The juit birds were not easy about it, but they had agreed to Axis and Isaiah’s request.
Stars alone knew if they would go through with it, and stars knew what the Lealfast had made of the birds’ appearance.
“Have any of the scouts spotted the Skraelings?” Isaiah said.
Everyone remained worried about the Skraelings. They could appear at any time to create mayhem and destruction, and none knew which side they’d attack, or even if they would discriminate.
“And Georgdi and the other commanders in Elcho Falling?” Isaiah asked Axis.
“They are prepared,” Axis said, “for just about anything — they have as little idea as we as to what to expect from this day. But whatever eventuates, they have manned the entrance into Elcho Falling. They are prepared to help if they think we might need them, but they know that to assay forth will create even more problems if we need to get into Elcho Falling.”
“There are tens of thousands who may need to get into Elcho Falling in a hurry,” Isaiah said, “and the only entrance they have is that narrow causeway. We can’t afford to —”
“They won’t come out of Elcho Falling unless it is absolutely necessary,” Axis said. “Isaiah, for all the gods’ sakes, what were you doing all night?”
“Creating mayhem,” Isaiah said, “and I fear what I have done very much.”
Axis shared a look with Lamiah.
“What have you done, Isaiah?” Axis said.
“It is light enough now,” Isaiah said, and he nodded to the east, over the Infinity Sea.
Axis and Lamiah looked.
“Stars .” Axis murmured. Then, louder, “Isaiah, what is that?”
“It is a mayhem,” Isaiah said.
All three stared east. In the far distance, over the Infinity Sea, gigantic black clouds roiled and lightning flashed. Axis, with his powerful Icarii vision, could see the waves beneath the storm clouds churning, the waters punctuated with what appeared to be thousands upon thousands of strikes by hailstones, or .
“Ice spears,” Isaiah said, very softly. He sighed, raising his voice a little. “I am Water. I am a god. I have more powers at my fingertips than most mortals could even begin to imagine. The ability to create a mayhem is one of the most powerful of them.”
“It is a storm,” Lamiah said.
“No,” said Isaiah. “It is not a storm. At the moment it looks like one, but there is a reason this is called a mayhem. I can create it . . . but I cannot control it. It will be a storm such as none of you have ever witnessed or endured, and it will be desperate.”
“Why create it if it is that dangerous?” Axis said. “What will happen? How long will it last?”
“I made it because I do not trust this day ahead,” Isaiah said. “I wanted some insurance and this is it. It will truly turn this battle into mayhem, and you two will need to prepare the soldiers as best you are able. It will strike the Lealfast from the sky, though. No one will be able to fly in this. Axis, make sure the Icarii within Elcho Falling know to stay inside”
“Will it damage Elcho Falling?” Axis said.
“No,” Isaiah said, but his worried glance at the citadel belied his denial.
“When will it arrive?” Lamiah said.
Again Isaiah looked toward the mayhem. “It is moving faster than I’d thought,” he said. “We have perhaps two hours, maybe less.”
“Shetzah!” Lamiah muttered, then he was off, striding for his horse.
“Stars, Isaiah,” Axis said. “Should we retreat?” This was such a fucking bad idea, Isaiah, he thought, not caring if Isaiah picked up the thought. “If we get caught out in the open in this then —”
“We’re going to get caught out in the open no matter what we do now, Axis. There is no shelter anywhere save within Elcho Falling. We don’t have a choice any more. I’m sorry. Mayhems are always difficult to manage. But if nothing else it will protect us against the Lealfast, and last night I could not sleep for worry that Eleanon has something deadly to throw at us.”
Axis muttered something uncomplimentary, but he supposed he could understand Isaiah’s reasoning. “What should I do?”
“As we have planned,” Isaiah said. “Both the lake and the juit birds will protect you. The mayhem will last —” he glanced its way again “— maybe three or four hours. We will just have to survive it.”
Axis looked at the approaching massive tempest. “Well . . . if it keeps the Lealfast off our backs . . . when do we move, Isaiah?”
“Now.”
Eleanon wheeled far above them, cloaked in invisibility. He, too, watched the mayhem.
He had a good idea what it was.
Eleanon smiled. It would work even better for him than for Isaiah. Then his smile died as he once more looked at the lake, now densely covered with bobbing pink-feathered bodies.
They were far too quiet.
He could control virtually everything . . . save those damned inscrutable birds.
Chapter 10
Elcho Falling
“When?” Kezial said, curtly. He sat his horse on a small rise to the west of the battle. Eleanon was standing to one side, his gaze fixed on the fighting. Wind from the approaching mayhem whipped about them, making the horse skittish and raising goosebumps on Kezial’s flesh.
“Soon,” Eleanon said, the feathers on his wings rippling in wild patterns in the wind.
Kezial bit back his frustration. He wanted to order his men in — if not for quite the same reason Eleanon might want to order them in.
He took a deep breath, concentrating on the battle.
Isaiah’s army had marched forward just after dawn, to be instantly attacked by the Lealfast. They’d been at it for half an hour now . . . and mostly the tide was turning in the Lealfast’s favour. While not many of Isaiah’s soldiers had fallen, they were pinned to the ground, shields in defensive array over their heads as the Lealfast attacked from above.
“That storm looks vicious,” Kezial observed.
Eleanon shot him an amused glance. “Attack, then,” he said.
Kezial hesitated a moment, staring at Eleanon, then he kicked his horse forward, signalling to his army. It began moving immediately.
Eleanon watched for a while, until Kezial’s men were almost ready to join in the battle, then he sent a pre-arranged signal to the Lealfast.
They would keep attacking Isaiah’s army for another ten minutes or so, then they had the freedom to attack anything and anyone they wanted.
Including Kezial and his men.
Eleanon smiled to himself, then his form frosted, iced over, and vanished completely.
All that was left on that windy hilltop was Eleanon’s final whisper.
Ravenna.
Axis was crouched down, buffeted by bodies, under a cover of shields raised over the unit of men he was with. A constant rain of arrows drummed down on the shield cover; no one underneath could do much save crouch and wait. But the Lealfast were doing nothing more than keeping everyone pinned underneath the shields. Axis knew that Eleanon had other abilities and strategies . . . if this was all the Lealfast were going to do then maybe this was just going to be a play-acting battle, after all.
And if it were play-acting, then why? Why?
It was dim underneath the cover of shields, the light cut by the close-pressed bodies, the shields, and the approaching mayhem. Axis relied on vision sent by the eagle circling high overhead to learn what happened in the vicinity.
The mayhem was now very, very close, and the eagle was concerned. Axis knew he would stay only a few more minutes before wheeling off to seek shelter. Axis took the opportunity to have a quick look over the scene far below the eagle — Kezial was now pushing his army toward this! — then broke off the vision.
Go friend eagle, he said. Save yourself from Isaiah’s mayhem.
I wish you well, the eagle said, and then he was gone.
Isaiah, Axis said.
He felt Isaiah twist his consciousness toward Axis, but he did not respond in words.
When will you use the juit birds? Axis said.
It is time now, Isaiah said, the mayhem is almost upon us. I will delay no longer. Be ready.
Kezial is on his way.
I know. Be ready, Axis.
Then contact with Isaiah was broken and Axis looked about him at the men of his unit.
“Be ready,” he said. “This infernal drumming of arrows will shortly, I pray to all gods, be replaced with the drumming of bodies.”
Now, whispered Isaiah.
Axis heard it, felt it, even over the sound of the arrows thudding into the shield cover. A sudden pressure in the air, literally making everyone in his unit sway and stumble slightly, then the beat of millions upon millions of wings.
He waited, counting under his breath for no other reason than it gave him something to do, then, shockingly, even though he’d been expecting it, the sound of bodies falling from the air.