"Lister," she said, and gave a small bow of her head.
"Ishbel appears to have fallen out with both of us," Lister said.
"Apparently."
"You are being cautious," said Lister, "but I wonder if we might talk. Your tent, perhaps?"
"I share my tent with my mother, and she is more Maximilian's ally than mine."
"Then we shall speak here, and I shall be brief, that neither of us perish from the cold. There is a rumor about this camp, Ravenna, that you aid the three Isembaardian generals against Maximilian."
"Many people are too willing to speak ill of me."
Lister waited.
"I do not know what you want," Ravenna said. "You have been Ishbel's ally and mentor for many years."
Lister's mouth curved in a sardonic smile. "Ishbel has not proved the loyal acolyte, I fear. You seem somewhat...disenchanted with her yourself."
"I fear that she will bring Maximilian nothing but sorrow."
"In what way?"
Ravenna hesitated. She sensed that Lister was not antagonistic to her, and that he entertained doubts, either about Maximilian or Ishbel.
"For months," Ravenna said, "I have been troubled with a vision."
"Can you share it?" Lister said.
Again Ravenna hesitated, but not so long this time. "Yes," she said, and led Lister into the Land of Dreams.
When the vision had faded, and Lister and Ravenna once more stood in the snow, Lister spoke softly.
"Have you shown this vision to Maximilian?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"He prefers to ignore its clear warning. He is weak, and I worry."
"He loves her."
"A love you engineered."
Lister chuckled. "Am I being blamed?"
"I want to know why you are here talking to me."
"Are you aiding the generals?"
"Why do you wish to know?"
Lister did not answer immediately. "If Maximilian makes one misstep," he said eventually, "Elcho Falling will be destroyed. Ravenna, marsh witch, do you know what Elcho Falling really is?"
"I have a good idea."
Again Lister chuckled. "You do not allow your secrets to slip easily, Ravenna, and that is a commendable quality."
"We are both proving equally adept at this sidestepping dance, Lister. What do you want from me?"
"I think I may need an ally," he said, leaning so close that his breath frosted in her face, "as I think also do you. Tell me, Ravenna, is that a child you carry in your belly?"
"Yes."
"Maximilian's child?"
"Yes."
"A son."
"Yes."
Lister smiled. "Have you met my friend and helper, Vorstus? No? Then perhaps we can track him down, and find ourselves a fire, and talk some more."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
On the Road to Serpent's Nest
Ravenna and Venetia packed away their night things, ready for the day's march. They worked in silence, each avoiding touching the other or catching the other's eye. It was a well-worn ritual, enacted as it had been every morning over the past week.
Whatever closeness had once bound them was now long dead.
Soldiers were standing about outside, stamping their feet and blowing on their hands, waiting for the two women to leave the tent so they could pack it away for the day's march. There was a murmur of voices, a movement, and the tent flap lifted back.
"Venetia? Ravenna?"
Both women turned about, startled.
Garth Baxtor entered the tent, looking unsure of himself. "Is this a bad moment?"
Venetia and Ravenna exchanged a glance, then Venetia smiled, set aside the blanket she had been folding, and walked forward to hug Garth.
"No, it is not a bad time. Garth, it is so good to see you."
Garth hugged her back, relieved at the warmth of her welcome. He had seen Venetia on several occasions over the past few years, stopping by her hut in the marshes to exchange news and information about herbal remedies, but it was strange to see her here, and under these circumstances.
Then Venetia stepped back, and Garth looked at Ravenna.
The moment stretched out awkwardly. She was so different from the girl he remembered. She had grown into a beautiful woman, but there was a hardness about her, and a singular determination that Garth found unsettling.
But perhaps his discomfort was too much influenced by the tale Maximilian had told him and Egalion last night.
"Ah," said Ravenna, very softly. "I see by your eyes, Garth, that Maxel has been chatting to you."
Garth tried to inject a little more warmth into his smile. He stepped forward and kissed Ravenna lightly on the cheek, his hands on her shoulders.
Maximilian's son, he thought, sending his Touch through Ravenna's body, and healthy.
"I could have told you that," Ravenna murmured, pulling herself away from Garth's touch, and his smile slipped a little.
Why was it that he was always making an ass of himself with Maximilian and his women?
"Garth," said Venetia, "I'll let you and Ravenna talk. I'll ride a little with you later, yes? We can talk then."
"That would be good, Venetia," Garth said, then turned back to Ravenna as Venetia left the tent. "It has been a long time. We've all changed. Maxel...I had no idea that he should inherit another, and stranger, crown and I wager you didn't either, Ravenna, when you helped rescue him from the Veins. As for Vorstus..." Garth shook his head. "I trusted him with my life, as Maxel did, and he was our friend for these past eight years. To now find that he helped imprison Maxel...it is difficult."
"These are difficult times, Garth." Ravenna stuffed the last of her things into a pack, then picked up her cloak.
"Ravenna--"
She turned to face him. "Do you speak for Ishbel now, Garth? Am I no longer your friend?"
"Ishbel and I do not have a history of friendship, Ravenna. When I first met her I instinctively distrusted her. I never truly liked her as Maxel's wife."
Ravenna visibly relaxed. "She is a hound from hell, Garth. Maximilian is fixated by her, to his shame."
"He loves her, I think, despite the distance currently between them."
Ravenna waved a hand dismissively. "So he may, but Ishbel will murder him, and spread disaster throughout this land. She will ally with evil, Garth, and betray everything for which you and I have ever worked. You must speak to Maximilian, make him see sense where I have failed. He must put Ishbel aside."
Garth's sense of discomfort grew more intense. "I do not think Maxel is a man who takes well to being told what he must or must not do."
Ravenna gave a soft, bitter laugh. "As I have discovered. Why does he not see reason, Garth? Why?"
"Ravenna...you and he..." He stopped, not knowing how to say gently what he thought best.
"What?" Ravenna said. "He and I...not suited to each other? Is that what you want to say?"
"I think he has only ever wanted to be your friend, Ravenna."
"Then he should be my friend and listen to what I say to him."
"He feels trapped by the baby. He thinks that--"
"That I trapped him? That I conceived this child to bind him to my side? No marsh woman does that, Garth. I conceived this child not to win Maximilian to my side, but to save Elcho Falling, should he refuse to see Ishbel for what she is."
She threw the cloak about her shoulders, tying it closed with angry jerks. "Enjoy your ride with my mother, Garth. I am sure she, too, will speak nothing but poison against me."
Garth stood looking at the tent flap for a long time once Ravenna had gone. He could barely believe the woman she'd become. It was as if Ravenna the girl had been the promise, and Ravenna the woman the...
"What, Garth?" he murmured. "What?"
He thought about what Ravenna had said to him just as she left the tent. She had conceived the child to save Elcho Falling.
What did that say about her loyalty to Maximilian?
&
nbsp; What if Ravenna ever came to believe that Maximilian threatened Elcho Falling?
Garth shivered, and, hearing the soldiers outside move impatiently, went to mount his horse.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Outside Margalit, the Outlands
Armat stood in the doorway of his command tent, studying the scene before him. Men scurried about the encampment, readying for a sortie west; horses were being brushed and saddled; weapons cleaned and sharpened.
He wasn't concerned about being seen from the air--by either a passing Icarii or the Lealfast which Ravenna had told him about--as Ravenna's sorcery still kept him concealed from any eye not belonging to a friend or ally.
Armat, as Kezial and Lamiah, had managed virtual miracles since they had abandoned Maximilian's camp--such miracles aided, of course, by a little more of Ravenna's sorcery. Armat had taken the leadership role within the group of three generals. He was the youngest, but he was the more decisive, and Kezial and Lamiah had made no murmur as Armat began to take an ever more commanding role.
Armat knew they would be easy to manage when the time came. And if not, then they could be killed as easily.
Armat currently controlled almost eighty thousand soldiers, all grouped just beyond the city of Margalit.
This number was composed of the forces Isaiah had left at Margalit itself, as well as several Rivers of ten thousand men that the Tyrant had left stationed in the Central Outlands and within a few day's march south of Margalit.
There were many tens of thousands more soldiers to the south, and Lamiah and Kezial had ridden south many days ago to gather them together. Kezial had the task of combining the forces about Adab;
Lamiah, the forces stationed between Adab and the Salamaan Pass.
Armat expected them to consolidate the forces, certainly, but did not truly expect them to rush back to his aid. Out on their own, with armies of their own, both generals were likely to succumb to their own personal ambitions.
Armat didn't care very much. He could outgeneral both Lamiah and Kezial and, in the end, he would likely control the much larger army. Not right at the moment...but soon. Armat's eyes lost their focus as he looked further to the west. Maxel was leading some two hundred thousand Isembaardian soldiers east toward Elcho Falling, but Armat didn't expect Maximilian to have two hundred thousand for very much longer. He had his own men among Maximilian's army, and he knew that they'd be spreading the soft word of treachery: Ride for Armat. He can give you what you need--safety for your families and land on which to prosper.
Lamiah was supposed to also discover as much news as he could about Isembaard, but Armat didn't care one way or the other what he discovered. Isembaard was the past, Elcho Falling the future.
And Armat didn't intend to allow the witch-woman Ravenna to control the mountain and all its riches and power.
Elcho Falling was going to be his.
But for now, Armat thanked Ravenna every time she appeared to him--which was every second day or so--and promised that the army he gathered would be used to destroy Maximilian and take Elcho Falling for Ravenna's baby son.
Armat did not care that Ravenna would discover his duplicity eventually. In the end, witch-women were as vulnerable to the sword as any other man or woman.
"But that joy is in the future," Armat murmured to himself, one hand checking that his sword lay correctly in its scabbard. "For now, there are more entertaining amusements to be had."
Axis and the Lealfast.
Ravenna had told Armat all she knew about the Lealfast, which proved to be an extraordinary amount.
On the face of it the Lealfast were terrifying, with powers which would render them almost unbeatable in any military confrontation.
After all, Armat had been there when one of them had made the assassination attempt on Isaiah, and had seen for himself just how easily the Lealfast assassin had escaped Isaiah's soldiers.
Imagine what a force of twenty thousand or more would be like, attacking from the sky.
And now such a force was sent to hunt him down, with the great StarMan Axis SunSoar at its head.
Armat despised Axis. He'd had his day, and if he had won some impressive battles, then they were long in the past. All Axis had done at Isaiah's court was wander about and play at being Isaiah's lapdog. If it had been him...well then, Armat would have murdered Isaiah and taken control within his first half day back from death.
Axis hadn't done a single thing to impress since he'd returned from death. He was a useless legend.
Armat was similarly unimpressed with the Lealfast. They had wings and they had magic, but they were as vulnerable to the blade as Ravenna would one day prove to be.
Armat had come away from Isaiah's assassination attempt with one important lesson learned. The Lealfast might travel virtually invisibly, but in order to act they needed to take fleshly form, and that instantly put them back on a par with human soldiers. Armat also wondered if they might be just as vulnerable when they were less visible.
Just a hunch, but Armat was good with hunches. It was why he'd attained a generalship at such a relatively young age.
A day previously he had sent out a small party to test his hunch. They were due back today, and thus he waited in the sheltered doorway of his tent.
Waiting for confirmation that he could destroy any Lealfast sent against him.
Armat smiled in anticipation. Once the Lealfast were taken out, then Axis...
The armed party of nine men came back just before noon. Their leader rode directly to Armat's tent, dismounted and saluted.
"Well?" said Armat.
"It was as you said, my lord."
Armat took a deep breath, his eyes bright, then stepped inside the tent, gesturing the man to follow him.
"Tell me," he said.
"We rode two hours to the gully you spoke of," said the soldier, Habal.
Armat nodded. They'd known the Lealfast were in their area, and no matter how magical the Lealfast were in large numbers they could be spotted--a gray snowy cloud drifting through the air. A good man could easily differentiate between a cloud of true snow and a cloud of Lealfast.
"Bruen peeled off before we arrived at the gully," Habal said, "and took up a concealed position within the rocks at the top of the gully."
"Yes, yes," said Armat. "Get on with it."
"The eight of us remaining rode into the gully, making no effort to conceal ourselves, and flying your standard. Within minutes the cloud of Lealfast drifted closer for a look."
Habal took a deep breath. "Bruen readied his slingshot, took good aim, and slung his stone into the cloud. The Lealfast hadn't seen him and hadn't tried to avoid the spot where he was concealed."
"And?" Armat was ready to murder the man for drawing it out.
"One of them fell from the sky. Not far, not all the way to the ground, for he recovered twenty paces before he hit, but he fell, clutching at a thigh where the stone had struck. My lord, the instant he was injured--"
"He became visible. Good, Habal. Good!"
Habal grinned, relieved to have made Armat happy.
"Do you think he knew what had hit him?" Armat said.
"I doubt it, my lord. He would only have felt the sting of the impact. The Lealfast must still be wondering what it was. If I may say so, my lord, your idea to use the slingshot rather than the arrow was brilliant."
Armat didn't say anything. He stared at Habal, his eyes glittering, then he very slowly smiled. "You are a good man, Habal. You bring me good news. Thank you."
He clapped the man on the shoulder, then dismissed him.
Good news. The best.
The Lealfast were vulnerable, even when traveling in their magical form.
"I'm going to slaughter them," Armat said, then laughed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
On the Road to Serpent's Nest
Ishbel sat relaxed on her horse, allowing the animal to amble at its own pace beside the great convoy of soldiers and equipment. She rode ten p
aces or so to one side of the convoy, slightly distanced from it not only physically, but emotionally as well (Madarin, riding five paces behind her, was such an easy and accepted part of her life that she didn't consider his silent presence an intrusion). Partly this was because she wanted to think over the visits of Lister and Ravenna, and partly it was because she was a little unsettled by the arrival of Garth and Egalion. She hadn't spoken to either of them since their brief, initial meeting, yet knew that by now Maximilian must have told them all that had happened.
The loss of their daughter.
Her affair with Isaiah.
His with Ravenna. Ishbel's hidden identity as Archpriestess of the Coil, and her tie by blood to the Persimius family.
Elcho Falling.
Ravenna was a troubling element in the mix. Ishbel knew that Garth and Ravenna had worked together to free Maximilian from the Veins eight or nine years ago, and that they had been very good friends. Given Ravenna's own hatred of Ishbel, and Garth's previous dislike of her, Ishbel did not think Garth would think much more of her now, particularly not once Maximilian had done with his tale.
It was a shame, because Ishbel was tired of disliking him, and thought that he could well be a good friend.
"Wake up, my lady. You are about to fall off your horse."
Startled, Ishbel snapped out of her reverie. Garth Baxtor had ridden his horse up alongside her, and was now regarding her with a mix of careful friendliness and anxious uncertainty.
"Garth," Ishbel said, not knowing how else to continue.
"I should retract my words about the falling off," Garth said. "You have gained some fine horsewoman's skills since last I saw you, my lady."
Ishbel managed a small smile. When first she'd left Serpent's Nest to travel west with Maximilian she'd barely been able to sit a horse without falling to an ungracious heap on the ground.
"I have had many months' practice since then, Garth." Ishbel paused. "And, please, call me Ishbel. I am sorry I ever snapped at you for being too familiar."
The wariness in Garth's eyes relaxed fractionally. "Ishbel, then."
He lapsed into silence, and for a few minutes they rode in an increasingly awkward quiet.