Vorstus held out his right hand, showing Maximilian the mark of the quill on the back of
its index finger. “If she was a priestess of the Coil then she would be marked with the sign of the
Coil, the coiled serpent, somewhere on her body, just as I am marked with this as a member of
the Order of Persimius. Just as you are marked with the Manteceros.”
Maximilian absently touched his right bicep, where, just after his birth, the mark of the
Manteceros—the semimythical protector of the Escatorian throne—had been tattooed in blue ink
made from the blood of the creature itself.
“She would have to be marked, Maxel,” Vorstus continued, “and if she isn”t, then she is
truly what the Coil claims her to be—a simple ward when no one else was left to ward her.”
Egalion grinned. “Does that mean Maximilian gets to spend his wedding night going over
her with a magnifying glass?”
Maximilian smiled politely, but his eyes were far distant.
The group broke up a half hour later. It was not a moment too soon for Maximilian, who
needed to be by himself to think.
Egalion and Garth left, but Vorstus hung back a moment to hand Maximilian the sheaf of
documents.
“Maxel,” Vorstus said softly, “when you go through these papers, do be sure to cast your
eyes over the map of the Outlands that Lixel enclosed most helpfully. I”m sure it will
prove…interesting.”
CHAPTER SIX
The Royal Palace, Ruen, Escator
Late that night Maximilian moved restlessly about his bedchamber. The palace at Ruen
was a massive structure of dark red stone, rising more than five windowless stories from street
level before splintering into fifty-three towers and spires. Maximilian could never quite decide
whether it was the most beautiful structure he”d ever seen, or the ugliest, but he loved it. He”d
been born within its walls, and raised here by loving parents for his first fourteen years before
Cavor snatched him and condemned him to the Veins. Now, once more encased within its red
stone walls, Maximilian appreciated the palace for the isolation it allowed him. Maximilian liked
people, but he also loved solitude, and at night in his bedchamber, which rested at the summit of
the highest of the palace towers, he could indulge that to the fullest.
There was something about living at the pinnacle of the tower, about being so high and
having the castle stretch down beneath his booted feet, that sated some deep need within
Maximilian.
But tonight that isolation irked him. He couldn”t stop thinking about the Coil”s offer of
Ishbel Brunelle as a bride. His first instinct was to refuse her: he was repulsed by her association
with an order as abominable as the Coil. Even if she had taken no part in any of their murderous
ceremonies, nor even if she swore horror herself at their activities, Ishbel would always be
tainted in his mind with their depravity.
But on the other hand she did come from a good family—Maximilian had spent an hour
this afternoon poring over the information Lixel had sent…if not poring over the map that
Vorstus was so eager for him to read. Vorstus could annoy Maximilian at times with his
secretive eyes and his ambiguous words, and Maximilian was in a perverse enough mood that he
did not want to immediately do what Vorstus wanted.
The documents kept Maximilian occupied enough. Gods, this Ishbel came with such
wealth trailing at her skirts! Escator”s economy was virtually moribund. It had depended so
greatly on the gloam mines, and when they had been destroyed during Maximilian”s release there
was nothing to take their place. Maximilian had worked hard to increase trade, but he”d
concentrated on trade alliances with Tencendor, and when that country had sunk beneath the
waves five years ago, then so also had Maximilian”s hopes of an economic resurgence in Escator
within his lifetime. The Central Kingdoms to the east, his only other useful trading partners, were
locked in exclusive trading alliances with the far northern nations of Berfardi and Gershadi. The
Coroleans were too hopelessly unreliable and treacherous to consider as allies in anything, and as
for the great southern lands beyond the FarReach Mountains…well, they were so isolated by
reason of both the mountains and lack of ports, as well as being totally uncommunicative, that
Maximilian had never even considered them as potential trading partners.
Besides, what did Escator have to trade with anyone? A tiny surplus of agricultural
produce and a surfeit of geniality essentially encapsulated all Escator had to offer, and
Maximilian honestly couldn”t think of anyone desperate for a bucketful of beans delivered with a
smile.
Lady Ishbel Brunelle, ward of the Coil, offered Maximilian and Escator a lifeline.
Perhaps some of the eastern princelings would smile disdainfully at a handful of vast estates and
the Deepend manorial rights, but to Maximilian they represented salvation. The income would
make all the difference to the country.
They would make all the difference to Maximilian”s guilt. Although he knew he had no
need, he did feel guilty about the loss of the gloam mines. Yes, they were vile, but they had kept
Escator rich, and it was now Maximilian”s task to replace those lost riches.
A ring on Ishbel”s finger would do it.
Ah! Maximilian paced restlessly about the chamber, his thoughts tumbling. Marriage to a
woman tainted with the Coil to restore Escator”s riches, or continued personal isolation and
poverty for so many of his subjects?
“Damn it,” he muttered. “Why couldn”t I have found someone else with that kind of
dowry who was interested in me?”
He paced about for a few more minutes, stripping off his jacket and shirt and tossing
them over the back of a chair, running his hand through his too long hair and thinking he really
ought to get it cut, rolling the Persimius ring around his finger, over and over.
Finally, coming to a decision, Maximilian walked to one of the high windows and opened
wide the glass panes. He stared out into the night for a moment, then returned to stand by his
bed, his back to the window, the fingers of his left hand absently running over the ungainly
outline of the Manteceros on his right bicep.
He waited long minutes, finally relaxing when he heard the faint sound of movement in
the window.
“How arrogant you are,” she said softly, “that you were so certain I”d be crouching on a
rooftop somewhere, waiting in hope that you”d open a window for me.”
Maximilian smiled, slowly turning about. “And how glad I am, StarWeb, that you were
sitting on that rooftop, waiting for me to open the window.”
She crouched in the window, her dark wings held out gracefully behind her for balance,
watching him with unreadable dark eyes. She had a mop of black curls, a fine-boned face, and a
dancer”s body, currently clothed in a short silken robe as dark as her hair and wings.
Maximilian slowly walked over to her and held out a hand. “StarWeb, I took a chance,
knowing you often soar over the palace late at night. Arrogant assumption didn”t open that
window. Hope did.”
StarWeb hesitated, then took his hand as she jumped down to the floor. She started to
walk into the chamber, but Maximilian”s grip on her hand tightened, and he pulled her close
enough for a soft kiss.
“Smile for me,” he whispered, drawing away fractionally.
“Why? What good news could you possibly have to make me smile?”
Still keeping her hand locked in his, Maximilian drew back enough so he could study her
face. StarWeb was an Icarii, one of the race of bird people who had once ruled over the land of
Tencendor to the west. StarWeb had also been one of the elite among the Icarii, a powerful
Enchanter who could manipulate the magic of the Star Dance. But then Tencendor had
descended into chaos, the ruling SunSoar family had imploded into tragedy; the Star Gate,
through which the Icarii Enchanters drew the power of the Star Dance had been destroyed.
Tencendor itself vanished into the waters of the Widowmaker Sea, taking all its peoples into
doom.
But not quite all its peoples. Caelum SunSoar, who had ruled the land in its final years,
had maintained strong diplomatic ties with both Coroleas and the continent over the
Widowmaker Sea. During the final wars that had destroyed Tencendor, almost five thousand
Icarii had been scattered about Coroleas and the eastern continent. More had joined them before
the final cataclysm. Currently, StarWeb had told Maximilian, there was an expatriate community of almost six thousand Icarii scattered about the lands surrounding the Widowmaker Sea, as well
as the Central Kingdoms. There were at least six hundred living in Escator alone.
The Icarii may have kept their lives, but the Enchanters among them had lost all their
power, and Maximilian well knew from his relationship with StarWeb what that had cost them. It