The Serpent Bride

by Sara Douglas

  Aqhat he could not see at all, but he could feel it.

  The Skraelings were changing into the likeness of their master. Isaiah shuddered. Since Lister had told him about the Skraelings, Isaiah's dreams had been disturbed by nightmarish visions of what lay ahead.

  Skraelings, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them, under the control of Kanubai.

  Or of DarkGlass Mountain, and Isaiah did not know which was worse.

  Where are you, Lister? he asked. What are you doing?

  I am south of Hosea, my friend, traveling with a horde of creatures that I no longer feel comfortable calling Skraelings. They no longer tolerate me so well, and I stay out of their way.

  A pause, then Lister continued. Pray to the heavens, my friend, that they pass you by on their way south.

  Isaiah shivered, breaking off the connection, and turned around.

  Axis had come up close, and was looking down into the pass at the slowly winding column as it moved north.

  "Why do I get the feeling," Axis said softly, not looking at Isaiah, "that what you are about to say will shatter worlds?"

  "Worlds are already shattering, my friend," said Isaiah. "Perhaps what I say now will help rebuild them."

  He walked closer to the grouping of Maximilian, StarDrifter, Salome, and Ishbel.

  "My lord," Isaiah said to Maximilian, "do I have permission to speak?"

  Everyone, save Axis, looked between Maximilian and Isaiah in surprise at both Isaiah's words and tone.

  "Better you than me," said Maximilian.

  Isaiah nodded. "Very well." He turned to the others. "I need to tell you a tale. I will be as brief as I can.

  Some of you"--he glanced at Ishbel--"will have heard parts of it before.

  "This is a tale of my land, now called Isembaard," Isaiah continued, "and of the Northern Kingdoms from Escator to the Outlands, and including Viland, Gershadi, and Berfardi. All of these lands are wedded together more strongly than you can imagine. It is the legend of Kanubai, the chaos of that time before life, and it is the tale of the Lord of Elcho Falling."

  Isaiah paused, walking slowly about the top of the mountain, his boots scrunching in the loose gravel,

  every eye save Maximilian's fixed on him.

  Maximilian had turned very slightly, and was now looking into the distance over the western FarReach Mountains.

  "In the beginning," Isaiah said, "and for an infinity of time there was nothing but the darkness of Chaos,

  who called himself Kanubai. Kanubai grew tired of his lonely existence, and so he invited Light and Water to be his companions. Chaos and Light and Water coexisted harmoniously, but then one day Light and Water merged, just for an instant of time, but in that instant they conceived a child--Life.

  "Kanubai was jealous of Life, for it was the child of the union of Light and Water and he had been excluded from that union. He set out to murder Life, to consume it with darkness and subject it to Chaos,

  but Light and Water united against him in order to protect their child. Aided by a great mage, Light and Water defeated Kanubai in battle, and they interred his remains in an abyss. They stoppered this abyss with a sparkling, life-giving river, which combined the best of Light and of Water, and they hoped that Chaos was trapped for all time."

  Isaiah gave a small smile, looking at each of his audience in turn. "The mage who aided Light and Water was a man they knew only as the Lord of Elcho Falling. It was he who defeated Kanubai in a major battle that raged for months through day and night over this entire land, and he defeated him only with the aid of Light and Water, who were his weapons."

  Again he paused. "And who are his servants."

  "You are Water incarnate, are you not, Isaiah?" Axis said. "And Lister...Light?"

  "Yes," Isaiah said.

  Axis took a deep, deep breath, glancing once more at Maximilian, who still regarded the far distance as if it were fascinating. "Go on," Axis said to Isaiah.

  "We must shift forward in time, many millennia," Isaiah said. "To a time some two thousand years ago."

  Very briefly, Isaiah told the group the tale he'd told Ishbel. How the Magi had built their glass pyramid,

  through which they meant to touch Infinity, over the precise point where Water and Light had placed the stopper to Kanubai's abyss. Boaz had opened the pyramid into Infinity, and in the doing cracked the stopper. Kanubai had been crawling his way free ever since.

  "This is where the legend of Kanubai and that of the Lord of Elcho Falling begin to merge once again,"

  Isaiah said. "Boaz was a magus of the land, and one so powerful he headed the entire Threshold project,

  but he was the son of a northerner, a man called Avaldamon, a mage the likes of which few of us have ever met."

  "Ah!" Maximilian said. "We had never known what happened to Avaldamon! How ironic, Isaiah, that his issue caused the stopper holding Kanubai to crack."

  "Aye, ironic indeed," Isaiah said.

  "I didn't know," said Maximilian. "No one knew where he'd got to. We thought him lost. Is that where..." He glanced at Ishbel.

  "Yes," said Isaiah, "Ishbel is a direct descendant of Avaldamon's line through his son, Boaz."

  "So that is where the connection happened," Maximilian said. "I could not work it out."

  "Will one or both of you start to speak sense?" Ishbel said. "What are you trying to say?"

  Isaiah looked pointedly at Maximilian, and he sighed, and stepped close to the group so that he became fully a part of it.

  "Avaldamon's elder brother, named Fledge, was the Lord of Elcho Falling at that time," Maximilian said.

  "Yes," Ishbel said, "I know this. I just don't understand what this has to do with you, Maximilian."

  "Ishbel," Maximilian said, "the name of the House of Elcho Falling is Persimius. I am the current Lord of Elcho Falling. You are also of the family of Persimius. I knew it the first time I touched you. I am descended from Fledge, you from Avaldamon."

  Ishbel stared at him. Her face was white, her eyes huge, and she trembled very slightly where she stood.

  Salome came to her, and put a hand about her waist, but Ishbel scarcely felt it.

  Maxel was the Lord of Elcho Falling? Maxel?

  "Kanubai is risen," said Isaiah. "Water and Light are once more incarnate. The Lord of Elcho Falling needs to assume the throne of his mountain fortress at the edge of the world."

  "Really?" said Salome. "Where is that, then? I've never heard of it."

  "The fortress of Elcho Falling," said Maximilian, "fell into disuse perhaps two thousand years ago, fairly soon after Avaldamon went south. It was abandoned by the Lords of Elcho Falling, who took up residence in their summer palace, now the king's palace in Escator." He took a deep breath. "Elcho Falling is Serpent's Nest."

  "And Ishbel," said Isaiah, "through the knowledge gained in her training as archpriestess of the Coil, is the one who shall need to unwind it for Maximilian--to present to him his throne. She is far less an archpriestess of the Coil than she is of Elcho Falling, which is her inheritance, too."

  Ishbel finally found her voice. "You've been manipulating everyone's lives for all of our lives, haven't you,

  Isaiah? My parents, my entire family...were they murdered so that I would be raised within Serpent's Nest? What of Maximilian? Were his seventeen years of hell necessary to hone him for the crown he needed to assume? Did you allow a child to endure a nightmare, and a youth to lose half his life, just so that you could mold us into what you wanted?"

  "Lister and I did what was necessary," Isaiah said, "to save us all from Kanubai. The future rests in your hands, Maximilian and Ishbel."

  "Well," muttered Axis, "thank the stars it's not up to me this time."

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Salamaan Pass, Northern Kingdoms

  Ravenna had no idea where Maximilian was. She'd searched up and down the column, had virtually exhausted herself and her horse, and almost burst into tears of relief when she saw him, StarDrifter, and Sal
ome riding to rejoin the column from a path that led into the mountains.

  "Maxel? Where have you been? I've been so worried."

  He gave her a glance, but kept riding so that Ravenna had to push her horse to catch up enough to hear his answer.

  "I've been out riding," he said.

  Ravenna looked at StarDrifter and Salome, knowing something had happened, but that they were not likely to tell her.

  What were they up to? It involved Ishbel, no doubt. A pang, part of anger, part of jealousy, shot through her.

  "Maxel?" she said again.

  "We've been speaking with Isaiah," Maximilian said. "It was nothing important, Ravenna."

  "You were not so very surprised at the story I related, Axis," Isaiah said. He and Axis were left alone atop the mountain peak.

  Axis gave a shake of his head. "I'd heard a little bit of it from Maxel before we left Sakkuth. The rest...well, the details I did not know, but none of it surprised me." His mouth twitched. "And I am glad it won't be me to save the world this time."

  "Considering you did such a shitty job of it the last time around, Axis, I'd be hardly likely to hand it on to you."

  Axis laughed. He waved a hand at the column grinding its slow way through Salamaan Pass. "And this is evacuation rather than invasion, am I right?"

  Isaiah nodded. "Invasion was the only concept my generals could accept."

  "The Skraelings are heading south."

  "They will provide Kanubai with his army."

  "Stars, Isaiah, what about the millions of people left behind?"

  "We can leave the Salamaan Pass open for some weeks after the Skraelings have moved into Isembaard, but once Kanubai moves, we shall have to close it against his eventual march into the north.

  People will be able to flee north once word of the Skraelings spreads."

  They were quiet a moment, thinking about the terror that would spread throughout Isembaard. Axis hoped that the news would spread fast, and that many would have the chance to make their escape.

  "And me, Isaiah?" Axis said eventually. "I have a feeling that there is a far greater reason for you to have dragged me back from death other than to have a useful counselor for your more insecure moments."

  "Aye, there is. The first reason that I, that Maximilian, needed you back you can see before you.

  Kanubai is going to invade the north, Axis. He is going to try and destroy both Elcho Falling and its lord before they have a chance to destroy him. Maximilian will need an army, and he is going to need a general who can command it for him. You are that man."

  Isaiah now turned to look at Axis directly.

  "The second reason Maximilian needs you is because he is going to need a friend. Someone who has been through what he now faces--the assumption of an ancient title, the resurrection of an ancient realm,

  in order to repel an even more ancient enemy. There is no one about him now who can provide that friendship, save you."

  "Not Ishbel?"

  "No," said Isaiah, "not Ishbel."

  That evening, just as Maximilian and his group were finishing their evening meal, Ishbel walked into the circle of firelight.

  "Maximilian? Would it be possible to speak with you?"

  She looked gaunt and anxious, and held her cloak gripped tightly about her.

  "Have you not done enough?" Ravenna said. "You can't just walk in here and--"

  "Ravenna," Venetia said in a low voice, gripping her daughter's arm.

  "Maximilian," Ishbel said, ignoring Ravenna. "We need to talk about what Isaiah said today. Please."

  Maximilian gave a nod, rising to his feet.

  "Maxel--" Ravenna began, making to rise herself, but Venetia literally hauled her back to the ground.

  "No!" Venetia hissed as Maximilian and Ishbel faded away into the night. "You need to let them speak,

  Ravenna. Alone!"

  Ravenna stared at her mother, then reluctantly nodded.

  Venetia studied her, wishing she knew what to say. She'd watched her daughter work her way into Maximilian's bed, and she'd seen--clear to anyone save her blinded daughter--his reluctance to keep her there. Venetia had traveled with Maximilian for many weeks now, and she thought she knew the man.

  Guilt and honor bound him tightly, as did his wish not to hurt Ravenna's feelings, whom he felt he owed for his release from the Veins.

  But guilt and honor and debt did not make a good foundation for a relationship, particularly when Maximilian still yearned for Ishbel.

  "Ravenna," Venetia said gently, "Maximilian will break your heart eventually. You do know that, don't you?"

  "He loves me."

  Venetia looked across the fire to Salome and StarDrifter, both watching and listening carefully.

  "He does," said Ravenna. "We've been through so much together. You just don't understand."

  "Maximilian, I had no idea you were the Lord of Elcho Falling. I'm sorry."

  They had found a spot relatively isolated from the campfires and people, but one with enough light cast from the many fires that they could see each other's faces.

  Maximilian looked at her, noting the hollowed cheeks, the overly bright eyes. She looked very tense and nervous, but she also looked more open and honest than he'd ever seen her.

  He wished she could have found that honesty far sooner. He wished he could have been the kind of man she could have been honest with.

  "You never gave me a chance to tell you," he said.

  "What I said, in the woodsman's hut..."

  She couldn't go on, but both of them heard her words echo through their minds.

  I hate him. Over the years I've had visions of him, and always I know that if ever he catches me, then he will wrap my life in unbearable pain and sorrow, for pain and sorrow trail in the darkness at his shoulders like a miasma. I know he will ruin my life. He will ruin the world.

  "Do you still feel that way, Ishbel?"

  She hung her head, fiddling with her hands.

  "Do you still dream of me, Ishbel?"

  Her head came up again, her eyes bright with tears. She nodded.

  "And are they still the same?"

  "Worse," she whispered.

  Maximilian sighed. "What did you want to say to me tonight, Ishbel?"

  "Just...just that...that I was sorry. I wish..."

  "Don't get started on the apologies and the wishes, Ishbel. It is far too late for that."

  "There is something else."

  "Yes?"

  "What I learned today--that you had been kept in the Veins for seventeen years--made me feel ill. I find it difficult to believe that someone could do that to you."

  "I don't want to talk about it, Ishbel. It does no good. Besides, they also put you through the horror of your parents' deaths."

  "But seventeen years, Maxel!"

  He noted the use of the familiar, but was too tired to correct it.

  "It is over and past now, Ishbel."

  "No," she said, "I don't think it is." She paused, deliberating what to say next, knowing it could drive a further wedge between them, but wanting quite desperately to let him know she did know what it had been like for him.

  "A long time ago," Ishbel said, "when we were almost happy, that night in the woodsman's hut, when we made love...Maxel, one of my skills is to uncoil memories. When you slept, I lay my hand on that scar on your left hip, and uncoiled--"

  "I don't want to hear this, Ishbel!"

  She was crying now, silent tears that slid down her cheeks. "I know what it was like for you, Maxel."

  He half turned away, moving a hand slightly as if to wave away her words.

  "What do they want of us?" she said after a lengthy silence.

  "To save this land from Kanubai."

  "I have no idea how."

  He gave a small smile at that. "Neither do I. I fear it is a great mistake choosing me to try to save the world."

  "I could not think of anyone better to choose," Ishbel said softly, but Maximilian did
not hear it, for he had turned and walked away.

  Five days later, Isaiah's invasion force moved into the Outlands.

  They met with some minor resistance from small bands of men, but they were quelled within hours.

  There was nothing between Isaiah and the north.

  Nothing between Maximilian and Elcho Falling.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Pelemere, the Northern Kingdoms

  Look," said Sirus, "if we attack from his left flank, we'll--"

  "That's shit-talk and well you know it," said Fulmer, King of Hosea. "That's all you can talk, yes? You couldn't fight your way out of a brothel, let alone--"

  "Shut up," said Malat, weariness evident in voice and posture and haggard expression. "Just shut up,

  Fulmer. You do not help the situation at all."

  "And you can?" Fulmer said, his voice rising a little, betraying his youth and inexperience.

  Malat sighed, moving away from the other two kings and pouring himself a cup of warmed wine, buying time before he had to answer. The past few months had been stupidity personified as the three kings of the Central Kingdoms pitted their armies against that of the Outlanders, whose forces were led by Chief Alm Georgdi, who had replaced the murdered Rilm Evenor as the war leader of the Outlander tribes.

  In theory, the armies of the Central Kingdoms should have destroyed the Outlanders. Their combined forces were four times the size of Georgdi's, they had considerably more resources, they fought on their own territory, which meant they did not have the long supply lines that Georgdi did, and their armies were better equipped.

  Unfortunately, superiority in theory did not translate to success on the battlefield.

  They had fought Georgdi up and down the plains between Pelemere and Hosea and, while Georgdi had enjoyed no major victories, he had suffered no defeats, either. His army was well disciplined, highly motivated, and battle-skilled.

  And it enjoyed the supreme advantage of having but one leader.

  On the other hand, the Central Kingdoms' armies suffered from lack of coordination, lack of cohesion,

  and three supreme commanders who bickered constantly among themselves and who could barely agree on the day of the week, let alone a coherent battle strategy.