“No,” Maximilian said. “There is one further thing Ishbel and I can do.”
Before Axis could press him for more information, Georgdi came into the room. “The Lealfast are winding up for the day,” he said.
“I wonder what tomorrow will bring,” Ishbel said quietly into the thoughtful silence.
Maximilian stood, Ishbel with him. Axis rose as well, wanting to speak with Maximilian, but he and Ishbel were gone before Axis had the chance.
In the cold depths of the night, Ishbel and Maximilian ventured to the edge of the Otherworld.
There, waiting for them according to the call Maximilian had sent out earlier in the night, stood Boaz.
“You face a dilemma,” Boaz said. “Infinity has moved close to your world.”
“The One, yes,” Maximilian said. “Boaz, we need to ask how you managed to trap the demon Nzame when he waited in Threshold, and to drag him into Infinity. I —”
“Want to do the same with the One?” Boaz said, his face incredulous. “You can’t.”
“We must be able to do it,” Ishbel said. “I, as your descendant, or Maximilian as Lord of Elcho Falling.”
Boaz gave a slow shake of his head, holding both Ishbel’s and Maximilian’s eyes. “What I did to trap Nzame,” he said, “was to use the power of the One which I commanded as a Magus, and then drag Nzame through to Infinity.”
“And then you escaped,” Ishbel said.
“And then I escaped by transporting myself to the very edges of the Otherworld — which at that time I called the Place Beyond — where I lingered until my wife Tirzah could pull me into the world of the living. Ishbel, Maxel, you cannot do this with the One.”
“But why not?” Ishbel cried.
“Because I used the power of the One to do it,” Boaz said. “Neither of you command that power and even if you did you cannot use it against the One himself. He would toss it back in your faces as a useless and broken thing. The One is infinitely more powerful than Nzame. The One is Infinity. I could not touch him. Neither can you.”
Ishbel and Maximilian shared a look.
“StarDancer has given you the only plan that can possibly work,” Boaz said softly. “I am sorry.”
“You would see the end of the Lords of Elcho Falling?” Ishbel said.
“I would prefer to see that than see the One step through the Infinity Gate into the world of the living and decimate it. No one could stand against him. No one. There is only going to be a moment when he can be trapped, and Ravenna is the one to do it.”
“The Land of Nightmares will hold him?” Maximilian said.
Boaz gave a nod. “It will hold him.”
Maximilian looked at Ishbel, and saw his own desperation reflected in her expression.
They sat in their chamber atop Elcho Falling, not speaking, communicating only through their silence and shared concern.
“How can we trust Ravenna?” Ishbel said finally. “How?”
“You can almost certainly trust her in this,” said a strange voice, and both Maxel and Ishbel sat up, swivelling toward the sound.
A tall well-built man stood a few paces away. He smiled and walked to stand before their chairs. Thick cobalt hair fell down over his brow, and his eyes sparked with blue fire amid fine, almost ethereally beautiful, features.
“My Lord of Dreams!” Maximilian said, rising to his feet, Ishbel only a moment behind him.
“Drava, please,” the Lord of Dreams said. He gestured to Maximilian and Ishbel to sit again, before he took a chair opposite them.
“You think you have a terrible choice before you,” Drava continued, “but in reality it is an easy one. Ravenna, via StarDancer, offers you a good solution to your dilemma.”
Ishbel wanted to say something, but she didn’t know the Lord of Dreams, so left it to Maximilian to lead the conversation.
“You think we can trust her?” Maximilian said.
“Yes,” Drava said. “She has learned well from the ruin of her ambitions, and her learning has sickened her. She will not prove disloyal again.”
“I can hardly believe that,” Ishbel said, forgetting her decision to leave the conversation to Maximilian.
“You are jealous of her —” Drava began.
“Jealous?” Ishbel said. “She murdered Maximilian — only my magic returned him from the gates of death! — and sought to destroy his authority as Lord of Elcho Falling so that she might have it for herself! She has led armies against Elcho Falling, she claimed I would be the citadel’s doom, and —”
Drava waved a hand dismissively. “All that is behind her. Ravenna yearns for her mother Venetia and her little hut on the edge of the marshes in Escator.”
“She will never have either of those again,” Maximilian said.
“No, she will not,” Drava said, “but she also seeks redemption. She is sick of betrayal. She will not betray you again.”
Ishbel’s mouth tightened and she looked away from Drava, unwilling to concede the possibility.
“I need to talk through the problems,” Maximilian said, and Drava gave a small nod.
“Ishbel’s ancestor said that the Land of Nightmares will hold the One,” Maximilian continued. “I need your reassurance on this point.”
“It will hold him,” Drava said. “It could contain all of roiling Infinity and not weaken.”
“If we agree to this plan,” Ishbel said, “then Ravenna will carry the Lord of Elcho Falling in her belly into the Land of Nightmares. What will that do to the baby?”
“It will corrupt him beyond knowing,” Drava said.
“Then my next question,” Ishbel said, “is . . . what will happen if this corrupted Lord of Elcho Falling ever escapes from the Land of Nightmares?”
“As the One cannot escape, then neither will the Lord of Elcho Falling,” Drava said.
“Are you certain?” Maximilian said.
“Totally.”
“But Ravenna can come and go?” Maximilian said.
“Once she has trapped her son and the One in the Land of Nightmarers, she will retain that ability,” Drava said, “but I do not think she will do so. She will stay there. She knows what she risks if she tries to leave — that either her son or the One will travel on her coat tails.”
Ishbel sat back in her chair, sighing and rubbing at her brow. “Again it comes back to trust in Ravenna.”
“What choice do you have?” Drava said. “The Dark Spire grows and the One sits within, waiting to emerge. No one in this world has the power to contain him. You have heard the consequences of allowing the spire to reach maturity — would your distrust and jealousy of Ravenna truly mean you’d allow the One to oversee the destruction of this world? Or is this only about maintaining your own power?”
Maximilian winced at the brutal question. “No.” He glanced at Ishbel, and saw resignation and acceptance in her eyes.
“Drava,” Ishbel said quietly, “we really need to know we can trust Ravenna.”
“Trust her,” Drava said. “You could not up to a month ago, but you can now. She has completed her own journey over this past year.”
They sat in silence for several minutes, Maximilian and Ishbel both coming to terms with what they must do, before Ishbel spoke again.
“What will happen to this citadel,” she said, “if its lord remains trapped in the Land of Nightmares?”
“It will continue,” Maximilian said, “its magic intact, but largely untouchable by anyone. It will wait, wondering if one day its Lord might return.”
Something in Ishbel’s face relaxed then, as if knowing the citadel would remain in its beauty and power gave her consolation.
“And us?” she asked quietly.
Maximilian gave her a small smile. “Our decision, sweetheart. Whatever we want to do. Stay here, without our powers, or —”
“Wait,” Ishbel said. “I control powers as the Lady of Elcho Falling, largely in my own right through blood and training. What happens to these if Ravenna trap
s her son as Lord of Elcho Falling and the One in the Land of Nightmares?”
“I don’t know,” Maximilian said. “The possibility is that you might retain them. I don’t know. We will have to see.”
Ishbel nodded, and Maximilian could see that she had finally accepted the necessity of StarDancer’s plan. Ravenna would get her powers back and be trusted to trap the One.
“It will not be long now,” Maximilian said quietly.
Ravenna sat in her chamber. She had only been here a matter of days, but to her it felt like decades.
She hated being confined.
Suddenly a tall, beautiful man with cobalt hair materialised before her, and Ravenna gasped as she recognised the Lord of Dreams. She rose, then bowed her head. “Drava.”
They had been lovers a long, long time ago, before Ravenna thought to return to the mortal world in pursuit of her ambitions.
“I have been speaking with Maximilian,” Drava said without preamble.
Ravenna raised her head, looking at him with barely concealed hope.
There was only one reason Drava and Maximilian would have been conversing.
“I told Maximilian you could be trusted,” Drava said.
Ravenna drew in a deep breath, holding it. Her eyes gleamed in hope.
“He is going to accept StarDancer’s plan,” Drava finished.
Ravenna closed her eyes briefly, letting out her breath in a long, slow exhalation. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Ravenna,” Drava said, and Ravenna looked at him again.
“Ravenna, I hope my trust in you has not been misplaced.”
“No, my Lord. It has not. I will do this, if only to make amends for what I have done in the past.”
“You will trap the One in the Land of Nightmares?”
“Yes.”
“And you can do this?”
“Yes. Easily, once Ishbel removes her curses.”
Drava studied her. He had taken a gigantic risk in recommending Ravenna to Maximilian, and he needed to be very sure. “You will need to stay within the Land of Nightmares, Ravenna. You cannot leave. To do so might mean that —”
“I know the implications, my lord. If I left I might leave the way open for either my son or the One to leave, too. I will stay there. My life and the life of my son is enough. We can manage within the Land of Nightmares.” She set her face in a tremulous smile, reaching out a hand to rest lightly on Drava’s arm. “Your trust in me is not misplaced. I will do this for Maximilian, and I will do it for my mother, Venetia, whom I murdered.”
Drava’s face relaxed. He laid his hand over hers, then he smiled and allowed his hand to fall away. “Thank you, Ravenna.”
Ravenna sat motionless for a long time after Drava had gone. She could barely believe that Maximilian had decided to trust her, or that Ishbel would remove her hateful curses.
She would have her power as a marsh witch returned.
Her son — Ravenna rested a hand on her belly — would have his rights as Maximilian’s heir restored and, once Ishbel stripped Maximilian of his power, would become the Lord of Elcho Falling.
From horror and despair . . . to this. Ravenna drew in a deep breath, closing her eyes. She had thought her son would have nothing, but instead he would have everything.
Albeit trapped in the Land of Nightmares with the One.
“But even that . . . ” she whispered. “Even that . . . ” Her hand patted her belly, where her son now grew healthy with the good food provided Ravenna over these past days.
Surely he would not need to stay forever.
Not when Elcho Falling waited for its lord.
Chapter 15
Elcho Falling
As they had previously, the Lealfast assembled into their circles in the hour after dawn, Eleanon moving to his usual spot on the small hill a little distance to the north.
And, as usual, Maximilian, Isaiah and Axis stood on the balcony of the command chamber, watching the Lealfast file into their circles.
Georgdi had just joined them, and now Maximilian addressed him.
“Report?”
“Most of the cracks have widened and spread overnight,” Georgdi said. “Maxel, within a few hours, if they continue at this rate, the cracks from all the different sites will join up and encircle Elcho Falling. When that happens the citadel will not survive for long.”
He stopped, waiting for Maximilian to respond, but Maximilian said nothing, continuing to regard Georgdi with bleak eyes.
“The Dark Spire burst through three more levels overnight,” Georgdi continued, knowing this, at least, Maximilian must have suspected. The noise from the breaking masonry floors had reverberated throughout the entire citadel. “Its summit is now in the floor directly below the main ground level. By tomorrow .”
He didn’t need to spell it out for them.
“Maxel,” Axis said, “we must —”
“Do something?” Maximilian said. “Do you think I am holding something back just for the heck of it? Don’t you think that if I’d had some magic solution I might not have used it already?”
He sighed, and apologised for his ill-temper. “I have been up all night — again — but it is no excuse as I know none of you have had much sleep, either.” He paused. “Last night Ishbel and I talked, between ourselves and with Boaz, who once fought with the power of the One, and with Drava, Lord of Dreams. We have reached a decision. As neither Ishbel nor I can find any way of countering the power of the One ourselves, we have decided to accept StarDancer’s plan. We will return Ravenna’s power, and we will trust her to use it to drag the One through to the Land of Nightmares. It is all we can do, and we pray it will be enough.”
Axis exchanged glances with Isaiah and Georgdi, then gave a nod. “Good. When will Ishbel remove her curses on Ravenna?”
“Today sometime, I think. We dare not hesitate any longer.”
Axis gave another nod, relaxing within himself. Better than good. Now he could concentrate entirely on the Lealfast and not worry about what happened at his back.
“Excellent,” said Isaiah. “Now all Axis and I need do is to stop the Lealfast while you, Ishbel and Ravenna work on trapping the One. You may be dealing with the power of Infinity, but I think Axis and I have almost as hard a task, for the Lealfast, if not capable of destroying this entire world, are certainly capable of razing a significant portion of it.”
“Principally the portion we are standing on,” Axis said. “Maxel, we are constrained by the fact we have hundreds of thousands of soldiers inside Elcho Falling and can’t get them out. True, we’d face a savage battle with the Lealfast if we could get them out, but it would be something. Maxel, I ask again, are you certain we cannot use the transference method?”
Maximilian chewed on his lip, staring out at the Lealfast, and Axis sensed a weakening of his resolve. He prayed it would go the same way as his resolve not to trust Ravenna.
“Maxel, we must try,” Axis continued. “Elcho Falling cannot take much more of this. Between them, the Lealfast and the Dark Spire will destroy the citadel within a day or two. I don’t care that the odds are appalling. I don’t care that I might die in the attempt. We must try this, Maximilian”
“Axis is right,” Isaiah said softly.
“You said that you and Ishbel could only transfer ten thousand,” Axis continued, pushing his case. “Ten thousand is enough.”
“Against a quarter of a million?” Maximilian said. “Against a race that can —”
“We are desperate,” Axis said, “and we have nothing else.”
“I will think about it,” Maximilian said, and Axis hissed in frustration.
“How many of your plans for the defence of Elcho Falling have gone disastrously wrong in the past few days?” Maximilian snapped. “I will think this through, and you and Isaiah need to work out what every single possible implication might be. Wipe that look of impatience from your face, Axis. f I agree, then this one we do my way.”
They stoo
d silently on the balcony, watching. The Lealfast had formed themselves into their usual circles, and as Eleanon began his clapping (Axis wishing desperately for a single clear arrow shot), they began the same march they had employed for the past four days.
But, seven claps into the sequence, the entire mass of Lealfast suddenly raised their hands and clapped a single time, leaping a little into the air as they did so and landing down with a significant thump.
“Stars!” Axis said as he felt the balcony literally jump under his feet.
Another seven claps, another seven paces, and then again all the Lealfast leapt sightly into the air, clapped, and then thumped down.
Again the balcony shuddered, and this time something inside the command chamber toppled over and broke.
“Shetzah!” Isaiah said.
“Check those cracks,” Maximilian said. “Now!”
Within an hour of the Lealfast beginning their new routine the additional tremors had extended the cracks from the many epicentres in the walls until Elcho Falling was completely ringed with cracks.
“They’re extending right through the walls,” Insharah said to Maximilian, who had come to one of the mid-level outer wall chambers to see for himself.
Maximilian crouched down and put his hand against the wall. One of the resounding Lealfast claps and thumps came from outside, and he felt the wall vibrate.
And shift. Only a tiny fraction, but it had shifted.
“Maxel . . . ” Axis said, his voice tight.
“When?” Maximilian said.
“Tomorrow,” Axis said. “I will need to spend some hours to handpick men and practise some manoeuvres.” He didn’t voice the thought that if only Maximilian had given permission earlier, they could have been ready to go right now.
Maximilian stood up. “Axis —”
He stopped as a gigantic shudder ripped through Elcho Falling, making everyone in the chamber reach for support.
“The Dark Spire,” Axis said, but Maximilian was already out the door.
It had torn through the main ground level and up through the great staircase. Now its summit reared halfway to the next level.
The lower parts of the great staircase were all but ruined — several unlucky men lay injured on the floor by the sides of the spire, sent tumbling when it had pushed its way through the floor.