to see Maximilian. Ah, here”s Yysell now.”
Axis spent the next two hours making sure the campsite was secure, setting guards about
its perimeter, and receiving reports from several of the Strike Force about Armat”s position.
The general was still well behind them, but close enough that a small force could attack,
and Axis didn”t want to take any chances with security.
It was just past dusk when he got to his own tent, a command tent almost as large as
Maximilian”s. There was the glow of a lamp inside, and a shadow as Yysell moved about, setting
out fresh clothes and a hand basin and jug of water.
Axis lifted the tent flap and walked inside. Yysell turned from the side table and smiled,
ducking his head in greeting, but it took Axis a moment longer to spot Inardle, who had seated
herself on a stool in the shadows.
“Yysell has made you comfortable?” he asked her.
“Indeed,” she said, “he has been very kind.”
“Will you be eating here tonight, my lord?” Yysell said.
Axis shook his head. “We”ll be eating with Maximilian.”
Yysell bowed his head, and left.
“Did Yysell give you water to wash with?” Axis said as he shrugged off his jacket and
then his shirt.
“Yes, thank you. Axis, can you arrange somewhere for me to sleep, please?”
“Yysell can hunt you out a small tent, if you like,” Axis said, splashing water over his
face and then his chest and shoulders. “I don”t want you bedding down around the fires with the
soldiers.”
“Thank you. How far are we from Elcho Falling?”
“Possibly a week.”
“And Eleanon? Have you news?”
“No. But I have heard of no disaster, so he and his fighters must be in the lower Sky
Peaks.”
She nodded, but didn”t say anything, and Axis watched her carefully as he soaped his
chest and arms.
Inardle had her eyes downcast, but she was still aware of his regard. She shifted on her
stool, rearranging her wings self-consciously, then finally lifted her eyes as Axis started to towel
himself dry.
“You didn”t say good-bye to me,” she said. “In the camp, when you left. I made you feel
uncomfortable. I”m sorry.”
Axis pulled on the fresh shirt Yysell had laid out for him, then the jacket. “It is time to
go,” he said. “Maximilian wants us in his command tent.”
This was not going to be easy for her, Axis thought as they entered the tent. While she
had met Ishbel and Maximilian before, she knew that their perception of her would be colored by
Armat”s catastrophic rout of the Lealfast.
It would have helped if Inardle had looked a little more demure, or perhaps less arrogant,
but tonight she was all Lealfast and all pride, and very much on the defensive.
She also looked lovely in her silvery-gray fabrics with her crownlike silver hair and the
gentle rim of frost about her eyelashes.
Axis instantly saw Ishbel and Salome raise their eyebrows.
It was going to be an interesting evening.
“Good,” said Maximilian. “Everyone”s here. Do you all know Inardle?”
Axis helped himself to a glass of wine and stood back, watching as Maximilian took
Inardle”s elbow and guided her amongst the small crowd, introducing her to those she had not
yet met. The difference between her and the other Icarii present—StarDrifter, Salome, and
BroadWing—was quite noticeable. Inardle was a little taller, slimmer, and almost ethereal beside
them. She had an aura about her that whispered of the frozen wastes, and just sometimes, when
she moved, she acquired a faint translucence.
She trailed glamour and mystery behind her.
The Icarii were generally regarded as extremely exotic by the non-winged races, but
Inardle took that exoticness to far greater heights.
Axis couldn”t take his eyes off her.
“StarDrifter is Talon of the Icarii,” Maximilian said as he introduced her to him, “and
Axis” father.”
Inardle glanced at Axis as Maximilian said that, her only sign of nervousness thus far.
“StarDrifter,” she said, inclining her head.
“We must talk sometime,” StarDrifter said, his tone a little too cool, “about reintegrating
the Lealfast back into the Icarii. It”s time you came home.”
“The Icarii are not our home,” Inardle said. “We do not recognize your—”
“You cannot think yourself Skraeling, surely,” StarDrifter said. Then, after a small,
theatrically horrified pause, he added, “Do you?”
“StarDrifter,” Axis said, giving his father a hard look, and stepping over to hand Inardle a
glass of wine. “This really isn”t the time.”
“I do not blame your father for not thinking highly of me,” Inardle said, setting the glass
of wine to one side.
She turned slightly so she could look Maximilian in the eye. “My Lord of Elcho Falling, I
must offer you my apologies for what happened when Eleanon—”
“You owe me no apologies,” said Maximilian, “and you do not need to answer for
Eleanon”s error. Inardle, if your fellows have the same reserves of dignity and courage that you
possess, then there may be hope for them yet.” His mouth curved in a gentle smile. “Welcome to
my table, Inardle. You appear to have impressed Axis,” he sent an amused glance at Axis as he
said this, “so now I look forward to being impressed as well. Will you sit on my right?”
Axis found it an intriguing meal. Maximilian was open and friendly enough with Inardle,
as were Ishbel and Garth, but they were the only ones. StarDrifter verged on the openly hostile,
Salome was not much better as she took her lead from StarDrifter, BroadWing ignored Inardle
the entire evening, and Ezekiel clearly couldn”t have given a damn about her and talked almost
exclusively with Egalion, who was seated too far away from Inardle to do anything but give her
an occasional intrigued glance.
It was an interesting reaction, Axis thought. The people who were most at ease with
Inardle were those clearly less threatened by her…and they were the non-Icarii among the
gathering. Axis had wondered what it might take for an Icarii to feel intimidated, and now he had
his answer.
An Icarii who had evolved further.
And by mating with a Skraeling, no less.
Axis had his own problems with the Skraeling blood connection, but the more time he
spent with Inardle the less it bothered him.
The meal progressed, the conversation meandering along inconsequential paths, until
Maximilian settled back in his chair and turned the conversation to darker matters.
“Inardle, Axis tells me that Lister, along with Ravenna, is now with Armat.”
“Yes.”
“I do not know Lister well, although he has had a profound influence on my life,”
Maximilian said. “But you were once his lover, I believe. How do you understand his sudden
defection to Armat?”
“Lister is a difficult man to know,” Inardle said. “I shared his bed, but he was so
secretive…I admired him greatly, and he was companionable, but there were depths to him that I
never understood. His desertion into Armat”s camp could mean anything. I just don”t know,
Maximilian, I am sorry.”
“The Lealfast were his servants,” Salome said.
“No,” said Inardle, “we were not. We traveled with him because we felt that our
ambitions coincided—to aid the Lord of Elcho Falling. Once we had a choice between Lister and
Maximilian,” she gave Maximilian a small smile, “then our association with Lister was over.
Perhaps—”
She broke off suddenly, and looked down at the table.
“There was no excuse for Lister”s desertion of you in Armat”s camp,” Maximilian said.
Then, to cover the awkward silence, he leaned forward in his chair and addressed Axis.
“Will you find a duty for Inardle, Axis? She tells me she is mostly healed of her injuries
now, save for her wing, and she surely can prove of some use to you.”
“Inardle can serve as my second-in-command,” Axis said. “My lieutenant.”
All movement and sound ceased, and all eyes stared at Axis.
“I have overall command of disparate forces,” Axis said, his tone as nonchalant as if he
were discussing his breakfast order with Yysell, “and I need someone who can act as my eyes
and ears, who can report back to me, who can convey my orders—”
“A kind of secretary,” Salome said, with a somewhat condescending smile.
“—and who can give orders on my behalf, knowing my own wishes in any given
situation where I can”t be contacted,” said Axis. “Inardle will need some instruction and
guidance, but I think she can—”
“Stars, Axis!” StarDrifter said. “She”ll order Maximilian”s entire army into a massacre if
she gets half a chance!”
“That was utterly uncalled for!” Axis snapped.
“StarMan,” BroadWing began, his tone tight, half risen from his stool. “You cannot place
the Strike Force in a position where they may need to take orders from—”
“A Lealfast?” said Axis. “You take them from me easily enough, and Inardle has the
same amount of Icarii blood as myself.”
“The Lealfast are utterly unknown to us!” BroadWing said, sinking back onto his stool