Thus, that afternoon, and the months that had followed as Azhure's belly swelled, had been so special...

The girl born to them had been so treasured ...

Then why had he let her go? Why had he abandoned her?

Couldn't he have made more of an effort to protect her?

Axis screamed, and urged Sal to yet further extremes.

Behind him raged Urbeth, and behind her dipped and swayed a thousand ethereal trees.

They would save the girl. They would ... they would ...

StarGrace reached down, and as StarDrifter screamed and twisted beneath her hand, she took a firm grip on his other wing, and with all the power she had, she tore that out too.

StarDrifter stilled, a strange, surprised look on his face. His eyes went blank, his body limp.

StarGrace dropped him, and stepped carefully about the massive pool of blood that pumped from his back.

"Is that the woman who tempted Wolf Star into betrayal?" she asked StarLaughter, who had managed to regain her feet.

She indicated Zenith, still held tightly by the Hawkchild behind her.

StarLaughter's face was covered in blood and small bits of gravel. "Yes! She is a trollop!"

StarGrace nodded at the Hawkchild, and his beaked head dipped.

When it rose again, it held something disgusting in its beak.

Held by his claws, Zenith made a single gurgle, trembled, and was still.

The Hawkchild's beak dipped again, and this time it savaged ferociously before it lifted its head once more.

What it held was even more frightful than previously.

WolfStar took one look, and cried out in horror.

"Now you," StarGrace said.

Sal crested the ridge, and stopped. Neither she, nor the man on her back could, for long moments, comprehend the shocking scene before them.

In the valley a bloodied and dishevelled Icarii woman stood laughing hysterically to one side of a mass of black feathers and flashing beaks.

It took Axis what seemed an eternity before he could comprehend the sight before him.

A head, attached only by a shred of flesh to a shoulder and one arm, lay to one side.

Zenith's head. Zenith's shoulder. Zenith's arm.

A white wing — and why did it look so much like StarDrifter's? — lying to yet another side.

And a mound of Hawkchilds fighting and feeding over scraps of reddened flesh and golden feathers.

That, some distant part of Axis' mind concluded, must be what was left of WolfStar.

StarLaughter raised her head and saw Axis sitting his mare atop the ridge.

She whispered something, and that whisper reached deep into Axis' psyche.

"I had never imagined revenge to be so tasty."

Chapter 56

StarLaughter's Awful Mistake

Deep within the cradling safety of the waterways, Azhure lifted her head. And knew.

Her hands lifted to her mouth, and she stared at the two ice women and SpikeFeather across from her.

Without knowing, but understanding, SpikeFeather stood up, lifted Katie into one of the ice women's arms, and locked Azhure in his own, rocking her back and forth as she grieved for her youngest child.

Axis sat his mare, and stared.

All that was left of Zenith was the head, a portion of neck and one shoulder, and an arm, flung wide as if in puzzlement.

Axis stared, his eyes hooked by the strange, wild tatters of flesh lining the great wound where the rest of her body had been chewed from her head and shoulder.

The flesh of her shoulder and arm was so white.

Her eyes, opened, continued to reflect in death the agony and horror she'd endured during her last breathing moments.

Axis sat his mare and stared.

Urbeth crested the ridge and came to a halt beside Axis and Sal.

She looked down at the mass of feeding Hawkchilds, twittering and whispering wetly as their beaks dipped and tore, at StarLaughter standing laughing and giggling to one side, and at the horrible remains of Zenith.

Then she lifted her head and looked at Axis, and for once in her life, Urbeth did not know what to say.

"I am going to put an end to this," Axis said in an emotionless voice.

"The Hawkchilds and StarLaughter cannot be dealt with save by power," Urbeth replied. "And your power is all gone."

"No," Axis said, once more looking at the carnage below him. "You are wrong, Urbeth. I have left the power of a father's love, and of a father's grief."

And without urging, Sal started down the slope.

StarLaughter looked away from the feeding pack of Hawkchilds, and laughed all the harder.