"Go and take your future," Axis said. "Go."
"We can be princes?" one of the Skraelings asked.
"Every last one of you," Axis said. "Envied, by all creation." He hoped he wasn"t overdoing it. Flattery was going to be the only thing that would get the three of them out alive.
"Princes ." Ozll murmured, and suddenly his right eye shot all the way over to the right side of his face so that, once more, his two eyes sat evenly settled in his face.
Ozll nodded. "We will take it, Isaiah." He waved a clawed hand, and the horde of Skraelings began to shuffle back, opening up the circle and the avenue back to safety.
Isaiah nodded at the Skraeling, then he turned and walked away, Axis and Inardle following.
None among the three dared breathe in case the Skraelings changed their minds.
When they were halfway down the avenue, Ozll called to them.
"Wait!"
They stopped, turning about slowly.
Ozll hurried up to them. "I will give you something in return," he said, "for the choice you gave us."
Isaiah raised an eyebrow.
"The One resides now in someone else," Ozll said.
"Who?" Isaiah said.
"We are not certain," said Ozll. "It was why we did not attack you instantly. We were scared the One might be within your number and we might eat him by mistake. But that woman you brought before us. He is not in her, and we doubt he resides anywhere within your army, for we should have felt him by now."
"And yet, knowing this, you did not attack," Isaiah said.
Ozll shrugged.
Isaiah smiled, happy with the choices that had been made here today. "Do you know where the One might be?"
"No true idea," said Ozll, "but we suspect Elcho Falling. If not with you, then where else?"
"Then I shall hurry to Elcho Falling and discover for myself," Isaiah said. He turned to go, but Ozll again called to him.
"Isaiah!" Ozll held out one of his great misshapen hands pleadingly. "Where is the nearest large body of water?"
By the G.o.ds, Axis thought, they"re actually going to do it!
Isaiah held Ozll"s gaze a moment. "Elcho Falling," he said. "The lake that surrounds Elcho Falling."
Then he, Axis and Inardle turned once more and walked back to the Isembaardian camp.
The next day, when Isaiah rose and instructed the soldiers to break camp to ride once more for Elcho Falling, it was to discover that the entire horde of Skraelings had vanished.
Every last one of them.
Chapter 26.
Isembaard.
Maximilian and his small party made good time in their journey east. The horses were a true boon, indeed, and everyone gave silent thanks for their appearance.
One day, when Maximilian estimated they were two or three days away from Hairekeep, the horse carrying Doyle, who was riding out front, shied so badly it almost threw the man.
Doyle brought the horse under control quickly, then shouted back to the others to keep their mounts under tight rein.
"Look!" he cried, pointing to the patch of sandy ground just to the north of the road.
"Merciful heavens," Maximilian murmured as he drew in his horse behind Doyle"s.
The soil to the northern side of the road was very sandy, with little vegetation. Now, as they all sat their nervous horses and looked, the sand rose up in the shape of a series of hands, all stretching eastward. The hands alternately beckoned to the group of watchers, then pointed eastward.
"They are telling us to hurry," Ishbel said.
"Aye," Maximilian said, then he gave a small jump and pointed to a different patch of ground. "Look there!"
Just in front of the hands, and a little further along the road, a series of footsteps appeared in the soil, rushing eastward.
"Hurry, hurry," Maximilian said.
"They must be tormented, indeed," Serge said, "to have managed this."
Maximilian looked at Avaldamon. "Avaldamon? You look worried."
"I don"t know," Avaldamon said. "I don"t like it."
"You think it is the One?" Ishbel said.
"I don"t know," Avaldamon said once more. "It . . . it reminds me of something Boaz told me about the land when the creature called Nzame ruled over the gla.s.s pyramid. Nzame turned the land to stone with countless tiny pyramids, all with a single eye in each face, dotted about. This is different, but it just made me recall that."
"We shall be careful, then," Maximilian said.
Avaldamon hesitated, but then spoke the thought that had been worrying him for many days . . . ever since Ishbel and Maximilian had told him about Josia"s plan to save the people trapped inside Hairekeep. "How much do you trust Josia, Maxel? Ishbel?"
"With our lives," Ishbel answered for them both. "He has been through a nightmare of an existence, Avaldamon. He is for us. He has no reason to harm us."
Maybe no, maybe yes, Avaldamon thought, but he nodded to Ishbel and Maximilian. "We shall be careful," he said, and with that they resumed their journey east, the hands and running footsteps urging them to hurry.
Part Three.
Chapter 1.
Elcho Falling.
Kezial stomped his feet as he marched through his encampment. Eleanon had insisted Kezial"s army camp on the north side of the lake which surrounded Elcho Falling.
Eleanon said it would be better. Give the Isembaardians more s.p.a.ce.
Kezial knew differently. What it meant was that the Lealfast Nation encampment -- that which had once been Armat"s encampment -- sat between Kezial"s group and any possible route that Isaiah and his army, approaching from the south, might take. There was little chance Kezial could renege on his alliance with Eleanon and, in the middle of the night, decamp to join with Isaiah. The route to the west was blocked by the turbulent open channel to the sea and the citadel of Elcho Falling itself; the route south was blocked by the lake; the route to the east by the Lealfast themselves.
So Kezial and his men idled in their camp, doing little but keeping themselves fit through weapons practice and spending the rest of their days and half their nights staring at the citadel in the middle of the lake and wondering when, or if, they were ever going to see the inside of it.
Kezial had had enough. He"d been demanding to see Eleanon these past few days and only now had the summons come.
Kezial was thinking very seriously that Isaiah would perhaps have been the better option.
Even Maximilian.
But extricating himself from this alliance was going to be . . . tricky. In fact, it was likely to be quite murderous. The Lealfast outnumbered Kezial"s men, had the not inconsiderable advantages of magic, invisibility and flight, and were hot-tempered and unpredictable to boot.
Kezial felt trapped and he didn"t like it.
Eleanon had a tent in the middle of the Lealfast encampment and that was where Kezial expected to meet him. Instead, however, one of Eleanon"s sub-commanders directed Kezial to a relatively isolated spot on the sh.o.r.e of the turquoise lake.
There Kezial found Eleanon, sitting on a barrel of wine, contemplating Elcho Falling rising in the centre of the lake.
Eleanon looked up at Kezial"s approach, smiled, and indicated another barrel set to one side. "Sit yourself down, Kezial."
Kezial sat, cleared his throat, and opened his mouth to speak.
"You are feeling restless," Eleanon said, forestalling Kezial. "You feel yourself trapped, you"re thinking that Isaiah might be the better option, but you are unsure of how to ally yourself with him without being slaughtered by my command." His smile broadened into the false and insincere. "Am I right?"
Kezial wondered what to say.
"Yes, I am right," Eleanon said. "I do not blame you, for I doubt I would be thinking any differently were I in your position. Your options are, after all, fairly limited. Kezial, my friend, we have not had much chance to talk since your arrival. Since intuiting your concerns and restlessness, I have decided to share with you some of my plans."
How magnanimous of him, Kezial thought.
"What do you know of Elcho Falling?" Eleanon said.
Kezial blinked, a little surprised by the question. "Little save that it is a powerful citadel, magical, that many l.u.s.t after it. You, Maximilian, Isaiah, this One of whom I"ve heard spoken, the girl Ravenna who aided us against Maximilian. Doubtless many others."
"Aye," Eleanon said. "Many l.u.s.t after Elcho Falling, and we do so because of its power, which we might want to control. Or, equally, because of its power of which we might be afraid and which therefore we seek to destroy. Maximilian thinks to control it, Isaiah likewise. The One wishes to destroy it, because Elcho Falling threatens his own power."
"And in which camp do you fall?" Kezial said.
"I want both," Eleanon said. "I want to destroy it and rebuild it to my own needs; to rebuild it in a manner in which it will recognise me and only me as its master."
"Oh, so you"ve taken the easy option, then."
Eleanon laughed. "I am going to like you, Kezial."
"Why do you need me?"
"To aid me in my quest, naturally. I am set against everyone else: Maximilian and his allies, Isaiah, and the One." "I thought you were allied with the One." "Now not so much," Eleanon said.
Kezial thought about that, and it made him nervous. Eleanon was thinking to betray the One? "You forgot Ravenna."
"No, I have not, but I will return to her later."
"So, you want me to help you destroy and then rebuild to your own needs this great citadel -- which currently appears to have you locked out -- and in reward you will now proceed to promise me the very earth. Yes?"
"No," Eleanon said quietly. "I am going to offer you your lives, Kezial. I am going to offer you the chance to return to Isembaard, or wherever it is you wish to go, once I have Elcho Falling. That is all. Just a chance to live."
Kezial regarded Eleanon stonily.
"I could slaughter you now," Eleanon said quietly, and such menace came over his face then that Kezial believed him absolutely. "You try to attack me and you are dead. Every last one of you, within the hour. You try to escape now and you are dead. Every last one of you, within the hour. Agree to aid me, and you live. It is a simple choice."
"But as you yourself said, you have set yourself against everyone else: the One, who I have heard is a great and powerful G.o.d; Maximilian; Axis; Isaiah . . . and whoever else decides to come riding over the horizon claiming a part of Elcho Falling. How can you possibly win?"
"By doing what I am absolutely best at," Eleanon said. "Dark deception. Help me, Kezial."
Kezial didn"t know what to think. He really wanted to know what had become of Armat"s army. It had been hundreds of thousands strong. Had Eleanon destroyed it? Or was it, as Armat had said, sitting inside Elcho Falling waiting to sally forth and -- "There is only one entrance and exit from Elcho Falling," Eleanon said. He indicated the archway set in the western wall of the citadel. "Anyone entering or exiting has to cross over a narrow causeway through the lake. How vulnerable are they at that point, Kezial?"
Very vulnerable, Kezial thought, as am I, if you have this little trouble reading my thoughts.
Eleanon"s mouth curved in a small, cold smile. "Precisely, my friend. Very vulnerable. Of any force issuing forth, we only have to concentrate on a tiny proportion of it as it leaves the citadel."
"The Icarii ." Kezial said.
"Mostly dead, now," Eleanon said. "I made sure of that." He paused. "As for any force trying to enter . . . same problem. It is forced to congregate at a single, vulnerable point. Trapped, in essence. There are many soldiers within Elcho Falling -- Outlanders, Maximilian"s own men, others, but they stay there for that very reason. They"d be slaughtered."
He shifted, reaching across the s.p.a.ce between them and resting a hand on Kezial"s shoulder.
Kezial tensed, and Eleanon gave his best impression of a rea.s.suring smile. "I need to touch you, Kezial. I want to show you something, and for that you need to see with my eyes, not with your useless, human ones."