“And then?”
“Then do with it what you think best.”
Insharah gave her a steady look. “My lady, you forget how well I know you.” He glanced
at Armat, and when he spoke again he kept his voice very low. “I am assuming, Ishbel, that you
healed Maximilian as well as once you healed Madarin.”
CHAPTER SIX
Elcho Falling
Axis, StarDrifter, and Inardle were still within the command room when Ishbel returned.
She came through the door, and gave them a cool look.
“There will be no attack,” she said.
Then, without waiting for a response, Ishbel entered Maximilian”s death chamber and
closed the door behind her.
Garth sat five or six paces away from the daybed that held Maximilian”s body. He could
not look away from it. In the past few hours it had cooled and mottled into the terrible gray and
blue of death, its flesh cold and slightly clammy. Maximilian lay on his back, a bloodied sheet
pulled up to his chest.
His face was slack, all expression wiped from it when his life had expired.
The door opened and Ishbel entered, startling Garth.
“Did Madarin bring water?” she asked, and Garth nodded at the large urn and basin set
on a side table.
“Ishbel?” he said.
“Later,” Ishbel said, and walked over to the table. She stripped off her blood-stiffened
clothes, dropping them to the floor before kicking them to one side.
Garth stared, unable to look away. The blood which had soaked through her clothes had
dried in crusty drifts all down Ishbel”s body, and she wrung out a washcloth and scrubbed her
flesh until it glowed. Then she shook out her hair, and poured water through it, soaping it
thoroughly before rinsing and toweling it dry.
Then, as if oblivious to Garth”s presence, she walked over to Maximilian on his day bed,
lifted the sheet, and slid in beside him.
“He is so cold,” she murmured.
Garth opened his mouth to say something, then realized Ishbel did not expect a reply.
She snuggled in close to Maximilian”s corpse, her body against his, one arm sliding under
his body so that her arms enclosed him.
She lay her face on his shoulder and clasped her hands about his chest.
Then, rhythmically, Ishbel”s hands began to beat gently against Maximilian”s sternum.
“I shall find all my strength,” she said, “in the beat of your heart.”
Ishbel walked into the Twisted Tower. Josia stood just inside the door, his face lined with
desperation.
“You have little time,” he said.
“I have time enough,” Ishbel replied, turning for the stairs.
She walked up them unhurriedly, her naked body gleaming in the warm light, and Josia”s
eyes followed her until she disappeared from view.
For the next few minutes he listened to the soft footfalls of her steps as they climbed
upward.
“Hurry!” he whispered.
Maximilian stood naked before the open window on the very top level. One foot rested
on the windowsill, and his body leaned very slightly toward the opening.
His eyes were fixated on what lay beyond, his face awash with a soft green light that
pulsated through the window.
Ishbel stepped into the chamber, pausing for a moment as she caught sight of Maximilian.
Then she walked over to him, keeping her eyes averted from the view through the window, and
stood behind him, pressing her body the length of his, her face resting between his shoulder
blades, her eyes closed.
She slid her arms under his and clasped her hands gently together against his chest.
Then they began to beat slowly, rhythmically, against his sternum.
“Maxel?” she said. “Come home, please.”
He didn”t respond.
She kissed the cold skin between his shoulder blades. “Come home, Maxel.”
She pressed herself even more strongly against his back. “Can you feel the beat of my
heart, Maxel? Do you remember what you said?”
He didn”t move, but Ishbel sensed something deep within him shift.
“Every beat of my heart, Maxel, is your strength. Come home, Maxel, come home.”
He shivered, and Ishbel felt a sudden jerk beneath her hands as they pressed against his
chest.
Her eyes filled with tears. “Maxel, come home, please.”
He relaxed against her, and she had to take a deep breath and hold it to control her
emotion.
Then she unclasped her hands, and began to run them very gently over his body.
Wherever they passed, so the scars left by his time in the Veins vanished.
“Let them fly through the window, Maxel,” she murmured. “Let both the scars and
nightmares go into death. You don”t need them anymore.”
“Am I dead?” Maximilian said.
“No,” she said, kissing the skin between his shoulder blades more strongly now. “No.”
Maximilian took a deep breath, his first, and lifted his foot from the windowsill and
placed it on the floor.
“Come home, Maxel,” Ishbel said, and he sighed and turned into her arms.
Garth started in amazement. Maximilian”s body, mottled with death, suddenly flushed a
rosy pink.
All the scars that had marked his body faded, then vanished.
Maximilian”s eyes flew open. They stared at the ceiling of the chamber, then he turned
his head and saw Garth.
Garth saw recognition in Maximilian”s gaze, but Maximilian did not say anything.
Instead he stretched his body very gently, then smiled suddenly as he realized Ishbel”s presence
beside him.
He rolled over, wrapping her in his arms.
Garth”s eyes gleamed with tears. He rose and left the chamber, quietly closing the door
behind him.
Epilogue
Go! whispered the One, and all along the southern foothills of the FarReach Mountains,
from Hairekeep to the River Lhyl, millions of Skraelings darted forth, rushing into the gullies
and crevices of the mountains.
By morning they would be through the mountain range and into the realm of the Lord of
Elcho Falling.
Atop the peaks of the mountains danced the Lealfast Nation, almost a quarter million of
them, holding torches gleefully into the night so that the Skraelings had both light and guidance,
and singing with glee as below them silver-orbed horror seethed through the mountain passes.
Salamaan Pass was so thick with Skraelings they hid the ground completely.
Go! whispered the One, and in Elcho Falling Eleanon and his twelve thousand fighters
picked up their weapons and dissolved into invisibility.
A moment later they were dispersing throughout the citadel, seeking out the units of the
Strike Force and the Emerald Guard and the Outlander fighters, an unseen cloud of silent death.
Go! whispered the One, and in the Twisted Tower Josia frowned at the scratching at the
door.
He opened it, and stared bemused at the red tabby cat that entered and began to wind its
way about his ankles.
And now I! whispered the One, and deep in the heart of Elcho Falling Eleanon”s dark
spire glowed once, twice, then flared violently.
When the glaring light died, it was to reveal the green form of the One standing in the
heart of the citadel.
The One looked about, flexed his shoulders as if he were working out a slight stiffness,
then walked toward the staircase that led upward.
Infinity had come to claim Elcho Falling, and death its inhabitants.
The Book of the Soulenai lay in the center of the Infinity Chamber in the heart of
DarkGlass Mountain, where the One had left it. As the One set foot on the first rise of the
staircase in Elcho Falling, so the cover of the book opened slowly.
The rat, who had hidden in the book for so long, slowly emerged and moved away
several paces.
It sat down, staring intently at the Book of the Soulenai.
The book burst into flames, very suddenly, and as it did so, the rat began to scream.
Glossary
Alaric: a nation in the extreme north.
Aqhat, Palace of: the home of Isaiah, Tyrant of Isembaard.
Armat: one of Isaiah of Isembaard”s generals.
Avaldamon: father to Boaz.
Axis: see SunSoar, Axis.
Aziel: archpriest of the Order of the Coil.
Baxtor, Garth: a physician who employs the Touch (the ability to determine sickness
through touch). Garth was primarily responsible for freeing Maximilian Persimius from the
Veins eight years before this tale begins.
Bingaleal: one of the Lealfast.
Boaz: ancestor of Ishbel and Mage of the One. Husband of Tirzah.
Book of the Soulenai: an ancient book which once belonged to Boaz.
BroadWing EvenBeat: an Icarii, and friend of Maximilian Persimius.
Central Kingdoms: a loose coalition of the states of Hosea, Pelemere, and Kyros.
Coil, Order of the: an order that lives in Serpent”s Nest. They worship the Great Serpent
and use the bowels of living men to foretell the future.
Coroleas: a continent to the west, renowned for the immorality and cruelty of its peoples.
DarkGlass Mountain: an ancient pyramid originally built to provide a pathway into
Infinity. Once it was known as Threshold.
Doyle: a member of the Emerald Guard and former assassin.
Egalion: captain of the Emerald Guard, and friend to Maximilian Persimius.