Free Enchanter by Sara Douglass

this."
    "Yes," Ogden nodded slowly. "Veremund and I heard it too. He sang beautifully."
    "Yes," MorningStar repeated woodenly, her face set into hard lines. "Axis.
    You have learned well since your arrival in Talon Spike. Too well. Far too well. I have wondered why many times. When you sang the Song of Harmony it confirmed my worst fears. Axis, StarDrifter and I have not been training you at all. We have simply been reminding you. You have already been trained, probably as a very small child."
    She paused, and when she resumed her words were chill stones in the absolute silence of the chamber. "Who trained you as a child, Axis? Who?"
    Axis gaped at her. She looked fierce, almost ready to attack, and he stood slowly. "MorningStar, what do you mean? Trained? How? Who by? If I have been already trained then why haven't I been able to use my powers all my life? No.
    No, you must be wrong."
    MorningStar held his eyes steadily. If he was only pretending confusion, then he was doing a good job. "You must have been trained at a very young age and undoubtedly you do not remember it. Because you never used your powers they fell into disuse as you grew older. But over the past year, as the Prophecy and its Sentinels unlocked your past, as you discovered your true identity, the Songs have drifted back."
    "But, MorningStar," Veremund began, "I thought that only another Enchanter of the same family could teach an Enchanter."
    MorningStar gave a curt nod. "You are right." "Then who else is there in your family who could have had access to Axis? What other Enchanters?"
    MorningStar lifted her chin. "StarDrifter and I are the only two SunSoar Enchanters - apart, of course, from Axis himself. I received my powers from my mother, DriftStar, also a SunSoar, but she died some three hundred years ago."
    "Are you saying that there is another SunSoar Enchanter running about?"
    Azhure asked. Everyone in the room jumped slightly; they had forgotten her presence. "Someone you aren't aware of? Someone who taught Axis as a baby?"
    MorningStar stared at Azhure, who had risen slowly to her feet. She nodded.
    "Yes. I was afraid to say the words, but yes. That is what I think."
    "But who?" Axis said. "Why hide from me? And how did an Icarii Enchanter have access to me in the Seneschal? Howl I don't understand."
    "My son," StarDrifter stepped up to Axis and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I fear there might be worse. If there is another SunSoar Enchanter about then...then ..." he hesitated, "then it might explain who taught Gorgrael as well."
    MorningStar visibly rocked on her feet, and her hand drifted to her throat in horror. "Gorgrael?"
    "After Yuletide FreeFall asked me how Gorgrael had learned his powers,"
    StarDrifter said, dropping his hand fromAxis' shoulder and moving to his mothers side. "I said then that he'd obtained his powers from the music of discord, the Dance of Death, rather than the Star Dance. But I evaded the real issue. Gorgrael had to be taught how to use that music as well, and he had to be taught by someone of the same blood. A family member. A SunSoar Enchanter."
    "But who? And who would teach both? And teach them each such different music?" MorningStar turned to the Sentinels. "Ogden, Veremund, can you help us? Please?"
    They shook their heads and Veremund spread his hands helplessly. "There are many riddles within the Prophecy we do not understand, but I do not think the Prophecy even alludes to this problem, MorningStar. All the Prophecy tells us is that the same man fathered both the Destroyer and the StarMan - StarDrifter, as we now know. It says nothing about who trained them. But a SunSoar presumably, as they are both of SunSoar blood."
    "Axis." Now MorningStar addressed her grandson. "Do you know? Is there anything you should be telling us?"
    Axis' temper boiled over. "I do not lie to you, Morning-Star, and I do not dissemble! If I knew anything I would tell you!"
    Azhure moved to his side and rested a soothing hand