He would hardly have rested, so desperate would he have been to escape as far as he could from the Gryphon.”
“No rest?” Belial was amazed. How could a birdman, almost crippled, fly for two or three days without rest?
“All birdmen have deep reserves of stamina, far more than humans,” replied Hover Eye Black Wing, one of the senior Crest-Leaders present. “Besides, there would have been a wind at his back. Much of the time RuffleCrest would have drifted in the air currents, almost asleep.”
“So,” Axis said, focusing everyone’s attention back on the critical issue. “Four days ago at most Jervois Landing was attacked and destroyed by a massive Skraeling force. They must have moved –”
“Axis,” Magariz interrupted. “Can you recall that vision with RuffleCrest gone?”
Axis nodded.
“There was something about the Skraelings that I saw when RuffleCrest was in the air. Can you recall it?”
Magariz’s voice was urgent, and Axis quickly recalled the vision of Jervois Landing and its surroundings, half of the Skraeling force still massed outside the town, the other half penetrating deeply between the houses.
“Yes,” Magariz said. “Yes! Axis, my friends. Look at the Skraeling force. What is it that is so different about them?”
“Well,” Azhure began, “the Skraelings themselves are different. Axis and I saw Skraelings in Hsingard that looked like this. Fully fleshed, almost armoured with those bony protuberances. Magariz, we told you about this.”
“Yes, yes, I know of that, but this is not what I mean,” Magariz said. “Come now, surely you can see it?”
Understanding suddenly replaced the confusion on Axis’ face. “By the Stars, Magariz! That is not a mass of Skraelings at all. Look, here and here and here,” his finger stabbed into the grey vision as it hung over the table, “they are formed into regular units. This is an army under tight discipline, not the chaos that we have been used to previously.”
“Yes,” Magariz said. “Gorgrael has got himself a good WarLord, it seems.”
“I cannot imagine any of his SkraeBolds effecting this remarkable transformation,” Axis said, frowning as he thought this through.
Azhure suddenly remembered WolfStar’s comment about the Traitor of the third verse of the Prophecy having already made his move. She chewed her lip anxiously. She had yet to tell Axis of the encounter and resolved to do so this evening. Had the Traitor done this? And if so, who was he?
“Look!” FarSight cried, living up to his name. “Look to the west. This is not the main force attacking Jervois Landing at all, but merely a detachment from the force that is already moving south into Aldeni!”
Everyone looked to where he pointed. Axis went grey with shock. A massive column (and column again, not a seething mass) of Skraelings and Ice Worms were slowly moving across the frozen system of canals.
“Are there any more shocks for me?” he asked, desperate to end the hateful vision, but only after they had gleaned all the information from it they could.
For a few minutes longer they stared into the visionary landscape before them, then, one by one, they shook their heads. RuffleCrest had not circled for long; it was a miracle that his mind had stored this much information.
“Well,” Axis said as he stopped the enchantment and the vision faded from view. “We march. It is all we can do.”
“Where?” FarSight inquired politely, but with a discernible edge to his voice.
“North!” snapped Axis. “And exactly where north above the Western Ranges I will rely on your farflight scouts to tell me!”
Later that day, Axis and Azhure stood by the open windows of the Indigo Chamber, the chamber they used as their sleeping apartment. The sun had set many hours ago, but moonlight sparkled across Grail Lake and a soft breeze blew in their faces.
Together with the rest of the commanders they had spent the afternoon and early evening completing the plans to move Axis’ army north. Military preparations were already well under way, and in the morning the extended supply column would head for the Western Ranges. Within a day at the most, the ground force would begin their long trek north. A day after that the bulk of the Strike Force would follow; several Wings were to be left in Carlon as a protection force and to assist the Icarii in their move south.
“I will soon be gone,” Axis said.
Azhure sighed. “My squads of archers will work well under Ho’Demi’s command, Axis. They have trained extensively with the Ravensbund archers these past months, and I trust Ho’Demi more than any other to use them well.”
Axis nodded. “Well, you will not lack for company while I am gone. Both Rivkah and Ysgryff can assist you.”
Although Ysgryff was a valued commander Axis did not want to risk every commander he had in the ride north. Besides, Ysgryff could make himself just as useful here.
Now Azhure laughed and Axis frowned at her, puzzled.
“I was just thinking, Axis, here I am being left in charge of a realm when … what – some two years ago – I was but the daughter of the Plough-Keeper of an isolated Skarabost village.”
Axis smiled too. Once Azhure had worried that, as a peasant woman, she had no place by Axis’ side, but he knew now that she was beyond that old concern.
“I sensed some of your thoughts this morning while we sat in council,” Axis said, becoming serious again, and Azhure lifted her head. “You want to tell me something.”
Azhure turned away from the view and looked into Axis’ eyes. How she would miss him when he was gone! “I will not stay in Carlon for long, Axis.”
“I know, Azhure,” he said. “You will go to the Island of Mist and Memory.”
Azhure started. “How did you know that?”
“You have been fixated on the island ever since you remembered Niah’s message to go to Temple Mount to find the answers about your father.”
“Yes, but there is more.”
“Spiredore?”
She turned away; how could she keep anything from him? Axis caught his breath at the beauty of her profile in the moonlight, and he reached out and lightly touched a tendril of her hair where it drifted about her neck.
“Yes, Spiredore. Axis, I spoke with WolfStar while I was there.”
Again, Axis had guessed as much. Azhure had been very introspective since that day she’d spent in Spiredore.
“He told me that I would discover much of my power there.” Briefly Azhure informed Axis of what WolfStar had said about the ring and the power it represented.
“Well, I hope you can uncloak some of your mysterious past on the island, Azhure. I hope you discover more of who you are.”
Azhure thought back to
