Axis repressed a smile. He did not think it had helped Zared's temper.
"She wants us," Zared continued, "to pack some four or five hundred large, shallow bowls, as well three hundred barrels of potent malmsbury wine."
Axis remained silent, although he let the question flood his face.
"I have no idea why!" Zared said, and gestured aside impatiently.
"Undoubtedly Urbeth has her reasons," Axis said gently. "Zared ... Zared, I know there is little I can say to help you. I know how you must be feeling with Leagh —"
"Do you?" Zared said, his eyes hard. "Do you?"
"Aye," Axis said, "I do. Azhure and I fought apart much of our time, and I spent much of that time in agony wondering whether or not I would ever see her again. Do not blame me for the fact that currently I know she is safe."
Zared visibly forced himself to relax. "I'm sorry. But ... none of us are 'safe', are we? Azhure perhaps stands in as much danger as does Leagh."
"As do you and I."
"Yes," Zared sighed. "As do you and I." He swept his eyes about the scene before him, letting them linger briefly on the pile of humming Bogle Marsh creatures. "As does every creature in this gods-forsaken place."
"I assume that Sanctuary has supplied the bowls and malmsbury?"
Zared sighed again, managing a rueful smile as he did so. "Oh, aye. The best quality malmsbury wine I have ever seen. I think you and I, brother, should broach a cask before morning."
Axis grinned. "I look forward to it. I doubt overmuch if Urbeth will notice a glass or two gone."
Once Zared had left, Axis continued his wander through the hordes slowly gathering for the exodus.
He had a vague, very slightly uncomfortable feeling, almost as if he was looking for something, but not knowing what.
So he walked through the half twilight that, in Sanctuary, passed for night. As people approached him and asked questions, so Axis answered as best he could, but he did not seek out conversation. He knew that Azhure and StarDrifter awaited him back in their apartments — StarDrifter in particular had appeared anxious to discuss something with him — but Axis' need to find something drove him deeper into Sanctuary and the milling hordes of peoples and creatures awaiting escape.
How many millions bad DragonStar made him responsible for?
Axis felt an immense burden of responsibility literally weigh down on his shoulders and he had to force them back to stand straight. Even with Urbeth's uncertain aid, could he pull this off?
And how did he feel about the Skraelings? Gods, he had never thought to have to face them again!
Then Axis stopped, stunned out of his thoughts.
What he'd been searching for so vaguely and uncertainly stood in front of him — as nervous and unsure as he was.
She was plain and brown and with the skittishness of the very young. She lifted her head and caught sight of Axis. She stilled.
Axis smiled, and held out a hand, moving very slowly towards her.
She did not move, although her black eyes rolled with her inner uncertainty.
Axis smiled, and touched her cheek.
She trembled, and he ran his hand down her neck.
A fine, brown, but very young mare of only three or four years.
Axis' smile broadened. "You're not quite Belaguez, but somehow I think you will do just as well."
Suddenly he relaxed. He had a task, impossible as it might seem, and now he had a mount, as insignificant as she might appear. Life was falling together neatly.
Axis tugged at the brown mare's forelock, and she lowered her head and gently butted him in the chest.
"Her name's Sal."
Axis looked over the mare's withers; a small, wizened man sat upon a bale of provisions on the other side almost hidden in the shadows of a pile of canvas-covered provisions rising behind him. His small body was hunched and rounded, his skin brown and splotched, his head covered only by several strands of drab hair, and his face so layered with wrinkles his bright brown eyes were all but hidden. His entire demeanour was generally plain and brown and drab, enlivened only by his mischievous eyes.
Apart from the incongruity of his eyes, there was something else about the man's appearance that made Axis stare. This old man, plain and drab as he was, had Icarii features.
And his cloaked, hunched form looked as though it hid wings within the shadows at his back.
But what Icarii aged, or was plain and drab, for the gods' sakes?
The man's mouth twisted wryly as he saw Axis' stare. "Yer recognise a fellow, don't you?"
And what Icarii affected such common, country speech?
Axis opened his mouth, hesitating before he spoke. "You are Icarii bred, and yet you demonstrate none of the beauty and dignity of the Icarii. Why?"
A Traitor? A Demon?
The old man cackled, the sound curiously bird-like, and Axis moved slightly so his sword hand was free to move.
