“Can we ensure that happens?” Maximilian said.
“I”ll look into it,” Axis said. “Ishbel, may I have permission to talk to Madarin later
today? He may have some useful ideas…and contacts.”
“Of course,” she said.
“And not to forget everyone”s favorite assassins, Serge and Doyle,” StarDrifter
murmured. “They can both pass for Isembaardians if needed, and to think of the chaos they could
cause…”
Axis grinned. “A suggestion taken, StarDrifter. But for now, and until we arrive at Elcho
Falling and I can judge for myself what its defenses are like, I am going to concentrate on the
Strike Force. BroadWing, you have…how many now?”
“Five hundred, StarMan.”
Axis tapped his fingers on the table, thinking. “And how many more Icarii to join with
you, StarDrifter?”
“Possibly another two thousand,” StarDrifter said. “Icarii are still flying in from as far
distant as Coroleas.”
“So perhaps a few score more of former Strike Force members,” Axis said. His fingers
continued to tap slowly as he thought.
“Perhaps you can add the Lealfast eventually, Axis,” Ishbel said.
“Perhaps,” Axis said, without any conviction. “They are currently useless but they have
talent and good skills with the bow and arrow. They lack any experience at all, which lack of
experience they combine with a self-certainty in their own superiority. It is, I have to say it, the
early Strike Force all over again.”
“We were never quite that bad,” BroadWing snapped.
“That”s because you hid in the Icescarp Alps and didn”t fight anyone,” Axis retorted. “At
least the Lealfast left their snowy safety and came looking for a fight.”
“I had no idea you were their champion,” Ishbel said.
“I watched as thousands of them were slaughtered in cold blood,” said Axis. “I owe them
something, and that something is a second chance, if they want it. I admit I have been their
vicious detractor as well, but now…now, well, perhaps I see them in a different light.”
Axis noticed that Maximilian was regarding him with a twinkle in his eye at that last, but
he chose to ignore it. Stars alone knew what gossip BroadWing had been feeding him.
“We can”t afford to ignore any potential military aid,” Axis said. “And we should also
remember that Georgdi will be meeting us at Elcho Falling with the forces he has mustered.
From what I know of Georgdi, from my own experience and from what Malat told me, a single
man of his is worth ten Isembaardians. I don”t want anyone in this tent to discount what we have.
I”ve faced worse odds than this before and won.”
“A good point, Axis,” Maximilian said. “Is there anything else to discuss? It is growing
late, and we need to get on the road.”
“Just one thing, Maxel,” Axis said. “I want to send some Icarii south. We need to know
what is happening.”
“Not into Isembaard,” Maximilian said, frozen in the act of rising.
“Not into Isembaard,” said Axis, “but as far south as they dare.”
Maximilian nodded. “Let”s get moving,” he said, and left the tent.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hairekeep, Isembaard
Hereward sat behind Isaiah on the horse, swaying rhythmically to its gait. It had been
over two weeks since the One had almost killed Hereward, and in that time she had recovered
well. The scab on her neck had fallen off, and she had a shiny, pink, coin-shaped scar at the
junction of neck and shoulder to remind her of just how close she had come to death.
Six days after they had talked to Bingaleal (or to whatever he had become) they had
traveled closer to the fort of Hairekeep, which guarded the entrance to the Salamaan Pass. At
first the countryside and road had appeared normal, but in the midafternoon of the fourth day
since encountering Bingaleal the road they traveled turned to glass.
Both Isaiah and Hereward were appalled, and it made them wonder what they”d discover
at Hairekeep.
There were far more Skraelings about, as well. They were traveling in large groups of
fifty or more, in the same direction as Isaiah and Hereward, although they kept their distance.
Isaiah and Hereward, by silent mutual agreement, chose not to step onto the glass. Isaiah
turned the horse off the road and traveled parallel to it. Every so often the sun glanced off the
surface of the road, and they would think it flashed and grinned at them.
On the morning of the thirteenth day after they”d left the Lhyl, they drew close to
Hairekeep. Isaiah was particularly tense, and kept glancing at Hereward to make sure she was
close.
“At least I have a sword,” he said.
“I would prefer ten thousand swordsmen at my back,” Hereward replied, and Isaiah
managed a brief laugh.
“Aye, ten thousand swordsmen would be much better. Hereward, keep close to my side,
will you? I don”t know what we will encounter ahead.”
“I have no intention of straying, Isaiah.”
Isaiah glanced over his shoulder, and they shared a brief smile. His dislike of Hereward
had ebbed over the past weeks. He wasn”t sure that he actually liked her, but he had grown used
to her presence, and felt responsible for her.
An hour later Hairekeep rose in the distance, and as soon as he could see it clearly, Isaiah
pulled the horse to a halt.
“What is it?” she said.
“The fort is different,” he said. “You”ve not ever seen it before?”
“Servants didn”t have much travel opportunity,” she said. “We tended to be working too
hard.”
She earned herself a black look from Isaiah for that comment, but he didn”t otherwise
respond to it.
“Hairekeep should be a massive, rectangular sandstone tower,” Isaiah said, “rising almost
a hundred paces into the sky. This…”
This, thought Hereward, peering ahead, wasn’t exactly rectangular.
Isaiah clicked his tongue at the horse and they rode closer, a little more warily now,
senses alert for hidden dangers.
“Isaiah,” Hereward said softly a few minutes later.
“I”ve seen them,” he murmured.
Skraelings, tens upon tens of thousands of them, sitting in ordered ranks on the far side of
the road, starting about fifty or sixty paces distant. They were hard to spot, because they were
mere unmoving humps close to the ground, and their heads were lowered so that their silver orbs
didn”t catch the sun”s rays.
“The One”s invasion force,” Isaiah muttered, and as one the Skraelings lifted their heads
and their terrible orbs flared at Isaiah and Hereward.
“Walk on,” Isaiah said to the horse, now skittering about in fear.
It got worse as they approached the fort. The ranks of Skraelings stretched back as far as
either could see—there were likely millions waiting here.
And among them—rising now and again as if caught by the wind—were Lealfast, or
whatever they had turned into. There were thousands of them—Bingaleal”s entire force.
“My fellows,” said Bingaleal to Isaiah”s and Hereward”s other side, making them jump.
He was walking parallel with them about five paces distant. “They are like me,” he tapped his
chest. “They have a heart of glass. A heart devoted to the glass.” He grinned, showing the
unearthly blackness behind his lips. “Axis SunSoar thinks to build a Strike Force again. But the
One commands a Strike Force unlike anything Axis has ever had to deal with.”
“The One is remarkably well informed,” Isaiah said, keeping his eyes ahead as he and
Hereward rode forward. He was tense now, worried not so much that Bingaleal would attack him
(the One did, after all, need him to deliver a message), but that the stallion would panic and
throw one or both of them. The horse was very tense, and Isaiah kept a close hold on his halter
rope and a tight grip with his knees.
“The One is omniscient,” Bingaleal said. “Look,” he waved a hand ahead, “do you see?”
Isaiah took a deep breath of shock, and felt Hereward do the same behind him.
They were close enough to Hairekeep now to see it for what it had become. Not a huge
block-of-sandstone fortress, but a twisting, writhing mass of darkness that rose to a peak in the
sky like a distorted pyramid.
Faces and hands pressed against the darkness, desperate to escape.
“That”s our larder,” said Bingaleal. “That is what we feed on while waiting to invade,
Isaiah. Your subjects. The ones you abandoned. We drag one out every so often and tear it open
to eat. Would you like one now, for your supplies?”
Bingaleal watched Isaiah and Hereward ride past Hairekeep toward the Salamaan Pass.
Once they were out of sight, he resumed his normal appearance, then turned his head
slightly.
Eleanon materialized beside him.
“Well?” said Bingaleal.
“The Nation has agreed,” Eleanon said, then grinned at the delight on his brother”s face.
“We are all One.”
“Yes,” Bingaleal said. “We are all One.”
“What was that face you showed Isaiah?” Eleanon said. He looked behind him, where the
Lealfast were now lifting away from the Skraelings and vanishing into the air. “Why the disguise