surface of the lake as emerald and turquoise and silver water, forming walls and arches and
columns. About a third of the way into the sky the water slowly turned to crystal, and then a little
higher to stone of a bright turquoise set off with traceries of gleaming ivory. At the very peak of
the citadel, far, far into the sky, the three bands of the crown of Elcho Falling continued their
slow sweep through the air.
It was so big, and so beautiful, that Axis could barely comprehend it. He”d thought
Serpent”s Nest a massive mountain, but it was as nothing compared to this. This…this could
swallow nations, if it wanted.
“Elcho Falling,” said Maximilian, now turned slightly so he could look behind him, “is
not a castle, nor is it a mountain. Elcho Falling is a world within itself.”
He gave a very slight smile, as if waiting for something.
Axis tore his eyes away from Elcho Falling to frown slightly at Maximilian, wondering
why he had paused, then Axis jerked and groaned, along with every other Icarii and Lealfast
present, as abruptly the Star Dance thundered out over the land.
“Elcho Falling,” said Maximilian, his quiet voice carrying into every mind, “is also a
gateway, which is why we have armies and ambitions converging upon it.”
And soon it will be ours, sister, Eleanon said in Inardle”s mind, and she let Axis” hand
drop away.
Six or seven hours away Armat, together with Ravenna and Lister and his entire army, sat
their horses and stared.
From their distance Elcho Falling was clearly visible.
“It is…” Armat began. “It is…”
Ravenna was crying, silent tears that streamed down her cheeks. “It is extraordinary,” she
said, “and the most magical thing that any of us will see, in this lifetime or in any to come.”
“I want it,” said Armat. Indeed he wanted it. He wanted it so badly that it took all of his
strength not to dig his spurs into his horse and gallop headlong toward it. He”d always held his
doubts about what Ravenna and Lister had told him about Elcho Falling…but, if anything, they
had considerably understated its beauty…and power.
Armat was not a magical man, but he knew that Elcho Falling was of such power that the
man who commanded the citadel could command the world.
“I want it,” he said again.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Elcho Falling
Everything was happening at once. Axis was literally stunned by the intensity of the Star
Dance flooding his existence—had he ever felt it this deeply before, or was Elcho Falling a
gateway of such power that no one, perhaps not even WolfStar, had felt the Dance to this extent?
StarDrifter had stumbled the distance between them, putting a hand on Axis” thigh and
then turning as someone landed beside them. It was Eleanon—Axis supposed that the Lealfast,
who had only ever before felt the barest of glimmers of the Star Dance, must now be
overwhelmed—and StarDrifter reached out to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, and the two
birdmen leaned close for a brief word, their shared amazement making them momentary friends.
Axis looked at Inardle. She was staring at Elcho Falling, her face white, her eyes brilliant.
There were stars dancing in them.
“Maximilian…” StarDrifter said, and there was such hunger in his voice that Axis almost
cried out.
“Yes,” said Maximilian, and Axis wondered what had been asked, and what authorized,
and was about to ask when suddenly there was a great sound and wind, and this time Axis did
cry out, for every one of the Icarii and the Lealfast had lifted into the sky and for a moment there
was nothing but the beating of wings and the rush of air.
Axis dragged his eyes away from the spectacle and looked again at Inardle. This time
there was agony in her face as she stared desperately at the Icarii and Lealfast now circling high
overhead.
Axis looked at Maximilian. “I had no idea,” he said. “Why didn”t you say something?”
“Would you have believed me?” said Maximilian. “Besides, I had no idea myself how
intact Elcho Falling remained. It has been buried so long.”
“Maxel, why were there no myths of this? Stars, news of this should have entered the
folklore of the entire world!”
“Everything was buried when Elcho Falling closed down,” Maximilian said, “even the
memory of it.”
Then he smiled. “Come. Shall we enter?”
There were two horses held in reserve for Maximilian and Ishbel, and once they had
mounted they led the nonflighted army across the shallow waters toward the citadel.
“There is actually deep water to either side of the causeway,” Maximilian said to Axis,
pointing as they rode. “The causeway is only some ten paces wide. Anyone who stepped beyond
it would be lost.”
“How can we make our way to and fro,” said Axis, “if you are not with us as guide?”
“Once Elcho Falling recognizes you as a friend—and that happens the moment you enter
the citadel with my permission—you will always find your way without effort.”
“Armat? Will this keep him at a distance?”
Maximilian shook his head. “Armat has Ravenna with him, and she well knows the ways
and paths of mystery. She can guide him, and his army, across these waters.”
“And once inside Elcho Falling?”
Maximilian gave a small smile. “Ah, once inside Elcho Falling it would be a different
matter.”
They rode in silence after that, Axis alternately studying the citadel rising before them
and looking up to see the Icarii and Lealfast circling overhead (some, he was aghast to see,
actually flying between the massive moving bands of gold) or basking in the Star Dance as it
radiated out of Elcho Falling. He thought about what Maximilian had taken from each of the
commanders present—the song he had requested from Axis was clearly designed to align Elcho
Falling with the Star Dance, but the other objects?
“Think back,” Maximilian said softly as their horses stepped onto the incline that led to a
massive arch which appeared to be made of solid water and which formed the entry into Elcho
Falling, “to that moment when you first felt the Star Dance. StarDrifter was beside you, and then…”
“Then Eleanon landed,” Axis said, thinking back. The moment when he”d first heard the
Star Dance had been so overwhelming that everything about it was a jumble of images, and he
had to sort through them to make any sense of what had happened in those first, remarkable
moments. “Eleanon landed…and…oh stars, he and my father…”
Eleanon and StarDrifter had leaned close, smiling, sharing a word.
Previously, they”d been barely able to maintain any civility toward each other.
“Even Elcho Falling cannot heal all the rifts between them,” said Maximilian, “but it can
make a beginning. The rest is up to them.”
Then Maximilian nodded at the archway.
“Elcho Falling,” he said, and then they were through.
Axis could not speak for some time. From the road that rose from the water up to the
great arch, they rode into a vast chamber of hundreds of columns supporting a high fan-vaulted
ceiling. Everything, from the floor to the columns to the fan vaulting itself, appeared to be made
of luminescent turquoise water. There were lights glowing gold through the chamber, hanging
within the columns at the point at which the columns curved out into the vaulting.
Light shimmered everywhere, glistening through and off water, striking stars into the
vaulted ceiling and ripples into the flooring.
Despite the appearance of walking on water, his horse”s hooves sounded as if they struck
solid ground with each hoof-fall, and as they passed one of the columns Axis reached out a hand
to touch it.
It looked like flowing water, but it felt solid and cool to the touch.
He swiveled in the saddle, looking about and behind him.
All the horsemen were spread throughout the chamber as they continued to ride deeper
into it. There was Egalion, and Garth, and there Inardle, there a score of men that Axis
recognized, and every last one of them had a look of stupefied wonder on their faces. Even
Ishbel, who Axis thought may have had some idea of what to expect, looked very much as
though she might not be able to speak for some time.
“Maxel…” Axis murmured, turning forward once again in the saddle.
Maximilian nodded. “I can almost understand,” he said, “why the last of the Lords of
Elcho Falling to live here decided to close it down. All this beauty must have been
heartbreaking.”
“And Escator was better?” Axis said.
Maximilian gave a soft laugh. “No. Escator was not „better.” But it was, I think,
sometimes a little more comforting.”
They continued to ride deeper and deeper into the chamber.
“If someone entered Elcho Falling without my permission, whether tacit or spoken,” said
Maximilian, “they would find it very hard to ever leave this initial chamber. They would lose