“You always said that the Lord of Elcho Falling would bring you nothing but pain and
grief, Ishbel. I cannot believe I fulfilled that prophecy so readily.”
“It is gone, Maximilian. You have Ravenna now, and her child, and—”
“Did you not hear what I said about the command tent, Ishbel?”
“You can”t possibly want me to believe that not an hour after you turned your back on
me, you then did the same to Ravenna.” Ishbel paused. “Can you?”
Maximilian shifted his eyes away from her as she had so recently averted hers.
“You amaze me,” Ishbel said. “I can”t believe it. You were willing to grind me into the
snow with your heel and—”
“Ishbel—”
“And for what? For what? To then do the same to Ravenna not an hour later? I cannot
believe you have the nerve, Maximilian, to sit there and…and expect me to fall about with
gratefulness and dewy-eyed radiance and hold out my arms to you!”
“That is not why I came here!”
“Of course not. Oh, I am well rid of you, Maximilian Persimius! Do you know what I felt
as you walked away from me in the snow? Do you know? It was anger, not at you or Ravenna,
but at myself for having allowed myself to be so foolish as to love you!”
Ishbel closed her eyes briefly as she took a deep breath and damped down her anger.
“Maximilian, I harbor no ill will toward you. I will do anything I can to aid you. But I will not
love you. You need to understand that very clearly. I want control of my life back, and I want
never again to find myself so hideously vulnerable as when I loved you. You were right all
along. The marriage is over. The love is over.”
“You have abandoned love in short order, it seems.”
“As you abandoned love, and two women, in short order.”
He said nothing, looking down at his hands, the muscles in one cheek working.
Finally, he looked at Ishbel. “May I ask something?”
She sighed. “Why not?”
“Have you ever had any other visions or dreams than those which you told me
about—myself, in the snow, destroying your world?”
She looked at him quizzically. “What kind of visions?”
“You, on your knees, opening the door of Elcho Falling to a lord of darkness.”
Now Ishbel looked very steadily at him for a long moment before answering. “No. The
only nightmares I ever had were about you, Maxel.”
He looked at her sharply at that, but Ishbel continued straight on. “Where did you get that
little gem from?”
He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, again not meeting her eyes.
“Ravenna?” she said, and Maximilian”s mouth tugged upward in a small smile.
“Yes,” he said. “She tells me that you will bring nothing but sorrow, and destroy me,
Elcho Falling, and the entire land in the process.”
Ishbel laughed hollowly. “Oh, that I had that much power, Maxel.” She paused. “Do you
believe her?”
“She showed me the vision. I saw it.”
“Well then, believe it if you must. Malat is talking of riding to the Central Kingdoms. I
can go with him. I believe he is wifeless now the Skraelings ate his—”
“Ishbel!” Maximilian took a deep breath. “Don”t.”
“But you have seen this vision.”
“Don”t taunt me, Ishbel. Visions can be misinterpreted.”
“I hope you didn”t say that to Ravenna. It might have made her very cross.”
Another smile tugged at Maximilian”s mouth. “Do you mean me treachery, Ishbel?”
“No. But I am assuming that what Ravenna deduced from the vision was that I am
weak-willed and prone to disasters of monumental proportions.”
“Your vision of me destroying your world…did it eventuate as you had thought?”
“Very close, but not quite, perhaps. I am still here, breathing, and my world is not
shattered. Only my fear and doubt were destroyed.” She paused. “I allowed you to create such
misery in my life, Maxel, because I loved you, and I won”t—”
“Allow that to happen again?” he said. “Yes, so you have said.”
Their eyes met, and both almost smiled.
“You have not come here to ask me to leave, Maxel?”
“No. I want you to stay.”
“And Ravenna”s vision…”
He shrugged, thinking of what Ishbel had said: Only my fear and doubt were destroyed.
“Maybe it is truth, maybe not.”
Ishbel hesitated, then spoke. “Thank you for telling me about it, Maxel.”
He nodded. “Will you stay with my column?”
“You are going to Elcho Falling?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will stay with you. Elcho Falling is my home, too, Maximilian.”
“I know that.”
“Good.”
He rose, walking to the tent door. “Ishbel, be careful of Ravenna.”
She cannot possibly do me the harm that you have done, Ishbel thought, but was too tired
to put those words to voice. She gave a nod.
“We need to talk again,” Maximilian said. “About Elcho Falling.”
She gave another nod.
He looked at her, then turned and left the tent.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Sky Peaks Pass
Maximilian spent the morning with Axis and Ezekiel, inspecting some of the
Isembaardian units and talking with the soldiers. He had a brief lunch, then, feeling restless, he
waved away Serge and Doyle, took his cloak, and walked out into the countryside.
There was a hill about three or four hundred paces from the northern border of the camp,
and he made for it at a brisk rate, enjoying the exercise.
The hill was perhaps fifty paces high and he climbed it easily. By the time he reached the
summit he was sweating gently, thoroughly warmed by the exercise. He circled about the
summit, taking deep breaths of the chilly air, enjoying its invigoration.
His breath steamed, and he clapped and rubbed his hands together as he took in the view.
It was still late winter, but spring could not be far away, and on the summit, where the rocks
were warmed by the sun, the snow had melted away.
The great Isembaardian army, swelled now by Georgdi”s and Malat”s ragged column and
a few Icarii, stretched away to the south and east almost as far as Maximilian could see.
What was he going to do with such a mass? And how was he going to keep it together?
He did not fool himself that the shout of loyalty in that instant after Isaiah had so
stunningly handed command to Maximilian, meant much at all. The men had done as they were
told, but their hearts had not been behind their voices. Maximilian was not surprised at what Axis
had told him, that the men murmured about their families and worried.
He, too, would worry and murmur.
He turned slightly, catching sight of Ishbel”s blue tent with the pennant fluttering in the
breeze.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
She amazed Maximilian, almost as much as she disconcerted him. He had been so sure
that he had devastated her world with his coldness and denial two nights ago in the snow. But
instead Ishbel had straightened her back, tossed her head, and emerged from it the stronger.
So much stronger.
Maximilian was not entirely sure why he”d gone to talk to her earlier in the day. Yes, he
had needed to sound her out about Ravenna”s vision, because it worried him. But Maximilian
thought also he had gone to make sure she hadn”t been pretending when she”d said, so calmly
and assuredly, that what had once been between them was now past.
His smile faded as he remembered how he”d rushed after her, and made himself look like
a foolish youth by telling her that he”d now moved into the command tent.
Without Ravenna.
Well, it had left Ishbel unmoved. He had truly destroyed whatever had once been
between them with his ill-thought guilt over Ravenna”s pregnancy.
A movement below caught his eye.
It was Ishbel, leaving her tent. She stopped outside to talk with the Isembaardian
soldier—Madarin, Maximilian thought his name was—who guarded it, then Madarin was
turning to the hill and pointing.
Ishbel turned to look, her hands shading her eyes in the bright sunlight, and then she
started for the hill.
Maximilian felt a flutter of nerves in his stomach.
He sat down on a patch of exposed, dry rock, his eyes following Ishbel”s progress toward
the hill. She walked and then climbed smoothly, without any hint of breathlessness.
All the months in the saddle had strengthened her, Maximilian thought, and then had to
fight to stop himself wondering just how strong and supple her body—always slender and
lithe—might be now.
“I thought you would have seen enough of me for the day,” he said as she reached the
summit and sat herself down beside him.
“You just happen to be occupying the top of the hill,” she said, “where I thought to sit
and digest my lunch.”
He smiled. “Who is that soldier—Madarin? He seems devoted to you.”