“Everyone rests safe and sound within Hairekeep,” Eleanon said. “There is no need to worry.”
“StarHeaven informed me,” Axis said very quietly, “that Isaiah told her that Hairekeep was a dark mass of tortured souls. If they are there, Insharah, then they are not in any manner ’safe‘ .”
“I have twelve thousand fighters, here and now,” Eleanon said, holding Insharah’s eyes, “and they are all unseeable, and they are all scattered among your men, Insharah. Choose unwisely and many of your men will be dead and shall thus never see their families again.”
“And there you have the true Eleanon,” said Axis, his voice still calm. “Do you really believe it when he says your wife and children are safe? Maybe they are, but only if they managed to escape Lealfast ’protection‘ .”
“You have twelve thousand fighters invisibled among my men?” Insharah said to Eleanon.
The Lealfast man gave a nod. “I needed some insurance,” he said. “Some form of persuasion. Come join with me, Insharah. You will only gain by doing so.”
“Twelve thousand men among my three hundred thousand?” said Insharah, then he chuckled. “I think I prefer my odds.”
With that, he drew his sword and lunged toward Eleanon.
Axis moved instantly. As Insharah stepped forward, he could feel the movement as Eleanon’s invisible companions moved in to kill himself, Ishbel and Insharah. He moved instinctively, in somewhat the same manner as the Emerald Guardsmen had moved in their battle with the Lealfast, and in one single arc of his sword he sliced through three Lealfast.
“There,” Ishbel said to Insharah, “and there.” She pointed, and suddenly the blood she had caused to spatter over the Lealfast a few hours earlier reappeared, glowing in space. The Lealfast may have been invisible, but the glowing splotches of blood betrayed their presence.
Axis recovered from that single deadly arc of his sword, taking a step toward Eleanon, who had managed to drive Insharah back.
The Lealfast stood his ground for a heartbeat, then he vanished entirely.
“We need to get you and your army inside Elcho Falling,” Axis said to Insharah.
“The citadel will take us all?” Insharah said, incredulous.
“Aye,” Axis said, “and protect you against both Lealfast and the approaching Skraelings.”
Insharah opened his mouth to say something, but was forestalled by the sound of fighting outside.
“We need to move,” said Ishbel. “Now. Insharah, get your men moving toward the causeway, in whatever manner you may.”
Chapter 8
Elcho Falling
The battle to get the Isembaardian army inside Elcho Falling was a bloody, terrible nightmare, and without Ishbel it could easily have turned into a rout.
The sudden visibling of the spatters of blood over the Lealfast saved hundreds, if not thousands, of Isembaardian lives. The Lealfast remained invisible, but the blood glowed, betraying their presence. While the Isembaardian army had no warning of the attack, they had been armed and ready to fight: initially, under Armat’s command, to attack Elcho Falling, but now, under Insharah, as a precaution against the power and treachery of the previous night. The surprise attack by the twelve thousand Lealfast killed many, but the Isembaardians were skilled and practised soldiers, and it took them but heartbeats to realise that the glowing blood revealed their enemy.
On the ground the Lealfast had no chance against the sheer numbers of Isembaardians, especially if they were trapped inside tents when the blood glowed to betray them. They soon lifted into the air, and there they did hold the edge. Not merely did they hold a height advantage, but the Isembaardians, now organised into the move to Elcho Falling, were trapped in a bottleneck — the causeway was narrow and the army needed to be guided across it by Ishbel, for otherwise Elcho Falling would not have accepted the foreign soldiers. Everyone was frighteningly vulnerable on that causeway, and it was to the causeway that the Lealfast directed their most murderous efforts.
In the air the Lealfast maintained their invisibility. Above two or three paces high the glowing spatters of blood became indistinct and at ten paces high few ground soldiers could see them at all. The Strike Force members with their enhanced Icarii sight could see the spatters of blood well enough from even a hundred paces distant, but the Isembaardian archers could only shoot blindly into the air, and while doing so could not protect themselves. The Strike Force’s arrows caused some casualties among the Lealfast, but mostly the Lealfast stayed out of arrow range of the Icarii, who were tied to their narrow protective airspace about Elcho Falling.
The ground forces used their shields, raised above their heads, to create a defensive roof between themselves and the Lealfast arrows. But arms grew tired and it was hard to keep shields perfectly aligned to maintain an impenetrable roof. All too often arrows penetrated through widening gaps in the shield roof and struck soldiers beneath.
Many Isembaardians died. Within an hour of the army starting its painfully slow way into Elcho Falling, the turquoise waters of the lake surrounding the citadel were thick with floating bodies feathered with arrows.
Axis spent most of his time either protecting Ishbel, or organising protection for her. Nothing could be allowed to harm her. His task was made easier by Egalion who, understanding what was needed, sent a squad of Emerald Guardsmen out to protect her. They surrounded Ishbel on all sides, using their uncanny ability to deflect arrows from above with their shields.
Without them, Axis thought Ishbel may well have been dead within a few minutes.
It took the entire day to get the Isembaardians inside Elcho Falling, and all day they were subjected to attack. Tens of thousands died, but the number would have been hundreds of thousands had it not been for Ishbel, for the Emerald Guardsmen, for the Isembaardians themselves who put up their own spirited defence and had it not been for the remnants of the Strike Force, who, while they did not venture far from Elcho Falling’s protection, nonetheless managed to make the final third of the journey across the causeway safer for the Isembaardians.
Axis did what he could, but in the end it was not much more than providing a little guidance and an extra sword. He tried using the Star Dance to aid the Isembaardians, but his powers were either blocked, or somehow subdued. It was irritating — and frightening. He and StarDrifter had managed to use the Song of Mirrors against the Lealfast earlier, but now it appeared that the Lealfast were using something else against him, something that made it difficult for any Icarii Enchanter to raise the Star Dance against the Lealfast.
Was it the Lealfast’s own command of the Star Dance . . . or something else? Was it Elcho Falling itself? Why had Axis been able to use the Star Dance against the Lealfast inside Elcho Falling, but not outside?
Whatever it was, Axis did not have the luxury of solving the mystery during this day. There was nothing but fighting and pushing and shoving and shouting, and desperation to get everyone possible inside Elcho Falling.
Every so often, when he was on the south side of the causeway, Axis would pause to glance over his shoulder, looking further south.
Looking for the Skraelings.
Gods, to have those creatures coming back . . .
By mid-afternoon Axis was stumbling in weariness, as was Ishbel, but both worked relentlessly on the causeway, guiding, shouting, cajoling, pushing men on, on, on, and trying not to fall away from the protection of the covering shields of the Emerald Guardsmen, wincing whenever an arrow penetrated the shield layer and struck a nearby soldier.
“How many more?” Ishbel said to Axis when they met halfway along the causeway. Her voice was toneless with exhaustion, and dark shadows ringed her eyes.
Axis pulled her close to him, and closer under the shields their guardsmen escort held over them. “Go inside, Ishbel. You have done enough.”
She shook her head. “I cannot, you know that. Elcho Falling knows it is under attack. It wants to close the entrance . . . only I or Maxel can at this moment persuade it to remain open and to accept the Isembaardians.”
“Have you heard anything from Maxel?”
Another tired shake of her head. “Nothing, he has been in the Twisted Tower all day, I think.” She gave a tiny smile. “I envy him.”
“Is he in any danger?”
“I have no idea.”
“Ishbel, I think we ought to —”
Axis broke off. There had come a cry above him — not of horror or despair or even anger, but of sheer exultation.
It hadn’t come from any member of the Strike Force.
Axis risked a glance upward through a break in the shield canopy. It was getting dark now, darker than he would have expected for this time of afternoon.
“Stars .” he muttered.
“What is it?” Ishbel said.
Death came a whisper, and then laughter.