the waves.
“Not yet,” he whispered.
He looked out the window again.
The sun was now halfway beneath the horizon.
He had only a few minutes.
Maximilian withdrew the queen”s ring from the inner pocket of his jacket, placed it on
the table, then took off his own ring, placing that next to its mate.
He glanced out the window again.
There was now only the barest rim of light above the horizon.
The crown sat in the center of the table. Maximilian moved the other objects until the
goblet sat behind the crown, and the two rings to either side.
Then, just as the sun finally sank below the horizon, Maximilian placed his right hand flat
on the table before the crown and spoke a similar incantation to the one Isaiah had used to pull
Axis from the Otherworld.
The chamber dimmed.
Maximilian stood straight, lifted his hand from the table, and turned to face the center of
the chamber.
Instead of looking at the wall and door across the chamber, he looked into a long, dim
corridor that seemed to stretch into infinity.
There were two figures in its distance, and Maximilian waited as they approached. From
time to time the figures faded from view, as if obscured by time or difficulty, but they always
reappeared, walking steadily forward.
Eventually they were close enough for Maximilian to make out their features.
The older man had dark brown hair and deep blue eyes: Maximilian”s eyes. The younger
man was much darker, his long black hair queued at the back of his neck, his hawkish face
dominated by intense black eyes.
Even so, his face held a resemblance to that of the older man.
Both of the men wore long robes of a pale material, with outer robes of more colorful and
heavier fabric.
They stopped just before they would have stepped from the corridor into the chamber,
and then both simultaneously bowed.
“My Lord of Elcho Falling,” said the older man.
Maximilian returned the bow. “Avaldamon,” he said to the older man, then he looked at
the other. “Boaz.”
“Threshold has awoken,” Boaz said.
“Yes,” Maximilian said.
“I should have destroyed it completely,” Boaz said.
“Indeed,” said Maximilian, “but what was not done was not done, and now I need your
advice.”
He outlined briefly for the two men what he knew of the pyramid and its use of Kanubai.
“Now a glass man walks forth, calling himself the One—”
Boaz made a soft expostulation at that.
“—and threatens me with destruction. Boaz, what is the One?”
“The One was what the Magi worshipped, my lord,” Boaz said. “We were addicted to
numbers and calculations, and took heart in their predictability. The One—the number one—is
both birth and death within itself, for it is the number from which all other numbers and forms
are born and into which they all eventually collapse and die. The One is both Creation and Doom
in single expression and form.”
“And this is what now strides forth to confront me?”
“No,” said Avaldamon, “we don”t believe so.”
“What, then?” said Maximilian.
“We used the pyramid to touch Infinity,” said Boaz. He glanced at his father, then looked
back at Maximilian. “My lord, I think that the One is Infinity, or at the least draws almost
completely on its power. He is a fearful foe.”
Maximilian nodded, thinking for a moment. “You know of Ishbel?”
Both men smiled. “Yes,” said Boaz, “she is our direct descendant, born of the line of
Tirzah”s and my eldest daughter.”
“Everyone fears her,” Maximilian said.
“Save you,” said Boaz, “and for that I thank you.”
“Everyone warns me against her,” said Maximilian.
“Including the One,” said Avaldamon.
Maximilian nodded.
“We cannot stay much longer,” said Avaldamon. “Already we feel the tug on our souls of
the Otherworld. What do you need to know from us, Maximilian, Lord of Elcho Falling?”
“I do not know the question,” said Maximilian, “else I would ask it.”
The three men looked at each other a long moment, then Avaldamon and Boaz
simultaneously looked over their shoulders and took a step back.
“You and Tirzah had three children,” Maximilian said to Boaz, holding out a hand as if
he had the power to hold them back indefinitely. “Why is it that only your eldest daughter”s line
carried power? Why did only that line carry the weight of Elcho Falling within it? ”
Boaz frowned, then the frown cleared and he gave a small smile. “Maximilian, Tirzah
was pregnant with our eldest daughter when we did our battle with Threshold.”
Maximilian”s shoulders visibly relaxed. “Thank you,” he said. “That was what I needed
to know.”
Boaz”s smile widened a little. “Maximilian, let me say one other thing to you. When all
looks at its bleakest, and you think there is nothing left, and no action worth taking, ask Josia in
what manner he died. There shall lie your salvation.” Boaz”s smile faded, but his eyes remained
warm. “The Persimius do not forget their own.”
Then, quite suddenly, Boaz and Avaldamon were gone.
CHAPTER NINE
Serpent’s Nest
She heard his step at the door, heard him pass a quiet word with Madarin, then slowly
rose from her chair as the door opened.
She”d spent the past ten or so hours in the state of fear and anger she”d thought to have
left behind her.
Why could nothing ever run smoothly for her and Maximilian?
And why, oh why, hadn’t she thought to give Maximilian the Goblet of the Frogs earlier?
“Ishbel?”
“Over here, Maxel.”
“I can afford lamps to light the chambers, you know.”
“I”m sorry. I didn”t think.” Ishbel fumbled for the flint and lit a lamp on a side table.
He stood just inside the door, looking very tired, the satchel under one arm and the
wrapped goblet in the other hand.
She almost couldn”t believe he”d brought them back.
“Can we talk a little?” he said.
Ishbel nodded. She didn”t know if she should offer him a seat, sit herself, or take the
crown and goblet from him.
Maximilian decided for her by setting the objects on a table and walking over to her.
Taking one of her hands, he interlaced their fingers.
“Isaiah is alive,” he said, then smiled a little at the shock on Ishbel”s face.
“But…” she said.
“He met with the fleshly embodiment of DarkGlass Mountain, a somewhat flashy glass
man who calls himself the One. In order to either impress me or Isaiah, the One stripped Isaiah
of his power, which is what Lister and I felt. We”d assumed that meant he was dead. But no.
Isaiah is at this moment marching at the head of an army well over one hundred thousand
strong—some weeks to the south of us, unfortunately, but nonetheless on his way. What say you
to that, Ishbel?”
Everything about Maximilian radiated serenity and warmth, and that reassured Ishbel as
nothing else might have done.
“I say that I am glad he is alive, but that I also find it very hard to think on Isaiah when
you stand here so close.”
“Isaiah brings some grim news, which is what Axis had to tell me today, and which is
why I needed the crown and the goblet tonight.”
“What did you use them for? What grim news?”
“To contact the dead. Ishbel, there are some things from the news that Isaiah sent, and
some things that I did tonight, that for the moment I don”t want to tell you. But I need you to
trust me. I will tell you, but not right now.”
“Why not?”
“Because I am terrified that you will panic and run out the door.”
He was pulling her closer now, holding her hand so that the back of his hand rested
against her sternum, and their conjoined hands were the only things separating their bodies.
“Will you trust me, Ishbel?”
“Yes.”
“Axis may not be very friendly toward you for a few days. Ignore him. Trust me.”
Peace radiated out from him, enveloping her in tranquility. Ishbel wondered if this was
just his own magnetism, or if he were using some sorcery he”d learned within the higher levels of
the Twisted Tower.
“It doesn”t matter,” she said.
He leaned forward and kissed her, very softly.
“Will you stay with me?” she murmured.
“Not tonight,” he said. “The day after tomorrow you and I will do what is needed to
waken Elcho Falling, and I will put the crown of Elcho Falling to my brow, and that night…well,
that will be a night of great power, Ishbel, and a fitting night to make a marriage between you
and me that will, this time, stand the test of discord.”
“But Axis will not be pleased.”
“No. And you may hear Isaiah scream even from his vast distance. Trust me, Ishbel.”
“I trust you, Maxel.”
“There will be a storm about us, for some time. Can you accept that?”
“Yes.”
He smiled, holding her eyes with his own, and pressed the back of his hand a little more