to the One at Sakkuth and deliver to him the Weeper—”
“Well, that”s a small impossibility now, isn”t it?”
“—the crown of Elcho Falling and the Goblet of the Frogs. You—”
“The goblet of the what?”
Now it was Axis” turn to stare at Maximilian. Hadn”t either Isaiah or Ishbel told him
about the goblet? “Maxel, you will need to ask Ishbel about the goblet. It is something that Isaiah
brought north with him from Isembaard. It is just a goblet, Maxel—”
“Just a goblet, yet the fate of Elcho Falling depends on its deliverance to this One?”
“Maxel, this is hard enough for me as it is. Please let me finish.”
Maximilian continued to stare at Axis with an expressionless face.
“If you deliver yourselves, the Weeper, the crown, and the goblet to the One, then you
and Ishbel will die, but he will spare Elcho Falling and the lands above the FarReach Mountains.
Maxel, is this not what Ravenna was trying to warn you about?”
Maximilian sent Axis such a dark look that Axis found it difficult to ask what he needed.
“Maxel, have you reconsummated your marriage to Ishbel?”
“No. Ishbel and I have not bedded for at least a year.”
“Thank the stars!”
“Don”t you dare say that to me!”
“Maxel—”
“Ishbel and I have made our peace, Axis. The day I raise Elcho Falling is the day we
resume our vows.”
“Maxel, the One did everything to try and ensure Isaiah did not get this message to you in
time. He stripped Isaiah of his power, and Isaiah has had to walk across vast distances, although
fortunately he found a horse left to run wild in the wilderness and managed to come faster than
the One had intended. That he then came across StarHeaven was sheer luck. Don”t discard that
luck! Maxel, this curse is a reality. If you lie with Ishbel then there is nothing you can do to
avoid the destruction of this entire land save—”
“Taking ourselves down to Sakkuth with the Weeper, the crown, and this goblet of which
you speak. Yes. I heard you the first time. I assume this is what the One wants, otherwise why
tell me about this curse? Why not just curse me and let me drift unknowing to my fate?”
“That is how Isaiah understands it. The One wants you and Ishbel in Sakkuth, with the
items. You may not have the Weeper, Maxel, but perhaps you can hand to the One the keys to
the Twisted Tower.”
Maximilian shot Axis yet another black look.
“The One,” Axis continued, “assumed that Isaiah would not get the message to you in
time. Maxel, you can now avoid the curse. Very simply. Don”t slide that ring onto Ishbel”s
finger. Don”t sleep with her.”
Maximilian leaned forward a little, sighed, and rubbed at his forehead with one hand.
“Axis, if the One has gone to these lengths, then he is vulnerable.”
“Perhaps he just wants to make sure.”
“So, what happens if, as you suggest and Ravenna wants, I discard Ishbel completely,
renege on any and all promises I have made to her, set her to one side, and refuse to attend the
One in Sakkuth?”
“Then Isaiah says the One will invade. He has a huge unnatural army—Isaiah has not
gone into details but I am assuming it is whatever those millions of Skraelings have
become—with which he will swamp this land while you are distracted by Armat. Maxel, frankly
I prefer the second option—dealing with an invasion from the south—rather than—”
“Destroying all my hopes by making Ishbel my wife. So, according to Isaiah, I face
certain destruction via a curse which the One assumed Isaiah would not tell me about in time
anyway, or I avoid the curse and suffer probable defeat via a war of attrition with the unnatural
armies of the One.”
“I say again, Maxel, that I prefer the second option. We need to deal with Armat, and
then we need to prepare to face the armies of the One. There is better news which StarHeaven
told me briefly. Isaiah is moving north with Lamiah and one hundred and fifty thousand men. He
is bringing an army with him, Maxel.”
“What for? To keep me from Ishbel”s bed?”
“Maxel—”
“Go away and leave me, Axis. I want to think.”
The moment Axis had closed the door behind him, Maximilian stood and began pacing
about the room. He was furious: with Axis, with Isaiah, and with Ishbel, who had apparently kept
secret an object important enough that the One had tied it to his curse.
Was the entire world conspiring to keep him and Ishbel apart?
The curse made no sense to Maximilian. Why had the One told him about it? If
Maximilian had the ability to visit such a curse on his enemy, a curse which would ensure his
enemy”s defeat, then the very last thing he would do would be to send him warning of its
existence, perhaps in time to avoid it. Maximilian wasn”t sure that the One had assumed that
Isaiah would not be in time. Everything seemed too…clumsy.
There had been too much “luck” on Isaiah”s part to get the news of the curse to
Maximilian.
In time to prevent it.
“Shit,” Maximilian muttered, then he strode to the door.
“Ishbel?”
She turned from the window where she”d been looking for evidence of Armat”s imminent
arrival. “Maxel? I hadn”t expected you before this afternoon. I thought you”d be spending the
day with Josia.”
“What is the Goblet of the Frogs?”
The smile faded from her face. “Who told you—”
“Who told me doesn”t matter. What is it?”
“I was going to give it to you at your crowning, Maximilian. It was to be a gift. A
surprise.”
“So surprise me now.”
She gave him a steady look, then walked over to her pack in the corner of the chamber,
retrieved from it a package, and came back to stand before him.
“My ancestress Tirzah made this for Boaz, the man she loved.” Ishbel slowly unwrapped
the goblet, then held it out to Maximilian. “And thus I give it to you, Maxel, as a gift of love.”
He took it in his hands, turning it about very slowly. “It is astounding.”
“Yes,” Ishbel said, watching his face carefully. “It is. Tell me, Maxel, does it speak to
you?”
He raised his eyes to hers…and she knew what he must be hearing.
Hold her, soothe her, touch her, love her.
“It tells me,” he said, “to commit myself unto destruction.”
Ishbel blanched. “What has Axis said to you?”
Maximilian sighed. “Ishbel, will you give me the crown, too, please.”
Her face was stricken now. “I thought you wanted me to—”
“I need it only for tonight, Ishbel. Please give it to me, and then wait up for me. I will
come and see you, very late, and then I will bring both the goblet and the crown back to you.
Ishbel, trust me for the next twelve hours. Please.”
“What did Axis tell you?”
“Ishbel, I need you not to talk to Axis for the moment. I want you to wait here until I
come back.”
He gave her his marvelous smile then, and her eyes filled with tears at its warmth. “I love
you, Ishbel, but I need to be very, very sure about something, and for that I need both the crown
and the goblet for the day. Will you trust me?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Trust me, Ishbel, just a little longer.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Serpent’s Nest
Maximilian went back to his chamber, and told Serge and Doyle, who stood outside, that
he did not want to be disturbed.
“Not under any circumstance,” he said. “I don”t care if Armat himself comes storming up
those steps, I must not be disturbed.”
Then he went inside, placed the satchel with the crown in it, and the rewrapped goblet, on
a table under a window, and then sat down in a chair, staring at both satchel and wrapped bundle,
thinking.
After a long while he closed his eyes, and his body relaxed.
Maximilian had gone to speak with Josia in the Twisted Tower.
Maximilian roused at dusk. He came back to awareness slowly, blinking and rubbing at
his face, then stretching out his arms. He rose slowly, washed his face and hands, and wandered
over to the window to look out as he dried them.
Finally he looked down at the table. He unwrapped the goblet first, setting it back on the
table. He wrapped his hand in the cloth Ishbel had used to wrap the goblet, then used his covered
hand to draw the crown out of the satchel.
He did not want to touch it until he used it to awaken Elcho Falling.
The crown was almost utterly enveloped in blackness now, with only an occasional glint
of the three twisted golden bands.
Elcho Falling was very, very close, and for a moment Maximilian heard the pounding of