The Twisted Citadel

by Sara Douglass

  They will not open for him, said Maximilian.

  They shall, said Ravenna.

  The gates shrieked, and opened, and Maximilian saw Ishbel crawl forth on her hands and knees, weeping.

  The man of darkness reached down to her and lifted her left hand, and Maximilian saw the Queen's ring gleaming on Ishbel's fourth finger.

  "You have delivered to me Elcho Falling," said the man of darkness to Ishbel, "and have sent its Lord into death. You have done well."

  "If you slide that ring onto her finger," said Ravenna, "you marry darkness to Elcho Falling and ensure your own death. Ishbel is your doom, Maximilian Persimius."

  Maximilian could not speak. He continued to stare into the mist where the vision had appeared a moment ago.

  "Ishbel will murder you and ruin this land," Ravenna said. "I know you love her, but she will bring you and Elcho Falling and this entire land nothing but sorrow."

  "Enough!" Maximilian said. "For pity's sakes, Ravenna, don't you know when you have won? Don't you know when best to stop?"

  Kanubai felt his hand slide into the glass and instantly knew what was happening.

  All at once, the Lord of Elcho Falling seemed the very least of his problems.

  The pyramid sucked him deep into its blackness where, for what seemed to Kanubai like an infinity of time, he and it did great battle.

  Then, suddenly, the pyramid tired of its play, and it destroyed Kanubai, taking of the ancient creature only what it wanted.

  Flesh. Breath.

  "It is enough," Maximilian said, finally pulling his hand from Ravenna's grasp. He stepped back, his booted heel crunching into the snow.

  "Don't go to her," Ravenna said. "Don't."

  "I--" Maximilian said, then he stopped, one hand half raised to his face as if his head ached.

  "Maxel?" Ravenna said, putting a hand on his arm.

  Maximilian said nothing, staring into the black night, snow catching at his dark hair. Kanubai! he thought.

  What has happened?

  Ravenna didn't know what to do. She felt helpless in the face of his fatal fascination for Ishbel. What else could she say to Maximilian, what else could she show him, to bring him to his senses?

  "Ravenna," he said, "I must go. There's something I--"

  She grabbed his arm. "Don't go to her, Maxel!"

  He tore himself loose, almost stumbling with the violence of his movement. "Just leave it be, Ravenna!

  Just for one hour, I beg you!"

  Before Ravenna could say anything, he was gone, half jogging into the night.

  The score or so of Skraelings who had watched Kanubai get sucked into the glass now cowered in a corner of the Infinity Chamber, terrified. Before them they could see Kanubai's form in the glass, twisting this way and that, being stretched first in one direction, then in another.

  From time to time the glass walls bulged outward as Kanubai fought for his freedom, then they would snap back into rigidity as the Lord of Chaos weakened.

  "What should we do?" whispered one of the Skraelings, its hand clutching at the shoulder of its nearest companion.

  "Watch and wait," the other Skraeling replied. It grinned suddenly, its long pointed teeth glistening within the ambient light of the Infinity Chamber, its silvery orbed eyes bright with calculation.

  "And then?" said the first Skraeling.

  "Whatever necessity dictates," replied the second.

  Some time passed--the Skraelings could not calculate how much--when suddenly the last vestige of Kanubai's form vanished.

  The Infinity Chamber fell into stillness.

  "What should we do?" hissed another of the Skraelings.

  "Wait," whispered the pragmatist. "Wait."

  And so they waited and, eventually, something stepped forth from the glass.

  It was the height and shape of a man, and with the head of a man, which was slightly less intimidating than the jackal head which Kanubai had assumed. In other respects, however, the creature was entirely un-manlike. Its flesh was not made of tissue and blood, but appeared to be formed of a pliable, and utterly beautiful, blue-green glass. Deep within the creature's chest a golden pyramid slowly rotated.

  Its head was also glasslike, the creature's eyes great wells of darkness.

  The Skraelings abased themselves upon the floor of the Infinity Chamber.

  "Who are you, great lord?" asked the bravest among them.

  "I am the One," the creature said. "I am perfection incarnate, for I am indivisible. I am Infinity, in its purest form."

  "Then we are your servants," said the Skraelings, who, while understanding almost nothing of what the One had just said, were nothing if not realists.

  As Maximilian strode into the night, and the Skraelings abased themselves before the One, Lister stood with three of the Lealfast atop a peak in the FarReach Mountains, looking southward toward Isembaard.

  Snow and icy wind coiled slowly about them, but none of the four paid the cold any mind.

  At first sight seeming to be Icarii, with the same elegant human form and huge spreading wings, the Lealfast were at second glance something else. Their forms were not completely solid, but made up of shifting shades of gray and white and silver, and small drifts of frost clung to their features.

  "Something bad has happened," Lister murmured, peering into the night as if he could physically see south to DarkGlass Mountain. "Kanubai has gone!"

  Slightly to one side and behind him, the three Lealfast--Eleanon, Bingaleal, and Inardle--exchanged a quick glance.

  What they felt could not be said before Lister.

  Something perfect had just occurred.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Sky Peaks Pass

  Ravenna watched him walk away into the night. She tugged her cloak about herself, feeling her failure to keep Maximilian from Ishbel even more keenly than the cold. She had truly thought for a while that he realized the danger. He'd told Ishbel that Ravenna was carrying his child and that he would cleave to Ravenna, and then he'd allowed his guilt to overwhelm him and doubts to assail him.

  He'd gone back to Ishbel. Not an hour had passed since he'd turned his back on Ishbel, and now he'd gone straight back to the woman.

  Ravenna loved Maximilian, and she wanted the best for him, but his weakness as far as Ishbel was concerned drove her to despair. Maximilian had responsibilities and concerns far beyond Ishbel--far beyond anyone. He was Lord of Elcho Falling, and Elcho Falling should come first, otherwise this entire land would fall into ruin.

  Maximilian needed to put Elcho Falling before Ishbel, and now Ravenna doubted very much that he could do that.

  For months Ravenna had entertained doubts about Ishbel. In the past few weeks they'd firmed into certainty as she'd become more certain of the vision within the Land of Dreams. Ishbel had a weakness about her that would doom Maximilian--and through him this entire land--if he took her back as wife.

  But Maximilian resented it whenever Ravenna tried to talk to him about Ishbel. Even considering all the pain Ishbel had already brought into his life--her loss of their daughter, her affair with the Tyrant, Isaiah--Maximilian wouldn't hear anything said against her. Taking Maximilian into the Land of Dreams tonight had been a calculated risk--Ravenna had dared it only as a last resort--and it had failed.

  "Damn you, Maxel," Ravenna whispered; then she turned away and walked slowly deeper into the night.

  Thank the gods, she thought, that she had conceived Maximilian's son. The child represented hope.

  If not the father, then maybe the son.

  Maximilian strode away from Ravenna, absolutely furious with her. This was not merely for her persistent harping about Ishbel, but because she had decided to harp just at the moment when he'd felt Kanubai vanish. All Maximilian wanted to do was to try and make some sense of what had happened to Kanubai, to concentrate on what might have happened to him, and all Ravenna could do was chirrup on and on about Ishbel.

  Could she not leave well enough alone,
for just one minute?

  He had walked away, not daring to speak. He'd allowed Ravenna to think he was going back to Ishbel because he was so angry that he simply did not trust himself to open his mouth.

  And he did not want to think about what Ravenna had showed him. Not right now. Not when something had just happened to make the entire world shift on its axis.

  Maximilian walked through the camp, looking for Isaiah, hoping that he had also felt the surge of emptiness from the south and hoping that Isaiah might have been able to make some sense of it.

  "Maxel."

  Maximilian spun about. Isaiah was emerging from between a line of tents, his face strained.

  Axis SunSoar was a step behind him.

  "You felt it," Maximilian said to Isaiah.

  Isaiah gave a curt nod. "Is there somewhere close we can speak? My tent is some distance."

  "Not my tent," Maximilian said. He couldn't face Ravenna again this soon, and he also didn't want her to hear what might be said on this subject. "Axis?"

  "Mine is close enough," Axis said, and led them a few minutes through the maze of horse lines and campfires to his tent, set close to that of StarDrifter and Salome's. He held aside the flap, then indicated his father's tent. "Should I ask my father...?"

  Maximilian shook his head. "Not just yet."

  Axis' tent, like that of all the main commanders, was commodious, high-ceilinged and well appointed.

  The three men pulled out chairs and sat at a large folding camp table. Axis' body servant, Yysell, set out a jug of ale and three beakers, then left the tent.

  All three men ignored the ale.

  "What's wrong?" said Axis. "Isaiah said something had happened."

  Isaiah and Maximilian exchanged a glance.

  "Something has happened to Kanubai," said Maximilian. "Very suddenly, within this past half hour. It felt to me as if all the threat associated with him suddenly dissipated."

  Isaiah gave a nod. "I felt it, too."

  "What do you mean," Axis said, "when you say that all the threat about Kanubai `suddenly dissipated'?"

  Maximilian and Isaiah exchanged another glance.

  "Kanubai is gone," said Isaiah. "No more. Dead."

  "Then why the long faces?" said Axis. "Surely, if Kanubai is dead, then..." He stopped, realizing the implications. "Oh gods...is it DarkGlass Mountain? Has DarkGlass Mountain taken Kanubai?"

  Maximilian gave a slight shrug. "I don't know." He rubbed at his forehead with one hand, looking exhausted. "Kanubai was so powerful...what else could have taken him save the glass mountain. Isaiah?"

  "I think the pyramid might be even more dangerous than Kanubai," Isaiah said. "Lister," he continued, naming his ancient ally, "and I had wondered before if we'd been concentrating on the wrong enemy all this time."

  "Oh, for all the gods' sakes," Maximilian muttered. "Why do I feel as if the ground is constantly shifting beneath my feet?" He paused. "Isaiah, where is Lister now? When will he be here?"

  "He is flesh now, as I," said Isaiah. "He can only travel as flesh. He was most recently in the FarReach Mountains, and it may take him weeks to get here. We need to know what has happened, but I think that all of us are too tired. Maxel, have you been to bed at all? No? Neither have I. I think--"

  "I want to talk to you about the pyramid, Isaiah," Maximilian said.

  "Tomorrow, Maxel. Perhaps by then, refreshed, we will have gleaned more of what has happened. May I suggest we all meet in the afternoon? Axis, bring your father as well, and perhaps Malat and Georgdi.

  In the meantime--"

  Isaiah stopped as the door of Axis' tent opened and Ishbel looked in.

  She gave Maximilian an unreadable glance, then looked at Isaiah. "Isaiah," she said, "may I speak with you? It is important."

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Sky Peaks Pass

  Maximilian tensed, looking away from Ishbel and down at his hands, and Isaiah did not miss his discomfort.

  "Of course, Ishbel," Isaiah said. He rose, and joined her outside.

  "Is there anything wrong?" he said, once the flap had fallen closed behind them.

  "Not particularly," said Ishbel. "You have something I need. Where is your tent?"

  Isaiah indicated a path through the sleeping encampment, and they walked quietly for a while.

  "What is wrong with Maximilian?" Isaiah said eventually. "Something has happened."

  Ishbel gave a slight shrug.

  "Something has happened, Ishbel."

  "I went to him tonight. I told him that I loved him, that I'd made a terrible mistake, and asked--well, begged--him if there was a chance we could remake our marriage. He, to be blunt, said that no, there wasn't." She paused. "Ravenna is pregnant."

  "Oh, the fool!" Isaiah said.

  To his amazement, Ishbel actually gave a small smile. "I was the fool, Isaiah. I cannot believe I made such a spectacle of myself, or that I allowed Ravenna to easily best me." Again, that slight shrug. "Well, no more."

  "What do you mean?"

  "It means that I have decided not to allow myself to be buffeted about by everyone else, Isaiah. Dear gods, I have more strength than that! I need to make my own way."

  Now it was Isaiah who smiled. "Maybe Maximilian has done better tonight than I'd first thought. Well done, Ishbel. I have been waiting for this woman to emerge for some time. I don't suppose..."

  As a test, he allowed his mind to linger over some memories of the time when they'd been lovers, wondering if Ishbel was now aware enough of her own power to pick up his mental images.

  "Not tonight, Isaiah," she said, and he smiled again.

  "What were you and Axis and Maxel doing so closely closeted?" she asked. "And all of you had great worry lines etched in your faces."

  "Something has happened with Kanubai tonight," Isaiah said. "It feels almost as if he has vanished."

  "DarkGlass Mountain," Ishbel said.

  "More than likely. We decided we were all too tired to solve the problem tonight, and that we should sleep on it and meet later tomorrow to discuss it. Today, I suppose, as it must be close to dawn."

  "I will attend, as well," Ishbel said.

  "Of course."

  They drew close to Isaiah's command tent, a great square scarlet extravagance of pennants and bells.

  "What do you need from me, Ishbel?" Isaiah said, allowing her to pass through the doorway first.

  She waited until they were both well inside the tent, and the doorflap closed behind them.

  "The Goblet of the Frogs," she said, naming the magical goblet that Isaiah had shown Ishbel in his palace at Aqhat. "I assume you brought it with you."

  Isaiah gave a nod. "And you want it because...?"

  "Because it is of my family," she said. "My ancestress Tirzah fashioned it. And I want it because I think it can teach me many things."

  Isaiah studied her for a moment. All the time he had known her there had been an aura of fragility about her, or of worry, or of uncertainty. All of that had now gone.

  "What happened tonight, Ishbel?" he said. "What really happened?"

  "Maxel and I...everything between us was colored by my fear of the Lord of Elcho Falling. The whispers I'd heard when I was a child in the house with the corpses of my family--"

  Isaiah nodded. As an eight-year-old girl Ishbel had spent a month trapped in the charnel house of her family home, the corpses of her family rotting--and whispering--about her.

  "--had taught me to fear the Lord of Elcho Falling, for he would bring nothing but bleakness and despair to my world. All through my girlhood and into my marriage with Maximilian, I had visions of how one day the Lord of Elcho Falling would turn his back on me and ruin my world. Maxel and I--" Ishbel made a helpless gesture with her hands. "I wanted to love him, but I feared what he would do to my life. He was the Lord of Elcho Falling and everything I had ever experienced had taught me to be terrified of him.

  "Well, last night StarDrifter and Salome convinced me that I had to take the c
hance. That together Maxel and I could have something extraordinary. So I went to him and begged him, and he rejected me and presented me with his pregnant lover. Then he turned his back on me and walked away."

  Ishbel took a deep breath. "And in the doing, he destroyed my world and fulfilled the visions I've experienced over all those years. An extraordinary blackness, a complete despair, overwhelmed me. It crushed me. I collapsed in the snow as he walked away. And then..."

  "And then?"

  "Fury consumed me. Not at Maxel, nor even at Ravenna--although, by the gods, I despise the woman and will surely have my revenge on her--but at myself. For being so stupid. For allowing myself to be so easily outmaneuvered. That fury was also a release. The worst had happened, and it was my fault, really, rather than that of Maxel, and now I was beyond it, and if I didn't want this to happen again, I needed to collect myself somewhat."

  "That's quite a transformation for such a short period of time."

  "It was almost instant, Isaiah. I was suddenly faced with the devastation I'd always feared...but it wasn't the Lord of Elcho Falling's fault, it was mine. It was..." Ishbel paused, trying to find the words to describe what she'd felt. "It was as if I'd experienced a gigantic release of pressure, I think. It was done, it was over, I didn't have to fear any more--not if I decided to take control and take back that strength I

  had lost."

  "You don't still long for Maxel?"

  "Not on his terms."

  Isaiah stared at her, then he very slowly smiled. "Well, well. I have been waiting to meet this woman for a very long time. Maxel has an uncomfortable time ahead of him, I think."

  She returned his smile. "Ravenna will have to cope with his black moods, not I. For the moment, she is welcome to them."

  Isaiah walked over to a pack in one corner of the tent. He rummaged about in it, then withdrew a carefully wrapped parcel. "For you," he said. "For the Lady of Elcho Falling."

  "What's happened?" Axis asked Maximilian once Ishbel and Isaiah had left.

  "Oh gods..." Maximilian groaned and rested his head in his hands for a moment. "How did you manage it, Axis, Faraday and Azhure?"