Starman: Book Three of the Axis Trilogy. Sara Douglass

said. “See how easily he has learned the Song for Drying Clothes!” Oh, how much it stung that she could not learn even a ridiculously mundane Song while a child less than a year old could do so! “And he is as closely blood linked to me as WolfStar.”

      Surprised, for he had never thought of such a thing, Axis raised his eyebrows at StarDrifter in silent query. A child teach a parent? It had never been done before – but then never before had an Icarii Enchanter come to his or her powers after they had fathered or birthed a child.

      Neither Axis nor StarDrifter liked the thought – a largely untrained child could do enormous damage to an equally untrained parent, but what harm could the Song for Drying Clothes cause? At most, it could cause a warm breeze to fill the room. And if Caelum could teach Azhure, then it would be best to find out now.

      StarDrifter caught Axis’ thoughts and nodded slightly.

      Axis turned his gaze to his son, still cross at him for showing off in front of his mother. Even Caelum at his tender age should have had more sensitivity.

       Well Caelum, would you like to try?

      It was a thought that all in the room caught. The ability to hear and, eventually, speak with the mind voice was one of the earliest powers Azhure had demonstrated, and it was a skill she developed day by day. At least she had that much.

      The child nodded soberly, ashamed for the hurt he had caused his mother.

      Axis picked the baby up and sat him on his knee. The child reached out his chubby hands and Azhure, after a slight hesitation, took them in her own.

      Again they went through the routine, Caelum using his mind voice to talk to Azhure – for it was easier for him than his still cumbersome tongue. Azhure closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could, and yet, when he had finished singing and it was her turn, all that issued forth from her mouth were such discordant notes that the three Enchanters’ faces sank.

      “Useless,” Azhure said, and turned away from the others so they would not see her tears.

      “Azhure,” StarDrifter said. “No-one knows how changed WolfStar was when he came back through the Star Gate. How his power was altered by his experiences beyond the Star Gate. It is more than conceivable that WolfStar has bequeathed you power through his blood that is different to any the Icarii have known previously. So different that you cannot be trained through traditional methods. You cannot even use your power in the traditional way. Axis –” His voice firmed. “Azhure obviously has power, we both witnessed her tear that Gryphon apart.”

      Axis nodded, and even Azhure wiped her eyes and stared at StarDrifter.

      “We witnessed Azhure use power, Dark Music, to destroy the Gryphon that threatened her and Caelum, but we did not hear her sing!”

      “Stars!” Axis said, shocked he hadn’t remembered that himself.

      StarDrifter suddenly laughed, his beautiful face joyous, and he deposited Caelum on the floor and seized Azhure’s hands in his own. “Azhure! You have power, magnificent power, but it is so different to what any of us have experienced before that we do not know how to teach you. We probably can’t teach you, anyway.”

      Azhure smiled as she absorbed what StarDrifter was saying. “Then what use is such magnificent power, StarDrifter, if the only time I can use it is when I am attacked by a Gryphon?”

      Despite the concern evident in her words, Azhure’s voice was more relaxed now and her tone lighter.

      “Azhure,” Axis said. “There are many reasons why you may be finding it so difficult to use your powers. StarDrifter has perhaps discovered the main one. But also you effectively blocked out your power for so many years that I am not surprised you find it almost impossible to call it willingly to you now.”

      Azhure reflected on his words, her smile losing some of its brilliance. Over the past few nights vaguely troubling dreams with even more troubling voices had disturbed her rest, but she could never remember the details when she woke. Were they a manifestation of her newly freed power bubbling uncontrolled to the surface? Perhaps she ought to talk to Axis about them – but all thoughts of dreams were forgotten with her husband’s next words.

      “And,” Axis continued, “our unborn children may also be causing a block.”

      Three days ago Axis, according to the right and duty of every Icarii father, had awoken her twin babies. When he had done this for Caelum, calling the baby to awareness within her womb, it had been a joyous affair, but this awakening – the whole pregnancy – had been so different. The babes had witnessed what she and Axis had seen when he had forced Azhure to remember her mother’s death and her subsequent physical and emotional torture at Hagen’s hands. As she and Axis had endured the pain and the horror, so had her two unborn babies. Faraday had said that she thought the babies would be affected by the experience, although she did not know how. Now, both Azhure and Axis knew.

      The awakening had been successful as the babies were now fully aware and active. But during the awakening, and in the days since, it had become painfully obvious that the twin babes distrusted and disliked their father. Azhure and Axis could feel their resentment every time Axis touched their mother; even now, cuddled together on the couch, both could feel the rising hostility from the twins. It made anything more intimate an impossibility; both Azhure’s weak state and the twins’ antagonism meant Axis and Azhure had yet to consummate their marriage. Axis had tried to harm the woman who carried them and, unlike Caelum, the twins were not prepared to forgive him. Yet even Azhure did not enjoy their affection; she sensed total disinterest seeping into her from the babies. They existed only for each other, their parents either untrusted or inconsequential.

      Axis had not realised Azhure was pregnant for so long because he’d never felt the tug of the growing babies’ blood. Even before the trauma of four days ago, he mused, the twins had been so self-absorbed that their SunSoar blood had not reached out beyond each other.

      It made him wonder what kind of children he’d fathered.

      The twins, as would be natural for children conceived of such powerful parents, would be Enchanters in their own right – even now they demonstrated their awakening powers in the womb. Azhure sighed. Since their awakening the twins had refused to listen to Axis on the five occasions he’d tried to teach them.

      Were they somehow blocking Azhure’s powers now?

      Axis and Azhure glanced at each other, then at StarDrifter, letting him share their thoughts. They had told him of the problems with the twins and, unbelievably, when he had tried, StarDrifter actually had more success communicating with the babies than Axis did. Azhure had not let StarDrifter touch her when she was pregnant with Caelum, but she knew that StarDrifter would undoubtedly be the Enchanter who conducted the majority of the twins’ training while they were in the womb.

      Now StarDrifter shook his head. “No, I don’t think they would do that. Powerful as they might be, they aren’t yet that powerful. And why would they want to block your power, in any case? No, Azhure. Unless you slip naturally into your powers, ease into them as time goes by, the only person who can teach you is WolfStar.”

       3 The Sentinels

      Several floors below, the Sentinels sat in a circle, holding hands. They were silent as they remembered.

      It had been a fine night, some three thousand years ago, when the Charonites had massed in the chamber below the well that led to the cave on the banks of the Nordra River.

      The races of the Charonites and Icarii, both descended from the original Enchantress, had separated some twelve thousand years previously. As the Icarii loved the open sky and worshipped the stars, so they developed wings to give vent to their longings. But the Charonites were far more introspective, preferring the depths to the heights. Eventually they discovered and developed the UnderWorld and the