Isaiah studied her for a moment. All the time he had known her there had been an aura of
fragility about her, or of worry, or of uncertainty. All of that had now gone.
“What happened tonight, Ishbel?” he said. “What really happened?”
“Maxel and I…everything between us was colored by my fear of the Lord of Elcho
Falling. The whispers I”d heard when I was a child in the house with the corpses of my
family—”
Isaiah nodded. As an eight-year-old girl Ishbel had spent a month trapped in the charnel
house of her family home, the corpses of her family rotting—and whispering—about her.
“—had taught me to fear the Lord of Elcho Falling, for he would bring nothing but
bleakness and despair to my world. All through my girlhood and into my marriage with
Maximilian, I had visions of how one day the Lord of Elcho Falling would turn his back on me
and ruin my world. Maxel and I—” Ishbel made a helpless gesture with her hands. “I wanted to
love him, but I feared what he would do to my life. He was the Lord of Elcho Falling and
everything I had ever experienced had taught me to be terrified of him.
“Well, last night StarDrifter and Salome convinced me that I had to take the chance. That
together Maxel and I could have something extraordinary. So I went to him and begged him, and
he rejected me and presented me with his pregnant lover. Then he turned his back on me and
walked away.”
Ishbel took a deep breath. “And in the doing, he destroyed my world and fulfilled the
visions I”ve experienced over all those years. An extraordinary blackness, a complete despair,
overwhelmed me. It crushed me. I collapsed in the snow as he walked away. And then…”
“And then?”
“Fury consumed me. Not at Maxel, nor even at Ravenna—although, by the gods, I
despise the woman and will surely have my revenge on her—but at myself. For being so stupid.
For allowing myself to be so easily outmaneuvered. That fury was also a release. The worst had
happened, and it was my fault, really, rather than that of Maxel, and now I was beyond it, and if I
didn”t want this to happen again, I needed to collect myself somewhat.”
“That”s quite a transformation for such a short period of time.”
“It was almost instant, Isaiah. I was suddenly faced with the devastation I”d always
feared…but it wasn”t the Lord of Elcho Falling”s fault, it was mine. It was…” Ishbel paused,
trying to find the words to describe what she”d felt. “It was as if I”d experienced a gigantic
release of pressure, I think. It was done, it was over, I didn”t have to fear any more—not if I
decided to take control and take back that strength I had lost.”
“You don”t still long for Maxel?”
“Not on his terms.”
Isaiah stared at her, then he very slowly smiled. “Well, well. I have been waiting to meet
this woman for a very long time. Maxel has an uncomfortable time ahead of him, I think.”
She returned his smile. “Ravenna will have to cope with his black moods, not I. For the
moment, she is welcome to them.”
Isaiah walked over to a pack in one corner of the tent. He rummaged about in it, then
withdrew a carefully wrapped parcel. “For you,” he said. “For the Lady of Elcho Falling.”
“What”s happened?” Axis asked Maximilian once Ishbel and Isaiah had left.
“Oh gods…” Maximilian groaned and rested his head in his hands for a moment. “How
did you manage it, Axis, Faraday and Azhure?”
Axis gave a short laugh, remembering that time so long ago when he had loved two
women, and thought to have them both. “How did I manage it? Not well, Maxel. What happened
tonight?”
“Ishbel came to me, told me she loved me, that she wanted us to remake our marriage.”
“And you said?”
“Ravenna is pregnant, and I feel responsible for her—”
“Ah.”
“—so I told Ishbel that it was impossible. Axis, you have no idea how guilty I felt
walking away from Ishbel.”
“You can still assume responsibility for Ravenna”s child and take Ishbel back as your
wife.”
Maximilian stared at his hands and didn”t say anything.
“Do you want to take Ishbel back as your wife, Maxel?” Axis asked softly.
“I don”t know. Everything between us…there has always been such dishonesty and
distrust, such—”
“Depth of emotion?”
“Such mismanagement, Axis. Do I love her? Once I thought I did, then when I found her
with Isaiah, and our daughter dead, then I was certain I hated her. There is such distance between
us. She has for years believed that the Lord of Elcho Falling would only ever bring her entire
world to despair and dismay, and tonight…well, tonight I fulfilled that prophecy for her.”
Now it was Axis who said nothing, watching Maximilian and allowing the man to talk it
out.
“There is so much else I need to concentrate on, Axis. Elcho Falling, and whatever has
happened to Kanubai. DarkGlass Mountain, and these damned Isembaardian generals who
distrust me and doubtless plot against me. I do not need to be distracted by women just now.”
Axis gave a slight shrug.
“Ravenna hates Ishbel,” Maximilian continued. “For months she has spoken of her in
nothing but dark terms and dismal tones. Her constant harping sets my teeth on edge. Tonight, as
Ravenna and I walked away from Ishbel, Ravenna thought I was having second thoughts about
rejecting Ishbel.”
“Were you?”
Maximilian ignored the question. “Ravenna pulled me into the Land of Dreams, and there
she showed me a vision.”
“Of what?”
“Of Elcho Falling laid siege by an army of misshapen creatures, and with Icarii and
human alike lying in piles of the dead. A creature, a dark nameless formless thing, walked to the
gates of Elcho Falling, and they opened and Ishbel crawled forth and welcomed the creature into
the citadel. It told her that it was glad she had done its bidding, not only in allowing it entry to Elcho Falling, but in my murder. Ravenna said that if I again took Ishbel as my wife, then the
vision would become a reality. Ishbel will murder me and betray Elcho Falling. She may not
mean to, but she will do it.”
“Ravenna has a dark and bitter twist to her, Maxel.”
“But what she showed me…I don”t think she conjured that vision. It must be a true
warning.”
“I once thought that Azhure was my deadly enemy, too, Maxel, and I mistreated her so
horrifically she almost died. If she had died…” Axis shook his head. “Maxel, I saw a truth, but I misinterpreted it so badly I almost lost the woman without whom…well, without whom I would
have accomplished none of what later I managed. Trust your heart, Maxel.”
“Hearts can be wrong.”
Again Axis shrugged. “What are you going to do?”
“Raise Elcho Falling, one stone at a time.”
Madarin was waiting for Ishbel when she left the tent, the bundle carefully held in her
arms.
“I have arranged everything, my lady.”
She smiled at him. “Really? Where?”
He led her back the way Isaiah had originally brought her. It was just on dawn now, and
soft light permeated the crowded lines of horses and tents and equipment and campfires.
Overhead, one of the Icarii drifted down toward a group crouched about one of the fires, while
everywhere sleepy men emerged into the new day, yawning and stretching stiff, cold limbs.
“I am glad I can finally be of service to you, my lady,” Madarin said as they walked.
“Having saved my life, there is nothing I will not now do for you.”
“I shall not ask anything too corrupt of you, Madarin, but whatever else you can give me,
I shall be glad enough of. I think that…oh gods, Madarin, where did you find that?”
Madarin grinned as Ishbel stopped in her tracks and stared ahead. He was a middle-aged
man, scarred and toughened by years in the military, and he had thought himself way past
deriving pleasure from watching the wondering surprise of a lovely woman, but he supposed that
perhaps he wasn”t so hardened as he”d thought.
Ishbel was staring at the tent Madarin had sourced for her. Before she”d gone to find
Isaiah, she had asked Madarin to find her a tent of her own. She was sick of sharing with others
as if she were a stateless refugee, and she”d resolved that she would now house herself in a
manner which befitted her new determination to be her own woman.
She”d imagined that Madarin would find for her one of the small, grayish canvas tents
that soldiers used. It might be cramped and lowly, but it would be hers.
Instead, he had found for Ishbel a magnificence that was more beautiful even than
Isaiah”s scarlet extravagance.
The tent was of a similar size and shape to Isaiah”s—full square, and large enough to