Behind them were the twenty men of the accompanying unit, while the Alaunt ranged to the sides and the front, snuffling among trees.

176 .

Axis shifted impatiently, his face clearly showing his frustration. "d.a.m.n it! These Demons grow in strength from one day to the next - I can feel the horror seep from the plains in among these trees! -- and yet we still march northwards ... and we're barely halfway!"

Azhure shared a look with Caelum. They were all worried. It would take them weeks to get to Star Finger, and Adamon would be growing anxious.

"Could we cut time by travelling through the Wild Dog Plains?" Caelum said.

"A day or two at the most," Azhure answered, "but a day or two is not worth risking being caught in the open by the Demons."

"We could ride hard for the Urqhart Hills - there is shelter there - and then cut directly north into the Icescarp Alps."

Axis shook his head. "There is no way we could do any of those legs in the open in the five or six hours that we'd have free during the afternoon."

He sighed, and looked behind him at the silent escort, as if one of them might have an inspiration.

They were impa.s.sive, waiting orders, and Axis shook his head imperceptibly and looked back at Azhure.

Her face was expressionless, and her eyes dead ahead - but they were unfocused.

Axis frowned. "Azhure?"

She hardly heard him. She was thinking. Remembering. Remembering a time many years ago when she had just been Azhure, daughter of Hagen the Plough-Keeper. She'd fled her home to first live with the Avar, and then the Icarii. She'd come down to the Earth Tree Grove to celebrate Beltide with the Icarii and Avar, and had been seduced by Axis. Thinking to remove herself from his life - what could she contribute save his ruination? - Azhure had then travelled south into Sigholt with Rivkah and the two Sentinels, Ogden and Veremund.

177 .

Through the Avarinheim, through the Fortress Ranges, and then down the WildDog Plains until Arne and his escort had found them and delivered them to Sigholt.

Through the Fortress Ranges. But not over ... under.

Ogden and Veremund had led her and Rivkah into a tunnel that had wound beneath the Fortress Ranges. It had cut many days from their travel.

That particular tunnel would not be much use to them, but. .. but Veremund had said ... "This tunnel exists ... and others like it in various parts of Tencendor," she murmured.

"Azhure?"

She blinked, and looked at Axis.

"Azhure?" Axis' voice was impatient.

"I think I know a way," she said, and explained what she'd remembered.

Axis sat on his drowsing horse and thought about it. Azhure had told him about this tunnel many years ago, but neither she nor he had had an opportunity to think about it, much less explore for others since.

He locked eyes with Caelum. His son was clearly excited, looking between him and Azhure.

Axis looked back at Azhure. "Do you think there is a chance?"

She was almost as excited as Caelum. Her dark blue eyes shone, and she tossed her head, shaking out her black hair. "We can but try."

"How?" Axis said. "Where are these tunnels?"

Azhure chewed her lip. "The Alaunt," she finally said.

Silence. All three shifted their eyes to the pale shapes still nosing about the trees. Since they'd left the camp in the Silent Woman Woods, the Alaunt had caused no trouble, but none could forget Sicarius' astounding attack on Axis. "Do it," Axis said. He waved back to the captain of the escort. "We camp here for the time being."

Azhure dismounted slowly, and whistled Sicarius to her.

178.

He came instantly, loping along in easy strides, his golden eyes steady on her.

Azhure had to repress a shudder. There was something unknowably different about him. She didn't know if it was just a result of the sudden cessation of her powers - even when she'd thought herself just Azhure, daughter of Hagen, she'd been able to subconsciously access them - or whether it was because the hounds themselves had changed in some subtle way.

Whatever, she had a problem, because Azhure had always used her powers to communicate with the hounds. How could she do so now?

The hound sat before her, and Azhure slowly dropped to her knees. She lifted both hands, taking Sicarius'

head gently between them.

"Sicarius," she said, and stopped, a little unnerved by his dark gold eyes. Traces of silver flecked in their depths, and Azhure could no longer read them, and could no longer understand his mind, nor his heart.

She heard Axis step up behind her, and out of the corner of her eye saw Caelum still on his horse, but leaning over the pommel of his saddle and watching intently.

Azhure wet her lips, wondering what words she could use, and tried again.

"Sicarius, I need you to seek." Something shifted in the hound's eyes. "An entrance to a tunnel leading north. Seek!" d.a.m.n it! Azhure kept her face as impa.s.sive as the hound's, but she wanted to curse to the very stars themselves. This was so ... so c.u.mbersome^.

Sicarius stared at her, his gaze unwavering. Azhure fought to keep both her hands and her voice steady.

"Seek, Sicarius."

He whined, and shifted. Not anxious ... Azhure had the distinct impression he was bored and just wanted to get back to his investigation of the forest.

179*

In desperation, Azhure closed her eyes and formed a mental image of Star Finger.

Ma.s.sif. .. blue .. . mantled with ice .. . reaching for stars.

The hound shifted again.

Behind him, his mate FortHeart walked up and sat down, curious.

Azhure fought to repress her frustration, and tried yet again.

Ma.s.sif.. . blue ... mantled with ice .. . reaching for stars. Need to get there. FAST! Seek a way ... seek .. .

seek ...

Now FortHeart whined, and Sicarius' ears flickered. She had picked up a faint flicker of what Azhure was trying to tell Sicarius, and now in her own peculiar way, and with power that was born of the craft, not of the Stars, FortHeart shared her understanding with Sicarius. He trembled, then yelped and wrenched his head out of Azhure's hands.

Within an instant both he and FortHeart had disappeared among the trees.

As had all the other Alaunt. There was not a pale shape to be seen anywhere, only silence from the spot where they'd disappeared. When the Alaunt hunted, they did so silently and with deadly accuracy.

At least, that's what Azhure hoped they were doing now.

"Mother?" Caelum dismounted and squatted by her side, taking her hand. "You look exhausted. Are you all right?"

Azhure smiled for him. "Yes." She glanced at Axis. "That was ... hard."

"Do you think they understood?" Axis asked.

She shrugged, then laughed with genuine humour. "Who knows? Either they will seek out what we need or they will return with a rabbit for our dinner."

Axis grinned as well, and helped Azhure to her feet. "Well, at least they'll prove themselves useful one way or the other."

"Axis," Azhure said, as she dusted her tunic and leggings down, "where did the power of the Alaunt derive from?"

180 *.

"From the Stars, surely," Axis said.

"I think not, "Azhure said, even more slowly now. "I think not. They ran with Jack for thousands of years.

Before that..."

"Before that they came from WolfStar, didn't they?" Caelum said.

"Yes," Azhure said. "But where did he find them?" She looked Caelum in the eye. "What if they are the creation of the Maze Gate as much as the Prophecy was? And if so ... do they retain their power}"

"Stars!" Caelum breathed. "Do you mean they might have the same power as the Sceptre?"

"Who knows," she said, and then took Axis and Caelum by the hand. "But if they do . . ."

"If they do," Axis said, "then we have a chance. A good chance."

"And one that Drago does not control," Caelum said, and grinned.

"But can we trust the Alaunt?" Axis murmured, and turned to stare southwards.

The Alaunt ran.

At least for a while.

Sicarius commanded them to a halt by the banks of a small stream, and the other fourteen hounds obeyed instantly, sitting down in a perfect circle about their leader.

The forest waited.

Sicarius moved about the circle, seeking each of his companions' thoughts, needing a decision.

Do we find her this dark s.p.a.ce?

Do we follow her to the blue ma.s.sif?

Do we aid her? Do we aid her?

Do we have any choice?

For the moment they were purposeless. They had a while yet to wait before they could leap into the fray. A while yet before the man opened the gate into the garden.

* 181 .

It has been so long in coming.

But yet is nearly here.

We help them, Sicarius thought, until the hunter is ready and we course again.

Azhure had once hunted with the Wolven Bow, and had once directed the Alaunt to the hunt, but there was a greater hunt, and a dearer master, and it was only for this hunt and for this master that the Alaunt had been bred. Their puppyhood had been spent fawning at the feet of Noah, not WolfStarorJack.

His companions silently agreed.

Is there time to hunt before we scent out this dark s.p.a.ce? FortHeart asked.

Sicarius turned on his haunches and nipped her on her shoulder, We do not hunt in this forest. Not yet. There is a bloodier prey awaiting us than rabbits and mice and deer.

FortHeart yelped and leaped to one side, but did not retaliate.

They loped off, travelling pathways that had not been explored in years, and some that had never been trodden by mortal feet previously. They sought... and they found.

They knew these secret pathways better than any of the Sentinels had ever done. They were of the land, and part of the land.

Far above circled almost thirty black shapes. Their wings were stretched tight in the thermals, the scrawny clawed hands at their tips opening and closing with frustration that they could not yet hunt.

Their bright black eyes, as sharp as the birds they'd been named after, watched the prey scurry far below the forest canopy.

"Hounds?" whispered one, watching their flickering shapes move through the shadows.

"Magician hounds!" whispered another, and the entire 182*

small flock of*,. -v , /"Y/7.

almost beyond measui^ ^i a^ Magicians! Had not theirs magicians remaining of this world?

"Magicians?" whispered one. "Magicia. magicians that I have ever known."