Again, a nod from Lamiah. “Then hide us within your glamour, witch-woman Ravenna,
and we shall do as you wish.”
Ravenna let her glamour fade, and came to her conscious self, hidden deep within
Maximilian”s army encampment.
Her eyes were glassy with tears, but otherwise Ravenna had her expression under tight
control.
What she had just done was the most heart-wrenching action of her life.
Betraying Maximilian.
She had started on a path that might, if she were not careful, lead to Maximilian”s
death…but was that death not assured anyway, if he took Ishbel back to his bed?
Ravenna brought her emotions under control. She had said to the generals what they had
wanted to hear, in words they would understand.
“It doesn”t need to be this way, Maxel,” she murmured, “if only you would listen to me.”
“Ravenna?”
Ravenna jerked about.
Her mother was approaching, her face creased with anxiety. “Ravenna? Where have you
been? I have been looking everywhere for you this past hour.”
“Just wandering, Mother.”
Venetia stood a moment looking at her daughter. “I felt the touch of a marsh witch”s
power, Ravenna. What were you doing?”
“Nothing,” Ravenna said, too sharply, and pushed past her mother.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Sky Peaks Pass
Axis SunSoar climbed to the top of the rocky hill, pausing there to take a breath. He had
once more assumed the all-black clothing of the BattleAxe, lacking only the twin axe emblem on
the chest of his tunic jacket.
Outwardly very calm and confident, Axis was in fact extremely nervous. If matters got
out of hand here, there was not a thing he could do to protect Maximilian.
He rested one foot on a rock, relaxing his body, and looked about.
To the south, a great bank of low, gray snow cloud was rolling in.
The Lealfast. Axis had no idea how Maximilian was going to manage their introduction,
and was still highly concerned that the sudden apparition of the ghostly Lealfast descending from
the sky might provoke the Isembaardian soldiers into panicked action.
He looked down at the throng of men about him.
The Isembaardian army surrounded the hill, stretching back many hundreds of paces on
all sides. The sea of faces moved gently, constantly, as men shifted on their feet, bent close to a
neighbor to murmur a few words, and turned this way and that to gauge the emotions and
reactions of those about them.
They were on edge. Unsure.
But at least they were here, and they were prepared to listen.
Axis wondered what Maximilian would say to them.
He looked to the front ranks of the mass. Here in the inner circle, perhaps four or five
paces down the hill, stood anyone who had any seniority at all.
StarDrifter and Salome, very watchful and tense.
BroadWing EvenBeat, the senior of the Icarii below StarDrifter and Salome, as well as
several other of the Icarii who had traveled with Georgdi and Malat, were nearby. They would
meet their long-lost cousins today, if all went well.
Axis hoped that StarDrifter would behave himself.
Georgdi and Malat sat a little further about the circle. They were looking much better
than when Axis had first met them a few days earlier. Rest and food had banished the grayness
and gauntness from their faces, but they looked as uneasy as Axis felt—surrounded as they were
by so many armed men.
Like StarDrifter, they had a few of their closest retainers standing just behind them.
A little further on stood Ishbel. She looked impossibly lovely, clothed now in a
rose-colored heavy silken gown ( Where does she get such gowns? Axis wondered. Madarin?), her fair hair coiled in an intricate knot over one shoulder. Amid all these tense-faced men, amid
all the uncertainty and nerves, Ishbel was an oasis of serenity and surety.
Axis wondered how she did it.
There was something else about her. Axis remembered how she had been after she”d
healed Madarin—every inch the archpriestess, a little haughty, very sure of herself, ready to face
down the entire world if need be. She had that air about her again this day.
Axis almost smiled as he imagined her single-handedly gutting every soldier who might
step forward to challenge Maximilian.
She saw the glint of humor in his eyes, and her own mouth curled upward. They shared
amusement a moment, then Axis inclined his head, glanced at the soldier Madarin, standing
guard behind Ishbel”s chair, then allowed his eyes to roam further.
Venetia stood just along from Ishbel, and two or three paces from her stood Ravenna.
Axis studied Ravenna a moment. He did not trust her now, not at all.
Why had she been listening to his conversation with Maximilian? What would she do with
the information?
She looked calm enough, and completely unthreatening, but still…
Of everyone who was someone within this gathering, the only notable absentee was
Isaiah. Axis knew he was here somewhere, and that Maximilian would require him later. But for
the moment the stage was Axis”, and then Maximilian”s.
Axis stood straight, taking a deep breath.
His was the task of introducing Maximilian formally to this army.
Ishbel tensed as Axis prepared to speak, feeling very nervous about what Maximilian
might want her to do later, and looked around at the great gathering of soldiers.
They were all watchful. Most were silent, but here and there Ishbel could see men lean
close, muttering.
Their eyes were flat and unsympathetic.
Ishbel could understand their concerns and their disinclination to give Maximilian
anything but the most cursory of respect.
Did they know, she wondered, that three of the generals had absconded? Yes, they likely
did.
Then Axis lifted his head and spoke, and, like everyone else gathered here, she had eyes
for no one else.
“My friends,” Axis said in an easy voice which nonetheless carried a great distance, “do
you know who I am?”
Silence, and Ishbel looked about, concerned.
Axis looked completely relaxed, and not at all disconcerted by the lack of response.
“Who am I?” he repeated, his voice as calm and as even as previously.
“You are Axis,” came a voice, and Ishbel looked its way, recognizing one of the soldiers
who had ridden with Axis when he”d rescued her from Ba”al”uz”s men.
Then, from a man that Ishbel did not recognize, another response.
“You are a legend.”
Axis laughed, soft and easy. “Aye, I am a legend. A man, a battle leader, a general. An
Enchanter, a god, a ghost. I have ridden with the stars and walked the halls of the Underworld.”
He smiled, just a little, just enough to charm every man and woman who saw it, and
Ishbel thought that had he smiled at her like that when he”d asked her to be his lover, she would
not have refused.
“I am the Skraelings” nemesis,” he said, and at that his face hardened and his eyes
glittered.
There was a marked response among the ranks. Tens of thousands of men shifted, and
their regard became keener, their interest sharper.
“I know where the Skraelings are now,” Axis said, turning in slow circles so he could
gaze upon each section of the army in turn. “They are in Isembaard, where are so many of your
families. Soon,” he said, his tone now very strong, implacable, “we shall have to do something
about that.”
Now there was a cheer, then another, and then ten thousand more, and Axis had to hold
up a hand to silence the army.
“I am a great battle leader,” he said. “A legend. But do you know why I am here, this
day?”
Silence, watching.
“I have come back from death, struggled back from the Otherworld, to introduce to you a
legend both ancient and new. A legend to whom even I bow my head.”
“I had not thought Axis so great the flatterer,” muttered a dry voice just behind Ishbel,
and she turned her head very slightly.
Maximilian stood there. So great had Ishbel”s attention—as everyone else”s—been on
Axis that she had not heard him approach.
“Are you ready, Ishbel?” he murmured, and she inclined her head.
He gave her a small smile, and then Ishbel turned back to Axis.
“I have come here,” Axis went on, “to introduce to you this legend. This place, this day,
this moment, witnesses the rebirth of the greatest legend this world has ever seen.
“My friends, I commend to you my Lord of Elcho Falling.”
Axis turned about in one last full circle atop the hill, catching every eye in the mass
below him, then he stepped down, passing Maximilian, who now stepped up to take his place.
Good luck, Maxel. I have done all I can for you.
Axis moved to stand beside Ishbel, and she exchanged a small smile with him.
Axis wondered if his face looked as strained as hers. He looked up. The skies were gray
now, and clouds still billowed to the south. There was a step behind him, and Axis turned his