Maximilian went back to his chamber, and told Serge and Doyle, who stood outside, that he did not want to be disturbed.
“Not under any circumstance,” he said. “I don’t care if Armat himself comes storming up those steps, I must not be disturbed.”
Then he went inside, placed the satchel with the crown in it, and the rewrapped goblet, on a table under a window, and then sat down in a chair, staring at both satchel and wrapped bundle, thinking.
After a long while he closed his eyes, and his body relaxed.
Maximilian had gone to speak with Josia in the Twisted Tower.
Maximilian roused at dusk. He came back to awareness slowly, blinking and rubbing at his face, then stretching out his arms. He rose slowly, washed his face and hands, and wandered over to the window to look out as he dried them.
Finally he looked down at the table. He unwrapped the goblet first, setting it back on the table. He wrapped his hand in the cloth Ishbel had used to wrap the goblet, then used his covered hand to draw the crown out of the satchel.
He did not want to touch it until he used it to awaken Elcho Falling.
The crown was almost utterly enveloped in blackness now, with only an occasional glint of the three twisted golden bands.
Elcho Falling was very, very close, and for a moment Maximilian heard the pounding of the waves.
“Not yet,” he whispered.
He looked out the window again.
The sun was now halfway beneath the horizon.
He had only a few minutes.
Maximilian withdrew the queen’s ring from the inner pocket of his jacket, placed it on the table, then took off his own ring, placing that next to its mate.
He glanced out the window again.
There was now only the barest rim of light above the horizon.
The crown sat in the center of the table. Maximilian moved the other objects until the goblet sat behind the crown, and the two rings to either side.
Then, just as the sun finally sank below the horizon, Maximilian placed his right hand flat on the table before the crown and spoke a similar incantation to the one Isaiah had used to pull Axis from the Otherworld.
The chamber dimmed.
Maximilian stood straight, lifted his hand from the table, and turned to face the center of the chamber.
Instead of looking at the wall and door across the chamber, he looked into a long, dim corridor that seemed to stretch into infinity.
There were two figures in its distance, and Maximilian waited as they approached. From time to time the figures faded from view, as if obscured by time or difficulty, but they always reappeared, walking steadily forward.
Eventually they were close enough for Maximilian to make out their features.
The older man had dark brown hair and deep blue eyes: Maximilian’s eyes. The younger man was much darker, his long black hair queued at the back of his neck, his hawkish face dominated by intense black eyes.
Even so, his face held a resemblance to that of the older man.
Both of the men wore long robes of a pale material, with outer robes of more colorful and heavier fabric.
They stopped just before they would have stepped from the corridor into the chamber, and then both simultaneously bowed.
“My Lord of Elcho Falling,” said the older man.
Maximilian returned the bow. “Avaldamon,” he said to the older man, then he looked at the other. “Boaz.”
“Threshold has awoken,” Boaz said.
“Yes,” Maximilian said.
“I should have destroyed it completely,” Boaz said.
“Indeed,” said Maximilian, “but what was not done was not done, and now I need your advice.”
He outlined briefly for the two men what he knew of the pyramid and its use of Kanubai. “Now a glass man walks forth, calling himself the One—”
Boaz made a soft expostulation at that.
“—and threatens me with destruction. Boaz, what is the One?”
“The One was what the Magi worshipped, my lord,” Boaz said. “We were addicted to numbers and calculations, and took heart in their predictability. The One—the number one—is both birth and death within itself, for it is the number from which all other numbers and forms are born and into which they all eventually collapse and die. The One is both Creation and Doom in single expression and form.”
“And this is what now strides forth to confront me?”
“No,” said Avaldamon, “we don’t believe so.”
“What, then?” said Maximilian.
“We used the pyramid to touch Infinity,” said Boaz. He glanced at his father, then looked back at Maximilian. “My lord, I think that the One is Infinity, or at the least draws almost completely on its power. He is a fearful foe.”
Maximilian nodded, thinking for a moment. “You know of Ishbel?”
Both men smiled. “Yes,” said Boaz, “she is our direct descendant, born of the line of Tirzah’s and my eldest daughter.”
“Everyone fears her,” Maximilian said.
“Save you,” said Boaz, “and for that I thank you.”
“Everyone warns me against her,” said Maximilian.
“Including the One,” said Avaldamon.
Maximilian nodded.
“We cannot stay much longer,” said Avaldamon. “Already we feel the tug on our souls of the Otherworld. What do you need to know from us, Maximilian, Lord of Elcho Falling?”
“I do not know the question,” said Maximilian, “else I would ask it.”
The three men looked at each other a long moment, then Avaldamon and Boaz simultaneously looked over their shoulders and took a step back.
“You and Tirzah had three children,” Maximilian said to Boaz, holding out a hand as if he had the power to hold them back indefinitely. “Why is it that only your eldest daughter’s line carried power? Why did only that line carry the weight of Elcho Falling within it?”
Boaz frowned, then the frown cleared and he gave a small smile. “Maximilian, Tirzah was pregnant with our eldest daughter when we did our battle with Threshold.”
Maximilian’s shoulders visibly relaxed. “Thank you,” he said. “That was what I needed to know.”
Boaz’s smile widened a little. “Maximilian, let me say one other thing to you. When all looks at its bleakest, and you think there is nothing left, and no action worth taking, ask Josia in what manner he died. There shall lie your salvation.” Boaz’s smile faded, but his eyes remained warm. “The Persimius do not forget their own.”
Then, quite suddenly, Boaz and Avaldamon were gone.