“When I walked into the Sacred Grove in my dream,” Axis said, “the feeling of hatred and inherent violence was overwhelming – of course,” he laughed humourlessly, “I was BattleAxe, then.”
“Do you still fear the reaction of the Avar, Axis? You do not walk into their groves as BattleAxe but as the StarMan.”
“Perhaps, but they still have reason enough to distrust me. They will not be easy to win over.”
“They are ashamed that it was their blood which birthed Gorgrael but not you,” Azhure said softly so Raum, walking just ahead, would not hear. “The Icarii and the Acharites have accepted and will accept you because you have been born of their blood. But to the Avar you will not only be foreign, but also frightening.” She paused. “Axis, don’t be too confident. The Avar will not be as ready to follow you as the Icarii were.”
Axis was taken aback once again by her perceptivity, but did not say anything. Like Ogden and Veremund, more and more he found himself wondering if Azhure was the peasant woman she first appeared to be. An odd memory resurfaced. Strangely, the few times Azhure had discussed Hagen, she had never referred to him as her father.
“Azhure,” he said, hesitant.
“Yes?” Azhure replied, her face open and uncomplicated.
“Was Hagen your father? Your real father?”
“What a thing to ask! Of course,” she said, but her voice sounded forced. “Who else?”
Axis began to say something, but Azhure broke in. “Look, Axis! We’re almost there. How I’m looking forward to seeing Fleat and Shra again!”
The sacred groves and surrounding forest were a confusion of Icarii and Avar as the small party finally arrived in the early afternoon of Beltide. The bulk of the Icarii had arrived an hour earlier and were now laughing and exchanging greetings with the Avar. As they pushed through the crowds, StarDrifter hailed them. “Axis! Rivkah! Azhure!”
Smiling hugely, StarDrifter embraced Axis and then gave Rivkah a warm kiss on the cheek. “I am glad to see that you arrived well and in time for Beltide,” he said, giving Azhure a light and blameless kiss on the cheek as well. “Did you travel without incident?”
Raum nodded and grasped StarDrifter’s arm. “You look cheerful, StarDrifter. Should I assume that … ?” He let the question hang in the air between them.
Both Icarii Enchanters and Avar Banes had been worried about the arrival of spring. The SkraeBold attack on Yuletide had disrupted the rites before they were completed and many feared the sun would not regain the strength it needed to break through the grip of Gorgrael’s unnatural winter. What if spring did not arrive? Was there any point in holding Beltide if there was no spring to celebrate?
“Raum,” StarDrifter said, stepping closer to the Bane so he could be heard above the din. “Gorgrael’s power is strong and winter has a grasp on the northern regions, but Earth Tree sings, and even though we could not finish the Yuletide rites, the sun has strengthened enough to allow the earth to reawaken. Spring has begun. It will be weak and many areas will experience a cold summer, especially Ichtar, but the Banes tell me that the sun will shine strongly over the Avarinheim. Your people will be well.”
“And Achar?” Axis broke in. His plans would have to be drastically altered if Achar remained in the grip of ice. “Will winter break in Achar?”
“Yes, Axis,” StarDrifter replied. “It will be a cool summer and the crops may not flourish as well as hoped, but it will be a summer. Gorgrael’s power has not spread as far south as we had feared.”
Axis relaxed visibly. “Good.”
StarDrifter looked at his son carefully. Apart from informing the Assembly of his intention to seek further training with the Charonites, Axis had not talked to anyone about his plans after Beltide. All knew that he meant to unite the Icarii and Acharite nations, but to do that he would have to face Borneheld. When? How?
“Strike-Leader!” FarSight CutSpur’s voice cut across Star-Drifter’s thoughts. “You have arrived. Good.”
Axis turned and conferred with the Crest-Leader. He did not want the Strike Force to leave the Beltide rites as exposed as they had at Yuletide, and he confirmed with FarSight the plans they had made in Talon Spike for both air and ground patrols of the northern Avarinheim.
As Axis and FarSight talked, Azhure frowned and peered through the throngs of Avar and Icarii.
“There,” Raum pointed. “The GhostTree Clan usually pitches its tents under that stand of trees. Remember?”
“Do you think I should … ?” she started, nervous.
Raum smiled reassuringly. “They will be pleased to see you, Azhure. Especially Fleat and Shra. Go on, now.”
Azhure took a deep breath and headed in the direction Raum had pointed. Fleat and Shra might welcome her, but what about Grindle? And Barsarbe, if she was with them?
Rivkah hurried after her. The GhostTree Clan had been Rivkah’s surrogate family for years now, and she always looked forward to seeing them. Besides, Azhure looked as though she might need some support.
As Azhure and Rivkah disappeared into the crowd, Raum touched Axis’ arm. “Axis.”
Axis glanced at Raum and brought his conversation with FarSight to a close. “You have done well, Crest-Leader. Speak with me in the hour before dusk, well before the Beltide rites begin.”
FarSight nodded, saluted, then left.
Axis turned. “Bane Raum?”
“Axis, it is time that I introduced you to the Avar Banes, the Clan Leaders, and the Earth Tree. Are you ready?”
Axis nodded, briefly touching the blood-red sun on his fawn tunic for reassurance.
As Axis approached the great circle of stone that surrounded and protected the Earth Tree with his father and Raum, he grew more and more tense. Of all the races, Axis knew the Avar would be the most difficult to win to his cause. A thousand years previously the Axe-Wielders, under the direction of their BattleAxe and the Seneschal, had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of trees, decimating the great forests of Tencendor.
And Azhure was probably right in surmising that the Avar would deeply resent the fact that the StarMan had been born of the Icarii and the Acharite races, not of the Avar. Their blood ran in Gorgrael, the Destroyer, but not in Axis, their saviour.
Axis dearly needed Faraday to help win the Avar to his cause. He would not be able to do it on his own.
The Avar Banes and Clan Leaders waited for Axis inside the stone circle. Axis felt their eyes on him as he walked towards the centre of the Earth Tree Grove. His eyes drifted in awe towards the Earth Tree as she soared above the encircling protective stone. Her Song hung in the air, not loud enough to stifle or inhibit conversation, but sufficiently to drift through the thoughts of everyone within the northern Avarinheim, and to keep back Gorgrael and his Skraelings.
While the Earth Tree was far more sacred to the Avar than to the Icarii, both races revered it deeply. It was the living symbol of the harmony that existed between the earth and nature; if that harmony was disrupted, the Earth Tree sickened. But the Earth Tree could also act. On the night of Yuletide, StarDrifter and Faraday, Tree Friend, had woken the Earth Tree from the slumber in which she had spent several millennia. Earth Tree had immediately realised that her grove was under attack from the creatures of Gorgrael and had responded with her Song. The Skraelings had died as one mass, breaking apart under the force of her anger. Now, awake and aware, Earth Tree continued to sing, protecting the entire northern Avarinheim from the incursions of Gorgrael and his creatures.
Now she waited for the StarMan, as did the Banes and the