Axis buried his grief in action. He was unable to go near Zenith's torn body, and so Urbeth and Ur took what remained of Zenith and StarDrifter (they could only find a few remnants of his wings), and interred them in a gully to the east of Sigholt's ruins.
In death, perhaps, the lovers could be together.
Then both women, backed by the trees, sang a dirge of such beauty that Axis finally bowed his head and sobbed as he leaned against Zared.
"South," Axis said, when it was finally over. "South, for I cannot bear to stand here an instant longer and look at the destruction of my life."
"You still have Azhure," Zared said. "You still have DragonStar."
Axis nodded. "But I have also lost, and that loss will never be regained."
"Until the Field —" Zared began, but Axis had already turned and walked away.
South. South to Fernbrake Lake.
There lay Leagh, about to give birth, and about to do her own battle with the Demon Roxiah. Zared was desperate to get to her, to be there for her, but he was not the only one. Ur also niggled at Axis whenever she got the chance, slipping up behind him when he dismounted after a day ranging ahead with his war band, whispering into his ear as he lay down to sleep at night.
Eventually, she annoyed Axis so much he sent her to the very rear of the column, and set a guard of some twenty-seven Lake Guardsmen over her with strict instructions not to let her near him.
It was not so much Ur's persistence that annoyed Axis, although desperate to be left alone in his grief, but the fact was, he was moving south as fast as he could anyway, and didn't need Ur muttering uselessly every moment she got the chance.
Every day Sal slid faster and faster, and the landscape strode impossibly past, an unnoticed blur.
Axis spent his waking hours fighting — swiping the heads from demented cows, slicing the hearts out of sly boars — and his nights tossing in half-sleep, dreaming of Zenith as a child, and dreaming of that day long, long ago, when he had first met StarDrifter in the snow at the foot of the Icescarp Alps.
His daughter and his father, both, impossibly, gone, and he, uselessly, still remaining.
They drew close to the Minaret Peaks.
Leagh had prepared her circular lying-in chamber with the greatest care. It was pristine and white: the gently drifting curtains, the bed, the tables covered with linens, the porcelain bowls and buckets.
The knives and hooks, of course, were of gleaming steel.
Leagh turned slowly about, inspecting her trap.
But who would it trap? Roxiah ...or her?
Her hand tightened momentarily over her belly. She was huge now, the child squirming, desperate to make its own way in the world.
Not long. Not long.
Beyond the door of the round chamber stood the ranks of the Lake Guard in double file, forming an avenue of ivory and determination.
Beyond them squealed and roared ten thousand crazed creatures from millipedes to humped bulls.
They made no attempt to storm either the Lake Guard or the round chamber hung with diaphanous curtains.
Another would storm the chamber for them.
It lingered on the ridge of the crater, staring down, its hand on its own horribly distended belly.
Roxiah: body of Niah, soul of Rox, and receptacle for ... for whatever waited to squirm its way out.
Soon. Soon. The birth was imminent.
Roxiah turned its head and looked to where Qeteb and DragonStar sat at the luncheon table.
Qeteb nodded, and Roxiah grinned. It turned, and took a step downwards.
In her chamber, Leagh suddenly screamed and doubled over in agony as the first of her birth pangs stabbed home.
Chapter 58
Sweetly, Innocently, Happily..
All Qeteb's genteel bonhomie was gone. He leaned forward over the table, a glass gripped tight in his hand, his eyes intent on the billowing curtains of the circular chamber in the hollow beneath him. On the other side of the table, DragonStar was no less tense. Although he sat back, apparently comfortable on his chair, the muscles of his face were tight, and his eyes narrowed.
A very slight movement in the far distance caught DragonStar's attention, and he shifted his eyes slightly so he could see.
Startlement — almost gladness — momentarily transformed his face. The massive column of trees, peoples and animals had reached the lower Minaret Peaks and was slowly wending its way into the passes that would bring them to Fernbrake.
Axis rode ahead on his sweet brown mare, and not far behind him came Zared on his draughthorse
— even at this distance DragonStar's eyes could pick out the desperation in Zared's face. Behind Zared, Gwendylyr riding close at his side, and behind them ... behind them loped the great ice bear, Urbeth.
DragonStar's face went slack in amazement. For once the proud Urbeth had allowed someone to ride her back. Ur, still clutching her precious terracotta pot.
Well, at that DragonStar was not surprised. If Leagh won out against Roxiah, then Ur would be desperate to get to Leagh before she gave birth.
