Ogden whispered, emotion almost completely choking his voice. “Brilliant stroke. You show how in your blood you combine the two leading houses of both Acharite and Icarii nations, and, in doing so, create a third House, a new House for the new land of Tencendor. A House that, while combining the blood of the old, promises a new future beyond the hatreds of the past.”

  Axis stood back and let the acclaim ring through him. His face was grave, but his mind and soul sang with joy. He could feel the tug of the Prophecy here today. He had not entertained a single doubt from the moment he’d stepped onto the dais. He glanced down at Azhure and Caelum again. She looked immensely alluring in that dress, bouncing their son on her lap. How many nights had he lain awake as Faraday slept beside him, thinking of Azhure? Yearning for her?

  What he felt for Faraday was so different to his consuming love for Azhure. For Faraday he felt gratefulness and friendship. Perhaps that could be called love. But it was like a dull child’s toy compared to the shining love and devouring need he had for Azhure.

  Oh my love, his heart cried, why is it that I cannot marry you? How it is that I will enjoy so very few years with you?

  But what years he would have Axis was determined to have to the full. If Faraday had not heard any court gossip about his relationship, then she would leave the shores of Grail Lake today in no doubt as to the position of this woman in his life.

  Axis had opened his mouth on several occasions to broach the subject, but Faraday had always turned to him with such love in her eyes that he had swallowed his words and kissed her instead. Well, he thought, it’s too late now to leap down and whisper hurriedly in her ear. She will simply have to accept it, as Azhure has learned to accept it.

  Again he glanced at Azhure, and wondered desperately if he would be able to go to her tonight.

  The shouting was now dying down and Axis held out his arms. “After a thousand-year hiatus,” he said clearly, “a
nd with your assent, I proclaim the reforged land of Tencendor. Tencendor!”

  “Tencendor!” the shout came back at him.

  Again Axis let them shout for a few moments, then he smiled and held up his hands for silence. “There will be few changes, apart from the new friends you see among you. Almost none of the Acharites will lose lands to the Icarii and Avar, and those who do will receive generous compensation in return for their land. Both the Icarii and the Avar realise that they cannot move back to what they once held and are willing to cede to you most of their old lands.”

  Again a cheer went up. The treaty Axis had signed with Ysgryff and Greville was common knowledge about Carlon now, and the people were already aware that the arrival of the Icarii and, one day, the Avar, posed little threat to them.

  “Those of you with titles and hereditary lands will keep both rank and lands, although,” Axis’ face assumed a sad expression, “with the war that has enveloped Tencendor over the past months, and with those lost fighting the Skraelings to the north, land and titles have fallen vacant. My friends, over the past two years there have been many among you whose help has been invaluable. Without it I would not be standing here now and Tencendor would still belong to the realms of myth, not reality. My people, I want to create five first families, families whose members have, so much more than any others, helped myself and my cause.”

  He stared down into the first row of seats. “Belial,” he said softly, “you are first among the five. Step here to me.”

  Belial stepped onto the dais, fell to one knee and offered Axis both his hands.

  “Belial.” Axis’ voice rang clear and strong. “I owe my life to you many times over. I grant to you and to your bloodline henceforth the title, rank and privileges of Prince of the West. I cede to you the overlordship of Carlon, and of all lands that stretch from the River Nordra to the Andeis Sea and from the River Azle to the Sea of Tyrre. From these lands you may enjoy a tithe of all the rights, customs and duties. I also grant to you to own freehold the castle of Kastaleon and Bedwyr Fort, although,” he smiled and his voice lightened a little, “I do expect you to repair Bedwyr Fort to its former glory.”