The One was gone, but it was not perturbed. There was another close who could direct the spire and tell it what it needed to accomplish.
Chapter 5
Elcho Falling and the Twisted Tower
“What happened?” Axis shouldered his way past the first few guardsmen in the chamber where the Strike Force had been attacked. His jaw tightened as he looked beyond the Lealfast bodies in the centre of the room to the Icarii bodies piled up at the margins of the room.
“I am not sure, StarMan,” one of the Emerald Guard said. “We were fighting the Lealfast, then . . . ”
“Some power forced the Lealfast out,” Egalion said, now pushing his way through to Axis, “but not before we whittled their numbers down satisfactorily. They are outside, now, I believe.”
Axis managed to work his way to one of the windows. Egalion followed, muttering orders to the guardsmen that most of them should depart the chamber.
“Gods,” Axis muttered as he stared out the window. The Lealfast, some eleven thousand of them, were now riding the winds beyond Elcho Falling. Every so often one or two made a foray closer to the citadel, but some fifty paces out it appeared as if they hit a barrier beyond which they could not fly.
“Elcho Falling has raised its defences,” Egalion said.
“And yet the One is inside,” said Axis. “Maximilian had gone to deal with him . . . Egalion, I have no idea what is going on. And —”
Axis broke off, muttering a curse.
“What is it?” Egalion said.
“Insharah!” Axis said, suddenly remembering that the Isembaardian army was camped on the shores of Elcho Falling’s lake. He’d heard a whisper that Ishbel had somehow negated the general, Armat, and that Axis’ once-friend Insharah now led the army. “Does he know what is happening? And all the Isembaardians . . . they are vulnerable to the Lealfast . . . I have no idea what is happening, Egalion. What did Ishbel do earlier? I know she went to see Armat and Ravenna, and that she did something, but what?”
“Armat and Ravenna are negated,” said Ishbel from behind them, making the two men turn to look at her. “Lister is dead. Insharah now controls the Isembaardian army. And you are right, Axis, they are in danger. We need to get them inside Elcho Falling.”
Axis’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Invite them in? Only an hour or two ago the entire Isembaardian army had been their enemy. “We have just repelled one lot of invaders and traitors, Ishbel. I do not want to invite a new lot in. And where is Inardle? Were you not supposed to be guarding her?”
“Do not worry about Inardle,” Ishbel said. “She is waiting in the command chamber. She will do no harm for the moment. When this situation is a little settled we all need to speak with her, but there are more important matters to worry us.”
“The One,” Axis said.
Ishbel’s face relaxed a little. “He is gone. He went at the same time the Lealfast were expelled. Elcho Falling drove them out. The One must have been marked with Maxel’s murdered blood as well as the Lealfast. For the moment those within Elcho Falling are safe, Axis.”
“Unless we have further traitors among us,” Axis muttered. “Maxel?”
“He is well. He said something about the Twisted Tower and Josia needing to speak to him. I think he has gone there for the moment. You and I, Axis, need to see Insharah and determine what to do about the Isembaardian army.”
Axis nodded, but he turned in to the room, now almost emptied of the Emerald Guardsmen save for a score of so standing as sentinels.
For a long moment Axis just stared. It was a disaster. Bodies of Strike Force members, almost their entire number, lay strewn about the edges of the chamber, while in the centre of the chamber lay the bodies of the Lealfast members the guardsmen had struck down. Those Icarii who had survived were struggling to their feet, aided here and there by Emerald Guardsmen; others lay moaning on the floor.
The physicians Garth Baxtor and Zeboath had entered the chamber and were moving among the wounded Icarii, bending down briefly to assess severity of injury before giving instructions to their assistants and then moving on, prioritising the injured as quickly as possible.
Lealfast corpses covered the major area of floor. There were, Axis estimated, probably about a thousand dead.
No Emerald Guardsmen lay among the dead or injured.
They had done a remarkable job, Axis thought and, like StarHeaven before him, his estimation of their worth as a fighting force rocketed up to vastly greater heights than previously.
“They came from the Veins,” Ishbel murmured at his side. “Who knew what they learned down there? They had to fight with the blackness itself to survive.”
“They closed their eyes to fight.” It was StarHeaven, moving quietly over to Ishbel and Axis. “They fought instinctively. It was . . . extraordinary.”
StarHeaven paused, taking a deep breath that trembled. “They shamed us.”
Axis rested a hand on StarHeaven’s shoulder. “You were attacked by those you trusted, and attacked invisibly. You did not for a moment expect that —”
“Damn it,” StarHeaven said, “we should have expected it! And now . . . ” She looked about, her eyes glistening with tears. “Now so many are dead, and BroadWing among them.”
“You shall need to take command,” Axis said.
“No!” StarHeaven said. “I cannot! I am not good enough! I —”
“You are all I have right now,” said Axis. “You shall need to be good enough. We can discuss a permanent arrangement later, when we have the luxury of time and breath and the ability to sit down and sort everything out. For now, you take command. Find those who can still fight, and await my orders. Ishbel and I may need the Strike Force against the Lealfast outside. So, gather yourselves together, patch yourselves up and be ready. Yes?”
StarHeaven gave a nod, straightening her back, and Axis gave her a smile, pleased. Then he looked at Ishbel.
“Insharah,” he said.
Maximilian stepped inside the Twisted Tower, and stopped immediately, staring at Avaldamon, recognising him from the time he had called Avaldamon’s and Boaz’s shades back from the dead.
Then he took a pace forward and touched the man’s chest. “You are flesh!”
Avaldamon nodded. “Yes, and there is a tale to it, Maximilian, but not one I think I need waste time with here and now. The One?”
“Gone,” said Maximilian, explaining how Elcho Falling had expelled the traitors marked with his blood. “To where, I do not know. Avaldamon, what are you doing here? How did you get here? Why the Twisted Tower?”
“He came,” Josia said, in an ironic tone, “to destroy the Twisted Tower, apparently, and me with it. And he came as a cat.”
Maximilian’s eyebrows went up. “A cat?”
“It is part of the long and twisted tale,” Avaldamon said. “I took the form of a cat and became the One’s companion, and learned some of his secrets and vulnerabilities.”
Maximilian’s mouth dropped, just slightly. “You became the One’s companion? You —”
“All this can wait,” Avaldamon said. “You and I, Maximilian, and Ishbel too, shall have time enough later to discuss it. But for now . . . I take it Elcho Falling is relatively secure?”
“Relatively,” Maximilian said. “The Lealfast have been expelled, along with the One. I cannot think of anything else within Elcho Falling that may prove an imminent threat.” His mouth twisted a little. “Although, I have been wrong before. Avaldamon, why do you need to see me?”
“You and Ishbel,” Avaldamon said, “need to retrieve something from within the heart of DarkGlass Mountain — the Infinity Chamber — and you have to destroy the pyramid. We need to get there within the day, before the One can get back to DarkGlass Mountain himself.”
“We can’t get to DarkGlass Mountain within the day,” Maximilian said. And destroy it? How?
“Yes, we can,” Avaldamon said. “There is a small trick you appear to have forgotten, which is not surprising given everything that has been happening over the past few weeks. Elcho Falling can aid us. I will remind you later how this can be done; it is something you learned on your way up through the Twisted Tower, but which you put aside to concentrate on raising Elcho Falling. But — ah yes, there is always a but, isn’t there? — we cannot return so easily. I am afraid your days on the road are not yet over, Maximilian Persimius.”
Chapter 6
Elcho Falling
What has happened? Bingaleal cried into Eleanon’s mind as Eleanon hovered with the rest of his fighters some hundred paces away from Elcho Falling. I have felt something terrible!
Where are you? Eleanon asked his brother, who had been commanding the other twenty thousand members of the Lealfast fighting force further south in Isembaard.