comfortable spot among the rocks. Before them the wide pass spread for miles in either
direction, its pink and sandstone walls rearing thousands of feet into the sky. The larger portion
of the relatively flat floor of the pass was filled, in every direction, with slow-moving humanity
and horseflesh. Wagons and siege engines trundled northward; cattle, sheep, and goats were
herded in pools of red and cream and mottled gray through the river of soldiers; loose horses
followed their ridden companions obediently. Salome set out the bread and fruit and cheese, and they shared a flask of ale.
For a while nothing was said. They sat companionably, eating, watching Isaiah”s invasion
army creep inexorably onward.
“You”re having a baby,” said Ishbel eventually.
“And I have heard that you lost yours,” said Salome. “You can have this one, if you
wish.”
Ishbel thought about how she should react to that, then she saw Salome”s eyes twinkle,
and she thought how bizarre, yet how refreshing, it was to have someone actually make a small
jest about what had been such a tragedy, and which had tarnished two lives so badly.
“Thank you,” said Ishbel, “but I don”t think that it would look very much like
Maximilian. He might have his doubts.”
Salome laughed. “And I don”t think StarDrifter would ever let this baby out of his sight.”
And neither would you, thought Ishbel.
“Is Ravenna sleeping with Maximilian?” she said.
“Yes,” said Salome. “She has had her cap set for him, so far as I could tell, ever since she
joined up with his party at Narbon. He resisted all through the FarReach Mountains, but I believe
she managed to get her claws into him the night—”
“—the night he and she came to Isaiah”s palace at Sakkuth, and discovered my sins. I see.
Tell me, what is Ravenna?”
“What is she? A marsh woman. Apparently they tread the borderlands between this world
and the world of dreams.” Salome paused. “Not very impressive. Maximilian could surely have
done better for his comfort.”
Ishbel brushed some tears from her eyes. It hurt very badly that Maximilian was sleeping
with Ravenna.
“Her mother is traveling with Maximilian as well,” said Salome, handing the flask of ale
over to Ishbel. “Venetia. I like Venetia and I think you would, too. I think she must have chosen
badly for the father of her daughter.”
“Why are you telling me all this? Why be so kind to me? What do you hope to gain?”
Salome laughed. “Because I like the sound of you! What gumption! What talent!”
Ishbel narrowed her eyes at Salome, as if she thought the woman was crazed.
“A woman whose arts include the ability to cleanly disembowel a man with one cut?
Ishbel! I want to know how to do that!”
Ishbel smiled, unable to believe that she still could.
“And then to bed the Tyrant of Isembaard,” Salome continued, “and have him set aside
all eighty-six, or whatever the number is, wives for you. Meanwhile, your husband, yet another
king, has abandoned both kingdom and people to embark on a foolhardy rescue mission. My
dear, your skills are amazing.”
Ishbel now gave a small laugh. “Oh, Salome, everyone else judges me.”
“Ah, but I am a very bad woman,” said Salome, winking. “We have a special affinity,
you and I.”
They sat there, grinning at each other, not trusting the other one a single inch, and
suddenly a firm friendship was formed.
“Allies?” said Salome, who recognized the moment before Ishbel did. She held out her
hand.
“Allies,” said Ishbel, taking it. “I have never had a female friend before.”
Salome laughed. “Neither have I. Oh, look, who is this approaching? Can it be…?”
Ishbel looked up. Isaiah was riding toward them, Axis and Maximilian directly behind.
She felt cold, and looked away from Maximilian.
Isaiah drew his horse up when he got close to the women. “Will you mount your horses,”
he said, “and follow me?”
Then he pushed his horse forward, directly up the sloping walls of the pass.
CHAPTER THREE
Salamaan Pass, Northern Kingdoms
Isaiah dismounted at the very top of the pass, giving his horse a chance to recover from
the steep, difficult climb. He let the reins trail loose, and the stallion wandered off, nosing among the stones for any stray blade of grass.
Behind him the five other riders did the same, not speaking, Maximilian and Ishbel
carefully keeping to opposite sides of the group as they had done on the ride up the mountain.
Isaiah walked to a point where he could stand on a large, flat-topped rock and stare south.
He could see the smudge of Hairekeep in the distance, and beyond that farther still Isaiah fancied
he could just make out a black haziness that might be Sakkuth.
Aqhat he could not see at all, but he could feel it.
The Skraelings were changing into the likeness of their master. Isaiah shuddered. Since
Lister had told him about the Skraelings, Isaiah”s dreams had been disturbed by nightmarish
visions of what lay ahead.
Skraelings, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them, under the control of Kanubai.
Or of DarkGlass Mountain, and Isaiah did not know which was worse.
Where are you, Lister? he asked. What are you doing?
I am south of Hosea, my friend, traveling with a horde of creatures that I no longer feel
comfortable calling Skraelings. They no longer tolerate me so well, and I stay out of their way.
A pause, then Lister continued. Pray to the heavens, my friend, that they pass you by on
their way south.
Isaiah shivered, breaking off the connection, and turned around.
Axis had come up close, and was looking down into the pass at the slowly winding
column as it moved north.
“Why do I get the feeling,” Axis said softly, not looking at Isaiah, “that what you are
about to say will shatter worlds?”
“Worlds are already shattering, my friend,” said Isaiah. “Perhaps what I say now will
help rebuild them.”
He walked closer to the grouping of Maximilian, StarDrifter, Salome, and Ishbel.
“My lord,” Isaiah said to Maximilian, “do I have permission to speak?”
Everyone, save Axis, looked between Maximilian and Isaiah in surprise at both Isaiah”s
words and tone.
“Better you than me,” said Maximilian.
Isaiah nodded. “Very well.” He turned to the others. “I need to tell you a tale. I will be as
brief as I can. Some of you”—he glanced at Ishbel—“will have heard parts of it before.
“This is a tale of my land, now called Isembaard,” Isaiah continued, “and of the Northern
Kingdoms from Escator to the Outlands, and including Viland, Gershadi, and Berfardi. All of
these lands are wedded together more strongly than you can imagine. It is the legend of Kanubai,
the chaos of that time before life, and it is the tale of the Lord of Elcho Falling.”
Isaiah paused, walking slowly about the top of the mountain, his boots scrunching in the
loose gravel, every eye save Maximilian”s fixed on him.
Maximilian had turned very slightly, and was now looking into the distance over the
western FarReach Mountains.
“In the beginning,” Isaiah said, “and for an infinity of time there was nothing but the
darkness of Chaos, who called himself Kanubai. Kanubai grew tired of his lonely existence, and
so he invited Light and Water to be his companions. Chaos and Light and Water coexisted
harmoniously, but then one day Light and Water merged, just for an instant of time, but in that
instant they conceived a child—Life.
“Kanubai was jealous of Life, for it was the child of the union of Light and Water and he
had been excluded from that union. He set out to murder Life, to consume it with darkness and
subject it to Chaos, but Light and Water united against him in order to protect their child. Aided
by a great mage, Light and Water defeated Kanubai in battle, and they interred his remains in an
abyss. They stoppered this abyss with a sparkling, life-giving river, which combined the best of
Light and of Water, and they hoped that Chaos was trapped for all time.”
Isaiah gave a small smile, looking at each of his audience in turn. “The mage who aided
Light and Water was a man they knew only as the Lord of Elcho Falling. It was he who defeated
Kanubai in a major battle that raged for months through day and night over this entire land, and
he defeated him only with the aid of Light and Water, who were his weapons.”
Again he paused. “And who are his servants.”
“You are Water incarnate, are you not, Isaiah?” Axis said. “And Lister…Light?”
“Yes,” Isaiah said.
Axis took a deep, deep breath, glancing once more at Maximilian, who still regarded the
far distance as if it were fascinating. “Go on,” Axis said to Isaiah.
“We must shift forward in time, many millennia,” Isaiah said. “To a time some two