Eleanon did not lead the remainder of his fighters north into the Sky Peaks.
After they’d left Axis, Eleanon took the Lealfast a little way north, then turned everyone southeast instead, toward the FarReach Mountains and the Salamaan Pass.
What he had done sickened him. Eleanon had known it was more than likely Armat had set a trap, but he deliberately led his fighters into it. Eleanon knew his force could probably have defeated Armat had he approached with more circumspection and cunning, but had chosen instead to approach directly, incautiously.
Thousands had died, but they had not died needlessly.
Axis now thought Eleanon—and every other Lealfast—an utter fool. That meant that Axis and Maximilian would now severely underestimate Eleanon and his fighters.
Eleanon could use that.
The One could use that.
The disaster, and Axis’ contemptuous dismissal of Eleanon, also meant that Eleanon was now not only free to rejoin the Lealfast Nation waiting in the FarReach Mountains, but free to seek out Bingaleal.
Something had happened in Isembaard. Bingaleal was now something “other” than what he had been less than a day earlier.
Something more powerful.
Had he communed with the One?
All of the Lealfast with Bingaleal had transformed—evolved—and Eleanon needed to know what had happened.
Quite desperately.
The final positive that had resulted from what might otherwise be construed as Eleanon’s total madness was that Inardle was now with Axis. Her wounding was a piece of extraordinary luck, and Eleanon had used it to best advantage.
She would be in Axis’ bed within days, surely, and would prove another weapon against Axis and Maximilian.
A weapon. Eleanon could feel what Bingaleal and the Lealfast with him had become, and he wanted it, badly. The One could give them salvation, not the weakness that currently walked as the Lord of Elcho Falling.
So Eleanon flew southeast, drawing behind him the Lealfast fighters, toward the Lealfast Nation, toward Bingaleal and the One, and toward outright treachery against the Lord of Elcho Falling.