to fetch his generals, when he stopped dead, appalled and angry, and horribly frightened to see
Axis sitting at the table leaning back in the chair, legs crossed comfortably at the ankles, feet
resting on the table, and chatting apparently quite amiably to Lister through Isaiah”s glass
pyramid, which sat in the center of the table.
Isaiah slammed the door shut behind him, hitting one of the approaching servants in the
face.
He didn”t give a damn.
“Why, Axis,” Isaiah said softly, “what do you now?”
Axis straightened up in the chair, putting his feet back on the floor, and nodded at the
pyramid. “Lister intuited that there was a fuss. He opened the communication, Isaiah. Not I. He
wanted to know what was happening.”
“And you told him?”
“Most of it, yes,” Axis said, and Isaiah had to physically restrain himself from bunching
his fists. Had he lost control over the entire world on this day?
He looked into the glass pyramid and went cold. Always before, when he had
communicated with Lister, the man was within his palace of Crowhurst. Now, however, Lister
was garbed in a hooded black cloak, gusting in the wind, and he was standing on what appeared
to be a ridge overlooking a vast snowy plain.
Over which flowed an army of Skraeling wraiths.
The Skraelings were on the move.
A movement at the corner of his eye caught Isaiah”s attention.
It was Axis, looking intently at Isaiah and then moving his eyes fractionally toward the
pyramid.
There was something in there Axis wanted Isaiah to see.
Isaiah looked at Lister, who was smiling amiably and waiting patiently for Isaiah to greet
him, and then looked more clearly behind the man.
There was something else behind Lister other than seething wraiths and snowy plains.
Something in the sky.
Something flying, and then alighting in the distance behind and below Lister.
“Where are you, Lister?” Isaiah said, growing cold at the realization of what he”d just
seen.
“I”ve left home,” said Lister. “The wraiths decided all this waiting was terribly tedious,
and just like that they decided to head south. Swarm. They claim a deep hunger.”
“Where are you?” barked Isaiah.
Lister made a pretense of rubbing his hands together and blowing out his cheeks, as if
surprised to find himself out in the cold. “Oh, somewhere just above Gershadi, I believe,” he
said. “Nasty weather, eh?”
Then he dropped all pretense and looked very directly at Isaiah. “It is time you moved,
Isaiah. More than time, considering what Axis has just told me. An assassination attempt. And
then that scoundrel, Ba”al”uz, murdering your beautiful new bride”s child.”
Lister hesitated there, staring through the pyramid into Isaiah”s eyes, and while he did not
speak verbally, Isaiah could hear Lister”s screaming thoughts.
He murdered Maximilian and Ishbel”s child. He sacrificed it! Have you got any idea
what that child has been used for, Isaiah? Do you realize what—
“I know, Lister,” Isaiah whispered, and Axis looked strangely at him.
“What a trouble, eh?” Lister carried on, conscious that Axis was listening. “Best to leave
Isembaard behind and embark on your conquest of the northern world, yes?” His voice hardened.
“It is time to save something, Isaiah, or else lose everything.”
And then he was gone, and the pyramid dulled into lifelessness. Isaiah picked it up,
looked at it a moment, then put it away in a box.
“What did Lister mean, Isaiah?”
Isaiah gave a shrug.
Axis” eyes narrowed. There had been a great deal more to that conversation than mere
words. “Did you see the creature alighting behind Lister, Isaiah?”
“Yes. Was it an Icarii?”
“Possibly. And possibly not. Isaiah, that assassin was sent by Lister.”
Isaiah hesitated. Then, grudgingly, he answered, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Lister wants me to invade. He thought I was delaying. Therefore he created the
circumstances under which I would have to invade. If I don”t, one of the generals will be sitting
on my bloodstained throne within a week.”
And in a month after that…Kanubai?
“When, Isaiah?”
Isaiah looked at him for a long moment. “Invade. Now. In six short weeks I can be in the
Outlands.” He paused. “Did you enjoy using the pyramid, Axis?”
“Yes. I could smell the Star Dance oozing from it. Who are those almost-Icarii, Isaiah? I
feel sure that you know.”
Isaiah was saved from a response by a servant, entering the room, bowing, and
announcing the arrival of Isaiah”s generals.
Lister put his glass pyramid down in the snow, staring at it as if he would have liked to
kick it all the way to Isembaard.
“Peace, Lister,” Eleanon said, coming up behind him. “Do not destroy it now. It may yet
come in useful. Now, tell me, what has happened?”
“The assassination attempt went well.”
“Yes, I know that. Bingaleal is already well on his way home.”
“Ba”al”uz appeared from nowhere, back from Coroleas. He attempted to assassinate
Ishbel.”
“What?”
“There is worse,” Lister said very softly, staring south as if he could see into the very
heart of Aqhat. “Ba”al”uz might have failed at Ishbel, but he has taken the life of Maximilian and
Ishbel”s child. She is dead. Her head smote from her shoulders.”
“The baby is dead?”
“And Kanubai risen, no doubt, on the strength of that blood sacrifice. Curse it, Eleanon, I
can feel Kanubai in my blood and every sinew of my being. Damn Isaiah for not saving that
baby. Damn him!”
Eleanon thought about pointing out that Isaiah had likely been somewhat distracted by
the assassination attempt, but thought it politic not to say that to Lister in his current mood.
“Lister,” Eleanon said finally, “what are you going to do? What are we going to do?”
“Pray for a miracle, my beloved friend.” Lister paused, staring south as if he could will
that miracle. “Move, Isaiah. Move, damn you! Save what is left before we all die!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
The Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard
The generals, five of them, filed into Isaiah”s chamber.
They carried no weapons, but that did not lessen the danger Axis felt emanating from
them.
He regretted the lack of his own weapon.
Axis glanced at Isaiah. He appeared outwardly calm and composed, confident, but Axis
knew he had to be worried.
The generals could make or break him, here and now. After today”s—Axis glanced at the
open window, seeing with some surprise the first staining of dawn at the horizon—yesterday”s
assassination attempt, Isaiah”s vulnerability was now at a critical level.
“Axis SunSoar shall stay for this conference,” Isaiah said, waving a hand vaguely in
Axis” direction.
Axis nodded at the generals.
Isaiah wasted no time on preliminaries or niceties. “We move,” he said. “When you leave
me this morning you return to your commands and prepare for my order to march for Salamaan
Pass.”
Armat, the youngest and, Axis thought, the most dangerous of the generals, looked at the
other four generals, but the older men kept their faces expressionless.
Axis moved very slightly, putting himself to one side and between Isaiah and the
generals. It was a symbolic gesture only. He did not think the generals would—if in the mood
and if they thought the time right—attempt to murder Isaiah here and now.
That would come later. In the darkness of full night, when the assassin”s face might not
be seen.
“Are you certain we are strong enough for an invasion, Excellency?” Ezekiel said.
Are you certain you are strong enough?
“My strength,” Isaiah said softly, looking at each of the generals in turn, “depends on
your strength. I do you the honor, my friends, of trusting that you are each strong enough, and
prepared enough, to do Isembaard proud.”
Kezial made a moue. “It is just there are whispers, Excellency. People
are…anxious…after yesterday”s unfortunate events. All of Isembaard now knows the tyrant
suffered yesterday, was brought to his knees by an assassin”s arrow.”
“And all of Isembaard is worried,” said Lamiah, “that the assassin escaped so cleanly.
Who knows when he might strike again?”
Axis looked at Isaiah. The generals were probing, and they were not hiding the fact.
“The responsibility for the regrettable fact of the assassin”s escape,” Isaiah said, “I lay at
your feet. As I blame his entry. If Isembaard worries about its tyrant, who is not to say the tyrant
does not worry about the capabilities of his generals, who cannot keep a single bowman away
from their lord? Perhaps,” he continued, turning away a little and strolling about the chamber, as
if supremely relaxed, “I should consider retiring my current generals and replacing them with
more experienced command.”
He glanced pointedly at Axis.
Axis gave a soft laugh, startled and not a little annoyed by Isaiah”s insinuation. Stars,
now he had most certainly leapt to the top of the generals” assassination list!
He shot Isaiah a significant look, but Isaiah had averted his eyes and was now toying with
the Goblet of the Frogs, which he had lifted from its table.