There is no danger, Maximilian said in his mind, and Axis could feel his voice echo through everyone enclosed in this sorcery. There is no danger.
Then...Axis blinked, and the enveloping sea was gone.
He blinked again, his vision clearing, and saw that while he still sat his horse, and that Inardle still sat hers beside him, and everyone else appeared as they should be, they sat those horses in an entirely different landscape.
The mountain was gone. There was not a single rock remaining.
In its place shimmered a vast expanse of turquoise water, rippling slightly as if it had just settled after a great turbulence.
Axis gazed around in wonder. The water extended as far as he could see--his horse, as all the other horses, and all those on foot, stood in the shallow water which reached partway up hoof and boot.
Ahead, Maximilian and Ishbel stood, arms loosely about each other's waist.
Maximilian turned slightly, enough to see the group of commanders.
"Wait," he said.
Axis looked about, more carefully this time, making sure that everyone was all right. Inardle looked shaken, but she nodded as she met his eyes. StarDrifter looked both shaken and very, very wary, an expression Axis supposed mirrored his own.
"What--" StarDrifter began, and stopped, staring ahead, his mouth open.
Axis turned back to the front.
"Oh stars..." he murmured.
In the distance, over the area of water where Serpent's Nest had once stood, three colossal twists of emerald water were winding up into the sky. They wound up and up, enclosing a space the height and breadth of Serpent's Nest, until, far, far into the sky, their three heads met.
For a moment, nothing.
Then Axis heard a heavy rhythmic whisper, as if somewhere a god swung his ax through the air again and again, or as if a massive windmill spun its sails over and over in the wind.
Thrum.
Thrum.
Thrum.
Axis could feel it through his entire body.
There was a movement at his side. Inardle, nudging her horse closer, and reaching out her hand.
Axis took it, squeezed it gently, and looked back to the twists of water rearing into the sky.
There was a glint of gold where the three twists met just below the few white clouds that dotted the sky.
The sun caught the gold now and again, and Axis narrowed his eyes, knowing he had seen that same effect very recently...
The crown of Elcho Falling had glinted gold through the darkness that wreathed it when Ishbel had handed it to Maximilian!
"Inardle," Axis murmured, almost not believing what he was seeing as, very, very gently, the crown of Elcho Falling appeared in the sky at the very summit of the three twists of water, its three golden bands spinning about each other slowly, slowly, slowly, thrumming as they cut through the air. The crown had now grown to a vast size, and as the sun caught at it, it sent shimmering shafts of golden light scattering about the entire country.
Axis had never seen anything like it. Not the Star Gate, not Talon Spike, not the Temple of the Stars.
He wanted to check what was happening behind him in the army, but couldn't tear his eyes away from the spinning crown so high in the sky.
No wonder Maximilian had asked that all the bird peoples remain on the ground. Up close, those massive twisting rings would be deadly, and Axis had no doubt that they radiated sorcery.
"Axis!" Inardle said. "Axis!"
He couldn't reply. He was stunned Inardle had even managed to get those two words out.
Very suddenly, a mountain--no, no, not a mountain, a citadel!--started to fall from the spinning crown.
The great twists of water merged, and from their very peak, where it passed through the spinning crown, spires and turrets and arches and windows started to appear, as if they were being poured out of a heavenly vessel. It happened in less than six heartbeats, so fast that Axis could barely comprehend what he was seeing.
Silence.
It felt to Axis as if the entire world was staring, unable to move or make a sound, at the wonder that rose from the shallow, shimmering lake of water.
For all he knew the entire world could see it, for Elcho Falling would surely be visible eight to ten days'
ride away.
It was a citadel of enormous size and of extraordinary construction. It rose from the surface of the lake as emerald and turquoise and silver water, forming walls and arches and columns. About a third of the way into the sky the water slowly turned to crystal, and then a little higher to stone of a bright turquoise set off with traceries of gleaming ivory. At the very peak of the citadel, far, far into the sky, the three bands of the crown of Elcho Falling continued their slow sweep through the air.
It was so big, and so beautiful, that Axis could barely comprehend it. He'd thought Serpent's Nest a massive mountain, but it was as nothing compared to this. This...this could swallow nations, if it wanted.
"Elcho Falling," said Maximilian, now turned slightly so he could look behind him, "is not a castle, nor is it a mountain. Elcho Falling is a world within itself."
He gave a very slight smile, as if waiting for something.
Axis tore his eyes away from Elcho Falling to frown slightly at Maximilian, wondering why he had paused, then Axis jerked and groaned, along with every other Icarii and Lealfast present, as abruptly the Star Dance thundered out over the land.
"Elcho Falling," said Maximilian, his quiet voice carrying into every mind, "is also a gateway, which is why we have armies and ambitions converging upon it."
And soon it will be ours, sister, Eleanon said in Inardle's mind, and she let Axis' hand drop away.
Six or seven hours away Armat, together with Ravenna and Lister and his entire army, sat their horses and stared.
From their distance Elcho Falling was clearly visible.
"It is..." Armat began. "It is..."
Ravenna was crying, silent tears that streamed down her cheeks. "It is extraordinary," she said, "and the most magical thing that any of us will see, in this lifetime or in any to come."
"I want it," said Armat. Indeed he wanted it. He wanted it so badly that it took all of his strength not to dig his spurs into his horse and gallop headlong toward it. He'd always held his doubts about what Ravenna and Lister had told him about Elcho Falling...but, if anything, they had considerably understated its beauty...and power.
Armat was not a magical man, but he knew that Elcho Falling was of such power that the man who commanded the citadel could command the world.
"I want it," he said again.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Elcho Falling
Everything was happening at once. Axis was literally stunned by the intensity of the Star Dance flooding his existence--had he ever felt it this deeply before, or was Elcho Falling a gateway of such power that no one, perhaps not even WolfStar, had felt the Dance to this extent?
StarDrifter had stumbled the distance between them, putting a hand on Axis' thigh and then turning as someone landed beside them. It was Eleanon--Axis supposed that the Lealfast, who had only ever before felt the barest of glimmers of the Star Dance, must now be overwhelmed--and StarDrifter reached out to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, and the two birdmen leaned close for a brief word, their shared amazement making them momentary friends.
Axis looked at Inardle. She was staring at Elcho Falling, her face white, her eyes brilliant.
There were stars dancing in them.
"Maximilian..." StarDrifter said, and there was such hunger in his voice that Axis almost cried out.
"Yes," said Maximilian, and Axis wondered what had been asked, and what authorized, and was about to ask when suddenly there was a great sound and wind, and this time Axis did cry out, for every one of the Icarii and the Lealfast had lifted into the sky and for a moment there was nothing but the beating of wings and the rush of air.
Axis dragged his eyes away from the spectacle and looked again a
t Inardle. This time there was agony in her face as she stared desperately at the Icarii and Lealfast now circling high overhead.
Axis looked at Maximilian. "I had no idea," he said. "Why didn't you say something?"
"Would you have believed me?" said Maximilian. "Besides, I had no idea myself how intact Elcho Falling remained. It has been buried so long."
"Maxel, why were there no myths of this? Stars, news of this should have entered the folklore of the entire world!"
"Everything was buried when Elcho Falling closed down," Maximilian said, "even the memory of it."
Then he smiled. "Come. Shall we enter?"
There were two horses held in reserve for Maximilian and Ishbel, and once they had mounted they led the nonflighted army across the shallow waters toward the citadel.
"There is actually deep water to either side of the causeway," Maximilian said to Axis, pointing as they rode. "The causeway is only some ten paces wide. Anyone who stepped beyond it would be lost."
"How can we make our way to and fro," said Axis, "if you are not with us as guide?"
"Once Elcho Falling recognizes you as a friend--and that happens the moment you enter the citadel with my permission--you will always find your way without effort."
"Armat? Will this keep him at a distance?"
Maximilian shook his head. "Armat has Ravenna with him, and she well knows the ways and paths of mystery. She can guide him, and his army, across these waters."
"And once inside Elcho Falling?"
Maximilian gave a small smile. "Ah, once inside Elcho Falling it would be a different matter."
They rode in silence after that, Axis alternately studying the citadel rising before them and looking up to see the Icarii and Lealfast circling overhead (some, he was aghast to see, actually flying between the massive moving bands of gold) or basking in the Star Dance as it radiated out of Elcho Falling. He thought about what Maximilian had taken from each of the commanders present--the song he had requested from Axis was clearly designed to align Elcho Falling with the Star Dance, but the other objects?
"Think back," Maximilian said softly as their horses stepped onto the incline that led to a massive arch which appeared to be made of solid water and which formed the entry into Elcho Falling, "to that moment when you first felt the Star Dance. StarDrifter was beside you, and then..."
"Then Eleanon landed," Axis said, thinking back. The moment when he'd first heard the Star Dance had been so overwhelming that everything about it was a jumble of images, and he had to sort through them to make any sense of what had happened in those first, remarkable moments. "Eleanon landed...and...oh stars, he and my father..."
Eleanon and StarDrifter had leaned close, smiling, sharing a word.
Previously, they'd been barely able to maintain any civility toward each other.
"Even Elcho Falling cannot heal all the rifts between them," said Maximilian, "but it can make a beginning.
The rest is up to them."
Then Maximilian nodded at the archway.
"Elcho Falling," he said, and then they were through.
Axis could not speak for some time. From the road that rose from the water up to the great arch, they rode into a vast chamber of hundreds of columns supporting a high fan-vaulted ceiling. Everything, from the floor to the columns to the fan vaulting itself, appeared to be made of luminescent turquoise water.
There were lights glowing gold through the chamber, hanging within the columns at the point at which the columns curved out into the vaulting.
Light shimmered everywhere, glistening through and off water, striking stars into the vaulted ceiling and ripples into the flooring.
Despite the appearance of walking on water, his horse's hooves sounded as if they struck solid ground with each hoof-fall, and as they passed one of the columns Axis reached out a hand to touch it.
It looked like flowing water, but it felt solid and cool to the touch.
He swiveled in the saddle, looking about and behind him.
All the horsemen were spread throughout the chamber as they continued to ride deeper into it. There was Egalion, and Garth, and there Inardle, there a score of men that Axis recognized, and every last one of them had a look of stupefied wonder on their faces. Even Ishbel, who Axis thought may have had some idea of what to expect, looked very much as though she might not be able to speak for some time.
"Maxel..." Axis murmured, turning forward once again in the saddle.
Maximilian nodded. "I can almost understand," he said, "why the last of the Lords of Elcho Falling to live here decided to close it down. All this beauty must have been heartbreaking."
"And Escator was better?" Axis said.
Maximilian gave a soft laugh. "No. Escator was not `better.' But it was, I think, sometimes a little more comforting."
They continued to ride deeper and deeper into the chamber.
"If someone entered Elcho Falling without my permission, whether tacit or spoken," said Maximilian, "they would find it very hard to ever leave this initial chamber. They would lose themselves in it, and eventually sink into despair in their efforts to battle free. This is the first of Elcho Falling's defenses."
"It is big enough to take all of our army," said Axis.
"It is always big enough to take whatever is needed," Maximilian said. Then he nodded ahead. "Look."
A wide staircase had come into view. It curved upward and upward in a spiral that reminded Axis of the spirals of water that had initially risen from the water after the destruction of Serpent's Nest.
Light glimmered under each stair rise--not enough to distract, but just enough to light the way.
Maxel reined in his horse and dismounted, then moved to help Ishbel to dismount.
"Where do we go?" said Axis. "Where shall we stable the horses? What--"
He stopped.
From each column stepped forth men--at least that was Axis' first impression, although his second thought was that he was not sure what they were. They looked like tall, slim men clad in simple breeches and jerkins, but on closer inspection they were somehow...not.
"They are Elcho Falling's servants," Maximilian said, "and they will show all, men and beasts, to their quarters. Spend tonight exploring Elcho Falling, Axis, and discovering its wonders. Speak with me tomorrow."
Axis turned to say something to Maximilian.
But he and Ishbel were gone.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Elcho Falling
They rose higher and higher into Elcho Falling, first via the main staircase, then via alternate secondary stairwells. Maximilian led the way, holding Ishbel's hand. They did not speak, but occasionally Maximilian would turn his head and give Ishbel such a look that she began to wish, fairly desperately, that they would arrive at their destination shortly.
"Maxel?" she eventually said, pulling his hand so that they stopped halfway up one stairwell that had as its outer barrier a virtually translucent wall of stone. Beyond was the sky, and the occasional flash of a wing as either an Icarii or Lealfast tumbled by.
The sound of the slowly turning crown was far louder here, and Ishbel could hear it thrumming through her entire body.
"It isn't far," Maximilian said. "Come, Ishbel, see what kind of marriage chamber I have created for you.
It is my gift. I asked Josia not to show you this trick during your lessons."
"Are we going to climb all the way to the top?" Ishbel said, and Maximilian smiled at the tone of her voice.
"In a manner of speaking," he said. "Come now, it isn't far."
He tugged at her hand, and they ascended another three or four twists of the stairwell until, quite suddenly, they came to a blank wall of apparently solid, cream-colored stone.
Maximilian pulled Ishbel close to him, their linked hands raised to chest height so that they were the only things that separated their bodies. Once again he pressed the back of his hand against Ishbel's sternum.
"All of my strength," he said softly, "in the beat
of your heart."
Then he moved their hands against the stone of the wall.
"My name is Maximilian Persimius," he said, "Lord of Elcho Falling. This is my lady, Ishbel Brunelle Persimius. Allow us entry, if you will."
And suddenly the wall was no more, and there was another staircase rising before them.
"This one will not take long," said Maximilian, pulling Ishbel close enough that he could kiss her briefly but with some considerable passion. He led her toward the stairs, and as soon as they were past the space where the wall had been, Ishbel heard a soft sound and she looked back.
The wall had once more returned into place.
"It will always move for us," Maximilian said, "but for no one else. Where this stairwell leads, Ishbel, is for you and me only."
He led her up the stairs, still holding her hand, and within moments they emerged into a circular chamber that brought Ishbel to a complete halt.
"Don't fear," Maximilian said, then he gave a soft laugh. "It is spectacular, though, isn't it?"
They were at the very top of Elcho Falling in a circular chamber that appeared to have no roof or walls at all. It was as if they stood on a platform high in the sky. It was dusk now--how long had they been climbing? Ishbel wondered--and outside, amid the early stars in the violet sky, she could see Lealfast and Icarii continuing their tumble of joy through the air and between the great bands of the crown, still in their slow, sweeping dance through the sky.
Thrum.
Thrum.
Thrum.
Ishbel could not hear the movement so much as feel it. The bands were very close, just beyond the edge of the large platform, and she thought their movement and vibration might have been disturbing...but, no.