He paused, and finally, grudgingly, Borneheld replied. "The winter advantage belongs to Gorgrael. We both want the same thing, Axis. Achar. And neither of us wants Gorgrael to have it. Very well. I will not destroy you until spring. You have winter to prepare."

Axis remained calm. "We agree on a truce for winter, brother, while we both fight back these Skraelings?"

Borneheld nodded. "Until Thaw-month. I should have defeated Gorgrael by spring, Axis, and then I will come after you."

Both men rode forward and gripped the other's hand, both tightening their grip until they could feel the other's bones shift. Neither let a spasm of discomfort cross his face. "A truce until Thaw-month, Borneheld. My word on it."

"A truce until Thaw-month, Axis. My word on it." "Burdel burns and pillages his way across southern Skarabost," Axis said, his hand still gripped by Borneheld's.

"Call him off."

Borneheld smiled coldly. "I am King, Axis. Not you. And Burdel merely keeps order in a disorderly province. What he does in Skarabost is none of your concern." He let Axis' hand go.

"It concerns me that Burdel kills innocent people," Axis insisted. "Perhaps you might like to inform Burdel that I will eventually hold him responsible for each life lost, for each home burned, for each chicken carried away. Oh, and as for being King, Borneheld, I was surprised to hear of your sudden elevation to the crown. Priam was so well when last I saw him."

A shadow briefly flared behind Borneheld's eyes. So, Axis thought, there is something amiss here. Well, it will wait, and for all of your murders, Borneheld, you will pay.

"Until spring, brother." Axis sketched a salute, then turned to those behind Borneheld. "Roland." This time the salute was more formal. "Moryson, Gilbert, as I come for Borneheld in the spring, so I will also come for the Seneschal." Gilbert managed a sneer, but Moryson simply looked bored. Axis stared at Ho'Demi. / hope I will not have to wait until spring to see you and yours, Ravensbundntan.

Ho'Demi held his eyes. Wtien the winter snows arrive, watchfor us.

Axis reined Belaguez back and whistled for the hounds. "Gentlemen," he said, then spurred his mount back across the Nordra, Belial and Magariz close behind him as FarSight and EvenSong lifted into the sky.

YuletideStill as tired and cold and dirty as he'd been when he'd lain down to sleep, Axis struggled up from the makeshift bed. He sat on its edge and took the bowl of vegetable broth Belial handed him. It seemed as if he'd been campaigning, fighting, these cursed wraiths for an eternity.

Mindful of Azhure's warning, Axis had not returned to Sigholt from Gundealga Ford. Instead, he had led the thousand mounted men and the two Crest of Icarii Strike Force through the south-eastern corner of the Urqhart Hills into the WildDog Plains and into hell.

The Skraeling mass had penetrated deep into the WildDog Plains and, for the four days it took Axis to reach the fighting, it had been the command that Azhure had sent into the Plains via the HoldHard Pass which had held the Skraelings back. Now Axis' command had been fighting virtually nonstop for nearly three weeks, and only slowly driving the Skraelings back towards the central Plains. Sigholt was left with only one squad of archers and one hundred men to protect it. Every single Icarii Strike Force member was with Axis - it had been a baptism of fire as far as the Strike Force had been concerned.

But they had done well. Gorgrael had only sent one SkraeBold with the Skraelings down the WildDog Plains, and it stayed well behind the Skraeling lines. There were no Ice Worms. The Icarii had been left almost unhindered in the air, raining death on the Skraelings. But they still had to be careful. The clouds swung down so far that the Icarii also had to fly low, and the Skraelings were perfectly capable of suddenly leaping from the ground to seize a careless wingtip. Axis grimaced. Over a dozen Icarii had been lost that way.

The mounted soldiers had not done so well, despite their bravery and skill.

The Skraelings had massed down through the WildDog Plains in huge numbers, and without the Icarii Axis knew they would have suffered as badly as at Gorkenfort. But Arne had fought bravely, rallying his men, and after Axis'

thousand had reinforced him, they'd gradually begun to force the Skraelings back.

Azhure's mounted archers had been almost as useful as the Icarii. Axis used them wherever the front line was weakest. Each archer could shoot over twelve arrows a minute, proving over two thousand arrows a minute in flight, and all with pinpoint accuracy. Their only handicap had been recovering enough arrows each night to be effective the next day. The SkraeBold got his Skraelings to haul back as many arrows as they could find on the ground whenever they retreated, and sometimes the hand-to-hand fighting was as much over the possession of arrows as about the taking of lives. At Gorkenfort the Skraelings had been fearsome, but only if things went to plan. If caught unawares by a tactical manoeuvre, they were likely to retreat in confusion and whispering fear rather than stay and fight. But now they were more resolute, more courageous. Axis feared that, given enough time, Gorgrael could make his creatures unstoppable. But they could yet be killed, although Stars knew what Borneheld faced at Jervois Landing if this was, as Axis suspected, only a minor force sent on the off-chance that he could break through into Skarabost via the WildDog Plains.

Axis tossed the empty bowl back to Belial. They sat in a too-thin tent in a makeshift camp at the foot of the eastern Urqhart Hills, about five leagues above the entrance to HoldHard Pass.

"I wonder how Gorgrael thought the Skraelings were going to cross the Nordra if they had managed to push that far, Belial," he said. "Does the SkraeBold carry a purse full of coppers to pay the ferryman?"

Belial grinned at the thought, but it faded quickly. "The good folk of Smyrton would have abruptly found there were worse things to fear in the night than the Forbidden," he said quietly. Neither he nor Axis had much time for the stolid villagers of Smyrton. A great number of the refugees making their way to Sigholt travelled via the ferry at Smyrton, and the villagers lost no time in telling as many as they could that only darkness could be found at a place like Sigholt where -so it was rumoured - the Forbidden swarmed in large numbers. For some reason the village of Smyrton remained a stronghold of the Seneschal, and the villagers would have nothing to do with the Prophecy, or those named in the Prophecy. Axis had not gone back there since he had ridden through on his way to Gorkenfort over a year ago.

So much has happened since then, Axis thought. So. much. The engaging girl who stared so rudely at me in the Chamber of the Moons is now Queen.

Once...once I thought I loved her, but was it half of what I now feel for Azhure?

Oh Stars, what am I going to do..