Ishbel sat in her tent, the Goblet of the Frogs in her hands. It was late at night. Madarin had long settled down in his bedding in a small shelter built into the back of the tent, and Ishbel supposed that she, too, should go to bed. The Lealfast were due to arrive in the morning, and it would be a day partly of excitement, partly of nerves. No one truly knew how the Isembaardians would react to the arrival of such a supernatural force—or even how the Lealfast themselves might behave.
She turned the goblet over and over. It felt wonderful in her hands: the glass was smooth and warm, and even when it did not whisper to her the goblet managed to convey such love and warmth that Ishbel found it difficult to pack it away.
It was so beautiful. Ishbel thought that her ancestor, Tirzah, must have been extraordinary to have created something this beautiful.
It was because she loved the man for whom she created me, the goblet said.
“Boaz,” Ishbel murmured, so relaxed by the goblet’s soothing presence that the fact it spoke to her did not mar her serenity in the slightest.
Love can do many amazing things.
Ishbel smiled, just slightly. “You think that Maximilian and I…”
It is a possibility only.
“I don’t think so,” said Ishbel. “I am the stronger without him.”
Possibly.
“I can’t think that—”
“Talking to yourself, Ishbel?”
Ishbel looked up, startled.
Salome was standing just inside the door of the tent, looking at her quizzically.
“Talking to myself only,” Ishbel said, folding the goblet away in a piece of cloth. She smiled. “I find it helps, sometimes.”
Salome smiled back, sitting down on a stool and arranging her robe and wings to her satisfaction.
“The baby?” Ishbel said.
Salome rested a hand on her growing belly. “He is doing well, but I am almost at that point where I will be happier with him outside of me than inside. StarDrifter will not allow me to fly. He says I still am too ungainly in the air—” Salome made a moue “—and my flight muscles not yet strong enough to bear us both. I might harm his precious son should I topple from the sky.”
“I am sure he is just as worried for you, Salome.”
“Well, perhaps.”
“Maxel and I saw some Icarii flying in today. What do you know of them?”
“Ah! StarDrifter is so pleased! Apparently BroadWing sent word back with several Icarii when first he realized StarDrifter was heading north with Isaiah’s force. Now Icarii are heading to join with their Talon.” Salome smiled. “Many are coming, including a goodly number, BroadWing told me this afternoon, who were once with Axis’ vaunted Strike Force. All I can hope for, my dear, is that StarDrifter’s entire family does not reappear. I simply could not manage.”
Ishbel laughed.
“Now,” Salome continued, “you must tell me all about you and Maximilian. You told me yesterday what transpired when you went to declare your love for him, but now it appears that Ravenna has been left to mope alone with her mother, and Maximilian is all of a sudden casting hooded looks your way!” Salome smiled in genuine warmth. “And now you tell me that you and he met earlier? Ha! Do you remember that day when first we became friends, and I said how I admired you for the fact that you so carelessly manipulated the love of kings and tyrants—without even being aware of it?”
“Yes.”
“Any other woman would have crumpled with despair at Maximilian’s rejection, Ishbel. I know of no one who could have managed such a disaster with aplomb and dignity. And now look at you! You wear your clothes with such…difference. Two days ago that gown would have hung dispirited on you. Now you wear it as though it were a vestment fit for the most powerful empress. As though you were the most powerful empress. What is your secret?”
“You asked me that on the first day we met, as I recall,” Ishbel said.
“Tell me what happened once Maxel had walked away from you, Ishbel.”
Ishbel gave a little shrug. “I became angry—at myself. I couldn’t believe I’d allowed myself to sink so low. So, Salome, that is my only secret.”
Salome’s eyes drifted to the cloth-wrapped goblet, and she slid Ishbel a sly glance, but did not comment on it.
“How do you feel for Maxel?” she asked.
“Exhausted,” Ishbel said, then gave a soft laugh. “I am exhausted with loving him, and am enjoying not having to do so.”
“Well, then, you are finally your own woman,” Salome said, rising to her feet with admirable grace considering her advanced pregnancy. “Ravenna is angry.”
“She thinks I will ruin Maximilian’s life, and the entire world besides.”
“Venetia had a talk with me this morning,” Salome said. “She worries about her daughter.”
“I do not,” Ishbel said.
“Perhaps you should,” Salome said, then leaned down to give Ishbel a good-night kiss, and departed.
Maximilian was fast asleep in his tent when he was startled awake by a hand on his shoulder.
“Doyle?” he said, rising onto one elbow.
“My lord,” Doyle said, his voice tight, “there is something I need to tell you.”
Far distant, the Lealfast fighters glided through the night. They journeyed in their magical form, almost transparent crystals of snow that sliced through the air against the wind. At night they were invisible; during the day they could be seen only in numbers, and only then as a filmy gray cloud high in the sky.
As they flew, Eleanon, Bingaleal, and Inardle talked, traveling far enough away from the others that they could not be overheard.
“The One is extraordinary,” Bingaleal said, as he had said many times on their journey north toward Maximilian.
“He is dangerous, too,” Inardle said.
“He promises more for us than Maximilian,” said Eleanon.
“But at what price?” Inardle said. “What shall he ask of us?”
“We have always thought that only the Lord of Elcho Falling had the power to achieve what we needed,” said Eleanon.
For a moment the three Lealfast shared the dream to which all Lealfast aspired. Wholeness. Freedom from their half-and-half nature—half Skraeling, half Icarii. The Lealfast despised both Skraeling and Icarii and yearned for their own future, their own identity.
Wholeness.
Formerly they had thought only the Lord of Elcho Falling had the power to strip them of both their Skraeling and Icarii blood, but now…
“Now, there is the One,” Bingaleal said, “and suddenly we have a choice. Inardle, we must consider that choice, and we must keep our choices open. The nation depends on the decisions the three of us make.”
“But we must not be hasty,” Inardle said.
“Indeed not,” said Eleanon. “We fly to Maximilian, we consider him, and then we learn as much as we can about the One and what he offers, and then we consider him as well. We shall not be hasty. But we shall do whatever is needed to better the Lealfast. But for the moment, our loyalty shall be publicly with Maximilian. Until…”
“We find a better choice,” said Bingaleal, “and are certain in that choice.”
Far below them a tiny dot scampered south.
It was the rat which had crawled from the Goblet of the Frogs, and it was moving supernaturally fast.