"They're changing," Axis said. "Gorgrael is building himself a more solid force."

Azhure stood up. "We outnumbered these seven to one. But what if, next winter, we have to meet an army of hundreds of thousand of bone-armoured Skraelings, almost completely impervious to sword or even arrow?" Axis shook his head. The thought horrified him. "Then perhaps we ought to find out where these came from," Azhure said. "Let's call the Icarii in. There is no point holding them back now. The Skraelings know we are here. Theod," she called to one of the unit leaders among the swordsmen, "tell the men to keep their eyes sharp as we move along, the road. If there is an entrance to below ground, then I want to know about it."

Theod nodded and turned to the men. They were attacked three more times as they moved along the road to the city centre, but now the men knew what to look for most kept their eyes to the ground-level cracks in the tumbled masonry and the Skraelings were unable to surprise them as they had at first. But each time they emerged, Azhure and her force had a sharp battle on their hands.

Before leaving the Urqhart Hills Azhure had ordered that each man construct himself a brand from the low gorse bushes, and now she directed that two of the squads of archers sling their bows over their shoulders and light their brands.

When the Skraelings attacked again, Azhure led the two squads of archers, wielding their flaming brands now rather than bows, into battle alongside the swordsmen. Behind her the four remaining squads of archers kept their arrows trained on the ground-level cracks where the Skraelings emerged, making sure that as few of them escaped from their underground holes as possible.

Azhure found herself fighting alongside Axis. She laughed exultantly as she rammed the brand she carried into the face of a Skraeling as Axis seized another and thrust his sword deep into one of its eye cavities. He pulled his sword free and stuck Azhure's Skraeling as it lay writhing on the ground.

"A service," he cried, grinning at her exultation, then abruptly leaned forward, unmindful of the battle going on, and kissed her fiercely. The next instant they were fighting back to back as more Skraelings lunged at them with their teeth and claws, leaning against each other, still laughing, more aware of each other than of the creatures they fought. Both felt invulnerable and immortal. Nothing could harm them while they stood back to back, leaning each against the other. Once the Skraeling attack had finally diminished, Axis turned and seized Azhure. "I love you," he whispered. "Never doubt that." Then he was gone to help the swordsmen kill the final few Skraelings left standing.

Azhure gazed after him, unable to believe what she had just heard, then she lowered her eyes to stare at the flaming brand she carried. What did it mean, that he loved her? What did he mean? Love her or not, Axis would still go to Faraday. She was his future, not Azhure.

The insistent barking of one of the Alaunt broke Azhure s reverie and she looked over to where a hound was scrabbling at a shadowed pile of masonry a little further down the road. "Cover me," she said to her archers, and walked down the road to the Alaunt. She squatted beside him, her hand on the hound's back, and peered into the jumble of stone blocks. There was a solid blackness behind the fissure that the hound had his nose jammed into, and Azhure pulled his head back and thrust her brand into the crack. A flight of steps, still looking remarkably intact, led below.

Excited, Azhure waved over several men and set them to clearing the entrance to the steps.

She felt Axis at her back, and she glanced at him. "What do you think?"

"Dangerous, but your decision."

"Then we go down. Carefully." She looked at the men behind her. "I will take one squad of archers and thirty swordsmen only. And the pack of Alaunt - they will be more useful than a hundred men if it comes to a fight within this dark corridor. The rest of you stay here. If we are not back by," she glanced at the sky, "mid-afternoon, then leave without us. But until then, watch this entrance. Do not let any Skraelings creep down after us. I want only to worry about what lies before us, not what creeps at our backs."

"And me?" Axis asked.

"I am in command here, and I cannot risk you down this hole. You have a greater chance of survival out here in the open than you would cramped below.

You stay."

"No," Axis said. "On this I override your orders. I come down with you. I need to see what is down there - and my powers will be more useful to you below ground than above."

"As you decide," she said shortly. "But make yourself useful. Light the way."

Axis stepped down onto the first of the stairs. He held out his hand, and a soft ball of light began to glow in its palm. As it grew stronger, he let it slide from his hand and roll down the stairs. It stopped about a third of the way down a straight and wide corridor, well built from solid stone. There was nothing to be seen.

"Good," Azhure said, and pushed past Axis. She motioned to Sicarius. "Sicarius. Scout."

The hound leapt down the stairs and trotted cautiously, nose to floor, down the corridor. He disappeared from sight into the blackness. Azhure waved her men forward.

They walked slowly down the corridor, Azhure in the lead, Axis directly behind her shoulder. All had weapons drawn or carried burning brands ready in their hands. As they walked forward, so the ball of light rolled forward slowly, always keeping the same distance in front of them.

After perhaps fifty paces the corridor bent to their left and as Azhure peered cautiously about she saw another flight of steps leading down. She could dimly see Sicarius sitting at the bottom of them, tense and alert.

"Come," she said again, and trotted down the stairs to the hound. She bent to touch Sicarius' head for an instant, then straightened and looked before her.

The steps had led them into a large, low-vaulted chamber, the stone pillars that supported the ceiling casting long shadows across the floor of the chamber.

There were some broken and empty wooden boxes and kegs to one side, but otherwise the chamber was empty. In the far wall a heavy, arched wooden door stood ajar a fingerspace.

"What do you think?" Azhure asked as Axis joined her.

"We're reasonably close to the heart of Hsingard. I would think that we are in the underground chambers of one of the main civic buildings."

"It's cold," Azhure observed, and pulled the collar of her tunic a little higher about her throat.

Indeed it was cold, much colder than the air above, and that had been icy enough. Their breath frosted about them, and Azhure could see that thin tendrils of ice ran around the stone pillars. She glanced at the far door, then bent down and murmured quietly to the hound. Her fingers ran through the thick, creamy hairs of Sicarius' head, and the hound's golden eyes gazed steadily into hers, his mouth open, panting a little.

Azhure rose. "He has not been through that door," she said quiedy. "He wanted to wait for us. He does not like it."

Axis stared at her, and then at the Alaunt. He hesitated, then extended his hand and motioned with his fingers. The ball of light floated placidly back to nesde in the palm of his hand. "Azhure. Be careful."

Azhure hefted the burning brand in her hand and motioned the others to follow her. She walked unhesitatingly over to the door, waving her men to either side, then, seizing the door, hauled it open.

Nothing issued forth from the door save a gust of air far colder than that of the vaulted chamber.

Azhure met Axis' eyes, then she looked at the ball of light he held in his hand and motioned into the blackness beyond the door with her head. He stepped forward and threw the ball through the door, humming a phrase of music. As the ball of light lobbed into the chamber it flared into brilliance, and a dismayed whispering and muttering arose from within. Axis paled and took an involuntary step backwards at what he saw. Azhure took one look, turned away in horror, then forced herself to look again.

There was a vast chamber beyond the door, perhaps once the grain store of the city. But now it had been converted by the Skraelings into a hatchery. Azhure felt Axis slide his arm about her waist and pull her back from the door.

Across the floor of the chamber before them undulated a seething mass of Skraeling young among the broken shells of thousands upon thousands of eggs.

They were almost white, with slimy, transparent bodies that had not yet hardened into the flesh which their parents had attained. Their silver eyes were huge, and their mouths, already complete with sharp and hungry fangs, yawned wide as they mewed and cried. They did not like the light.

"Stars," Axis whispered, "they've probably got these hatcheries in every cavern underneath this rubble."

"They are next winter's troubles," Azhure said. "At least, they were." She tossed her burning brand into the chamber and where it fell among the writhing Skraeling young it burst into flame, and the mews and whispers rose to a clamour.

"Quick," she said urgently, "before their parents come back. Toss in your brands, and then let's get out of here."

The broken husks of the shells caught fire first, then the extremities of the nearest hatchlings. Those that caught fire scampered screaming about the chamber, climbing over their fellows, and setting fire to further shells and hatchlings. As the flames spread, Azhure slammed the door shut and Axis grabbed her hand.

"Let's go," he said, pulling Azhure after him. "Fast!"

Where they had crept slowly down the stairs and the corridor, now they fled at a run. No-one wanted to be trapped underground when the cries of the hatchlings caught their parents' ears.

They reached the surface safely, but by that time the screams of the now rapidly burning hatchlings had roused what seemed like every Skraeling in Hsingard. They seethed out of cracks and fissures from both sides of the roadway, and Azhure and her command had to fight their way free of the city in a bloody battle that left many of them wounded to some degree; Azhure herself gained a nasty cut over her left ribs. That they escaped at all - and with few fatalities - was due to the Crest of the Icarii Strike Force above them, for now that the Skraelings had emerged from their rubble they were vulnerable to arrows from above.

When they reached their horses, Axis pushed her onto Venator. "Can you ride?" he asked anxiously, his eyes-drifting to her blood-stained tunic.

"Yes," she gasped. "I'm fine. Get to Belaguez."

About her men scrambled atop their horses, protected from the Skraelings by the arrows of the Strike Force, and Azhure kept Vena tor on a tight rein until all were mounted.

"Ride!" she screamed, turningVenator's head and urging him forwards with her heels, "Ride!"

As they galloped for the Urqhart Hills, leaving the Skraelings well behind them, Azhure began to laugh.

They halted as soon as they were deep within the Urqhart Hills and protected by the arrival of the Icarii above.

Axis leapt from Belaguez and hauled Azhure from her horse.

"I'm all right," she gasped, still smiling with the excitement of the battle and the mad ride from Hsingard to the hills, but Axis tore her tunic open and pulled her shirt out of the waistband of her breeches. It was soaked with blood, and Axis' heart clenched as he felt how warm and wet the shirt was.

A Skraeling claw had scraped a deep gash along one of Azhure's lower ribs.

It had bled profusely, but the bone of the rib had stopped any major damage.

"It needs to be stitched," Axis muttered, accepting the bandage that one of the archers thrust forward. He bound her ribs tightly, then pulled her shirt down.

"It's nothing," Azhure said softly. "Others are hurt far worse. Let me go. I should see to them. They are my responsibility."

She stood up, pulling her tunic on, and went to see to her command, bending to talk briefly with those wounded, proud that she too had blood staining her tunic. At her heels trotted Sicarius, scratched and bleeding from a dozen small wounds like most of his pack.

Behind Azhure Axis stood straight and tall, watching her, his eyes veiled.

The next morning at dawn they rode into Sigholt. Warned by the Icarii, who had arrived the previous evening, comrades and servants stood ready to tend the wounded and feed the rest.

"The Icarii told us what happened," Belial said, stepping forward, his eyes riveted to Azhure's blood-stained tunic. "Are you all right?"

Azhure smiled. "A mere scratch, Belial. Isn't that what all good warriors say when they ride home to fretting families?"

Axis stepped up and slipped his arm around her waist. Now they were home he could act more like the concerned lover than her second-in-command. "She is not wounded badly, Belial." He glanced about the courtyard of the Keep.

"Ravensbundmen?"

"Yes. They arrived yesterday morning. Most are quartered in camps about the Lake, but I have put the senior command in Sigholt itself."

"Stars knows where," Azhure muttered, looking anxiously about her and then relaxing into a smile as she saw Rivkah hurrying across the courtyard with Caelum in her arms. As she took Caelum from Rivkah's arms, a tall, black-haired man stepped forth from the shadows.

"Ho'Demi," Axis said, staring at the man's tattooed face. When he had seen Ho'Demi at Gundealga Ford and, through the eagle's eyes, at Jervois Landing, the man had a naked circle in the centre of his head.

Now from the centre of his forehead, as from the centre of the foreheads of each and every Ravensbund man, woman and child in Sigholt, blazed forth the bloodied sun.

"It is Time to ReforgeTencendor"

The young Ravensbundwoman slipped the final pin into Azhure's hair and then stood back, holding a mirror so Azhure could see her hairstyle from all"Thank you, Imibe, you have dressed my hair beautifully." Over the past several weeks Imibe's duties had grown from minding and nursing Caelum to acting almost as a full-time maid to Azhure. And though Azhure found it strange to have the attentions of a maid, she was so busy she had little choice. From three thousand men, three Sentinels, two women and one retired cook, now Sigholt and Lakesview reverberated with the noisy activities and enthusiasms of almost thirty thousand people. Not only were there Acharite, Ravensbund and Icarii soldiers, but also townspeople, traders, servants, cooks, stablehands, secretaries, messengers, hangers-on and myriad other people. A week ago a historian had even arrived, declaring he'd come to take notes and keep records of Axis SunSoar s journey through Prophecy.

Even more than the attentions of a maid, Azhure found the deference shown to her by the people of Sigholt and Lakesview unnerving. Now, if she walked down the streets of Lakesview, with or without Caelum in her arms, the people made way for her with smiles, bows and bobbing curtsies. Azhure had to consciously force herself not to curtsey back.

"Come," Axis said, walking into the room. "Stand up and show me your finery."

Azhure took his outstretched hand, and let him guide her across the room to where a full-length mirror stood against the wall. Azhure stopped before the mirror, and Axis stood behind her, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. Axis wore his golden tunic over blood-red breeches that matched the blazing sun on his chest. In total contrast, Azhure was dressed in a simple black gown, cut in stark lines that both emphasised her tall, lithe figure and directed attention to the fine bone structure of her face and her unusual smoky eyes. Her hair, as black as the gown, was piled on top of her head in a complex knot.

Axis smiled at Azhure's reflection and reached into a pocket. "Dru-Beorh always gives me gifts, Azhure, that I find myself passing on to you."

He clipped a pair of heavy, twisted dark-gold drop earrings onto Azhure's ears. They were beautiful, and they created a perfect frame for her lovely face.

"We make an elegant pair, don't we," Axis said, and kissed the top of her head. Suddenly he realised, that Azhure's eyes were swimming with tears.

"What's wrong?" he said. "Whyso melancholy?"

"Because do not belong here with you," she whispered. "Soon you will lead your command south, and then to Carlon. There your Queen awaits." Axis' entire body stiffened. He and Azhure avoided mentioning Faraday - nevertheless she lay between themconstantly.

"I know you have been talking about her to Duke Roland and Ho'Demi,"

Azhure continued, determined to speak her mind. "This," she waved at their reflections, "is simply make believe. What we have together is as insubstantial as a reflection across water and will shatter as easily as this mirror."

Axis' hands tightened on Azhure's shoulders, and she knew she had angered him. "I meant what I said in Hsingard, Azhure," he said. "I love you. You are not simply some makeshift bedwarmer to keep me amused until I reach Faraday. Do you love me? Or is this some roundabout way of saying you want to leave?"

"You know I love you." Azhure fought to keep her voice steady. "But I will have to walk away when we reach Carlon. The guilt I feel about Faraday gnaws at me each day. Surely your conscience troubles you?"

"Does my conscience trouble me?" he repeated. "Yes, I suppose that it does.

Do I think about Faraday? Yes, I do. And, in a way, I still love her, but every day my love for you undermines what I feel for Faraday. All three of us are in the unforgiving grips of this damned Prophecy, Azhure. Manipulated beyond our own free will. But you and cannot deny the magic of Beltide night... or the continuing magic that each night brings. Neither can we deny the child we have made between us." His voice hardened. "But I will not let you go, nor lose you nor forget you." Axis slipped his hands down to wrap her. waist and cradle her back against his body.

Azhure took a deep breath. "But you will marry Faraday."

"I have to, Azhure. As the Prophecy bound -Faraday to marry Borneheld, so it binds me to marry Faraday. Does not the Prophecy state that she will lie with the man who kills her husband? Besides, I need her goodwill to bring the trees behind me/'

"Then I must go -"

"No," Axis said sharply, and his arms tightened. "I will not let you go, Azhure. Faraday is a sophisticated woman of the court. No doubt Borneheld has kept lovers -"

"No!" Azhure cried, and tried to twist out of Axis' arms, but his grip tightened still further.

"Stay with me. Dance with me. Be my Lover. Faraday willaccept you."

Azhure closed her eyes. Mistress, courtesan, concubine. There was no delicate way of dressing up the word. But poor Faraday. Azhure knew she would not accept what Axis proposed without deep hurt.

"Can you walk away from me, Azhure?" Axis asked. "Canyou?"

"No," Azhure said, her eyes still closed, feeling nothing but Axis' warmth against her body. "No, I cannot."

"And as you cannot walk from me, so I cannot walk away from you," Axis said. "I thought that I might be able to. I thought perhaps I could insist that you and Caelum stay here when I rode south. But I cannot bear to be parted from either of you. You have woven my soul so tightly with enchantments, Azhure, that I will never be free from you. Stay by my side. Please...I beg you."

A terrifying image filled Azhure s mind. Axis and Caelum, three hundred years from now, both still young and vital. They were sitting on the rock ledge in Talon Spike, and they were both, unsuccessfully, trying to remember her name.

They laughed and joked, and eventually gave up. Mistress and mother, long dead and long gone from their thoughts. "Please," he whispered into her hair.

"Yes," and she hated herself for the word. "Then come," Axis said, his hands loosening about her body. "Open your eyes, collect our son, and come below.

Sigholt awaits."

Azhure picked Caelum up from his crib, and cradled his head close to her mouth. She whispered something, so low that Axis, curious, could not catch it.

"If you do one thing for me in your long, long life, Caelum, do not forget your mother's name as I have forgotten the name of my mother. My name is Azhure, Caelum. Azhure. Azhure."