woman away to Maximilian, and he wondered now what he would find at her return.
The horse had by now ambled its way to the foot of the mountain road and had picked up
its pace slightly as it saw the horsemen waiting a few minutes away.
Fool horse, thought Aziel. Why rush away from the only home you have ever known?
He swiveled about in the saddle at that, looking one last time on the place he”d called
home for over thirty-five years. Tears filmed his eyes, and he blinked them away before he
turned back and prepared to face the Lord of Elcho Falling.
Maximilian watched the crimson-cloaked man ride slowly toward him. Serpent”s Nest
rose behind him, a great blue-tinged granite massif that reached forever into the sky, and Maximilian found it difficult to keep his eyes on the man despite the fact that he”d spent most of
the night standing, silent, studying the mountain.
But he needed to concentrate on Aziel at the moment. He was the last remnant of Ishbel”s
life as Archpriestess of the Coil, and Maximilian wondered how Ishbel was feeling. He glanced
at her—she was pale, all her attention on the man riding toward them.
Maximilian looked back to Aziel. He was impatient to kick his horse up that rising road
and actually enter the mountain—he”d been unable to eat this morning for his combined
excitement and nerves—but Aziel deserved the respect of his attention, if only for the next few
minutes.
Axis had eyes only for the mountain. He”d heard enough about Aziel to know that the
man was not likely to be harboring a concealed weapon or any ill-intent toward Maximilian, so
he felt free to study Serpent”s Nest itself.
Serpent”s Nest…Elcho Falling.
It was huge, easily as big as Talon Spike had been, and unusual in that it rose
precipitously out of relatively flat plains. There were no foothills, no surrounding mountains.
Just this one great peak. Blue-hued and slab-faced, great granite cliffs and turrets
projecting forever into the sky and backed, in the east, by a vast gray ocean rolling away into
infinity.
The Mountain at the Edge of the World.
It reeked of magic. Axis could feel it stirring the hairs at the back of his neck and trailing
soft fingers down his spine. It wasn”t overt, but Axis had known magic much of his life, and had
wielded enough of it, to be able to sense its presence.
Stars, he thought, what will this place be like when Maximilian awakes the Elcho Falling
within?
He glanced above, and could see that the Icarii wheeling overhead had their eyes firmly
fixed on the mountain.
He wondered if they thought the mountain would prove home for them.
Ishbel could scarcely contain her emotions. Aziel was close enough now that she could
see every feature of his face. He”d aged, she thought, since last she”d seen him. His face was
more lined, his eyes more pouched, and he wore an air of fatigue that generally only the very
elderly shouldered.
His eyes were locked on her, and for the first time Ishbel realized that Aziel had loved
her, probably since she”d been a girl, and that sending her away to another man must have been a
nightmare for him.
What a fool I was then, she thought, and tried to smile for Aziel, and failed, miserably.
Josia stood in the top chamber of the Twisted Tower at the window. From his vantage
point he could see Maximilian”s combined forces arrayed before him, the pitiful figure of Aziel
on his horse approaching them, and beyond that the rising bulk of Elcho Falling.
But Josia had no eyes for Maximilian and his forces, or for Aziel, or even for the
mountain.
Instead his eyes were fixed on the rolling gray seas beyond.
Aziel pulled his horse to a stop a few paces from Maximilian”s.
“Maximilian Persimius,” Aziel said. “Welcome…I suppose.”
That drew a small smile from Maximilian. “We have disturbed you from your home,” he
said. “I am sorry, Aziel. It was not my intent. There was no reason for the members of your Coil
to have left. I am sure there would have been room within the mountain for all.”
“That is kind of you,” Aziel said, “but none of us could stay. Our god is gone, our
purpose destroyed, and our lodgings are about to become the home of something much greater
than we ever could have been.”
“Aziel,” Ishbel said, edging her horse a little closer to Maximilian”s. “Stay, please. Don”t
go.”
Aziel looked at her. Ishbel was almost unrecognizable from the woman he”d sent away.
That woman had been repressed and unhappy, a complete naïf in the ways of the world and of
her own heart. Now she looked very different. She affected clothes and a hairstyle that flattered
and accentuated her natural beauty, and she held herself with both confidence and dignity.
Ishbel had grown up.
He realized he was staring, and he smiled for her, and inclined his head. “I can”t stay,
Ishbel. I am sorry. I do not think Maximilian can have his new home soiled by the remaining
presence of members of the Coil.”
“He will not mind!” Ishbel said.
Aziel looked back at Maximilian. Yes, he would mind. Very much.
“I will be staying,” said Ishbel, “and if I stay, then I cannot see why—”
“You are so far removed from what you once were,” said Aziel, “that no stain of the Coil
remains about you. Ishbel, I need to go. Besides, I fancy seeing my home again.”
“Aziel, the world is at war! Armies gather about us, and to the south—”
“Let him go, Ishbel,” Maximilian said quietly.
She stared at Maximilian, her face stricken, but she fell silent, and eventually dropped her
eyes to her hands gripping the reins of her horse.
“There are servants within the mountain,” Aziel said, addressing Maximilian once more.
“They are not associated with the Coil. We have made as much as possible comfortable for you,
but we had few hands for the task, and there was no means possible to prepare chambers and
beds for your entire force. I am afraid that while there will be space and chambers enough for
them, they may have to make their own beds.”
“I am grateful for what you have done, Aziel, thank you,” Maximilian said.
Aziel looked at Axis. “You are Axis SunSoar, I believe?”
Maximilian apologized for not introducing Axis and StarDrifter, and made good his error.
“Such legends,” Aziel said, smiling and nodding his head at both men. Then he addressed
Ishbel once more.
“I loved you, Ishbel. I needed to say that. I love you still—all the more reason, I think, for
Maximilian to want me gone.” His eyes were twinkling merrily now. “Be happy, Ishbel, and
don”t revert to the woman you once were—too scared to take life in both hands…and too scared
to love.”
He gathered the reins of his horse. “Maximilian,” he said, “the mountain is yours. Raise
its ghosts, people its corridors with memory, and unwind its terror into the sky. And respect it, for without that, the mountain will murder you.”
Without waiting for a response, Aziel pushed the dozing horse into a walk and turned its
head for the road westward.
“Aziel!” Ishbel called, but she made no attempt to move to his side, and Aziel rode on
through the ranks of silent armed horsemen, until eventually he reached empty road.
CHAPTER TWO
Serpent’s Nest
As soon as Aziel had gone, Maximilian gave the order to enter the mountain, and for the
next half an hour Axis concerned himself with moving the army forward. Inardle alternatively
rode at his side or out to outlying units to relay his orders. Axis kept an eye on her, but was not
worried about either her fitness or her reception. The Isembaardians and the Emerald Guard had
never had a problem with her, and the Icarii had accepted her in the five days since StarDrifter
had made his dramatic apology. It was a grudging acceptance, and overlaid with coolness, but at
least Inardle and the Icarii had managed to get themselves to a point where they were prepared to
consider the possibility of mutual regard if not outright friendship.
Inardle was also much better physically. She”d recovered well from the bruising and
swelling of her arm and shoulder, although the wing still gave her, and Garth, some concern.
Garth said the tendons were healing better than expected, but he was noncommittal when Axis
pressed him privately about whether or not Inardle might fly again.
Maximilian and Ishbel rode ahead, and entered Serpent”s Nest”s first. Axis was some
fifty or sixty paces behind them, and he and Inardle rode into Serpent”s Nest together.
It was extraordinary.
Axis hadn”t known quite what to expect. They”d had the opportunity to study Serpent”s
Nest for two days before actually arriving—it had appeared as a purple smudge on the horizon