He paused in the corridor outside, shaking with anger and such deep regret that he did not think he could bear it.
He heard Garth walk up beside him.
“How did it end like this?” Maximilian said, his voice breaking down. “How could it possibly have ended like this?”
Garth didn’t know what to say. How could it have ended like this? The bond the three of them had shared, the adventures, the laughter.
The journey beyond the hanging wall.
How could it have ended like this?
Garth felt tears well in his own eyes, and he put a hand on Maximilian’s shoulder and stood close while they both wept.
While Maximilian was with Ravenna, Insharah sought out Ishbel.
“My Lady?” he said, as he entered the chamber where she sat.
“Insharah,” Ishbel said, rising. She had much to do and consider, but she knew why Insharah had come, and Ishbel knew she owed him this and did not begrudge the interruption. She took Insharah’s hands and kissed his cheek in greeting. “It is good to see you, and once more allied with my friends. Come, sit.”
“My Lady,” Insharah said, “I, as all my countrymen at Elcho Falling, need to know what you and Maximilian found in Isembaard.”
Ishbel felt her tears welling, and wished she had the power to stop it. Insharah had not yet heard the story of Hairekeep, unless Axis or Georgdi had told him in the meantime . . . and he wouldn’t be sitting here with such hope in his eyes if he’d heard that dreadful tale.
“There is little good news, Insharah. I am so sorry. We were at Aqhat and travelled north then east through Sakkuth and past Hairekeep. There . . . well, all those who had sheltered at Hairekeep had died.”
Insharah sat back, withdrawing both physically and emotionally from Ishbel.
Ishbel remembered the piece of bone she had read with the name of Insharah’s wife on it. She wanted to tell him, but couldn’t.
He knew, anyway.
“Thank you,” Insharah said in a flat voice, and he rose and left the chamber.
Ishbel sat for a long time, staring at the closed door, tears running silently down her face, wishing there had been something else she could have told him. Then she stood and walked to the chambers she shared with Maximilian.
Chapter 4
Elcho Falling
Ishbel waited for Maximilian in their chamber at the very top of Elcho Falling. Above her the stars reeled, and the rings of the golden crown swung lazily around the citadel. The luxuriously appointed chamber glowed with soft light.
She glanced upward, knowing that there were Lealfast almost certainly hovering above. Ishbel wanted to close the roof, but didn’t want to give the Lealfast the satisfaction of knowing their presence had made her nervous.
So she wandered the chamber, waiting for Maximilian, her mind unable to stop worrying about what StarDancer had said.
Ishbel wondered if it would have made much difference to their current predicament if she had killed Ravenna when she’d had the chance, rather than bind her with curses. Even cursed, Ravenna had managed to create havoc.
StarDancer’s solution was unthinkable. There must be another way of dealing once and for all with the One. They couldn’t trust Ravenna. And Ishbel knew she couldn’t divest Maximilian of his power. If she struggled, Ishbel thought she might, just might be able to think of some circumstance where she removed the curses about Ravenna (but that was, indeed, close to impossible), but to divest Maximilian of his power . . . unthinkable! Further, to allow Ravenna’s child to assume the rights and privileges and power of the Lord of Elcho Falling, and then to have those rights and privileges and powers trapped in the Land of Nightmares?
Impossible. Impossible. Not only would it mean the end of Maximilian as Lord of Elcho Falling, but it would mean the end of the line of Lords of Elcho Falling, for the current Lord would be trapped in the Land of Nightmare.
Everything Maxel and she had fought so hard for would be as naught.
StarDancer’s “solution” was no solution at all. It demanded too high a price. It was just another trap, yet another nightmare. It would destroy as much as the One would destroy.
Perhaps more.
Gods, they may as well just hand everything to the One now! Would that not be better than seeing the line of the Lords of Elcho Falling die within the Land of Nightmares?
“We can’t possibly allow it,” Ishbel muttered, her loathing of Ravenna and everything she represented now consuming her.
If it wasn’t for Ravenna . . .
“Ishbel.”
She spun about, her face lighting up as Maximilian walked into the chamber.
Ishbel’s smile died as she saw his face. Maximilian looked exhausted and emotionally drained. She started toward him and, as she did so, Maximilian waved a hand, almost without thought, and closed the roof over their heads.
Whatever was the matter, he didn’t want to share it with the Lealfast.
“Maxel?”
He took her hand and tried a small smile for her, which faded the moment it appeared. “Come sit with me, Ishbel. I need to rest and we need to talk.”
Ishbel waited until they were seated on a couch near a small brazier she’d lit earlier, then she wrapped his hand in both of hers. “What happened, Maxel? Did you examine the Dark Spire, talk to Ravenna? What do you think. Should we —”
He gave her a small smile. “Too many questions, my love. But yes, I examined the Dark Spire and I talked to Ravenna. Neither was a particularly pleasant experience.”
“The Dark Spire?” Ishbel asked, not wanting to hear of Ravenna just yet.
“It is terrible, Ishbel. It has grown through many levels now, and has formed itself into a representation of Elcho Falling itself. It has birthed eggs . . . Ravenna has taken these and planted them about the outer walls of Elcho Falling. She told me where to look . . . Ishbel, I can’t do anything about them. They are like little cancers. They have grown deep into the fabric of Elcho Falling itself, in scores of different locations. I can’t get them out without destroying Elcho Falling in the process.”
Ishbel didn’t know what to say, or what to ask next. The very thought terrified her.
Oh, why hadn’t she killed Ravenna when she had the chance?
“How bad is it, Maxel?”
“I don’t know. I will investigate more tomorrow. But it is bad. I have no idea how to remove them, or even how to stop them growing.”
“Can Garth help with his Touch?”
“No. Garth has tried. Nothing.”
“Did you feel the One within the spire?”
Maximilian gave a terse nod. “I can feel him, but can do little against him. I cannot penetrate the spire, and even if I could . . . gods, Ishbel, I remember the power that the One sent seething down the path from the Twisted Tower toward me. He is so much stronger now than when the citadel expelled him. I fear that neither I nor Elcho Falling can touch him.”
“Oh Maxel . . . there must be something we can do.”
“I went to see Ravenna.”
“I wish I had killed —“
“Ishbel, don’t say it.” Maximilian paused, his tongue running about his lips. “I talked to her, Ishbel. She confirmed what StarDancer said.”
“You can’t possibly be thinking —”
“I can’t bear to think it, Ishbel! How can I trust her? How? To give her back her power and then to leave the fate of Elcho Falling in her hands? I cannot countenance it!”
Ishbel relaxed a little. She had not dared to admit it even to herself, but a tiny part of her had been terrified that Ravenna would somehow dupe Maximilian into agreeing to StarDancer’s plan.
“Then what can we do, Maxel?”
“I knew there would come a time when I would regret the loss of the Twisted Tower,” Maximilian said, “and this is it. While none of the knowledge in the Twisted Tower pertained specifically to the Dark Spire — who could have foretold it? — or to the One, there might have been something amid all t
hose objects and memories that might aid us.”
“Like what?”
“Something, perhaps, on how to repel disease within Elcho Falling’s walls. On how to repel weakness. On how to repel invaders. I don’t know, Ishbel. Both of us have been through every single object in that tower, but how many hundreds of memories and knowledges did we set to one side, thinking we would not need them in the raising of Elcho Falling?”
Ishbel nodded. When they had gone through the Twisted Tower with Josia they had specifically concentrated only on the knowledge needed to raise Elcho Falling. Everything else they had glimpsed was enough to remember objects, but they had not remembered specific details.
After all, they could always go back to the Twisted Tower whenever they needed to retrieve further information.
“I know on the forty-seventh level,” Ishbel said slowly, her brow creased as she thought, “there was something about the walls, something to do with . . . construction . . . or the enchantment that went into them . . . ”
“I thought I could remember a group of objects on the nightstand on the eighteenth level,” Maximilian said. “They were to do with the integrity of the structure. I think.”
“I . . . I don’t think I can remember those.”
“Damn it!” Maximilian said.
“We can’t go back, Maxel. We’ll just have to live with it.”
“Or die by it,” he said.
They sat in silence a little, then Maximilian spoke again.
“Ishbel, what if we reconstruct every level of the Twisted Tower on paper? Remember every object we can. Rebuild the Twisted Tower in plans and drawings. Plot every object. Then . . . maybe . . . maybe we might remember something.”
She kissed his cheek. “You are tired, I am tired, and we are both too weary to think. Come to bed. We haven’t slept in a real bed for a very, very long time.”
“We are going to need to do this, Ishbel.”
“I know. But for now come to bed.”
Then her eyes focussed on something a few paces behind Maximilian’s chair.
It was one of Elcho Falling’s servants.
She closed her mouth, wet her lips, still staring beyond Maximilian, then said, softly, “Maxel .”
“Hallelujah!” Eleanon cried as the scout reported back to him. “Maxel and Ishbel are home!”
He turned to Falayal, standing nearby. “We move in the morning,” he said. “Get the word out. We rise before dawn and leave so we arrive at Elcho Falling as the sun rises. Falayal . . . it won’t be long, now. From tomorrow, Elcho Falling will be isolated from the outside world.”
“And then .” Falayal said. “Are we ready?”
Eleanon grinned. “Yes,” he said. “We are ready.”
Chapter 5
Elcho Falling
Axis tipped his chair back, rested one of his booted feet against the edge of the table in the command chamber, and looked at Isaiah standing by the empty fireplace.
Isaiah returned his regard with one of his inscrutable expressions.
Axis shifted his eyes to Inardle, also sitting at the table.
She merely looked bored.
“Well,” said Axis, “where is Maxel? He calls us from our beds before dawn, then leaves us sitting here while he, no doubt, breakfasts in luxury while we —”
The door opened and Maximilian and Ishbel came in. Both looked exhausted, their eyes dark shadowed and their faces pale.
Obviously not such a good breakfast, Inardle said privately to Axis, and he flicked a look her way, but did not respond.
“What is wrong?” Isaiah said, waiting until Maximilian and Ishbel sat down before he, too, took a place at the table.
“We’re sorry to have kept you waiting,” Maximilian said. “Ishbel and I have had little sleep, what with this and that. Elcho Falling’s servant came to speak with us last night. Now we need to talk to you.”
“No one else?” Axis said. “Not Georgdi, nor Insharah, nor StarDrifter, nor Kezial, or —”
“No one else,” Maximilian said. “You are my core commanders.”
“Not even StarDrifter?” Axis said.
“I wanted to keep it to the bare minimum,” Maximilian snapped, “so that I might avoid as much unnecessary talk and query and questioning and damned arguments as I could. Trust me when I say I am now reconsidering you!”
From the corner of his eye Axis could see Inardle bite the corner of her lip, and he shifted his gaze so that he could not see her at all. He hoped Maximilian had not caught her amusement.
“I apologise,” Axis said to Maximilian. “You’ve had a bad night. What’s wrong?”
“We face danger on several fronts,” Maximilian said, “and that does not include Elcho Falling itself, which will be the battlefield.” He looked about. “Is there no tea here? I would have thought that —”
“It is coming,” Inardle said. “Just talk, Maxel. Don’t worry about the tea.”
Maximilian sighed. “We face danger on several fronts. From the One, from the Dark Spire, and from Eleanon and the Lealfast.”
He was going to say more, but just then there was a tap at the door, and a servant came in bearing a tray with tea and some breakfast biscuits on it.
Maximilian made an impatient gesture, despite his irritated query for tea a moment earlier, but Axis waved him into silence, rose, took the tray from the servant and placed it on the table as the servant left, closing the door behind him.
Axis poured everyone a mug of tea, then handed the mugs around, giving everyone a thick warm biscuit as well.
“And there ends my menial duties for the day,” he said. “Maxel, speak, if you will.”
Maximilian took the time to sip his tea. He crumbled his biscuit into pieces, but did not attempt to eat it.
“For the moment I will leave the problem of the One,” he said, “and discuss the Lealfast and the Dark Spire. Eleanon and the Lealfast are closely connected to the Dark Spire. In the absence of the One — or at least in the supposed absence of the One, for I do not doubt the One has kept his return hidden from Eleanon — Eleanon has been the driving force behind the continued growth of the Dark Spire. He was the one who planted it in Elcho Falling, and he has been the one who has continued to nurture it, sending Ravenna to midwive its mischief.
Eleanon no doubt thinks that the Dark Spire will prove his main weapon against Elcho Falling. Ishbel?”
She continued. “Last night Elcho Falling’s servant came to us to talk about the Dark Spire.”
“Not the One?” Isaiah said.
“Elcho Falling can do little against the One,” Ishbel said, “certainly not while he hides within the spire, and likely not once he emerges if he carries with him the full power of Infinity. Elcho Falling does not believe it can expel the One again, as it did on his earlier visit. It thinks the One’s power has strengthened enormously during his journey through Infinity into the Dark Spire.”
“But Elcho Falling has spoken of the Dark Spire,” Axis said.
“Yes,” Ishbel said. “I think the citadel fears the Dark Spire almost as much as the One. Essentially, the Dark Spire is a creation of both the power of Infinity and of the Lealfast. Eleanon thinks he controls it, but in reality the Dark Spire will likely prove far too powerful for him. Infinity will rope out of it once it has reached its full potential, and Eleanon, or any mortal who thinks to manipulate it, will be destroyed.”
“But the Lealfast made the Dark Spire,” Inardle said. “Hundreds of generations ago.”
“They did,” said Ishbel, “but not alone. They used the help of the Magi who had escaped Ashdod. The Dark Spire connects directly into the power of Infinity, particularly now the One inhabits it. The Dark Spire has also worked its way into the very fabric of Elcho Falling. It eats of Elcho Falling’s nature. It imbibes Elcho Falling. It plans to become Elcho Falling.”
Maximilian took over the speaking. “But first it must destroy Elcho Falling as it currently exists. Or at least partly destroy it, enough
that the Dark Spire can then recreate Elcho Falling in its own image, or to its own purpose. To be brief, the One and Eleanon intended to use the Dark Spire to destroy Elcho Falling, then to rebuild it to their own needs, and to control the power of Infinity that would flood out of it.”
“The Dark Spire is intended to be the ultimate gateway into Infinity,” Ishbel said. “It will channel the complete, dark power of Infinity into this world.”
“Power the One will then control,” Isaiah said.
“Aye,” Maximilian said. “Currently Eleanon may think he is going to be the Dark Spire’s master, but in reality it will be the One who will control all this power. Elcho Falling tells me that the One is the only creature capable of controlling it, for once the Dark Spire takes Elcho Falling’s place, once it becomes Elcho Falling, then the dark power of Infinity will ripple out from this place and will, eventually, consume the entire world. Nothing will survive. Nothing. The Dark Spire shall be the ultimate Infinity Gate, and the power it will channel into this world will destroy it. The One will become master of death and destruction, and glory in it.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Cheery news,” Axis said, finally. “What can we do?”
“For the moment I do not believe Eleanon knows of the One’s return,” Maximilian said. “The One will want Eleanon and the Lealfast to continue on their path — previously agreed between them before Eleanon believed the One had gone and that he could become the spire’s only master — which will be to nurture the spire, and to give it what aid it needs to grow to maturity when, so I believe, it will destroy Elcho Falling and take its place. Of course the One has other plans for that moment, but for the time being I believe Eleanon and the Lealfast remain critical to the spire’s continued development.
“Axis, I am going to place you and Isaiah in complete control of the Eleanon and Lealfast problem. If you can stop them, then perhaps we can stop the Dark Spire before it becomes too powerful.”
“And you and Ishbel?” Axis said.
“We need to be elsewhere,” Maximilian said. “You and Isaiah will take on this task. You are willing?”
The Infinity Gate Page 40