Shit,” Axis said. Then again. “Shit!”
He looked at Egalion. The man was ashen.
“We’ll need to move fast,” Axis said, speaking in a low but urgent voice.
They needed to move fast, yes, but giving Egalion something to do would break him out of his fugue faster than anything else.
“Ravenna and Armat will know Maximilian is dead,” Axis continued. “It is just past midnight…Egalion, we can expect an attack before dawn. There will be nothing to prevent them now. Get Georgdi and Ezekiel, and get every damned soldier you can find and station them either in the vaulted chamber entrance or in the balconies lining the great stairwell. Remember how Ravenna got those thousand men in previously. Damn it, she likely has enough power to shroud Armat’s entire army. Egalion?”
“Yes,” he said. “Yes.”
“Move!” Axis said, and Egalion stared at him a heartbeat longer before running for the door.
StarDrifter, Axis called. BroadWing.
In the ten minutes or so it took for them to reach him, Axis paced the chamber, looking every now and again at the closed door to the chamber holding Maximilian, Ishbel, and Garth.
Maximilian would be dead by now. Stars, he’d been eviscerated. That had not been just blood erupting from his belly wound.
Axis closed his eyes for a moment, fighting to forget what he’d just witnessed.
Shit! If only he had the power to turn back time and prevent Maximilian walking into Ravenna’s trap.
“Axis?” StarDrifter and BroadWing arrived together, folding their wings as they walked in the balcony door.
“Maximilian has been killed,” Axis said.
StarDrifter and BroadWing just stared at Axis, utterly shocked.
“Ravenna trapped him. She likely had Armat lying in wait in the Land of Dreams,” Axis said. “We can expect an attack from Armat within hours. BroadWing, I will need you to get both the Strike Force and the Lealfast into the air. Report any movement you see in Armat’s camp.”
BroadWing nodded, turning for the balcony.
“BroadWing?” Axis said, and the Strike Force commander turned back.
“Be careful,” Axis said. “I distrust Ravenna’s sorceries.”
BroadWing nodded, saluted Axis with a clenched hand across his chest, then was gone.
“Ishbel?” StarDrifter said.
“Still in with what remains of Maxel. I have no idea what she can do apart from grieve. Stars, StarDrifter, he was virtually sliced in two.”
StarDrifter put a hand on his son’s shoulder. “What can I do, Axis?”
Axis took a deep breath. “At the moment the only thing we have in our favor is that we have the Star Dance back in full measure.” He gave a small, humorless smile. “At least we are Enchanters again, StarDrifter. I suspect Ravenna will use that trick she used last night to gain entry for her hordes. They’ll come disguised with sorceries, and we’ll need somehow to either negate those sorceries, or somehow combat them.”
For some minutes they conferred quietly, discussing ways in which they could use the Star Dance and their own powers to protect Elcho Falling.
“It might be possible—” StarDrifter said, and both men looked up as Inardle, Egalion, and Georgdi strode in the door. Inardle came straight to Axis, and he gave her a quick hug, using it to comfort himself as much as her.
“Maximilian is dead?” Georgdi said, and Axis noted the pain in the man’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Georgdi’s face tightened, but he gave a nod. “My men have taken up position within the vaulted chamber,” he said. “Egalion has stationed the Emerald Guard up the main stairwell.”
“Good,” Axis said. “The Strike Force and Lealfast are in the air. We should get some warning of an attack, even if Armat’s entire army vanish into a sorcerous gloom. I’m taking command for the moment. We can discuss later an orderly succession. I can’t have—”
“There will be no need for such action,” Ishbel said, closing the door to Maximilian’s death chamber behind her.
Everyone was so shocked by her appearance they could not answer immediately. Ishbel was literally covered in blood. It had soaked and dried into so much of her skirts that they were as stiff as wooden boards, and made walking difficult. Her hands and arms up to her elbows were covered in thick, dried blood, and Axis tried very hard not to imagine where she’d had those hands and arms. Blood had also spattered over her face and through her hair, and soaked in great patches through the material over her breasts.
Thus walks the Archpriestess of the Coil after one of her slaughters, Axis thought, then felt ashamed at the ungenerosity of his thoughts.
Ishbel moved a little closer, and Axis felt everyone else tense, as if they wanted to take a few steps back. Stars, she stank of Maximilian’s blood—and worse.
She raised both her hands before her, and everyone looked at them.
“See,” she said softly, “I wear both rings of Persimius now. My marriage ring and that which Maximilian once wore. There is no need for you to assume command, Axis SunSoar. I am Persimius,” her tone hardened slightly, “and I am the Lady of Elcho Falling, and can travel the Twisted Tower as well as once could my husband. What was once Maximilian’s is now mine.” She paused. “That includes your loyalty.”
There was absolute silence as everyone stared at Ishbel.
She moved her hand, just a little, just enough so that the lamplight caught at the few unbloodied jewels of the rings on her hands. “I am Persimius. I am the Lady of Elcho Falling, and I do command your loyalty.”
Axis stared at her, fixated by the frightful sight of her standing there, commanding his loyalty.
“And you have it, my lady,” Georgdi said, falling to one knee before Ishbel.
She lowered her right hand to him, which carried on its fourth finger Maximilian’s ring, and Georgdi kissed it.
An instant later, Egalion was also on his knee before her, kissing the ring.
Axis felt nauseated at the thought of the taste of Maximilian’s blood in his mouth.
Georgdi and Egalion stepped back, and Ishbel moved a little closer to Axis and StarDrifter.
At this close distance, Axis’ stomach turned at the stench of Maximilian’s death, and he had to swallow to prevent himself gagging.
“You gave your loyalty to Maximilian,” Ishbel said, holding Axis’ gaze. “Will you now give it to me?”
“Ishbel—” Axis began.
“I command everything that Maximilian once commanded,” said Ishbel, “and that includes you.”
Her gaze was absolutely relentless, and Axis had the sudden thought that she’d prove a far better commander than Maximilian might have done. She had the strength and the stomach for it, he realized, and she might hold Elcho Falling together, where without her it would fall apart.
“You have it,” Axis said.
“You don’t wish to kiss the ring?” Ishbel said, and her mouth twitched, just slightly. Axis realized it wasn’t humor so much as recognition of her current state.
“Perhaps later,” Axis said, and Ishbel gave a nod.
“That is good enough for me,” she said. “StarDrifter?”
“You have my loyalty,” he said, “and that of the Strike Force.”
“Inardle?” Ishbel said.
“And mine, and that of the Lealfast,” Inardle said, and she had no hesitation in stepping forward and kissing the ring.
“You think Armat will attack now Maximilian is dead?” Ishbel said to Axis.
“Within a few hours,” Axis said. “If I were him I would not waste this opportunity. He must think Elcho Falling in disarray.”
“Well,” said Ishbel, “bloodied, if not in disarray,” and Axis once again marveled at how calm and self-controlled she was.
“You have plans for a defense?” she asked.
“Yes,” Axis said, but as he began to explain them to Ishbel she interrupted him.
“No need,” she said. “I shall defend Elcho Falling.”
Before anyone could ask a question, Ishbel turned and walked toward the door that led deeper into Elcho Falling.
She vanished from sight before she reached it.