Sara Douglass – The Serpent Bride – DarkGlass Mountain Book 1

CHAPTER TWO

Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

Ishbel”s status changed the instant she signed the marriage contract. Suddenly no longer

the Lady Ishbel Brunelle, orphan of the Outlands and potential wife to King Maximilian of

Escator, now she was the affianced wife of Escator, due all the respect and honor that position

commanded.

As soon as Ishbel laid down the pen, Maximilian was standing, requesting Egalion to

send a member of the Emerald Guard back to Sirus” palace and inform him of the upcoming

marriage. King Sirus, who had happily ignored Ishbel to this point, would now allocate Ishbel

quarters within the palace for her use over the next two days, and would prepare to regally

welcome her as if she were only newly arrived into Pelemere.

“You don”t have much to pack, do you?” Maximilian asked Ishbel. “Perhaps we can

depart for the palace before noon and have you settle in.”

“I can be ready soon,” said Ishbel, turning for the door.

“Ishbel.”

She turned back, looking at Maximilian.

“Sirus has no idea of your association with the Coil,” he said. “No one outside this room

does. I would prefer it stay that way. You are the Lady Ishbel Brunelle of Margalit. Not Ishbel of

the Coil. Your association with them ends as of this moment.”

Garth Baxtor, watching, saw Ishbel”s face mottle with emotion, and he had his first

intimation of how much loyalty she owed the Coil. He sympathized with that—they had, after

all, taken her in when no one else would—but he also thought she must surely understand

Maximilian”s request. A Queen of Escator—a queen of anywhere—simply could not have any

ties at all with something as controversial and abhorrent as the Coil.

“You know how much I owe the—” Ishbel began.

“I know it,” said Maximilian, “but you must also know full well how reviled the Coil are

beyond its front gates. For good reason. You are now my affianced wife, and soon to be queen.

Your association with the Coil ends here and now.”

Garth looked between them, intrigued by this clash of wills.

Ishbel was by now very pale, and holding herself absolutely rigid. Garth thought she was

very close to losing her composure completely. He wondered if this was why Maximilian had

chosen this very public time to have this conversation with Ishbel—she would likely be more

circumspect in public than she would in private.

“Turn your eyes forward, Ishbel,” Maximilian said very quietly, holding her furious gaze.

“Look forward now to your new life. Forget the Coil. You”ll never go back.”

At that moment Garth saw something flare deep in Ishbel”s eyes. She struggled with

herself, managed to control her temper with a supreme effort, gave a jerk of her head, and left the

room.

There was a silence, broken eventually by Baron Lixel huffing in embarrassment and

gathering up the papers. “I”ll, um, get these in order then,” he said, and hurried from the room.

Maximilian looked over to Garth.

“Are you sure you want to marry this woman, Maxel?” Garth asked gently.

“I need a wife,” Maximilian said, “and Escator needs wealth. I want children and she is

pregnant. She will do.”

Then he, too, left the room, leaving Garth staring after him.

Ishbel sat on her bed in her chamber, clothes scattered about her, trembling in absolute

fury. She had never been so angry and so humiliated in all her life.

Who was he to tell her to forget the Coil?

She couldn”t stop shaking, and she hated that. She beat her fists slowly on the bed,

despising herself for capitulating to him.

Again.

What Ishbel hated most, though, was that she understood why Maximilian had said what

he had. She was going to have to come to terms with the outside world”s revulsion of the way of

the Coil.

Slowly she managed to relax. She would never mention the Coil to Maximilian again.

She would not defend it, nor allude to it. She would, to all intents and purposes, turn her eyes

forward as he had commanded.

“But I will not turn my back on you, Great One,” Ishbel whispered, and made the sign of

the Coil over her belly with her right fist.

What Maximilian did not understand was that the Coil lay as much in her future as it did

in her past.

She was the Coil.

CHAPTER THREE

Margalit, the Outlands

Ba”al”uz had been traveling north for many weeks. It had been tiresome, difficult, and

very often dangerous, but he had enjoyed every moment of it. He”d never traveled beyond the

borders of the Tyranny previously, and he found the exposure to different cultures and peoples

exhilarating and rewarding.

He despised everyone he met, of course, but that only added to the serenity of his own

world and to his belief that there were very few people in the world worth truly caring about.

Late one night, lying wrapped in his blanket in the extreme northern reaches of the Salamaan

Pass, watching crisp stars weaving their majesty through the sky, Ba”al”uz had a moment of

absolute revelation: the lives of men and women were worthless. There was only himself, and

Kanubai waiting inside DarkGlass Mountain, and the future that mattered.

Kanubai continued to whisper in his mind throughout the journey. He also whispered in

the minds of the eight men Ba”al”uz traveled with, although never as clearly as in Ba”al”uz”

mind.

The Eight were receptive. Ba”al”uz had, after all, chosen well in his companions. To

augment Kanubai”s whisperings, Ba”al”uz related to the men the powers and riches that could be

theirs if they allied themselves with the powerful Kanubai.

Better allied with him, Ba”al”uz argued, than set against him.

The Eight agreed. Their lives were as nothing under Isaiah. Kanubai clearly promised

better.

Ba”al”uz said to the Eight that an army would be theirs for the taking if they pledged

Kanubai their loyalty, and with that army they would control the world.

“Kanubai,” said Ba”al”uz, “wishes me to be his general and you his captains.”

The Eight looked at him long and hard at that, but they agreed.

Better to be allied with He Who Approached, and his captains, than die as his enemy.

“There is nothing in this world but Kanubai,” said Ba”al”uz one night, and the Eight

nodded in complete agreeance.

“Everything,” said Ba”al”uz, “must be subsumed to him.”

“Everything,” murmured the Eight.

“Including us,” said Ba”al”uz.

There was a small hesitation. “Including us,” the Eight eventually muttered.

“Although we, naturally, shall enjoy great rewards and privileges for our work on his

behalf.”

“Naturally,” the Eight agreed, no hesitation this time.

“He needs to feed,” said Ba”al”uz.

“Yes,” said the Eight.

“It has been a very long time since he has fed.”

“Of course.”

“If we show Kanubai our devotion in this small matter,” said Ba”al”uz, “then I am certain

he shall be grateful.”

Subsequently, on their passage northward through Adab and then through the Outlands

toward Margalit, Ba”al”uz and the Eight, periodically, and very, very carefully and quietly,

embarked on a campaign of murder. Not very much; just a life here and there and none who

would be missed too greatly. These lives they offered to Kanubai, and to DarkGlass Mountain

itself. Whenever possible, Ba”al”uz and the Eight gathered about the dying victim, watching the

light fade from his or her eyes, sensing that far, far away, Kanubai grew stronger for the food.

Besides, the odd murder here and there was good practice for what lay ahead.

At night, Kanubai whispered ever more clearly in Ba”al”uz” mind, and told him of an

object he wanted.

Very badly.

The object, as strange as it seemed, was sure to cast Isaiah down into the bleakness of the

abyss that Kanubai would shortly vacate. Delighted by the prospect, Ba”al”uz agreed to fetch the

object once his business in the north was concluded.

Whatever loyalty he”d once owed Isaiah (not much, in any case) was now long gone.

Ba”al”uz was Kanubai”s, through and through.

After many weeks of travel Ba”al”uz and the Eight arrived at Margalit. Here, once they

were fed and settled and bathed and had enjoyed a few good nights of sleep in comfortable beds,

they would embark on the initial stages of creating the chaos needed to pave the way for Isaiah”s

and Lister”s invasion. The only reason they continued to act as Isaiah and Lister expected them

to was because their purpose suited Kanubai as much as it suited Isaiah and Lister. It was for

Kanubai”s sake that Ba”al”uz and his Eight continued on with the plan.

But first, definitely, a bit of rest and recreation. A murder would have been vastly

enjoyable, but Ba”al”uz was circumspect within Margalit. There was just one man they wanted to

murder here, and that not for a few days; no point risking discovery for the sake of a moment or

two of extra enjoyment. So, instead of hunting out a victim, the group took themselves off to a