Starman: Book Three of the Axis Trilogy

For Lynne, Tim and Frances, and with thanks to

Louise Thurtell and Fiona Daniels of

HarperCollins for all their hard work on

this trilogy.

Nothing but idiot gabble!

For the prophecy given of old

And then not understood,

Has come to pass as foretold;

Not let any man think for the public good,

But babble, merely for babble.

For I never whisper’d a private affair

Within the hearing of cat or mouse,

No, not to myself in the closet alone,

But I heard it shouted at once from the top of the house;

Everything came to be known.

Who told him we were there?

Not that gray old wolf, for he came not back

From the wilderness, full of wolves, where he used to lie;

He has gather’d the bones for his o’ergrown whelp to crack;

Crack them now for yourself, and howl, and die.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson,

from Part II.v of Maud

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Map

The Prophecy of the Destroyer

1 The Day of Power

2 The Song for Drying Clothes

3 The Sentinels

4 Ice Fortress

5 A Holy Crusade

6 Carlon

7 Timozel Plans

8 Spiredore

9 Jervois Landing

10 RuffleCrest Speaks

11 The Repository of the Gods

12 Farewell

13 Upstairs Downstairs

14 Goodwife Renkin Goes to Market

15 Three Brothers Lakes

16 The Island of Mist and Memory

17 Temple Mount

18 Niah

19 Planting

20 Brother-Leader Gilbert

21 The Sword

22 Cauldron Lake

23 The Temple of the Stars

24 The Fiend

25 Chitter, Chatter

26 Of Ice and Laughter

27 Azhure

28 Hilltop Conversations

29 Late-Night Conversations

30 The Sepulchre of the Moon

31 “May We Learn to Live with Each Other”

32 Command

33 Trap!

34 Of Tides, Trees and Ice

35 Rivkah’s Secret

36 Back to the Sacred Grove

37 “Your Tongue is Far Too Sweet”!

38 Yuletide

39 The Huntress

40 The Beat of the Star Dance

41 Fernbrake

42 Of Death and Inheritance

43 Choices

44 The Clearance of Ichtar

45 Gorgrael Considers

46 Gorkenfort

47 Sigholt

48 The Lake of Life

49 Inside the Worship Hall

50 The Hunt

51 The Grave

52 The Roof!

53 Minstrelsea

54 About the Camp Fire

55 The Dream

56 Drago

57 Talon Spike

58 Departure

59 Approach to Gorkenfort

60 Dreamers in the Snow

61 Gorken Pass

62 The Necklet

63 Urbeth’s Joke

64 The Cruel World

65 Finger of the Gods

66 The Test

67 Fire-Night

68 Ice Fortress

69 Tundra

70 “Trust Me”

71 Five Handspans of Sharpened Steel

72 The Music of the Stars

73 Of Deceptions and Disguises

74 Faraday’s Gift

Epilogue Nine years later …

Glossary

About the Author

By Sara Douglass

Copyright

About the Publisher

Map

The Prophecy of the Destroyer

A day will come when bora 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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