She heard his step at the door, heard him pass a quiet word with Madarin, then slowly rose from her chair as the door opened.
She’d spent the past ten or so hours in the state of fear and anger she’d thought to have left behind her.
Why could nothing ever run smoothly for her and Maximilian?
And why, oh why, hadn’t she thought to give Maximilian the Goblet of the Frogs earlier?
“Ishbel?”
“Over here, Maxel.”
“I can afford lamps to light the chambers, you know.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think.” Ishbel fumbled for the flint and lit a lamp on a side table.
He stood just inside the door, looking very tired, the satchel under one arm and the wrapped goblet in the other hand.
She almost couldn’t believe he’d brought them back.
“Can we talk a little?” he said.
Ishbel nodded. She didn’t know if she should offer him a seat, sit herself, or take the crown and goblet from him.
Maximilian decided for her by setting the objects on a table and walking over to her. Taking one of her hands, he interlaced their fingers.
“Isaiah is alive,” he said, then smiled a little at the shock on Ishbel’s face.
“But…” she said.
“He met with the fleshly embodiment of DarkGlass Mountain, a somewhat flashy glass man who calls himself the One. In order to either impress me or Isaiah, the One stripped Isaiah of his power, which is what Lister and I felt. We’d assumed that meant he was dead. But no. Isaiah is at this moment marching at the head of an army well over one hundred thousand strong—some weeks to the south of us, unfortunately, but nonetheless on his way. What say you to that, Ishbel?”
Everything about Maximilian radiated serenity and warmth, and that reassured Ishbel as nothing else might have done.
“I say that I am glad he is alive, but that I also find it very hard to think on Isaiah when you stand here so close.”
“Isaiah brings some grim news, which is what Axis had to tell me today, and which is why I needed the crown and the goblet tonight.”
“What did you use them for? What grim news?”
“To contact the dead. Ishbel, there are some things from the news that Isaiah sent, and some things that I did tonight, that for the moment I don’t want to tell you. But I need you to trust me. I will tell you, but not right now.”
“Why not?”
“Because I am terrified that you will panic and run out the door.”
He was pulling her closer now, holding her hand so that the back of his hand rested against her sternum, and their conjoined hands were the only things separating their bodies. “Will you trust me, Ishbel?”
“Yes.”
“Axis may not be very friendly toward you for a few days. Ignore him. Trust me.”
Peace radiated out from him, enveloping her in tranquility. Ishbel wondered if this was just his own magnetism, or if he were using some sorcery he’d learned within the higher levels of the Twisted Tower.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said.
He leaned forward and kissed her, very softly.
“Will you stay with me?” she murmured.
“Not tonight,” he said. “The day after tomorrow you and I will do what is needed to waken Elcho Falling, and I will put the crown of Elcho Falling to my brow, and that night…well, that will be a night of great power, Ishbel, and a fitting night to make a marriage between you and me that will, this time, stand the test of discord.”
“But Axis will not be pleased.”
“No. And you may hear Isaiah scream even from his vast distance. Trust me, Ishbel.”
“I trust you, Maxel.”
“There will be a storm about us, for some time. Can you accept that?”
“Yes.”
He smiled, holding her eyes with his own, and pressed the back of his hand a little more firmly against her sternum. “I find all my strength,” he said, “in the beat of your heart.”
Then he kissed her again, and was gone.