Sara Douglass – The Serpent Bride – DarkGlass Mountain Book 1

mountain in the world.

Inhabited once by giants among men, Ional had said, and a legendary warrior-king who

wielded magic beyond comprehension, but now left with only us to keep its empty spaces

company.

Ishbel could well believe that giants had once lived here. Well, many people, at the very

least. The Coil only occupied a hundredth of the chambers that had been thus far explored, and

there were yet more corridors and tunnels that led deep into the mountain through which no one

had yet dared venture. No one knew who or what had once lived here. Ional had told Ishbel that

the Coil had lived here for twenty-three generations, but that the mountain stronghold had been

long empty when the Coil had first arrived.

The stairs suddenly broadened, and Ishbel felt the first breath of sea air wash over her

face. She smiled, relaxing, and stepped onto the eastern balcony. Ishbel had found this place in

her tenth year, and had come here regularly ever since. No one else ever used the balcony, and

Ishbel was not sure that anyone else even knew how to reach it.

Perhaps, among the myriad stairwells and corridors and possibilities that Serpent”s Nest

offered, no one else had ever found this particular stairwell.

Ishbel leaned back against the stone face of the mountain, the semicircular balustrade of

the balcony wall two paces before her, and looked out over the Infinity Sea.

By the Great Serpent, was there ever a more beautiful view?

The mountain that Ishbel knew as Serpent”s Nest rose directly above the vast Infinity

Sea, its eastern face, where Ishbel now relaxed on her balcony, plunging almost a thousand paces

into the gray-blue waters of the sea. Ishbel loved the great vastness of the ocean stretching out

before her, with its wildness, its unpredictability, its strangeness, and its unknowable secrets.

Behind her rose the comforting solidity of the mountain, almost warm against her back.

Ishbel took a deep breath, forcing herself to think about what had happened today. The

horror of the Great Serpent”s vision…she shuddered as she replayed in her mind the sight of the

ice wraiths with their huge silvery orbs for eyes and their oversized teeth, swarming over the

mountain.

And the solution…

Ishbel shuddered again. Leave Serpent”s Nest? Marriage? Marriage? Ishbel could almost

not comprehend it. She struggled to remember household life in her parents” home. Her mother

had been bound to the house, supervising the servants, the mending of linens, deciding what food

should be served to her father for his dinner, being pleasant and hospitable to visitors. Her

parents had been wealthy and important people, but Ishbel could remember that faint touch of

servitude in her mother”s manner to her husband—how the entire household revolved around his

wants and needs—and even to those visitors that her husband needed to impress. She

remembered how tired her mother had constantly appeared, worn down by the responsibilities of

the house and her large family.

True, marriage to a king would be different, but not so greatly. Ishbel would still be his

inferior, and would still need to subject herself to him, as would any wife.

Here she was Aziel”s equal, respected by all other members of the Coil, and feared by

those who came to the Coil seeking their visionary aid.

Even worse, Ishbel would need to subject herself physically to the man. Ishbel had led an

utterly chaste life since her arrival at Serpent”s Nest. She did not even think of any of the male

members (or any of the female members, for that matter) in sexual terms. She could not imagine

a man thinking he had the right to touch her, and to use her body in the most intimate sense. She

could not imagine having to subject herself to such intrusion.

And to lose all the support she had at Serpent”s Nest in the doing. To lose everything she

held dear, and which kept her safe, for such a life.

“The Great Serpent must be mistaken,” she said. “This can”t be the solution.”

Ishbel straightened, squaring her shoulders, determined in her decision. “I will tell Aziel

that I was mistaken, that I misinterpreted the Great Serpent”s words, that—”

Ishbel, do as I have asked.

Ishbel froze in the act of moving toward the opening that led to the stairwell.

Very slowly, so slowly she thought she could hear the bones in her neck creak, Ishbel

looked up toward the distant peak of the mountain.

An apparition of the Great Serpent writhed there: the setting sun glinted off his black

scales and shimmered along the fangs of his slightly open mouth. His head wove back and forth,

as if tasting the wind; then he slowly wound his way down the mountain toward Ishbel.

Do as I ask, Ishbel.

Ishbel could not move, let alone speak.

The Great Serpent wound closer, sliding between rocks and through cracks with ease

until his head hung some ten paces above Ishbel.

Do as I ask.

Ishbel was recovered from her initial shock. The Great Serpent had occasionally appeared

to her, but it had been when she was a young child and still wept for her mother. Then he had come to comfort her. Now, it seemed, he was here to ensure Ishbel did as he wished. Given that

Ishbel had just spent some long minutes silently fuming at the idea she should have to subject

herself to the wishes of a husband, the idea that the Great Serpent was here to force her to his

will irritated her into a small rebellion.

“I cannot see how marriage to Maximilian would help, Great One. We need armies,

warriors, magicians—”

I need you to marry Maximilian Persimius. Ishbel, do as I bid.

Ishbel”s mouth compressed. “One of the other priestesses, perhaps. I—”

The Great Serpent”s mouth flared wide in anger, and his tongue forked close to her hair.

Ishbel—

Then, stunningly, another voice, a male voice, and one much gentler than that of the

Great Serpent.

Ishbel, you need not fear.

Ishbel spun about, looking to the stone balustrading. An oversized frog balanced there, its

body so insubstantial she could see right through it to the sea beyond.

A frog, but one such as she had never seen previously. He was very large, as big as a

man”s head, and quite impossibly beautiful. This beauty was mostly due to his eyes, great black

pools of kindness and comfort.

He shifted a little on the balustrade—

Almost as if he balanced on the rim of a goblet…

—unconcerned about the precipitous drop behind him.

Ishbel, he said, listen to my comrade, no matter how distasteful you think his directive.

He is arrogant, sometimes, and uncaring of the fragility of those to whom he speaks.

“I am not fragile,” Ishbel said, almost automatically. This apparition was a god also: she

could feel the power emanating from him, and she sensed that perhaps he was even more potent

than the Great Serpent. It was a different power, though. Far more subtle, more gentle.

Compassionate.

For some reason Ishbel”s eyes filled with tears. It was almost as if the frog god could see

into her innermost being, where she still wept for her mother, and where she still shook with

terror from the whisperings of her mother”s corpse.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice soft and deferential now, where she had been

irritated with the Great Serpent.

Above her head the Great Serpent gave a theatrical sigh. A companion through a long

journey, Ishbel. My aquatic friend here keeps watch on the ancient evil to the south whereas I, it

seems, must spend my time seeing that my archpriestess does her duty as she is bound. There

was a moment of silence. I can”t think what he does here.

Ishbel felt amusement radiating from the frog.

I feared that if you got too dramatic, my serpent friend, the frog said, Ishbel might be

forced to throw herself from this balcony in sheer terror at your persuasive abilities.

Ishbel bit her lip to stop her smile. For a moment the frog god”s eyes met hers, and she

felt such a connection with him that her eyes widened in surprise.

You are not alone, the frog said, into her mind alone. We may not meet for a long time,

but you are not alone.

“Must I marry this man?” Ishbel said.

Yes, said the frog. It shall not be a terror for you, for he is a gentle man. Do not be

afraid.

Your union with this man is vital, said the Great Serpent. Allow nothing to impede it.

You will do whatever you must in order to become Maximilian Persimius” wife. Whatever you

must!

He paused, then added in a gentler tone, You will return to Serpent”s Nest, Ishbel. It shall

be your home once again.

Then, as suddenly as both the frog god and the Great Serpent had appeared, they were

gone, and Ishbel was left standing alone on the balcony high above the Infinity Sea.