Sara Douglass
Battle Axe
Book One of The Axis Trilogy

Copyright

HarperVoyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.voyager-books.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1999

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © Sara Douglass 1995

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN: 9780006511069

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2012 ISBN:9780007378593

Version: 2016-03-01

The books of The Axis Trilogy are for three respectable historians. A. Lynn Martin, Tim Stretton and Frances Gladwin, who have regarded with amiable tolerance their colleague’s slow drift into the Star Dance. May Fran eventually win her own battle with prophecy and may the realm and people of Achar help Lynn and Tim recall the days of the twelve months.

If my fortunes torment me, my hopes shall content me.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Map

Prophecy of the Destroyer

Prologue

1 The Tower of the Seneschal

2 At King Priam’s Court

3 The Lady of Tare

4 At the Foot of the Fortress Ranges

5 In the Palace of the King

6 In the King’s Privy Chamber

7 In the Brother-Leader’s Palace Apartment

8 Faraday’s Betrothal

9 Leavetakings at Dawn

10 Across the Plains of Tare

11 Unlocked Doors

12 At the Edge of the Silent Woman Woods

13 The Cauldron Lake

14 Inside the Silent Woman Keep

15 Silent Woman Night

16 Two White Donkeys

17 The Ancient Barrows

18 The Sentinels Speak

19 A Cloudy Day

20 The Storm

21 Inside the Enchanter-Talon’s Tomb

22 Evening by the Barrows

23 The Star Gate

24 Across the Plains of Arcness

25 The Goodpeople Renkin

26 “Belle My Wife!”

27 Towards Fernbrake Lake

28 Fernbrake Lake

29 The Bane and the Child

30 The Mother

31 Smyrton

32 The Prisoners

33 The Forbidden Valley

34 GhostTree Clan

35 StarMan

36 The GhostTree Camp

37 Jervois Landing

38 Sigholt

39 Rivkah Awakes

40 Gorkenfort

41 The Duchess of Ichtar

42 Re-Acquaintances

43 The SkraeBold Speaks

44 Vows and Memories

45 The Groves

46 In the Hand of Artor

47 In the Hands of the Mother

48 Yuletide Morning

49 Yuletide

50 The Streets of Gorkentown

51 The Lake of Life

52 The Earth Tree Grove

53 Departures

54 The Charonites

55 The Assembly of the Icarii

56 FreeFall SunSoar

57 Escape from Gorkenfort

58 BattleAxe

Keep Reading

Glossary

About the Author

By Sara Douglass

About the Publisher

When will the hundred summers die,

And thought and time be born again,

And newer knowledge, drawing nigh,

Bring truth that sways the soul of men?

Here all things in their place remain,

As were all order’d, ages since.

Come, Care and Pleasure, Hope and Pain,

And bring the fated fairy Prince.

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON,

“The Slewing Palace”

Map

The Prophecy of the Destroyer

A day will come when born will be

Two babes whose blood will tie them.

That born to Wing and Horn will hate

The one they call the StarMan.

Destroyer! rises in the north

And drives his Ghostmen south;

Defenceless lie both flesh and field

Before Gorgrael’s ice.

To meet this threat you must release

The StarMan from his lies,

Revive Tencendor, fast and sure

Forget the ancient war,

For if Plough, Wing and Horn can’t find

The bridge to understanding,

Then will Gorgrael earn his name

And bring Destruction hither.

StarMan, listen, heed me well,

Your power will destroy you

If you should wield it in the fray

’Ere these prophecies are met:

The Sentinels will walk abroad

’Til power corrupt their hearts;

A child will turn her head and cry

Revealing ancient arts;

A wife will hold in joy at night

The slayer of her husband;

Age-old souls, long in cribs,

Will sing o’er mortal land;

The remade dead, fat with child

Will birth abomination;

A darker power will prove to be

The father of salvation.

Then waters will release bright eyes

To form the Rainbow Sceptre.

StarMan, listen, for I know

That you can wield the sceptre

To bring Gorgrael to his knees

And break the ice asunder.

But even with the power in hand

Your pathway is not sure:

A Traitor from within your camp

Will seek and plot to harm you;

Let not your Lover’s pain distract

For this will mean your death;

Destroyer’s might lies in his hate

Yet you must never follow;

Forgiveness is the thing assured

To save Tencendor’s soul.

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