“Do you know who I am?” Isaiah said to the Skraeling.
“You are Isaiah, once Tyrant of Isembaard, once ally of our Lord, Lister.”
“Now long gone and well forgotten,” said Isaiah. “But, yes, mostly you are correct. One or two omissions but we can skip past those for now. My friend Skraeling . . . ah, I cannot keep calling you that. You know my name, now I crave to know yours. I would parley and for that I need your name.”
“My name?” Momentarily taken aback, the Skraeling blinked slowly, a bulbous blue-tinged tongue rolling out to lick its lips.
“Your name, friend,” said Isaiah.
“Well,” said the Skraeling, “you may call me —”
“Your mystery name,” said Isaiah, and Axis felt Inardle tense and draw in a sharp breath.
What is it? Axis said to her.
How does Isaiah know of the Skraelings’ mystery names?
What are —
I will explain later. Listen, for now.
The Skraeling cringed back a step. Then he straightened and stared defiantly at Isaiah. “I shall not give it,” he said.
“Friend,” Isaiah said, “I ask in Veldmr’s name and with an authority far greater than his. Tell me your mystery name. I command it.”
Axis thought the Skraeling boggled so hard at Isaiah that his silver orbs would actually detach themselves from their sockets and fall to the ground.
Who was Veldmr? Axis wondered.
“It . . . ” the Skraeling whispered. “It is . . . ”
“Yes?” Isaiah said.
“It is .” The Skraeling glanced at Axis and Inardle.
“Neither Axis nor Inardle will speak it without my permission,” Isaiah said. “Tell me.”
“It is Ozll,” the Skraeling whispered, and Isaiah smiled.
“Friend Ozll, then. We shall meet this evening, when I have eaten and refreshed myself. I am sure we shall have much to discuss.”
Without another word, or even a glance at the Skraeling standing staring at him, Isaiah waved for Axis and Inardle to follow him, then kicked his horse toward his army.
“What is this mystery name thing?” Axis said to Inardle as he pushed their horse after Isaiah.
“All the Skraelings have what they call mystery names,” she said. “They never told them to the Lealfast and, frankly, I thought it was just some means they had dreamed up to make themselves feel important. Every time they wanted to appear enigmatic and self-important, they’d carry on about their ’mystery names’. I have no idea how Isaiah knew about them. I also had no idea the damned creatures actually did have them.”
“Maybe friend Ozll made it up on the spot.”
“Maybe,” Inardle said, her voice doubtful.
They rode another few minutes, then Axis began to chuckle. “By the stars, Inardle, look what Isaiah has collected about himself. Such flummery!”
“What are they?”
“Juit birds,” Axis said. “I remember them from the time when Isaiah pulled me from the Otherworld. Not everything, but I do remember those birds.” He chuckled again. “Stars alone knows what they are doing keeping company with Isaiah, but suddenly I feel a great deal more cheerful.”
Ozll stood and watched them ride away, his mind and heart in turmoil.
Why had the water god wanted to know his mystery name?
Ozll quite suddenly felt they’d made a major mistake in not simply overwhelming the Isembaardian force and eating them to the ground before carrying on to Elcho Falling and whatever awaited there.
It had been a bad miscalculation to worry that the One might have secreted himself within the army. If the One had been within the Isembaardian army, then he would have made himself known to the Skraelings by now.
Nonetheless, when Ozll returned to his comrades, and they asked him what was happening, he replied simply, “Isaiah will speak with us this evening.”
He did not tell them that Isaiah had asked his mystery name, nor that Isaiah had invoked the name of Veldmr. None of the Skraelings could remember quite who Veldmr was, only that he was a great and revered figure from their past.
A past, some among the Skraeling whispered, that had had some beauty and power to it.
A past of mystery.
Chapter 22
The Outlands
That evening, Isaiah, Axis and Inardle gathered at the boundary of the Isembaardian camp. Isaiah had been busy all day and neither of the other two had had a chance to talk with him. Now they were full of questions.
“Enough!” Isaiah said, raising his hands in self-defence. He was looking his majestic best. His long black hair had been washed and rebraided with hundreds of glittering crystal beads (it would not have surprised Axis to have learned they were diamonds) that jingled whenever he moved his head. He had abandoned his usual riding attire of leather trousers and jerkin for an all-black close-fitting ensemble that highlighted his musculature and strength.
From somewhere, possibly Lamiah who may have liberated it from one of Isaiah’s original invading supply wagons, Isaiah had found one of his extraordinary jewelled collars. It hung about his upper chest and draped over his shoulders in a blaze of diamonds, sapphires and emeralds, which, along with the jewels in his braids, caught every glint of light.
Axis thought the Skraelings would be salivating in envy.
Isaiah sighed, thinking about what he could, or wanted, to say. “All I want to say for now is that when we talk with the Skraelings, I will probably take us back to almost the beginning of time when this world was very new. I lived then, as did Lister, and we each had many adventures and made many decisions that have long, long been forgotten.
“At least, I thought they had been forgotten. When I touched you yesterday, Inardle, one of those decisions, one of my ancient secrets, reared up and told me in no uncertain tones that it still lived, and that the consequences of a rash action tens of thousands of years ago have now come back to haunt me.” He paused. “As they have haunted you, Axis, and this land. I made a grave mistake many, many aeons ago, and I had no idea . . . no idea at all .”
He managed a small smile. “Perhaps that mistake can be revealed, and maybe I can have a chance to make right for the future a wrong that is anciently old. Maybe the Skraelings can have a chance, too. And, Axis,” Isaiah’s smile grew a little broader, a little more genuine, “maybe you will understand why the Skraelings loathe water so much. Gods, that alone should have given it away to me . . . oh, well, no matter now. Are you ready?”
That little speech hadn’t enlightened either Axis or Inardle, and it had made Axis feel a great deal more uneasy. He wasn’t happy at all about walking toward a throng of millions of Skraelings, even with Isaiah at his side, and from what Isaiah was saying .
“Come, Axis,” Isaiah said. “It will be an adventure, and you like adventures.”
“I gave up admiring adventures a long time ago,” Axis muttered, but Isaiah pretended not to hear him, and together the three began the journey across the no-man’s land between the two armies.
The juit birds had preferred to make their roost elsewhere this night.
They walked in silence toward the Skraeling mass which opened up as they approached, forming an avenue toward their centre.
Axis began to feel very nervous . . . he had expected to meet with a delegation somewhere other than surrounded by several million Skraelings.
It will be all right, Axis, Isaiah said, and with that Axis had to content himself.
He glanced at Inardle. She was walking to his side, outwardly calm, but he could tell by the way she held her wings and the tight skin about her eyes that she was also very tense.
Isaiah strode without hesitation into the midst of the Skraelings, Axis and Inardle a half step behind him.
None of the Skraeling had eyes for any other than Isaiah, and Axis thought that whatever Isaiah had said to Ozll earlier had so impressed or otherwise astounded the Skraelings they could now completely ignore the fact the StarMan walked withi
n their midst.
Under any other circumstances Axis thought they would not have hesitated to tear him to pieces.
The entire mass was utterly silent, staring at Isaiah.
The man glittered as he walked. Axis had to admire his sense of style — something Axis had never really exploited when he was StarMan. Isaiah strode forth as if he owned the very ground on which he walked, radiating majesty and serenity and confidence, and everyone either stared silently or followed meekly.
Eventually Isaiah, Axis and Inardle came to a small circular area, delineated by the standing, crammed Skraelings. In the centre of this circle stood Ozll and two other Skraelings, both as hideously malformed as Ozll.
Isaiah walked to within three paces of them, then sat cross-legged in one graceful, elegant move.
He gestured to Axis and Inardle to do likewise (who managed it smoothly if not with as much elegance as Isaiah), then spoke to the Skraelings. “You may sit, also.”
He had, in an instant, taken total command of the meeting.
“You know me as Isaiah,” he said, “and you likely all know my companion, Axis SunSoar, StarMan, and perhaps even Inardle, who as a Lealfast has been a companion to many of you. I know I address Ozll, but I wonder who else sits with you, Ozll. How may I call them?”
Ozll hesitated.
“Their mystery names, I think,” Isaiah said, “for this grand parley.”
Another slight hesitation, then the two Skraeling spoke in turn.
“Mallx,” said one.
“Pannh,” said the other. Then, “How did you know of Veldmr?”
“The question is,” Isaiah said, “how do you know of him? But, we’ll get to that. May I begin? There are many things we need to discuss, and the night promises to be cold, and I and my friends would like to return to my campfire as soon as we may.
“Now, here is the situation as I understand it. I am leading this army toward Elcho Falling so that I may assist my friends within to dislodge their besiegers, the Lealfast led by Eleanon. Eleanon may or may not — I have no intelligence on this — be allied with my former general, Kezial, and his army. You, on the other hand, are allied with the One, and are marching behind us with an uncertain purpose in mind. I don’t suppose you would care to elaborate?”
None of the three Skraelings spoke, and Isaiah continued.
“Ah, well, then, perhaps we can cover that later. The One has an uncertain location at the moment . . . you don’t wish to disclose this . . . no? Perhaps you don’t actually know? Well, never mind, we can leave that for later, as well. Now, to my purpose in meeting with you. I propose an alliance between you,” a wave of the hand indicated all the Skraelings, “and I, against the Lealfast and against the One.”
Ozll sniggered and a low wave of laughter twittered through the ranks of the Skraelings. Axis thought it sounded like an axe being grated slowly over a flagstoned floor.
Isaiah smiled slowly. “You ask yourselves why . . . well, may I relate to you something I have learned over the past day?”
“We are hungry,” Ozll said. “It has been a long time since our last eating. I hope you make this story a short one.”
The threat was clear, but Isaiah ignored it. “I shall make this story an entertaining one,” he said, “and revealing. Indeed, eventually I shall reveal to you how you came by your mystery names and what purpose they serve.”
“Speak no more of our mystery names!” Mallx said. “You have no —”
“I have every right,” Isaiah said, and now the threat had moved to his voice. Then he softened his tone. “And I am going to talk about water — a great deal. This also is my right. But first .
“Inardle here, whom you know, was injured recently. I had cause to examine her wounds. She had been attacked by her fellow Lealfast . . . well, not quite fellows, as they — as you — had been altered by their association with the One. Inardle’s attackers had tipped their arrows with poison, so that even if the strike did not kill her, the poison surely would within the day.
“At first, when I came to examine her, I thought I could do little for Inardle. But then . . . then . . . tell me, Ozll, you do know who I am . . . yes?”
Ozll stared at him. “You’re a god. Was . . . until the One stripped you of your powers.”
“Am a god,” Isaiah said, holding Ozll’s gaze, “for even the One could not strip me of my power permanently.”
Ozll’s thin strip of a mouth — as those of his companions — began to lift in a sneer, but Isaiah moved his hand over the ground between them.
It changed into a small pool of green water.
Ozll, Mallx and Pannh all leaped to their feet, stumbling backward, their faces contorted in horror, and the entire mass of Skraelings hissed and shifted.
Isaiah waved his hand again and the water vanished.
“I am water,” he said. “I am the essence of this element. Call me a god if you wish. But whatever you call me, I must be everything you hate and fear most.”
“Be rid of him!” someone hissed from the surrounding mass of Skraelings, and the cry was taken up among the multitude.
Be rid of him! Be rid of him!
Axis tensed, glancing at Inardle, and wondering if they would survive long if they made a run for it. Damn Isaiah! What was he doing!
“Raise one finger against me or my two companions,” Isaiah said quietly, “and I swear to the very heavens I will turn the ground beneath you into water.”
The Skraelings quietened, although they still moved restlessly.
And I would do it, Isaiah said to Axis, keeping the thought closed to all others, and if I did you would be astounded at what would happen, Axis.
Isaiah —
Trust me, Axis. When we leave here —
If we leave here.
— I will explain all. Just wait.
“Sit,” Isaiah said to the three leading Skraelings, and, very warily, they once again sat before Isaiah, Axis and Inardle.
“I was talking about Inardle,” Isaiah said. “I need to explain this to you, so please be patient. The sooner I can say what I need to, the sooner I can go home and eat. So . . . I was examining Inardle, thinking I could do nothing for her, when I realised that Inardle was quite special. She has much water within her. Not physical water as such, but the spiritual manifestation of water. Water has somehow been at the very essence of her creation — far, far back in time, through many tens of thousands of generations. So, as Water itself, I was able to heal her. I used the essence of water deep within Inardle to remove the poison from her body.
“Inardle is a very special woman. Very mystical, very magical. Axis, tell our assembled friends just how special.”
Axis wasted a moment gaping at Isaiah, then collected himself enough to speak.
“Isaiah is right,” he said, carefully not looking at Inardle. “Inardle is very special. She . . . she flows”
To one side Isaiah gave a small smile, and nodded.
“Inardle, like all Lealfast, can flow through the air,” Axis continued. “Almost become one with it. Vaporous. She frosts,” now he did glance at Inardle, “when she is in pain or when she is, ah, excited. Water coats her flesh in ice crystals. She has magic that I cannot understand. It does not come from the Icarii.”
“No,” said Isaiah. “What makes Inardle so very, very special does not come from her Icarii heritage, but from her Skraeling heritage. From you.”
Now the Skraelings stared at Isaiah, puzzled, their malformed faces creased by lines of doubt. They could not fathom that Isaiah might be about to make some positive statement about them.
No one ever did that.
“It is why you have mystery names,” Isaiah said, “from your mystery past. Tell me, my friends, from where did the Skraelings originate?”
“From the frozen northern wastes,” Pannh said.
“But from whom?” Isaiah said. “Who were the ancestors of the Skraelings? The Icarii boast a sparrow,” Isaiah threw a smile at Axis, “and the Leal
fast can say that they resulted from a mating between an Icarii and a Skraeling, but from whom did you spring?”
“I am certain you must think it was something hateful,” Mallx said.
Then Isaiah spoke, and it was in a language that Axis had never heard before. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard issue from someone’s mouth — liquid, lilting phrases that were almost, but not quite, the sound of woodland songbirds at dawn.
It absolutely captivated every last single Skraeling. The entire mass froze solid in surprise, or perhaps yearning.
Axis glanced at Inardle, to share his wonder with her, and was stunned to see the same astonishment, almost hunger, on her face as on the Skraelings’.
“Did you know what I just said?” Isaiah said.
Every Skraeling, as well as Inardle, shook their heads slowly. Axis had no idea what was happening, but he had never, in all his time, seen Skraelings so still and so captivated as he did now. He thought that if he had known whatever it was that Isaiah had just said, and spake it to the Skraeling hordes who had invaded and destroyed so much of Tencendor, then he could have stilled an entire army of them in an instant.
“Isaiah?” Inardle said, and there was deep hunger in her voice.
“I said, ‘Welcome home, my friends.’ I spoke in one of the most ancient languages of our world. Water.”
“What do you want?” Ozll almost growled. “Why do you taunt us?”
“I do not taunt you,” said Isaiah. “I am currently sitting here feeling the weight of aeons of guilt piling about my shoulders, because once I did you a great wrong, and it was simply that I forgot about you. I am going to right that wrong today, if you will allow me.”
“You owe us something?” Ozll said, more puzzled than ever.
“Yes,” Isaiah said. “I owe you something. Now, do not be afraid, for I am going to cast over everyone here a mild enchantment which will enable you to see back into the distant past. Do not fear. I do not mean to entrap you. Any of you can leave the enchantment at any time, by simply uttering a word. Any word, but it will still be enough to break the enchantment. Would you like to proceed?”
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