She glanced upward, knowing that there were Lealfast almost certainly hovering above. Ishbel wanted to close the roof, but didn’t want to give the Lealfast the satisfaction of knowing their presence had made her nervous.
So she wandered the chamber, waiting for Maximilian, her mind unable to stop worrying about what StarDancer had said.
Ishbel wondered if it would have made much difference to their current predicament if she had killed Ravenna when she’d had the chance, rather than bind her with curses. Even cursed, Ravenna had managed to create havoc.
StarDancer’s solution was unthinkable. There must be another way of dealing once and for all with the One. They couldn’t trust Ravenna. And Ishbel knew she couldn’t divest Maximilian of his power. If she struggled, Ishbel thought she might, just might be able to think of some circumstance where she removed the curses about Ravenna (but that was, indeed, close to impossible), but to divest Maximilian of his power . . . unthinkable! Further, to allow Ravenna’s child to assume the rights and privileges and power of the Lord of Elcho Falling, and then to have those rights and privileges and powers trapped in the Land of Nightmares?
Impossible. Impossible. Not only would it mean the end of Maximilian as Lord of Elcho Falling, but it would mean the end of the line of Lords of Elcho Falling, for the current Lord would be trapped in the Land of Nightmare.
Everything Maxel and she had fought so hard for would be as naught.
StarDancer’s “solution” was no solution at all. It demanded too high a price. It was just another trap, yet another nightmare. It would destroy as much as the One would destroy.
Perhaps more.
Gods, they may as well just hand everything to the One now! Would that not be better than seeing the line of the Lords of Elcho Falling die within the Land of Nightmares?
“We can’t possibly allow it,” Ishbel muttered, her loathing of Ravenna and everything she represented now consuming her.
If it wasn’t for Ravenna . . .
“Ishbel.”
She spun about, her face lighting up as Maximilian walked into the chamber.
Ishbel’s smile died as she saw his face. Maximilian looked exhausted and emotionally drained. She started toward him and, as she did so, Maximilian waved a hand, almost without thought, and closed the roof over their heads.
Whatever was the matter, he didn’t want to share it with the Lealfast.
“Maxel?”
He took her hand and tried a small smile for her, which faded the moment it appeared. “Come sit with me, Ishbel. I need to rest and we need to talk.”
Ishbel waited until they were seated on a couch near a small brazier she’d lit earlier, then she wrapped his hand in both of hers. “What happened, Maxel? Did you examine the Dark Spire, talk to Ravenna? What do you think. Should we —”
He gave her a small smile. “Too many questions, my love. But yes, I examined the Dark Spire and I talked to Ravenna. Neither was a particularly pleasant experience.”
“The Dark Spire?” Ishbel asked, not wanting to hear of Ravenna just yet.
“It is terrible, Ishbel. It has grown through many levels now, and has formed itself into a representation of Elcho Falling itself. It has birthed eggs . . . Ravenna has taken these and planted them about the outer walls of Elcho Falling. She told me where to look . . . Ishbel, I can’t do anything about them. They are like little cancers. They have grown deep into the fabric of Elcho Falling itself, in scores of different locations. I can’t get them out without destroying Elcho Falling in the process.”
Ishbel didn’t know what to say, or what to ask next. The very thought terrified her.
Oh, why hadn’t she killed Ravenna when she had the chance?
“How bad is it, Maxel?”
“I don’t know. I will investigate more tomorrow. But it is bad. I have no idea how to remove them, or even how to stop them growing.”
“Can Garth help with his Touch?”
“No. Garth has tried. Nothing.”
“Did you feel the One within the spire?”
Maximilian gave a terse nod. “I can feel him, but can do little against him. I cannot penetrate the spire, and even if I could . . . gods, Ishbel, I remember the power that the One sent seething down the path from the Twisted Tower toward me. He is so much stronger now than when the citadel expelled him. I fear that neither I nor Elcho Falling can touch him.”
“Oh Maxel . . . there must be something we can do.”
“I went to see Ravenna.”
“I wish I had killed —“
“Ishbel, don’t say it.” Maximilian paused, his tongue running about his lips. “I talked to her, Ishbel. She confirmed what StarDancer said.”
“You can’t possibly be thinking —”
“I can’t bear to think it, Ishbel! How can I trust her? How? To give her back her power and then to leave the fate of Elcho Falling in her hands? I cannot countenance it!”
Ishbel relaxed a little. She had not dared to admit it even to herself, but a tiny part of her had been terrified that Ravenna would somehow dupe Maximilian into agreeing to StarDancer’s plan.
“Then what can we do, Maxel?”
“I knew there would come a time when I would regret the loss of the Twisted Tower,” Maximilian said, “and this is it. While none of the knowledge in the Twisted Tower pertained specifically to the Dark Spire — who could have foretold it? — or to the One, there might have been something amid all those objects and memories that might aid us.”
“Like what?”
“Something, perhaps, on how to repel disease within Elcho Falling’s walls. On how to repel weakness. On how to repel invaders. I don’t know, Ishbel. Both of us have been through every single object in that tower, but how many hundreds of memories and knowledges did we set to one side, thinking we would not need them in the raising of Elcho Falling?”
Ishbel nodded. When they had gone through the Twisted Tower with Josia they had specifically concentrated only on the knowledge needed to raise Elcho Falling. Everything else they had glimpsed was enough to remember objects, but they had not remembered specific details.
After all, they could always go back to the Twisted Tower whenever they needed to retrieve further information.
“I know on the forty-seventh level,” Ishbel said slowly, her brow creased as she thought, “there was something about the walls, something to do with . . . construction . . . or the enchantment that went into them . . . ”
“I thought I could remember a group of objects on the nightstand on the eighteenth level,” Maximilian said. “They were to do with the integrity of the structure. I think.”
“I . . . I don’t think I can remember those.”
“Damn it!” Maximilian said.
“We can’t go back, Maxel. We’ll just have to live with it.”
“Or die by it,” he said.
They sat in silence a little, then Maximilian spoke again.
“Ishbel, what if we reconstruct every level of the Twisted Tower on paper? Remember every object we can. Rebuild the Twisted Tower in plans and drawings. Plot every object. Then . . . maybe . . . maybe we might remember something.”
She kissed his cheek. “You are tired, I am tired, and we are both too weary to think. Come to bed. We haven’t slept in a real bed for a very, very long time.”
“We are going to need to do this, Ishbel.”
“I know. But for now come to bed.”
Then her eyes focussed on something a few paces behind Maximilian’s chair.
It was one of Elcho Falling’s servants.
She closed her mouth, wet her lips, still staring beyond Maximilian, then said, softly, “Maxel .”
“Hallelujah!” Eleanon cried as the scout reported back to him. “Maxel and Ishbel are home!”
He turned to Falayal, standing nearby. “We move in the morning,” he said. “Get the word out. We rise before dawn and leave so we arrive at Elcho Falling as the sun rises. Falayal . . . it won’t be long, now. From tomorrow, Elcho Falling will be isolated from the outside world.”
“And then .” Falayal said. “Are we ready?”
Eleanon grinned. “Yes,” he said. “We are ready.”
Chapter 5
Elcho Falling
Axis tipped his chair back, rested one of his booted feet against the edge of the table in the command chamber, and looked at Isaiah standing by the empty fireplace.
Isaiah returned his regard with one of his inscrutable expressions.
Axis shifted his eyes to Inardle, also sitting at the table.
She merely looked bored.
“Well,” said Axis, “where is Maxel? He calls us from our beds before dawn, then leaves us sitting here while he, no doubt, breakfasts in luxury while we —”
The door opened and Maximilian and Ishbel came in. Both looked exhausted, their eyes dark shadowed and their faces pale.