“Axis!” Zared yelled, scrambling to his feet again, but this time both Askam and Caelum grabbed him and wrestled him back a pace or two.
“For the Stars’ sakes, Zared,” Caelum cried, “let my father end this now!” He hooked a foot under Zared’s leg, and toppled him to the ground.
Leagh dropped to her husband’s side, shooting Caelum a hard look. At the same time Zenith knelt by Drago, her joy at seeing StarDrifter alive completely forgotten in her concern for her brother. She grabbed at the hem of her cloak, tearing a section free, and folded the material into a thick square, using it to try to stifle the blood seeping from Drago’s throat.
Everyone else stood, helpless and unsure, wondering who was right, wondering what could be done, wondering whether or not another death would truly help.
Axis recovered his balance from Faraday’s attempt to push him over, drew his arm back — and found it seized from behind in sharp, murderous teeth.
Sicarius. The leader of Azhure’s Alaunt.
No-one had seen him move, and no-one knew where he’d come from, but now the hound pulled Axis to the ground, and stood over him, snarling and snapping.
“Sicarius!” Azhure buried her hands in the loose skin of the hound’s neck and tried to pull him off, but the hound would not budge.
Azhure tugged desperately, unable to believe Sicarius’ savage assault. What was the hound doing? To attack Axis?
“Drop the knife, Axis!” StarDrifter yelled. “Drop the damned knife or that dog is going to kill you!”
Then, ignoring Axis completely, he fell to his knees beside Drago, adding the weight of his hands to those of Zenith to try and stop the bleeding. He locked eyes briefly with Zenith, then turned slightly to Faraday who was now at Drago’s side also.
“What were you thinking of to enter this glade with Drago at your side?” StarDrifter hissed. “Didn’t you even think that Axis might not welcome his son home with open arms?”
Faraday shook her head helplessly, and StarDrifter made a small sound of disgust. She should have known better.
Zenith, absolutely shaken at the violence, drew comfort from the weight of StarDrifter’s hands over hers, and hoped they would staunch the bleeding enough to give Drago a chance of life.
StarDrifter lifted his eyes to hers and, although he did not smile, the lines about his eyes crinkled slightly in warmth.
“I am more than pleased to see you again, beloved Zenith,” StarDrifter murmured. “You are well?”
She nodded, and StarDrifter looked back to Drago. The bleeding was slowing — Axis’ knife must have struck his son’s clavicle rather than one of the neck veins. If he’d managed that, Drago would be dead already, for even the pressure of a thousand hands at his throat could not have stemmed the damage.
He gestured to Faraday to help Zenith apply pressure to the wound, touched Zenith’s cheek briefly in reassurance, then slowly stood and walked over to Axis.
His son had dropped the knife, and Sicarius had retreated to sit tense and watchful several paces away. His golden eyes flickered between Axis and Drago.
Everyone else was absolutely still, as watchful as the hound.
Azhure was down by her husband, her arms about him, supporting him into a sitting position. “StarDrifter,” she began, “what —”
StarDrifter ignored her. He thrust his right hand forward into Axis’ face. It was smeared with Drago’s blood. “Look at this!” he said. “Your son’s blood, Axis, by your hand!”
“Did you never see the wounds on Caelum’s body once Azhure rescued him from Gorgrael?” Axis said quietly. “Did you never see his blood? And now, look upon the blood smeared across this land, StarDrifter, and tell me that my ‘son’,” he spat the word, “does not deserve to die for it.”
Drago cleared his throat. “I have come back to help,” he said in a hoarse whisper.
“Then die!” Axis threw back at him, pushing Azhure’s arms aside and rising to his feet. “That would help considerably.”
The wound in Drago’s neck had now almost stopped bleeding, and Faraday left Drago’s care to Zenith. She rose and walked slowly forward. “There has been too much death in this world, Axis, for you to want to add to it.”
“Have you ever thought that by killing Drago now we might stop further death?” he snarled back.
In response, Faraday lifted her head and stared about at each and every person present. “I want you all to know, and this I pledge on the blood that I shed for Tencendor, and for you, Axis and Azhure, that I will stand responsible for Drago’s actions. I trust him, and I ask that you give him the benefit of the doubt. Drago wants to help, he can help. Let him.”
“He murdered RiverStar!” Caelum said, stabbing a finger at Drago. “And stole the Sceptre and provided the means whereby this land now stands decimated. Trust him?”
Faraday looked at him, then turned to StarDrifter standing beside her. “StarDrifter? I —”
“And I,” Zenith put in fiercely from where she knelt by Drago’s side.
“We both,” Faraday corrected herself, “believe Drago deserves a chance to prove his worth, and his loyalty. He did not murder RiverStar, and if he fled with the Sceptre, then that was at the Sceptre’s doing, not his. It needed to go to the Demons and so it manipulated Drago’s mind to get there. Drago has done regrettable things in the past, but he deserves a chance to redeem himself.”
“Redeem himself?” Axis said. “Stars, Faraday! How can you stand there, protecting this misbegotten evil? No doubt he has regained his Icarii powers in return for aiding the Demons — how else could he have manipulated Sicarius into defending him? Does he now covet the Throne of the Stars itself? Has he promised you a place beside him? Is that why you aid him?”
“Believe me, father,” Drago said, his voice a little stronger now, “all my Icarii power has been burned completely away. I have nothing left save my need to help right the wrongs I have done.”
Axis ignored him. He stepped forward to stand belligerently in front of Faraday. “How can you aid him?” he repeated.
Sicarius shifted forward slightly, and noticeably tensed.
“You go too far, Axis!” StarDrifter put his hand on his son’s shoulder, and wrenched him back a pace. Faraday had suffered too much violence in her life to have more visited upon her now.
“How can you accuse this woman, of all people, of aligning herself with the Demons?” StarDrifter continued. “Must I remind you that she died for you?”
He whipped about and stared now at Azhure, her face as cold as Axis’. “And you, Azhure. Have you forgotten?”
StarDrifter turned back and looked at Drago. “If Faraday walked in here with Qeteb himself and said that a spark of goodness rested in his breast, and that she would support him, then that would be enough for me. Drago, do you truly repent for what you did to Caelum?”
“Yes.” Drago’s eyes were on Caelum standing rigid eight or nine paces away, not StarDrifter. “I am not the hunter you fear, Caelum,” he said. “I come here to offer you my aid in whatever you have to do to defeat the Demons as some recompense for my actions against you so many years ago.”
“And why should I believe that?” asked Caelum.
“None of us believe that,” Axis said.
Azhure opened her mouth to speak, but was forestalled by Zared.
“I