Maximilian knew. He stared at Axis, and gave him the ghost of a smile, then raised his hand in the air to attract the attention of the massed soldiers.
“Behold,” he said, and he waved his hand.
Then, before the startled eyes of the watching tens of thousands, the representation of Elcho Falling blurred, then fell apart. Most of the snowflakes tumbled to the ground, coating the heads and shoulders of the army below, but many thousands of them remained hovering in the air.
There was a long moment when they just hung there, quivering slightly in the faint wind, and then the snowflakes transformed into the indescribably beautiful frosted outlines of winged men and women.
Axis had never seen anything like it; the sight eclipsed, for the moment, his joy at being able to once again touch the Star Dance. The sky filled with the creatures, light glinting and shimmering off their wings and the outline of their bodies. They rose into the air, higher and higher, a great cloud of glimmering lights, a tangle of wings and outflung arms and the curve here and there of a back, or a shoulder, or a cheek.
Axis dragged his eyes away to look at his father. StarDrifter was staring upward, transfixed, his mouth open.
It was a similar reaction all about. Men stood, utterly still, staring upward, mouths hanging open.
“These are the Lealfast,” said Maximilian, his even voice carrying across the entire assembly. “You do not need to fear them. They have pledged themselves to me, the first to do so with their entire hearts and loyalties.”
Maximilian opened both arms, his face now looking up at the Lealfast hanging in the sky far above him.
“My friends!” he called. “Will you inhabit the winds for a time, while I speak to this great crowd?”
As one, every Lealfast in the sky bowed—with exquisite gracefulness—then wheeled away to the north.
In five heartbeats they were gone, and Axis felt a breath go through the mass, as if of disappointment.
“The Lealfast,” Maximilian said again, “are the first peoples to pledge themselves to me. Others may follow.” He paused. “I do not command you by any right, nor by any heritage. I am the Lord of Elcho Falling only, not of the world. But the doors of Elcho Falling are open to any who wish to join with me, or have like cause with me. Isaiah has handed command of you into my hands, but I cannot command the same loyalty that you owed Isaiah, nor should I try to do so.
“That loyalty is something you must give me freely.”
Again Maximilian paused. “Some among you have chosen a different path to mine. Kezial, Lamiah, and Armat, three of Isaiah’s generals, as well as some of their confidantes, have fled, preferring lonelier campfires to those here.”
Stars, thought Axis, be careful with this, Maxel. He wondered if he should use the Star Dance somehow, to aid Maximilian, then realized that Maximilian would hate that.
Axis almost smiled. He was looking for an excuse now, any excuse, to use the Star Dance.
Despite his concern, Axis was glad that Maximilian had mentioned the generals’ desertion openly. The fact of that desertion would be widely known within the Isembaardian army.
“Many of you are worried about what has happened to your homes and families in Isembaard,” Maximilian continued. “I know that, and I sympathize with it.
“I can do a little about it. Tomorrow I am sending your once-Tyrant, Isaiah, back to Isembaard. Accompanying him shall be twenty thousand or so of the Lealfast fighters.”
Axis hoped that Maximilian had already mentioned this to Eleanon.
“Your loyalty,” Maximilian said to the Isembaardians, “you need to give to me freely. I shall not seek to force it.”
He took a deep breath and gave a nod, and dismissed the gathering with that simple action.
Maximilian turned to step down from the top of the hill, but as he did so three Lealfast materialized above his head, and descended before him. As they landed, they attained full flesh, although their forms still shimmered with a semitransparency and frost still rimed the ridges of their features.
They bowed to Maximilian, spreading their wings out behind them in the same manner as the Icarii when paying someone their respects.
“Lord of Elcho Falling,” said one of them, a bold, handsome man, “my name is Eleanon, and I speak for all the Lealfast. We have waited thousands of years for you, Maximilian Persimius, and our lives are now yours to command as you will.”
Then Eleanon rose and, just before Maximilian addressed him, shot Axis a look of chilling triumph.