Axis looked at the eagle. You know what I require of you, my friend?
The only response Axis received was a glare from the bird.
Even if I am trapped, you will not be, Axis said to the bird.
It is the only reason I agreed to aid you, StarMan, the bird said, and Axis nodded.
Be safe, he said, and launched the bird into the air.
He waited until the eagle had vanished into the fog, then Axis set off after Inardle, lengthening his pace and pushing more forcefully through the snowdrifts.
"Inardle?" he called, as he neared.
She stopped, but did not turn to look at him, not even raising her head when finally he stood before her. Her arms were wrapped about her shoulders, her head hung low, her wings dragged in the snow behind her.
The feathers were thick with ice and Axis wondered at Inardle"s strength to be able to drag such a weight behind her.
Faint trails of old blood marred her lower back.
Axis looked at Inardle"s downcast face and his heart cracked open. He"d never seen her look like this. Never.
Inardle had given up entirely. She was lost in despair so intense and so deep that Axis did not think there could be a way out for her.
"Inardle?"
Finally, Inardle raised her face to him, gave him a long look, then she brushed past him and walked on.
"Inardle," Axis said, catching up to her and taking one of her elbows in his hand to try and slow her down. Stars, why was she in such a hurry? "Inardle, stop, I pray you. Where are you going?"
She pulled her elbow from his grasp and took a step forward.
"Inardle!" Axis grabbed both her shoulders and wrenched her about to face him. "Where are you going? It is I, Axis."
Finally, Inardle spoke. "It does not matter who you are," she said. "Let me go, please. I have a marriage I am cursed to make."
"Inardle, this is not your battle, nor your history. Eleanon has --"
"Cursed and hexed me, Axis. He has bound me with powers from which I cannot escape. Where I go now is the fate he determined for me. I am to be Borneheld"s wife."
"You do not have to . . . Inardle, turn from this fate and come back with me."
"I can"t," she said. "I am lost now. I go where the lost go."
Axis felt her move against his hands, trying to break free to continue her journey, and he tightened his grip.
"There is no need to be lost or frightened or despairing, Inardle," he said. "You can come back with me. I remember the way."
Even as he said it, Axis wondered if he did remember or not.
Inardle shook her head. "No. I cannot go back, nor can you now. We"re both trapped. You should not have come after me, Axis."
"I couldn"t leave you to --"
"Why did you come, Axis?" Her voice broke on that. "For what purpose? You are dead and lost now, too. It was such a stupid thing to do."
Then she pulled herself out of Axis" hands and continued her sad march forward.
Axis stood in the snow, tugging his cloak tighter in the bone-numbing cold, watching Inardle draw slowly away from him, thinking about what she had said and why he was here. For what purpose was he here? To chase some long gone dream? Recreate some glorious moment so that he could . . . do what? Live again? Be purposeful again?
What did he want?
A purpose? A love? Glory?
Or was it just to save Inardle?
No, there was more to it than that. Eleanon had set the trap well. The moment Axis had known Borneheld waited inside the ice hex, he could no more have resisted the urge to enter than he could have willed himself to stop breathing.
Axis sighed, then walked after Inardle, struggling through the snow until he finally caught up with her.
She didn"t look at him.
"I"ll walk with you," he said, and together they trudged through the snow and ice, half frozen within this strange hexed world, toward whatever awaited them.
Chapter 19.
The Sky Peaks.
The Lealfast Nation had congregated on the lower slopes of the Sky Peaks to the north-west of Elcho Falling. Here they waited for Eleanon and, as he approached, the elder, Falayal, moved forward to greet him.
"You have been keeping your plans too close to your chest, Eleanon," Falayal said, in no mood for the courteous. "The Nation wonders, I wonder, if perhaps we should return to the frozen northern wastes. We have had enough of traipsing about after power. It appears that we will never --"
"You know that the One has been trapped within Infinity," Eleanon said. "There is now no barrier to our taking Elcho Falling and --"
"No barrier save Isaiah, and Axis, and Maximilian."
"And they are no barrier at all," Eleanon said, his voice now several levels lower, his eyes sharp as he looked at the elder.
Falayal regarded Eleanon with ill-disguised cynicism.
"I am thinking of the Nation," Falayal said, "not your personal ambitions."
"And I am thinking of the Nation!" Eleanon said. "By the stars and Infinity, did we not agree to merge with the One? To march together into a future unbounded by either our Skraeling or Icarii blood? We are all changed by the power of Infinity! And now the One is useless, we can take Elcho Falling and --"
"How can we take Elcho Falling?" Falayal said.
"It is what I have come to discuss with you, my friend," Eleanon said. "The time is almost here when we can step forth and claim our new heritage. It is time for the Lealfast to march toward their future."
"How?" Falayal said again.
"With some song and dance and music!" Eleanon said. "As well as a little help from the Dark Spire." He put his arms about the shoulders of the other Lealfast man and led him away slowly, talking softly.
When, finally, he halted and ceased speaking, Falayal"s face was white with astonishment, his eyes glittering with ambition.
There was a frisson of excitement running between the two men that was almost palpable.
"It is too easy," Falayal said, in a tone which suggested he felt he ought to voice some token concern but didn"t believe that concern in the slightest.
Brilliance is oft easy, Eleanon thought. "You agree?" he said.
Falayal hesitated, then nodded.
"It will need to be taken to the Nation," he said.
"Of course," Eleanon said. "It would be impossible without their agreement and compliance. I can address them this evening, as the first stars rise in the dusk sky."
"When?" Falayal said, and Eleanon knew he didn"t refer to the a.s.sembly this evening.
"As soon as Maximilian and Ishbel return," Eleanon said. "Then we can move. But we need them inside Elcho Falling."
"Naturally," Falayal said. "You will address the Lealfast Nation this dusk, and they will agree. They will shout for you, Eleanon. Then . . . we begin training?"
"Then we begin training," Eleanon said. "This will be a great dance. One that will be remembered throughout eternity."
Chapter 20.
The Ice Hex.
Axis glanced upward once or twice, wondering if he would see the eagle, but the surrounding fog was so thick and so closeting that the effort was useless. Axis gave up wondering about the eagle and instead tried to think through the hex that Eleanon had created.
Or recreated. Once more he was to meet Borneheld in battle. Axis and Borneheld had been rivals in many areas: parental affection, power at the Acharite court, success on the battlefield, but all of these rivalries had coalesced into the war over Faraday. Faraday and Axis had loved each other, but Borneheld had won Faraday as his wife -- and that was always Borneheld"s greatest triumph over Axis.
Faraday may have loved Axis, but she had left him to marry Borneheld.
How Borneheld had laughed in Axis"face and taunted him with his s.e.xual conquest of the woman Axis loved.
Now Eleanon wanted Axis to relive this all over again, save with Inardle now playing the role of Faraday. What did Eleanon expect Axis to do . . . battle and kill Borneheld once again, and then free Inardle -- and himself -- from this hex?
No, no, there must be something else .
There was a trap here somewhere.
This wasn"t a hex to trap Inardle. It was a hex to trap Axis.
They struggled on through the snow and ice. Inardle kept her head down, not looking at Axis, trapped in her own misery. She kept her hands wrapped about her shoulders, and her wings, still dragging behind her, were now so heavy with ice that Axis was amazed she could still move. Axis wished he could do something for her, but she rejected any overture.
They struggled through the snow.
After what felt like many hours something rose out of the snow before them. Axis was so astounded, almost frightened, that he stopped, staring ahead.
Inardle kept on walking, her head bowed, and Axis did not even know if she realised what lay in front of her.
It was a perfect representation of Carlon -- the beautiful lakeside city that had once been Achar"s capital -- save it was now constructed entirely from ice. Walls, streets, gates, turrets, the great palace at its highest point, even all the pennants and flags . . . all ice.
Inardle trudged forward.
Axis stared at the city, stared at Inardle -- incredulous that she should just ignore this -- then forced himself after her.
They walked on.
The gates of Carlon lay open before them. Axis felt as if he walked through a dream -- or was it a nightmare? Everything was as he remembered and everything brought back so many memories. They walked through the gates -- Inardle still not showing any indication she realised they"d stopped walking through snowdrifts and now trod ice cobbles -- and climbed the road that wound upward through the city toward the palace. Axis kept glancing to the side and behind him, wondering what ghosts lurked down side alleys and behind buildings.
But there were none. Just Axis and Inardle, climbing ever upward to the palace.
The gates to the palace lay open.
Inardle kept walking, a little faster now that some of the ice on her wings had grated off on the cobbles.
Axis hung back for a moment, remembering everything that had happened in this palace.
Now Borneheld waited.
Axis glanced upward again. The fog had lifted and he saw a black speck high in the sky.
Thank the stars. Axis hurried after Inardle. He turned the cloak back over his shoulders, giving his hand free access to the heavy sword at his hip.
And the dagger in his boot.
They worked their way through the palace, moving ever upward. They walked through wide corridors, hung with vast tapestries depicting scenes from Achar"s glorious past and lit with ice lamps that emitted a cold, hard light.
There was no one in the palace, save he who waited in the Chamber of the Moons.
"Inardle," Axis said, "wait."