“Thank you, my lady,” Maximilian murmured to the now somewhat flushed Inardle once
he had pressed his hand over the mouth of the goblet.
Then he turned to Axis. “From you, StarMan,” he said, “I require something a little
different. A snatch of Song, if you please. Something that relates specifically to the Star Dance.”
Axis frowned, then a fragment of music filled the air. Maxel raised a hand, sweeping it
through the air between them, clenching the music in his fist, and depositing it into the goblet.
“What was that song, Axis?” he asked.
“The Song of the Star Gate,” Axis said. “We would sing it to teach Icarii children the
wonders of the Star Gate and of the Star Dance which filtered through the gate.”
“Thank you,” Maximilian said, then turned away before a clearly perplexed Axis could
ask anything of him.
He walked back to the three intertwined circles and stood in their center, placing the
goblet carefully in front of his feet. He raised his head and looked for a long moment at the
burning mountain rearing high above them, then turned his head and addressed the assembled
mass behind him. His voice was low, but very clear, and it carried to every last soldier or
birdman and woman.
“What happens next,” Maximilian said, “may appear to be catastrophic, but it will not
harm you. Nothing that happens will harm you. Be still, and assured. Ishbel,” he said, now
looking to where she stood to one side and in front of him, “the crown of Elcho Falling, if you
please.”
She took a deep breath, then crossed her hands over her chest, bowing her head and
closing her eyes.
When she lifted her head, and lifted her hands outward, they held a great writhing mass
of darkness.
The crown of Elcho Falling, the three entwined bands of gold almost utterly hidden.
Maximilian reached out his hands, hesitated, then gripped the crown.
Instantly, cracks fissured up the mountain from its base, allowing great gouts of smoke
and flame to spurt into the air.
“Stars!” Axis muttered, wishing that Maximilian had asked him to position the army even
further back. He looked at those around him. Most people were staring at the mountain, their
faces reflecting varying degrees of concern or fear.
Axis looked back to Maximilian.
Maximilian now held the crown before him, just in front of his face. He took a deep
breath, then blew, and all the darkness about the crown was carried away, dissipating into the air
as it went.
Now Maximilian held the crown in all its glorious simplicity. He raised it above his
head…then let it drop.
The movement was so unexpected that Axis jumped. He expected the crown to hit
Maximilian”s head and bounce off into the dust, but instead it fell onto the top of Maximilian”s head…then appeared to expand so that it slid down over his head, then expanded more to slide
over his shoulders, then down his body, his legs, and expanded just enough that it fell into the
three circles of intertwined trenches at his feet, filling them completely.
Now Maximilian stood in the center of three entwined circles of gold. He reached down
for the goblet, lifted it up to chest height, and tipped it over the straight line that connected to the gold circles.
Emerald water poured forth, then fizzled into the dirt trench.
For a moment, nothing, then something in the distance made Axis look up, and he gave a
cry of fear, echoing the cries about him.
Behind the burning mountain, the Infinity Sea had risen in a towering wave, higher even
than the mountain, and was crashing down toward them with a roar that became deafening as it
neared.
Behind him, Axis heard men and horses panic.
Before him, he saw Maximilian put an arm about Ishbel as she stepped into the circle.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Elcho Falling
The next instant Axis felt himself enveloped in a great wash of water. He felt as if he
were tumbling over and over, and as if huge boulders—the remnants of Serpent”s Nest—tumbled
beside him, and yet he was also aware that he was not actually moving. He could feel his horse
tight and tense beneath him, panicked but too terrified to move, and if he turned his head he
could see the water so far above his head that the light was only a tiny emerald circle far above, and he could feel the mass of rock and debris grinding through the water…and yet…
There is no danger, Maximilian said in his mind, and Axis could feel his voice echo
through everyone enclosed in this sorcery. There is no danger.
Then…Axis blinked, and the enveloping sea was gone.
He blinked again, his vision clearing, and saw that while he still sat his horse, and that
Inardle still sat hers beside him, and everyone else appeared as they should be, they sat those
horses in an entirely different landscape.
The mountain was gone. There was not a single rock remaining.
In its place shimmered a vast expanse of turquoise water, rippling slightly as if it had just
settled after a great turbulence.
Axis gazed around in wonder. The water extended as far as he could see—his horse, as
all the other horses, and all those on foot, stood in the shallow water which reached partway up
hoof and boot.
Ahead, Maximilian and Ishbel stood, arms loosely about each other”s waist.
Maximilian turned slightly, enough to see the group of commanders.
“Wait,” he said.
Axis looked about, more carefully this time, making sure that everyone was all right.
Inardle looked shaken, but she nodded as she met his eyes. StarDrifter looked both shaken and
very, very wary, an expression Axis supposed mirrored his own.
“What—” StarDrifter began, and stopped, staring ahead, his mouth open.
Axis turned back to the front.
“Oh stars…” he murmured.
In the distance, over the area of water where Serpent”s Nest had once stood, three
colossal twists of emerald water were winding up into the sky. They wound up and up, enclosing
a space the height and breadth of Serpent”s Nest, until, far, far into the sky, their three heads met.
For a moment, nothing.
Then Axis heard a heavy rhythmic whisper, as if somewhere a god swung his ax through
the air again and again, or as if a massive windmill spun its sails over and over in the wind.
Thrum.
Thrum.
Thrum.
Axis could feel it through his entire body.
There was a movement at his side. Inardle, nudging her horse closer, and reaching out her
hand.
Axis took it, squeezed it gently, and looked back to the twists of water rearing into the
sky.
There was a glint of gold where the three twists met just below the few white clouds that
dotted the sky. The sun caught the gold now and again, and Axis narrowed his eyes, knowing he
had seen that same effect very recently…
The crown of Elcho Falling had glinted gold through the darkness that wreathed it when
Ishbel had handed it to Maximilian!
“Inardle,” Axis murmured, almost not believing what he was seeing as, very, very gently,
the crown of Elcho Falling appeared in the sky at the very summit of the three twists of water, its
three golden bands spinning about each other slowly, slowly, slowly, thrumming as they cut
through the air. The crown had now grown to a vast size, and as the sun caught at it, it sent
shimmering shafts of golden light scattering about the entire country.
Axis had never seen anything like it. Not the Star Gate, not Talon Spike, not the Temple
of the Stars.
He wanted to check what was happening behind him in the army, but couldn”t tear his
eyes away from the spinning crown so high in the sky.
No wonder Maximilian had asked that all the bird peoples remain on the ground. Up
close, those massive twisting rings would be deadly, and Axis had no doubt that they radiated
sorcery.
“Axis!” Inardle said. “Axis! ”
He couldn”t reply. He was stunned Inardle had even managed to get those two words out.
Very suddenly, a mountain—no, no, not a mountain, a citadel!—started to fall from the
spinning crown. The great twists of water merged, and from their very peak, where it passed
through the spinning crown, spires and turrets and arches and windows started to appear, as if
they were being poured out of a heavenly vessel. It happened in less than six heartbeats, so fast
that Axis could barely comprehend what he was seeing.
Silence.
It felt to Axis as if the entire world was staring, unable to move or make a sound, at the
wonder that rose from the shallow, shimmering lake of water.
For all he knew the entire world could see it, for Elcho Falling would surely be visible
eight to ten days” ride away.
It was a citadel of enormous size and of extraordinary construction. It rose from the