Enchanter: Book Two of the Axis Trilogy. Sara Douglass

tomorrow we’ll take several of the engineers we have with us and go inspect this gully and cavern, Jack. Magariz, you can organise a detail to inspect this rubble-filled moat that surrounds the walls of the garrison. We will know by tomorrow eve if this feat is possible.”

      And whether or not we manage to unblock this spring, reflood the Lake and find this missing Zeherah, thought Belial, at least the attempt will keep the men fit and busy.

      That it did. With only five hundred men left on garrison duty – not that, according to Jack, Belial even needed to keep five hundred assigned to that task – two and a half thousand set to the unblockage of spring, gully and moat. For twelve days they laboured, fifteen hundred on the moat, and a thousand on the gully and inside the cavern where Jack claimed the spring was.

      Eight days after they had started Belial and Magariz stood at the outer edge of the moat and peered inside. A deep, wide watercourse had been uncovered, its sides and floor paved with great slabs of greyish-green rock, fitted together in a patchwork of incredible subtlety and beauty. Even though the builders had not used any mortar, the joints between slabs were so tight that Belial could not even get the blade of his knife between them.

      “No stone mason today could create such fine joinery and not use a single handful of mortar,” Magariz said quietly.

      “I wonder how much Jack knows about this Keep that he does not yet tell us, my friend,” Belial said.

      Magariz looked up. Today the wind was a little lighter, and he had discarded his heavy black cloak. “Belial, I worry less about what mysteries the Keep might hold than how we’re going to get into it should the men currently working in the cavern unblock the spring and allow the water to flow. At the moment we have no bridge worthy of the name.”

      As the moat had been uncovered, Belial had ordered that a rudimentary bridge be erected across the divide. But it was flimsy and only carried men on foot. The moment a surge of water rushed through it would be destroyed.

      “I’d better start the men on building a more permanent replacement,” Belial said wearily. “Although where we will find the timber needed for such a structure I do not know.” The fifteen hundred working on the moat were close to exhaustion, and Belial had wanted to give them a few days’ rest before he sent them to relieve those still labouring in the gully and cavern. But a bridge was vital.

      “No need,” said Jack behind them. Covered in grey rock dust, Jack looked as tired as Belial’s men. His chest heaved as if he had been hurrying. “When the water flows, Sigholt will create her own bridge.”

      “What?” Magariz and Belial said together.

      Jack smiled. “Sigholt is a cunning lady. She was created by ancient Icarii Enchanters. Trust her.”

      “And when will the water flow, Jack? How is the work going in the cavern?” Belial asked.

      Jack wiped his forehead, smearing rock dust into the furrows as he did so. “Your three engineers tell me that whoever filled in the spring simply tipped cartload after cartload of rocks into the fissure where the water bubbled out. Although they finished off the outer layers with mortared masonry, once we cleared those layers all we found was rubble such as filled this moat. If they had taken the time to construct tightly mortared layers from the very base of the spring our task would be so much more difficult. But now we reach the lower layers of the rubble,” he smiled, “and find that the rubble is wet. Over hundreds of years the force of the spring beneath the rubble has been slowly eroding the base of the fill. What we have started at the top, the spring itself is doing from the bottom. Perhaps, eventually, the spring would have broken free anyway.”

      “So how close are you to clearing the spring?” Magariz’s excitement was clear in his voice. For some reason he could not wait to see the water surround this gracious garrison and fill the Lake again.

      “Three days, Magariz. The men in the cavern work slowly now – they have to be careful. The engineers are planning their route through the rubble cautiously. If they have calculated correctly, then they only need remove about four paces more of rubble before the force of the underground spring will blast the rest free.”

      “And the gully?”

      “Will be clear tomorrow morning.” Jack’s eyes glistened. “In four days at the most the Lake of Life will begin to refill and … and perhaps Zeherah will be freed.”

      Magariz laid a hand on the Sentinel’s shoulder. “How long is it since you have seen her?”

      A tear escaped and trailed slowly through the rock dust covering Jack’s cheek. “Over two thousand years, Magariz. It is a hard thing to be separated from a loved one so long.”

      “I too have loved and lost and now wait,” Magariz said quietly, “although I have not had to wait two thousand years. I hope in a few days’ time your waiting, at least, will be over.”

      Belial regarded Magariz curiously. What did he mean? Belial had always supposed that, like himself, Magariz had been too wedded to his profession to think of a wife as well. But now it appeared Magariz had other, sadder, reasons for remaining unmarried. Yet Magariz was a man of honour and worth, as well as being as handsome a devil as any woman could hope to have warm her bed.

      “Stand clear!” shouted Fulbright, the senior of Belial’s engineers. “The rocks shift. Stand clear!”

      Five men deep within the fissure scrambled to the ropes awaiting them, and teams of men hauled them to the surface as quickly as they could. A rumble deep within the earth confirmed Fulbright’s worst fears.

      “Haul, damn you!” he screamed at the men pulling the ropes in, and ran to the nearest team, adding his weight and power to theirs. “Haul!”

      The gods were benign this day, for the water burst forth the instant after all five had been pulled over the edge of the fissure. “Back!” Fulbright screamed again, but the men needed no encouragement. They scrambled to safety as the water shrieked and wailed its way to freedom, carrying with it the final remnants of rubble.

      Fulbright’s eyes widened as steaming water rushed towards the roof of the cavern in a great spout, then cascaded over the lip of the fissure and down the waterway towards the gully. It was a hot spring.

      “Axis save us,” he muttered to himself. “We’ll all have a hot bath tonight.”

      Belial and Magariz stood anxiously by the moat as the steaming water surged forwards, destroying the flimsy bridge.

      Jack stood unperturbed as the broken pieces of the bridge sailed past them. “Peace, gentlemen, and wait.”

      “Wait for what?” Magariz muttered. “Someone to hand me a piece of soap? This moat will be good for nothing but bathing if we cannot get into Sigholt.”

      Jack smiled. These Acharites were so impatient. “Wait for the warmth to penetrate Sigholt’s walls, Magariz. Then watch.”

      For another half an hour they all stood there, Belial and Magariz growing increasingly agitated. There were deep ruby tints in the stream, Belial thought, probably the minerals carried to the surface by the water. Dammit! His temper abruptly broke. What were they waiting for?

      “Jack,” he began, but stopped as the Sentinel turned to him, his emerald eyes agleam.

      “Don’t you feel it?” Jack asked, excited. “Sigholt awakes. Watch the water as it flows by the gate.”

      Belial peered, then he realised there was a … film … between his eyes and the surface of the water. As he watched, it solidified until what appeared to be a solid bridge of grey stone curiously marbled with deep ruby-red veins stood before him spanning the moat.

      His eyes bulged. “What? How?” He could not get any other words out. At his side Magariz stood similarly astonished. The bridge looked solid and wide enough to support not only mounted men, but heavily laden carts as well.

      Jack waved at the bridge. “Cross, Magariz, and