do that fairly quickly.”
Isaiah dismounted from the horse. “Lamiah,” he said, “can you continue the march north?
I”ll rejoin you in an hour or two. I need to tell StarHeaven what I know.”
Lamiah nodded and, as Isaiah moved StarHeaven to one side, waved the column forward.
“StarHeaven,” Isaiah said as soon as they were safely out of the way. “How long is it
since you have been with Maximilian”s column?”
“A week, perhaps.”
“And when you left, had Maximilian and Ishbel renewed their marriage?”
“No,” she said, “they are close, but something still makes them hesitate.” She shrugged.
“No Icarii would act that way.”
Isaiah almost sagged in relief. “StarHeaven, listen closely, for I have a tale to tell that you
need to get back to Maximilian”s ears as soon as you can.”
“I want to show you something,” Ishbel said to Maximilian, who now sat on the bench
beside her, and she unwound her plait and loosened her hair.
“I was marked,” she said, “and you ran your hands over it many times, but never saw it or
intuited it.”
“Your scalp,” he said.
“You knew?”
Maximilian laughed. “Well, the fact that you are talking about your hidden mark while
shaking your hair loose gave me a hint.”
“Oh, well, yes. Look.”
Maximilian hesitated, then took Ishbel”s bowed head in gentle hands, parting the hair. “I
can”t see anything.”
“No.” Ishbel lifted her head and Maximilian lowered his hands. “I looked this morning,”
she continued, “for the first time since I left Serpent”s Nest, and it is gone.”
Maximilian sat silent, looking at her.
“I sat in the room I”d had as archpriestess, Maxel. Sat there all night. I had yearned for
that room so much, yearned to come home.”
“I know,” he said softly.
“But…last night…there was nothing left there for me. It was empty.” She paused. “What
I had once been was gone. Empty.”
“I know you”d wanted to see how you felt when you came back here.”
“I was sure I would feel something. Sadness. Regret. Sweetness, perhaps. But there was
nothing at all. Just emptiness.” Another pause. “And when I realized that, Maxel, I grew fearful.”
Again he sat silent, regarding her.
“I thought that perhaps I had left it too long. That I had missed the bridge that would lead
from the life I had lost to—”
Maximilian leaned forward and kissed her, very gently. “Be my wife, Ishbel.”
“I”ve been so angry at you, Maxel, and so scared of you. I am still scared.”
“Of what?”
“I am terrified of once more ruining a marriage with you. I don”t think I can survive again
the pain we caused each other the last time.”
“No one can guarantee anything, Ishbel. We can simply do our best.”
“No secrets?”
“No. So confess to me whatever remaining secrets you have kept hidden, Ishbel.”
“I stole my mother”s favorite brooch when I was five,” said Ishbel. “I hid it in the flour
jar.”
Maximilian smiled. “I can live with that.”
“This is proving easier than I expected.”
“That is because we are making a more honest start this time.”
Ishbel took a deep breath, and nodded. “I have loved you for so long, Maxel.”
“And I you, and we both needed to say that, very badly.” Maximilian took her face
between his hands, and kissed her again, very gently.
“What now?” Ishbel said, when he drew back.
StarHeaven had gone utterly white. She stared at Isaiah, unwilling to believe what he had
told her.
“I don”t need you to believe it,” Isaiah said. “I just need you to pass it on to Axis and
from him to Maximilian. Can you do that? ”
She nodded, her eyes huge.
“Now? ”
Again StarHeaven nodded. “I need somewhere quiet. Somewhere…”
“Oh for gods” sakes,” said Isaiah. He waved his arm at the three Icarii he could see
overhead, and they slowly, and with obvious uncertainty, spiraled down to him.
“Get her somewhere safe and quiet,” Isaiah said to them when they”d landed. “And when
she”s done, get back to me.”
Axis was walking with Egalion and Clements by the front gates to Serpent”s Nest,
checking the portcullis.
“Although why we bother,” Egalion said as they stood back, watching a group of five
soldiers lower the metal gate up and down, “I don”t know. Maximilian says he will raise Elcho
Falling the day after tomorrow, and what will become of all this,” he waved a hand at the gates
and the forecourt, “I have no idea.”
“I doubt it will be substantially different,” said Axis. “Just…different.”
“Well,” said Clements, “that”s helpful. But I would have thought that… Axis? What”s
wrong?”
Axis had gone very pale, and had literally swayed on his feet for a moment.
Egalion grabbed at his elbow, steadying him. “Axis?”
“It is StarHeaven,” Axis said. “Reporting back…”
Egalion kept his hand on Axis” arm, but he and Clements stayed silent for five or six long
minutes as Axis listened to what StarHeaven said in his mind.
“What is it, Axis?” Egalion said as Axis finally blinked and came out of his fugue.
“Trouble,” Axis said, and he pulled his arm from Egalion”s grip and sprinted for the inner
courtyard.
He found them where he”d left them, in the chamber where Maximilian had held his
morning conference.
Unfortunately, they were not quite as he”d left them. A flush-cheeked Ishbel was sitting
in a chair, braiding her loosened hair. When she saw Axis she gave him a part secretive, part
self-satisfied smile, then dropped her eyes.
Maximilian was standing by a chair, lifting up his jacket and sliding an arm through one
sleeve.
Axis stared at the jacket…had Maximilian been wearing that earlier…or not?
Oh stars…
“Axis?” Maximilian said. “Is there something the matter?”
“I need to speak with you,” Axis said.
“What is it?” Maximilian said.
Axis hesitated, and Ishbel finished with her plait and rose. “I think he wants to speak with
you alone, Maxel.” She walked past Axis to the door, giving him another enigmatic smile.
“I”ll see you tonight, Maxel,” she said, and left the room.
Axis waited until the door closed.
“Maxel,” he said, “Isaiah is alive.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Serpent’s Nest
Maximilian paused in the middle of buttoning his jacket. “What? ” “Isaiah is alive. I”ve
just heard from StarHeaven. Maxel, had you made love with Ishbel before I arrived?”
This time Maximilian just stared at Axis.
“Maxel, I have reason to ask—the news from Isaiah is appalling, and it involves Ishbel.
Do you remember Ravenna”s vision?”
Maximilian finally pulled on his jacket with an angry jerk. “Oh for all the gods” sakes,
don”t tell me Isaiah has turned against Ishbel now! Has he started having visions as well? I have had enough of people telling me she will be my peril.”
He paused. “Isaiah is alive…how? Axis, sit down, please, and tell me, in order, starting
with the fact that Isaiah is alive, what you know.”
Axis pulled out a chair from the central table. “Isaiah is alive. He met with what he
believes to be the fleshly representation of DarkGlass Mountain—Isaiah said it was a man made
of glass—who calls himself the One. The One stripped Isaiah of his powers, which is what you
and Lister felt and you interpreted as his death. I believe there is a lengthy tale here to be told,
but StarHeaven only gave me the absolute basics, because she, or Isaiah through her, wanted me
to pass to you as fast as possible the One”s message to you.”
Maximilian was still standing. “And that is?”
“The One has constructed a curse. Isaiah stresses that it is not a possibility, but a reality.”
“Very well. What is this curse?”
Axis took a deep breath. “This curse is powered by the fact that whatever form of flesh
the One has assumed thus far was accomplished through the death of your and Ishbel”s daughter.
Her blood—”
“Yes, yes, get on with it.”
“If you, Maximilian Persimius, slide the Queen of Elcho Falling”s ring onto Ishbel”s
finger, if you bear her down to your bed, then so shall sorrow and despair envelop Elcho Falling
and all it contains. The moment you marry yourself to Ishbel again, by consummation of ring and
body, then so shall the One become Elcho Falling”s lord. And when he arrives at the gates of
Elcho Falling, so shall Ishbel crawl forth and surrender to him all the power and might of the
citadel of Elcho Falling. It is what Ravenna saw in her vision, Maxel. You can do nothing to
prevent this. The moment you wed Ishbel again, your fate, as the fate of all the lands and peoples
above the FarReach Mountains, is sealed. You and they shall be wedded to the One, who
controls the power of Infinity.”
Maximilian”s face was expressionless as he stared at Axis. “And this curse is a reality.”
“Yes. Unless…”
“Unless…?”
“To save Elcho Falling, the land and its peoples, you and Ishbel must present yourselves