Axis froze to the spot, then suddenly he was outside, running for the tents of Armat and Kezial.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Sky Peaks Pass
Ravenna wandered the rapidly emptying camp. No one paid her any attention, which suited her purpose yet still managed to annoy her.
She wasn't sure what to do. Over the past day and night--mostly spent wandering, walking, thinking--she'd tried to think of what she could do to negate Ishbel's danger. It was obvious that Maximilian would take Ishbel back and would heed no warning, no matter how clear, of the risk about Ishbel.
But what to do about it?
Ravenna had no friends, no allies. Once she could have counted on her mother, but now even Venetia was set against her.
I do not understand you, Venetia had said to Ravenna over and over during these past days and nights.
Why cling to Maximilian? Why cling to a man?
In vain would Ravenna try to explain that it was not so much the man as everything he represented that she fought for. She could not just leave and walk home to the marshes.
But Venetia would only shake her head and turn away.
Ravenna sighed, looking about, feeling lost and unsure. Maximilian had called a great meeting at a hill to the north. The rapidly growing emptiness of the camp was starting to unnerve her, and Ravenna thought she might as well follow the last of the columns winding north. Just as she was about to turn and do so, she caught a glimpse of Axis running through the tent lines.
Ravenna stopped, her heart pounding at the look on Axis' face.
He was heading toward Maximilian's command tent.
Quickly Ravenna moved through the tent lines. She masked herself in darkness, so that neither Axis, nor Serge or Doyle standing guard outside the tent, could see her approach, and reached the tent just as Axis pushed his way through the flap.
Ravenna positioned herself directly behind the tent, leaning against the canvas as close as she dared, listening.
"The generals have gone," Axis said to Maximilian, who Ravenna could hear rising to his feet. "They've likely been gone since the first night after you took control. I haven't seen them, and no one else has either."
"All the generals?" Ravenna heard Maximilian say.
"Ezekiel remains," Axis said, "but Kezial, Lamiah, and Armat have gone. They have at least two days'
start on us, Maximilian."
Ravenna heard Maximilian breathe in sharply. For a moment he didn't say anything, and Ravenna leaned both her body and senses closer to the canvas. She wanted to use a little of her power to actually see inside, but was worried that Maximilian might detect it.
She would use her ears only.
Inside the tent, Maximilian put a finger to his lips, and leaned his head close to Axis'.
"Ravenna is outside," he murmured in Axis' ear. "Take your lead from what I say."
Axis' eyes darted to the canvas wall of the tent, then he gave a tight nod.
"Gone," Maximilian said. "This is ill luck, indeed. How is it you did not realize they were gone, Axis?
Gods, they have the power to utterly undo me!"
"I'm sorry, Maxel," Axis said.
Maximilian gave a grunt, as if reluctantly accepting the apology. "If you were them," he said, "what would you do, Axis? Where would you go? How would you eventually move against me?"
Again Axis' eyes shifted briefly to the tent wall. "Isaiah has left half his army scattered about the eastern and southern Outlands. I'd be making for those units--stars, Maxel, that's at least two hundred thousand men. That's not counting all the settlers who came with the army--another half a million people scattering about the southern Outlands. The generals may well garner more fighting men from them."
"And once the generals have their two hundred thousand, at least?" Maximilian said.
"They have two choices. They head back south through the Salamaan Pass into Isembaard. But that's only if they're feeling particularly suicidal, and I think they're anything but that. Or they may come after you. You have some pretty magics, Maxel, but those generals, once they have a substantial force behind them, could defeat you easily...particularly as you have not yet cemented your hold over the army you have here."
There was another silence, and Ravenna leaned so close to the canvas her ear now rested against it.
"They have perhaps three days' start on us, Axis. Can we catch them? Can you catch them if I send you after them?"
"Perhaps. With the Lealfast, almost certainly. Their magic and their wings can do what a thousand men on horseback could not. Maxel, this is my fault. I should have had them placed under guard. I should have watched them closer."
The Lealfast. Ravenna had heard of them from her mother, who had been told of them by StarDrifter.
Axis sighed. "There's something else. I did go to check on them two days ago--but I was called away before I managed to get too close. But I saw their men about, washing the general's clothes, carrying empty dishes out of one of their tents...Maxel, their men were disguising the fact the generals had gone.
We can't ignore the fact that many already know the generals have fled and are likely to be rallying a force against you to the east or south, and we can't ignore the fact that soldiers among what is now your army conspired to hide the fact they had gone. What you need to do today, my friend, is to buy yourself enough time that I can catch the generals before too great a damage is done."
Maximilian paced about with short, angry steps. "I can't send you now," he said. "We will need to wait until after the Lealfast have arrived, until after I have addressed the army. Then I can send you, and the Lealfast, after the generals."
"I pray the Lealfast are everything you hope," Axis said softly.
"As do I," said Maximilian, "for if they cannot catch those generals then I am lost."
Ravenna drew back from the tent, moving quickly through the close-struck tents until she was far enough away from Maximilian that she could risk her power.
She was shaking, knowing that she had been handed a golden opportunity.
Those generals could save Elcho Falling for her.
But should she dare it? Should she?
"Oh, Maxel," she whispered, "if only you had chosen to believe me."
Then she moved.
She had, she thought, some two hours to accomplish what she needed.
The One paused in his continuing task of restoring the glass of the Infinity Chamber. He looked closely into one newly refurbished piece of golden glass, and saw Ravenna walk away from her eavesdropping.
He smiled, then returned to his work.
So malleable. So predictable. And who knew, she might even prove useful.
Maximilian stilled, every sense trained on the back wall of the tent.
Then he relaxed slightly. "She's gone," he said.
"How much of that was theater," Axis said, "and how much truth?"
"Some theater and a little truth. But...I knew they'd gone, Axis. Doyle told me last night."
Axis wished the earth would open up and swallow him. He slumped down into a chair. "Oh stars, Maxel.
I am sorry. I am useless to you."
Maximilian shrugged and walked away, fussing with some gear on a folding table to one side. "They have gone...and to some extent that suits my purpose. Once Isaiah and half of the Lealfast fighters have departed for Isembaard, I will be sending you and the other half on a hunt for the generals."
"Then we will find them for you."
Maximilian turned back to look at Axis, a half smile on his face at the determination in Axis' voice.
"Maybe, maybe not, but at the least it will give you a chance to test out these Lealfast, and see just how good, or not, they are."
"Why do you say the generals' betrayal suits your purpose?" Axis said.
"You know I have worried about this army, how I can keep it together."
"Yes."
"Ishbel said something to me yesterday that made me think. She said that sometimes a
group needs to fracture apart before it can ever solidify into a unified force."
Axis leaned forward, frowning. "And so...you are going to let this force just tear asunder? Maxel, are you sure that is a good idea?"
Maximilian gave a short laugh. "I am not so sure it is a good idea, Axis, but I do know that to try artificial means--whether promises or fear--to keep this eclectic combination of forces together is a far worse mistake. I could perhaps hold it together for a few months...and then what? Have it fall apart just when I
need it most? Have one among it stab me in the back just when I thought I had his true loyalty?"
Maximilian sat down in a chair opposite Axis. "I want to know just who is loyal to me, Axis, and I think I
am going to find that out within the next few weeks. I am not going to fight to keep this army together or under my control. If it wants to fracture, then so be it. I would rather enter Elcho Falling with a tiny fraction of what I have now if it means that fraction is utterly loyal. Tell me, Axis, you welded once-enemies together under the single banner of Tencendor. How did that fare?"
Axis dropped his eyes.
It had failed. "Ishbel suggested, and I agree with her," Maximilian said, "that by allowing the army to fracture now, then I will ultimately control a far stronger force. People will come home eventually, Axis."
He smiled, just slightly. "I hope."
"This is a dangerous path to tread, Maxel."
"All paths are dangerous."
When Axis had left, Maximilian went to Ishbel's tent. She was standing just outside, looking toward the mass of men gathering about the northern hill.
Madarin melted away from her side for a few paces as Maximilian approached.
"Ishbel," Maximilian said. "You will attend this gathering at the hill?"
Ishbel looked at him, her eyes worried. "If you wish, yes. What are you going to do?"
He answered only with a gentle smile. "You told me once that you could `unwind' the memories of the scars on my body."
"Yes."
"Are you a powerful enough Archpriestess of the Coil, Ishbel, that you could share such a memory with this entire gathering?"
Ishbel took a deep breath, her eyes huge. "Yes."
"Will you, if I ask it?"
"Yes."
"Thank you. Madarin? Will you escort your mistress to the hill, and ensure that she is safe and comfortable at the inner edge of the gathering?"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Plains of the Central Outlands
Kezial, Lamiah, and Armat had moved swiftly once Maximilian had taken control of the Isembaardian army. The man's murder of Morfah had demonstrated that he had hitherto unsuspected powers, and that they would need to be careful about him while in close proximity.
But Maximilian was still a man, and he could still be assassinated...preferably with a buffer of ten thousand men wielding swords and spears between him and the three generals.
And ten thousand men, at the very minimum, could easily be arranged.
Isaiah had managed to keep his generals under control. Just. But whatever fragile loyalty the generals owed to Isaiah did not in any manner transfer to Maximilian. In fact, like Morfah, the three generals were aghast that Isaiah had just so casually handed control of close to a million soldiers and settlers, a million Isembaardians, to a foreigner no one knew and who was hitherto nothing more than the king of a tiny poverty-ridden kingdom. Maximilian's talk of Elcho Falling did not impress the generals in the least.
The generals were damned if they were going to allow Maximilian to take a command they considered their right.
An army of half a million men, half a million more loyal settlers, and a land waiting to be conquered. The Skraelings could keep Isembaard.
They'd crept out of the encampment by the Sky Peaks Pass as soon as it had fallen dark on the day Maximilian had taken control of the army. There was little loyalty--make that next to none--to Maximilian within the Isembaardian army, and there were scores of soldiers who had conspired with the generals to see them safely and quietly out of the camp, and who had promised to make it appear as if the generals still kept to their tents within the camp.
Neither Kezial, Lamiah, nor Armat had approached the senior general, Ezekiel, to come with them. He was an old man, and set in his ways, and they suspected his friendship with Axis SunSoar.
In the new order of things, Ezekiel would play no part.
Now, several days after they had crept out of camp, the generals and a small band of intensely loyal (and ambitious) soldiers rode as hard as they could for the east. Isaiah had left hundreds of thousands of soldiers scattered at stations from the Sky Peaks to Margalit, and then further south to Adab and the entrance to the Salamaan Pass. The generals barely slept. They commandeered food and fresh horses from the supply stations Isaiah had established along his rear, and in the brief time they spent at each station they infused enough doubt into the minds of the soldiers stationed there that they would never give Maximilian their loyalty.
We will return, the generals told the men, and we will bring a mighty force with us.
It was midmorning, and Lamiah called for a brief halt to blow the horses and to eat a small meal themselves. They did not dismount, but allowed their horses long rein in order to stretch their necks and backs, and passed food and water from man to man.
"This is a bleak land," Armat muttered about a mouthful of bread and cheese. "Few trees."
"Nowhere to hide," Kezial said.
Everyone, whether general or one of the ten men who rode with them, looked about uneasily. There was indeed nowhere to hide, and they dreaded seeing either a cloud of dust further back along the road they had traveled, or one of the damned flying creatures who had arrived with the ragtag column commanded by Georgdi and Malat. They had discussed traveling separately in order to increase the chances that at least one of them would reach the large forces stationed to the east, but none of the three generals trusted the others enough to allow them out of his sight.
It was a race against time, they knew it. To be honest, none among their group could believe they'd made it this far without hearing a hue and cry on the road behind them.
"This Maximilian will be easy prey," Lamiah said, "if he has managed to allow us this far." He grunted.
"What commander of any worth could fail to notice that those most dedicated to his downfall have slipped away in the night?"
"And Axis," said Armat. "The great legendary war leader. Ha! I doubt he can even piss in a straight line."
The group laughed.
"We should reach Margalit within a week if we continue to travel this fast," said Kezial. "And then..."
And then...
"And then this land is ours," said Armat. "The Skraelings have emptied it for us. All we need do is bury Maximilian and Axis and take it for ours."
"And perhaps not," said a woman's voice to one side, "for Maximilian and Axis know you are gone and, within the day, mean to throw at you a magical force that will see your murdered flesh scattered for a league along this forsaken track."
Men dropped food, grabbed for reins, and drew their swords. They swung their horses about to where the voice had sounded, and saw standing a few paces away an ethereal woman.
Armat recognized her instantly. "You are Ravenna," he said, "Maximilian's lover. And a witch, I can see, from your wraithlike appearance."
Ravenna--or rather, the glamour that represented her--laughed. "Indeed, a witch-woman, but Maximilian's former lover. He has abandoned me." She rested her hand on her belly. "And his heir."
"A foolish mistake," Lamiah said, watching the glamour warily and hefting his sword. He knew the sword was of no use against this enchantment, but he felt better with it in his hand. "What do you here, witch-woman?"
"I come to warn you, and aid you," said Ravenna.
"Why?" Armat said.
Kezial gave a short laugh. "She said she was Maximilian's former lover. He has slighted you, eh, Ravenna? You wan
t revenge."
Ravenna hesitated, then nodded. "Yes. And I want power, just like you."
"We may not want to share it," Lamiah said.
"You will be dead without me," Ravenna snapped. "And all I want is one single mountain at the edge of the world. Nothing more. You can take whatever else you want. Just one mountain."
"It must be a very powerful mountain," Kezial said.
"And it will be mine," Ravenna said. Her glamour took one step forward, and such was the menace she imparted that every single man reined his horse back a pace or two.
Armat waved a hand airily. "A single mountain, then. And for that, what do you offer us?"
"A glamour," said Ravenna, "more powerful even than the one I use now. One that will mask you from the sight of the creatures that Maximilian sends after you. And once you have made your escape and gathered your forces about you, I shall offer you information from within Maximilian's camp."
Lamiah gave a small shrug, as if indifferent.
"You are a stupid man, Lamiah," Ravenna said. "Without me you will be dead by the end of the day."
"We can outfight anything that--"
"Not these," said Ravenna. "Not the Lealfast. They traveled with the Skraelings, and are a blood combination of Skraeling and Icarii. They are deeply magical and dangerous creatures, far more so than the Icarii."
Lamiah locked eyes with Kezial, then with Armat. A decision made, he then gave a single nod to Ravenna. "If you give us this glamour enabling us to escape these Lealfast, and then feed us information from within Maximilian's camp--providing you can get it now you no longer share his bed--then what precisely do you want in return?"
"The mountain. And that you live to defeat Maximilian," said Ravenna.
Again, a nod from Lamiah. "Then hide us within your glamour, witch-woman Ravenna, and we shall do as you wish."
Ravenna let her glamour fade, and came to her conscious self, hidden deep within Maximilian's army encampment.
Her eyes were glassy with tears, but otherwise Ravenna had her expression under tight control.
What she had just done was the most heart-wrenching action of her life.
Betraying Maximilian.