Maximilian paused in the middle of buttoning his jacket. “What?” “Isaiah is alive. I’ve just heard from StarHeaven. Maxel, had you made love with Ishbel before I arrived?”
This time Maximilian just stared at Axis.
“Maxel, I have reason to ask—the news from Isaiah is appalling, and it involves Ishbel. Do you remember Ravenna’s vision?”
Maximilian finally pulled on his jacket with an angry jerk. “Oh for all the gods’ sakes, don’t tell me Isaiah has turned against Ishbel now! Has he started having visions as well? I have had enough of people telling me she will be my peril.”
He paused. “Isaiah is alive…how? Axis, sit down, please, and tell me, in order, starting with the fact that Isaiah is alive, what you know.”
Axis pulled out a chair from the central table. “Isaiah is alive. He met with what he believes to be the fleshly representation of DarkGlass Mountain—Isaiah said it was a man made of glass—who calls himself the One. The One stripped Isaiah of his powers, which is what you and Lister felt and you interpreted as his death. I believe there is a lengthy tale here to be told, but StarHeaven only gave me the absolute basics, because she, or Isaiah through her, wanted me to pass to you as fast as possible the One’s message to you.”
Maximilian was still standing. “And that is?”
“The One has constructed a curse. Isaiah stresses that it is not a possibility, but a reality.”
“Very well. What is this curse?”
Axis took a deep breath. “This curse is powered by the fact that whatever form of flesh the One has assumed thus far was accomplished through the death of your and Ishbel’s daughter. Her blood—”
“Yes, yes, get on with it.”
“If you, Maximilian Persimius, slide the Queen of Elcho Falling’s ring onto Ishbel’s finger, if you bear her down to your bed, then so shall sorrow and despair envelop Elcho Falling and all it contains. The moment you marry yourself to Ishbel again, by consummation of ring and body, then so shall the One become Elcho Falling’s lord. And when he arrives at the gates of Elcho Falling, so shall Ishbel crawl forth and surrender to him all the power and might of the citadel of Elcho Falling. It is what Ravenna saw in her vision, Maxel. You can do nothing to prevent this. The moment you wed Ishbel again, your fate, as the fate of all the lands and peoples above the FarReach Mountains, is sealed. You and they shall be wedded to the One, who controls the power of Infinity.”
Maximilian’s face was expressionless as he stared at Axis. “And this curse is a reality.”
“Yes. Unless…”
“Unless…?”
“To save Elcho Falling, the land and its peoples, you and Ishbel must present yourselves to the One at Sakkuth and deliver to him the Weeper—”
“Well, that’s a small impossibility now, isn’t it?”
“—the crown of Elcho Falling and the Goblet of the Frogs. You—”
“The goblet of the what?”
Now it was Axis’ turn to stare at Maximilian. Hadn’t either Isaiah or Ishbel told him about the goblet? “Maxel, you will need to ask Ishbel about the goblet. It is something that Isaiah brought north with him from Isembaard. It is just a goblet, Maxel—”
“Just a goblet, yet the fate of Elcho Falling depends on its deliverance to this One?”
“Maxel, this is hard enough for me as it is. Please let me finish.”
Maximilian continued to stare at Axis with an expressionless face.
“If you deliver yourselves, the Weeper, the crown, and the goblet to the One, then you and Ishbel will die, but he will spare Elcho Falling and the lands above the FarReach Mountains. Maxel, is this not what Ravenna was trying to warn you about?”
Maximilian sent Axis such a dark look that Axis found it difficult to ask what he needed. “Maxel, have you reconsummated your marriage to Ishbel?”
“No. Ishbel and I have not bedded for at least a year.”
“Thank the stars!”
“Don’t you dare say that to me!”
“Maxel—”
“Ishbel and I have made our peace, Axis. The day I raise Elcho Falling is the day we resume our vows.”
“Maxel, the One did everything to try and ensure Isaiah did not get this message to you in time. He stripped Isaiah of his power, and Isaiah has had to walk across vast distances, although fortunately he found a horse left to run wild in the wilderness and managed to come faster than the One had intended. That he then came across StarHeaven was sheer luck. Don’t discard that luck! Maxel, this curse is a reality. If you lie with Ishbel then there is nothing you can do to avoid the destruction of this entire land save—”
“Taking ourselves down to Sakkuth with the Weeper, the crown, and this goblet of which you speak. Yes. I heard you the first time. I assume this is what the One wants, otherwise why tell me about this curse? Why not just curse me and let me drift unknowing to my fate?”
“That is how Isaiah understands it. The One wants you and Ishbel in Sakkuth, with the items. You may not have the Weeper, Maxel, but perhaps you can hand to the One the keys to the Twisted Tower.”
Maximilian shot Axis yet another black look.
“The One,” Axis continued, “assumed that Isaiah would not get the message to you in time. Maxel, you can now avoid the curse. Very simply. Don’t slide that ring onto Ishbel’s finger. Don’t sleep with her.”
Maximilian leaned forward a little, sighed, and rubbed at his forehead with one hand. “Axis, if the One has gone to these lengths, then he is vulnerable.”
“Perhaps he just wants to make sure.”
“So, what happens if, as you suggest and Ravenna wants, I discard Ishbel completely, renege on any and all promises I have made to her, set her to one side, and refuse to attend the One in Sakkuth?”
“Then Isaiah says the One will invade. He has a huge unnatural army—Isaiah has not gone into details but I am assuming it is whatever those millions of Skraelings have become—with which he will swamp this land while you are distracted by Armat. Maxel, frankly I prefer the second option—dealing with an invasion from the south—rather than—”
“Destroying all my hopes by making Ishbel my wife. So, according to Isaiah, I face certain destruction via a curse which the One assumed Isaiah would not tell me about in time anyway, or I avoid the curse and suffer probable defeat via a war of attrition with the unnatural armies of the One.”
“I say again, Maxel, that I prefer the second option. We need to deal with Armat, and then we need to prepare to face the armies of the One. There is better news which StarHeaven told me briefly. Isaiah is moving north with Lamiah and one hundred and fifty thousand men. He is bringing an army with him, Maxel.”
“What for? To keep me from Ishbel’s bed?”
“Maxel—”
“Go away and leave me, Axis. I want to think.”
The moment Axis had closed the door behind him, Maximilian stood and began pacing about the room. He was furious: with Axis, with Isaiah, and with Ishbel, who had apparently kept secret an object important enough that the One had tied it to his curse.
Was the entire world conspiring to keep him and Ishbel apart?
The curse made no sense to Maximilian. Why had the One told him about it? If Maximilian had the ability to visit such a curse on his enemy, a curse which would ensure his enemy’s defeat, then the very last thing he would do would be to send him warning of its existence, perhaps in time to avoid it. Maximilian wasn’t sure that the One had assumed that Isaiah would not be in time. Everything seemed too…clumsy.
There had been too much “luck” on Isaiah’s part to get the news of the curse to Maximilian.
In time to prevent it.
“Shit,” Maximilian muttered, then he strode to the door.
“Ishbel?”
She turned from the window where she’d been looking for evidence of Armat’s imminent arrival. “Maxel? I hadn’t expected you before this afternoon. I thought you’d be spending the day with Josia.”
“What is the Goblet of the Frogs?”
The smile faded from her face. “Who told you—”
“Who told me doesn’t matter. What is it?”
“I was going to give it to you at your crowning, Maximilian. It was to be a gift. A surprise.”
“So surprise me now.”
She gave him a steady look, then walked over to her pack in the corner of the chamber, retrieved from it a package, and came back to stand before him.
“My ancestress Tirzah made this for Boaz, the man she loved.” Ishbel slowly unwrapped the goblet, then held it out to Maximilian. “And thus I give it to you, Maxel, as a gift of love.”
He took it in his hands, turning it about very slowly. “It is astounding.”
“Yes,” Ishbel said, watching his face carefully. “It is. Tell me, Maxel, does it speak to you?”
He raised his eyes to hers…and she knew what he must be hearing.
Hold her, soothe her, touch her, love her.
“It tells me,” he said, “to commit myself unto destruction.”
Ishbel blanched. “What has Axis said to you?”
Maximilian sighed. “Ishbel, will you give me the crown, too, please.”
Her face was stricken now. “I thought you wanted me to—”
“I need it only for tonight, Ishbel. Please give it to me, and then wait up for me. I will come and see you, very late, and then I will bring both the goblet and the crown back to you. Ishbel, trust me for the next twelve hours. Please.”
“What did Axis tell you?”
“Ishbel, I need you not to talk to Axis for the moment. I want you to wait here until I come back.”
He gave her his marvelous smile then, and her eyes filled with tears at its warmth. “I love you, Ishbel, but I need to be very, very sure about something, and for that I need both the crown and the goblet for the day. Will you trust me?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Trust me, Ishbel, just a little longer.”