"We must all endure -" Leagh began. But Layon now let the Avar's well-tended harvest of bitterness swell to the surface and would not let Leagh finish. "You Acharites know nothing of endurance," she said.

"Nothing."

After that there was not much to be said. They walked in silence back to the camp, and then separated, Layon to one 166.

of the groups of Acharite men under the instruction of an Avar weaver, Leagh back to her husband.

Zared was standing in their personal camp, a bridle hanging from his hands. His face was set in a frown as his fingers struggled with a particularly stiff buckle, and he cursed and dropped the bridle as his fingers slipped one more time.

"You are too impatient," Leagh said, and bent to retrieve the bridle. "Look, work it gently, so, and ... lo!

The strap slips through easily."

Zared grinned wryly, and then noticed Leagh's face. "What's wrong?"

She hesitated, then threw the bridle down on top of a pile of tack and stepped into the protective circle of his arms. "I am afraid."

"So am I," he said. "Leagh?" "Yes?" "I want you to stay within the forest. Who knows what we will encounter -" "No." "Leagh -"

"No!" She raised her face to his. "Twice no, Zared. First a no because I refuse to let my husband ride off without me - and you know what will happen if you do that."

Zared grimaced, remembering how he'd left Leagh in charge of Carlon, only to have her ride off to Caelum's camp. "And a no because, as you taught me, I have a duty to my people. I am not only Leagh. I am Queen Leagh, and I, as you, have a people to put before my personal desires and wants."

Zared grinned down into her face, unable to be cross with her. "I shall remind you of that next time you start to whisper your personal desires and wants into my ear late at night."

She returned his smile, then leaned in close against him, resting her cheek against his chest.

"But, for my sake," he whispered into her hair, "keep safe. Keep safe."

* 167*

"And you," she said. "And you."

They stood and held each other, both silent.

Once the fibrous bark of the goat tree had been stripped, separated and then combed - a process that took the best part of a week - then every man was given the task of weaving his own shelter.

Some took to the work better than others. Many among the army were sons of craftsmen, or were craftsmen themselves, and they quickly sat down to the job, whistling as the fine fibres spun through their fingers.

Others needed persuasion . . . and much instruction. The Avar women, now numbering almost fifty, moved among the army, bending over shoulders, laughing and scolding, and correcting fumbling fingers. Zared, Herme and Theod sat in a circle, with Leagh hovering on the outer amused that the highest n.o.bility of Achar could use man-welded weapons to destroy with ease, and yet could not use the fingers they'd been born with to create.

"I wish I had a court painter with me now!" she said, amongst her laughter, "so he could record this scene for posterity."

All three men looked up from the knotted and uneven weave in their laps and scowled at her, but their eyes danced with merriment also.

"One day," Zared said, "I am going to see how well you wield a sword."

"Oh, my dear," she said, and winked at him. "Not half as well as you do, I am sure."

All three men laughed, and Zared shook his head slightly as he looked back to where he'd managed to knot his left thumb between four strands of fibre.

Still others, although few in number, bent to the task of weaving their shade with deep resentment. Of them all, Askam harboured the deepest bitterness. Even if every man within the camp, commanders and n.o.bles among them, were, 168.

like he, bent to the task of weaving, it did not help Askam's sense of self-worth. He'd effectively lost all he had ever commanded, and the man who had stolen it from him, now had him sitting cross-legged in a forest a.s.sisting to weave a d.a.m.ned shade-cloth!

"Wait," he murmured so that none about him could hear "Wait."

169.

19.The SunSoar Curse During the mid-afternoon of their third day out of the Silent Woman Woods, Zenith and StarDrifter stopped to exchange news for malfari bread and honeyed malayam fruit with a band of Avar, then flew until the dusk penetrated the forest canpoy and flight was no longer enjoyable, let alone safe.

"How far do you think we have come?" Zenith asked StarDrifter as they cleared a s.p.a.ce beneath a whalebone tree and sat down.

He glanced about him, wincing as a twig stabbed into his back, and readjusting his position slightly to accommodate it. Then he pointed to a shrub huddling close to the small stream that ran eastwards.

"See that kianet shrub? They only grow near the Bogle Marsh. So we have not done badly for three days'

journey."

Zenith nodded, and handed StarDrifter his share of the honeyed malayam on a thick slice of malfari. A fair distance indeed, but if they'd been able to fly direct to the Minaret Peaks they would only have another day's travel, if that. Forced to keep to the sheltering forests, they were swinging in a great arc to the east. Tomorrow, perhaps, they could swing back west.

"I have a hankering to spend tomorrow night in Arcen," StarDrifter said as he broke away some of the fruit and ate it.

* 170 .

Zenith glanced at him sharply. "Why? We can overfly it and continue straight on. There's no point -"

"Zenith, what difference will a half-day make?" StarDrifter said around his mouthful. "That's all we'd lose, and I confess myself tired of these beds of pine needles and sharp-elbowed twigs."

Zenith grinned and tore herself off a slice of malfari. Aha! StarDrifter was missing his comforts! It seemed an age since they'd been on the Island of Mist and Memory. StarDrifter had gone with Axis to the Ancient Barrows to try and strengthen the Star Gate - a useless exercise, as it turned out - and Zenith had travelled north with Faraday in the blue cart drawn by the donkeys.

"It has been a rare long time since I've had you to myself," StarDrifter said, and Zenith smiled softly again, and replied without looking at him.

"Have you recovered your Enchanter powers then, StarDrifter, to read my mind so?"

StarDrifter did not reply immediately. He stared down at his fruit and bread, turning a crust over and over in one hand. "And I find," he said, very hesitatingly, but encouraged by her response, "that I do so very much enjoy this time spent alone with you."

He looked up. Now Zenith was staring at the food in her hands. Again StarDrifter hesitated, but he was not a man for leaving unsaid that which needed to be shared.

"I also find," he finally said, "that I resent every moment that I must share you with someone else. Dear G.o.ds, Zenith, I adore Faraday, but she trailed so happily - and so d.a.m.nably consistently! - about after us on the Isle of Mist and Memory that I could have thrown her over the cliff face!"

StarDrifter stopped, wondering if he had said too much. But, curse it, it needed to be said! And so, having come this far, StarDrifter leapt over the cliff himself.

"It is the SunSoar curse that our blood calls out so boldly 171.

for each other," he said. "But I find it no burden, and no curse, to love you as I do."

There, it was said.

"StarDrifter -"

"Let me say one more thing," he said, in gentler tones. "I know WolfStar hurt you, and that the introduction to love you suffered at his hands has likely scarred you for life. But -"

"Now is not the time to be talking of this," Zenith said. Her voice was very brittle.

StarDrifter raised an eyebrow. "Now, in this gentle companionship under the trees, is not the time to be speaking of'this'?"

She looked at him steadily. "The TimeKeeper Demons are tearing this land apart. Surely there are more important things we should be -"

"Don't evade me, Zenith."

Zenith's eyes filled with sudden tears, and she jerked her gaze away from StarDrifter's face.

"Zenith . . ." StarDrifter reached over, took the now damp and useless food from Zenith's hands, put it to one side, and clasped her hands very gently in his own. "Please, talk to me."

She took a deep breath. StarDrifter had been courageous enough to speak of the bond that both knew had been developing between them, and she knew she should be as well. "RiverStar ... RiverStar always chided me for not taking a lover. She said it was not the SunSoar way."

StarDrifter grinned mischievously, his eyes twinkling with undemanding humour. "She was right."

Zenith allowed herself to be rea.s.sured by his grin, and half-smiled herself. "I always told her I wanted to wait for the right man, she always said it was mother's Acharite primness showing through."

Maybe RiverStar was right, StarDrifter thought. And maybe it was just that Azhure, like Zenith, had preferred to wait until she found the man she loved.

*172.

"I wish," Zenith's smile faded, "I wish that I had succ.u.mbed to the blandishments of some Icarii Strike Leader, or Enchanter, during those wild Beltide nights that I spent watching from beneath the safety of the trees. I wish that I had, because then I would not have been left with WolfStar as my only memory of love!"

"Shush," StarDrifter said, disturbed by the emotion in Zenith's voice.

Zenith took another deep breath, calming herself. "But... but I waited, because I felt that somewhere was the one man that I could love more than any other." StarDrifter's heart was racing. Why would she have said that, unless . . . unless . . . "And have you found him yet?"

Zenith stared at StarDrifter, wishing he had not forced this conversation, and yet relieved beyond words that he had. Had she found the man she could love beyond any other? Yes, she had, and she'd known it for a very, very long time. Why else had she been so frantic to know if he'd survived the Demons' push through the Star Gate?

"Yes," she whispered.

Strange, StarDrifter thought, strange that I do not feel overwhelming triumph at this moment. Ever before when a woman has looked into my eyes and whispered "yes", all I have felt was triumph. Now? Relief.

Sheer relief.

He leaned forward to kiss her.

Zenith jerked her head away, her eyes round and fearful, and StarDrifter pulled back as if he'd been burned.

"Why let WolfStar ruin your life? Love does not have to be what he showed you. Zenith, do you want WolfStar to colour your perception of love for the rest of your life?"

"No," she whispered, and StarDrifter nodded slightly.

"Good." He leaned forward, very, very slowly, giving her every chance to move away if she wanted, and then, having hesitated as long as he was capable, he kissed her.

Zenith tensed as his lips touched hers, but he was so gentle, and so tender, that she forced herself to relax and to 173.

accept his kiss. Feeling her muscles lose their rigidity, StarDrifter drew back slightly, his eyes searching Zenith's face, then he drew her close and kissed her again, this time with more pa.s.sion, and more insistence.

The kiss of a lover.

Zenith's initial reaction was absolute immobility. She'd admitted that she loved him, but Zenith still found this sudden metamorphosis of grandfather into lover a profoundly unsettling experience. She was shocked by the warmth and taste of his mouth, a potent mixture of sweetness and maleness, and she was shocked by his insistence.

It reminded her far too much of - "No!" she said, and pushed him away.

StarDrifter stared at her, remembering himself. Remembering the feel of Azhure in his arms, and the delight of her mouth, when he'd kissed her in the training chamber of Star Finger so many years ago.

She'd pushed him away, too, and he'd acquiesced.

And lost her to Axis.

What would have happened then if he'd insisted?

StarDrifter's face closed over and he turned away from Zenith. Rape. That's what would have happened.

And whatever else StarDrifter was, and might be capable of, he could not now insist with Zenith. He could not be a WolfStar.

"I'm sorry!" Zenith was crying, feeling the burden of guilt and uselessness. What kind of woman was she?

She owed StarDrifter more than this. "I'm sorry! It was just that ... just that..."

"Hush," StarDrifter said, and gathered her into his arms as he would have gathered a child. "Hush. We have time, and I think we have love between us, and I think that we will eventually manage."

Zenith clung to him, grateful that the lover had transformed (for the moment) back into the protective grandfather. Did she love him? Yes, she did, but nevertheless ...

174 .

"Just give me time," she whispered, leaning her head against his chest and letting herself be comforted by the beating of his heart. "I just need time."

Above her head StarDrifter's mouth twisted wryly. He was heartily sick of being the understanding grandfather.

175 *.

20.Axis sat his horse - a fine roan stallion - and wished he had wings with which to fly. Perhaps he should have taken up StarDrifter's long ago offer to coax his latent wing buds into growth. Too late now.

He tried not to think of the enchantments he had once commanded that could have seen him travel the breadth of Tencendor in an instant. Over the past week they had pushed both horses and men hard, northwards through the Minstrelsea forest, skirting Arcen, and then straight through the tree-sheltered pa.s.ses of the Minaret Peaks in the dead of night.

Both Axis and Azhure would have liked to stop to talk with FreeFall, but time was more important for the moment, and they could always send him a message from Star Finger if they needed.

Besides, no doubt FreeFall had his own problems in this Demonic-controlled world.

Now they rode through the northern Minstrelsea a few hours distant of the southern extremities of the Fortress Ranges. Good time. Excellent time. But. . .

"We're moving too slow," Axis said, turning to look at Azhure and Caelum sitting their horses to his left.