The Skraelings smiled as they ran.
They would catch this great mass of men soon, and then life would be good.
Chapter 20
Isembaard
Ishbel and Maximilian sat alone among the reeds on the eastern side of what had once been the River Lhyl. It was dusk. They had moved here in the late afternoon, not caring that DarkGlass Mountain’s shadow tracked them the entire way.
The pyramid knew they were here. There was no point in hiding.
For a long time they had been silent. They had held hands, leaned close to each other, occasionally kissed.
“Ishbel —”
“Don’t say it, Maxel.”
“Ishbel, you found the unwinding of the Weeper difficult. What you face here is so infinitely worse.”
“I don’t have Ravenna here to try and murder me on the way in.”
“What you do have is —”
“Infinitely worse, I know. But I have more power now and, I think, a few more friends. And this guardian, about whom Avaldamon is so mysterious.”
“Likely because he has no bloody idea.”
Ishbel laughed. “Likely. But still, this needs to be done, Maxel. The pyramid must die, if this world is to survive in anything resembling freedom. We need to be rid of it.”
Maximilian sighed. “Ishbel —”
“Shush,” she said, and leaned over to kiss him lingeringly. “Shush. Wait here for me among the reeds, and believe, and I will return.”
The One strode toward DarkGlass Mountain. He was not far away now, but he feared even that short distance might be too great.
Elcho Falling was at DarkGlass Mountain.
“I am going to eat you!” he whispered, increasing yet again both the rate and length of his step until he was jogging in long, thundering strides.
The One was half the height of DarkGlass Mountain itself, and growing a hand’s-breadth with every pace.
Ishbel walked across the glass river, her strides slow but sure. The light breeze lifted her loosened fair hair and twisted her long skirts about her legs, but Ishbel paid no mind.
Her eyes were fixed on the pyramid.
It took her until almost full dark to walk along the causeway to the pyramid, and in that time light started to flash and fork underneath its glass skin. The static electricity raised goosebumps on Ishbel’s arms, but she did not hesitate, nor lower her eyes from DarkGlass Mountain.
She was concentrating, very hard, on something the Goblet of the Frogs had told her.
Glass is liquid.
Glass is liquid. As she drew to within twenty paces of its eastern wall, the pyramid looming and throbbing high over her, Ishbel began a great unwinding.
Pace after pace she drew closer, then, ignoring the gaping black hole of the door she and Isaiah had once used to enter, and without any hesitation, Ishbel walked straight into the glass wall.
And vanished.
The One broke into a run, his mighty arms pumping at his sides, his eyes fixed on the horizon, over which, just over, lay his purpose.
Now invaded by that witch .
Ishbel took a deep breath, feeling herself merge with both stone and glass, and then she was in the Infinity Chamber.
She blinked. It was lit, but not from any internal light. Instead, she found herself looking at a large rat, holding up a candle.
It was sitting on a very large book that looked as though it had recently been scorched with fire.
Hello, the rat said.
Ishbel considered that. She had not heard the rat, either with her ears or her mind voice. The greeting simply “was”.
“Hello,” she said. “Who are you?”
I am your courage.
Ishbel frowned a little.
When Josia died, it took many hours for him to pass. It took enormous courage for him to endure. Magnificent courage. Too good to be wasted. I was the one who took his life and with it I took his courage. Now it is yours.
That was something Ishbel knew she’d need to spend a little time thinking about later, if she were fortunate enough to enjoy a “later”. But for now she let it go. “Is that the Book of the Soulenai?”
Yes. It has been waiting for you as well. Would you like to read it?
“I think I should.”
Ishbel moved toward the rat and the book, glancing about her as she went. The candlelight glimmered off the golden glass and Ishbel thought the glass was moving, almost as water, but she was not sure.
For now, the book.
Ishbel knelt down, and the rat moved to one side, helpfully holding up the candle.
Ishbel turned the cover, then the first few blank, creamy pages until she came to an index page.
It contained a list of stories.
The tale of the Magus Ta’uz and his lover Raguel.
The tale of Druse and of how he was turned to stone and then crumbled into the river.
The tale of the little girl, Ishbel, and how she was burned alive in her family house when it was overcome by pestilence.
Ishbel drew in a sharp breath, and her fingers trembled where they rested on the page. Then she read on.
The tale of all those murdered by the pyramid’s malice.
The tale of how they shall all aid you, Tirzah’s child, to murder Threshold.
The rat used its spare forepaw to touch Ishbel’s arm gently.
The One comes, he said.
Maximilian stood on the river bank, staring at DarkGlass Mountain. It still throbbed and sparked with light.
What was happening to Ishbel inside?
He was undecided whether to go to her or not. Surely he could help her . . . surely he could provide some assistance, surely . . .
His head jerked to the north. The ground beneath him had started to shake, as if by the footfalls of a giant’s feet.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
“Oh merciful gods!” Maximilian said, looking on with absolute horror as the enormous form of the One appeared, quite suddenly, out of the darkness.
He was flailing his arms in a windmill motion, as if to propel himself forward, and he was running straight for DarkGlass Mountain.
Without any hesitation, and before Maximilian could even think about what action to take, let alone enact, the One ran straight into the side of DarkGlass Mountain and vanished without trace.
Chapter 21
Darkglass Mountain
Ishbel rose to her feet, turning in alarm.
The One!
She could feel him crashing through the pyramid toward her, feel his anger, feel his murderous need to wrap his gigantic hands about her throat and —
Ishbel, the rat said. He raised up the candle, and Ishbel turned to him . . . and cried out in horror.
Just as the rat pulled the candle close to blow it out, Ishbel saw hundreds of black hands rise up behind the golden glass of the Infinity Chamber and then reach through it, reaching for her.
Before she could react, even move a muscle, she was caught fast and dragged into the pyramid.
Ishbel found herself in a strange place that she could only comprehend as thick light. She could breathe, if she concentrated on it, but movement was difficult.
She could sense many, many others close, pressing in so that they almost touched her.
At her feet sat the rat, atop the Book of the Soulenai.
A man emerged before her. He was tall with a lined face, as if he had suffered greatly, and his dark hair was slicked back into a club at the base of his neck.
“Did you read the first tale in the Book?” he said.
Ishbel opened her mouth to say “No, I had no time”, but in that instant she realised she knew the first tale.
Long, long ago, a Magus named Ta’uz took as his mistress a slave from the camp that surrounded Threshold, and which housed its enslaved builders. This Magus, Ta’uz, affected great disdain for his mistress, whose name was Raguel. When she bore their child he murdered it, for Threshold, and the Way of the One, demanded its death.
No Magus was permitted to subdivide away from the One.
But Ta’uz continued his affair with Raguel, even though it took many months before she could bear to go back to his bed. Despite what had happened between them, despite the murder of their daughter, and despite the fact that Ta’uz was a Magus and Raguel a slave, they became close and eventually came to love each other.
They edged close to happiness, and Threshold was displeased.
One day it took them.
A great sheet of glass slid from its upper walls, slicing through the air, and before either Ta’uz or Raguel could move it speared them on the jagged edge of the glass and they died.
The pyramid did not like their closeness, which drew the Magus away from his devotion to the One.
“Yes,” said Ishbel. “I know who you are. Ta’uz, why is the light here so thick?”