Sara Douglass – The Serpent Bride – DarkGlass Mountain Book 1

only a moment before passing it to Zeboath.

“One of my men found this in the packs of Ba”al”uz” men,” Axis said, taking it back from

Zeboath. “It belonged to Ba”al”uz himself, and I know what it is because Isaiah has one, as

does…well, I know what it does. It is a communication device. I have seen Isaiah use his, but

have never touched it myself. The first night I brought Ishbel to Torinox, while she slept, I pulled

this from my pack and studied it.” He paused, turning the pyramid over and over in his hand. “It

did not look this gray then.”

“It was a lovely rosy color, I think,” Ishbel said. “I am sure I remember a rosy glow

coming from it.”

“Yes,” Axis said, “normally it is an opaque rose color, and as soon as I touched it I felt

the Star Dance. Just faintly, but, oh, stars, it was there.”

He looked at the other two, willing them to understand the depth of his emotion at this

discovery. “I—all Icarii Enchanters—thought the Star Dance lost forever. We were certain that

the only means we”d had to access it was via the Star Gate, which was irretrievably destroyed by

the Timekeeper Demons. We had thought…we had no idea…”

Axis had to stop. “You can have no idea what this discovery means to me.”

“I think somehow I do,” said Ishbel, very gently. She gave him a moment, then said, “But

this pyramid is now gray and lifeless. What has happened?”

Axis smiled a little. “Ah. These are communication devices, although they may very well

do other things. When I toyed with it, when I touched oh-so-briefly the Star Dance through it,

someone elsewhere knew what I did. And they closed off all power to it, or shut this pyramid down. They did not want me examining it too closely. That was disappointing, yes, but this,” he

hefted the pyramid in his hand, “gives me so much hope. Partly because I know that if I can

„reopen” it, then I may be able to touch the Star Dance again, but also because this is not a

natural object. Somewhere, someone has made it, and that someone knows how to touch the Star

Dance.”

“An Icarii?” said Ishbel. “This is an Icarii object?”

“I am not sure. It stinks of Icarii, and I can”t imagine who or what else could have made

it, but yet there is something foreign about that sense. An Icarii…but not quite…Ah, I don”t

know. It is a mystery, and one I shall look forward to solving.”

He gave a lopsided grin and packed the pyramid away again.

“You said it was a communication device,” said Zeboath, “and you said that you knew of

three. Isaiah has one, Ba”al”uz” one you now have, but who has the third?”

Axis glanced at Ishbel. “The third is in the hands of the Lord of the Skraelings, a man

called Lister.”

Axis had thought Ishbel might react to mention of the Skraelings and might have jumped

to a conclusion about why Isaiah was communicating with the creatures” lord, but her reaction

was far different to what he expected.

“Lister?” she said.

“You know him, Ishbel?” Axis said.

Ishbel hesitated, then opened her mouth to speak, but just then Insharah walked over to

their campfire.

“Sir,” Insharah murmured to Axis. “Madarin, the man you noted before we rode out, is

sick nigh to death, I think. Can Zeboath the physician examine him?”

CHAPTER TWO

Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

Salome could not wake up. She was vaguely aware that the night had passed, and that

she had slept right through the day, but, oh, she could not move, could barely breathe, could only

lie, lost in a maze of dreams.

Icarii, tens of thousands of them, spiraling over an ice-clad peak so high it dwarfed an

entire continent.

A woman, black-haired and beautiful, screaming in agony as wings were torn from her

back.

StarDrifter, standing not in the topiary garden, but in a mysterious dark forest, holding

out his hand in seduction.

Her own mother, standing at a window in the Palace of the First, waiting in the night for

a shape to spiral down from the heavens.

StarDrifter again, screaming himself as terrifying creatures tore out his wings, and

murdered a lovely birdwoman before him.

A woman that StarDrifter had loved before all others.

Salome”s own back burned, and she moaned, remembering—even though she knew she

should not be able to—that day when she was three and her mother had taken her down the back

streets of Yoyette, to a man who specialized in…

Removing wing buds.

It must have hurt, even though the tiny child Salome had been given strong drugs to

render her unconscious. In her dreams Salome imagined the pain she must have endured,

imagined the days and nights spent twisting in agony as her mother applied soothing poultices to

her back.

Imagined her screams and whimpers, and her mother begging her to remain silent in case

her husband, and the man Salome had always called “father,” came to inquire the reason he”d not

seen his daughter for days on end.

The pain in her back increased, and Salome drifted closer to consciousness. She was

fighting to wake now, hating the sense of being out of control, not being able to move…

Oh, gods, she was lying on her belly, exposing her back to full sight!

She tried to roll over, but now the pain in her back was coupled with a great weight, as if

someone leaned down on her.

“No need to struggle so, you contemptuous bitch. Your secret is out.”

She recognized the voice. It was the emperor.

No, this must be a dream also. This could not be happening.

Someone hit her on the side of her head, hard and cruel, and Salome gave a great cry, and

managed to open her eyes.

Someone—the emperor—was leaning over her.

Another man, no, two men, were holding her down at shoulders and hips so the emperor

could trace his fingers down her back.

Down her scar.

“No!” Salome screamed, trying desperately to struggle, but was unable to move under the

men”s hands and the remaining effects of the drug.

She had been drugged. The Icarii bastard had drugged her!

Then the full import of her plight struck Salome.

Her outside blood had been discovered. She would be thrown out of the First. Her son

would become a slave. Gods…gods! Everything was over.

Salome thought of all the people who loathed her, and quickly realized she would be very

lucky to survive into the next day.

Her panic was indescribable. She had no anger, not at the moment, only an all-consuming

desperation to survive, somehow.

“To think what we”ve been hiding in our midst all this time,” the emperor said, and

Salome could hear the sheer joy underscoring his words.

His greatest enemy. Undone.

And undone so badly…

The emperor stood back, and Salome did not try to speak. There was nothing to say.

But, oh, where was Ezra? What had they done with her son?

“Toss her out on the midden heap,” said the emperor, “and tie her to a stake, so that any

who wish revenge for all her slights over the years may take it at their leisure.”

The grip of the men holding her changed, and they hauled Salome naked from the bed.

Just as they dragged her toward the door, Salome managed to say something.

“Fools,” she whispered hoarsely, “you have been distracted from the true crime enacted

here. Look, he has taken the Weeper. StarDrifter has taken the Weeper.”

CHAPTER THREE

Northern Plains of Isembaard

Axis and Zeboath rose at the same time.

“Madarin?” said Axis to Insharah. “I thought you said he had a bellyache from eating too

much eel pie.”

“That is all I thought it was,” said Insharah, “and all Madarin thought it was. But he grew

very quiet during the day”s ride, and didn”t eat anything at camp. Over the past hour his pain has

become immeasurably worse, and he is gray and sweating.”

“I”ll look at him,” said Zeboath, hurrying off to rummage in his pack for his physician”s

bag.

Axis followed him. He hated it when men under his command fell ill. He could deal with

horrific battle wounds, but somehow the silent attack of disease and illness unsettled him far

more. Even in his full power as Star-Man, Axis had been unable to do anything for internal

illnesses or raging fevers. He”d always had to leave it to women and physicians.

Madarin lay wrapped in blankets, curled about his belly. Even in the firelight Axis could

see clearly that the skin of his face was gray and slick with sweat, and that his body trembled. He

was biting his lip, trying not to moan.

Madarin was clearly very, very ill.

“Stars,” Axis muttered, “I hope Zeboath can do something.”

The physician arrived at that moment, bag in hand, shooing Insharah and Axis back, and