Now Georgdi was leaning back in his chair, grinning widely, his fingers laced across his chest. Suddenly he took a deep breath and let out a piercing, three-toned whistle.
Everyone in the room jumped, and Georgdi laughed.
“Learn that whistle, Axis,” he said.
Axis just glared at him.
Georgdi was clearly enjoying himself hugely. “Outlanders always plan for the loss of horses. We leave horses to run freely across the plains, and, in the event that we lose our own mounts, all we need do is whistle that pretty little ditty and, if any horses are in the vicinity, they will come. Those tones carry long distances. Sit and wait an hour or two and you never know what will turn up. Just take a couple of bridles with you — if Inardle wants to ride instead of fly — and you will have your horses. I am certain there will still be many left roaming the plains. When I was riding to meet with you at Elcho Falling we left scores of them behind. They’ll still be about. Shall I tell Inardle that you’ll be leaving in an hour or two, then?”
Chapter 7
The Outlands
Isaiah marched through the camp to Hereward’s tent, Lamiah a step or two behind him.
He couldn’t get out of his mind the image of the blood spurting out of the healed scar on her neck at the same time as the One had vanished.
That had to be of some significance.
Hereward was standing outside her tent. Her face was white and strained and she had her arms crossed protectively in front of her.
She kept glancing in the direction where the Skraelings were gathered, and she looked very, very scared.
But was she truly? Isaiah wondered.
“I need you to come forward with me,” he said.
“Why?” Hereward said.
“I need you to come closer to where the Skraelings are. I want them to see you.”
“No! Why?”
Isaiah studied Hereward. She looked terrified — as a normal Hereward should, having previously almost lost her life at the claws of a Skraeling.
But was she a “normal” Hereward?
Isaiah was still not as powerful as he had been once — it seemed his abilities were returning at their own sweet pace — but, still, he should have been able to scry out whether or not Hereward was other than what she should be.
He should have been able to scry out the One’s presence in her.
What if the One hadn’t died? What if he had simply shifted existences? And if it wasn’t Hereward, then who else within this vast army?
Isaiah could ascertain nothing about Hereward. It was as if his power probed at a brick wall. He couldn’t even tell if she were a mere woman, let alone the One in disguise.
That worried him more than ever. She was a kitchen steward, in the name of the gods. She shouldn’t have the ability to resist Isaiah’s probing.
“Why do you want me closer to the Skraelings?” Hereward said, and Isaiah could hear the fear in her voice.
“Because they have asked to see you,” Isaiah said, and took her by the elbow.
“Isaiah?” Lamiah said.
“No!” Hereward tried to pull out of Isaiah’s grip, but he was too strong and, ignoring both her cries and Lamiah’s puzzled expression, Isaiah pulled Hereward forward, closer to the southern border of the camp.
She protested all the way and as they drew close her protests gave way to tearful entreaties, but Isaiah closed his ears to her. He dragged her all the way through the juit birds, stopping just inside their southernmost edge.
The Skraeling still stood a little distance away.
“Well,” Isaiah said to it. “Is this what you wanted?”
“I have no idea what you mean,” the Skraeling said, his face all creased in what appeared to be puzzlement. Then his face cleared a little. “Would you like me to eat her?”
Hereward wailed, clearly terrified.
“No!” Isaiah hissed at the Skraeling. “I thought you wanted to talk with . . . her.”
“And make friends?” said the Skraeling, now apparently enjoying himself enormously.
“No!” Isaiah hissed, and the Skraeling grinned hugely, then turned about and shuffled back to the mass of his fellows.
“What is going on?” Lamiah said to Isaiah, who still gripped the elbow of a fear-stricken Hereward.
“I don’t know,” Isaiah said, looking at Hereward. “I just don’t know.”
Hereward finally jerked away from Isaiah and, moving as fast as she could, pushed her way through the birds toward the camp.
Isaiah watched her go, his face hard. “I want a guard put on her, Lamiah. I want no one to speak to her or go near her apart from giving her food.”
“Isaiah —”
“I don’t know what is happening here, Lamiah. I don’t know what the Skraelings are doing, or what they want. I do not know why they haven’t attacked.”
“Why Hereward?”
“I have told you about the One.”
“Yes, yes.”
“I have told you that DarkGlass Mountain has been destroyed and the One along with it.”
“Yes. Isaiah —”
“The Skraeling told me the One was still alive. It intimated the One is now in our camp. I think the One may be residing in Hereward.”
Lamiah now shifted his gaze to the retreating form of Hereward. “How sure are you?”
“There is something wrong about her, Lamiah, but I cannot scry it out. It is a ‘new’ wrong, and dates from the moment of DarkGlass Mountain’s destruction.”
“Then as you order,” said Lamiah, “so shall it be.”
He set off after Hereward, and Isaiah turned one more time to watch the Skraelings. They were still waiting, watching, and Isaiah thought he would give his right arm right then and there to have his questions answered.
“Well?” said the several other Skraelings as they milled about the one they had sent out to talk with Isaiah. “What should we do? Attack? Eat? Go around them?”
The Skraeling who had spoken with Isaiah shook his head. “Just wait. There is something happening. Something coming. We wait. If Isaiah moves, then we follow.”
“Did Isaiah know where the One is?”
The Skraeling grinned. “He has no idea.”
The other Skraelings did not share his amusement. “Then what are we to do? The One has gone, we have no direction. No one to tell us where to go and what to do. Should we go home? Home to the frozen northern wastes?”
A great murmuring arose among the Skraelings.
Home to the frozen northern wastes.
“No,” said the Skraeling. “We wait a while, and watch, and see. I think . . . ”
“What?”
“I think there is something coming.”
Chapter 8
Elcho Falling
“The last thing you need to do,” Georgdi said as he rubbed a little more dirt into the lines of Axis’s newly shaved face, “is to look like the StarMan setting off to save the world. The Lealfast are sure to see you wandering along, so you need to look as much like a shepherd as possible.”
Axis did not reply. He was already in a foul mood, and the fact that Georgdi remained resolutely cheerful was driving him even further into ill-temper. He’d had his hair dirtied and dyed so it looked a faded brown, his beard was gone, he’d been forced to dress in clothes that bore more than a passing resemblance to rags, he had no weapon apart from a small eating knife, and Inardle was leaning against the far wall watching him with an expressionless face that Axis was sure hid amusement.
“You do realise you won’t be able to use your power, don’t you?” she said.
Axis glared at her.
“Any Lealfast within a league will feel it,” Inardle said. “Don’t use your power, don’t touch the Star Dance.”
“I understood you the first time,” Axis said. “But I still am not sure how you can hide us from the Lealfast. I thought you could still see each other when invisible.”
“There are two ways of invisibling,” Inardle said. “The second way will also hide us from Lealfast sight. It is difficult to accomplish; thus, the reason I can only take one other with me.”
Axis gave a small shrug, as if indifferent to her response.
“Be careful, Axis,” Georgdi said, the humour gone from his face and voice.
Axis nodded. “And you be careful of Elcho Falling, Georgdi. Don’t take any nonsense from your underlings.”
The others in the room — StarDrifter, Egalion, StarHeaven and Insharah — managed to smile at that, although their humour faded quickly in the tense atmosphere.
“Travel down the coast to begin with,” said Georgdi, “then strike inland. Hopefully, you will run across Isaiah and his army soon enough.”
“And, hopefully, it is before you run into Kezial,” Insharah said. “Maybe stick to the coast for four or five days, Axis. Kezial will be inland.” He looked at Inardle. “You will stay invisible?”