little so that one taloned finger slid up her collarbone.
Then, without any warning, it sunk the talon deep into her neck so that blood spurted
forth and flowed down her neck.
“Keep your power and she dies,” said the One to Isaiah. “Relinquish your power and she
lives.”
Isaiah struggled against the two Skraelings who held him. He was a powerful man, but
the Skraelings held him easily.
Hereward”s chest and belly were now soaked in blood. She stared pleadingly at Isaiah,
who still struggled futilely.
There were many people for whom Isaiah would not have hesitated.
Axis.
Maximilian.
Ishbel.
But Hereward? She was but just one woman, when already so many had died.
A kitchen steward.
A servant.
And Isaiah would need his power to travel quickly on his way back to Maximilian. Or to
contact him, through power. To let him know that whatever else, a sexual or marital
reconciliation with Ishbel was not a good idea…not in the current circumstances.
And it was going to happen, Isaiah knew that. Ishbel and Maximilian might currently be
estranged, but Isaiah knew that it was only a matter of time before the inevitable occurred.
Gods, gods, if he had to walk north, then it might take him months.
“Hereward…” Isaiah said.
“Please,” she whispered. The Skraeling”s claw had now sunk deep into her neck and
blood was gurgling out.
Isaiah could literally hear it pumping from her body.
“Not enough to kill her,” said the One. “Not quite, not yet, but if you hesitate much
longer, Isaiah, she is going to be so weakened she will be a serious hindrance to you on your way north to Maximilian and Ishbel.”
No, thought Isaiah.
“Her life for your power,” said the One. “Will you give it, Isaiah? Will you become a
mere mortal, just for Hereward”s pathetic little life?”
No, thought Isaiah.
“Will you agree to relinquish all your god abilities, Isaiah, for the life of a servant?”
No, thought Isaiah.
“Yes,” he said.
The One laughed, and clapped his hands. “Yes!” he said, and suddenly a vast emptiness
consumed Isaiah as all of his power drained away.
Gone.
“Good,” said the One, and he waved back the Skraelings.
The instant Isaiah felt himself free, he sprang across to Hereward and clamped a hand
down hard on her neck. Her blood was warm and thick, and Isaiah could feel the blood vessel
pumping under his hand, but at least the flow of blood had stemmed.
“Feed the pretty kitty,” said the One, and he reached over, scooped a finger through the
coagulating blood on Hereward”s breast, and held the finger out for the kitten to lick.
Everything went bad from the moment the first Lealfast arrow sped down from the sky.
Firstly, Armat completely disappeared. One heartbeat he was there, the next he was gone.
Secondly, the column of Isembaardian soldiers, apparently relaxed, unaware, and
vulnerable, instantly swung large oblong shields from their backs and either raised them above
their heads or to one side. Within moments each unit of soldiers was encased within the
protection of their shields, which formed both a roof and walls about them.
The Lealfast arrows bounced away harmlessly.
Then a third and far more deadly surprise hit the Lealfast.
Arrows. Tens of thousands of them, fired from bowmen hidden in the rocks at the sides
of the gully.
The entire force became visible as Lealfast started to fall from the sky.
Eleanon made certain he received at least one arrow—to a limb where a wound was not
critical—then retreated, sick to his stomach at the slaughter.
It was for the best of the Lealfast Nation, he said to himself. For the best.
“I will take the book,” the One said. “It belongs to me.”
He rose, tucking the Book of the Soulenai under one arm, and regarded Isaiah and
Hereward.
“I wish you joy in your journey,” the One said. “Please don”t forget the message.”
He took a step away, then stopped and looked back. “Your journey north will be as
uneventful as I can make it. The Skraelings will not bother you, but neither will you receive
much aid. At least not while you are in Isembaard.”
Again he paused. “Enjoy your mortality, Isaiah. I am sure Hereward is worth what you
have lost.”
And then he was gone, the red kitten gamboling along behind him.
Far to the north, Bingaleal had just lifted off in order to fly into the Salamaan Pass to
check on the refugees streaming through, when he heard a shout from behind him.
It was one of the other Lealfast, flying toward Hairekeep.
Behind the Lealfast, perhaps three or four hundred paces distant, was a massive rolling
wave of darkness that stretched hundreds of paces into the sky.
It moved at supernatural speed.
Then, twenty paces from Bingaleal, it stopped. One instant it was hurtling forward, the
next instant it hung still in the air, towering above all before it.
Bingaleal took a deep breath. He gestured to the other Lealfast to stay where they were,
then he flew forward slowly, dropping to the ground before the great wave as it hung in the air.
This close Bingaleal could see that it was made of tens of millions of tiny shards of black
glass.
He stood watching.
Then, after a time, Bingaleal walked forward and stepped into the cloud.
“Isaiah! ” Lister jerked his horse to a halt, not caring that Vorstus, and every soldier in the
vicinity, was staring at him.
“Wait here,” Lister snapped to Vorstus, then kicked his horse into a gallop to catch up
with Maximilian near the head of the convoy.
Maximilian had already pulled his horse to one side, waiting for Lister. “You felt it,” he
said, as Lister pulled up.
“Isaiah is dead,” Lister said.
“It might be that—”
“Isaiah is dead.”
Maximilian lapsed into silence. His connection with both Isaiah and Lister was a deep,
semiconscious thing. He could feel their presence, their life force, but little else about them.
Now his sense of Isaiah was gone. It had abruptly winked out of existence a few minutes
ago.
He looked at Lister. He had avoided the man as much as possible since he”d joined the
convoy, disliking and distrusting him.
Lister didn”t feel any better to him now, either.
If only it had been Lister he’d sent south, not Isaiah!
“We need to talk, Maximilian,” Lister said.
“If we must,” Maximilian said.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Central Outlands
The first Axis knew of the disaster was when Lealfast began to drop out of the sky about
him. Hundreds of them, thousands, all wounded to some degree, and many suffering horrendous
injuries.
“What the…” he began, unable for the moment to continue as first his, then Zeboath”s,
horse shied at the sudden rain of bodies about them.
“Georgdi,” Axis snapped, bringing his horse back under control, “get the men into
defensive formation. Stars knows what is following behind this lot. Zeboath—”
“I”m moving,” Zeboath said, in the next moment shouting to his assistants to get out the
medical packs.
Axis sat his horse for the next minute, just watching the Lealfast land.
How had so many been injured?
What had happened? Had they flown into a storm of arrows?
“Eleanon!” he shouted, then with his power: Eleanon!
“Here,” came a voice behind him, and Axis wheeled his horse, cursing as it stumbled
over a wounded Lealfast.
Eleanon was standing awkwardly, clutching at one arm, which had a broken-off arrow
embedded in its bicep. Blood stained his tunic and one of his legs.
“Armat,” he began, then wavered a little on his feet, pale and shocked.
Axis jumped down and took two huge strides to reach Eleanon and bury his fist in the
front of the Lealfast”s tunic.
“What the fuck has happened?”
“Armat…”
“Armat? Armat? What did you do, Eleanon? Line up your entire fighting force against a
wall so he could request his men to shoot at their leisure? Oh for the stars” sakes, look
there…and there…stars, the injuries! Eleanon, what the fuck happened?”
Eleanon didn”t reply. His expression closed down, as if he were withdrawing deep inside
himself, and Axis assumed it was a result of his combined shock and humiliation.
“Shit,” Axis muttered, pushing Eleanon to one side as he strode into the mayhem. He
bent down to a Lealfast man who looked merely exhausted rather than wounded. “What
happened? For the stars” sakes, will someone tell me what happened? ”
“We came upon Armat leading a column of a few thousand men westward from
Margalit,” the man said, his voice weary and utterly devoid of emotion. “We thought we had
them. Eleanon ordered an attack—”
“Did he scout first? Check for archers?”
“We just didn”t think,” the man said. “We flew in a group, straight in, and—”
Axis muttered something so obscene that finally the Lealfast man showed some emotion.
“Our bowmen and women set their arrows to the Isembaardian soldiers,” the man said.