Chapter 8
The Central Outlands
The Skraelings had not actually left the site where they had camped just outside Isaiah’s encampment.
They had just slewed slightly through reality. Just as they vanished from the sight of Isaiah and Axis and all who accompanied them, so also Isaiah and his companions and army vanished from the Skraelings’ sight. The entire Isembaardian army could have marched through the Skraeling mass and felt nothing more than the brush of air against their legs, while the Skraelings themselves would not have been aware of them.
They had sequestered themselves from reality in order to debate their future.
The Skraelings were consumed by a welter of emotions. Foremost was anger — aimed, initially, entirely at Isaiah. Isaiah had turned them from their enchanted, powerful form into these repulsive creatures who had no beauty and no dignity and no power. He had then forgotten them, leaving them to drift for aeons as creatures hated by all other races. Then, having suddenly remembered his oversight, Isaiah had returned to the Skraelings the power to choose their own destiny, the power to return to their form of River Angels, but only via the medium of water, of drowning.
That was, for the Skraelings, the ultimate cruelty. The ultimate spitefulness. Isaiah knew they hated and feared water. He knew it, yet he’d made it a precondition that they embrace this terror if they wanted once again to be River Angels.
And who really knew if this wasn’t simply some plan to just slaughter them? Tell them some fabulous tale about long lost mystery forms, convince them that all they had to do to regain this form and mystery was to drown themselves.
Maybe Axis had planned the entire thing.
This stank of the StarMan.
Probably backed up by Inardle. She was a Lealfast. She hated them as much as Axis did.
From their anger at Isaiah the Skraelings morphed seamlessly into hatred of Axis. He was the BattleAxe, the StarMan, he the one who had slaughtered so many of their cousins in Tencendor. He was their implacable enemy.
Why had they not killed him when they had the chance? When he sat among them? Why had they not also killed Isaiah and Inardle when they, too, sat among —
“Stop,” Ozll said into the maelstrom of rising, black emotion. “Stop. Isn’t this what condemned us in the first instance? Isn’t this what we want to discard and leave forever behind us? Or is this what we want to remain, forever? Brothers and sisters, cousins and friends, look at us. Look at us. Then remember what Isaiah showed us. That was not a lie. It was memory. Truth. It was from whence our memories of Veldmr came. Stop. Think. We’ve allowed our emotions to overcome our intellect.”
He paused, looking at the doubt in all the faces surrounding him. “Yes,” Ozll said, “we do have intellect, and we could have pride in ourselves again. But we need to discuss this rationally and we need to come to a decision about what to do from a place of calmness. Not from a state of fear or anger or suspicion. Now, who will speak?”
The mass was quiet a long time. The Skraelings found it difficult to damp into quiescence their habitual suspicion and fear and anger. All three states were by now so natural to them it was difficult to let go of them.
Finally, a young female Skraeling by the name of Graq spoke. “What are we now?” she said. “Do we want to stay this way?”
That was rare straight speaking, and the Skraeling mass responded by moaning, their bodies weaving to and fro in distress.
“We are hateful,” one among them hissed.
“Ugly,” said another.
“Far uglier now than before,” another said. “We grow uglier with each day. And more hateful.”
“But don’t we like being ugly and hateful?” someone asked. “All run in fear of us. Don’t we like that? Don’t we feed from their terror?”
Many among the Skraelings began to weep, great painful sobs that left their silvery orbs quivering in distress.
“No,” Ozll said for them all, “we don’t like that. And perhaps we’d like to change, now we have been given the opportunity.”
He hesitated a moment. “And perhaps we have been too consumed by emotion these past days and hours to have noticed something. Something important. Who knows what it is?”
No one spoke for a long time, although many brows creased and mouths mumbled.
“The One is gone,” Graq said, eventually. “The One is gone very, very far away.”
“Yes,” Ozll said. “We are now masterless. Again. And maybe that is a good thing, for maybe we might like to consider the opportunity to be our own masters, for a change.”
Chapter 9
Elcho Falling
Isaiah stood motionless in the dim pre-dawn light. It was a week since Maximilian had succeeded in trapping the One inside the Twisted Tower. Over the past two days Isaiah had moved his army north to the very boundaries of Elcho Falling. He was directly south of it now, within fifty paces of the lake, the citadel looming high above him, his army arrayed in battle gear in formation behind him, Kezial’s force and the Lealfast similarly arrayed some five hundred paces further up the lakeside.
Everyone had deployed yesterday.
The night had been spent waiting.
“You have not slept,” Axis said quietly to one side. The general Lamiah stood to Isaiah’s other side. All three had stood here in lengthy silence, watching, waiting, thinking. “Are you all right? You look exhausted.”
“I have been preparing a treat for Eleanon,” Isaiah said. “I will explain once it is fully light.”
He looked a little anxiously to the east as he said this, and Axis had to bite down a further query.
“What is going to happen today, Isaiah?” Lamiah said.
“You know I think that Eleanon is going to play at keeping us out of Elcho Falling,” Isaiah said.
“Yes,” Lamiah said, “you have told me what you and Axis think. But are you certain?”
Isaiah gave a hollow laugh. “No. I am not. But why else has he allowed us to get this close?”
“Perhaps because he has a trap waiting,” Lamiah said.
Isaiah and Axis said nothing. They also worried about this. It was all very well to theorise that Eleanon had not attacked them because he wanted them to enter Elcho Falling . . . but why would he do that? And what if he actually wanted them to get this far in one piece so that he could catch them in some as yet unsuspected trap? Too many what ifs.
“Too many unknowns,” Lamiah said, echoing the thoughts of the three men. “Eleanon holds all the cards. We are going to be forced onto a tiny exposed causeway to enter Elcho Falling, and he has a massive winged force.”
“Plus Kezial’s force,” said Isaiah.
“Isaiah?” Axis said, nervous and jumpy and wishing Isaiah would tell them what he’d been doing all night.
“Are the men prepared, Lamiah?” Isaiah said.
“Yes,” the general answered, “they know what to do and say if they get into hand-to-hand fighting with Kezial’s men.”
“Are you ready, Axis?” Isaiah said.
“Yes,” Axis replied. “Isaiah, what were you doing last —”
“I see the juit birds are in position,” Isaiah said.
Axis bit back a hiss of frustration. It was growing lighter and he looked toward the lake.
There bobbed the millions of juit birds, apparently oblivious to the extraordinary citadel rising at their backs or the opposing armies gathered on the shore.
Axis and Isaiah had conversed with the birds a week ago. It had been the most amazing conversation; Axis had understood most of it, but it had been difficult. It was similar to communicating with the eagle (Axis glanced up, searching for that speck in the sky, but as yet it was too dark to see him), but more . . . garbled.
The juit birds were not easy about it, but they had agreed to Axis and Isaiah’s request.
Stars alone knew if they would go through with it, and stars knew what the Lealfast had made of the birds’ appearance.
“Have any of t
he scouts spotted the Skraelings?” Isaiah said.
Everyone remained worried about the Skraelings. They could appear at any time to create mayhem and destruction, and none knew which side they’d attack, or even if they would discriminate.
“And Georgdi and the other commanders in Elcho Falling?” Isaiah asked Axis.
“They are prepared,” Axis said, “for just about anything — they have as little idea as we as to what to expect from this day. But whatever eventuates, they have manned the entrance into Elcho Falling. They are prepared to help if they think we might need them, but they know that to assay forth will create even more problems if we need to get into Elcho Falling.”
“There are tens of thousands who may need to get into Elcho Falling in a hurry,” Isaiah said, “and the only entrance they have is that narrow causeway. We can’t afford to —”
“They won’t come out of Elcho Falling unless it is absolutely necessary,” Axis said. “Isaiah, for all the gods’ sakes, what were you doing all night?”
“Creating mayhem,” Isaiah said, “and I fear what I have done very much.”
Axis shared a look with Lamiah.
“What have you done, Isaiah?” Axis said.
“It is light enough now,” Isaiah said, and he nodded to the east, over the Infinity Sea.
Axis and Lamiah looked.
“Stars .” Axis murmured. Then, louder, “Isaiah, what is that?”
“It is a mayhem,” Isaiah said.
All three stared east. In the far distance, over the Infinity Sea, gigantic black clouds roiled and lightning flashed. Axis, with his powerful Icarii vision, could see the waves beneath the storm clouds churning, the waters punctuated with what appeared to be thousands upon thousands of strikes by hailstones, or .
“Ice spears,” Isaiah said, very softly. He sighed, raising his voice a little. “I am Water. I am a god. I have more powers at my fingertips than most mortals could even begin to imagine. The ability to create a mayhem is one of the most powerful of them.”
“It is a storm,” Lamiah said.
“No,” said Isaiah. “It is not a storm. At the moment it looks like one, but there is a reason this is called a mayhem. I can create it . . . but I cannot control it. It will be a storm such as none of you have ever witnessed or endured, and it will be desperate.”
“Why create it if it is that dangerous?” Axis said. “What will happen? How long will it last?”
“I made it because I do not trust this day ahead,” Isaiah said. “I wanted some insurance and this is it. It will truly turn this battle into mayhem, and you two will need to prepare the soldiers as best you are able. It will strike the Lealfast from the sky, though. No one will be able to fly in this. Axis, make sure the Icarii within Elcho Falling know to stay inside”
“Will it damage Elcho Falling?” Axis said.
“No,” Isaiah said, but his worried glance at the citadel belied his denial.
“When will it arrive?” Lamiah said.
Again Isaiah looked toward the mayhem. “It is moving faster than I’d thought,” he said. “We have perhaps two hours, maybe less.”
“Shetzah!” Lamiah muttered, then he was off, striding for his horse.
“Stars, Isaiah,” Axis said. “Should we retreat?” This was such a fucking bad idea, Isaiah, he thought, not caring if Isaiah picked up the thought. “If we get caught out in the open in this then —”
“We’re going to get caught out in the open no matter what we do now, Axis. There is no shelter anywhere save within Elcho Falling. We don’t have a choice any more. I’m sorry. Mayhems are always difficult to manage. But if nothing else it will protect us against the Lealfast, and last night I could not sleep for worry that Eleanon has something deadly to throw at us.”
Axis muttered something uncomplimentary, but he supposed he could understand Isaiah’s reasoning. “What should I do?”
“As we have planned,” Isaiah said. “Both the lake and the juit birds will protect you. The mayhem will last —” he glanced its way again “— maybe three or four hours. We will just have to survive it.”
Axis looked at the approaching massive tempest. “Well . . . if it keeps the Lealfast off our backs . . . when do we move, Isaiah?”
“Now.”
Eleanon wheeled far above them, cloaked in invisibility. He, too, watched the mayhem.
He had a good idea what it was.
Eleanon smiled. It would work even better for him than for Isaiah. Then his smile died as he once more looked at the lake, now densely covered with bobbing pink-feathered bodies.
They were far too quiet.
He could control virtually everything . . . save those damned inscrutable birds.
Chapter 10
Elcho Falling
“When?” Kezial said, curtly. He sat his horse on a small rise to the west of the battle. Eleanon was standing to one side, his gaze fixed on the fighting. Wind from the approaching mayhem whipped about them, making the horse skittish and raising goosebumps on Kezial’s flesh.
“Soon,” Eleanon said, the feathers on his wings rippling in wild patterns in the wind.
Kezial bit back his frustration. He wanted to order his men in — if not for quite the same reason Eleanon might want to order them in.
He took a deep breath, concentrating on the battle.
Isaiah’s army had marched forward just after dawn, to be instantly attacked by the Lealfast. They’d been at it for half an hour now . . . and mostly the tide was turning in the Lealfast’s favour. While not many of Isaiah’s soldiers had fallen, they were pinned to the ground, shields in defensive array over their heads as the Lealfast attacked from above.
“That storm looks vicious,” Kezial observed.
Eleanon shot him an amused glance. “Attack, then,” he said.
Kezial hesitated a moment, staring at Eleanon, then he kicked his horse forward, signalling to his army. It began moving immediately.
Eleanon watched for a while, until Kezial’s men were almost ready to join in the battle, then he sent a pre-arranged signal to the Lealfast.
They would keep attacking Isaiah’s army for another ten minutes or so, then they had the freedom to attack anything and anyone they wanted.
Including Kezial and his men.
Eleanon smiled to himself, then his form frosted, iced over, and vanished completely.
All that was left on that windy hilltop was Eleanon’s final whisper.
Ravenna.
Axis was crouched down, buffeted by bodies, under a cover of shields raised over the unit of men he was with. A constant rain of arrows drummed down on the shield cover; no one underneath could do much save crouch and wait. But the Lealfast were doing nothing more than keeping everyone pinned underneath the shields. Axis knew that Eleanon had other abilities and strategies . . . if this was all the Lealfast were going to do then maybe this was just going to be a play-acting battle, after all.
And if it were play-acting, then why? Why?
It was dim underneath the cover of shields, the light cut by the close-pressed bodies, the shields, and the approaching mayhem. Axis relied on vision sent by the eagle circling high overhead to learn what happened in the vicinity.
The mayhem was now very, very close, and the eagle was concerned. Axis knew he would stay only a few more minutes before wheeling off to seek shelter. Axis took the opportunity to have a quick look over the scene far below the eagle — Kezial was now pushing his army toward this! — then broke off the vision.
Go friend eagle, he said. Save yourself from Isaiah’s mayhem.
I wish you well, the eagle said, and then he was gone.
Isaiah, Axis said.
He felt Isaiah twist his consciousness toward Axis, but he did not respond in words.
When will you use the juit birds? Axis said.
It is time now, Isaiah said, the mayhem is almost upon us. I will delay no longer. Be ready.
Kezial is on his way.
I know. Be ready, Axis
.
Then contact with Isaiah was broken and Axis looked about him at the men of his unit.
“Be ready,” he said. “This infernal drumming of arrows will shortly, I pray to all gods, be replaced with the drumming of bodies.”
Now, whispered Isaiah.
Axis heard it, felt it, even over the sound of the arrows thudding into the shield cover. A sudden pressure in the air, literally making everyone in his unit sway and stumble slightly, then the beat of millions upon millions of wings.
He waited, counting under his breath for no other reason than it gave him something to do, then, shockingly, even though he’d been expecting it, the sound of bodies falling from the air.
The shield cover broke under their weight, but the need for the shield cover was now gone.
“Attack!” Axis cried. “Attack!”
He twisted about, drawing his sword, and plunged it into the Lealfast who lay stunned and injured on the ground.
Another hit behind him, and he swivelled about, and his sword flashed again.
All about Axis the Isembaardians were taking out the birdmen who fell stunned to the ground, and Axis halted a moment, waiting for the next Lealfast to drop from the sky.
He looked up and saw a sky covered with pink. The birds had done nothing but risen straight through the overhead Lealfast fighters. There were so many millions of the juit birds that they had filled the sky, creating such havoc and turmoil they had pushed the Lealfast out of the air.
Axis heard a sound, and it took him a moment to realise what it was.
He was laughing.
Far back, toward the rear guard, Inardle and Hereward sat their horses, watching fearfully. Isaiah had left the entire encampment behind, all the tents, the equipment, the storage wagons, and the two women had taken to horseback and hovered within the rear units, awaiting their chance to dash into Elcho Falling.
Inardle glanced at Hereward. The woman was scared, but courageous with it. The two women exchanged a glance, then Inardle looked toward the approaching storm. She did not know what it was, but knew it was a created magic.