She is a woman who combines great beauty with great compassion and selflessness. It is no wonder you love her as you do.”
“You saw her?” Axis frowned. “How?”
“Did StarDrifter not tell you how he and Faraday woke the Earth Tree at Yuletide as the Skraelings attacked the Earth Tree Grove?”
Axis nodded, still frowning, and Azhure hurried on. “I don’t know what enchantment StarDrifter used, but Faraday appeared as if in a vision above the Earth Tree. No-one else saw her. StarDrifter and Raum were concentrating so hard on the Tree that they did not look up. I don’t know if she saw me, but she looked down and smiled.” Azhure gave a little shrug. “At least, I like to think she smiled at me.”
Axis relaxed a little. “She would like you, and you her. It is a pity you are both caught in the web of this Prophecy.”
“If I were married to Borneheld he would not have survived his wedding night,” Azhure said tightly. Over the past few weeks she had learned much of Faraday’s circumstances. “Why did she not escape with you to Talon Spike?”
“Because she honours the vows that she took when she became Borneheld’s wife, Azhure. Even her love for me will not make her desert her honour.” He sounded bitter. “Do I wonder about her? Do I worry if she is all right? With every breath that I draw, Azhure. I live for her.”
“Axis.”
They both swivelled towards the voice. StarDrifter stood on the ledge by the archway that led back into the mountain, his white wings a little outstretched to aid his balance.
Axis stood in one fluid motion, feeling his father’s intrusion keenly.
StarDrifter held his gaze briefly, then dropped his eyes to Azhure and smiled warmly at her, his face breathtaking in its beauty. “You should not bring Azhure out here, Axis. She does not have our balance.” He stepped forward and helped Azhure to her feet, clasping her hand as he led her back into the safety of the mountain.
As they stepped through the archway and down into the wide corridor, Azhure pulled her hand awkwardly from StarDrifter’s grasp. “I followed Axis out there, StarDrifter. It was not his fault. And neither the height of the cliff nor the narrowness of the ledge bother me. Truly.”
StarDrifter looked back at her. He wished she would abandon the Avar tunic and leggings and wear the loose flowing robes favoured by the Icarii women; she would look superb in their jewelled colours and she had the grace to do their elegance justice.
Axis stepped down into the corridor behind them and StarDrifter glanced at his son. The tensions of their morning argument remained, and this afternoon’s training session would not be easy. No doubt they would end this afternoon with angry words as well. Axis was so desperate to learn, but hated being the student.
Yet he learned so well, and so quickly. That was part of the problem, for Axis wanted to learn faster than StarDrifter was willing to teach. While StarDrifter took pride in the knowledge that the Prophecy had chosen him among all Icarii to breed this son, he also found it hard not to resent Axis’ power. As EvenSong resented losing her only and most favoured child status, so StarDrifter was battling to come to terms with the fact that very soon Axis’ power would surpass his own – and StarDrifter had long revelled in being the most powerful Icarii Enchanter alive.
StarDrifter looked back to Azhure with studied casualness. “Will you join us this afternoon, Azhure?” he asked. With her present, both Enchanters kept a tighter rein on their tempers. Neither MorningStar – who often helped with Axis’ training – nor Axis had so far raised any objections to Azhure’s occasional presence in the training chamber.
“I thank you for the invitation, StarDrifter, but I will refuse. I promised EvenSong I would spend the afternoon with her. If you will excuse me.”
She nodded at both men, then walked down the corridor, disappearing around the first corner.
“Imagine the Enchanters she would bear,” StarDrifter said, so quietly that Axis could not believe he was hearing correctly. “I am nothing if not a good judge of blood.”
Then he turned his powerful gaze on his son. “Over the past thousand years the Icarii blood has thinned. Before the Wars of the Axe that severed our races many Icarii birdmen chose to get their sons on human women. It was said that human blood added vitality to the Icarii. You are proof enough of that.”
Axis felt his anger simmering. Was StarDrifter planning another seduction?
“I love Rivkah,” StarDrifter said slowly. “I demonstrated my love through marriage – even though I believed she had lost our son. In ages past Icarii birdmen simply took the babies of human–Icarii unions and never spared a thought for the women they had bedded who had struggled to birth their children.”
Appalled at such evidence of Icarii insensitivity, Axis suddenly understood the depth of hate and loathing that had led the Acharites to finally drive the Icarii from Tencendor.
The Icarii had a lot to learn about compassion.
Azhure walked through the confusing maze of corridors in the Talon Spike complex, hoping she had remembered EvenSong’s instructions correctly. Over at least a thousand years the Icarii had tunnelled and excavated the mountain into myriad chambers, connecting corridors and shafts. The Icarii not only used horizontal corridors, but also vertical shafts – foot travellers needed to be wary of wells opening abruptly at their feet.
Azhure paused at one of the main connecting shafts of Talon Spike, which not only extended up to the very peak of the mountain, but also fell into its dizzying depths. She grasped the waist-high guard rail and peered down. Two Icarii, already several levels below her, slowly spiralled down through the shaft side by side. Both had gorgeously dyed emerald and blue wings, and the soft enchanted light of the shaft shimmered across their jewel-bright feathers. Azhure had to blink back tears at their loveliness. Nothing in her previous life in Smyrton had prepared her for the beauty and passion of life among the Icarii of Talon Spike.
On her arrival six weeks ago Azhure had wondered at the height and width of the corridors – but their spaciousness was explained the moment she saw several Icarii wing their graceful way along the corridor, several paces above her head. Fortunately for her, the complex also had stairs that wound about the walls of the vertical shafts. Icarii children did not develop wings until they were four or five years of age, and did not learn to fly well until they were eight or nine. And occasionally an Icarii who injured a wing might have to walk the corridors or climb the stairs. MorningStar, StarDrifter’s mother, was such a one. She had been unable to attend the Yuletide rites in the Earth Tree Grove after snapping a tendon in her left wing, and was still grumbling about the indignity of having to use the stairs.
Leaving the shaft, Azhure passed the doors to the massive Talon Spike Library. The Avar Bane Raum spent most of his days here, teaching the wingless youngsters about the Avar and their forest home. Azhure’s thoughts drifted to Rivkah as she walked. Over the many years that Azhure had known Rivkah – or GoldFeather as she had been called until recently – she had never known her so at peace with herself as she had been since Axis’ arrival. Rivkah might yet have her unhappinesses with StarDrifter,
