“Let me explain,” Eleanon began, and Kezial thought that he was starting to sound the more genuine of the two by far.
“If you listen to Eleanon then you will die,” Armat said. “He is allied to the very darkness issuing forth from Infinity itself. He —”
Eleanon roared with laughter. “Oh, come now, Insharah — for I shall not pander any more to the pretence that this is Armat who speaks. That is too implausible to convince even a toddler.”
He turned to look Kezial fully in the eye. “I and the Lealfast are the only things of truth and good heart left standing in this mess, Kezial. The Outlander general Georgdi has assumed command of Elcho Falling after Maximilian, Ishbel and Axis departed for better climes, or should I say, fled in the face of the Skraeling invasion that approaches and which they fear greatly. Elcho Falling has been abandoned to fools and traitors.”
“But Armat’s army .” Kezial said, looking between the two of them and not knowing what to think.
“Mostly dead,” said Eleanon. “Killed by treachery.”
“False!” Armat said. “Kezial, it is I who speaks to you now, and I say to you that my army is now inside Elcho Falling and mostly intact save for those that this creature —” he flung a hand out at Eleanon “— murdered on their way in. If you see the Lealfast now encamped in what had been myencampment, then know they do so only through the spilling of good Isembaardian blood.”
Lord gods, Kezial thought, I am sure I can hear truth in those words.
“I am the way forward,” Armat said. “Ally with me, Kezial, and with Elcho Falling, and you will live.”
Kezial looked at Elcho Falling, and wondered how, if this was so, Armat expected him to get through the several hundred thousand Lealfast huddled about what appeared to be a single entrance, without a bloody and debilitating battle.
“Let me show you how false are Armat’s words,” Eleanon said, and he lifted both hands.
The next moment Kezial gasped. Black bands of dried blood appeared, wrapped about Armat’s body.
“This is the curse with which Ishbel wrapped Armat,” Eleanon said. “Armat is virtually dead. He commands no power and can offer you no alliance. He speaks only what the traitor Insharah — who you can blame almost completely for the slaughter of Armat’s men and your comrades —”
Kezial remembered how Armat’s messengers had mentioned that Insharah had abandoned Maximilian for Armat.
Insharah must have meant to betray Armat and his army all the while.
Eleanon looked at the expression on Kezial’s face, and knew he had won. He stepped forward, lifted his sword and, as Kezial and his men raised their own swords at this sudden threat, ran Armat through so that he toppled from his horse.
“If that had been Armat,” Eleanon said as he ran his sword over a tussock of grass to clean it, “then he would have defended himself. As it was, a mere puppet, his master could not get the words to him quickly enough to save his life. Now, Kezial, let me speak plain and true to you. Between us, we can win Elcho Falling. The force that is inside — consisting of a few hundred Icarii, some renegade Outlanders and the pitiful remnants of the Isembaardians now under Insharah’s control — cannot hope to hold it for much longer. Why don’t you join me, Kezial, and partake of the riches of power and glory that Elcho Falling contains?”
“Why ask me to ally with you?” Kezial said. “Why not take it for yourself?”
“Because you will be useful,” Eleanon said.
Kezial looked at Eleanon, and knew he was looking at a murderous and treacherous liar. He did not trust a single word the Lealfast man said.
Nonetheless . . . Kezial raised his gaze and looked up at Elcho Falling in the distance. The one thing Eleanon did not lie about was the power and glory and potential of Elcho Falling. As Armat had before him, Kezial sat there and lusted.
He was also not sure he could defeat the Lealfast in any confrontation. Best to ally with them, for the moment, and learn their strengths and weaknesses.
Then he lowered his eyes to Eleanon. “Shall we discuss terms?” he said.
Very late that night Eleanon walked out beyond the Lealfast camp.
In one hand he held a bag.
He walked for a while, then stopped, his teeth flashing momentarily in the darkness. “Come, come now, Ravenna. Did you think I wouldn’t find you?”
She sighed, barely audible, then walked a little closer to Eleanon. Her steps were hesitant and her face gaunt and lined.
“You look terrible,” Eleanon said.
Ravenna didn’t respond.
Now it was Eleanon who sighed. He tossed the bag toward her, and she flinched as it landed to one side of her feet.
“Food,” said Eleanon. “I thought you might be grateful.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“I have a new ally,” Eleanon said.
“I saw.”
“Ah, nothing escapes you, does it? I doubt Kezial will be very useful, but one mustn’t turn away allies when they appear. Did you see what happened to Armat? Your friend?”
She stared at him, silent.
“I ran my sword through him. He was but a puppet, anyway. Useless. I am sure that Insharah must be grateful he doesn’t have to feed him any longer. So, out of the three of you that Ishbel cursed, why, there is only little Ravenna left.”
“I wish I were dead, too.”
“Doubtless, but wishes are not going to do you any good. Now, we need to discuss something.”
Ravenna tried to take a step back, but Eleanon closed the distance between them and grabbed her wrist, making Ravenna gasp in fear.
“You will go nowhere,” Eleanon hissed, “until I command it of you! You live and breathe only at my wish, Ravenna.”
She stared at him, then dropped her eyes, and Eleanon’s grip loosened fractionally.
“Good girl,” he said. “I have some work to do here, Ravenna, to make you the best servant possible, and it may hurt a little. Do try not to scream. My people sleep close by.”
Ravenna tried to pull away, but Eleanon was too strong. He dragged her very, very close and grabbed her face with his other hand.
“Don’t worry,” he said, grinning at the horror in her eyes, “you won’t feel the caress of my loving this time. You might wish you did, though. It might have been preferable to what I am going to do.”
He altered his grip on her face, digging his fingers deep. “Do you know what I command, Ravenna?” he said softly, so softly Ravenna could almost not hear his words over the sound of her own harsh, terrified breathing. “Do you know what I command? A magic, Ravenna, such as you have never seen, not even in your Land of Nightmares. A magic and an object, and tonight I am going to introduce you to it. The Dark Spire. You are going to get to know it intimately, Ravenna, because you are going to midwive its children. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Ravenna? It will give you fine practice for when you birth your own child . . . should it survive.”
Eleanon grabbed her consciousness then, as he had grabbed her face, and he wound it with his and with that of the Dark Spire so that the three of them danced together in a nightmarish communion.
Feel it, Ravenna, touch it, know it, and allow it to touch you, and to know you.
Ravenna screamed, her body jerking, but she could escape neither Eleanon’s grip nor the embrace of the Dark Spire.
Do you see it, Ravenna? Do you understand what you must do?
“Yes! Yes!” she screamed, wanting only to be allowed escape from both Eleanon and the Dark Spire before either harmed her baby.
Are you sure you understand, Ravenna?
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
There was but one more thing to do. Eleanon used some of his power, melded with that of the Dark Spire, to endow Ravenna with the Lealfast invisibility. He wouldn’t use it now, but when Eleanon sent Ravenna inside Elcho Falling he would enable it so that no one inside would be able to see her.
At least while she had a task to do. After she’d completed that, Eleanon didn’t care who saw the sad witch.
Finally, satisfied, Eleanon let Ravenna go, breaking the connection with the Dark Spire as he did so.
Ravenna fell to the ground, white and shaking and moaning.
“You will be able to enter Elcho Falling,” Eleanon said. “Not even the citadel will realise your presence. So now, Ravenna, you are perfectly suited to my purpose. To enter Elcho Falling and to midwive the Dark Spire’s babies.”
Chapter 16
The River Lhyl, Isembaard
Maximilian jerked awake. Above his head the stars whirled through the velvet blackness of the sky, beside him Ishbel lay warm and completely relaxed in sleep. Behind him, at the tiller, Maximilian could hear Avaldamon draw in a deep breath, then resettle his weight.