and an adventurous constitution, and even a glamorous constitution.”
Now Ishbel laughed. “You are a likeable physician, Zeboath.”
“I strive for it, my lady.”
“Not all physicians are as likeable.”
Curious, Zeboath was about to ask what had sparked that remark when Axis SunSoar
entered the room.
“Ishbel,” he said, nodding at her. “Zeboath, how is she this morning?”
“You may ask her yourself,” Zeboath said. “I believe her voice has quite recovered.”
Axis smiled and inscribed a small bow before Ishbel, seated at the small table in her
room. “I apologize, Ishbel. I did not mean to speak as if you were not here.”
“I am feeling much better, thank you. Zeboath”s herbal drafts have done me much good.”
Axis glanced at Zeboath and noted his flush of pleasure. “He is a good physician,” Axis
said, “and much wasted here at Torinox. Zeboath, once Ishbel has recovered sufficiently we shall
need to ride to Aqhat. Would you accompany us? Isaiah provided my company all its needs, save
for a physician. Or do you have ties with the resettlement peoples that you can”t—”
“I”ll come,” said Zeboath. “Thank you!”
“You are hungry for the excitement of Aqhat, I think,” Axis said, glad the man had
accepted. Even in the short time they”d been at Torinox he”d grown to like Zeboath very much,
and physicians were always useful around fighting men. “Now,” he continued, keeping his tone
light and bantering, “if you”d care to leave the lady and myself alone…”
“I don”t know that I should,” Zeboath said, responding to Axis” tone. “I fear for my
lady”s virtue.”
“Come, come,” said Axis, “if you”re going to run with a band of unscrupulous fighting
men, then you”ll need to accept their dissolute ways.”
Both men laughed, and Zeboath exited, bowing at Ishbel from the door.
Once the door had closed, Axis sat down at the table, and noticed with some surprise that
Ishbel looked very uncomfortable at his and Zeboath”s banter. That puzzled him. She might well
have thought their exchange annoyingly juvenile, or she might have laughed with them—but to
be made uncomfortable? It was not the kind of reaction Axis would have expected from a queen,
or indeed any lady of court.
Ishbel intrigued him. There had been the remark she made last night about the ancient
evil in the south, which at the time he”d not commented on because Ishbel had looked so tired
and ill he”d thought it better she get some rest.
There was her relationship with Maximilian, which she appeared to believe was in dire
straits. Here Axis had to partly agree with her, if it was true Maximilian had kept an Icarii lover,
but on the other hand it didn”t marry well with what BroadWing had said about Maximilian.
There was the very fact that Ba”al”uz had stolen her in the first place. Isaiah may have
believed his brother”s stated reason—to present Isaiah with a new bride—but Axis thought that
Ba”al”uz likely had a deeper, far more secret reason for taking the woman.
Now this curious gaucheness, as if she had been kept secluded all her life.
Axis smelled a secret.
“You look far better today,” he said. “A day or two”s rest here, and then perhaps we can
continue our journey south.”
“Where are we going?”
“To Aqhat. It is a massive palace complex on the banks of the River Lhyl, home to the
Tyrant of Isembaard, Isaiah.”
“Why? What am I doing here? Why did this man, Ba”al”uz, take me?”
“Ba”al”uz took you in order to present you as a gift to the Tyrant of Isembaard, Isaiah,”
Axis said, wondering how Ishbel would react to this. “A trophy wife. A conquest, for a man who
lives only for conquest.”
She blanched, her eyes wide and brilliant, and for a moment Axis thought she had
actually stopped breathing.
“Ishbel, don”t worry. Isaiah has an unnatural aversion to women who are pregnant or who
have given birth. Isaiah will take one look at you, be horribly appalled, and never want to set
eyes on you again. You shall have the best apartment and care while you are Isaiah”s „guest,” but
you shall not be harmed, nor touched.”
“Axis…” Ishbel leaned forward a little on the table, half extending a hand over its surface
toward him. “Please, let me go. Don”t take me to Aqhat. I—”
“Where would you go?”
She leaned back in the chair, sliding her hand down to her lap. “I want to go home.”
“Escator.”
She shifted her eyes away.
Axis watched her, considering. Not Escator. “Where is „home,” Ishbel? Where do you
come from?”
“The Outlands. It is a province—”
“I know where it is. It is a very large area. From where in the Outlands?”
She looked back at him, lifting her chin, and Axis saw a flash of determination in her
eyes. “A place called Serpent”s Nest. You may not have heard of it.”
Stars! That was the mountain that had so interested Isaiah.
Could this be the reason Ba”al”uz had snatched her? What was Serpent”s Nest”s secret?
“I have heard of it,” he said, “but I have not heard well of the mountain.” Axis paused,
then decided to push a little. “Isaiah called it the home of a „rather vile band of psychic
murderers.””
She blanched, but Axis could see he”d made her angry rather than fearful. “Tell me about
Serpent”s Nest,” he said. “I know nothing other than what Isaiah told me. It was”—is, in her
mind—“your home?”
Ishbel gave a jerk of her head. “Since I was a child of eight.” She was so practiced now in
her lies that they fell easily from her mouth. “I was an orphan, and the Coil took me in, caring for
me. I was their ward.”
“And you left there only to marry Maximilian.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me of the Coil.”
“There is little enough to tell. They are an order who prophesy using the twists of a man”s
bowel. They worship a god called the Great Serpent.” She shrugged. “I know little else save that
they were good to me and that I owed them my utter loyalty.”
She looked directly at Axis as she said this, and he knew that she would not be drawn
further.
Later, he thought. You have left too much unsaid for me to let this one go.
“Was it the Coil who told you about the ancient evil?”
She hesitated, then nodded. “They are concerned.”
“I have no doubt,” Axis said. His fingers tapped lightly on the table as he considered her.
She was such an enigma. She fascinated him and she attracted him, even as tired and disheveled
and as pregnant as she was. Axis BattleAxe would most certainly have seduced her.
And Axis now?
“Tell me about Maximilian,” Axis said. “He intrigues me. I have never met him, although
I do know something of him. The daughter of a dear friend was once in negotiations to marry
him, but the negotiations fell through.”
Ishbel made a helpless gesture. “He flummoxes me. He overwhelms me. Sometimes I
feel I can hardly breathe around him. He terrifies me.”
You love him, thought Axis, remembering how she had called out to Maximilian during
the long ride to Torinox, but because you have no idea what love is, you don”t recognize it.
“Maximilian will have been glad to have lost me,” Ishbel said.
“BroadWing, one of the Icarii who tried to rescue you, was sent by Maximilian.
BroadWing said that Maximilian would tear the earth apart to get you back again.”
Ishbel laughed bitterly. “That I cannot believe. This child, maybe, but not me.”
“If that is true,” Axis said, “then Maximilian is a terrible fool. And that I cannot believe
of a man who won through the terrors of the Veins.”
“He is a most strange man, Axis,” Ishbel said. “Sometimes I think that he did not leave
the terror in the Veins. Sometimes I think he may have brought it out with him.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas
Where is the Weeper?”
StarDrifter did not even glance at Ba”al”uz as he closed the door to his chamber, then
threw himself full-length on the bed. “Stars…I am exhausted.”
“Where is the Weeper?”
“In Salome”s chamber.”
“But—”
StarDrifter rolled over, lacing his hands behind his head. “She was too alert, Ba”al”uz.
Too nervy. I need to wait a night or two more, I think. Allow her to relax. It matters not a night
or two more. Be assured. I will take it eventually.”
Ba”al”uz took a deep breath, calming himself down. StarDrifter was right. A night or two
would not matter.
“You did sleep with her.”
A salacious grin on StarDrifter”s face was all the answer Ba”al”uz needed.
“And you think she”ll want you back?”
StarDrifter laughed softly. “Oh, she”ll want me back.”
Salome lay curled up in her bed, damp sheets twisted about her body. Her servant had
come in earlier with her usual morning glass of tea, but Salome had snarled so viciously at her