They came for Axis, Georgdi, and Zeboath toward dusk two days after Ravenna had spoken to Axis. In that time, the three men had been given no food and only the bare minimum of water. They were exhausted, cold and damp from the earth, and encrusted in filth. Axis had tried to rub away the dried blood from the cut on his cheekbone, but had, he thought, only made himself look worse.
“What a group of ruffians we are,” he muttered to Georgdi as they stood, finally, gratefully, in the evening light as they waited for Zeboath to be hauled to the surface. “Please tell me I look better than you.”
“I’m afraid I look far better,” said Georgdi. He looked about. “Are you certain Ravenna will come to our aid?” he added, very quietly.
“No,” said Axis, “I don’t trust her at all. Virtually the last thing she said to me was how she’d needed to murder her own mother to aid her cause. Our deaths would be as nothing after that.”
“Let’s hope she harbors a secret passion for you,” Georgdi said.
Axis grunted, more a warning that the guards had edged closer than any reply to what Georgdi had said.
Zeboath now emerged from the pit, blinking even in this dull light. He caught Axis’ eyes, and Axis could see he was nervous.
And why not, he thought. The man is as close to death as you can get without tipping over the edge.
The guards manhandled them into a tight group, then marched them forward.
“The gallows are but five minutes’ walk away,” said one of them. “You can enjoy your last sunset on the way.”
Ravenna sat with Armat in his tent. They were sharing a flask of wine, waiting for the guards to call them once the three men had been brought to the gallows.
Ravenna was very glad Lister was not with them.
Armat was distracted momentarily by a soldier delivering a whispered report, and she closed her eyes, visualizing Axis, Georgdi, and Zeboath being led toward the gallows.
Axis, she said.
Axis narrowed his eyes briefly, waited a moment, then took Georgdi’s arm and gave it a brief squeeze. At Georgdi’s look, Axis put a finger to his lips and nodded at Zeboath.
Georgdi understood, touching Zeboath’s arm and nodding to Axis.
Axis tipped his head a little, then calmly walked to one side, slipping between the guards.
The guards did nothing.
Georgdi wasted one moment in an amazed glance, then pulled Zeboath out as well.
Once with Axis, they turned and looked back at the detail.
There marched the guards, surrounding Axis, Georgdi, and Zeboath, who walked apparently docilely in their midst.
A glamour, Axis said into Georgdi’s and Zeboath’s minds, not wanting to alert anyone to their presence by speaking aloud.
He led Georgdi and Zeboath toward a horse line a little distance away.
There are some horses saddled at the end of the line, Axis said. Take them, and lead them quietly out of camp. No one will see them. When you get beyond camp, ride north, as fast as you can.
You? Georgdi mouthed.
I am going for Inardle. I know this is a risk, but I will not leave her. Don’t wait for me. Don’t wait for me, Georgdi!
Georgdi gave him a hard look, then nodded, gesturing to Zeboath to follow him.
Zeboath paused briefly by Axis, giving him a look of deep concern, then he, too, was gone.
Axis sighed in relief.
Inardle.
He started to run for Risdon’s tent. He didn’t have long. The guards and the glamour they escorted were within a few minutes of the gallows, and the glamour would vanish the instant the ropes slid about the apparitions’ necks.
Axis was lucky. There were only two soldiers anywhere near Risdon’s tent—the others apparently having drifted toward the gallows. Axis paused just outside the tent flap, hearing movement inside. He wondered briefly what he would see when he entered, then he lifted the flap and ducked inside.
Risdon was standing by a camp bed, sliding his feet into boots as he buttoned his breeches. His shirt was lying to one side, ready to be donned.
Behind him, and beyond the bed, Axis could see a spread of bloodstained wing on the floor.
Risdon knew someone had entered the tent, but he could not immediately see Axis. He shouted a warning to the soldiers outside, simultaneously reaching for his scabbarded sword hanging from the back of a nearby chair. He had half drawn it when he felt a hand grab his wrist.
Then a great blow to his jaw made his vision gray.
Axis seized the sword as Risdon sagged back to the bed, then spun about, taking off the head of the first soldier who had rushed in. The second soldier, far more wary, hesitated just inside the entrance, eyes narrowed as they tracked a ghostly apparition as it took off his comrade’s head, then came for him.
The soldier managed to trade just two blows with the apparition before he, too, fell dead to the floor.
Axis turned about, breathing deeply, knowing that his actions were wearing the glamour thin. Risdon had just struggled to his feet, but was still groggy, and offered no resistance when Axis seized his hair and forced him around the other side of the bed.
Inardle lay half on the floor, half huddled against the back canvas wall of the tent. Her face was bloodied and bruised, her breasts and abdomen worse. The stitched wound on her flank and abdomen was half open and oozing dark blood. Her broken wing, held awkwardly to one side, was swollen and covered with contusions; the swelling had spread down her left shoulder and arm.
She knew Axis’ presence, and stared at him as he held Risdon over her.
“I wish I had more time to spend on this,” Axis said, “but I fear Inardle and I have pressing business elsewhere. Risdon, take one more breath, and savor it, for it will be your last.”
Axis waited for that one, terrified breath, and then he drew the blade of his sword across Risdon’s neck and tossed the dying man to one side. He stuck the sword through his belt, then leaned down to Inardle.
“Can you walk?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was harsh, very dry, and Axis had to strain to hear it.
He leaned down, and as gently as he could, but with as much speed as possible, lifted her by her right arm. He slid his other arm about her back as she inched her way upward, stopping at her cry of pain and as a sudden line of frost ran down one side of her body.
“Inardle…”
“Please, please, get me out of here, Axis. Whatever you do is going to hurt me, just get me out of here.”
Axis gritted his teeth and half dragged, half lifted Inardle toward the flap of the tent. She was a slender woman, but she was tall, and her wings heavy and awkward. Axis gave silent thanks to Isaiah and his war master for the intensive daily training over the past few months; without it, Axis doubted he could have managed this.
“There are horses outside,” Axis said.
“I won’t be able to ride.”
“Then you’ll ride with me. You still have some strength in that right arm?”
She nodded.
“Then you’re going to need to grip with all your might, because I think we have a wild gallop ahead of us.”
They were outside the tent by this time, and Axis glanced about. The attention of the entire camp was still on the gallows—he could see the guards now marching the apparitions up the steps—and Axis thanked whatever gods had arranged it that Risdon’s tent was so close to the edge of the encampment.
There was a big bay stallion tethered by his reins to the back of the tent; Risdon’s mount, no doubt. Axis propped Inardle up against a tent pole, tightened the stallion’s girth—once more thanking the gods that he was already saddled—then lifted Inardle into the saddle.
Again she cried out as her broken wing caught for a moment between her body and Axis, but Axis ignored it. He untied the stallion, now dancing about in consternation at the wings which trailed down either side of its body, vaulted up behind Inardle, and turned the horse’s head hard to one side as he kicked it into movement.
The stallion leapt straight into a gallop, and Inardle swayed alarmingly to one side and would have fallen had not Axis managed to grab her.
At the same time, Axis heard a cry behind him.
He didn’t wait to hear what it was about, and dug his booted heels once more into the stallion’s flanks.
The guards had informed Armat that the condemned men had mounted the gallows. Armat and Ravenna were almost at the gallows themselves when there came a cry from behind them.
Armat half turned to see, then whipped back to the gallows as the hangman shouted.
He had just slipped the noose about Axis’ head when Axis had vanished.
Ravenna let out a tiny sigh, allowing the glamour to vanish completely. No need to keep it going now.
Run, Axis, run, she thought. Run.
Armat turned to her and grabbed her arm so painfully that she felt bruises form instantly.
“What have you done?” he said.
“Nothing, Armat,” she snapped. “Think not to blame me for the fact you underestimated the StarMan!”
Axis managed, just, to turn the almost-out-of-control stallion in a vaguely northwesterly direction, then he gave it full rein and allowed it to gallop as hard as it wanted. It was a good horse, strong and fast, and he hoped that it would give him a precious few minutes’ head start on the inevitable pursuit.
Gods knew what he’d do once—if—they caught up with him.
He had one arm wrapped tight about Inardle’s waist—at least she seemed to have found her balance now—and had managed to get his feet into the stirrups, which had been flapping about, further frightening the horse, so that he could secure his own jolting position behind the saddle.
The arm he had about Inardle’s waist was wet, and he knew the rest of the stiches on her wound must have broken open.
They rode without speaking for some minutes, Axis glancing behind him every so often, when Inardle gave a soft cry of warning.
Two riders had loomed up on their flank.
“Georgdi!” Axis cried.
“My friend,” Georgdi called out as he and Zeboath pushed their horses to keep pace with Axis’ maddened horse, “I am glad to see you! I wait most eagerly to hear your assurances that you escaped Armat’s camp without the alarm being raised.”
Axis sent Georgdi a dark look.
“Ah,” said Georgdi, “good thing that Zeboath and I spent a precious few minutes cutting loose as many horse lines as we could manage, eh?”
A good thing indeed, Axis thought, but it would not buy them much time.
“Just ride,” he shouted. “Ride!”
They could not continue at a flat-out gallop forever, and after a while Axis gathered in the reins of the stallion and pulled him back to a more controlled canter. Georgdi and Zeboath did the same.
“Georgdi,” said Axis, “can you halt a moment, stand, and listen?”
Georgdi nodded, pulling his horse up as Axis and Zeboath rode on.
After a few minutes he caught his two companions.
“Many horsemen,” Georgdi said. “At least a hundred. A few minutes behind us.”
Axis felt his stomach turn over. At least a hundred. He looked at Georgdi and Zeboath. Only Georgdi had thought to find a weapon during their escape.
Two swords, against at least a hundred.
“It’s full night now,” said Georgdi. “We can take advantage of the darkness.”
Axis looked at the ground. It was early spring, but there was still old, hard-packed snow in great patches on the ground.
Their horses’ hoofprints were clearly visible, even in the night.
Georgdi saw the direction of Axis’ eyes. “Ah,” he said. “Then we’d best ride a bit faster, yes?”
“And look for a stream,” said Axis. “We can lose our hoofprints in that.”
They pushed their horses back into a gallop—all the horses responding only sluggishly—and Axis knew they would not be able to keep to this speed for long.
Shit!
StarMan?
Axis literally jerked backward on the horse, his arm inadvertently tightening about Inardle and making her cry out.
StarMan?
Who is this? he asked. It was an Enchanter, he knew, and one who had managed to rediscover the Star Dance, but who? And where? Why?
StarHeaven SpiralFlight came the response.
StarHeaven? Axis fought to remember the name. Ah, yes, StarHeaven was one of the Icarii who had joined with StarDrifter in recent weeks.
StarHeaven, where are you, and with whom?
I am with the Strike Force, StarMan.
The Strike Force! Stars, had his father sent them?
BroadWing leads us, StarHeaven continued. We are in the spiral attack formation over those who pursue you. We—
Listen to me, StarHeaven, and get this message to BroadWing before you do anything else. Do not, I repeat, do not kill any of the horsemen, but only their mounts! Give him that message now, StarHeaven. Now!
Yes, StarMan.
Axis pulled his horse up, signaling to Georgdi and Zeboath to do the same. “The Strike Force are overhead,” he said.
“The what?” said Zeboath.
“Tencendor’s legendary Icarii military force,” said Georgdi, watching Axis keenly. “Axis, how many are there?”
“Wait,” Axis murmured, concentrating as he looked upward into the night.
StarMan, StarHeaven said.
Yes?
BroadWing understands. We will aim only for the horses.
Good. How many are you, StarHeaven?
Five hundred, StarMan.
Axis grinned. Five hundred! Then tell your Strike Leader not to hesitate, StarHeaven. He felt her agreement, then he turned his horse slightly so that he faced the direction of the pursuing force.
StarHeaven, he said, let me see through your eyes.
Vision flooded Axis’ mind. BroadWing led the Strike Force in a classic nighttime maneuver spiraling down toward their target from a great height, sliding silently through the air.
Armat’s men would never hear them coming.
Axis could see them now—almost one hundred weaponed horsemen following a trail through the snow.
They had no idea of what approached.
StarHeaven, Axis said, tell BroadWing to whisper to the men during the attack that their lives are spared through the goodwill of the StarMan, who bears them no grudge.
I will tell him, StarHeaven replied.
Axis continued to watch through StarHeaven’s eyes as the Strike Force continued their descent. Suddenly the leading wave of Icarii bowmen—at least fifty paces above the horsemen—let fly their arrows, immediately veering away and upward again. Then the next wave let fly their arrows, and veered away, and then the next wave.
Horses crumpled to the ground, throwing their riders several paces with the force and speed of their impact.
Two more waves followed, and then it was all over. Not a single horse was left alive, and men lay winded and moaning across the cold earth.
They would have had no idea what had hit them.
StarMan, StarHeaven said, BroadWing says he will be with you in moments.
Thank you, StarHeaven, Axis said, and finally allowed himself to relax.
“We’ve company,” he said to his companions, and grinned.