The Serpent Bride

by Sara Douglas

  The palace of Aqhat was an amazing collection of buildings, spires, minarets, echoing audience and dining chambers, air walks, underground passages, hidden doors, soaring arches and windows, and, above all,

  of dazzling displays of wealth and power. Gold and jewels glittered on the walls and around the frames of doors and windows in every public chamber.

  In stark contrast, Isaiah's private chambers were almost bare. The walls were unadorned, the furnishings simple if comfortable, and the few accoutrements present subtle. Isaiah allowed few people in here: not even his many wives, for Axis had heard he kept a special chamber for entertaining them in the evenings.

  Apart from Ba'al'uz, Axis had never seen anyone else in the quarters, not even servants. While here,

  Isaiah served himself.

  Isaiah beckoned them to a group of chairs set by a window to catch a cooling breeze from the Lhyl.

  "You will not be surprised to hear," Isaiah said to Ba'al'uz as they sat down, "that Axis has agreed to advise me from time to time. I always think it best to have an independence of opinion about my decisions."

  "I am indeed not surprised," Ba'al'uz said smoothly. "Axis SunSoar has a wealth of experience regarding the Skraelings. We would be wise to listen to him."

  "And thus he sits in on this conversation," said Isaiah. "Ba'al'uz, I have talked to Lister, and he and I

  agree that you must go north within the week."

  Isaiah looked at Axis. "As you have realized," Isaiah said, "Lord Lister and I mean to ally in an invasion of the north. Ba'al'uz is to go north for the next several months in order to, how shall I say this, sow the seeds for our success."

  "Create mayhem and confusion," said Ba'al'uz with a decidedly cheerful air. "A small conflict or two as well, should I be lucky."

  "You want to divide the Northern Kingdoms before you invade," said Axis. "Set them at each other's throats so they are less likely to notice you sneaking up at their backs, and far less able to respond well.

  Divide and conquer is surely the first maxim learned by all good tyrants."

  Isaiah looked hard at him at the last, but did not comment on it.

  "On the other hand," said Axis, "you will find the Northern Kingdoms with their forces already mobilized and battle-hardened. The ploy may work as much against you as for you. How good are their generals?"

  "The Outlanders have some good leaders, but they are experienced only in intertribal warfare. I doubt they could manage a response to the kind of armies Lister and I can command."

  No one can manage a good response to an invasion of Skraelings, thought Axis.

  "Pelemere and Kyros have several good generals," Isaiah continued.

  "Who I intend to take care of," said Ba'al'uz, studying the fingernails on one hand.

  "And the kings and princes?" said Axis, regarding the other two over steepled fingers. "You need only one charismatic leader to take a hopelessly divided muddle of peoples and turn them into victors."

  "As you would know," said Isaiah. "But there are none who strike me as any potential threat." He paused. "Or is there someone you think I should know about...?"

  Axis thought about it. It wasn't so much that he needed the time to think of a name, but to decide if he should mention it to Isaiah and Ba'al'uz.

  "There's a wild card," he said finally. "Maximilian Persimius, King of Escator."

  Ba'al'uz smiled derisively. "Escator is a tiny kingdom, and all but ruined. It can hardly raise enough policemen to keep market-day traffic under control, let alone an army to repel forces such as Isaiah and Lister command between them."

  "I am not talking of forces," said Axis. "I am talking of charismatic leaders."

  "You know this Maximilian?" said Isaiah.

  Axis shook his head. "I have never met him, but my son Caelum did, and Maximilian was for some time considered a match for my close friend Belial's daughter. He is highly, highly regarded. You know his story?"

  "That he was imprisoned in Escator's gloam mines for...what...fifteen or more years?" Isaiah said. "And that he was released on the endeavors of several youths and a cohort of ancient monks, from what I can recall of the story. Maximilian has ever since been somewhat of a recluse. Axis, why mark him as a charismatic leader?"

  "I think of him only as a possibility," Axis said. "The man survived seventeen years under conditions that killed everyone else within six months. That says something for his character and tenacity. It tells me that he is, to put it simply, a survivor, and that he has depths that should not be lightly disregarded. He is also liked by all who meet him. Highly regarded, as I said. The man has something."

  "But not an army," said Ba'al'uz. "And unlikely to raise one anywhere. He is also stuck far away on the west coast of the continent. He is no threat."

  Axis shrugged. "You asked, I told."

  Isaiah studied Axis a moment, then looked to Ba'al'uz. "When shall you leave?"

  "Within a few days," said Ba'al'uz. He smiled, all geniality and affability. "I do so like the idea of a vacation."

  When Ba'al'uz was gone, Axis turned to Isaiah and said, "That man is your brother?"

  "He terrifies me more than my other brothers did combined," said Isaiah. "The trouble is, I cannot know if he will be more trouble to me dead than alive. At the least he is traveling north and I shall be rid of the man for a few months."

  CHAPTER NINE

  The Road East, Escator

  Well?" said Maximilian. "Tell me of this strange offering from the Coil."

  StarWeb flopped down on a stool in Maximilian's chamber in the wayside inn, trailing her wings to each side. She had arrived less than an hour previously, exhausted from the long, arduous flight from the Outlands, but Maximilian had not even allowed her time to wash and rest.

  He wanted to know about Ishbel.

  "She trails secrets like some women trail the scent of their perfume," StarWeb eventually said. "I don't trust her."

  Maximilian crossed his arms and leaned against a window frame. "You don't like her," he said.

  "No."

  "Why not? Everyone trails secrets about them. It is a necessary condition of life."

  "I do not think she would be a good wife for you. She is too unquiet."

  "Hmmm. Unquiet is not good. Secrets I can tolerate, but not unquietness."

  "You're making fun of me."

  Maximilian grinned. "Not at all. So tell me, how went negotiations? Did you broker me a wife?"

  "Yes. She agreed too readily."

  "To all the conditions?"

  "Not quite. She agreed that the marriage would not be ratified until she is carrying a child. She refused to wait until it was born. She also refused to hand over her dowry until the marriage was ratified. I said that would ensure her your immediate amorous intentions."

  "You must have pushed her hard."

  "I think it is fair to say she loathes me." StarWeb paused. "I told her I was your lover."

  Maximilian went very still. "That was not wise, StarWeb, and most certainly not fair to Ishbel."

  StarWeb shrugged, moving away from Maximilian. "I was honest with her. I hoped to startle some honesty from her in return, but was disappointed."

  "I am surprised she conceded as much as she did," Maximilian said. "She must want me very much." Or perhaps she is under strict instructions.

  StarWeb shot him a look. "I did not tell her you were a good lover."

  Maximilian raised a small smile. "Nonetheless, she wants marriage with me badly, it seems. Perhaps tales of my attractions have spread."

  "It is suspicious, Maxel."

  "Yes. Perhaps."

  StarWeb sighed. Maximilian was in one of his uncommunicative moods.

  "What was she like, StarWeb?"

  "Lovely, if you like the sharp-edged kind."

  Now Maximilian smiled far more genuinely. "I like you."

  "Ha. Well, she is lovely, but curiously gauche. She is uncomfortable among people, constantly watching others as if she needs prom
pts on what to say and do. I think she has been hidden among the Coil for too long. God knows what they taught her, but social skills must not have been high on their list. Maximilian,

  if she is to be your queen, then she shall need some hasty lessons in the arts of conversation and etiquette once she reaches Ruen."

  StarWeb paused, thinking. "She is not comfortable to be around, and I think that is mainly because she is desperately uncomfortable around others."

  "I was not the world's best conversationalist when first I stepped forth from the Veins either, StarWeb."

  "You are curiously defensive of a woman you have never met, Maxel."

  Maximilian opened his mouth, then shut it again, and contented himself with a small shrug in answer.

  StarWeb rose, weariness evident in her every movement. "I am going to take some rest, Maxel. Perhaps we can meet later?"

  "Yes. Perhaps."

  StarWeb looked at Maximilian a long moment, wondering why he'd decided to leave Ruen for Pelemere before hearing from her, then decided she was too tired and Maximilian was too uncommunicative to justify the question.

  She turned and left the chamber without another word.

  Maximilian did not move for an hour or more, leaning against the window frame, thinking.

  He was not foolish enough to think that a bride sent to him from the heart of the Mountain at the Edge of the World from an order devoted to the Great Serpent was mere coincidence, but he had convinced himself that the only reason Light, in his guise as a serpent, had sent her was that he'd decided the Persimius line needed new, stronger blood.

  Or that perhaps Maximilian was doing so badly at finding a bride on his own, when an heir was so badly needed, that he'd sent one himself.

  Elcho Falling was not stirring. Maximilian was sure of it. He'd spent the night before he left Ruen standing in front of the crown, trying to see any chance, any sign of life.

  But the crown of Elcho Falling was as it had been for millennia. Absolutely quiet.

  Besides, there was no crisis, no desperation, no reason to think Elcho Falling was needed.

  He need not worry.

  He need not fret about the emptiness of the Twisted Tower. That would be for one of his descendants to worry about, perhaps, but not he.

  Maximilian took a deep breath, consciously relaxing his shoulders as he exhaled. He had brought the emerald and ruby ring with him. He knew that he and Ishbel would marry. They would live calm, settled lives, gradually building a marriage, and having many children.

  All would be well.

  Of course it will, said his ring. Naturally. Just like your youth and early manhood was calm and settled and happy.

  Irritated, Maximilian pulled the ring from his finger and slipped it into the pocket of his outer robe.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Hairekeep, Tyranny of Isembaard

  Ba'al'uz faced a long and arduous journey north into the Northern Kingdoms. The northern dependencies of the Tyranny of Isembaard themselves could be difficult at this time of the year, while the FarReach Mountains beyond were not well known for their winter bonhomie. Nonetheless, Ba'al'uz was looking forward to the experience. As much as he loved DarkGlass Mountain and Kanubai's whisperings, there was also knowledge to be gained and trouble to be caused in the Northern Kingdoms,

  and Ba'al'uz couldn't wait for either.

  Isaiah and Lister might well think Ba'al'uz was laying the ground for their invasion, but in reality Ba'al'uz meant to prepare the ground for Kanubai.

  But all that lay in the delectable future. For now Ba'al'uz was merely glad to remove himself from his brother's company. Ah, that Isaiah! Strutting about wrapped in his muscles and jewels and black, black braids, thinking himself lord of all, sneering behind Ba'al'uz' back.

  Ba'al'uz could not wait to see Isaiah ground into the soil under Kanubai's heel.

  Isaiah had always been irritating, but Ba'al'uz had discovered new depths of loathing and resentment toward his brother at the arrival of Axis SunSoar.

  Axis' arrival dismayed Ba'al'uz, because, first and most important, Ba'al'uz had no idea how Isaiah had managed it. Isaiah was a tyrant, and he was a warrior, but surely he had not the skills or powers of a priest.

  Yet no one but a priest, or the most remarkable of magicians, could have pulled Axis SunSoar from the Otherworld into this one.

  Isaiah should not have been able to do it.

  The fact that he had appalled Ba'al'uz, because it meant that Isaiah was harboring secrets from him, and secretive power.

  Axis' arrival dismayed Ba'al'uz for a second reason--it meant that Isaiah meant to replace Ba'al'uz as his most intimate advisor.

  Ba'al'uz loathed his younger, prettier brother, and the only thing that had made their close relationship bearable was the fact that Isaiah needed Ba'al'uz as his advisor and weapon within the volatile politics of Isaiah's court.

  Now Isaiah had Axis and Ba'al'uz' jealousy and bitterness festered deeper with the passing of each hour.

  Now he would do anything to ensure Isaiah's downfall.

  With Kanubai's aid and the power of DarkGlass Mountain, then who knew? With Isaiah dead, then who knew...?

  The tyrant throne would be empty, and who better to sit it, eh, than Kanubai's best and most loyal friend?

  Five days after his conversation with Isaiah and Axis, Ba'al'uz set out for his adventure in the kingdoms beyond the FarReach Mountains. He did not travel alone--Ba'al'uz had no intention of warding off brigands by himself, or of cooking his own lonely roadside meals--but with an escort of eight men, all of whom he had handpicked from the shadowy underworlds of Isembaard's cities. Ba'al'uz trusted them completely, for he had purchased their souls with bribes and obscene gifts many years ago. They were his factors, his apprentices in the arts and crafts of deception and treachery.

  Ba'al'uz would have need of them in his journey. He called them his Eight, and he regarded them with an almost brotherly affection.

  From the palace of Aqhat, Ba'al'uz and the Eight took a riverboat north and then east along the mighty Lhyl. They stopped each night, either at a riverside village or town, to commandeer the best accommodation and food possible, or to make their own encampment on the fertile floodplains of the river, setting up tents and comfortable beds, and roasting river lizards on spits beside cheerful campfires.

  There, at night, Ba'al'uz would entertain the Eight with twisted tales that sprang from the whispers in his mind.

  Within days the Eight were more devoted to Ba'al'uz than ever. Their journey might be dangerous, and deceitful in the extreme, but the rewards at its successful conclusion were...entrancing.

  The journey along the Lhyl was deceptively pleasant; Ba'al'uz knew that conditions would deteriorate from the moment they left the river. Normally, if he took the river journey north and then east with Isaiah to Isembaard's capital, Sakkuth, they would disembark where the Lhyl turned north once more so they could continue the journey to the city on horseback. Ba'al'uz liked Sakkuth. The city was a viciously immoral place and seethed with opportunity for such as Ba'al'uz. Indeed, he had found five of his Eight within its depraved depths. But on this journey Ba'al'uz embarked into the unknown, for he did not leave the river and ride east for Sakkuth at all, but continued on the river, drawing ever closer to the FarReach Mountains.

  This far north the river journey was no longer pleasant. In its lower reaches the Lhyl was a broad, serene waterway, but close to its source the river narrowed and became an ever more unruly traveling companion. The travelers swapped their initial broad-beamed riverboat for a narrow and much smaller vessel, which depended on both sail and the raw brute force of rowers to enable them to continue against the current. There was little room, with both travelers and rowers crammed onto benches, and Ba'al'uz had to put up with the indignity of having the stench and grunting of the rowers in his face twelve hours a day.

  It was a relief finally to disembark, pay the riverboat captain, and continue their journey by horseback.
/>   After almost three weeks on the river, Ba'al'uz and his companions were now in the very north of the En-Dor Dependency, itself the northernmost of the Tyranny's dependencies. Directly north rose the foothills of the FarReach Mountains, and beyond them the soaring pink and cream sandstone snow-tipped peaks of the mountains themselves. Ba'al'uz faced many days on horseback across a dry and barren landscape to reach Hairekeep, Isaiah's northernmost fortress, which guarded the entrance to the Salamaan Pass in the FarReach Mountains.

  Once they'd left the Lhyl, water was hard to come by, and they needed to carefully plot each day's travel to ensure that they reached the next water source alive. The travel was a strain on both men and horses, and Ba'al'uz was heartily relieved to finally reach the fortress at the dusk of a particularly hot and uncomfortable day.

  The fortress of Hairekeep had been built almost three centuries ago by one of the Isembaardian tyrants to control travel through the Salamaan Pass, which connected the lands of the Tyranny to the kingdoms north of the mountains. For travelers--apart from braving the treacherous sea passage between Coroleas and the Tyranny, or sailing down the Infinity Sea to the east (and in both cases there were no large ports on the Tyranny's coastlines at which trading vessels could dock)--the Salamaan Pass was the only dependable passage between the north of the continent and the south, and the soldiers stationed at Hairekeep ensured that it remained closed to all but the very few who had the necessary permissions.

  Ba'al'uz thought the fortress resembled nothing less than a massive stone block rising vertically out of the rock-strewn landscape. For almost twenty paces from ground level there were no windows in those walls, then only slits for a further ten paces, and only after forty paces did windows punctuate the stone to allow light inside. The walls continued vertically for another fifty paces to parapets that commanded magnificent views, not only of the pass to the north, but of all the surrounding countryside. Despite its forbidding aspect, the fortress was stunning: built out of the sand and rose-colored stone of the FarReach Mountains themselves, it glowed with an almost unearthly radiance in the twilight, reminding Ba'al'uz of the small glass pyramids Lister had given him and Isaiah.