wasn”t so much the power they resented losing, but the constant touch of the Star Dance, without
which, StarWeb had once confided to him, their lives were but pale reflections of what had once
been.
Maximilian pulled StarWeb closer again, and kissed her a little more lingeringly. They
had been lovers for some months now, their relationship based almost entirely on a sexual bond
rather than an emotional one, which suited Maximilian well, although he often wondered about
StarWeb. He knew she disliked the fact he kept their trysts secret.
StarWeb pulled away. “What do you want, Maxel?”
He sighed. “To talk, to share some companionship. To make love, if you want. I don”t
want to be alone tonight.”
She shrugged, moving deeper into the chamber, running a hand lightly over a table, then
the back of a chair, folding her wings close in against her body—a sure sign that she remained
annoyed with him.
“Is it only kings who want companionship completely on their terms, Maxel?”
“You”re in a bad mood tonight.”
She swung about to look at him. “That”s because I hate it, Maxel, that I always come
whenever you deign to open that window.”
“I”m sorry, StarWeb. I am not what you need.”
She studied that statement for any hint of sarcasm, and then decided the apology was
genuine. “So what”s up, Maxel? You”re tense. Worried about something.”
“I”ve been offered a bride.”
StarWeb burst into laughter, her expression relaxing back into that of a delighted girl.
“Well done, then! Are you going to take this one?”
“She”s been offered to me by the Coil.”
All StarWeb”s amusement vanished. “I”ve heard of them.”
“And not liked what you have heard, most apparently.”
“You are truly considering taking a priestess of the Coil to your bed? As a wife?”
“She”s not a priestess, merely a ward taken in after a plague wiped out her family and
half the population of the Outlands. And she comes with wealth that Escator could well use.”
“Oh, well. That makes it all right then.”
“I don”t need that sarcasm, StarWeb. If I were merely Maximilian Persimius, I would
have winced and torn up the offer into a thousand pieces. But I am King of Escator as well, and
with that comes a responsibility to my people. Escator needs that wealth.”
“So shall you meet with her?”
He hesitated, then gave a nod. “Eventually, but—”
“But you want something from me first.”
“I trust you, StarWeb. I trust your perception. I need someone to act as an emissary
between me and the Coil. I need someone to meet her, and tell me what they think. Will we suit
each other? Is she good enough for me to forget her association with the Coil?” He gave a
shamefaced grin. “And I need someone who can do all this relatively quickly. This is not a
decision I wish to linger over.”
“Would you like me also to take her to bed, and see if she suits your needs?”
Maximilian smiled. “Would you?”
StarWeb laughed then, and the mood between them relaxed. The Icarii Enchanter walked
over to Maximilian, running her hands slowly over his naked upper body, her fingers tracing the
outlines of the scars left from his time in the Veins, kissing his neck slowly as she spoke. “How
fortunate you are that I am not a jealous woman.”
He took her face between gentle hands. “I am well aware how fortunate I am in you,
StarWeb, and also well aware that I use you unmercifully. Whatever you want from me, you
have it.”
Your love? she wondered, and then discarded the thought. There had never been any
expectation of love on either of their parts.
“Just you,” she whispered. “For an hour or two tonight, so I can forget all I have lost.”
While Maximilian lay with StarWeb, Vorstus sat at a table in his locked chamber in a
distant part of the palace. On the table before him sat a small glass pyramid, about the height of a
man”s hand. It pulsated gently with soft rosy light, and its depths showed a man of ascetic
appearance in late middle age who revealed, as he reached up a hand to rub thoughtfully at his
nose, a serpent tattoo writhing up his forearm.
“Has Maximilian looked at the map yet?” said the man whose image showed within the
pyramid.
“No, my Lord Lister,” said Vorstus. “If he had, I am sure I would have heard the screech
from here.”
Lister smiled. “Will he be ready, do you think?”
“He had seventeen years battling the darkness in the Veins, my lord,” said Vorstus. “He
won”t like it, but when he is needed, then, yes, I believe he will step forward. How goes the Lady
Ishbel?”
“Resigning herself to marriage. She, also, will step forward when needed.”
“If only she knew who had caused that plague to strike her family home in Margalit, my
lord. Then perhaps she might not be so ready to „step forward.””
“Don”t threaten me,” Lister said. “Besides, what will Maximilian say, eh, when he learns
who it was whispered to Cavor the plan to imprison him in the gloam mines for such a mighty
length of time?”
“We have all done what was needed.”
“Ah, we all have done what was needed,” said Lister, “and we will do more, as the need
dictates. Let me know what Maximilian says, why don”t you, when he finally looks at that map.”
The rose pyramid dulled, then died.
Lister stood in the central chamber of his castle of Crowhurst and stared as his own
pyramid dulled into lifelessness on the table. He sighed, and turned away, walking to the open
window to look out.
Beyond stretched a vast wasteland of frost and low, snow-covered rolling hills. The
northern wastes were a desolate place, but they suited Lister”s purpose for the time being, and for
the time being he needed to be here. He shuddered, more from the cold than from any direction
of his thoughts, and he reached out and closed the windows, revealing tattoos of black serpents
crawling up both his forearms.
Kanubai”s ancient foe, Light, had taken the form of Lister some forty-five years ago
when it had become apparent to both Light and Water that Kanubai”s prison had begun to fail.
Light and Water needed mortal shape now, for the battle to come would be of the physical rather
than the ethereal. While they had taken the flesh of men, Light also, from time to time, and as it
amused him, took on the ethereal form of the serpent, while Water occasionally took the form of
the frog.
Sometimes also, when it suited their purpose to manipulate those about them, they named
themselves gods, and commanded ordinary men and women.
Ishbel had no idea what it was she truly served.
The move into the physical realm of men was dangerous. As flesh-and-blood men they
might still command powers greater than those of most mortals, but were as vulnerable to the
spear and the sword as any other.
There came a noise from the door, a footfall, and Lister turned about.
Three creatures of above man-height stood there. They were skeletal and vaguely
man-shaped, but more wraith than flesh. The most substantial part of them was their oversized
skull-like heads, dominated by heavy, great-toothed jaws and huge silver orbs set deep into their
eye sockets.
One of them nodded at the table, which was covered at one end with the detritus of
Lister”s earlier meal.
“We”ve come for the leavings, Lord Lister,” the Skraeling said, his voice more hissed
whisper than spoken word.
“Take them,” said Lister. “Did the kitchen hand out the scraps to your comrades earlier?”
“Yes,” said another of the Skraelings. “Thank you. Lard and blood. Tasty.”
“Tasty, tasty,” whispered the other two.
Lister nodded at the table, and the three Skraelings crept forward, gathering plates into
their awkward hands, licking each one clean as they picked them up. Then, silver orbs glancing
at Lister, they crept back through the door, closing it behind them.
“Damned creatures,” Lister muttered. He loathed them, but for the moment it was better
to be their friend than their enemy.
Like his ally, Water, who stood watch over the ancient evil far to the south, Lister stood
watch over the tens of thousands of Skraelings who gathered in the frozen hills about Crowhurst.
He knew that Kanubai whispered to them from deep within his abyss, and that Kanubai was the
Skraelings” only true lord. But Lister had wormed his serpentine way into the Skraelings”
affections by feeding them scraps and leavings in order that he might live beside them, and
watch their every move.
They were loathsome companions, but for the moment Lister must make do.
And at least they were not his only companions. Another footfall sounded at the door,
and Lister looked up, smiling in genuine warmth as the winged woman entered.