was not responsible for that assassin. I am not even convinced he was Icarii. There was
something about him…”
Ezekiel arched an eyebrow.
“Ah, I don”t know,” said Axis. “I can”t put a finger to it. Just a…strangeness. Ezekiel,
will you tell me something?”
Ezekiel retreated only a little into wariness. “Perhaps.”
“I have been here a year now, and I have yet to hear of the debacle of the Eastern
Independencies. What happened, Ezekiel? I know enough of Isaiah to know he is a more than
competent commander. Considering the forces he has to command and what I have heard are the
inadequacies of the Eastern Independencies…”
“The campaign to take the Eastern Independencies,” said Ezekiel, “was Isaiah”s first
major campaign. It should have been a walkover.”
“But…”
“All went well. Isaiah led a vast army toward the Independencies. There were a few
skirmishes. Then, on the night before what would have been a—and probably the only—major
battle with the deeply inadequate forces of the Eastern Independencies, Isaiah disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
Ezekiel gave a small shrug. “Was taken. Kidnapped, if you like. It was a massive
embarrassment for his security guard. He was in his command tent, late at night. Alone. The tent
was ringed with armed men, all awake and alert. The men later said they”d heard the sound of a
scuffle inside the tent, and as some tightened the ring about the perimeter of Isaiah”s tent, others
rushed inside.
“Isaiah was gone. Vanished. It was inexplicable. Ah…shetzah!” Ezekiel cursed, waving a
hand about in the air as if somehow the air could explain it all, and Axis could see that the
kidnap still troubled the general.
“You couldn”t find him?” Axis said.
Ezekiel grunted. “We searched, the entire army searched, and we could not find him. He
was gone a month.”
“And the Independencies” army? They…”
“Laughed at us. I swear we could hear them from several miles distance. Then they
packed up and went home. They did not fear us.”
“They didn”t have him?”
“We sent emissaries, but their generals swore they hadn”t taken Isaiah, and we were
forced to believe them.”
“You didn”t attack?”
Ezekiel hesitated. “No. We didn”t. The Independencies” generals said the ground itself
was infested with evil spirits, and that if we attacked them then we”d vanish as Isaiah had.”
“And you believed them?”
“You weren”t there!” Ezekiel snapped. “And it wasn”t so much a matter of attacking the
Independencies to see if we could recover Isaiah…ah, Axis, you know us, and you know the way
our society works. Everyone with claim to a fistful of power lusts for the throne. So…once we”d
established that Isaiah was well and truly gone…”
“The Eastern Independencies were forgotten for the moment as various generals vied for
the throne.”
“Yes. We fought among ourselves. It was not our proudest moment, Axis. There we
were, in the middle of a vast, arid, gods-forgotten plain, and Isaiah”s army descended into
madness as general fought against general and company against company. Scores were settled,
rivalries decided, and one of my comrades, General Thettle, finally managed to seize control. It
was a bloody, stupid, inexcusable mess. Tens of thousands died.”
Axis was so astounded he could not comment. How could such undiscipline, such sheer
stupidity, have not witnessed the fall of the Tyranny well before now? He had to silently
congratulate whoever had taken Isaiah…they”d known just how easily the Isembaardian army
could be brought to its knees.
“It took a month,” Ezekiel continued, “but Thettle got what he wanted. We were in
desperate straits, almost out of supplies, vulnerable, but at least we had a tyrant again. Thettle
had himself crowned and anointed in the middle of the bloodstained plain. I…I…was the one to
slip the golden collar of command about his shoulders. I stood back, and Thettle walked forward
to receive the acclaim of the assembled soldiers, and…”
“And…” Axis was on the edge of his seat by now, his wine forgotten.
“Isaiah appeared out of nowhere…out of nowhere, Axis, and walked up to Thettle and
struck his head from his body with his sword. Then he took the blood-soaked golden collar from
Thettle”s corpse, draped it about his own shoulders, and announced we were going home.”
“I…what…where…”
Ezekiel grinned wryly. “That just about mirrors the reaction of the entire army, Axis. We
were all stunned, speechless, desperate to know what had happened, where Isaiah had been, who
had taken him…and he told us nothing. He simply ordered the army home…and home we came.
He has never spoken of that month since, where he had been, what had happened, who had taken
him.”
“Do you think he”d managed it himself? Scared of the impending battle, perhaps?”
“Isaiah has never been a man to be scared of battle, Axis. Besides, there was no escape
from that tent. Whoever took him had power of some sort.”
“Isaiah…the other night…with the Goblet of the Frogs…”
“Isaiah came back changed, Axis. He is a different man to what he was once. Before the
Eastern Independencies campaign Isaiah was a mirror of his father, short-tempered, brutal,
viciously ambitious. Everyone was terrified of him. But that”s not the man you know, is it?”
“No.”
“I don”t know what happened to him, Axis, but Isaiah now is vastly different to the Isaiah
who first took the throne. And, to be frank, I think I am even more scared of this one.” Ezekiel
gave a grunt of humorless laughter. “Sometimes we probe him, Axis, as you saw, but then he
does something, and it reminds us of the look we saw in his eyes when he strode out of thin air
and took Thettle”s life, and we back off.”
He paused. “Armat is the only one who wasn”t there. Who didn”t see that look. He is the
one to watch, Axis. He is the one who will make the move on Isaiah eventually.”
They had made love, somewhat cautiously, and very gently, and now Ishbel lay sleeping
in Isaiah”s arms. Isaiah eased himself away from her, and then out of the bed.
He lifted his head and, as he had done so much this past fortnight, and as he had done
ever since he had come to live at Aqhat, he looked out the window to where he knew DarkGlass
Mountain rose on the far side of the river.
Then, not pausing to clothe himself, Isaiah left the chamber.
Ishbel opened her eyes as soon as he had gone.
She lay there for all the hours that Isaiah was away, and wept very softly. She wished she
hadn”t slept with him, for all she had been able to think about while they had made love was that
he was not Maximilian.
She had thought sleeping with Isaiah would be a comfort to her, but in reality all it had
done was drive home to her how much she missed Maximilian. How much she wanted him.
It was, she thought, a truly pitiful time to realize just how much she had loved
Maximilian.
Too late now. Too late for everything.
He went down to the river, knowing this would be the last chance in a very long
time—perhaps forever.
He bathed ritually, as he always did, cleansing himself within the pure waters of the Lhyl.
Then, still wet, he crouched in the shallows and looked up at DarkGlass Mountain in the
distance.
Kanubai was within. Not yet strong, but born.
When he did grow strong, as he surely would within a few months at the very least,
Kanubai would be viciously strong.
He had been born of the blood of the child of the Lord of Elcho Falling, the only one now
who could save this world, but whose task was now grown infinitely more difficult.
And as for DarkGlass Mountain itself, Isaiah swore he could feel it watching him. Like
Kanubai, it also needed to grow strong, but once it was strong…
Isaiah didn”t like running away from Kanubai, or DarkGlass Mountain, but he also knew
he had no choice. No one was ready to confront either Kanubai or the pyramid. No one, not even
himself or Lister, had the power.
Not this time around. He and Lister had exhausted themselves when first they”d pushed
Kanubai down into the abyss. Chaos would not allow himself to be trapped so easily as he had the first time. Now Chaos had an ally who completely altered the balance of power between him
and Light and Water.
Sighing, Isaiah looked down to the river water. He spoke to it gently, wishing it well,
saying good-bye, and promising to return if and when he could. He begged it to be strong, and to
endure, and to hope that with fortune and fortitude it would again one day ring with the Song of
the Frogs.
Isaiah paused a while, weeping, then he reached out both hands, cupping them just above
the surface of the river, and he spoke a phrase in a strange, guttural language.