destroy the Weeper?”
Now he turned his gaze back to Egalion. “Should I just go home, Egalion, and allow the
entire world to destroy itself? I need to say this, my friend, but I have never been as low as I am
at this moment. There is no brightness left, no hope.”
“Perhaps when Ishbel wakes…”
Maximilian gave a soft laugh that was bereft of any humor. “Perhaps when Ishbel wakes
she will compound my despair, Egalion. Perhaps Ravenna was right.”
“No,” Egalion said in a low tone, but fiercely. “Ravenna was not right. Look, Maxel, go
back and wait by Ishbel”s side. Rest, if you can. Perhaps tomorrow will bring—”
Maximilian gave Egalion a look of such cynicism that the man broke off.
“Perhaps,” Maximilian said, then he turned his back on Egalion and went to Ishbel.
Despite his low spirits and the uncomfortable chair, Maximilian eventually drifted off
into a doze. He woke, suddenly, when Ishbel whispered his name.
“Ishbel! Are you well?”
“Yes, just very tired. Maxel, what happened to Venetia?”
“She is dead. I”m sorry. Ravenna—”
“Ravenna killed her. Maxel, if it wasn”t for Venetia…”
“What happened, Ishbel?”
Briefly Ishbel told him how Ravenna had attacked her, and how then Venetia had come
to her rescue. “She saved my life, Maxel.”
Maximilian squeezed her hand. “I know. Ishbel…Ravenna has gone. I said harsh words
to her and struck her. I have never been so angry before.”
Ishbel attempted a small smile. “Not even at me?”
“Not even at you. I found her, with Venetia”s body. I just…”
Now it was Ishbel who squeezed Maximilian”s hand.
“Venetia saved my life, Maxel. I will forever be grateful to her.”
“Ishbel…”
She gave a small smile. “Do you want to know what happened? Did I free the Weeper?”
Maximilian was so terrified of her answer, and so completely unable to read her face, he
could not frame the question.
“Maxel, we need to go into the Twisted Tower.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Inside the Twisted Tower
Maximilian was concerned Ishbel might not be strong enough to stand on her own, but
she shook off his hand as they stood on the path that led to the Twisted Tower.
“I am well enough, Maxel. Just a little tired. Not yet bedridden.”
“Ishbel—”
“Oh, for the gods” sakes, Maxel, stop worrying. I am no invalid. Come, we need to go
inside the Twisted Tower.”
With that Ishbel walked down the path, leaving Maximilian to follow.
At the door she paused, her hand on the knob. “Maximilian Persimius, I would like you
to meet the man who has waited so long for you.”
Then she opened the door.
Maximilian stared into the Twisted Tower.
A man stood just inside the first chamber, regarding Maximilian with an expression
composed partly of happiness, partly of relief. He was very young, which surprised Maximilian, perhaps no more than nineteen or twenty, olive-skinned, dark-haired, and with a fine, aquiline
face.
A face that Maxel recognized, if only because of the lines of suffering on it. Whoever this
was, he”d suffered as much— greater—as had Maximilian.
The man smiled, just a little, and then he bowed in an elegant, courtly movement.
“Greetings, my Lord of Elcho Falling,” he said. “My name is Josia Persimius. I am
Keeper of the Twisted Tower.”
“Greetings,” Maximilian said, returning the bow. “You are Persimius?”
“Of the line of your ancestors, Maximilian,” said Josia. “Will you step inside? We need
to speak of so much.”
The first thing Josia did once the door had closed behind Maximilian and Ishbel was to
step forward and envelop Ishbel in a massive hug.
“Forgive me,” he said, standing back but keeping one hand on Ishbel”s shoulder, “but I
doubt you will ever comprehend just how grateful I am to have finally escaped that cursed
bronze statue! Thank you. Thank you.”
Maximilian”s eyes filmed with tears at the emotion in Josia”s face and voice.
“I thought Ravenna would kill her,” Josia said to Maximilian. “Ishbel was my only hope,
she has ever been the only person with the training and power to free me, and I thought Ravenna
would kill her. But then the woman Venetia came, and I am safe. Venetia is dead now, surely.”
Maximilian nodded. “She gave her life to save Ishbel, and you,” he said. “I never knew
her well, and I cannot understand that she could have thought enough of me to sacrifice herself.”
“I imagine that most who meet you come to love you within hours,” Josia said.
“Not all,” Maximilian said, carefully not looking at Ishbel.
Her mouth twitched.
“Well, then,” said Josia, “perhaps we can fix that.” He let Ishbel go, then looked about.
“Where shall we sit? I have a long tale to tell and nowhere to tell it.”
“There are many empty chambers above,” Maximilian said. “We can sit in one of those.”
“How many empty chambers?” said Josia.
“Well over half the tower is completely empty,” said Maximilian.
Josia”s face went expressionless. “Then I am here only just in time,” he said, and led the
way up the stairs.
They settled in the first completely bare chamber, sitting on the floor with backs against
the walls, facing one another, Maximilian warmed by the fact that Ishbel sat slightly closer to
him than she did to Josia.
“My name,” Josia said, “is Josia Persimius. I am the son and younger brother of now
long-dead Lords of Elcho Falling. I lived some two thousand eight hundred years ago at a time
when the Lords of Elcho Falling were considering leaving the mountain and retiring to Escator.
My father, Escretius, feared, however, that if the Lords of Elcho Falling abandoned Elcho Falling
itself, then all the knowledge associated with it might fall into forgetfulness.”
“And thus this?” Maximilian said, waving a hand about at the Twisted Tower.
“Yes,” Josia said. “My father built it. My brother, Cooper, and I aided him.”
“You know what these chambers should contain?” Ishbel said, getting the question out a
moment before Maximilian.
Josia grinned at the expression on their faces. “All in good time. Let me tell the tale my
way, for I have been composing it for twenty-eight hundred years, and I think I am owed the
stage.”
Maximilian inclined his head.
“My father worried that if too many generations should pass before the Lords reclaimed
Elcho Falling,” Josia continued, “then items might be forgotten. But I never imagined so much
could have been lost.” He sighed. “While my brother Cooper would wear the crown of Elcho
Falling, my father asked me if I would shoulder the responsibility of remembering.”
“Remembering?” Maximilian said.
“Remembering everything for every chamber.” Josia said. “Yes. I can remember every
object for every chamber.”
Maximilian lowered his eyes in order to gather his composure. The worry about the
empty chambers had eaten away at him for so long that he could not believe it could be rectified
this easily.
“I can help you put the objects back, Maximilian,” Josia said. “It is why I exist.” He
paused. “It is why I have suffered.”
“Why is there so much suffering associated with Elcho Falling?” Maximilian said, very
softly. “Why?”
“Because that is what built Elcho Falling,” said Josia, “and that is what powers it.”
He shifted a little, raising one knee and resting an arm across it.
“My father built the Twisted Tower, and populated it with the knowledge that every Lord
of Elcho Falling would require. But then, as I said, my father worried that somehow the tower
would degenerate and memories would be lost. My father was a pessimist.”
Josia paused. “But a realist, also. Cooper would wear the crown of Elcho Falling after our
father, but I would remember the knowledge for all the generations ahead.
“This required me to live for a great deal of time. While the Lords of Elcho Falling can
wield much power, granting indefinite life to a son is not one of their greater skills.”
“You father sent you to Coroleas, didn”t he?” Ishbel said.
“Yes,” Josia said.
“Gods damn Elcho Falling,” Ishbel muttered, “for all the suffering it requires.”
“He sent you to Coroleas as a god-offering?” said Maximilian. “So you could be slowly
tortured into death and your soul encased in a bronze statue?”
Josia inclined his head. “How else could I, and all my memory, be kept alive, save inside
one of the Coroleans” cursed bronze statues?”
Ishbel and Maximilian could not speak. They looked at each other, then back to Josia,
Maximilian making a gesture that was part disbelief, part anger.
“And in answer to your unspoken queries,” Josia said softly, “no, I was not happy about
this fate, nor particularly willing.”
“But you went, in any case?” Maximilian said.
“Would you rather I had not?” Josia said. “Look, it was needed, and I went. I suffered,
and for the longest time I wept, but then one day StarDrifter came to Salome”s chamber—ah, the
things I had to witness under her companionship!—and said to me, „I have come to take you