The Infinity Gate Part 25

"That is because you have no understanding of love, Axis."

Now Axis lost his humour. "I am glad he is dead. I am not even going to pretend any sorrow or concern for your grief. I hope Georgdi managed to take a few more of your fellows out as well. Now, is there any other news you wish to share? You threaten me by appearing about my campfire, and I am not sure I should believe you when you say that our Lealfast watchers have gone. If Bingaleal can be so easily tricked into death, then you can just as easily be tricked into believing whatever our watchers want you to believe."

Inardle rose to her feet. "I have no idea why I stay with you."

"Because you have nowhere else to go, and no one else who wants you. Inardle . . . do you still believe Eleanon did not know of our presence when we left Elcho Falling?"

"If he had he would have killed us."

"Maybe so and maybe not. I am keeping on alert nonetheless."

"I would not weep for you, Axis, if you died."

Axis sighed. "How far is Isaiah now? How long before I reach him? And what is happening with the Skraelings who trail him? Or have you been too lost in your grief today to take note of any of these matters?"

Inardle took a step back from the fire, her form beginning to frost over and then fade.

"Four or five more days of riding should bring you to Isaiah. Angle inland on the day after tomorrow. Maybe you will hit his force at the wrong spot, Axis, and find the trailing Skraeling gaggle instead. I hope to the stars they eat you."

With those words, Inardle vanished completely.

Chapter 15.

Elcho Falling.

Kezial reined in his horse, raising his fist to shoulder height to bring the column behind him to a halt.

He'd watched as Elcho Falling had risen -- he'd been able to see it on the horizon -- and his sense of awe had not abated one bit as he'd ridden closer.

Neither had his sense of danger.

Everything was wrong about this.

Armat should have sent riders with messages (orders, knowing Armat) many days ago.

There should have been Isembaardian scouts everywhere.

Nothing.

There had been some Lealfast overhead, but they had not deigned to descend to speak to him, and even if they had, Kezial would not have trusted them. He'd heard from Armat's messengers (before they all became strangely absent) that Armat had humiliated the Lealfast in a battle in the central Outlands and that they had joined Maximilian in Elcho Falling when that weakling had raised the citadel.

But now . . . everything felt wrong.

The column behind him, sixty thousand men strong, was fully armed and battle ready. Kezial had his own scouts reconnoitring, and knew that a great ma.s.s of Lealfast, hundreds of thousands of the creatures, were camped about the sh.o.r.es of Elcho Falling.

Why were they not inside the citadel if they were Maximilian's toys?

And where was Armat? Where his army?

And why were there no Icarii around? Kezial had expected to see them in the skies above.

At least the Lealfast hadn't attacked Kezial or his forward scouts, but again that fact made Kezial nervous.

If the Lealfast were allied with Maximilian, then rightfully they should have attacked his scouts. If the Lealfast were not allied with Maximilian, but now committed to their own cause, then they should still have attacked Kezial's scouts . . . if for no other reason than they had no cause to love any Isembaardian after what Armat had done to them.

That left the possibility that the Lealfast were now allied with Armat.

But if that was so, then where was Armat?

Kezial could make no sense of it at all.

Everything made his tightly drawn nerves vibrate, sensing danger.

He currently sat his horse perhaps an hour's ride from Elcho Falling. He could see it clearly: the walls rising as water and then crystal and then stone, high into the sky, the three golden rings revolving slowly about its peak, the lake of turquoise water surrounding the citadel . . . and the enormous encampment of Lealfast that Kezial could now see through his eyegla.s.s and who, to his dismay, were occupying Isembaardian tents.

Kezial sat his horse and wondered if he should simply turn around his army and ride away while he still could.

But ride to where? His homeland was gone, and what else was there of any worth in this G.o.dforsaken land save this extraordinary citadel?

Then Kezial tensed even further.

There was a Lealfast approaching in the sky, and, much further back, a rider coming forth from Elcho Falling.

Armat.

The Lealfast man held back until Armat had come close to Kezial (now on full alert and with armed men twenty thick behind and to each side of him), then landed a few paces out from Kezial.

He held out his hands to show that he wasn't armed, which did not relax or impress Kezial greatly. He knew the Lealfast had powers beyond that wielded by any sword or dagger.

"Who are you?" Kezial said.

"My name is Eleanon, and I speak for the Lealfast," the man said. "Perchance you have heard of me?"

Kezial grunted. Indeed he had heard of Eleanon. "Were you not the one in charge of that rout when Armat -- who I see is but a moment's ride away now -- skewered tens of thousands of you out of the sky?"

The pleasant smile on Eleanon's face did not slip. "It was but four or five thousand, and it was done to my purpose at the time."

"Which was?"

"To make Axis StarMan think us fools."

"And I should somehow believe that you are not?"

"I hope to convince you of that," Eleanon said. He looked behind him as the sound of hooves grew loud and stepped very slightly to one side as Armat reined in his horse.

"Armat," Kezial said, very carefully. He did not like the look on Armat's face. He could not put a name to his concern . . . but Armat did not look himself.

"My friend," Armat said, and smiled broadly.

Both words and expression sounded and looked so false that Kezial actually reined back his horse a step or two. He noticed also that Eleanon's smile had broadened a little at Armat's words.

"What is happening here?" said Kezial. "Speak quickly and plainly, one or both of you, for I am feeling too nervous to rest here for hours listening to involved histories of the past weeks."

"I have allied with Maximilian," Armat said, and Kezial gawped at him.

" What?" he said.

"I ride forth to show my goodwill and to ask that you, too, ally with Maximilian within Elcho Falling and --"

"Neither Maximilian Persimius nor his wife, nor even Axis StarMan, remain in Elcho Falling any longer," Eleanon said. "Elcho Falling is left under the command of a group of sub-lieutenants. Armat speaks false words."

"I speak truth!" Armat said, and for an instant Kezial thought that sounded more like the real Armat.

"Armat is a puppet," said Eleanon. "He has been cursed by Ishbel Persimius so that he speaks only the words of his puppet-master, which is why he sounds so false. His puppet-master is, I believe, Insharah. What you hear issuing from Armat's mouth is not what Armat wants to say to you -- undoubtedly those words are seething, trapped beneath the surface of the curse -- but what the traitor Insharah wants you to hear."

Now Kezial was more confused than ever. "Insharah? I do not understand ."

"Let me explain," Eleanon began, and Kezial thought that he was starting to sound the more genuine of the two by far.

"If you listen to Eleanon then you will die," Armat said. "He is allied to the very darkness issuing forth from Infinity itself. He --"

Eleanon roared with laughter. "Oh, come now, Insharah -- for I shall not pander any more to the pretence that this is Armat who speaks. That is too implausible to convince even a toddler."

He turned to look Kezial fully in the eye. "I and the Lealfast are the only things of truth and good heart left standing in this mess, Kezial. The Outlander general Georgdi has a.s.sumed command of Elcho Falling after Maximilian, Ishbel and Axis departed for better climes, or should I say, fled in the face of the Skraeling invasion that approaches and which they fear greatly. Elcho Falling has been abandoned to fools and traitors."

"But Armat's army ." Kezial said, looking between the two of them and not knowing what to think.

"Mostly dead," said Eleanon. "Killed by treachery."

"False!" Armat said. "Kezial, it is I who speaks to you now, and I say to you that my army is now inside Elcho Falling and mostly intact save for those that this creature --" he flung a hand out at Eleanon "-- murdered on their way in. If you see the Lealfast now encamped in what had been myencampment, then know they do so only through the spilling of good Isembaardian blood."

Lord G.o.ds, Kezial thought, I am sure I can hear truth in those words.

"I am the way forward," Armat said. "Ally with me, Kezial, and with Elcho Falling, and you will live."

Kezial looked at Elcho Falling, and wondered how, if this was so, Armat expected him to get through the several hundred thousand Lealfast huddled about what appeared to be a single entrance, without a b.l.o.o.d.y and debilitating battle.

"Let me show you how false are Armat's words," Eleanon said, and he lifted both hands.

The next moment Kezial gasped. Black bands of dried blood appeared, wrapped about Armat's body.

"This is the curse with which Ishbel wrapped Armat," Eleanon said. "Armat is virtually dead. He commands no power and can offer you no alliance. He speaks only what the traitor Insharah -- who you can blame almost completely for the slaughter of Armat's men and your comrades --"

Kezial remembered how Armat's messengers had mentioned that Insharah had abandoned Maximilian for Armat.

Insharah must have meant to betray Armat and his army all the while.

Eleanon looked at the expression on Kezial's face, and knew he had won. He stepped forward, lifted his sword and, as Kezial and his men raised their own swords at this sudden threat, ran Armat through so that he toppled from his horse.

"If that had been Armat," Eleanon said as he ran his sword over a tussock of gra.s.s to clean it, "then he would have defended himself. As it was, a mere puppet, his master could not get the words to him quickly enough to save his life. Now, Kezial, let me speak plain and true to you. Between us, we can win Elcho Falling. The force that is inside -- consisting of a few hundred Icarii, some renegade Outlanders and the pitiful remnants of the Isembaardians now under Insharah's control -- cannot hope to hold it for much longer. Why don't you join me, Kezial, and partake of the riches of power and glory that Elcho Falling contains?"

"Why ask me to ally with you?" Kezial said. "Why not take it for yourself?"

"Because you will be useful," Eleanon said.

Kezial looked at Eleanon, and knew he was looking at a murderous and treacherous liar. He did not trust a single word the Lealfast man said.

Nonetheless . . . Kezial raised his gaze and looked up at Elcho Falling in the distance. The one thing Eleanon did not lie about was the power and glory and potential of Elcho Falling. As Armat had before him, Kezial sat there and l.u.s.ted.

He was also not sure he could defeat the Lealfast in any confrontation. Best to ally with them, for the moment, and learn their strengths and weaknesses.

Then he lowered his eyes to Eleanon. "Shall we discuss terms?" he said.

Very late that night Eleanon walked out beyond the Lealfast camp.

In one hand he held a bag.

He walked for a while, then stopped, his teeth flas.h.i.+ng momentarily in the darkness. "Come, come now, Ravenna. Did you think I wouldn't find you?"

She sighed, barely audible, then walked a little closer to Eleanon. Her steps were hesitant and her face gaunt and lined.

"You look terrible," Eleanon said.

Ravenna didn't respond.

Now it was Eleanon who sighed. He tossed the bag toward her, and she flinched as it landed to one side of her feet.

"Food," said Eleanon. "I thought you might be grateful."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"I have a new ally," Eleanon said.

"I saw."

"Ah, nothing escapes you, does it? I doubt Kezial will be very useful, but one mustn't turn away allies when they appear. Did you see what happened to Armat? Your friend?"

She stared at him, silent.

"I ran my sword through him. He was but a puppet, anyway. Useless. I am sure that Insharah must be grateful he doesn't have to feed him any longer. So, out of the three of you that Ishbel cursed, why, there is only little Ravenna left."