Sara Douglass – The Serpent Bride – DarkGlass Mountain Book 1

“Well, anyway, WolfStar wanted to step through the Star Gate and allow the music of the

Star Dance to consume him completely. To cut a long story short, he did. He vanished through

the Star Gate, and for thousands of years the Icarii people assumed he”d died. But, no. He came

back, more powerful and dreadful than ever before, and created mayhem and disaster among the

peoples of Tencendor. If the land perished, then it was largely due to his machinations.”

“You are afraid of him.”

“Yes, I am.”

“And now? Is he dead? Wandering about?”

“Dead. I hope.” Again StarDrifter gave a soft laugh. “But one never assumes that death

can hold WolfStar forever.”

“I have a powerful father, then.” There, thought Salome. A powerful father, but not a

powerful grandfather.

“Aye,” StarDrifter said, and did not sound affronted at all. “Very powerful indeed.”

“Then should you be afraid of me?”

“Very much so,” StarDrifter said, and Salome frowned at the teasing note in his voice.

“Salome,” StarDrifter said, before she could speak, “I have been a wandering, dissipated

fool most of my life. I have loved women, and destroyed women. I have failed many people.

Perhaps with you I can make a fresh—”

“Don”t try to pretend we have a—”

StarDrifter”s hand slid under the loosened waistband of her trousers and then over the

warm skin of her slightly rounded belly.

“This is not pretense, Salome. Tell me, did you not think to discard the child? I am sure

you must have known how.”

She was silent.

He sang a little snatch of melody, very softly, and she drew in a sharp breath.

A sense of peace had washed over her with that melody, and as she exhaled the breath,

she relaxed entirely against his body.

“I knew as soon as you said you were pregnant,” StarDrifter said, his mouth now almost

against the skin at the back of her neck, “that this child would be my get, and not the product of

your rapes. BroadWing said fate bound us together, Salome. I think BroadWing has a somewhat

remarkable perceptivity.”

Again, that snatch of melody, and Salome closed her eyes as they filled with sudden

tears.

“It is a son, Salome,” StarDrifter said. “An Enchanter. And,” Salome could feel his

mouth curl in a smile against her neck, “a peaceful and happy child. An heir to everything we

have both lost.”

Salome thought StarDrifter was being terribly presumptuous with that last remark, but

now she was so comfortable, so warm, and so peaceful, that drowsiness was finally achieving

dominion over her body.

“Mmmm,” she murmured—and then shivered as StarDrifter kissed the back of her neck.

“Sleep,” he whispered.

The Weeper lay a few feet away, forgotten by both Salome and StarDrifter.

As they fell into sleep, StarDrifter still curled about Salome”s body, the Weeper began to

ice over.

It spent all night encased in ice, engaged in such a powerful magic that even the ground

beneath it froze solid.

In the morning, when the camp stirred, the Weeper lay in a small puddle of water,

condensation sliding down its body.

No one paid any attention.

When Salome awoke—the last of the camp to rise—it was to find that StarDrifter had left

a mug of tea and a wedge of warmed bread slathered with butter and red beet and onion chutney

by her side.

Salome sat up and ate the food.

It was the best breakfast she could ever remember having eaten.

When she rose to her feet, brushing away the remaining crumbs of the bread, she winced

as something caught in her back.

A muscle, she thought, grown cold and stiff during her long night”s unmoving slumber.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

Today Isaiah was holding his Spectacle. Axis knew of two other occasions Isaiah had

held a Spectacle since he”d been in Isembaard, but Axis had not been invited to either of those

formal courts. They had been held during his early days in Isembaard when Isaiah had tended to

keep Axis very much in his private sphere. Today, however, Axis had received a request to

attend.

It was, after all, the day on which Isaiah meant to announce his marriage to Ishbel.

Axis had not seen Ishbel since his return from flushing out the brigands from the eastern

mountains. He”d tried to see her, but either she had been asleep, or resting, or bathing with Isaiah

in the River Lhyl in the evening (and since when had she started doing that, Axis wondered), or

simply not in her apartments when he”d called, so that by now Axis suspected she was avoiding

him.

Or perhaps her servants and guards had been well instructed by Isaiah in how to deflect

Axis SunSoar should he come to visit.

Well, at least Axis would see Ishbel at the Spectacle, and probably even get the chance to

speak with her, as he”d been given to understand he was to sit with Isaiah and Ishbel on their

dais.

Despite being worried about Ishbel, Axis was curious about the Spectacle itself. He had

gathered, from various conversations with Insharah, Zeboath, and the palace chamberlain, that

the Spectacle existed to remind the generals and the governors of the various dependencies who

it was controlled the reins of power, to impress various visiting diplomats, nobles, and

ambassadors, and to make it perfectly clear to the entire population of Isembaard, via subsequent

gossip and reports, the extent of Isaiah”s power and prestige.

Today, Isaiah was using the Spectacle to present his new “conquest,” Ishbel, Queen of

Escator, to the Tyranny.

Look what a great and fearsome leader I am, Isaiah would say to his peoples via the

Spectacle. I have captured for my own both the northern king”s queen and his heir. The northern

kings are weak indeed, and they shall lay down before me, and submit themselves to Isembaard.

The Spectacle was held at midday in what Insharah had somewhat caustically called the

sunroom. Insharah had not explained that comment, but its memory was enough to add further

fuel to Axis” already well-developed curiosity about the day”s proceedings. By the time his

escort knocked at his chamber door, just before noon, Axis was pacing about in a state of high

anticipation.

He”d dressed carefully for the occasion, wearing black leather trousers topped with an

airy lawn linen shirt. He”d abandoned the sandals he normally wore in the heat for well-tooled

leather boots, topped the shirt with a tightly fitted vest of gold silk, and then carefully trimmed

his beard and dressed his hair, clubbing it into a queue at the back of his neck.

Isaiah had sent one of the captains of the Spear to escort him, and they chatted amiably as

the captain led Axis higher and higher into the palace.

Finally Axis” curiosity got the better of him.

“Just where does Isaiah hold his Spectacle?” he asked.

The captain shot him an amused glance as they approached yet another graceful, winding

staircase. “In the sunroom, of course.”

“Yes, but where—”

“On the roof, Lord Axis. In the sun.”

A slow smile spread across Axis” face. He was starting to realize the nature of Isaiah”s

Spectacle.

“Should I have brought a broad-brimmed hat?” he said.

The captain laughed. “You shall be among the shaded, Lord Axis. Be grateful.”

The captain finally led Axis into a vast chamber which Axis realized acted as the

anteroom for Isaiah”s “sunroom.” It was thronged with people, all of whom glanced every few

minutes toward a massive flight of steps that rose to an equally impressive doorway beyond

which Axis could see only blinding light.

“We don”t go that way,” the captain murmured to Axis. “Come with me.”

He led Axis around the side of the room, avoiding the throng (almost all of whom

glanced away from the flight of steps long enough to look curiously at Axis), through a small

doorway and up a flight of stairs much less grand than those in the anteroom. These steps led in

turn to a doorway, again much less grand than that which awaited the throng in the anteroom, but

leading into the same rectangle of blinding light.

The captain led Axis straight through.

Then stopped, grinning at Axis as he gaped.

The “sunroom” was, to Axis” eyes, the most spectacular and the most stunningly

beautiful chamber he”d ever seen…and Axis had lived to see some amazing buildings and

chambers.

The rectangular space covered the entire roof area of the palace—a vast acreage of beauty

that was stunning in its simplicity.

There was no roof—the space was entirely open to the vivid blue Isembaardian sky.

The area was floored in a polished stone of a deep emerald hue, glasslike in its sheen.

Axis had never seen anything like it: more translucent than marble, it was similarly veined with

silver and gold through its emerald depths. Axis could not see a join anywhere—it was as if the

entire floor had been laid down in a single piece. Neither could he see anything beneath the