They could become creatures of beauty and of astounding power. Fairy-like creatures of water. Consideration of water gave the Skraelings pause, particularly as attaining their River Angel form meant drowning themselves in its vileness, but for the moment they passed over it and thought only of the beauty and power of the River Angels as Isaiah had showed them.
“But of course,” Ozll said into the Skraelings’ reflection, “the River Angels were not just beauty and power, were they?”
The Skraelings considered this also, and took pause to resent Ozll a little, for he’d begun to sound as if he were their conscience, and that they did not like.
“They were quite murderous,” said the female, Graq. “They were vile, too. Isaiah showed us that. Do we want to be that?”
One of the nearby Skraelings opened his mouth to say “Yes!” then shut it again without speaking. A puzzled look came into his eyes.
“We don’t want to think of that,” said another Skraeling. “We want to be River Angels. They were beautiful and powerful and . . . we would have no lords other than ourselves!”
“But do we want to be lords like those?” Graq said, earning herself many resentful looks, although none spoke against her.
“These reflections are truly painful,” Ozll said, “and they make me want to curl up and cry.”
At that almost childish admission, all the Skraelings relaxed. He remained one of them, after all.
“If we return to the form of River Angels,” said Ozll, “then we would return to being beautiful and powerful, but infinitely murderous because of that. We were once murderous as River Angels, we remained murderous as Skraelings. Do we want to return to that? Do we want to remain that?”
His voice was genuinely bewildered and emotional, and all the Skraelings listening curled their toes and dropped their eyes.
“Would a touch of beauty and a bit more magic really change us that much?” Ozll said. “Wouldn’t we be just as foul as River Angels, if more beautifully so? Wouldn’t we really prefer to be something other than foul, and murderous?”
Now thoroughly discomforted, many of the Skraelings wondered if they might murder Ozll, just to shut him up.
“Can’t we just make a decision one way or the other?” one of them muttered.
“We need to make the right one,” Ozll said, and everyone sighed, a great gust of regret and self-loathing that whispered over the plains of the central Outlands.
Chapter 15
Elcho Falling
For a long, long moment Axis did not know what to think or how to react. Then it struck him through his fugue of shock that Inardle’s face did not exhibit terror so much as resigned desperation.
“Inardle?” Axis said. He still could not think correctly. What was she doing curled up so tight in this ball of ice? His hands slipped a little on the ice and, as they did so, the ball turned over in the water. Axis continued to roll it over.
Inardle was wound so tight Axis wondered if she could move at all. She was curled almost into a foetal position, her wings wrapped about the front of her body. He turned the ball a little further, his breath hissing out softly between his teeth as he saw that Inardle’s spine was streaked with blood. The blood had melted a little into the ice, imparting a rosy hue to most of Inardle’s back.
Axis wondered if this was yet another of Inardle’s tricks.
He was so sick of her tricks.
Surely she wouldn’t try this one again. Poor Inardle. Trapped and in pain, needing Axis to rescue her.
“Inardle?” he said again. Then, Inardle?
Nothing. He’d rolled the ball of ice completely around and again he looked into Inardle’s ice-warped face. Axis ran his fingers over the ice, sensing it not only with his physical senses, but with his Enchanter powers as well.
This was a powerful hex.
Well, Axis hadn’t expected much else. It wasn’t as if Inardle had somehow got herself melted accidentally into a giant hailstone during the mayhem, was it?
It was a Lealfast hex. Axis could feel that much. And more . . . there was more than the power of the Star Dance here. Magi power perhaps, or threads woven from Infinity.
Axis still didn’t know what to do. Inardle was alive, he could see her blink occasionally. He supposed he couldn’t leave her here.
He also didn’t know how he felt. Anger, mostly, he decided after some reflection. What was she up to now? Why was she always such a bother?
Buried very, very deeply was a little fright on her behalf and that made Axis even angrier. He didn’t want to feel frightened for her.
Axis sat back on his haunches on the unsteady reed bed, thinking. He couldn’t leave her here, but he was certain he couldn’t do much about the ice hex, either. Could Isaiah break it? Isaiah had healed Inardle from the poison, using the water element so strong in her body . . . he might be able to fix this, too.
Isaiah? Axis called.
Eleanon had moved a little closer to Elcho Falling from the mountain retreat where waited the rest of the Lealfast Nation, but not so close he would be noticed by Axis’ eagle which circled high over the citadel.
He’d have to do something about that eagle, sooner or later.
But the eagle was not Eleanon’s immediate concern. The juit birds were.
They were a terrible, crucifying nuisance.
Eleanon suspected them of some magical power, but they didn’t even have to use that against the Lealfast. All they ever need do was to repeat their manoeuvre during the battle the day past — rise up in their millions into the air — and they’d batter any Lealfast out of the sky who happened to be above them.
The juit birds would have to go. And, in the going, Eleanon was going to teach Isaiah and everyone else within Elcho Falling a terrible lesson.
They were not in control.
Eleanon was.
He was already invisible. Now he settled himself on the ground an hour’s flight from Elcho Falling, staring with his bright, power-enhanced eyes toward the citadel.
Ice crept up his spine and frost encased his entire being outlining him to any curious eyes nearby.
Eleanon was talking to the Dark Spire.
Axis pushed the ice ball through the water with one hand while trying to paddle with the other.
He was in a foul temper. The ice ball kept bobbing back at him and pushing him under the water; the juit birds were reluctant to move out of the way and kept pecking at both the ice ball (it refused to crack under the onslaught) and Axis; and Axis knew that this journey, as irritating as it was, was going to be nothing compared to the hell of trying to get this thing into Elcho Falling.
Isaiah thought he might be able to do something about the hex.
Axis thought that if, after all this effort, Isaiah couldn’t do anything, then Axis was personally going to break the ice ball over Isaiah’s head.
He kept grimly paddling and pushing and cursing every pink-feathered bird that pecked at him, as well as Isaiah simply for existing, and Inardle for getting herself into this mess. Damn it! Why couldn’t she have managed to walk into Elcho Falling along with everyone else? Why couldn’t she have simply died in the mayhem, as Hereward undoubtedly did? Why, always, was she in such a state of crisis?
Axis was within twenty paces of Elcho Falling’s eastern wall when a juit bird to his right suddenly gave a squawk and disappeared under water, as if something had grabbed at it.
Axis stoped paddling, frowning a little at the vacant space where the bird had been, then, suddenly, to his right another bird squawked and then vanished underwater.
The great mass of juit birds began to fluff themselves out nervously.
Another one vanished, sucked underwater.
Suddenly the lake was alive with the sound of juit birds screaming and lifting into the air. Axis could do little but to cover his face with his arms and hope the ice ball didn’t drift away too far as he was buffeted by birds rising out of the water. He thought the noise and movement would abate after a mom
ent or two, but it kept getting worse, and Axis risked a look.
What he saw froze him momentarily in horror.
Black tentacles — roots! They were roots from the Dark Spire! — were rising out of the water and grabbing juit birds out of the air. The great mass of birds was in such panic that they were blundering into each other in the air, sometimes knocking each other out of the air without any help from the roots, of which there appeared to be thousands, waving about in the air, grabbing birds and dragging them back underwater.
Something pushed past Axis’ face and reared into the sky.
It was another root.
Axis almost panicked, then realised the roots were after the birds and likely didn’t realise his presence. Eleanon, who Axis was certain lay behind this, probably did not know such a tasty prize floated about with the juit birds, otherwise Axis was certain he, too, would have been grabbed and sucked under.
He rolled over in the water, looking for the ice ball.
It floated close by, and Axis kicked over to it, giving it an almighty push toward the rising water wall that comprised the lower third of Elcho Falling. At least now he didn’t have a mass of birds bobbing about the water to hinder his progress. He put all his strength into swimming and pushing the ball ever forward. Now and again another root would rear up beside him, grabbing a juit bird from the air and pulling it back down again.
But the tentacles were grabbing fewer and fewer birds as they were, finally, untangling themselves from their panic and rising higher and higher into the sky, out of the reach of the roots.
Axis hoped the roots wouldn’t try to find a new target once the birds had all vanished.
The ice ball hit the solid water wall of Elcho Falling, bouncing back against Axis’ face and making his nose bleed. As much as he wanted to take the time out to curse the damned thing, he simply reared up out of the water, taking a deep breath as he did so. Then he fell down hard on the ball, pushing it under water.
Stars, this was hard!The ice ball was buoyant, and it kept trying to push Axis back toward the surface. But Axis pushed down with all his strength, driving the ball down three paces until the gaping mouth of an underwater tunnel appeared.
Thank the stars it was large enough to push the ice ball into!
Axis almost didn’t manage it. The ice ball wanted to bounce its way back to the surface, and Axis had to exert all his strength, using both hands and feet, to push it into the tunnel opening.
Then, mercifully, once it was in it bobbed straight up the tunnel, seeking the surface within Elcho Falling.
Axis swum in after it, relaxing in relief.
Prematurely, as it happened.
Just before he got his legs inside the tunnel, something grabbed one of his ankles.
The root wrapped itself tightly about his ankle, tightening like a vice.
Axis fought back both the pain and the panic. He tried to kick at the root with his free foot, but his lungs were by now screaming for air, and his strength was rapidly waning. As much as he tried to cling to the sides of the underwater passage, the root was dragging him inexorably back out into the lake.
There was no more air in his lungs. Now panic did threaten to overwhelm him but, just as he felt his fingers lose their grip on the rocks of the tunnel, he felt someone swim past him.
A moment passed, then suddenly, thankfully, his ankle was free and strong arms had wrapped themselves about Axis.
Isaiah.
A few heartbeats later Axis’ head broke water inside Elcho Falling, and he heaved in great lungfuls of air as Georgdi and Insharah between them hauled him out of the water, Isaiah lifting himself out a moment later.
Outside, all the juit birds who had escaped the roots formed a massive pink cloud high in the sky. They circled Elcho Falling once, then, affronted and frightened, they began the long flight home to Lake Juit.
Eleanon watched them go. He squatted on the ground with his arms wrapped about his knees, his chin resting on his arms, and he watched the birds lift in panic into the sky, sort themselves out, then head south.
They would not return to Elcho Falling.
He sighed, standing. He wished Maximilian and Ishbel would hurry back to Elcho Falling. He wanted them inside for his final attack on the citadel. In the meantime, however, he could consolidate his power and prepare the Lealfast Nation for what lay ahead.
Just before Eleanon lifted off he paused, sending his senses scrying out for the ice hex.
It was no longer floating tangled in the reed banks.
It was inside Elcho Falling.
Eleanon stilled, then he burst out laughing, punching the sky in triumph.
“Welcome to hell, Axis,” he said.
Then he rose into the air, flying back to the Lealfast Nation.
Axis was dead.
Chapter 16
Elcho Falling
Isaiah looked at the ice ball bobbing about in the small pool of water that led to the underwater tunnel, then looked at Axis. The StarMan was sitting on the edge of the pool, coughing water out of his lungs and waving off the concerns of Georgdi and Insharah.
Isaiah’s attention turned back to the ice hex. He nodded at a guardsman standing by and together they hauled it out of the water, cursing as it almost slipped from their grasp on several occasions.
Then Isaiah squatted down to run his hands lightly over its surface. He could just make out Inardle inside, curled into a tight ball. He rolled the ball over a little so he could see her face.
Her eyes were closed.
Isaiah glanced at Axis, now standing and stripping off his sodden clothes for dry attire, then grasped the ice hex a little tighter, sending his senses scrying inside.
Axis tossed aside the towel he’d been using to dry his hair, and walked over to Isaiah. “Can you help?” he said.
“No,” Isaiah said, standing. “She’s too far gone, Axis.”
Axis stared at Isaiah. “No, surely . . . there must be something you can do.”
“She’s too far gone, Axis,” Isaiah said, “and the hex is too tightly wound.” He began to walk toward the door leading from the chamber.
“No,” Axis said.
Isaiah turned back to him. “Leave it, Axis.” He nodded at the guardsman who had helped him haul the hex from the water. “Push it back into —”
“No!“ Axis said, taking a step forward to block the guardsman’s approach.
“She is well on the path to her Otherworld, Axis,” Isaiah said. “Let her go. Isn’t this what you have always wanted?”
Axis opened his mouth, then closed it again. What did he want?
“There must be a chance,” he said. “She’s not gone completely yet. What is it you are not telling me, Isaiah?”
Isaiah walked back to him. “That ice hex has been constructed with great and malevolent care, Axis. You want honesty from me? There is a small — a tiny— chance that Inardle might be dissuaded from the path she takes now and led back to this life. Who knows if she wants that? Eleanon —”
“Let me take that chance, Isaiah,” Axis said.
Isaiah took a deep breath as if controlling anger. “Listen to me, Axis, and listen to me well. That ice hex was not designed to trap Inardle. It was designed to trap you. Inardle is the bait. Eleanon constructed a hex that will trap you into a journey from which you likely will never emerge. It is a hex designed to isolate you completely — from this world and from the Otherworld. It is a hex designed to trap you in some horror that I cannot understand.” Isaiah frowned. “I don’t understand it . . . it involves someone . . . a name I don’t know .”
“What?” said Axis. “Who?”
Isaiah looked at Axis steadily. “The hex involves someone named Borneheld. Inardle has been sent to be his wife.”
Borneheld.
Axis thought his heart would stop. Borneheld? Inardle had been sent to be his wife?
“Who is Borneheld, Axis?” Isaiah said. “And why would Inardle be sent to be his wife?”
“He .” Axis had to clear his throat. “Borneheld was my brother. Half-brother. We shared the same mother. We were bitter, hateful rivals in life. We loved the same woman — Faraday. She left me to be his wife. I killed him, eventually, after great wars that cost tens of thousands of lives. I, ah .”
I battled him to the death in the Chamber of the Moons in a duel that dragged on for an entire night.
“I killed him, eventually,” Axis finished.
“Be sure that Eleanon knows this history,” Isaiah said. “He has constructed a hex that he is certain will both tempt you and destroy you.”
Axis was so shocked by the revelation of what the hex contained that his mind could not grasp what Isaiah was saying, let alone the implications of it.
“Walk away from it, Axis,” Isaiah said. “That hex is truly evil. We can destroy it and farewell Inardle’s soul. There is no reason for you to enter it.”
If Axis “walked away from it”, would Inardle be trapped forever as Borneheld’s wife?
Faraday had suffered terribly as Borneheld’s wife. Terribly. Axis had been her only hope of escaping him.
Axis’ mind filled with memories of that terrible night when he had battled Borneheld. They’d met in the Chamber of the Moons in Carlon. Two hundred people had filed into the circular, columned chamber to stand silently in the inadequate torchlight watching the duel between the brothers. Axis had fought only with his powers as a soldier and swordsman. He’d tossed aside his Enchanter’s ring to Faraday’s dismay (oh stars, Faraday had been there, watching!) and had faced Borneheld only with his sword. Borneheld had fought with muscle and tactics honed by countless battles, Axis with the grace and fluidity of the Icarii and the skill of a BattleAxe. They had been evenly matched.
It had been a terrible battle. The chamber was filled with the sound of swords clashing, the heavy breathing of the combatants and the scuffing of their boots across the green marbled floor. StarDrifter had told Axis later that the combination of these sounds had made a strange, dark music — an echo of the Dance of Death, the Dark Music of the stars.