Eleanon didn't reply. His expression closed down, as if he were withdrawing deep inside himself, and Axis assumed it was a result of his combined shock and humiliation.
"Shit," Axis muttered, pushing Eleanon to one side as he strode into the mayhem. He bent down to a Lealfast man who looked merely exhausted rather than wounded. "What happened? For the stars'
sakes, will someone tell me what happened?"
"We came upon Armat leading a column of a few thousand men westward from Margalit," the man said, his voice weary and utterly devoid of emotion. "We thought we had them. Eleanon ordered an attack--"
"Did he scout first? Check for archers?"
"We just didn't think," the man said. "We flew in a group, straight in, and--"
Axis muttered something so obscene that finally the Lealfast man showed some emotion.
"Our bowmen and women set their arrows to the Isembaardian soldiers," the man said. "We thought that we could--"
"Will you stop telling me what you thought you could do, and just tell me what happened?"
"As soon as the first of our arrows rained down, the Isembaardians formed a protective turtle with their shields. Our arrows bounced off harmlessly."
And who would have guessed that? Axis thought, growing angrier by the moment. He and Maximilian had wondered about the Lealfast's experience...but this! An Icarii child could have commanded better.
"And?" he said.
"Then Isembaardian bowmen, thousands of them, stood from their hiding places behind rocks to either side of the gully--"
Axis rubbed at his eyes with one hand. Armat had set his trap well. Had he known the Lealfast to be so gullible? Had that been what the earlier incident had been about?
"We were all in a group," said the Lealfast. "Largely invisible, although our bowmen had to return to their visible state in order to fire."
As Bingaleal had to do in order to stage the assassination on Isaiah, Axis thought. And Armat had been there to see it.
"Tens of thousands of arrows rained into us, StarMan. We...we just couldn't escape."
"You panicked," Axis said.
The Lealfast hesitated. "Yes," he said finally, hanging his head so he didn't have to look at Axis.
"How many dead?" said Axis. "How many left behind?"
Another longer, more awful hesitation.
"Maybe five or six thousand dead," said the man. "Maybe even more. I know some fell from the skies, dead from their wounds, on the flight back here. How many left? I don't know."
"Oh stars," Axis said. He sighed, rested his hand for a moment on the man's shoulder, then went in search of Georgdi.
Armat walked slowly through the killing field, his eyes cold, but a small smile curving his thin mouth.
It had been so easy.
A slaughter.
Would that all battles were like this.
"What think you, my friend?" said the softest of voices to one side, and Armat glanced at Ravenna's glamour.
"Elcho Falling will be ours within a week, if this," he waved a hand contemptuously over the fly-riddled corpses, "is all Maximilian Persimius can throw at us."
"Most of the Isembaardian soldiers have left him," Ravenna said. "They are marching to join you. They cannot be more than a few days away. Maximilian has his Emerald Guard, perhaps some four thousand--although they are no match for you--and some nine or ten thousand Isembaardians, including Ezekiel, who chose to stay with him. There are some Icarii as well. Nothing much. Maximilian's force is utterly insignificant compared to what you command. Maximilian cannot stand against you, Armat."
"Will we get to Elcho Falling before him?"
"Probably not. He is far enough ahead of you to get there first."
"He has the lighter force to move, too," Armat said, with some grim humor. "Well, if he gets to that mountain first then he will have the advantage of a good defensive position."
"But you can still..."
"Oh yes. I can `still.' If his magic isn't too powerful."
That last was a question.
"Maximilian is weak. Once the line of Elcho Falling was very strong, too strong for either you or me, or us combined. But Maximilian has lost most of the knowledge of Elcho Falling. He has relatively little power. And he has a pitiful force to protect him. Elcho Falling waits for us to take it."
"And his wife, Ishbel? And Isaiah?"
"Isaiah is gone. Dead, I believe. And Ishbel...Ishbel is fatally flawed. Once Maximilian is dead then she will fail. Besides, if I get the chance to kill her before I leave Maximilian's train then I shall."
Not so insignificant, then, Armat thought, if Ravenna felt a need to kill her. But then, maybe it was merely Ravenna's petty jealous heart.
"There is but a little tidying up for us to do, Armat," Ravenna's glamour continued, "and then the mountain and all its power is ours. Axis?"
"He is not far away, according to your report. We can reach him by dawn tomorrow. Then he, too, will be dead. I have little time for useless legends. Tell me, how much longer will you spend haunting Maximilian's pitiful train? How much longer before you join me in the flesh rather than in glamour?"
"Soon, Armat. Soon I will be with you."
It had been several hours since the Lealfast returned, and the scene continued to be disastrous: there was only Zeboath and several assistants to offer any skilled aid to the wounded, and there were thousands upon thousands of wounded. Eleanon had commanded a force of some twenty-five thousand and had, so far as Axis could see, led the entire lot into disaster. Many would die without help, but there was nothing Axis could do about that. Axis had spent some time searching for Inardle. No one knew where she was, and Axis could not stop a growing sense that she must be lying dead back in Armat's killing field.
At least he had caught up with Georgdi again.
"Armat will be coming after us," said Axis.
"I most certainly would," said Georgdi, looking at the sea of wounded Lealfast with incredulity. "By the gods, I couldn't think of an easier target. He'll be here to finish this lot off within what...how far distant is he?"
"The Lealfast who have been coherent enough tell me less than a day's march."
"Shit," said Georgdi.
"I'm tempted to mount up, Georgdi, and just leave this lot to their damned fate. Maximilian surely has little need of such as these."
Georgdi grunted. "Give the order, StarMan, and I'll be right behind you."
Axis caught his gaze, and smiled a little. "The only thing stopping me is that I wouldn't want my legend tarnished by such a despicable action."
"That's a shame, StarMan. All you want to do is run away and your damned reputation keeps you here.
I'd be fuming, if it was me."
Now both were grinning.
"I suppose we'd best think of something to do," said Axis.
"I suppose."
"Well..." Axis sighed, losing his humor. What to do? There were, at best approximation, some eighteen or nineteen thousand Lealfast stretched over the dusty plain. Those who weren't physically wounded, like the Lealfast man Axis had talked to, were so emotionally traumatized and physically exhausted by what had happened that they were of little use.
Of the wounded, Axis thought that there were at least five thousand who were now incapable of flight.
That they'd reached this far was miracle enough.
He looked back at Georgdi, thinking. Georgdi had some three hundred Outlander soldiers with him and under Axis' overall command. Axis had never meant this to be much more than a fast-moving force meant to locate the generals. If he had discovered them, then he would have preferred to move in with a force of less than twenty men to try and take one or more of the generals--he certainly would have never had enough men to try and fight an all-out pitched battle with their army.
The rest of the Outlander force which had returned from the devastation of the Central Kingdoms had largely been disbanded throughout the Outlands. They were exhausted after their campaign and their horrif
ic journey to escape the Skraelings.
"How soon could you remobilize an Outlander army, Georgdi?" Axis said.
"What? To fight Armat? I'd not be able to send messengers out, let alone--"
"No. Not to aid this lot. There is no time...but I have a feeling Maximilian is going to need you, Georgdi.
At Elcho Falling. Listen, this is what I want you to do...what I ask you to do. Forget the Lealfast. You don't have enough men with you to do more than protect a small number of them, and that's fairly pointless. No use risking good fighters for..."
He didn't have to go on. For such as these.
"What do you propose?" Georgdi said.
"Mobilize as many of your men as you can and get them to Elcho Falling--Serpent's Nest. I don't trust the Isembaardians with Maximilian, and--"
"By the stars! What has happened here?"
Axis turned around. BroadWing EvenBeat had just landed a few paces away, and was looking at the chaos incredulously. BroadWing had been a senior member in Axis' Strike Force, the highly skilled fighting unit among the Icarii, and Axis could only imagine what he was now thinking.
No, he didn't need to imagine. BroadWing would be thinking much the same as Axis.
"Eleanon led his people into a slaughter," said Axis. "He was stupid and unthinking, and I am too angry at the moment to allow myself to speak with him. For the moment the details will need to wait, BroadWing.
I am too heartsick to go into them. What are you doing here? Did Maximilian send you?"
BroadWing gave a nod. "And with news possibly even worse than this." BroadWing waved a hand about him. "Insharah has led the vast majority of the Isembaardian force away from Maximilian to join with Armat, and--"
"Well, well," Axis said softly. "Insharah. I would not have thought that of him."
"There is worse, Axis. Maximilian and Lister suspect that Isaiah is dead."
Axis could not speak. He stood there, staring at BroadWing, and it was as if the entire sorry mass of the Lealfast had vanished into insignificance. Isaiah? Dead? "I'm sorry," BroadWing said.
"What...how...what do they know?" said Axis, and BroadWing knew he wasn't referring to the Isembaardian defection.
"Maximilian and Lister have some connection to him," said BroadWing. "They said there was something very, very wrong, and both mentioned death with fear in their eyes."
"Oh gods..." Axis said, half turning away. If Isaiah was dead it was a disaster for Maximilian, but all Axis could think of for the moment was his own sense of loss. Isaiah was--had been--a valued friend, and Axis knew it would take him time to come to terms with his grief.
"He may not be dead," said BroadWing.
Axis gave an uncaring shrug. Maximilian would not have sent this news if he'd thought there was any real chance of Isaiah's continuing life.
How had Ishbel taken this? She may not have loved Isaiah as she did Maximilian, but she had loved him, and would grieve deeply for the man.
"Axis," Georgdi said softly. "We have a hundred thousand men or so coming our way. We're sandwiched between them and Armat."
Axis pulled himself out of his reverie. "Insharah...I knew he was frustrated, but I had not thought he would go this far. Maximilian did, though."
"Maximilian said Insharah told him the men had been plagued with nightmares of the deaths of their families," BroadWing said. "I think the dreams pushed them into outright rebellion."
"Ravenna," Axis muttered.
"Probably," said BroadWing, "but Maximilian doesn't seem bothered. He gave them permission to leave and waved them good-bye with a cheery smile."
Axis finally managed a small smile. "Well, that's Maximilian. I doubt this has surprised, or worried, him overmuch."
He looked about, thinking, then spoke again. "All right, this is what we are going to do. Georgdi, as I
said, I want you to take the men you have here with you and mobilize whatever else you can and ride for Serpent's Nest to meet Maximilian there. Get clear of the mess here. I am certain that Armat and the other generals...BroadWing, you have no news of Lamiah and Kezial?"
BroadWing shook his head.
"I am certain Armat will ride for Elcho Falling," said Axis. "He is in league with Ravenna, and she will want Elcho Falling. BroadWing, go back to Maximilian and tell him what has happened here. Tell him the Lealfast are as useless as a throng of blind virgins...and that `blind virgins' more than adequately describes their fighting ability. Oh, stars...what am I going to do with them?"
Axis stopped, thinking a moment. "BroadWing, eventually I am going to hand the damned Lealfast over to you. I know you are reforming the Strike Force from the Icarii flying in every day from the west and the Lealfast need to get some training. But not just yet. I'm going to send them away to lick their wounds for a while. Currently they're too shocked to be useful--or to be amenable to any instruction."
"And you, Axis?" Georgdi said as BroadWing nodded. "Are you going to get clear of `the mess here'?"
"Leave me several horses and some men. Ten, at most. I will wait here for a while, do what I can for the Lealfast, then I will ride for Maximilian."
"Axis?" said Georgdi.
"Yes?"
"Make sure you do ride for Maximilian, eh?"
Eleanon had faded away when Axis talked to the Lealfast man, and now he crouched beside Inardle, lying injured on the ground.
She had been hurt badly, but not fatally.
"What happened back there, Eleanon?" she hissed at him, one wing sprawled awkwardly behind her as she doubled over her bleeding belly.
"I did what I thought was best," Eleanon said. "Are you badly hurt?"
"Yes," she said, "but give me an hour and I can--"
"Don't heal yourself!" Eleanon hissed. Like himself and Bingaleal, Inardle was one of the more highly trained in the ancient arts of the Magi, although she'd never reach the heights and skills of her two brood brothers. She could heal herself fairly easily now that she was out of immediate danger and could concentrate.
But Eleanon did not want Inardle to heal herself.
"This is the perfect opportunity," he said, a hand resting firmly on Inardle's uninjured shoulder. "This," he waved his other hand down her bloodied body, "will bring you to Axis' bed. Now, listen to me, and do what I say..."
Inardle's expression hardened as he spoke, but eventually she nodded reluctantly, and Eleanon once more vanished into the night.
CHAPTER FIVE
On the Road to Serpent's Nest
Ishbel, I am sorry, but
Iam afraid that Isaiah is dead."
Ishbel stared at Maximilian, unable to believe he had actually said those words.
Maximilian glanced at Lister, standing to one side, before looking back to Ishbel. "We are not completely certain, but we cannot think what else has happened."
"There is no contact," said Lister. "Before, he and I...there was always awareness of each other's presence. Now--nothing."
Ishbel tore her eyes away from Lister and stared across the grasslands. Some part of her shocked mind noted that the snow had by now almost melted, and that spring could not be far distant. There would be new growth soon, and the plains would be green again.
And Isaiah was dead and would never see the fresh growth.
"Ishbel?" Maximilian said.
"I felt nothing," Ishbel said. "Nothing. How could I have felt nothing?"
"Ishbel," Lister said, "you didn't have the bond with him that Maximilian and I--"
"You have no idea of the bond I had with him!" Ishbel said. "He was a better man than you, Lister. Why could it not have been you who died?"
"Ishbel--" Maximilian said.
"I loved him once," said Ishbel. "I can't believe...oh gods..."
"I'm sorry," Maximilian said, and Ishbel saw that, indeed, he was very sorry and sympathized with her. It comforted her that he understood, and that he wasn't jealous of her grief.
"Axis will be upset," said Ishbel. "Axis loved him, too."
"I know
," said Maximilian. "I have sent BroadWing. He should be there by now. Axis isn't that far distant for an Icarii."
They lapsed into silence, Lister looking a little impatient, Maximilian at ease with the quiet.
"There is something we need to discuss, Ishbel," Maximilian said eventually. "We'd agreed not to unravel the Weeper's soul until we were safe inside Elcho Falling."
Lister, who had been looking bored and slightly irritated with the silence, now looked sharply between Ishbel and Maximilian.
"But now..." Ishbel said.
"But now I think I need to know who and what the Weeper is."
"Too much has gone wrong for you," said Lister. "You need all the help you can get."
Ishbel had to look down at the ground and clench her hands to stop herself hitting the man.
Maximilian gave Lister a steady look, then looked back to Ishbel. "Ishbel, I hate to ask this..."
"When?" she said.
"Tonight," Maximilian said.
"Good," said Lister. "I can help, and certainly ensure Ishbel's safety. I--"
"I don't want you present," Maximilian said, then addressed Ishbel again before Lister could respond. "I
know you wanted to be safe in Serpent's Nest, or perhaps Elcho Falling once it is raised, but I no longer want to wait. Something terrible took Isaiah, and I--" He stopped, glanced at Lister, then continued. "I
need whatever aid I can get."
"Tonight, then," Ishbel said.
"He said, `I need whatever aid I can get,'" Lister told Ravenna, "but not my aid! Nor yours."
Ravenna wrapped her arms around her shoulders. They were standing in the dusk, hidden in the long shadow of one of the tents, and the air was chilling rapidly. She wished she'd brought her cloak with her.
"I am the very last person Maximilian would want," she said, "while Ishbel was being heroic...and vulnerable. What do you think is in that bronze statue, Lister? Good, or bad?"
"I don't know," Lister said, frustration roughening his voice. "I don't know! It is powerful--it must be if it gave wings to StarDrifter and his wife...and if it kept half of Coroleas in petty enjoyments for thousands of years. But what? What connection to Maximilian and Elcho Falling?"