Ravenna looked up, her eyes filled with tears. "I was to kill him," she said. "I couldn"t do it."
Much later, when Isaiah had caused Ravenna to be locked in a comfortable yet secure room, he met with StarDrifter, Salome, Axis and Garth in the Talon"s chamber. StarDrifter sat with his son held tight in his arms and Isaiah did not think he was going to let him go any time soon.
"StarDancer is well?" he asked the boy"s parents, relieved that Inardle was not present.
"Yes, thank the Stars," StarDrifter said, his face still drawn and tense.
"And Ravenna?" Isaiah asked Garth, knowing the physician had been to see her.
"She has been very unwell," Garth said, "but should grow better with rest and good food." He paused. "The child she carries is not doing well, though, and there is a danger Ravenna will miscarry it. Hopefully as Ravenna improves, so will her child."
"She is a great danger to us," said Salome, "and should be murdered herself."
She has come to regret her actions, StarDancer said, his words clear in the minds of all in the room. She did not kill me.
He paused, and when he spoke again his mind-voice was heavy with power and concern.
The One is here.
"What?" everyone else said simultaneously.
In the Dark Spire.
"But none of us --" Isaiah began.
He has concealed himself well. None of you could spot him. I could not even discern his presence. But he is here, have no doubt.
"So that is he of whom you dreamed," StarDrifter said. "We should have listened to you."
Yes.
"Shetzah!" Isaiah cursed. "We must --"
Nothing you can do shall repel him, StarDancer said. He is too powerful. Not even Maximilian can match him now.
Axis looked at his brother, wondering that none of them questioned what StarDancer said.
Stars, the child commanded everyone in this room!
Axis felt a stab of resentment, both at StarDancer"s power and at the unquestioning acceptance of it by everyone, including himself.
But there is something that can be done.
"What?" Isaiah said.
It needs to wait until the Lord of Elcho Falling has returned, StarDancer said. But until then, Ravenna needs to be kept well and safe. She must not be murdered.
Part Four.
Chapter 1.
The Twisted Tower, and the Coast of the Outlands.
Inardle"s attack on himself and his companions had shocked Eleanon. Not just the attack, but her chilling murderousness with it.
That hadn"t been the Inardle Eleanon had known.
What had happened to her? Had the ice hex somehow changed her? Eleanon didn"t know how Axis had managed to get her out, or how he had managed to restore her life (for Axis would have needed to kill Inardle to escape Borneheld).
But most of all, Eleanon could not comprehend what Inardle had become and he feared that it was somehow his ice hex that had caused the transformation. If so, that hex had been a critical mistake.
The thought that he may have made a critical mistake unsettled and frightened Eleanon.
In order to distract himself, Eleanon concentrated on fine-tuning the training the Lealfast Nation needed for the final confrontation that would see Axis and Inardle and all others within Elcho Falling dead, and the citadel his.
The Lealfast Nation had settled on the gentle slopes and meadows just below the Sky Peaks, far to the north-west of Elcho Falling. Here Eleanon could train the Lealfast with no one watching . . . although had they seen, Eleanon did not think they could have made any sense of what happened.
Today, as in the many days before, Eleanon stood in the centre of a large meadow.
About him the Lealfast Nation had arrayed themselves in ten gigantic circles that rotated about Eleanon. Each alternate circle moved either sunwise or anti-sunwise, and they moved slowly and deliberately to the beat that Eleanon clapped out with his hands. Occasionally Eleanon shouted instruction to this circle or that, keeping them in step with all the other Lealfast.
When Eleanon was satisfied, he quickened the beat of his hands. The circles began to move faster, although still deliberately, a stunningly ch.o.r.eographed dance with every single one of the Lealfast keeping place and pace perfect. And they were perfectly in step. Every one put their right foot down with everyone else"s right foot, and thus with their left foot.
Eleanon himself, in the centre of the circles, began to move, looking this way and that, his body trembling with the vibrations caused by the hundreds of thousands of feet placed perfectly in time to the beat of the dance.
He staggered slightly, losing his footing as the earth shook beneath him, and then Eleanon lifted into the sky, still clapping. As he lifted, he shouted, and so all the Lealfast, a quarter million of them arranged in concentric circles, raised their faces to the sky and shouted and clapped their hands.
The earth in the centre of the circle shuddered violently, then lifted, dirt spraying everywhere within a radius of fifty paces.
Eleanon, hovering in the sky, gave a small smile of satisfaction.
It would be good.
"Maxel?" Ishbel said, half rising from where she"d been dozing in the belly of Abe Wayward"s boat. Abe was forward, checking the rigging, Doyle was still fast sleep in the prow and Serge was manning the tiller, apparently sent into a catatonic state by the gentle rhythmic lull of the waves.
But Maximilian . . . Maximilian was sitting bolt upright just down from the tiller.
"Maxel?"
Maximilian smiled. "Look, sweetheart, you have dozed away all this time and missed the view to the north."
Ishbel frowned at him, then swivelled so she could look forward.
"Oh!" she gasped.
Elcho Falling rose on the horizon, the three rings of its crowns turning lazily in the brilliant sun, sending glints of gold scattering over the sea.
Chapter 2.
Elcho Falling.
They were tacking slowly up the channel that ran from the Infinity Sea to the lake that surrounded the citadel.
Everything was very quiet.
The citadel appeared to be intact, but there were no Icarii in the sky, no Lealfast, and no armies in the surrounding landscape. Maximilian was not sure what he"d expected, but somehow it was not this.
"Perhaps they"re all still abed," Doyle remarked.
Maximilian exchanged an anxious glance with Ishbel, then touched Abe on the arm.
"Slower, if you can," he said.
"I"m tacking as slow as possible," Abe replied. "To go slower I"d need to take down the sail and allow us to drift. But that would leave us without any options should danger threaten."
Did danger threaten? Maximilian wondered. What in the G.o.ds" names was going on?
"Have you tried to contact anyone in --" Ishbel began to say, then gave a shriek of surprise as a column of water reared up from the channel behind her and crashed into the boat.
They all jumped a little and Serge and Doyle reached for their swords. Before anyone could take any further action the column of water resolved itself into a dripping wet and very naked Inardle.
She grinned at the startled expressions on everyone"s faces. "Did I surprise you? I do apologise. Put those swords away. I am of no harm to you."
Neither Serge nor Doyle sheathed their swords, but Inardle took no notice. She reached over the side of the small boat, scooping up a handful of water and tossing it into the air in a spray of emerald and silver droplets. At the height of their arc, the droplets shimmered and transformed into a length of blue-green material which Inardle s.n.a.t.c.hed out of the air then wrapped about her body, clothing herself in a matter of moments.
Her smile widened. "I have been learning new tricks," she said. "Maximilian, all inside Elcho Falling will be more than pleased to see you. Look ."
She pointed at a balcony about halfway up the citadel.
Black dots stood there waving.
"Isaiah," Inardle said, "and Axis and Georgdi. Happy to see you home and to hand over all their unsolvable problems."
Maximilian gave a half-hearted wave to the distant balcony, but quickly centred all his attention on Inardle.
"What did you just do? The water . . . " he said.
"Ah, who and what I am now is a matter for discussion over a gla.s.s of wine," she said. "You are all well?"
"Yes," Maximilian said. "But --"
"Isaiah and Axis asked me to come greet you and see you inside Elcho Falling," Inardle said. "Most of the news can wait until then, Maxel, both yours and ours."
Maximilian regarded her keenly. There was something wrong -- he could recognise it in the shadows of her eyes.
"Where are the Lealfast?" Ishbel said. "And Isaiah . . . he managed to get inside Elcho Falling? With his army?"
"The Lealfast Nation rest in the Sky Peaks," Inardle said, "but they maintain patrols over Elcho Falling. There are a score of them invisible above us now, but they are unlikely to attack while I am here. I can explain all this later. Who is your captain, Maxel?"
Maximilian took a moment to realise what Inardle meant. "Abe," he said, nodding to the man. "Abe Wayward."
"Abe," Inardle said, smiling at him. "Set full sail for the lake and travel about the southern aspect of the citadel. On the western side you will find a causeway, and if you could manoeuvre us close to where that causeway meets the entrance to Elcho Falling then I would be most grateful."
"And Isaiah"s army?" Ishbel said, a little tightly, irked that she had to press for a response to her question.
"Mostly safe inside Elcho Falling," Inardle said. "Isaiah can tell you the tale. It wasn"t his finest moment."
Before Ishbel could pepper her with more questions, Inardle indicated the lake into which they had just sailed. "This could be dangerous," she said. "The Dark Spire, which Eleanon had placed within the citadel, has grown . . . much more so than when you last saw it, Maximilian. We had the juit birds here . . . did you know that? Well, that is a tale also that can wait for later, but we had millions of juit birds here and they were chased away by hundreds of . . . roots, I suppose you could call them, or fingers, from the Dark Spire, that rose from the water and s.n.a.t.c.hed the birds from the lake and the air. So, this journey may become a little more adventurous than antic.i.p.ated . . . and thus I am here. I may be of some use against them."
"Inardle," Maximilian said, "what has happened to you?" And what is so wrong inside Elcho Falling? he wondered.
She gave a little shrug of her shoulders. "There is much to share, on both our sides, I imagine. Wait until we get inside Elcho Falling, Maximilian. It can all wait until then."
Despite Inardle"s warnings about the danger from the Dark Spire, they sailed around the southern walls of Elcho Falling without incident, and Maximilian felt his spirits rise as they approached the causeway. As they came alongside it, Abe held the boat steady while everyone climbed out, the great doors to Elcho Falling opened, and there stood Axis and Isaiah, wide grins on their faces, and suddenly the Lord of Elcho Falling was home.
Maximilian sat slouched in his chair, long legs stretched out before him, rubbing away slowly at his forehead with one hand, unable to sort his thoughts.
"The One is in the Dark Spire?" he finally said. He and Ishbel had shared news with Axis, Isaiah, Georgdi and StarDrifter, and it wasn"t until the last few minutes that the others had told Maximilian and Ishbel the terrible news about Ravenna, the Dark Spire and the One.
Maximilian finally dropped his hand and managed to look Ishbel in the eye.
She looked as stricken as he felt.
They had been so sure he was gone . . . so sure.
"Are you certain?" Maximilian added.
"My son has said so," StarDrifter said.
"That would be StarDancer," Axis said, annoyed that he had to clarify the situation . . . StarDrifter obviously felt he only had one son.