Axis' eyes ran over her belly once more, confused. Even if she'd managed to conceal her thickening body from him, how was it he'd not felt the tug of the baby's blood? Caelum's tug had been so distinct, so strong.

Axis realised he was staring. "Azhure. I owe so much to you. You have given me such great friendship and support over the past nineteen months that I think I can never adequately repay you. You have given me my emblem, the blood-red blazing sun and you have fought courageously among my other commanders.

Azhure, you have also lived among both Icarii and Avar. You know their problems and you know the problems that many of the Acharites will have in accepting the Icarii and Avar among them again. The position of Guardian of the East is one of great importance, and I would that you accept it. Azhure, will you shoulder this onerous load for me?"

"Gladly, StarMan."

Ysgryff, as Belial, Magariz and a number of others, stared a little. Not at the tide and responsibility that Axis had given Azhure - all believed that she would do well as Guardian of the East - but that Axis had not asked her to swear homage and fealty to him. It almost implied...well, it almost implied that Azhure was of equal status to him. And yet Axis had demanded that FreeFall, as heir to the Talon throne, pay him homage and fealty.

Faraday, as politically astute as anyone else present, also noticed the oversight and realised the implications. Why would Axis not want this woman to swear homage and fealty to him?

"Azhure, Guardian of the East, you have no home, no lands. I will cede you no lands, but I will grant you a home that you may enjoy for the rest of your life but which will revert to me once you die. Azhure, I grant you Spiredore to do with as you will."

"Oh, Axis," Azhure breathed, and the look in her eyes was all the thanks that Axis needed.

Faraday simply stared at her. I must get to know this woman better, she thought, if I must work with her to restore the ancient forests to Tencendor.

Azhure moved to sit down again, more than a little awed by her new responsibilities. This tangible evidence of Axis' trust and belief in her abilities, before all these people, had moved her deeply.

StarDrifter stared at Axis. Axis had hardly gone far enough! On impulse, he gave a single powerful flap of his wings and landed on the dais beside his son.

StarDrifter held out his hands and began to speak, his voice nearly as magical and as beautiful as Axis'. "I am StarDrifter SunSoar," he announced, "father to Axis SunSoar StarMan. Today is a great day. We have witnessed the reforg-ing of Tencendor, a united Tencendor that will be strong enough to defeat Gorgrael and strong enough to move into the future. But my friends, there are still many trials ahead of us. Great battles to be fought as we endeavour to break the Destroyer's grip on the north. Axis will lead Tencendor into those battles. My friends and comrades, I do not want to inject a note of sorrow or despair into these joyful proceedings, but realities must be faced. What if Axis were injured, or, greatest sadness of all, killed?" StarDrifter turned to Axis and held out his hand in melodramatic appeal. "Axis SunSoar StarMan, will you name your heir today, before all present, so that there may be no doubts in anyone's mind?"

Axis glared at his father. Did you think I had forgotten, StarDrifter? I was opening my mouth to do just that when you leaped so precipitously onto the dais.

Ogden, as Veremund and Jack, stared straight ahead, completely unable to look at Faraday now. Yr's eyes widened in distress. This is what she had feared for a very long time. Had she and the other Sentinels done the wrong thing in forcing Faraday into an action which had kept her separated from Axis for almost two years?

"Sit down, StarDrifter," Axis said quietly, and again held out his hand for Azhure.

She stood as if she would simply hand Caelum to him, but Axis seized her wrist and pulled both her and their son onto the dais with him.

Faraday took a great, ragged breath and held it. She realised instantly who had bequeathed the black-haired boy his Icarii features. "Oh, Mother, what has he done to me?"

Yr leaned forward and placed a soothing hand on Faraday's shoulder.

Axis smiled and took Caelum from Azhure s arms, holding the laughing baby high above his head.

"I name my son, Caelum Azhurson SunSoar StarSon, as my heir to the House of the Stars and to the Throne of the Stars and to all ranks and privileges those titles hold. Welcome to my heart and to my House, Caelum StarSon."

Faraday's and Azhure's eyes met; Azhure looked away almost instantly, unable to bear the pain she saw reflected back at her.

The crowd roared. All they could see was the golden figure of Axis SunSoar StarMan, the beautiful woman beside him, and the son who Axis lifted high into the air.

"Hear me!" Axis shouted above the roar. "No other child born to me will supplant Caelum as my heir. He is my firstborn, and as bastardy has left no stain on my soul or on my claim to found the Throne of the Stars, then it leaves no stain on his soul or on his claim as my heir!"

Faraday sat, weaving back and forth through her own personal nightmare.

Not only had Axis disported himself with another woman to the extent that he had got a son on her - and another on the way! - he had honoured the woman with great titles, great responsibilities, and had named her son as his heir, disinheriting any child Faraday would bear him.

She suddenly realised the full extent of the betrayal. Not only Axis', but all those about her. Everyone must have known of this! Everyone! Yet no-one had told her. Why? Why? Why had they let her believe the lie that Axis still loved her, still wanted her? Borneheld's final words to her on the parapets of the palace in Carlon came back to Faraday. Axis did not truly love her at all. If he did, then he could not have done this to her.

Betrayal Confronted"W: need to speak, Faraday," Axis said, and Faraday turned to stare at him, her green eyes blazing with pain and betrayal.

"Yes," she said bitterly, "we do need to talk. But I hardly think this is the place for it, do you?"

And so they were rowed back in silence to the palace, where they climbed staircases and walked corridors in silence until Axis closed the door to their chamber behind them.

"We should be present at the celebrations," Axis said.

" We should be at the celebrations, StarMan? I hardly think there is any place there for me, do you?"

Axis flinched inwardly, although he kept his face impassive. Why hadn't he told Faraday about Azhure earlier? How do you tell the woman who has waited and suffered for you through two long years that you had fallen so deeply in love with another that you couldn't give her up?

"Faraday," he said again, and stepped forward and took her shoulders gently in his hands.

"Let go of me!" Faraday hissed, twisting her body away from him.

"Faraday, let me explain."

"No," she said, and Axis could feel her rage. "/ shall explain to you. Axis, I can understand that for virtually two years we have been torn apart one way or another. That we have gone our separate ways for much of those two years. I can understand that perhaps you dallied with other women. Mother knows, Axis, I can understand that - especially after I married Borneheld. But what I cannot understand, Axis, and what I find so hard to forgive, is how you treated me today."

"Faraday," Axis tried to soothe, reaching out for her but halting his hand at the last moment. "You will be my wife. I promised to marry you, and I will."

"Being your wife means nothing]" Faraday screamed, her face twisting into ugly lines, "when that woman across the Lake is your wife in everything but name!"

She took a deep breath and worked to bring her temper under control.

"Wife. What does that mean, Axis, when that woman across the Lake is Queen in everything but name! Over the past year at least, and longer by the look of that baby, she has shared your life, shared your adventures, shared your bed. Now you have given her the power, the recognition," she laughed a little, "even Spiredore, and you have given her your son. Again she is pregnant with your child. Do not try to tell me that she does not continue to share your bed and your heart, Axis."

Axis looked down at the floor. There was nothing he could say.

Faraday stared at him, a muscle leaping in her throat.

"She was the one to stand on the dais with you, Axis, not me. She was the one who took the cheers of the nation with you. Not me. Marry me, Axis? What a joke! Even as your wife, / would be the mistress, not her. She has everything. I have nothing. You humiliated me today, Axis. Can't you see what you did?"

Axis raised his head and looked at her. "I did not think to betray you, Faraday. Azhure was a friend when I needed one badly. She understood that I loved you ..."

"You talked about me to her?" Faraday whispered. What other cruelties did this man have to deal her?

"... and she fought to resist me. Faraday, do not blame her in this. I am the one at fault."

Faraday's eyes brimmed with tears. That Axis sought to protect Azhure and not himself told Faraday how deeply he loved her. "Strangely, Axis, I do not. I know how easy it is for a woman to fall in love with you. If I seek to apportion blame, then I must blame you." She turned away.

Axis stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms about her, gently rocking her. This time she did not throw him off.

"Will you give her up?" she whispered.

There was a pause. "I cannot," Axis muttered eventually.

"Do you feel anything for me?"

"Faraday." Axis turned her around so he could look in her eyes. He gently brushed some of the tears from her cheek with his hand. Wasn't this where they had started two years ago? "If I said I loved you, I would not lie. But what I feel for you and what I feel for Azhure are so different. But I meant what I said, Faraday. I do want you for my wife." He bent to slowly kiss her cheek, her neck, the soft rise of her breasts.

Liar, she thought. Liar. You want Azhure, but, honourable man that you are, you feel bound by the vows that you made to me so long ago. And how much do you want me because I bring the trees behind you? Do you fear, Axis SunSoar StarMan, that if you do not placate me with marriage then I might not fulfil my part of the bargain? That the Prophecy itself might fail if I failed?

Oh, Mother, Faraday cried to herself. You are the only one who has not betrayed me. All she wanted now was peace in the Sacred Groves, all she wanted now was to sit in the warm sunshine on the wooden seat in the nursery, Ur beside her reciting names and histories.

But for now Axis' fingers were sliding open the fastenings at the back of her dress. Does he think to placate me with his body? she wondered vaguely, but she did not resist him. One last time, perhaps, one last time.

Into Spiredore zhure lay sleepless in her tent, staring through the l- darkness. The excitement of the previous day had JL. -A.kept her tossing and turning in her camp bed for most of the night. Axis had held Caelum above his head and proclaimed him his heir - and named him Azhurson! The clamour from the throats of the tens of thousands present had surrounded her like the roar of the Nordra as it escaped the Forbidden Valley. And he had named her Guardian of the East, and given her Spiredore.

As she stood down from the dais Azhure had glanced again at Faraday. She was rocking backwards and forwards, her face pasty white, her green eyes enormous. Azhure had almost cried out with pain herself.

Axis was back in Carlon with Faraday this night, but Azhure was no longer jealous of her. Somehow Azhure knew that it would not be long before Axis was back this side of the Lake, come to visit his Lover in Spiredore.

Spiredore! Such a magical gift! It had been stripped of all the trappings of the Seneschal - and now it waited for her.

Throwing the blankets back, Azhure swung her legs over the side of the bed.

She had not had the chance to go inside Spiredore yesterday - the celebrations for Tencendor had started immediately after Axis had closed the official ceremony and Azhure had been whirled into them by StarDrifter who, withYsgryff, had competed for her attentions all evening and into the night. She had slept a few hours, but now was awake - ready to investigate what she had been given.

Mama?

Azhure slipped a shawl over her white nightgown and leaned over Caelum's cot. "I am going to investigate Spiredore, Caelum. Do you want to come too, or are you still so tired you will whimper and fidget and distract me?"

/ will be good, Mama.

Azhure smiled with love and picked her son up, nestling him close to her breast.

The camp was quiet now; hours before, all the revellers had fallen exhausted into their beds, or simply to the ground. Barefoot, and with only the shawl over her nightgown and a lamp in her free hand, Azhure picked her way through the camp, then up the grassy slopes to where the towering walls of Spiredore stood. Several of the Alaunt made to follow her, but she motioned them back. There was no danger in Spiredore, and she wanted to be alone with Caelum on her first visit.

The door was unlatched, and Azhure slipped inside, closing it quietly behind her. For a moment she simply stood and stared. From the outside Spiredore was obviously very large, but it appeared ten, twenty times the size inside. She walked into the centre of the tower and looked up, holding her lamp high.

Stairwells, balconies, overhangs, all swirled to dizzying heights above her.

Rooms, chambers, open spaces, all opened off the balconies surrounding this atrium. None of the myriad floors and balconies were level or even, jutting out in irregular squares, triangles, circles. It was an amazing sight, and should have been an eyesore, but somehow it achieved a subtle harmony that gave the interior of Spiredore great beauty. "Stars," Azhure said. "I could get lost up there and wander about for days."

"Actually, it's quite easy to find your way, once you know the trick," a voice said lightly behind her, and Azhure spun about, the lamp swinging so violently in her hand that shadows leaped and danced about the atrium. Her hand tightened defensively about Caelum, who gave a squeak of protest.

An Icarii birdman walked towards her, an open book in his hand, as if he had been reading when surprised by Azhure. He was one of the most captivating Icarii she'd ever seen. His face was vibrant with power, far more so than Star- Drifter's face, and she realised he must be an Enchanter. Great violet eyes laughed at her from underneath a tumbled crop of dark copper curls. Behind him stretched golden wings; and not just dyed that shade, Azhure thought, numbed by the beauty of this birdman, they actually appeared to be made of beaten gold.

"I'm sorry," he said, closing the book with a snap. Azhure caught brief sight of the title...something to do with the Lakes. "I startled you." A contrite expression crossed his face. "And I shouldn't be here either. Axis ceded you Spiredore yesterday, and I am the intruder."

"You were at the ceremony?" Azhure asked, her hand lessening its grip about Caelum.

"Yes," he said. "I was there, but some distance from you, I thmk."

"I have not seen you before," Azhure said. "And you have a face one could not easily forget."

"As you have a face, Lady Azhure, that no man, Icarii or Acharite, could easily forget. You are a woman for whom your own Prophecy should be written - it is a shame that you must share one with Axis. Perhaps I will write one for you one day."

Azhure laughed. The man had a charming, if cunning, way with words. She shared the Prophecy with Axis? "Why have I not seen you before?"

The birdman's smile faded a little and his eyes became sad. "Ah. Azhure. I have been away. A long, long way away. I have only come home recently. That is why you have not seen me."

He stepped forward. "May I hold your baby for a moment? He is such a beautiful baby."

Azhure hesitated momentarily, then let the birdman lift an unresisting Caelum out of her arms. The Icarii Enchanter cuddled the baby, whispering to him, and Caelum stretched curious hands to the man s face, poking and prodding till the birdman laughed and handed Caelum back to Azhure. "All babies are curious, but he more than most, I think. You have a magnificent son, Azhure, and he a magnificent mother."

Azhure blushed and smiled. Abruptly she remembered he had not told her his name, and she opened her mouth to ask, but in the instant before she spoke the birdman took Azhure s arm and led her towards the first of the stairwells that twisted up into the heights of the tower, sundry balconies and chambers opening off it. "I was going to tell you how to work the magic of Spiredore, Azhure."

Azhure smiled. Magic? How wonderful it would be if this Enchanter told her how to use Spiredore.

"My dear child," he said, as they reached the foot of the stairs. "It is very simple. If you wander willy-nilly in Spiredore you will, as you thought, get completely lost. You must decide where you want to go before you start to climb the stairs, and then the stairs will simply take you to that place."

Azhure s frown deepened. "But how do I know where I want to go if I don't know what the tower contains?"

The birdman laughed and his hand slid up her arm a little. It was very warm, his palm and fingers like rough silk, and Azhure found herself leaning a little closer to him.

"Then you have a lot to learn, Azhure." His tone became softer, deeper. "A lot to learn." He rested his arm on her shoulder, his fingers gently stroking her neck. "Where would you like to go, Azhure. Where? What would you like to see?"

Azhure smiled dreamily. His hand was soothing, his gentle breath on her cheek comforting. "I would like to see the view from the rooftop," she whispered. "I would very much like to watch the sun rise over the Avarinheim from the top of Spiredore."

"See?" he laughed, and the sound broke the spell between them. "You do have at least one destination - and you can spend the rest of your life investigating Spiredore. It was built just for you, Azhure. Just for you. Eventually you will remember where to go."

She smiled. "Your flattery goes too far, sir. Built for me? Why, this tower has stood for thousands of years, and I am only twenty-eight."

"Just for you," he whispered, and then he leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. It was a deep, absorbing kiss, and Azhure was in no hurry to break it - it was the birdman who eventually drew back.

He laughed shortly. "I should not have done that, Azhure. It was Unclean.

But I was always the one to break rules. You must forgive me. Now," his manner became brusque, "if you wish to watch the sun rise from the rooftop you will have to begin to climb now. Sunrise is not long away."

Following his instructions, Azhure thought of the rooftop and began to climb, but, only a few steps into the stairwell, she turned and looked back down at him.

"How did the Seneschal ever find their way about Spiredore?"

The birdman laughed. "To them, sweetheart, it was simply an empty shell.

They built their own chambers and stairs, floors and libraries, but they never saw the true tower that you see before you now. They did not have the magic to see it. Now, go. Sunrise awaits."

Azhure nodded, and turned back into the stairwell. When next she looked down, the birdman had gone.

WolfStar backed against the doorway out of Azhure's sight, listening to her footsteps for a long time. What a remarkable woman - and what a son she had birthed. As Azhure's footsteps slowly faded above him, WolfStar abruptly vanished.

Azhure stood atop Spiredore and watched the sky lighten to the east over the Avarinheim forest, her son cuddled comfortably in her arms. Her hair was loose, and the wind whipped both her nightgown and her hair about her lithe form. Above her head the morning stars whirled. Beneath her bare feet the tower gently hummed to itself. Azhure had come home.

From Out of the Dawning Sun...