The Twisted Citadel

by Sara Douglass

  Axis said. "Everything. All we have to do is open our eyes to it. The motes of dust dancing in the air, the tilt of a bird's wing in the sky, the clouds as they bubble and tumble across the sky. And once you can see it, once you understand that the Star Dance is all about us--albeit in a more subtle form than we were used to hearing it previously--then the music fills our souls again. Salome, can you feel it? See it?"

  "Yes," she said, and gave Axis a lovely smile, "I think that I can. You know, I used to hear this as a child, and then I thought it a figment of my imagination. It used to fill my dreams at night."

  They stood in silence for several long minutes, wonder transfixing Salome's face, thankfulness StarDrifter's.

  "But what I don't understand," Salome said eventually to Axis, "is that if the Star Dance was all about you anyway, why could the Icarii Enchanters not use it anymore when the Star Gate was destroyed?"

  "Because we were so blind," said StarDrifter. "Because we were so used to hearing the harmony of sound from the Star Gate that we were utterly blinded to the subtlety of this gentler music. Because it takes, on average, a thousand years for the damned Icarii to comprehend the easiest of secrets!"

  Axis looked at his father and laughed, the sound one of pure joy.

  They stayed up most of the night, sitting in StarDrifter and Salome's tent, laughing with their joy and playing with the Star Dance. Axis and StarDrifter found their control of the music weaker than it had been when they'd heard the full thunder of it through the Star Gate, but even in the few hours that they had toyed with the Star Dance, they felt their use of it becoming firmer.

  Toward dawn there came a murmur at the tent flap. It was StarHeaven, one of the Icarii who had arrived the day Maximilian and Ishbel had talked atop the hill.

  "StarMan?" she said as she entered. "Talon? What is happening? Myself and several other Enchanters,"

  she indicated that they waited outside, "have felt as if...as if..."

  "The Star Dance has been rediscovered," said Axis. "Come in, StarHeaven, and your fellows, too, and rediscover yourselves."

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  On the Road to Serpent's Nest

  The morning was very cold. The snow had ceased falling before dawn, and now a heavy frost lay over everything in camp. Winter was having its final, cruel stab before spring's warmer breezes.

  Despite the cold, everyone in camp was moving. Tents collapsed ungracefully into the snow, sending puffs of white powder about knees and hips; horses moved restlessly as saddles were thrown across their backs; cooks shouted irritably as hooves and boots kicked dirty snow into their fires.

  Maximilian was breaking camp and making for Elcho Falling.

  Ishbel, tired after a restless night of little sleep, made her way carefully through the ranks, Madarin trailing a few steps behind her. She was looking for Isaiah, and found him, eventually, standing with Eleanon and Bingaleal.

  "Isaiah," she said, "may I have a brief word?"

  The Lealfast bowed, then faded--quite literally--away.

  Ishbel rubbed her hands together, trying to restore some circulation into them. "Isaiah, be careful.

  Please."

  "I will, Ishbel. I didn't think you would be so concerned."

  "Well, I am. You can consider it a triumph."

  He tilted her chin up with a gentle finger. "I need to get back to my river, Ishbel. I cannot stay away from it too long."

  "I know. Be careful."

  "You and your lord must come visit me one day."

  Ishbel ignored the "your lord" for the moment. "You're not coming back?"

  "My work here is done. My work in Isembaard awaits."

  "Isaiah, you don't know what awaits you there!"

  "I have a good idea. And I will be careful. Ishbel...look after that goblet. Listen to it. And listen to your heart."

  Then he leant down to her, kissed her softly, and was gone.

  Eleanon and Bingaleal stood apart, unseen in their magical state, watching Isaiah and Ishbel.

  "I wish you luck in Isembaard, brother," Eleanon said.

  Bingaleal gave a nod. "I hope I may discover hopeful news. The more I hear about Maximilian, and the more I talk with him, the more I feel that the One may offer us a better pathway. Eleanon..."

  "Yes?"

  "It might be worth considering fooling Maximilian and Axis into thinking we are poor fighters. It might do us good if they underestimate us."

  "And our powers. They only know of our command of the Star Dance. Not of..."

  "Not of the power we learned from the Magi," said Bingaleal. "Not of the power of the One."

  He stopped and exchanged a small, secretive smile with Eleanon.

  "Then they shall think us useless," said Eleanon. "I will talk to Inardle about this, too, and make certain she tells Axis only what we want him--and Maximilian--to know. You are right. It is best for us, and best for our hopes, if they underestimate us completely."

  Isaiah walked to a snowy space some distance from the bustling encampment. One of the Lealfast stood there, waiting for him.

  Bingaleal, Isaiah's erstwhile assassin.

  About him drifted clouds and banners of snow, and from the corner of his eye Isaiah could see a glimmer of faces and wings and hands within--the Lealfast who were to accompany them south.

  "Off to save Isembaard, then," said Bingaleal.

  "What we can of it," Isaiah said. He studied the Lealfast, trying to see past the exterior reserve to the being within. He didn't entirely trust the Lealfast. He wasn't too sure of their allegiance to Lister, nor was he sure of their apparent willingness to abandon Lister on a whim. What did they want? What master did they truly serve?

  Would they aid or hinder in Isembaard?

  "I would like Maxel's army to see us depart," said Isaiah. "It will--"

  "Help Maximilian?" said Bingaleal. "Perhaps. We can make a showing for him."

  "Good." Isaiah hesitated. "How--"

  "--will we carry you?" said Bingaleal.

  Isaiah thought that if Bingaleal kept interrupting his every utterance to finish it for him then their nascent friendship might come under severe strain.

  "With great ease, Isaiah, river god," Bingaleal continued. He reached out a hand, frost trailing from the tip of his index finger along his arm to the point of his muscular shoulder. "You are of the water, we are of the snow. We are brothers, you and I."

  He hesitated, then took a step closer and rested the palm of his hand against Isaiah's forehead.

  "Welcome to the flow, brother."

  For a heartbeat nothing happened, then Isaiah's body faded, replaced just for an instant with lines of frost, and then he and Bingaleal were gone.

  Another heartbeat, and every head in the encampment lifted and stared into the sky as tens of thousands of ghostly wings beat once, twice, and then a third time, before the sky, suddenly, strangely, was clear.

  Axis rode his horse up and down the lines, talking, smiling, giving encouragement, barking orders. After only a few hours' sleep he was tired and fractious, but kept his irritation buried, using it only sparingly, and only when needed.

  Elsewhere Ezekiel and Insharah were doing much the same thing, and Maximilian, too. Could four of them get this massive encampment moving? Axis had seen Isaiah do it, but Isaiah was here no longer, three of his damned generals were here no longer, and the army needed, somehow, to get used to a new commander and a new mission. At least the mutterings about going home to aid their families was now far more muted. Isaiah and many thousands of Lealfast had departed hours earlier in a showing that had left even Axis wide-eyed with admiration.

  Axis hoped they'd be able to do something. If rumors kept reaching this army about devastation back in Isembaard, Axis did not think Maximilian could keep control of them for very long.

  As for the three renegade generals, Kezial, Lamiah, and Armat, Eleanon and a large contingent of the Lealfast remaining with Maximilian had gone during the night to fan out across the vast spaces of
the Outlands. He had not had a chance to speak with Eleanon save for a very brief word as the Lealfast departed. Axis would have liked nothing more than to gallop his horse out across the plains in search of the generals himself, but he had to concede the Lealfast could do a far better, and far faster, task of it.

  He hoped that by the evening Eleanon would return with good news.

  As for everyone else...

  Ishbel was packed and riding well forward in the column (well, that part of it which was moving), Madarin having proved a little better at getting his mistress on the road than Axis was at getting the rest of the army marching. Axis had caught a brief glimpse of her, enough to see that she'd apparently had little more sleep than had he.

  StarDrifter and Salome, together with what Icarii had arrived in the camp, were grouped together to one side of the chaotic encampment. The Icarii looked well rested, and from what he'd seen of them Axis knew they were impatient to be up into the thermals. He didn't know if they'd had any interaction with the Lealfast yet. He knew his father hadn't, but determined to speak to BroadWing as soon as he could to discover if any of the other Icarii had spoken to their cousins. Axis had no idea how, or if, the two groups would get along. Both were as arrogant as the other, and from the little he'd seen of the Lealfast they didn't appear overly eager to renew their acquaintance with their long-lost relatives.

  He hoped his father wouldn't try to reimpose his authority as Talon over the Lealfast. From what Axis had seen of the Lealfast, that would not be well received.

  The column was a little smaller than it had been yesterday. Although he had not seen Malat, Axis had been told by Georgdi, an hour or so earlier, that Malat had spoken to Maximilian at dawn and requested that he be allowed to travel west into the Central Kingdoms. Malat wanted to go home, to see what was left of his kingdom of Kyros, and for that Axis could not blame or fault him. Maximilian had sent a contingent of two thousand Isembaardian soldiers with Malat's own men to help with...well, with whatever Malat found.

  Axis hoped they would do well for Malat.

  "My lord?"

  Axis broke from his reverie and turned his horse around.

  It was Insharah.

  "My lord," Insharah said, "there's a problem with the horses of the fiftieth contingent."

  Axis sighed, and went back to the task of getting this great lurching beast onto its feet.

  By late afternoon he was exhausted, but at least the entire army was now on the move. He'd left Ezekiel in charge of keeping the rear of the great column in some order. Axis thought he could trust Ezekiel...in the end, though, he had no choice. Senior commanders were somewhat thin on the ground in this army, and Axis thought he'd speak to Maximilian about promoting some of the better Isembaardian middle-ranking officers. Insharah, for one. The man was more than capable, and was liked and trusted both by the Isembaardians and Axis.

  Maximilian had spent the day riding up and down the column, speaking to the men, pausing now and again to ride his horse a while alongside one of them as he chatted at length. It was a good thing to do, and Axis was pleased to see Maximilian taking the initiative. Now Maximilian had ridden closer to the front of the column, perhaps prepatory to making camp for the night.

  Axis pulled his horse to a halt about fifty paces from the main column and let it rest awhile. He'd barely stopped all day, and the horse must be exhausted. He let the reins hang loose, allowing the horse room to stretch his neck and blow out.

  Where were the Lealfast? Axis had not heard from them all day, and now his imagination was running riot. All the scenarios that vivid imagination came up with had one source: Axis simply did not know, nor trust, the Lealfast.

  Who were they, really? Why their apparent devotion to Maximilian? And what did they want? What was their purpose?

  And why hadn't they come back with news of their hunt for the generals?

  "Damn you, Eleanon," Axis muttered.

  "Unkind words," Eleanon said behind him, "for one who has exhausted himself in the hunt to right your wrong."

  Axis closed his eyes for a fraction of a moment, cursing silently, then opened them again and swiveled about in the saddle.

  Eleanon stood two or three paces away, behind and to one side of the horse, arms folded, regarding Axis with his habitual unreadable expression. His wings trailed behind him, frost glittering along their ridges and riming their ivory feathers.

  "Will you dismount?" said Eleanon. "I find it difficult to crane my neck to address you."

  Axis wondered when he'd ever found himself at such a disadvantage. He tried not to allow it to show on his face, however, and swung one leg casually over the horse's wither and slid to the ground, his boots crunching into the snow.

  "I had expected to hear of your success before now," said Axis.

  "Success being all that you know, of course," said Eleanon.

  Axis allowed his mouth to curve in a small smile. "Success being something I am only rarely good at," he said. "I am sorry, Eleanon. I am tired and ill-tempered and thoughtless. I would rather have been riding with you in the wind today than driving this grudging army forward. Tell me, what news?"

  "Not what you were hoping for," Eleanon said, finally unfolding his arms. "We have scoured most of the Outlands save for the area directly about and below Adab. We have seen no sign of your generals."

  Axis opened his mouth, but Eleanon forestalled him. "They could not have ridden further than Margalit in the time since they left this army, Axis, and even that city would have required phenomenal--or enchanted--effort. That we could not find them..." He gave an expressive shrug.

  "They have gone to ground somewhere?"

  Another shrug. "Perhaps. But there is more. Axis, there is the stink and trail of a gloomy enchantment along the trail leading to Margalit."

  "A `gloomy' enchantment?"

  "An enchantment meant to disguise, hide, conceal. Gloomy. Worse, when flying back to this column we detected some of it here as well. I think that someone within this column has aided the generals in their escape. Concealed them with enchantment. Who might that be, do you think?"

  Ravenna, Axis thought immediately, remembering StarDrifter's stories about how Ravenna had used her powers to help Maximilian and his party move unseen through the vast bulk of Isaiah's army on their way to Sakkuth.

  "Who?" said Eleanon.

  Axis hesitated, and Eleanon nodded.

  "The woman who interrupted Maximilian in his command tent," he said. "Ravenna was her name, yes?"

  "I don't know, Eleanon. I know she has the power, as does her mother, Venetia, who is with us."

  But Venetia would never have done this.

  "I'll talk to Maximilian about it," Axis said, and Eleanon nodded, accepting it.

  "Eleanon," Axis said, "can you see through the enchantment?"

  Eleanon gave a slow shake of his head. "It is something we cannot understand. We cannot see through it.

  If your generals are still out there, Axis, and I suspect they are, then they are disguised from both you and me, I think." He paused. "Until they decide to attack."

  "They would think twice about attacking a column this size."

  "I don't think so. I think they might feel they'd stand a good chance that most of this column might join them rather than fight."

  Axis did not immediately reply. Eleanon was likely right. Whatever Maximilian had said and done to this point had merely delayed the inevitable test of loyalty.

  "I hope to the stars above that Isaiah and Bingaleal and your comrades with them manage to help in Isembaard," Axis said finally.

  Another shrug from Eleanon. "They will do what they can. The Lealfast will help the Isembaardians to escape, Axis, wherever they can. But they will not fight the Skraelings."

  "What?"

  "Did you think Bingaleal was leading the Lealfast down there as an avenging army, Axis? We will do many things for the Lord of Elcho Falling, but we will not lay hand or sword to the Skraelings."

  Axis t
ried very hard to control his temper. "Have you told Maximilian that?"

  "He has not asked."

  "I am damned sure he thinks that you will one day aid him against the Skraelings! How can you--"

  "You know why we cannot," Eleanon said quietly.

  Axis fell silent.

  "They are our blood," Eleanon said. "We hate them, but we pity them, too. We cannot touch them.

  Whatever harm we do to them, we do to ourselves."

  Axis took a deep breath, turning away and looking back toward the column. It snaked very slowly forward, a huge dark stain on the snowy landscape, although here and there Axis saw units peeling off to right and left to make camp for the night.

  "Would you like to know who we are, Axis SunSoar? Would you like to hear precisely what happened to those Icarii who were so long ago lost to the snowy wastes?"

  Axis turned back to him. "Yes," he said. "Yes, I would like to know."

  CHAPTER NINE

  On the Road to Serpent's Nest

  What do you know of our origins?" Eleanon asked. He had led Axis some distance from the now dozing horse, and they stood in the midst of a vast snowy expanse, both horse and army appearing as if far away.

  Axis realized that Eleanon was using a little of the Star Dance to create this effect (and using it in such a strange, strange way) but was not perturbed by it.

  Anything to know better Eleanon and the Lealfast.

  "My father told me that during the Wars of the Axe in Tencendor, thousands of years past, the Icarii were driven north into the Icescarp Alps," Axis said. "There the majority decided to make their home, but a small group, numbering some fifty or sixty, believed that the Icescarp Alps were not safe enough, and decided to push even further north."

  "Seventy-two Icarii, to be precise," said Eleanon. "My forebears. Look."

  He waved a hand, and Axis repressed a gasp. In the middle distance, between where they stood and the Isembaardian army struggled west, a group of several score Icarii had appeared. They struggled forward through deep snow, several of their number falling occasionally and having to be helped to their feet by their comrades.