Axis consciously relaxed his shoulders, and looked about him.
It was a fine, warm day in Sanctuary — as were all days — and he was walking down the road from Sanctuary towards the bridge (at last! to have escaped the confinement of unlimited safety!). To either side of him waved pastel flowers, wafting gentle scent in the soft breeze. The plain between the mountains that cradled Sanctuary and the bridge that led from the sunken Keep apparently stretched into infinity on either side of the road, and Axis wondered what would happen if he set off to his left or right. Would the magic of Sanctuary eventually return him to the spot from which he had commenced, even though he walked in a deliberately straight line? Would he be allowed to escape the glorious inaction of Sanctuary?
"I wonder if I might ever manage to —" Axis began in a musing tone, then halted, stunned.
A moment previously he had been a hundred paces from the bridge, he could have sworn it! Yet now here he was, one booted foot resting on the silvery surface of the bridge's roadway.
"Welcome, Axis SunSoar, StarMan," the bridge said. "May I assist you?"
Axis grinned. The bridge sounded as enthusiastic as an exhausted whore on her way home after a laborious night's work entertaining her clientele. His grin broadened at the thought. The bridge had borne a heavy load of bodies recently, after all.
And every one of them to be questioned as to the trueness of their intentions.
"Well," he said, and leaned his crossed arms on the handrail so he could peer into the clouded depths of the chasm below the bridge. "I admit I grow lonesome for some witty conversation, bridge, and I remembered the pleasant nights I spent whiling away the sleepless hours with your sister."
And was she still alive, Axis suddenly wondered, in the maelstrom that had consumed Tencendor?
"She has ever had a more companionable time than I," grumbled the bridge. "Here I sat, spanning the depths between your world and Sanctuary, desperate for company yet hoping I would never find it."
Axis nodded in understanding. Company would have meant — did mean — that complete disaster threatened the world above.
"And, yes," the bridge added softly, "my sister still lives. The disaster is not yet complete, Axis SunSoar."
Axis shifted uncomfortably. This bridge was far more adept at reading unspoken thoughts than her sister. "And when the disaster is complete? What then?"
"What then? Victory, my friend. Utter victory."
Axis straightened, biting down his anger. "Disaster is utter victory? How can that be?"
An aura of absolute disinterest emanated from the bridge. "I am not the one who can show you that answer, Axis."
"Then who? Who?"
There was no answer, save for a flash of blinding light and a sudden rattle of hooves.
Axis swore softly and raised a hand to shield his eyes against the rectangle of burning light that had appeared at the other end of the bridge. A large shape shifted within the light, blurred, then shifted again, resolving itself into a horse and rider.
The light flared, then faded.
The bridge screamed ...
... and then convulsed.
Axis fell to his feet, sliding towards the centre of the bridge as he did so. He lay for an instant, badly winded by the impact.
He was given no time for recovery. The bridge lurched and then buckled, heaving under him, and Axis repeatedly fell over in his scrambling attempts to get to his feet.
The bridge screamed again, and Axis was raked with the emotions of death.
The bridge was dying.
Axis grabbed at one of the handrail supports, but it melted under his fingers leaving them coated with a sticky residue.
One of his legs fell through a large hole that abruptly appeared in the bridge ... she was dissolving!
With a desperate heave Axis lunged towards the safety of the roadway, but the bridge was literally falling apart, still screaming, and her death throes tilted Axis further towards her centre, further away from the safety of the ground.
Another section of bridge fell away, and Axis stared down into the chasm, and certain death.
The bridge whimpered, and vanished.
Axis fell...
... and was jerked to a halt by a hand in the collar of his tunic.
The odour of a horse hot with sweat enveloped him, and Axis felt himself bump against the shoulder of the plunging animal.
He grabbed automatically, finding the Sanctuary of a horse's mane with his left hand, and the wiry strength of a man's forearm with his right.
"Keep still!" a man's voice barked. Axis turned his eyes up, and looked into the face of his hated son, Drago.
Except this man was not Drago. Axis instinctively felt it the instant he lay eyes on his face, and he knew it for sure once the man had deposited him on the road to Sanctuary.
This was a man who had once been Drago.
Axis bent over, resting his hands on his knees, and drew in great breaths, trying to recover his equilibrium at the twin shock of the bridge's death and the appearance of ... of ...
Axis looked up, although he did not straighten. "What happened?" he said, not asking what he truly wanted to know.
