Battleaxe (40 page)

“Does he treat you well?”

She shrugged. “He tries. He says he loves me and wants what is best for me. He can be tiresome at times and I wish he would laugh more.” She paused. “He means well.”

Axis’ entire body tensed as she spoke. He wanted to hear Faraday say that Borneheld beat her and abused her. He wanted an excuse to challenge Borneheld to fight to the death now, but she would not give it to him.

He breathed deep. She said that Borneheld loved her. How did
she
feel? Jealousy gripped Axis in tight claws. Did she
enjoy
the touch of Borneheld’s hands?

Faraday understood what he was thinking. “He does not make me feel the way you made me feel under the stars.
You
are the StarMan, he is simply the man I married.”

“Yet you will not break your vows.” Axis was not comforted by her words.

“No,” she said, her eyes steady. “No, I will not.”

Anger began to replace Axis’ jealousy. “Then listen to my vow, Faraday. What lies between Borneheld and myself will one day lead to the death of one of us. I vow that…”

“No!” Faraday cried. “No!” She tried to twist away, her hands on his arms, but Axis held her firm.

“Listen to me,” Axis said savagely. “I will make this vow to you and may whatever gods the Icarii Enchanters pray to witness it for me. The day that Borneheld dies, that blessed day I run my sword
through his body, Faraday, I will ask you to be my wife. Do you hear me?”

Faraday stared at him, horrified. All she could think of if Axis challenged Borneheld was the vision the trees had given her, the blood dripping through Axis’ hair and over his body, Axis dead instead of Borneheld, the blood dripping between her breasts, the torn body at her feet, its spirit rising slowly behind it. “No!”

“You made your vows, now you can listen to mine!” Axis was furious, and it showed in his face and voice. “One day, Faraday, when Borneheld lies dead at our feet, I pledge that I will ask you to stand by my side as my wife. And what will you say, then, my sweet child? How will you answer?”

“You must not challenge him, Axis! Not here, not now!” Oh Mother, Faraday thought frantically, was I wrong to come here?

“One day I will have to, Faraday. No, hear me. You know the hatred that we hold for each other will eventually end in bloodshed, but doesn’t the Prophecy predict my victory?”

“What do you mean?”

Axis smiled grimly. “A wife will hold in joy at night the slayer of her husband, Faraday. Who else can that refer to but you and me? Our marriage is prophesied, Faraday. When Borneheld is dead, will you marry me? Will you hold me in joy?”

His impassioned arguments gave Faraday hope, but she knew that he still had to survive Gorkenfort. “Axis,” she said very softly. “Promise me this. Promise me that you will stay your hand until after Gorkenfort is either won or lost. And promise me that if you
do
challenge Borneheld, you have just reason for it. I do not want you to murder him.” Nor do I want his murder on my conscience, she thought, clinging to the belief that all the Sentinels wanted her to do was to keep Borneheld from Axis until after Gorkenfort. Only until then.

“I will not murder him, Faraday, for I am certain that one day Borneheld will give me just reason to challenge him. And you are right, Gorkenfort will need every commander it has to survive Gorgrael’s inevitable attack.” And if the fort falls and I die, he thought bleakly, then you will need him to save you.

Faraday breathed a sigh of relief and caressed his face. All might not be lost, after all, and she might yet have the man she loved. “When I am freed from my vows to Borneheld I will willingly stand by your side for the rest of my life,” she whispered, “for then there will be no barrier between us. I swear it by the Mother and by the Enchanter’s ring you wear on your hand.” She tapped his ring gently with her fingertip. “Let the ring bear witness. My vow binds me to you. On the day that I am freed from my vows to Borneheld I will come to
you!”

Axis released her quickly before he lost control. “You vow before ‘the Mother’, Faraday? One day, when we have our lives to ourselves, we will have to explain each to the other what we have done, what we have seen, while we have been out of each other’s sight. I have become the son of an Icarii Enchanter while you, you…” Axis smiled at her. “While you have been running about with an Avar Bane named Raum, have you not?”

Faraday gaped in surprise. “How did you know that?”

“I met him in Smyrton—but that’s a story that will have to wait. No, never fear, Raum and the girl are well and are now in their homeland.”

Faraday walked over to the bed, shifting the mattress back onto the springs and sitting down. “I owe you some brief explanation, Axis Icariison,” she said mischievously. “If you know enough that Belial is already calling you the StarMan then you must know of the Sentinels?”

Axis nodded. “Of course. Ogden and Veremund.”

Faraday laughed in anticipation of the shock she was about to give him. “And Jack the pig herder who you noticed about the Silent Woman Woods,
and
that white cat that followed you about everywhere! She is now masquerading as my maid, Yr.”

But Axis did not laugh as she expected. “Two Sentinels spirited you away from me at the Barrows?”

Faraday nodded. “And helped me here.” She dared not think what he would do if she told Axis that the Sentinels had virtually forced her to honour her vows when she was thinking of breaking them and
following Axis. Still, Faraday knew she had done the right thing. Borneheld was currently so jealous of Axis and his reputation among both regular army and Axe-Wielders that only Faraday’s whispered endearments and entreaties kept Borneheld from seizing the nearest axe or sword and hurling it between Axis’ shoulder-blades the moment his back was turned. However much it cost her in personal happiness she knew that she was daily saving Axis from death. If only Axis could now be kept from Borneheld’s throat.

Axis did not notice her introspection. “What does it mean, Faraday, when the Prophecy tells us that power will one day corrupt their hearts? Will they betray me?” Now that the talk had turned to the Sentinels Axis once again began to worry about the Prophecy and its hidden meanings.

“Oh, Axis, surely not! The Sentinels are the only ones who can guide us at the moment!”

And yet they are couched about with as many riddles as the Prophecy is, Axis thought. He walked over to the fireplace, studying the intricate pattern of the bricks. “We have both been caught by this Prophecy, Faraday. Pray only that it will one day let us plan our own lives,” he said softly.

Faraday did not like the morbid turn of conversation. “What did you come here for, Axis? I had no idea you were going to walk this far when I followed you from the fort. And you met Brother Francis here?”

Axis held out his hand. “Let me show you what I have come here for.”

Faraday stood and took his hand, hesitating slightly. “You are safe with me,” Axis said good-humouredly, “I have another woman on my mind now.”

Faraday looked at him, puzzled, as he led her to the dark corner where the fireplace and its mantel cast a deep shadow. “I was born in this room, Faraday. Perhaps it still contains memories of my birth. Come, stand close beside me.” He slipped his arm about her waist and pulled her in close to his body so that they were both enclosed in the shadow. “Whatever happens, Faraday, do not make a sound. Now, let me make some Icarii magic for you.”

For a moment he did nothing, and Faraday glanced up at his face. His eyes were focused on the bed pushed against the far wall, remembering the tune he had sung on the roof of Sigholt. Then he began to sing, very slowly, very softly, strange words and music that all ran together until the melody began to spin in Faraday’s head. She closed her eyes and leaned in against his body, listening to the enchanted music he spun about her.

Her eyes flew open at the low but agonised groan of a woman. The room was now night-darkened and lit by two candles, one on the mantel above the fire, the other on the stool by the foot of the bed.

A woman writhed on the bed, her slender arms raised behind her to grasp the iron railings of the bedhead. Her long auburn hair, loosely plaited, was dark and dank with sweat. Her face was turned away from them towards the wall, but Faraday did not have to see it to know who it was. Rivkah. She wore a light linen nightgown, once white, now stained with sweat and blood. She was struggling to give birth, her nightgown pulled to her hips over the mound of her belly, her legs raised and bent so that her feet pushed against the mattress every time she was convulsed with a contraction. Two women, middle-aged and dressed in dark dresses and black-weave aprons, huddled at the foot of the bed, their faces lined with worry, their eyes anxious.

Axis’ arm tightened about her waist and Faraday leaned closer and wrapped her own arms about him, lending him her support as he watched his mother struggle to give birth to him. He had stopped singing now, and was only humming the melody in broken snatches.

The door opened next to them and Faraday only just managed to stifle her gasp of surprise. How it was that none in the room saw them, she was not sure. A tall and powerfully built man, heavily bearded, strode through the door and over to the bed. He stood watching the woman writhe for a moment.

“My Lord Duke,” both the midwives gasped, standing back from the bed.

“How goes it?” he asked. “How goes the lady bitch my wife giving birth to her fatherless son of the night?”

The midwives exchanged worried glances. What did he want to be told? Finally the older woman, the senior midwife, spoke as Searlas shot a hard glance their way. “The babe sits wrongly in the womb, Lord Duke. He is twisted about so that his hip blocks the birth canal. We cannot turn him. Your wife has laboured now for close on two days. She cannot go on much longer.”

It wasn’t until the midwife addressed the Duke, that Faraday remembered that Rivkah was the previous Duchess of Ichtar; and the man was her father-in-law, Searlas. Then, as it had her marriage night, the ruby ring pinched her finger.
This line deserves to die with Borneheld,
Faraday thought very clearly, then blinked, startled. Where had that thought come from? Why did Borneheld’s line deserve to die with him? Why did her ring bite so?

Rivkah looked at her husband. Hate and loathing twisted her lovely face. “I curse the day I agreed to marry you, Searlas. I am glad I dishonoured your name!” A moan escaped her as another pain wracked her body.

“Bitch!” Searlas spat. “You die the death of a careless whore, Rivkah. Wonder, while you lie dying, if your lover was worth your life.”

“Twice and twice over,” Rivkah whispered fiercely. “I would die a hundred deaths for one more hour cradled in his arms!”

Searlas cursed Rivkah so foully that the midwives blanched. Then he leant down and seized her left hand, tearing a ring from her heart finger. “Then give me back what is mine and Ichtar’s,” he said harshly. Faraday caught a glimpse of the ring he held; it was the same one she now wore. The Duke turned to the midwives, pocketing the ring. “I care not if they both die. Don’t save them for my sake.”

Then he was gone. The door slammed behind him so hard it reverberated on its hinges.

The older of the two women, the one who had spoken to Duke Searlas, sat down beside Rivkah on the bed. She took Rivkah’s hand and spoke softly but urgently. “Lady, we can still save your life. Let us dismember the babe. He is surely dead already. If we can remove him from your womb then you will live.” Her voice broke. “Please, let us do this for you!”

Rivkah hauled herself up from the bed and fastened her free hand into the startled woman’s hair. “If you do a single thing to harm the baby I will come back from the grave to haunt you and yours for eternity. Do you understand me? You will do
nothing
to hurt the baby!”

The frightened woman nodded. “Then try to turn him again,” Rivkah grated, “try, damn you!” The midwife knelt down at the end of the bed and took a deep breath.

The next few minutes were a nightmare. Rivkah’s screams echoed about the chamber until it seemed there was no escaping them. Faraday felt Axis’ whole body convulse in her arms in sympathy with his mother’s agony and Faraday held him as tightly as she could, trying to block the tormented woman’s cries from her own ears against his chest.

Finally the midwife stood up from the end of the bed, her right arm bright with blood to the elbow “Artor knows, it is done,” she said hoarsely. Rivkah was still sobbing in pain and the midwife rinsed her arm and sat down by the woman again, stroking her forehead in a vain effort to soothe her. “He has been turned, Lady. If he is still alive I do not know. If you have the strength, then birth him. But do it quickly or you will both die.”

Rivkah bit down on her lip and strained as hard as she could. The other midwife looked up. “He comes, Marta.” A show of blood stained the sheets about Rivkah’s hips. Marta hurried to help and, moments later, the baby slithered into her waiting hands. “The cord is about his neck,” she said urgently. “Quick, hand me the knife!” She sliced the knife around the cord, releasing the baby’s neck so he could breathe.

With the last of her strength Rivkah struggled onto her elbows. “Please…is he alive?”

The door opened slightly, and the two midwives looked up. What they could see Faraday did not know, but Marta nodded imperceptibly and, seizing a waiting sheet, wrapped it about the baby, blue and still in her hands. She hugged the bundle to her chest. “I am so sorry, my Lady, but he is dead. The cord strangled him.”

Rivkah moaned and held out her hands. “Please, let me hold him! Please!”

But the midwife rose to her feet, clutching the baby close to her. “No, my Lady. Best you do not see him. Come,” she said to her assistant, and the pair of them hurried out of the room without a backward glance.

“
Nooo
!” Rivkah screamed. “Bring me my child! Bring me my baby!” She half fell out of the bed, trying to reach the women as they passed her, but she was too weak to do any more. She lay there, panting and sobbing, twisted so that her head and shoulders hung below the level of the mattress. Faraday moved as if she would go to her, but Axis held her tight. “No,” he whispered. “I must see what happens now.”