It was now seething with dark shadows.
The One was not far distant.
What is happening, friend Axis?
Axis’ head whipped up. I am about to need you very badly, friend eagle, Are you ready?
I am, Axis,
Axis lowered his eyes. “Ishbel, I need to move now. And I hope you can look after yourself, because I cannot spare a single man.”
“I will not need your help, Axis.” Ishbel and Maximilian exchanged a brief glance, sharing in that glance all they needed to say, then Ishbel turned back to Axis and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“It is time for us to move.”
Chapter 20
Elcho Falling
Axis bounded up several flights of stairs, moving through the massive gathering of fighting men.
Ishbel followed close behind, her movements sure and certain.
“We go in a few minutes,” Axis shouted, the shout being taken up and passed further and further up the stairwell. “Prepare! Prepare!”
He ran up two more flights of stairs. “Egalion?”
Egalion shouldered his way through the packed soldiers. “The Emerald Guard stand ready, StarMan.” He gave Ishbel, standing a few paces behind Axis, a curious glance but Axis ignored it.
“Ishbel will transfer a thousand Lealfast into the Common Room. Are you —”
“Ready? Yes, StarMan.”
Axis gripped Egalion’s shoulder. “Good.”
“What are the Lealfast doing now?” It was Ishbel, coming to stand at Axis’ shoulder.
Axis closed his eyes a moment, communing with the eagle. “They are still around the lake, still somewhat scattered and confused, but Eleanon is organising them. We have to go soon, Maxel.”
“I need to see, too,” said Ishbel. “I need to know where we need to go.”
Egalion gave Ishbel a startled look at the “we”.
“Then watch,” Axis said, and Ishbel’s mind was filled with a vision of the outside.
She saw with the eagle’s eyes, high above Elcho Falling. There was the citadel, great gaping holes in its walls, and she saw the lake, its surface still churning somewhat with the activity of the River Angels deep below; she saw the Lealfast, now clearly gathering into their twelve groups.
I have no idea what Eleanon hopes to do from this point, Axis said into Ishbel’s mind. But I do not wish to give him the chance to execute it, I need to strike now.
Where do you wish to go? Ishbel asked Axis.
Then, and then, and there, and there, Axis said, showing Ishbel four points that would give his troops best advantage. You need the lealfast in the air, Ishbel said.
Once they know we’re then, they’ll take to the wing instinctively, Axis said. Any winged race would do so.
The vision faded.
“You are ready now?” Ishbel said.
“A moment,” Axis said. “Egalion —”
But Egalion had already gone to join his men in the common room.
“Let me just share this vision with the men,” Axis said. “They need to know where we go and how I wish to deploy them.”
Ishbel waited, watching the faces of the men glaze slightly as vision filled their minds, then watched them nod, just slightly, as they responded to something that Axis said. Ishbel felt the first real frisson of hope that she’d felt in many, many months.
Maybe, maybe, if Ravenna could be trusted, then this would be the final act.
Axis reopened his eyes.
“Now,” he said, and Ishbel drew on all her power as Lady of Elcho Falling, and did as Axis asked.
Axis felt as though a giant had squeezed his midriff and forcibly expelled all the air from his lungs. He had no sensation of moving, or of being transported. He just suddenly found himself face down in the dirt by the lakeside of Elcho Falling, heaving breath into his lungs.
He rolled over, forcing himself to move, desperate to get his men positioned before the Lealfast could do much more than rise into the air in panic. He rose to his knees and was relieved beyond measure to see all the men rising and forming themselves into their practised, shield-protected squads.
Ishbel was there as well, crouched low to the ground, and she gave a small wave at Axis’ concerned look. I am all right. Do what you must without thought of me.
Axis risked a quick glance upward — already the air was filled with startled Lealfast — then he was down on the ground, rolling as fast as he could under the shield wall of the nearest squad of bowmen. Once inside he rose to his feet, bending over slightly at the shoulders, and grabbed the shoulder of the nearest bowman.
“See what I see,” he whispered. He communed with the eagle, sharing the view from a height far above Elcho Falling, then, using all of his skill as an Icarii Enchanter, he twisted the vision, translating it to what a man on the ground would see, then shared this vision with the bowmen.
See, he whispered among all their minds. See . . . and act.
In the four different locations, bowmen slotted their arrows through the tiny openings between the shields, took a breath, and, using Axis’ vision as their only guide, let loose their arrows.
Immediately each bowman’s arrow keeper slapped a fresh arrow into the bowman’s hand, and a moment later a second wave of many thousands of arrows skewered the air.
And again.
And again.
And again.
The tip of the Dark Spire, now leaning precariously to one side as the structure beneath it continued to crumble, had turned completely black. It was also covered in cracks which were opening wider and wider with every breath Ravenna took.
Behind them she could sense, if not actually see, a terrible darkness awaiting.
The One, crouched directly beneath the cracking skin of the pinnacle of the spire, took a deep breath and then his form began to change. His green glassy flesh melted away and the One transformed himself into pure power.
In essence, it was not the One who now lay waiting beneath the top of the spire, but the pure power of Infinity. Beneath the roiling power the spire collapsed, but the top of the spire continued to hover in the empty space at the top of the destroyed chambers.
The One, now unadulterated Infinity, withdrew all power from the destroyed spire, concentrating it entirely inward and to his own purpose.
He could no longer “see” as such, as his physical form was destroyed, but he could sense the Lord of Elcho Falling, waiting just beyond.
High in the air, Eleanon reached for the power of Infinity.
And found it gone. Whatever had once allowed him to touch the power of Infinity was now destroyed.
The Dark Spire, he thought, eaten by the water creatures.
Infinity was lost to Eleanon and his kind.
The gateway had vanished.
Already variously frustrated, enraged, disorientated and panicked, Eleanon lost his nerve and composure completely. All about him Lealfast were falling from the sky, pierced by arrows from the archers below. Eleanon knew he should call out an order, knew it, knew the Lealfast were waiting for something from him, then he cried out in pain and shock as an arrow thudded into his right thigh.
“Flee!” he cried. “Flee!”
Then another arrow, two, three, thudded into his right wing, and Eleanon began to fall from the sky.
“You know,” Isaiah said, almost conversationally, on the balcony where he stood with Georgdi, “I’d heard stories of how good Axis was, how he could command men and how he could manage a battlefield, but this . . . this is extraordinary. I’d not want to meet him across a divide of hatred.”
Georgdi only grunted in reply. He wished quite desperately that he was down there with Axis, helping to bring down the Lealfast Nation.
Maximilian had left Isaiah and Georgdi on the balcony. He’d crept down to a spot where he could observe the space above the spire where it had broken through into the ground chamber of the citadel.
Ravenna stood motionless at the handrail, just before the sectio
n where the staircase had broken free and tumbled down in pieces.
Maximilian halted, partly hidden by a corner of a wall. He watched with desperation — not that Ravenna would fail him, but with the need to go to her.
How could he let her do this alone?
“Don’t,” a soft voice said behind him, and Maximilian partly turned his head.
Garth Baxtor.
“This has been a long and terrible journey,” Garth said, his voice very soft, “from the moment you were snatched on your fourteenth birthday, through your seventeen years of darkness in the Veins and the troubles Ravenna and I needed to endure to rescue you, to this now. A long and terrible journey. The least we can do, Maxel, is to bear witness for Ravenna.”
Ravenna and my son, Maximilian thought and then he suddenly thought of Ishbel, and he realised why she had needed to transfer out of Elcho Falling with Axis.
Pray gods keep her safe!
“Look,” Garth whispered, and Maximilian turned his eyes back to Ravenna and what lay beyond her.
The Emerald Guard were ready. The instant the Lealfast materialised inside the Common Room the Guardsmen moved smoothly into action. It only took five minutes. Five minutes of smooth, coordinated, almost dance-like movement on the part of the Guardsmen. Five minutes of screaming incomprehension and fear on the part of the thousand Lealfast, who were the balance of transfer, as they all died.
Not a single Guardsman had so much as a scratch.
It was time. The One exploded through the remnants of the pinnacle of the Dark Spire — not in physical form but as pure, bleak power.
Infinity, come to visit the Lord of Elcho Falling.
The One could feel him, standing not too far distant, and he hurled his power in that direction, ready to not waste a moment in winking the Lord of Elcho Falling out of existence.
This time he would leave nothing to chance.
But the Lord of Elcho Falling was moving, faster than the One could have thought possible, twisting along a path that confused the One.
But — the Lord of Elcho Falling was just ahead, only a step or two, and the One seethed forward . . . to find himself blinking in surprise.
“They’re escaping,” Georgdi said, pointing to the north, and Isaiah nodded.
Five, six minutes, and virtually every arrow fired by Axis’ bowmen had found a mark. There were a few thousand Lealfast not dead and they were escaping.
Let them go, Axis, Isaiah said and, finally, the barrage of arrows from the squads of bowmen positioned about the lake ceased.
For long minutes the only sound that broke the silence was of the River Angels, heaving out onto the lake’s shore the bodies of Lealfast who had fallen into the water.
The siege of Elcho Falling was over.
Maximilian and Garth stood watching as Ravenna turned and ran directly toward them. They both gasped, taking a step back, but in the moment before Ravenna reached them her form wavered, then vanished.
Directly behind her came a bolt of pure black power that Maximilian recognised from the time the One had thrown it at him down the path from the Twisted Tower. Maximilian grabbed Garth and pushed him to the floor, tumbling after him, but the instant before that black power consumed them it vanished. Maximilian and Garth were left gasping for breath on the floor.
Garth moved immediately to rise, but Maximilian lay still, remembering Ravenna running toward them and the moment their eyes had met.
And the instant after, when that long terrible journey which had brought the three of them together, and which had precipitated so much adventure and pain, was suddenly, horribly, over.
Chapter 21
Elcho Falling
Eleanon slammed into the reed beds, swallowing his cry of pain instinctively so that any enemy nearby (the creatures in the water!) might not hear his voice. For a moment he was so winded, and in so much pain from the arrows, that he could not move. Then, achingly slowly, he rolled over, hiding himself deeper within the reeds, and trying to evaluate his position.
He was terribly vulnerable. He could not fly, although perhaps if he wrenched those arrows out of his wing . . .
Worse, though, was his total lack of the power of Infinity. It had ceased abruptly the moment the Dark Spire had died.
And even worse than that . . . even his powers as an Enchanter seemed warped, as if the constant contact with Infinity had damaged them. The Star Dance was dulled, fractured, he couldn’t quite grasp it .
Eleanon could not think. He simply could not think. He had been so in control, and Elcho Falling so close to collapse . . . and now everything was ruined and his powers all but gone. He divided the reeds slightly, carefully, peering at Elcho Falling across the lake, hoping against hope that somehow it was still about to tumble into the water and that some good might come of this total disaster.
But what Eleanon saw pushed him even deeper into hopelessness — while the bloodied cracks still encircled the lower water walls of the citadel, they were very slowly closing over, almost coagulating.
Elcho Falling was healing itself now that the Dark Spire was gone.
I have to escape, Eleanon thought. I have to get as far away from here as possible.
Then, just as he was about to move, Eleanon heard the sound of someone moving through the reeds.
Axis did not bother to dampen the noise he made. He wanted Eleanon to know he was coming, and wanted him to despair hearing the strength and purpose of Axis’ footsteps.
Through the eyes of the eagle Axis had known Eleanon was not dead, and that he was lying injured within the reed beds. He had set his men to mopping up among the Lealfast lying injured on the ground, then he’d headed straight for the reed beds at a jog, sword in hand.
This was something he’d promised himself in the ice hex.
Eleanon — wounded, in pain, helpless — panicked yet once more. He scurried through the reeds, desperately seeking a hiding place, not thinking that both the noise and the frantically waving reeds were a beacon to Axis. He moved as fast as he could, pushing through stand after stand of reeds, cutting his hands and shoulders on their sharp edges as he forced his way through.
Not thinking to look behind him.
Axis paused, watching Eleanon just eight or nine paces ahead, blundering his way through the reeds. He thought of all the enemies he’d faced over his lifetimes — Borneheld, Gorgrael, the Timekeeper Demons — and then he looked at Eleanon and felt contempt.
He could not even be bothered making a last defence.
Feeling sick to the stomach, Axis hefted his sword in his hand, and ran lightly over the reeds, catching Eleanon in just seven long strides.
Ravenna coursed through the Land of Nightmares, consumed with pure joy.
Behind her, very far behind, she could hear what remained of the One, screaming — or what passed for screams from a formless, helpless bundle of pure energy.
He was not doing well amid the Nightmares.
He could not touch Infinity here.
Ravenna slowed her plunge. The Nightmares reached out for her, too, but they did not harm her, only caressed her as she passed.
She was safe, and her son — the Lord of Elcho Falling — was safe, and close to birth.
This was not where she’d hoped to bring him into life, but it would do, and it would serve to teach him a few extra tricks with which to tackle life.
She smiled, and the Nightmares about her laughed at her joy.
Chapter 22
Elcho Falling
Axis walked around the lake to the causeway.
His sword, freshly cleaned, rested in its scabbard against his hip.
The gates of Elcho Falling stood open, men moving in and out on their business, and such was the air of normalcy that Axis thought that the citadel looked much like any castle or fort on a sunny day.
He stopped halfway across the causeway, peering into the water.
Deep below he could see ribbons of light flashing here and there and, just occasionally, the
larger figure of a River Angel as it came closer to the surface, peering curiously at the man who looked down upon them.
It was a strange fate for the Skraelings. Axis stood there a long time, watching them, remembering all the hatred he’d harboured for the creatures, all the battles, all the friends lost to their ravenous jaws.
And here they were, flashing about in some mysterious, beauteous form, as if none of the horror and terror they’d caused had ever existed.
As if none of Axis’ friends and countrymen had died.
As if Insharah’s family had not died.
As if most of Isembaard had not died.
Axis straightened eventually, stepping back from the edge. All he could feel for them now was sorrow, both for them and for all the grief they’d left behind them.
He resumed his walk along the causeway, slowing as a column of horsemen emerged from the arched gates.
Georgdi.
The Outlander General halted the column as he reached Axis. “You did well, Axis,” Georgdi said, grinning. “Isaiah is sitting inside fair seething with resentment that you won the glory all by yourself.”
“You’re leaving? Already?”
“I need to see what has happened to the Outlands, Axis . . . and someone has to clean up the mess of wounded and dying Lealfast scattered across it.”
“Did Ishbel make it back inside safely? What has happened with the One? Is Maximilian —”
“All is well Axis. Ishbel is inside, with Maximilian. Ravenna did what was needed. The One has gone.”
“I .” Axis drifted into silence, not knowing what to say. He was glad that Ishbel and Maximilian were safe, that Ravenna had trapped the One, but was saddened to see Georgdi go, at the same time understanding why the man and his men wished to leave.
How many Isembaardians and Escatorians would be streaming out off Elcho Falling within the next day or two?
Axis’ sadness deepened. How many other goodbyes would he need to say over the next few days?
And where, oh stars, would he go?
Georgdi looked down at Axis’ face. He rested a hand on Axis’ shoulder, caught his eyes, gave a nod, then kicked his horse forward.