Axis and Isaiah looked at each other, and both smiled.
“Aye, we can do it,” Isaiah said, “and be glad of the duty.”
“Good,” Maximilian said, “you have my authority for anything that is needed. Everyone in Elcho Falling is under your command.”
“Well, that’s this morning taken care of,” Axis said with a grin. “What do you want us to do this afternoon?”
Everyone chuckled.
“And I?” Inardle said as the amusement died.
“You,” said Maximilian, “I need to trace the Skraelings. I think they are going to be critical to Axis and Isaiah’s success. We need to know where they are, Inardle. And what they plan. You are now a River Angel. You should have the skills needed to track them down.”
She smiled, pleased with her task.
“You and Ishbel said you would be concerned elsewhere,” Isaiah said.
“We need to find a way to negate the One and stop the Dark Spire becoming a gateway into Infinity,” Maximilian said. He glanced at Ishbel. “When we untethered the Twisted Tower from this world, we lost all the information within it. However, we think that if we redraw plans of each level of the tower and place within those drawings all the objects we can remember, then we may recall some vital information that can aid us against the One and the Dark Spire.”
“Elcho Falling itself was no help?” Axis said.
Maximilian gave a shake of his head. “No. Elcho Falling is as flummoxed by the Dark Spire as any of us. Some things it controls itself, others it depends on its lord. I need to find the solution to the Dark Spire and to the One. I need to find a means to remove both the spire and the One. Axis, Isaiah, I am sorry to leave you with the burden of Eleanon, but Ishbel and myself need to do this and we need the time to do it — which you need to give us. We have to spend however long it takes to remember every single object within the Twisted Tower, and its purpose.”
“I notice that none of us have discussed StarDancer’s plan,” Axis said quietly.
“His plan is impossible,” Ishbel said. “None of us can trust Ravenna.”
Axis looked down to his hands, loosely folded in his lap.
“You think StarDancer has the right idea?” Ishbel said.
Axis looked up again. “I think it is a terrible idea,” he said, “but we need to consider it. Ishbel, we may need to consider it.”
“Not unless you and Isaiah intend to fail in stopping Eleanon and the Lealfast,” Ishbel snapped.
Axis was about to reply, but Inardle’s head jerked toward the window where the day had just dawned.
“Speaking of the devil,” she said, “the Lealfast have arrived.”
Chapter 6
Elcho Falling
They stood on the balcony, looking westward over the lake. Tens of thousands of Lealfast were landing, standing about in groups as they settled on the ground. They were chatting, relaxed and confident and seemingly oblivious to the regard they knew must be emanating from Elcho Falling.
There were footsteps from behind them — Georgdi.
“They’re settling all about the lake,” he said to Maximilian. “Surrounding us.”
Maximilian gave a weary smile. “It is Axis’ and Isaiah’s problem, now,” he said, then he turned to the two men. “Ishbel and I will be in our eyrie at the very top of Elcho Falling. If you need us, climb upward through stairwell after stairwell. Eventually you will come to a blank sandstone wall. Place your palm upon it, so, and the door will open for you. I have instructed Elcho Falling to allow the two of you to enter.”
Maximilian turned for one final look at the Lealfast, then back at Axis and Isaiah. “I wish you good hunting,” he said, then he took Ishbel’s hand and left the balcony.
Georgdi looked at Axis, raising an eyebrow.
“Maxel and Ishbel are otherwise occupied,” Axis said. He briefly outlined to Georgdi what Maximilian had told them earlier. Then he leaned on the balcony railing, looking over the view before them. “Eleanon has brought the Lealfast back to destroy Elcho Falling, thinking he can recreate it using the Dark Spire.”
“How will he do that?” Georgdi said. “How would anyone think to tear this citadel apart? It is a veritable mountain. The Dark Spire is growing up through the citadel, yes, but at such a relatively slow rate that months will pass before the structure of Elcho Falling can be seriously compromised.”
“The ‘eggs’,” Axis said quietly. “They are scattered throughout the walls. Somehow they will hasten the process. But how? For the moment they simply sit there. How will Eleanon activate them? A word? An enchantment? A clap of his hands? How can we stop him if we don’t know what he plans?” He watched as wave after wave of Lealfast landed on the shores of the lake, then straightened and looked to Inardle. “Any idea?”
“No,” she said. “I had no idea the Dark Spire could do what it does now, let alone what else it, or its eggs, might do or how Eleanon may use them. Axis, Isaiah, I need to leave Elcho Falling to go in search of the Skraelings. I will need to do this soon because, even though that Dark Spire grows only slowly, it currently threatens the chamber where the entrance to the back tunnel is. Another day or so and I might not be able to leave that way. I had thought to leave today, before the Lealfast returned, but now .”
“You can’t slip by them?” Axis said.
“Not in my Lealfast form,” Inardle said. “There are too many of them. They’d spot me instantly. I am sure now they saw us leave Elcho Falling previously, and let us pass, to toy with us.”
“And in your River Angel form?” Axis said.
“I would still be spotted,” Inardle said. “I can slide about as water, but . . . I fear they’d still spot me. If there was a rainstorm, however .”
Inardle stopped, looking significantly at Isaiah.
“Oh no .” Georgdi and Axis said together.
“Just a rainstorm,” Inardle said. “Not a mayhem. Isaiah, can you do this?”
“I have little finesse when summoning wind and rain,” Isaiah said. “The mayhem I summoned on the day we entered Elcho Falling was far more than I’d wanted. I can start the process. I cannot control it.”
“But all would be safe within Elcho Falling,” Inardle said. “Only the Lealfast would be exposed to its full force.”
“Now there’s a thought,” Axis said. “Inardle, even with a mayhem as strong as the one we endured on the day of battle . . . could you still escape without harm?”
“Yes,” she said.
Axis looked at Isaiah.
Isaiah sighed. “I can summon one overnight for you, if you wish. It will require the night air to form.”
“Then I will leave tomorrow morning,” Inardle said. “And even if the back tunnel is unusable by then, I could slip out the front gates.”
“And for this day,” Axis said, “we watch the Lealfast.”
The Lealfast arrived in wave after wave, finally congregating in full force by mid-morning. They did not set up one large camp as they had previously, instead making twelve smaller camps at equal distances about the lake.
Their older camp, Armat’s original camp, still stood in some tatters near the far end of the causeway. Once the full might of the Lealfast had arrived, a large group of them — perhaps twenty thousand — began to systematically clean away any trace of it.
Isaiah and Axis stood on the balcony of the command chamber, both leaning on the railing, watching in some puzzlement.
“They are being very tidy,” Isaiah said, as he watched two of the Lealfast rise into the air with a folded tent between them. They flew westward for perhaps three hundred paces, then they dropped back to the ground, placing their folded tent on a growing (but very orderly) pile of the remains of Armat’s camp.
“They are shifting it back from the shores of the lake,” Axis said.
“But why?” Isaiah said. “Why do they need that space? None of their new camps need that area .”
“And why twelve separate camps?” Axis said. “Does Ele
anon fear attack? Is he separating his people for safety? It would be harder for us to attack twelve separate encampments than one large one.”
“It would be impossible for us to attack one large one in the first instance,” Isaiah said. “We’d be massacred trying to leave Elcho Falling. What is he doing?”
Axis gave a little shake of his head. “Isaiah, we really need to be thinking about what we can do to, first, defend Elcho Falling, and then, second, destroy what Eleanon is going to . . . stars, Isaiah! What is that?”
Isaiah was already shading his eyes from the bright sun, looking westward. There was a line of Lealfast flying in, but oh, so slowly. They were flying in pairs, holding between them slings that carried . . . that carried .
“Can you see, Axis?” Isaiah said. “Your Icarii eyes are better than mine.”
“I love it when gods confess a weakness,” Axis muttered, shading his eyes and peered intently into the distance.
“Rocks,” he muttered. “They’re carrying boulders in those slings. Stars, Isaiah, they must be strong!”
“Boulders? What for?” Isaiah strode back into the command chamber, shouting to Insharah and Georgdi who stood there inspecting plans of Elcho Falling with some of their captains.
As the men moved, Isaiah turned to step out onto the balcony, only to be stopped by Axis jogging into the chamber.
“They’re flying around the other side of Elcho Falling,” Axis said, and together the two men ran through the corridors of Elcho Falling, reaching a balcony on the eastern side of the citadel in ten minutes.
They were both slightly out of breath as they stared in bewilderment as the pairs of Lealfast flew the boulders in slings over the channel that connected Elcho Falling’s lake with the Infinity Sea. There the birdmen positioned themselves carefully, before letting go of one end of their slings.
Boulder after boulder crashed into the channel.
“What is he doing?” Axis said.
Isaiah did not immediately answer. They continued watching as scores of pairs of Lealfast flew in to dump boulders in the channel.
“He wants to block it off,” Isaiah said, eventually. “He’s closing the channel to the ocean beyond.”
Inardle had joined them, and she shook her head at their unspoken query. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know why.”
“Does the channel have any significance to the lake or Elcho Falling?” Axis asked Isaiah.
“And I would know that because .?” Isaiah said.
“Because you and Lister worked your damndest to get Maxel to the point of raising Elcho Falling so I thought you might know something about the structure!” Axis snapped.
Axis took a deep breath, muttering an apology. “I’ll have to ask Maxel. He won’t like being disturbed this quickly.”
Isaiah gave a shrug.
Axis reached the very top of the stairs, out of breath and cursing Maximilian’s choice of location for his private apartment. There appeared to be a solid sandstone wall before him, but Axis placed his palm on it as Maximilian had instructed, and within a moment the entire wall dissolved, revealing yet another set of stairs.
Sighing, Axis began the climb.
Fortunately, in only twenty or so steps Axis found himself in a wondrous circular chamber. It seemed to be open to the sky, although, as the air within the chamber was still, Axis assumed there was some kind of barrier between the room and the outside.
Maximilian and Ishbel were sitting on a couch by a table completely covered with pieces of paper.
They were looking at Axis patiently.
Axis apologised for disturbing them as he walked over, then told them what the Lealfast were doing.
“That channel is not particularly deep,” Axis concluded. “It will be filled within a day or two if the Lealfast keep this up. Maxel, what significance does the channel have? Does Elcho Falling need to be connected to the Infinity Sea?”
As he spoke Axis looked down at the papers scattered across the low table. They were diagrams of rooms, carefully filled in with shapes of objects, each of those labelled.
“No.” Maximilian leaned back in the couch, looking even more exhausted than when Axis had seen him earlier. “The channel was formed when the sea rushed in during the raising of the citadel — waters from the sea formed the lake, although the lake is now fresh water rather than sea water.”
“Will the lake dry out if it isn’t replenished?” Axis asked.
Maximilian thought, then shook his head. “I doubt it. The waters of the lake are as magical as Elcho Falling itself. Even if they were not, the lake is deep and extensive. Natural rainfall would be enough to keep it filled. It would take decades to dry out.”
“Then why is Eleanon filling the channel in?” Axis said.
“I have no idea, Axis. If you would excuse us . . . Ishbel and I would like to get another level drawn and its objects identified before we have a rest.”
Axis murmured a goodbye, turning to walk away.
But just as he reached the stairs leading downward, he stopped, and turned about.
He’d just had an idea.
Maximilian and Ishbel regarded him with ill-disguised impatience.
“I beg your patience,” Axis said, walking quickly back to them. “Maxel, when you, Ishbel, Serge and Doyle left for Isembaard, how did you do it? When Elcho Falling expelled the Lealfast and the One, how did it manage it?”
Maximilian leaned back in his chair, folding his arms and regarding Axis with narrowed, thoughtful eyes.
“Elcho Falling assisted Ishbel and our two companions by transferring us directly into Aqhat,” Maximilian said. “It was a strange mechanism . . . it required the transference of matter the other way —”
“The juit birds,” Axis said.
Maximilian nodded. “And as for the Lealfast and the One, Elcho Falling expelled them as my murderers — Ishbel had spattered them with my murdered blood, and thus Elcho Falling rejected them.” He glanced briefly at Ishbel, who was frowning, then returned his regard to Axis. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that we have two ways at least to get men out of Elcho Falling.”
Maximilian continued to look at Axis, not speaking, thinking.
“Well?” Axis said after a lengthy pause.
“You want to get soldiers out to attack the Lealfast,” Ishbel said, “without exposing them to the difficulties of being penned up on the causeway.”
“Yes,” Axis said.
Ishbel and Maximilian exchanged a glance.
“The first method,” Maxel said, “expelling them as traitors, can not be used. No one here is a traitor —”
“At least we pray not,” Ishbel muttered.
“And even if so,” Maximilian said, “not in the numbers that could be of any use to you. I hope.”
“And the second method?” Axis said. “Using the same kind of transference that got you down to Aqhat?”
Ishbel and Maximilian exchanged another glance.
“Can it be done?” Axis said.
“It is possible,” Maximilian said, “but this is a powerful piece of magic you are asking me — even Ishbel and myself combined — to work, Axis. How many men would you want to attack the Lealfast? A hundred thousand? Two? Neither or us could manage that many.”
“How many could you manage?” Axis said.
“Maybe nine or ten thousand,” Maximilian said, “so long as they didn’t go too far. And this method of transference demands that something be transferred back inside Elcho Falling. And the only thing nearby are the Lealfast. Ah, Axis. No. Ten thousand men won’t be of any use. You’d be slaughtered by the Lealfast.”
“How many Lealfast would need to be transferred inside?” Axis said, and Maximilian grunted impatiently.
“A thousand maybe.”
“Why so few?” Axis said.
“It is a complicated calculation of power,” Ishbel said. “The Lealfast, with their command of both Infinity and the Star Dance, command muc
h power, so fewer of them would be needed to counterbalance ten thousand fighting men.”
Axis tried a smile. “Even if I were with them?”
“Even if you were with them,” Maximilian said. “Axis, I do not like this and won’t agree to it. It is a desperate measure for a desperate moment. You’d have almost no chance out there . . . ten thousand against a quarter of a million? No. Never.”
“Maxel —”
“No, Axis. Now, if you would leave us to our work .”
They spent the afternoon watching the Lealfast drop boulder after boulder into the channel. They also continued eradicating Armat’s camp, and consolidating the twelve Lealfast camps, which were set well back from the shore of the lake.
Axis had told Isaiah about his discussion with Maximilian, hoping for some support from him, but Isaiah had only shrugged and said he could understand Maximilian’s reluctance.
It was close to dusk when Axis realised at least one part of the mystery.
“They’re keeping clear a ribbon of land about the shores of the lake,” he said to Isaiah as they stood on the eastern balcony, watching the boulders drop. “They’re keeping their own camps at a distance, and they’re clearing away Armat’s camp which, for whatever purpose they have, was obviously in the way.”
“Then .” Isaiah said slowly, his eyes narrowing as he thought, “they are not closing off the channel so much as completing the land circle about Elcho Falling? They are encircling us with clear land.”
But why? Axis wanted to scream, knowing it would do no good.
Inardle was with them, and now she touched Isaiah on his arm to gain his attention. “I need to go tomorrow to find the Skraelings,” she said. “I can’t get out of here unless you make your mayhem. The sky is clear for hundreds of leagues, and Georgdi tells me that summer in the Outlands is inevitably dry.”
Isaiah nodded. “Very well, then. I will build it overnight,” he said. “If nothing else it will put a stop to whatever the Lealfast do.”
Chapter 7
Elcho Falling