carefully staged Isaiah”s miraculous achievement in getting the message to Maximilian in time to
prevent the ring going on Ishbel”s finger.
“And yet you have no idea how to prevent the One becoming Lord of Elcho Falling,”
Axis said. “If he takes this citadel, if he takes you, then—”
“Then I need to do all I can to prevent it,” Maximilian said. “Axis, I think the answer to
all this lies back in Isembaard. It lies somewhere close to DarkGlass Mountain itself. I need to
talk to Isaiah, very badly, because I think he has the key. I need, like Ishbel, to finish my training
within the Twisted Tower. I—”
“Ishbel is learning the Twisted Tower?” Axis said.
“She is not who we need to fear,” Maximilian said, “no matter what you have been told.”
Axis shook his head, looking away for a few minutes as he thought.
“I”ll say it again, Maxel,” he said eventually, “I pray to the stars you know what you are
doing.”
“Are you still with me, Axis?”
Axis again gave a small shake of his head. “You don”t make it easy for me.”
Maximilian smiled. “But…”
“But I suppose someone has to look after you.”
“Thank you, Axis,” Ishbel said softly.
CHAPTER TWO
Elcho Falling
Axis spent the day with his commanders, organizing the defenses of Elcho Falling as best
he could, and gathering as much information as possible about Armat”s force.
“But Maximilian said that Armat”s forces could not enter Elcho Falling,” Inardle said to
him at one point after he”d spent an hour with her, BroadWing and Eleanon discussing flighted
tactics against the Isembaardian army.
“Perhaps,” Axis said, “and perhaps not. I need to plan for the eventuality.”
They were sitting in their apartments eating a light lunch. Inardle poured a glass of weak
ale and slid it across the table toward Axis. “None of your winged command will prove useful if
the Isembaardians get inside Elcho Falling.”
Axis sighed, turning the glass in idle circles on the tabletop. “I know. I want to talk to
Georgdi, Egalion, and Ezekiel this afternoon about stationing men on the lower reaches of Elcho
Falling. If Armat”s men did get inside, we”d still have the advantage.”
He stopped, his eyes still on the glass as he kept turning it.
“But…” said Inardle.
“But,” said Axis, “Armat has so many men. He”d lose thousands, but Armat can afford to
do that.” Again he paused, still watching the glass. “And he has Lister. Maximilian hasn”t
considered him. Lister knows Elcho Falling, and knows too many of its secrets.”
He raised his eyes, looking at Inardle. “What do you think of him, Inardle? How much
does he know?”
“Too much, Axis. Too much.”
“There is always a traitor somewhere, Inardle. It is always the way.”
She froze, but Axis appeared to have made the remark without any underlying meaning,
and so she nodded and changed the subject.
Eleanon moved deep within Elcho Falling. The citadel extended far underground, and he
spiraled down stairwells for what seemed like hours until he could go no further.
The levels above had mainly been storerooms, but here, at the very core of the citadel,
was nothing but a bare and somewhat dusty space with a smooth rock floor that extended so deep
into shadows that Eleanon could not see any end to it.
He stood, turning every so often so he could stare into a different part of this cold, lonely
chamber, scrying out with his power to see if there was anyone else in the area.
He did not use the power of the Star Dance, but that of the Magi, which Eleanon thought
only Maximilian might recognize, and likely not even he.
He was safe enough for the moment.
There was no one else here.
Eleanon”s chest rose in a long, deep breath, then he held out his hands before him and
muttered an incantation.
The air shifted above his hands, and then appeared the dark corkscrewed spire that
Eleanon, Bingaleal, and Inardle had originally used to contact the One many weeks previously.
It was a dark, twisted thing of great power—the most powerful of the spires that the
ancient Lealfast had created with the aid of the Magi.
Eleanon held it for a long moment, then he set it down in the center of the rock floor,
turned his back, and left.
“Axis! Axis! ”
He woke grudgingly, tired after a long day spent organizing and worrying.
“Axis!”
He rolled over, unwilling to wake up.
Then he felt Inardle put her mouth right against his ear. “Someone is inside Elcho
Falling,” she hissed, and Axis almost knocked her over as he sprang upright.
“How do you know?” he said.
“I have felt the movement in the Star Dance,” she said, “and in the eddying of the air as it
flows up through Elcho Falling. There is an intrusion in the vaulted chambers that lead from the
entrance arch, moving toward the great stairwell.”
Axis was by now half dressed and pulling on his boots. “Wake Egalion, and BroadWing,
and—”
She was already gone, and Axis didn”t bother with his shirt, grabbing his sword belt and
buckling it about his hips.
“Shit,” he muttered as he ran for the door.
Axis almost slid down one of the final curves of the staircase as it wound to an end in the
series of vaulted chambers that ran back from the entrance arch. He took several more steps
down, then slowed, uncertain.
Everything appeared as it should. There was a pair of the Emerald Guard, standing sentry
at one of the curves where Egalion had stationed them. Axis glanced up, seeing sentries further
up the staircase and standing on internal balconies that overlooked the great stairwell.
They were watchful, but relaxed, and not a little curious as to why a half-unclothed Axis
was sliding down the staircase in a state close to panic.
“StarMan?” one of the sentries near him said.
“There is something wrong,” Axis said. “You can”t feel it?”
The two sentries just down from him exchanged a glance, then shook their heads. “All is
quiet, StarMan,” one of them said.
“There is something wrong,” Axis said, walking down the stairs more carefully now. He
passed the two sentries, then glanced behind him as he heard more steps.
Egalion, and forty or fifty of the Emerald Guard, dressed and weaponed as if they”d been
standing ready.
Axis looked back down the stairs. The hairs on the back of his neck were rising.
Something was wrong, but he couldn”t see anything, or otherwise recognize what it might be.
He stepped down a little further.
And, suddenly, there was a disturbance in the air before him.
Ravenna stepped out of the air, and behind her too many Isembaardian soldiers to count.
Stars! Axis thought, taking several steps back up the staircase as he turned to shout orders
to Egalion.
“Wait,” said Ravenna, “we have not come to fight or to harm.”
Axis turned around. He didn”t say anything, just looked at the soldiers that kept
materializing out of the air. Ravenna’s trick.
But how had she got them inside the entrance arch?
“Is Maximilian about?” Ravenna said.
“Yes,” said a voice, “Maximilian is about.”
Axis glanced over his shoulder. Maximilian was stepping past Egalion.
“What do you here, Ravenna?” he said as he came to stand beside Axis.
“Come to talk to you,” said Ravenna, “and to demonstrate this.” She turned a little, just
enough to indicate the mass of soldiers behind her.
Axis glanced between Maximilian and Ravenna. Both appeared very calm, but he thought
he could see traces of tension about Maximilian”s eyes.
So much for Elcho Falling not allowing Armat’s army entrance, Axis thought. If this was
the point Ravenna had come to make, then she had made it very well indeed. He caught
Egalion”s eye, and the man gave a slight nod and began to make his way up the stairwell to get
reinforcements.
“How are you, Maxel?” Ravenna said, folding her hands in front of her stomach. She
looked very calm and very certain of herself, and the way she”d folded her hands before her
tightened the fabric of her gown over her belly, emphasizing her pregnancy.
“You have not come this way and in this manner,” Maximilian said, “to exchange
banalities. What do you want, Ravenna?”
“You have seen how easily I gained entry,” said Ravenna. “This time I brought a
thousand men. Next time I might bring one hundred thousand. Have I made my point
sufficiently?”
“Very efficiently,” said Maximilian. “What have you come to say to me, Ravenna?”
“We need to talk, Maxel. We need to parley. Armat and I are prepared to offer you…a
compromise, if you like.”
“Say it here.”
“No. I want to speak to you alone. Just you and me, Maxel, as once it was.”
“It was never just you and me,” Maximilian said.
“Then it should have been,” she said, very quietly. “Come speak with me privately,