“But Ba’al’uz knew about the Weeper,” said Axis, “or, at the least, he knew about its power. He abandoned his quest of chaos in the Northern Kingdoms, and abandoned Ishbel, to retrieve the Weeper. So perhaps the Weeper has some connection with Isembaard.”
“Perhaps this DarkGlass Mountain told Ba’al’uz to fetch the Weeper,” StarDrifter said.
He leaned forward a little, looking keenly at Axis. “Axis, one of the things that made me agree to do what Ba’al’uz wished, apart, that is”—he glanced at Salome—“from the opportunity to sleep with the lovely Duchess of Sidon, and the fact you were in Isembaard, was that he said DarkGlass Mountain could reconnect us with the Star Dance. Do you know anything about—”
“Ha,” said Axis. “I have been in this DarkGlass Mountain, StarDrifter, and, yes, the possibility exists that it could connect us back to the Star Dance.”
“But…”
“But to do so would be to invite catastrophe. DarkGlass Mountain is death itself. I think that if the Star Dance filtered through DarkGlass Mountain then the Dance would be contaminated with such horror…so, not DarkGlass Mountain, StarDrifter, but I think maybe something else.”
StarDrifter leaned forward, eyes gleaming. “What?”
Axis told StarDrifter and Salome about the glass pyramid he’d taken from the packs of Ba’al’uz’ men. “I will show it to you later,” he concluded. “Tomorrow, perhaps, when we are rested. Isaiah has one of these glass pyramids, and this strange Lord of the Skraelings as well, Lister. Recently I touched Isaiah’s while it was active, and again felt the Star Dance through it. Faintly, and not enough for me to catch. But it was there.”
“But how?” said StarDrifter. “Where do these glass pyramids come from? Who made them? Axis?”
Axis would have smiled at his father’s eagerness if he didn’t understand the desperate longing that lay behind it. How must his father feel, to be so close to the two things he’d missed desperately?
“Lister, this Lord of the Skraelings, has some interesting creatures as his allies,” Axis said. “A few short weeks ago he sent one of them to stage an assassination attempt on Isaiah to push him forward in his invasion plans. They are Icarii…and yet not Icarii.”
“In what way?” said StarDrifter.
“This assassin looked like an Icarii—features, wings, bearing, elegance, arrogance, everything. But…ah, I can’t explain it. There was something about him, an air…and he escaped a rain of spears and arrows when he simply should not have done. He attacked Isaiah in a hall crammed with marksmen. Wings or not, he should not have been able to get away. But he did. He vanished.”
“He used the Star Dance?” StarDrifter said.
Axis gave a slight shrug. “Perhaps, although if he did, then I did not feel it. I just don’t know who or what he could be. There are no other winged races you know of, StarDrifter? Nothing from legend? No cousin race to the Icarii?”
“No,” said StarDrifter. “There’s nothing that…” He stopped suddenly.
“And then again, perhaps there is,” said Salome, looking at him carefully.
“During the initial Wars of the Axe,” StarDrifter said, speaking slowly, thinking as he went, “when the Icarii were being pushed back into the Icescarp Alps, there was a conflict among the Icarii leadership.”
“And?” said Axis.
“Some among the Icarii thought that the Icescarp Alps would not be enough to keep the Acharites at bay. There were some families, led by a senior Icarii, who fled still further north. Perhaps fifty or sixty Icarii all told.”
“They fled into the frozen wastelands?” Axis said. “They must have been terrified, indeed.”
“Yes. I think everyone assumed they had died—we never heard from them again, and the frozen wastelands were so inhospitable, and populated with Skraelings, and—”
Axis swore, making his father stop and raise a disapproving eyebrow.
“Of course!” Axis said. “Of course! There we have it! The assassin, the almost but not quite Icarii, was sent by Lister, the Lord of the Skraelings, Isaiah’s ‘ally.’ StarDrifter, you never heard from the Icarii families again because they traveled far further than anyone had thought—right across the ice bridge between Tencendor and this continent, which also has a massive Skraeling population in its extreme frozen north. That’s where they survived.”
“But why did you sense a difference in the assassin?” said StarDrifter.
Axis hesitated a long moment before he responded.
“Because over the past few thousand years,” he said eventually, “they interbred with the Skraelings. That’s the only reason they survived. They interbred with the Skraelings.”
Axis had gone, and StarDrifter and Salome were alone in their apartment.
They had bathed, and now sat on the bed, both naked in the early dawn light.
StarDrifter was rubbing an unguent that Venetia had given them into Salome’s back, and she was sighing in pleasure at the relief it brought from the ache of the emerging wings.
“Tell me,” she said, “that these wings are going to be worth the pain and disfigurement they bring me now.”
StarDrifter thought of how lovely she had been in Yoyette, how lithe and graceful, how sensual and beautiful. Now her back humped in ghastly forms, red and angry with the inflammation caused by the growing bones and sinews of her wings.
“The world will be at your feet,” he said. “Literally. Salome, you have no idea how wonderful it will be to fly.”
His hand slipped from her back and under her arms to her collarbones, their outer edges lightly resting on the swell of her breasts.
“You shall have to tone these muscles, though,” he said. “It will likely take you many weeks before you are able to lift more than a pace or so off the ground.”
“And I thought I should be soaring to the sun within moments of combing flat my feathers!”
StarDrifter wondered what he should say. He opened his mouth, and then realized she was teasing him.
He smiled, and very softly kissed her shoulder. They had not made love at all since Coroleas. There had been no opportunity on the journey through the FarReach Mountains, and both had been either so weary, or in such pain, or still so emotionally drained after that day they’d met at the foot of the mountains, that neither had felt the desire.
And he hadn’t known what he had wanted. Nor what she wanted.
Now…
Now they were warm from their shared bath, and, due both to the hot soak and to Venetia’s unguent, their backs felt better than they had in weeks.
Now there was both the opportunity and, certainly on StarDrifter’s part, the desire.
But he didn’t know Salome well enough, or feel sure enough of her, to know what she felt at this stage.
His hands slowly moved down over her breasts—he felt her shudder, and knew that she felt desire, at least—and then to her very softly rounded belly. Like most Icarii, Salome would not grow very large with her pregnancy. Icarii babies were healthy and strong at birth, but smaller than human babies.
She leaned back against him, turning slightly so that her cumbersome back slid to one side.
“Tell me about the baby,” she said.
“He is safe and very warm and comfortable,” said StarDrifter. “He loves you, and is also glad I am near. He knows your wings grow, and is curious, but saddened by your pain.”
“If we made love, would he know?”
StarDrifter kissed her shoulder again, more firmly this time, and his hands moved back to her breasts. “Yes.”
“Would it trouble him?”
StarDrifter smiled against her flesh. “He is an Icarii. It will not trouble him at all. He will merely dream more deeply of us later, when he sleeps.”
“StarDrifter, I hated you so much.”
“I know. You had every right to.”
“You don’t seem to trouble me so much now, though.”
He laughed. “Good.”
“I
can’t believe I am about to say this, and I didn’t realize it until very recently…”
“Yes?”
“I am very glad you came into my life, StarDrifter. I wish I had not lost Ezra. I wish I had not done many things. But I am glad you came into my life.”
StarDrifter took a very deep breath, sudden emotion bringing tears to his eyes. He tilted her head, and kissed her, gently at first, then with more desire.
“You know,” he said eventually, “I think we may be the only reasonably happy couple in this damned palace right now.”
“StarDrifter, tell me, if you can, how shall we manage this lovemaking, with our backs so sore and awkward?”
Again he laughed, and he thought that he had not laughed this much in many years.
“You are no granddaughter of mine, Salome, if you cannot solve such a simple problem.”
“I thought I might give you the opportunity to appear wise. That expression appears so rarely on your face.”
StarDrifter grinned, pulling her onto his lap. “Axis was right. You do take after my mother.”
Later, when the rest of Sakkuth was rising and donning their invasion clothes, StarDrifter lay in bed, Salome asleep beside him, thinking about what Axis had said.
The lost Icarii families had interbred with the Skraelings.
StarDrifter couldn’t believe it. Rather, he could not bring himself to believe it. How could any Icarii lie down with a Skraeling?
Axis must be wrong.
Surely.
If he wasn’t, then StarDrifter dreaded to think what this half-breed Icarii race was like.
Skraelings, with wings.
He inched a little closer to Salome, running a gentle hand over her stomach.
The baby was asleep inside her, lulled by their earlier lovemaking.
A son. StarDrifter had sired two other sons. One, a horror—Gorgrael, the former Lord of the Skraelings. One, a wonder—Axis, StarMan and savior of Tencendor.
What would this son prove?
StarDrifter moved his thumb slowly, backward and forward, softly rubbing Salome’s skin.
She opened her eyes, and looked at him.
He rested his head on her shoulder, his thumb and hand still gently stroking her belly, and they lay like that for another hour before rising for the day.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Borderlands of Hosea
Good news.
Lister had been sleeping soundly, Inardle warm against his body, when Isaiah spoke in his mind and woke him.
“What?” he whispered, feeling Inardle stirring.
Maximilian is with me in Sakkuth. I have him. Ishbel drew him like a lodestone.
“Oh, praise all gods!” Lister said, sitting up and snatching at a cloak to wrap about his shoulders. He would be more than glad when he could swap this tent for more salubrious surroundings.
At his side Inardle opened her eyes, watching her lover carefully, while outside the never-ending stream of Skraelings continued south, south, south.
“You shall not lose him?” Lister added, a little anxiously.
I hope not—I will not hold him prisoner, Lister. I do not think he will try to escape.
“He knows about the baby?”
Yes. He knows. He despairs.
“As should we all,” Lister said. “Did you speak of Elcho Falling?”
Yes. But tonight was not the time to speak of it in depth.
“Soon, perhaps. Tell me, when do you leave for the Salamaan Pass?”
Within a few days. Where are you?
“Approaching Hosea. Isaiah…the Skraelings are changing.”
In what manner, Lister?
“They are growing dogs’ heads.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Borderlands of Hosea
Good news.
Lister had been sleeping soundly, Inardle warm against his body, when Isaiah spoke in his mind and woke him.
“What?” he whispered, feeling Inardle stirring.
Maximilian is with me in Sakkuth. I have him. Ishbel drew him like a lodestone.
“Oh, praise all gods!” Lister said, sitting up and snatching at a cloak to wrap about his shoulders. He would be more than glad when he could swap this tent for more salubrious surroundings.
At his side Inardle opened her eyes, watching her lover carefully, while outside the never-ending stream of Skraelings continued south, south, south.
“You shall not lose him?” Lister added, a little anxiously.
I hope not—I will not hold him prisoner, Lister. I do not think he will try to escape.
“He knows about the baby?”
Yes. He knows. He despairs.
“As should we all,” Lister said. “Did you speak of Elcho Falling?”
Yes. But tonight was not the time to speak of it in depth.
“Soon, perhaps. Tell me, when do you leave for the Salamaan Pass?”
Within a few days. Where are you?
“Approaching Hosea. Isaiah…the Skraelings are changing.”
In what manner, Lister?
“They are growing dogs’ heads.”
[ Part Nine ]
CHAPTER ONE
Sakkuth, Isembaard
Maximilian woke slowly, reluctantly. His night had been filled with violently colored, fragmentary dreams—partly of Ishbel, partly of the vision he’d had while on the way to meet Ishbel in Pelemere.
Maximilian did not want to wake. Once he was awake he’d need to cope with the loss of Ishbel and their child, as well as the knowledge that he would need to face what all kings of Escator before him had dreaded facing: the terrifying responsibilities of their far more ancient and frightening title…the Lord of Elcho Falling.
Intertwined through all these dreams and fears and thoughts was the knowledge that he’d drunk far too much, and that he’d need to face the coming day’s trials with a hangover of monstrous proportions.
Maximilian roused, moving a little more firmly against the body in his bed, wrapping one arm about the woman’s waist, feeling the delight of her naked back pressing against his flesh, thinking that his dreams and memories had duped him and that Ishbel had been here all along, and that she—
“Maxel?”
He leapt into wakefulness, recoiling away from Ravenna.
“I’m sorry,” he stuttered. “I woke you, I didn’t mean to. Go back to sleep, Ravenna.”
He rolled out of bed, hastily pulling on some clothing and painfully aware of Ravenna watching his every move. It was still early, barely light, and he mumbled something about getting some fresh air and fled the chamber.
Maximilian more than expected to find guards outside the main door to his apartment, but the corridor was empty. Feeling nauseated, both from the effects of the wine and the shock of discovering Ravenna in his bed, Maximilian wandered through the palace into the central courtyard where he sank down on a cask, resting his head in his hands as he allowed the rising sun to warm him.
Oh, gods, what had he done?
He liked Ravenna, but he didn’t love her, or really particularly desire her. He was grateful to her, as he was to Garth, and had once been to Vorstus, for their efforts in rescuing him from the Veins, but over the past year Maximilian was very much aware that he’d been growing distant from these three friends. Vorstus because Maximilian now suspected him of manipulating his early life, perhaps even of causing him to be interred in the Veins in the first instance, and Garth and Ravenna because…well, they now belonged to an earlier part of his life, and while he liked them, he wanted to move on.
Ishbel had made all the difference. She had opened that massive gap between what he had once been and where he was now going.
Maximilian had been barely living before Ishbel had come into his life. She had brought great pain, and frustration, and fear when Maximilian had realized that she trailed Elcho Falling at her heels, but she also brought love.
Gods, he shouldn’t have slept with Ravenna. Maximilian would have liked to blame the wine,
or even Ishbel for driving him to such desperate distraction, but in the end it had been his error of judgment, and his weakness, for not pushing her away.
Gods only knew to where it would lead.
“Maximilian? You look like you could do with some of this.”
Maximilian jerked his head out of his hands, squinting into the bright sun.
It was Axis, holding out what looked like two mugs of tea in one hand and a plate of bread and fruit preserves in the other.
“I saw you from the kitchens,” said Axis. “Thought I’d bring you some breakfast.” He paused. “You look dreadful.”
“Thank you,” Maximilian said, surprising himself by meaning it. There were few people he would like near him at the present moment, but he thought Axis might be one of them.
“It was a bad day for you yesterday,” Axis said, sitting down on a neighboring cask and handing Maximilian the tea and plate.
Maximilian answered only with a grunt, taking a tentative sip of the tea, then a longer drink. “You have seen your father?” he said after a moment.
Axis smiled. “Yes. Yes.”
“He was desperate to see you. Longing for you.”
“He means the world to me, Maximilian. Thank you for bringing him to me.”
“What did you make of Salome?”
Axis laughed, stretching his long legs into the sun. “She is a true SunSoar. I am glad my father found her first, for I think she would have been too much for me to manage.”
Maximilian almost smiled. “I have heard about the SunSoar attraction to each other.”
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, sipping their tea, sharing the bread and preserves. Maximilian found that the tea, the food, and the company were making a surprising difference to how he felt. The tea and food soothed his stomach and head, and Axis soothed his nerves. From all he knew of Axis, Maximilian understood that he would be very unlikely to judge.
“Can you tell me what happened to my daughter?” Maximilian asked finally, very softly, looking ahead rather than at Axis.