Ishbel?”
Ishbel twisted about on the stool, caught in the act of brushing out her hair before she dressed it for the day, irritated that Maximilian had found her at such an intimate moment.
“May I sit?” Maximilian said, coming further into the tent and nodding at the chair to one side of Ishbel’s mirror. “I’m sorry to disturb you before your breakfast.”
“Of course.” Ishbel set her brush to one side, keeping her movements slow and ordered and her expression carefully neutral as she regarded Maximilian.
“Ishbel, I do need to speak to you about what happened the other night in the snow.”
“There is no need to—”
“I should not have treated you in the manner I did. You did not deserve it.”
“You have done nothing these past months but allow me to believe that was how I should be treated.”
“We have both said things hurtful, and done things that—”
“Maximilian, leave this, please. I meant what I said earlier. Our past is now past. It is gone. I realized that after you’d left. There is no point in either of us trying to resurrect a relationship that has caused us nothing but pain.”
Maximilian regarded her steadily for a long moment, and Ishbel had to drop her eyes. That little speech had sounded ridiculous.
“You always said that the Lord of Elcho Falling would bring you nothing but pain and grief, Ishbel. I cannot believe I fulfilled that prophecy so readily.”
“It is gone, Maximilian. You have Ravenna now, and her child, and—”
“Did you not hear what I said about the command tent, Ishbel?”
“You can’t possibly want me to believe that not an hour after you turned your back on me, you then did the same to Ravenna.” Ishbel paused. “Can you?”
Maximilian shifted his eyes away from her as she had so recently averted hers.
“You amaze me,” Ishbel said. “I can’t believe it. You were willing to grind me into the snow with your heel and—”
“Ishbel—”
“And for what? For what? To then do the same to Ravenna not an hour later? I cannot believe you have the nerve, Maximilian, to sit there and…and expect me to fall about with gratefulness and dewy-eyed radiance and hold out my arms to you!”
“That is not why I came here!”
“Of course not. Oh, I am well rid of you, Maximilian Persimius! Do you know what I felt as you walked away from me in the snow? Do you know? It was anger, not at you or Ravenna, but at myself for having allowed myself to be so foolish as to love you!”
Ishbel closed her eyes briefly as she took a deep breath and damped down her anger. “Maximilian, I harbor no ill will toward you. I will do anything I can to aid you. But I will not love you. You need to understand that very clearly. I want control of my life back, and I want never again to find myself so hideously vulnerable as when I loved you. You were right all along. The marriage is over. The love is over.”
“You have abandoned love in short order, it seems.”
“As you abandoned love, and two women, in short order.”
He said nothing, looking down at his hands, the muscles in one cheek working.
Finally, he looked at Ishbel. “May I ask something?”
She sighed. “Why not?”
“Have you ever had any other visions or dreams than those which you told me about—myself, in the snow, destroying your world?”
She looked at him quizzically. “What kind of visions?”
“You, on your knees, opening the door of Elcho Falling to a lord of darkness.”
Now Ishbel looked very steadily at him for a long moment before answering. “No. The only nightmares I ever had were about you, Maxel.”
He looked at her sharply at that, but Ishbel continued straight on. “Where did you get that little gem from?”
He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, again not meeting her eyes.
“Ravenna?” she said, and Maximilian’s mouth tugged upward in a small smile.
“Yes,” he said. “She tells me that you will bring nothing but sorrow, and destroy me, Elcho Falling, and the entire land in the process.”
Ishbel laughed hollowly. “Oh, that I had that much power, Maxel.” She paused. “Do you believe her?”
“She showed me the vision. I saw it.”
“Well then, believe it if you must. Malat is talking of riding to the Central Kingdoms. I can go with him. I believe he is wifeless now the Skraelings ate his—”
“Ishbel!” Maximilian took a deep breath. “Don’t.”
“But you have seen this vision.”
“Don’t taunt me, Ishbel. Visions can be misinterpreted.”
“I hope you didn’t say that to Ravenna. It might have made her very cross.”
Another smile tugged at Maximilian’s mouth. “Do you mean me treachery, Ishbel?”
“No. But I am assuming that what Ravenna deduced from the vision was that I am weak-willed and prone to disasters of monumental proportions.”
“Your vision of me destroying your world…did it eventuate as you had thought?”
“Very close, but not quite, perhaps. I am still here, breathing, and my world is not shattered. Only my fear and doubt were destroyed.” She paused. “I allowed you to create such misery in my life, Maxel, because I loved you, and I won’t—”
“Allow that to happen again?” he said. “Yes, so you have said.”
Their eyes met, and both almost smiled.
“You have not come here to ask me to leave, Maxel?”
“No. I want you to stay.”
“And Ravenna’s vision…”
He shrugged, thinking of what Ishbel had said: Only my fear and doubt were destroyed. “Maybe it is truth, maybe not.”
Ishbel hesitated, then spoke. “Thank you for telling me about it, Maxel.”
He nodded. “Will you stay with my column?”
“You are going to Elcho Falling?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will stay with you. Elcho Falling is my home, too, Maximilian.”
“I know that.”
“Good.”
He rose, walking to the tent door. “Ishbel, be careful of Ravenna.”
She cannot possibly do me the harm that you have done, Ishbel thought, but was too tired to put those words to voice. She gave a nod.
“We need to talk again,” Maximilian said. “About Elcho Falling.”
She gave another nod.
He looked at her, then turned and left the tent.