More time passed. The three men sat against three different walls of the pit, not speaking, but not sleeping, either.
Axis shifted uneasily, unable to stop thinking about Inardle.
He hoped that Risdon would kill her sooner rather than later, and then hated himself for that thought.
He wondered if her body would frost when he raped her, and loathed himself for that reflection.
Eventually, through sheer determination to empty his mind, Axis slipped into another fitful doze. As he slipped deeper into unconsciousness, disconnected images began to flit across his mind until, finally…
“Axis?”
He blinked, then leapt to his feet, staring about.
“Axis, don’t worry. We are in the Land of Dreams. I brought you here while you slept.”
He turned around.
Ravenna stood there, wrapped in a cloak she hugged about herself. Her lovely face looked gaunt and pale.
“What do you want?” he said, his voice harsh.
“I needed to talk.”
“Everyone seems to need to talk to me.” Axis paused, again looking about. He seemed to be standing on a pathway in the middle of a marsh, mist drifting out of shadowy, ghostly trees to either side. He could hear the sharp plop, plop, plop of condensation dripping from their branches. “Where are we?”
“In the Land of Dreams. This is just glamour, Axis. I have not removed you physically from the pit.”
She had huge power just to do this much, Axis thought. “I suppose you need to explain yourself to me as well,” he said. “Guilt is keeping everyone awake tonight.”
“Axis, I can save your life, but I need you to do something for me.”
“And Georgdi’s life? And Zeboath’s? And Inardle’s?”
“Inardle is already dead.”
“What?”
“Perhaps not literally, not just yet, but she can’t be saved now, Axis.”
He turned and walked away from her at that point, standing a few paces distant, staring into the marshland.
She can’t be saved now, Axis.
“I can save you, and Georgdi and Zeboath,” Ravenna said, “but I need you to do something for me.”
“No.”
“Will you not hear what it is I want? Axis, please…”
He turned to face her. “I’ll say again what I said in Armat’s tent, Ravenna, you are a traitorous—”
“I have reason for what I do, Axis! Please, please, I beg you, listen to me!”
He stood still, silent, stony.
“Ishbel—” Ravenna began.
“Don’t start on her,” Axis said. “Everything you say is tainted by your jealousy.”
“Everything I say is tainted by my knowledge, Axis.” Ravenna was calmer now. “Ishbel the woman, I have nothing against. If she were not caught up in this nightmare then I would undoubtedly like her. She would make a good marsh witch.”
Ravenna gave a tiny smile at the expression on Axis face. “Ah, that wasn’t what you were expecting to hear, eh? But Ishbel as Maxel’s lover or wife? No, then she becomes dangerous beyond knowing. Then she becomes this world’s destroyer.”
“Oh, for the stars’ sakes, Ravenna—”
“If Ishbel continues to live then she will eventually destroy this world. I have seen this! But if Maximilian puts Ishbel to one side, or if—”
“If he kills her.”
“Yes, if he kills her, then this world has a chance. But I fear he will never do this.”
“What do you want me to do, Ravenna? Kill Ishbel for you?”
Again, that tiny, sad smile. “Would you? No, I thought not. I just need you to agree to talk to Maxel. Maybe from you…”
“He loves her, Ravenna. He won’t listen to me.”
“He is the lord of Elcho Falling first, Axis. The Lord of Elcho Falling might listen to you, even if Maxel won’t. If he could just set her aside…I can hold Armat back for a while, give him time to think about it. But Axis, whatever else Maxel does, he can’t take Ishbel back into his bed.”
Axis gave a disbelieving laugh. “I can’t tell him that!”
“Then you must ensure it!”
“I won’t—”
“Axis, listen to me. Once I showed Maximilian a vision. It depicted Ishbel opening the doors of Elcho Falling to a nameless monster. A dark creature of great evil. Then, neither of us knew who that was. Recently, the vision changed, Axis. Very recently. Within the past day. Look, Axis.” Ravenna flung one arm out toward the mists. “Look.”
Axis looked, and saw that the marshlands had vanished. He saw a roadway winding its serpentine path toward a distant mountain which gleamed with gold at its top set among the clouds.
Elcho Falling.
The road was littered with the bodies of men and horses. Icarii lay among the dead, and Emerald Guardsmen, and Axis could see Georgdi lying atop a heap of Outlanders to one side of the roadway.
“Look,” said Ravenna.
An army now marched along the roadway toward Elcho Falling, pushing aside the bodies of the fallen as it went. The army consisted of creatures distorted into gruesome form, their eyes wide and starting—lost and hopeless.
At their head marched a man made of liquid glass, a tiny glowing golden pyramid pumping within his chest.
“This is what Ishbel shall call upon this land,” Ravenna said.
The army marched its way to the doors of Elcho Falling, and Axis and Ravenna saw, as if they stood only feet away, the man of glass reach forth and pound his fist on the gates.
The gates shrieked, and opened, and Maximilian saw Ishbel crawl forth on her hands and knees, weeping.
The man of glass reached down to her, and lifted her left hand, and Maximilian saw gleaming on Ishbel’s fourth finger the Queen’s ring.
“You are the One,” Ishbel whispered, “and you are the One I worship.”
Then, suddenly, the vision winked and blurred, then vanished.
“Do you know who, what, that is?” Ravenna said.
“Visions can lie,” he said.
“Why will no one believe me?” Ravenna cried, and it was her evident distress that finally earned some sympathy from Axis.
“What do you want me to do?” he said.
“Please, just talk to Maxel. Tell him that I love him, and that I am not trying to destroy him. Tell him that all I want is for him, and this land, to survive. But tell him also that I know Ishbel will be his undoing, as that of this land. Tell him…” She hesitated. “Tell him that is why I killed my mother, because—”
“You killed Venetia?”
“She tried to stop me, Axis. Do you think I wanted to do—”
Axis took a step back. “Stars, woman, you are crazed! You murdered your own mother?”
“Axis, please, will you tell Maxel what I have said? Will you tell him what I have seen? If you promise me, then it is your life, and Georgdi’s and Zeboath’s. I can get you to safety.”
The last thing Axis wanted to do was to bring news of this vision to Maxel.
On the other hand…if Ravenna could aid him escape…
“I will tell him, Ravenna. But he won’t listen to me.”
“All I need is for you to tell him what you have seen, Axis. Thank you.”