Axis!” Maximilian leaned over the distance between their horses and clapped Axis on the shoulder. “You look exhausted!”
“A reflection of you, then,” said Axis. He’d ridden for three days to catch up with Maximilian, who had obviously pushed his convoy harder than Axis had imagined.
Stars knew how long it would take Inardle to catch up.
But he was here, finally, and gladder than he had thought to see Maximilian again. “Thank you for sending the Strike Force,” Axis said. “Without them…”
“You should thank your father for loaning them to me,” Maximilian said.
“But you were the one to think of sending them, and for that you do have my thanks.”
“And thus, I hope, your undying gratitude and intention to run yourself into the ground accomplishing whatever it is I might ask of you.”
“Naturally!”
Both men turned their horses so they rode side by side at the rear of the convoy.
“But seriously,” Axis said, “you look worn out.”
“I have been spending each night in the Twisted Tower,” said Maximilian, “learning from Josia who was once hidden within the Weeper. You heard how…?”
“How Ishbel freed him, and suffered attack from Ravenna? How Ravenna murdered her mother? Not all the details, but I have the gist of it.”
“Then the details can wait for the moment when we have more leisure, Axis,” Maximilian said. “Tell me what you heard and saw in Armat’s camp.”
For the next hour Axis talked in a low tone, telling Maximilian what had happened from the moment the injured Lealfast started falling out of the sky around him to the time BroadWing’s Strike Force had saved them. Maximilian listened in silence, not interrupting with any questions, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.
“Have you seen the Lealfast?” Axis asked.
“No. They must be truly licking their wounds somewhere.”
“I think they will rejoin you at Elcho Falling,” said Axis. “It will take time both for their wounds and egos to heal. I told Eleanon I didn’t want him rejoining you until he was prepared to learn under BroadWing. Stars knows when that might be.”
“Axis…why did Ravenna free you?”
“So that I might persuade you against Ishbel, Maxel. She said that she loves you, and that she is not trying to destroy you. She said that all she wants is for you and this land to survive. But she says that if you take Ishbel back to your bed then you will fail, and this land will become a wasteland. She showed me—”
“A vision?” Maximilian said sharply, looking at Axis once more.
“She showed me a wasteland, Maxel. It was a version of the same vision she must have shown you, but she said it was different. Maxel, instead of some nameless threat, the vision now very clearly shows that Ishbel aids the walking pyramid. According to the vision, it is DarkGlass Mountain to whom she will betray Elcho Falling. There, I have said what Ravenna wished.”
Maximilian did not answer, and they rode a while without speaking.
“Maxel,” Axis said eventually, “Ravenna seemed almost reasonable. And she did save me.”
“Yet she murdered her mother.”
“Yes,” Axis said. “She murdered her mother.” He paused. “Maxel, I do not believe this will have some happy, magical ending. Either Ishbel or Ravenna will prove your destruction, and this land’s destruction.”
Maximilian sighed. “Ah, thus speaketh the prophet of doom.”
“Maxel, listen to me. One day you will have to put your sword through one of these women. Can you do it?”