StarMan (78 page)

Sing
what?
Faraday thought distractedly. She had only ever sung to the Earth Tree once, and then she'd had StarDrifter to guide her. Sing what? She opened her mouth - and saw that the other three were staring at her, and so she sang the first thing that came into her head, the cradle song that Goodwife Renkin had sung to the seedlings. At first she only hummed the tune, but then she introduced words that suddenly came to her, and she sang of the sacrifice of the Sentinels and of the creation of the head of the Sceptre. She sang of the need for a rod with which to wield it and then, inspired, she sang of the need for the power of the ancient gods - represented in the head of the Sceptre - to be welded with the power of the earth and the trees. Artor had been crippled and defeated using a similar alliance; so too would Gorgrael's dark power be overcome.

The tune changed, and the lullaby became a song of victory. The Earth Tree hummed in harmony, and Faraday could hear the other trees of the forests - both Avarinheim and Minstrelsea - join in as well.

The sound vibrated up through the soles of her feet and she lifted her arms and face to the Earth Tree, understanding that even in sacrifice there was sometimes life, and that wherever the Sentinels were now, they were joyous and ...

"Unfettered," she said, and stopped singing.

She blinked and looked at Axis. He was staring at her, his hands still wrapped about the silver head of the Sceptre.

"Unfettered," she repeated, and laughed.

Shra smiled at her, then pulled at her father's arm. "Father, will you lift me up?"

Grindle hoisted his daughter onto his shoulder and she reached up the trunk of the tree. Axis dragged his eyes away from Faraday and watched her. He could have sworn that the trunk of the Earth Tree ran smoothly upwards at least sixty paces before it branched out, but now he could see that there was a small branch about four paces up.

Grindle lifted Shra as high as he could, and she reached upwards with plump arms. For a moment Axis thought that she would still not be able to reach the branch, but just as her finger waved below it, the branch dipped, and Shra grasped it tightly, her laughter tinkling down around them.

The branch came away smoothly in her hands.

Grindle lowered her to the ground and Shra held out the branch to Axis - except now it was not a branch at all, but a slender rod of glossy wood. "Take this with the goodwill of the Earth Tree and the Avar people, StarMan," she said. "It is our gift to you, and it will enable you to wield the Sceptre with the power of the Mother behind you. With this rod comes the power of the trees."

Axis took a deep breath and accepted the rod. The power of the ancient gods combined with the power of the trees would

create an awesome weapon indeed. He fitted it into the base of the silver head, and he was not surprised to find that it fitted perfectly. When he tried to turn it, he found he could not dislodge the rod.

Rod and head had become one.

"The Rainbow Sceptre," Faraday said softly, and Axis, unthinking, lifted it above his head and swung it in a great arc.

Great bolts of light shot into the night sky, and their energy crackled and roared through the grove.

Somewhere, unheard, the Sentinels laughed again.

Hastily Axis tucked the Sceptre under his arm, slightly shame-faced, and covered its head with his hands. "What can I do with it?" he asked, "for I cannot stand about with my hands wrapped around it until Gorgrael steps my way."

Faraday laughed. "Here," she said and, bending down, ripped a length of cloth from her shifting-coloured robe. Poor robe, she thought, for I am always tearing strips from you.

She wrapped the cloth
about
the head of the Sceptre and stood back. "Don't take it off until you face Gorgrael," she said.

Axis nodded, and was about to speak when Grindle took his elbow.

"StarMan, the Avar have something more for you."

Puzzled, Axis let Grindle lead him under the stone archways into the grove. Several of the Clan-Leaders stood there and one of them, Erode, now stepped forward.

"StarMan," he said, "I remember that we refused to help you once before when you stood before us in this grove. We were wrong. Perhaps we should have helped sooner. But we
will
help now."

Axis smiled, grateful for the words and the sentiment, but not sure what they could do. He had the Rainbow Sceptre, and now all he had to do was face Gorgrael.

"We cannot fight," Erode continued, "but we can do one thing for you."

He paused. "We can find Gorgrael for you."

Axis' breathing almost stopped. "Find Gorgrael?"

"Axis." Erode smiled. "Did you think to walk to the edge of the Avarinheim and there Gorgrael shall be, waiting for you? No, Gorgrael lingers far to the north in his Ice Fortress."

"How can you find it? Have you seen it?"

"No. But GorgraePs mother was Avar. Whatever else he is, he is also of Avar blood. We can
feel
him, we can track him. Five of us," he waved to the men who stood behind him, "will travel north with you. We will bring you to Gorgrael's fortress."

"No. This is too dangerous,
far
too dangerous."

"We are not afraid of death, StarMan, and we
can
find him. His blood will always call to us, and his enchantments will not be able to fool us with shadows."

Axis was determined to make them see reason. "I am of his blood, too. I can find him."

"Can you feel him, Axis? Can you find him? The Avar blood is stronger at that than the Icarii. And we will be company for you."

"I have company." Axis nodded to where Arne waited shadowed among the trees.

"Yes, we see him and we acknowledge him. Axis, if for no other reason, let us do this for Avar pride."

"You will almost certainly die," Axis said.

Erode inclined his head, but he did not say anything.

Axis let them wait another moment, let them think that he still considered, although he fooled no-one.

"Very well," he said, his tone gentler. "Come with me, and be welcome."

Faraday stepped to his side and placed one hand lightly on his arm. "I will be coming, too," she said.

"No/"

Ice Fortress"Y,

'ou said that Artor would stop her from planting out the last of the trees - and you were wrong! My army is gone! Gone!
Gone!"

"Now, now," the Dark Man began, but Gorgrael would have none of it.

"Did you not hear the noise of their Song as it ripped my army apart?"he screeched.

The Dark Man flinched, but he held his ground. By the fire sat Timozel, his eyes hooded.

Gorgrael lowered himself into a crouch, his arms curved, his claws flexing. He growled and shook his head.

"It all comes down to -" the Dark Man tried again.

"And now he has the Rainbow Sceptre," Gorgrael snarled, his voice low but infinitely more dangerous because of it. He had stilled now, and his eyes were slitted as they watched the Dark Man before him.

Gorgrael did not trust him any more, no indeed he didn't.

The Dark Man saw GorgraePs expression and prayed he still had some hold over the creature.

Azhure was vulnerable, travelling through the Icescarp Alps with her son, and he wanted to keep Gorgrael distracted as long as he could...if he could.

"The Prophecy merely works its way through," he said. "You should have expected this, Gorgrael."

Gorgrael cocked his head to one side, his eyes still narrowed. "What do you mean, works its way through?"

"Dear boy," the Dark Man said in as fatherly a way as he could manage. "The Prophecy is not just empty words. It
must
work its way through. I am as unhappy at the situation as you -but, truth told, I am not all that surprised. The Prophecy has set certain conditions to be met before you can destroy Axis once and for all. Now they
have
been met." Gorgrael cocked his head still further.

"The age-old souls, long in cribs, will sing o'er mortal land," the Dark Man explained. "The trees.

Obviously, the Prophecy felt they
had
to be planted out. As with the Rainbow Sceptre. The Prophecy will never work its way through until Axis grasps it."

Gorgrael straightened, but the aura of danger about him did not diminish. "Do you mean that all I have done has been an utter waste?" he said. "That I may as well have sat here and warmed my toes while waiting for my bastard brother to show up?"

"Oh, no, not at all," the Dark Man hastened. "Not at all. Why, the Prophecy has relied on your strength and your power to work its way through. It would have been
nothing
without your help, Gorgrael."

Gorgrael straightened entirely, trying to think. "It wants you to win," the Dark Man went on. "It likes you. That's why it brings Axis' destruction to your very doorstep."

Finally the aura of danger about Gorgrael dimmed. "What do you mean?"

Behind his hood the Dark Man smiled. "The Prophecy
must
work its way through, Gorgrael. That is why, as Axis comes north through snow and ice, he brings his destruction with him. Faraday." "Oh!"

"You see? The Prophecy wants
you
to win, Gorgrael."

The Dark Man was gone, and Gorgrael and Timozel sat before the fire. They had drunk several glasses of wine, and were now eyeing each other with somewhat drugged affection.

"I don't entirely trust him," Gorgrael said.

Timozel drained his glass. "He is very dark."

For some reason Gorgrael thought that extremely witty and roared with laughter.

After a moment his laughter died away. "But, untrustworthy or not, I cannot deny the fact that Prophecy brings Faraday to me. She
must
be the Lover. She
must
be!"

Timozel thought about that. "Who else? This dark woman?"

Gorgrael snarled at Timozel, his good mood evaporating under the sun of his uncertainty. "Faraday
must
be, Timozel!"

"The dark woman was very powerful."

Gorgrael growled, remembering the night she had appeared in this chamber.

"And certainly very beautiful. She
might
make a good Lover."

Gorgrael's claws scraped along the armrests of his chair. "She is
nothing
to the Prophecy! Where is she mentioned in it?"

Timozel frowned, reciting the Prophecy in his head. "I cannot think -"

"Quite!" Gorgrael cried. "She's not at all! And yet Faraday is in there at every turn; the woman who planted out the age-old souls from their cribs, the wife who lay with the slayer of her husband.
Obviously
Axis' Lover."

"True. I saw them myself."

"Yes. Timozel?"

"Yes?"

"Timozel, would she trust you?"

"Yes," Timozel answered slowly, "if I gave her enough reason to, then, yes, I think she would."

Gorgrael smiled. "Good."

Tundra

Axis shouted, argued, pleaded and even threatened, but Faraday stood quietly and let him rave. "I am coming, too," she said once he'd finished.

Axis had turned to the five Avar, but they stood quietly, politely. It was Tree Friend's business if she came or not, and it was not for them to dissuade her.

Shra was upset, but neither did she try to dissuade Faraday.

So Axis capitulated, but he was afraid for her.

They travelled light. All had cloaks, but they were a strange sight. Axis strode wrapped in his crimson cloak, golden tunic beneath; Faraday wrapped in a green cloak over the insubstantial robe that the Mother had given her; her only other clothing was some soft leather boots. Arne was the most sensibly dressed, with his stout boots and thick felt clothes, but the Avar men managed well enough in their tunics and leggings, although their boots hardly coped with the snow and ice when they hit the tundra.

Surprisingly, Arne got on quite well with the Avar men. Perhaps there was something in his dour personality that Erode and his companions related to, or perhaps it was that Arne appreciated the woodcraft and tracking skills that the forest men demonstrated. Whatever, he spent most of the days and the evenings talking quietly with one or more of the Avar men.

From the Earth Tree Grove they travelled north-east through the forest. Three of the men carried packs with light supplies of food, but Brode said they could scavenge well enough while in the forest, and once on the tundra there would likely be snow rabbits and birds they could catch for their supper.

At night Arne would help the Avar build two small fires; he shared one with the Avar, Axis and Faraday sat at the other.

For their first evening Axis and Faraday sat in virtual silence. They shared the food Brode handed them, their conversation desultory, and then sat in silence, watching the flames crackle. There was so much that Axis wanted to say to Faraday, but he did not know where to start. He thought about telling her some amusing stories about Caelum, then decided that might not be a good idea. He wondered if he could tell her some of his adventures in the west, but too many of them included Azhure, and while Axis knew that Faraday and Azhure were good friends, he still did not feel comfortable talking of Azhure to her.

I have built so many barriers between us, he thought sourly, pushing at the embers with the toe of his boot. Once we could have talked and laughed...but once she believed the lies that I told her.

Damn it, man! he berated himself,
talk
to her! He opened his mouth, but just at that moment Faraday rose gracefully, silently, and walked into the nearby bushes.

Axis dropped his eyes quickly. No doubt she was attending to her private needs and would not appreciate his curious eyes following her. But after half an hour he became worried, and asked Arne and Brode if either had seen which way she went.

Arne shrugged and pointed to the spot in the bushes where she had disappeared. "There, StarMan."

Axis fidgeted, his eyes dark with worry.

"She is of the trees, StarMan," Brode remarked. "She will find her way home."

But Brode's comment did not appease Axis. He paced about the fire, then, his cloak swirling, pushed into the bushes.