“As we shall,” Eleanon said. Then his manner relaxed and he grinned. “Did you see,
sister, how Axis StarMan looked at you?”
Inardle laughed, low and lovely. “His sharp tongue revealed his interest.”
“He has a weakness for women,” Bingaleal said. “The more distant they be with him, I
think, the greater his interest.”
“Then perhaps you can affect some distance, Inardle,” Eleanon said. “Can you imagine
what we might learn—perhaps what knowledge we can offer the One—if you are in Axis” bed?”
Inardle shrugged, much as Ravenna had just shrugged. “Perhaps,” she said.
CHAPTER THREE
The River Lhyl, North of Azibar, Isembaard
Hereward was just sitting down to her evening meal in the cramped cabin of the riverboat
when suddenly the entire boat tipped slightly to one side. She grabbed at a bulkhead to stop
herself falling over; then, before anyone could speak, there came the frightful sound of grinding
and splintering and the boat tilted even more alarmingly.
Everyone in the cabin was now grabbing for handholds.
“What”s happening?” cried Heddiah the cook.
“I don”t—” Odella began to say, then fell silent as something smooth and shiny and very,
very sharp splintered through the hull of the boat, through her back, and then out her abdomen.
It was a huge shard of glass.
Hereward, as everyone else, was so shocked that for a long moment she could do nothing
but stare. Then she opened her mouth and moved slightly, but before she could even reach out a
hand to Odella, a score more shards of glass splintered through the hull, skewering two more
people.
Suddenly it was all noise and movement as people leapt away from the hull and climbed
onto the central table. Hereward picked up a small toddling boy and clambered onto the table,
keeping him locked in her arms.
There was something wrong.
Something other than the fact that the boat had been inexplicably pierced by great shards
of glass.
Something other…
“Oh gods…” Hereward whispered as she realized what it was. “Shush!” she yelled.
“Quiet! ”
The boat was no longer moving. It was stuck fast, canted over to one side, as if it was
caught in…a river of glass.
“Quiet,” Hereward whispered, now holding the boy so tightly against her chest he
whimpered.
“Listen,” she said.
There was the sound of something outside, scampering over the glass river. Something
soft and heavy, something that moved on clawed feet.
Something…
“A tasty, tasty! ” came a whisper from outside, and in that instant Hereward”s world
turned to hell.
Skraelings poured down the ladder into the cabin. People screamed, trying desperately to
find somewhere, anywhere, to escape.
There was no escape. As Hereward twisted about she saw two men try to attack the
Skraelings, only to be torn to shreds before her eyes. Another man tried to evade them, but
impaled himself on a wicked shard of glass sticking through the hull.
Hereward had never felt panic like she felt now. Her terror on the banks of the Lhyl when
first she”d seen the Skraelings crawling over DarkGlass Mountain could not compare to the sheer
depth of her current fright. She thought her heart would burst; she hoped it would burst, because it would be a better death than that which must only be heartbeats away.
A Skraeling grabbed a woman just in front of her, and tore her head off with one bite.
Then Hereward saw its eyes lock on her.
She shrieked, scrabbling back along the table, dragging the boy with her.
The Skraeling swiped at her, but she managed to evade it with a desperate lunge to one
side that saw her slide completely off the table.
She clambered to get to her feet, but tripped over a body as she did so, and slammed into
the decking boards again.
There was a whisper behind her, and she knew it was the Skraelings.
She rolled over, trying to get under the end of the table, but the creature”s hand grabbed
into her hair and dragged her half upright.
Blood poured down her face and neck from the wounds the Skraeling”s claws caused in
her scalp.
In her arms the little boy shrieked, and the silver orbs in the Skraeling”s jackal face slid
down to the child.
The Skraeling”s tongue flopped out one side of its jaws, and Hereward saw it literally
slaver in delight.
Then, suddenly, the creature”s grip in her hair was gone and it seized one of the boy”s
arms.
Hereward scrabbled backward desperately, trying to hold onto the boy, who was now
screaming in terror while the Skraeling tugged at the boy”s arm.
It tore off, making the Skraeling stagger backward.
Blood spattered over Hereward—not only from the boy, but also from one of her kitchen
companions, Ingruit, who had just been opened up from breast to belly by a Skraeling claw.
Ingruit fell to the floor beside Hereward, and three Skraelings leapt on her, burying their
heads in the body of the still-breathing woman.
Hereward continued to scrabble backward. The movement was automatic, for Hereward
was now in such deep shock she was incapable of coherent thought.
The boy was still moving in her arms, still shrieking—and then he was gone, torn from
her grip by the Skraeling who had taken his arm, now recovered in its balance.
Hereward was covered in blood. She could feel it soaking through her hair, her clothes,
into every crevice and pore of her skin.
And the stink—the cabin was crowded with Skraelings and with the corpses they fed on,
and the air was thick with the stench of hot blood and split bowels. Hereward could not believe
she was not yet dead, and could not believe she could be forced to go through so much suffering
while waiting to die.
She continued to move backward, finally shuffling up against the bulkhead.
Two Skraelings advanced on her. Their jaws and bodies were red with blood, and, having
already eaten, they approached slowly, enjoying her terror.
Feeding on her fear, as they would shortly feed on her body.
Hereward tried to stand, forcing her legs to work, sliding further and further up the
bulkhead.
One of the Skraelings feinted toward her, and she shrieked and jerked upright…
…and hit her head on a shelf.
She slumped to the floor again, and then something toppled off the shelf and hit her on
the head and shoulder.
Hereward cried out, grabbing at the thing as the two Skraelings, now tired of their play
and wanting only to eat, lunged at her.
Whatever the object was, it was large and very heavy, and Hereward meant to try and
throw it at the Skraelings…but it was far too heavy for her fear-weakened arms and she could
only wave it ineffectually about before dropping it in her lap.
Hereward had her eyes tightly closed, sure that at any instant Skraeling claws would
shred into her flesh.
Nothing.
Quiet.
She sat there, breath wheezing in and out of her lungs, eyes tightly closed, and wished
they would just do it, get it over with, just kill her, please, gods, just kill her…
Nothing.
Quiet.
Then the faintest of whispers.
“A nasty, nasty.”
Hereward managed to open one eye, just a slit. It was an effort, as blood had gummed it
shut, and for a moment she thought that the blood smearing her vision must be making her see
wrongly.
“A nasty, nasty,” repeated one of the Skraelings, hand partly lifted to point a claw at the
object in her lap.
Then, unbelievably, the Skraelings turned as one and filed out of the cabin.
Hereward heard their footpads on the deck above, then heard them retreating across the
glassed river.
Very slowly she looked down at her lap.
Resting there was a huge leatherbound book.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Sky Peaks Pass
Why hunt down the generals, Maxel?” said Axis. “From what you have said to me about
your and,” he glanced at Ishbel, “Ishbel”s policy of allowing everything to break apart, as well as
what you intimated to the army earlier, the generals” lack should not bother you overmuch. So
why send the Lealfast after them?”
“Because I need to gauge the Lealfast”s usefulness,” said Maximilian. “The Lealfast say
they have vast experience as fighters, but how do I know that? But I also send them because I do
need to know what the generals are doing—as Ezekiel pointed out, they will undoubtedly come
after me at some point, and whatever you may think, I have no suicide wish. Use this time to
evaluate the Lealfast, Axis.”
“That was a pretty spell you performed for us just then, Axis,” Ishbel said. “How did you
do that, if your Enchanter abilities are as dead as you have said?”
Axis grinned. “I”d known the Lealfast could access the Star Dance, but I had no idea how
until this afternoon. When they did that trick for you, Maxel, forming an image of Elcho Falling