Sara Douglass – The Serpent Bride – DarkGlass Mountain Book 1

translucent stone. It appeared to sink down forever, although Axis knew that was impossible.

“It represents the River Lhyl,” the captain said softly, “the lifeblood of the Tyranny.”

Axis nodded, unable to speak.

He looked up, studying the rest of the space.

Eight rows of columns, fully twenty paces high and five in diameter at the base, arranged

in four sets of twinned rows, ran down either side of the central space.

The columns were as remarkable as the floor.

They were composed of what looked like an almost translucent glass. Virtually clear at

their base, they gradually became more opaque as they rose to dizzying heights, until, at their

summit, where they blossomed into open-petaled water lily flowers, the glass became solid

colors of the faintest pinks and blues and greens.

“I have never seen anything so beautiful,” Axis said very softly.

“No one ever has,” said the captain. “One never gets tired of the sight.”

“Did Isaiah build this?”

The captain shook his head. “It was constructed over several generations, I believe, and

was only completed during Isaiah”s grandfather”s time. Come. Isaiah is waiting.”

The captain led Axis down the central open space, flanked on either side by the rows of

twinned water lily columns.

At the far end of the open space was a shaded pavilion where, Axis could just make out,

stood a raised dais.

By the time he and the captain had made the halfway point, Axis was beginning to

understand the reason the Isembaardian tyrants had created this particular arena for their

Spectacles.

It was damnably hot.

In fact, anyone who had to spend any time at all in this “sunroom”—and that would be

most of those who attended the Spectacle, for Axis assumed it would take Isaiah some time to

work his way through whatever ceremony he had planned—would be at a disadvantage to Isaiah

within a very few minutes. The combined effect of glass floor and columns and the sun made the

space a furnace.

There were shaded areas to either side, and Isaiah”s covered pavilion at the head of the

space, and Axis thought it would all be reserved for the favored.

Anyone in disfavor, or as yet uncategorized in Isaiah”s list of who he trusted and who not,

would be forced to stand in the sun.

Isaiah rose from his throne—made of the same glasslike substance as the floor and

columns, but comfortably cushioned—as Axis approached.

Isaiah waved away the captain with a nod of thanks, then gestured to Axis to join him on

the dais.

“In the shade, my friend,” he said, with a smile. “What think you?”

Axis shook his head in admiration. “I think you are a cruel man, Isaiah. How many are

you to keep waiting in the sun today?”

Isaiah smiled, but did not otherwise respond to the question. He was accoutred in the

most magnificent finery Axis had yet seen—jewels of various hues gleamed among his braids

and studded the golden collar he wore about his shoulders. Bangles adorned his wrists and

ankles, but Isaiah had kept his hipwrap to plain linen, and had no sandals on his feet—to all the

more display the wealth of his gems, Axis thought.

He wore no weapon, but hardly needed to: the dais was surrounded on three sides by

rows of spearmen.

Axis caught sight of Ishbel, sitting on an ornate chair to Isaiah”s right.

She was beautifully gowned, and her hair almost as impressively styled as Isaiah”s, but

Axis thought he saw lines of strain about her eyes and mouth, and she barely smiled at his

greeting.

“Ishbel?” Axis murmured as he kissed her hand. “How are you?”

“Just a little tired,” she said. “I find it difficult to sleep in this heat.”

“The baby?” Axis said.

She replied only with a slight shrug, and a tightening of the worry lines about her eyes.

“You should not be here,” Axis said, “but in your chamber, resting. Isaiah—”

“No, Axis,” Ishbel said, “I will be well enough, and I have little to do here but sit and nod

and smile.”

“And you will nod and smile?”

“I am happy enough, Axis. I like Isaiah, and feel comfortable with him. Maximilian is a

long way in my past.”

Axis studied her, wondering. She seemed genuinely relaxed about Isaiah”s announcement

of marriage, but she most certainly did not appear well.

“Isaiah,” he said, turning back to the tyrant.

“Later, Axis,” Isaiah said. “This will take little time, and will be no strain on Ishbel. Will

you sit now?”

That last was said in a tone that clearly indicated Isaiah was not prepared to receive a

negative response, and so, with a further worried glance at Ishbel, and a silent promise to himself

to keep an eye on her, Axis took his appointed seat just to one side of Ishbel”s.

Isaiah nodded at him, then returned to his own throne. As soon as he was seated, a

haunting melody of horn music filled the air.

Axis was used to blaring trumpet clarions for ceremonial events, but this haunting

melody was, to his mind, even more unsettling and unnerving for the participants outside than an

overpowering clarion would have been.

The music wound in and out of the columns, skimming over the floor, wafting gently

between the assembled dignitaries on the dais and the spearmen standing about it.

It strengthened just a little, and then Axis saw people slowly entering the Spectacle

Chamber from the massive rectangular doorway at the head of the flight of steps from the

anteroom.

They were guided into the space in no particular order, which Axis thought must have

been even more unsettling for them. All had to find their own place.

After a moment”s hesitation and disorientation as they first entered, most headed straight

for the shaded areas to either side of the sun-filled columned space.

There awaited a cordon of Isaiah”s aides.

Some, a very few, were allowed through to wait in the pleasant shade, but most were

directed back into the sun. The generals and their senior captains arrived, and Axis was glad to

see them waved through to the shaded area.

He did not think it would have been a very good idea to keep the generals in the sun.

Gradually the central space filled up, people managing to stand in ordered groups (which

groupings themselves revealed alliances and enmities).

Most people had attired themselves in their best raiments, which meant much heavy

draping of silks and linens topped with encrusted jewelry. In the heat and the brilliant sun, people

became uncomfortable very quickly.

Axis glanced at Isaiah.

He had a tiny smile on his face.

Axis wondered about the wisdom of leaving the participants in such discomfort. They

were, after all, important people in their own right, and would not appreciate this obvious

manipulation.

But then, perhaps, it was all a part of the game, and the instinctive groupings did, after

all, reveal to Isaiah better than anything else where lay loyalties and alliances.

The music increased in intensity for a moment, then faded away to nothing.

The door at the back of the chamber closed.

Isaiah stood.

He did not, as Axis expected, remain in the comfortable shade, but strode to the very

front of the dais where lay a belt of savage sun.

It illuminated him—the jewels in his hair, and the golden collar about his

shoulders—until his form shimmered.

Axis thought that the assembled throng would either see him as a god, standing there in

the light…or as an intensely irritating and manipulative bully.

There was movement to either side, and Axis looked around.

The majority of the spearmen, while leaving a cordon of warriors on the dais, were now

moving down the sides of the chamber, ready to act should anyone get too hot-tempered from

discomfort.

Isaiah began to speak to the throng. His voice was very strong, and very confident, his

body language reflecting all the power and arrogance of his office.

Axis grinned. Isaiah was spinning a fantastic tale about the capture of Ishbel…a tale in

which Ba”al”uz did not figure at all.

Isaiah continued with the news that Ishbel was to become his new wife, and was to bear

the newly created title of Favored Wife.

Axis glanced at Ishbel at that, and she smiled slightly and rolled her eyes at him, making

him grin.

Isaiah continued on, describing Ishbel”s acquisition almost as he would a successful

invasion. Maximilian, the Escatorian king, had been “humbled” by the loss of his wife to Isaiah

and was now a recluse, unable to act through sheer inadequacy. The Escatorian nation itself was

now virtually a satellite to Isembaard and wanted only Isaiah”s imminent invasion to capitulate

completely.

Ishbel represented Isaiah”s potency, his might, his success.

Axis sincerely hoped that Maximilian wasn”t going to ride into Aqhat at the head of an

avenging army (unlikely, but Axis wasn”t about to discount Maximilian quite as completely as

Isaiah appeared to be doing), which event would severely damage Isaiah”s presentation.