The Serpent Bride

by Sara Douglass

  He stepped closer to Salome, placing both of his hands on her shoulders.

  “These are words, Salome, that are usually spoken to a newborn baby, as StarDrifter and myself, and you, too, will speak them to the child you are carrying at his birth. But I sense you have had a difficult life, and have only come recently into your heritage, and I think you need to hear these words very much indeed.”

  He leaned forward, kissing her softly on the forehead.

  “Welcome, Salome, into the House of SunSoar and into my heart. My name is Axis SunSoar, and I am your kinsman. Sing well and fly high, and”—here Axis hesitated, wondering whether he should speak redundant words, then quickly revised the traditional greeting—“may all of creation work to ensure that one day your feet will tread the path of the Star Dance.”

  But still, he thought, remembering the lifeless glass pyramid he still had in his safekeeping, there is hope that one day you, as all Icarii, may set foot once more on the path of the Star Dance.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Sakkuth, Isembaard

  The palace chamberlain met Maximilian as he strode out of the room where he’d talked with Ishbel, informing him that Axis and Ravenna had gone to fetch the rest of the party and they were to be accommodated with all honor in Isaiah’s palace.

  Maximilian was so angry, so hurt, and so overwrought at that moment he couldn’t have cared less had the palace chamberlain informed him he was to be escorted to the dungeons, so he’d simply followed the man wordlessly.

  The chamberlain led him to a door, saying that his apartment lay beyond it, and Maximilian had just laid a hand to the door handle when a voice spoke.

  “Maximilian.”

  Maximilian realized he was going to have to wait a little while yet for the peace he craved. He turned slightly.

  Isaiah stood, arms folded, leaning in the frame of another doorway a few paces down the corridor.

  He hadn’t been there when Maximilian had walked past a moment ago.

  “Isaiah,” Maximilian responded, his voice dull.

  “Can we go inside?” Isaiah said, nodding at the doorway leading into the apartment. “I do not wish to speak to you in the corridor.”

  A muscle flickered in Maximilian’s jaw, then he gave a terse nod.

  “You know who I am,” said Isaiah the moment the door closed behind him.

  Maximilian said nothing. They were in the first room of what appeared to be a suite of spacious and well-appointed chambers, and he marched over to a side table, poured himself a glass of wine, and gulped it down.

  “My Lord of Elcho Falling—” Isaiah began.

  Maximilian whipped about. “Don’t call me that!”

  “Wake up, damn you!” Isaiah said. “Kanubai is risen, and it is time for you to assume your responsibilities. You must know that!”

  Maximilian decanted himself another glass of wine, drinking it down as fast as he had the first.

  “I walk,” said Isaiah, “and Light walks as a man named Lister. Kanubai is risen.” Isaiah thought about telling Maximilian that Kanubai had used the blood of his daughter to attain flesh, but thought better of it—another time, but not now. “Elcho Falling is stirring. I don’t care what you want, Maximilian Persimius, but you must have known from the moment you met Ishbel, from the moment you heard from where she came, that Elcho Falling stirred. The time has come, my lord.”

  Maximilian poured himself a third glass, stared at it, then slammed it down so hard on the table that red wine spilled over its glossy surface, and sank into a nearby chair.

  “Why take her from me?” he said, his voice weary. “Why sleep with her? What purpose did that serve save to break hearts?”

  “You had lost her, Maximilian, turned your back on her. I am a man, and Ishbel is a lovely woman.”

  “I had expected a more noble excuse. Surely there were other lovely women about you could fuck for recreation.”

  “Maximilian—”

  Maximilian leapt to his feet. “Don’t you ever step in my way again, you shitty little piece of frog spawn!” He took a step toward Isaiah, who moved backward.

  “Maximilian—”

  “Don’t you ever step in my way again!”

  Isaiah gave a little nod, and the faintest suggestion of a bow from his shoulders.

  Maximilian stared at him, then turned back to the side table and downed what was left of the wine in the glass. “Get out,” he said.

  “We leave within days for the north, Maximilian. You know why we head north.”

  Maximilian sloshed some more wine into the glass. The last thing he wanted to do now was talk about Elcho Falling.

  “Travel with us, you and your party. There is no point in your breaking away to travel independently. After all,” Isaiah added softly, “we head in the same direction. North, to Elcho Falling.”

  “And the Skraelings you go to meet? Your allies?”

  “They are under the control of Kanubai. Neither I nor Lister can do anything about them, Maximilian. I am sorry.”

  Maximilian drank the glass of wine in one gulp, spilling a little of the liquid down his chin. He wiped the dribble away with the back of one hand. “Get out.”

  “While with me, you will be treated with all honor and—”

  “Get out!”

  Isaiah turned on his heel and left.

  Axis escorted StarDrifter and the rest of the group back to the palace, StarDrifter carrying a blanket-wrapped bundle that piqued Axis’ curiosity, although for the moment he kept his questions to himself. Isaiah’s armed men trailed them, closely enough to earn black looks from Serge and Doyle.

  There were even more black looks at the palace where Serge and Doyle reluctantly handed over their weapons, before the palace chamberlain, polite and unquestioning, even though the night’s events must have been extraordinary to him, escorted them to their various apartments. Axis left StarDrifter and Salome in their apartment, to bathe and refresh themselves, before heading to the guards’ main equipment room and securing two swords for Serge and Doyle. He liked and trusted the two men instinctively, knowing he would have been glad of them in any command of his, and knew also that they would fret constantly until they had weapons with which to guard Maximilian.

  Axis was pleased to see that Maximilian had been allocated what amounted to a small wing of the palace with at least five bedchambers and four reception rooms. Serge, Doyle, Venetia, and Ravenna were all staying in Maximilian’s quarters. Once Axis had delivered the swords to the relieved and grateful Serge and Doyle, he stood in the anteroom looking at the closed door to Maximilian’s private bedchamber, wondering how Maximilian was, but knowing that the last thing the man needed now was a stranger prying into his heartache.

  After a quick glance up and down the corridor—Isaiah had stationed guards at several points—Axis left Maximilian and his companions and went to rejoin his father and whoever Salome might prove to be.

  “Maxel?”

  His bedchamber was lit with only a single lamp left to burn low, and it had taken Ravenna a few moments after she’d closed the door behind her to make him out as he sat on the floor, hunched into a corner.

  Her heart almost stopped. Maximilian looked as lost as he had when she and Garth rescued him from the Veins.

  Ravenna walked over to sit beside him. Now that she was closer she could smell the wine on him.

  “Maxel,” she said softly, and he tipped his head and looked at her.

  “Oh, Maxel,” she said, appalled at the haggard lines running down from eyes and nose, and the tears in his eyes.

  He sighed, picking up one of her hands. “I was unutterably cruel to her, Ravenna. I couldn’t help myself. What is it, then, about the human spirit that makes us act so?”

  “I wish I had left the Lord of Dreams earlier,” she said, “and married you myself, Maxel. I would never have left you.”

  He laughed, softly, and a little bitterly. “Marsh women marry no men, Ravenna. And they stay with men even less time t
han Ishbel stayed with me. They need men to sire their babies, and then they abandon the men who love them and take their babies with them. How much better are you than Ishbel, Ravenna?”

  She froze, appalled at being compared to Ishbel even more than the personal attack.

  “Oh, gods, I am sorry, Ravenna. You of all people did not deserve me to say that to you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Don’t go. Please, don’t go.”

  She relaxed a little. “Ishbel has hurt you, Maxel.”

  “And I have hurt her, and now you. I have come out of this night the worse, I think.”

  They sat silently a little while, their hands still loosely interlinked.

  “Are Serge and Doyle here? And your mother?” Maximilian said eventually.

  “Yes. They are settled outside, all nervy at the thought of being ensconced in Isaiah’s palace.”

  Maximilian smiled a fraction at that.

  “StarDrifter and Salome are here, too, and settled in their own quarters.”

  “Was Axis happy to see his father?”

  “I have never seen two men happier to see each other.”

  “Then I am glad some joy has come out of this day.”

  “Well…” Ravenna smiled. “Now StarDrifter has the task of explaining to Axis how he managed to sire Salome’s mother on Axis’ old lover.”

  Maximilian managed a more genuine smile. “Ah, those SunSoars. I hope they manage to somehow complicate Isaiah’s life, as they complicate everyone else’s. That might be some small punishment for him for stealing away my wife.”

  “Maxel, what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know, Ravenna. I just don’t know. Here I sit, huddled on the floor of the palace of the man who is about to invade the Northern Kingdoms. I don’t even know what is happening in Escator. What the fuck am I doing, Ravenna? I—”

  “You are doing the best you can, Maxel.”

  “Oh, don’t try to placate me, please. If only…if only I’d not dreamed of a family. If only I’d not set out on a quest for a dammed, damned bride. If only…”

  “And that is futile, stupid talk. But you are tired, and tonight has not been pleasant for you, and so I shall forgive you.”

  Maximilian chuckled. “Did you treat the Lord of Dreams with this much contempt, Ravenna?”

  “Yes. He grew tired of me and asked me to leave.”

  “And that I do not believe.” He squeezed her hand, turning his head once more so he could look at her directly. “He would have gone down on his knees and begged you to stay.”

  She smiled, hesitated, then leaned forward and kissed him softly on his forehead.

  “Ravenna…”

  “Let me stay with you tonight, Maxel.”

  “I would be poor company for you, my sweet marsh woman. My breath stinks of wine, and my heart aches for—”

  “Don’t say her name again, not tonight.” Ravenna kissed him again, this time softly, on the mouth.

  There was a part of Maximilian that knew he should pull back. He understood that tonight, blackened as it was by strong, bitter emotion, and by the shock of meeting directly with the embodiment of Water, was the worst time of all to succumb to Ravenna’s seductions.

  But then there was also a part of him that thought that, as Ishbel had abandoned him for another, while he had abandoned a kingdom for her, then perhaps he should no longer deny himself the comfort that Ravenna offered.

  Surely he should be allowed a little revenge. Just this once.

  Her fingers and mouth were trailing over his face and neck now, and Maximilian allowed himself to sink into their promises and comforts.

  “Skip, trip, my pretty man,” she murmured in his ear, recalling the song she had once used to summon the Lord of Dreams to her side. “Skip, trip, into my hand.”

  He shuddered, and took her shoulders in his hands, and kissed the angle of her jaw, and used the wine as an excuse for what he was doing.

  Skip, trip, into my heart.

  Isaiah went straight to the apartment he shared with Ishbel.

  She sat on the floor, against the wall, arms about knees, unwittingly echoing Maximilian’s distress.

  “Did you know Maximilian was coming for me?” she asked quietly.

  “Yes,” Isaiah said.

  She raised her head and looked at him, her eyes full of black bitterness. “How can I ever trust you again?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Sakkuth, Isembaard

  Axis was sitting on a wooden chair at the table in StarDrifter’s and Salome’s apartment. He’d tipped the chair back, balancing himself with one foot, and was now staring aghast between Salome and his father as StarDrifter finished his tale of who Salome was, and how she’d come to be with him now and bearing his child.

  “Embeth,” Axis finally managed. “Oh, stars, I’d never thought of her once I’d married Azhure. She is as much my guilt as yours, StarDrifter. I hadn’t even realized she was your lover at Carlon. And to think that she bore a child, and died in the doing…

  “Salome,” he continued, “you have been cruelly treated by the SunSoars indeed. I am sorry for it, for the loss of your grandmother and for that of your son particularly. We are not an easy family.”

  She sighed, looking down at her hands interlaced over her stomach. “These past few months have been like a dream, Axis. I never wanted to leave Coroleas. I loved my life there.” She paused. “At least, I thought I did. Now it seems so far distant. A dream. I still wake at night crying for Ezra. His loss is real enough, but as for my life in Yoyette…I am not sure I want this in its place, though.”

  She indicated her back, although Axis was aware she meant her sudden inclusion into the Icarii race and the SunSoar fold. He knew how she felt—he’d had enough problems coming to terms with his Icarii heritage when first he’d learned of it.

  “Can I have a look?” Axis said, nodding at her back. “Or my father’s, if you’d prefer me not to—”

  “I don’t care,” Salome said with a slight shrug, and unfolded the robe she wore, revealing not only her back, but her breasts as well.

  Axis repressed a smile, glancing at his father as he rose and walked about the table to where Salome sat. SunSoar blood.

  And he could feel it, as soon as he got to within a pace of her. The pull that all SunSoars exerted each to the other. No wonder she and his father…Axis saw StarDrifter glaring and he grinned at him, and concentrated on the matter at hand.

  Salome’s back both repelled and excited him. It looked horrendous, with twin massive cartilaginous ridges protruding from either side of her spine. They were barely covered with skin, and Axis realized that very soon the wings would break free. Very gently he ran his fingers down one of the ridges, feeling the wing within folded back on itself.

  It felt hot, and Axis knew it must be very painful.

  “Is it worse, StarDrifter,” he said, “now, than when you were a child?” Icarii children generally developed their wings when they were five or six, and apart from some grumbling and whining about the ache, as when they’d teethed earlier in childhood, they generally did not suffer much pain.

  “Yes,” StarDrifter said, “much worse. Our bones are set now, and our muscles and bodies complain about the growth. I will be glad once they have broken free, and can grow beyond the confines of our backs.”

  “Salome?” Axis asked.

  “It is agony,” she said, “and all for something I don’t want.”

  “I will remind you of that remark one day,” Axis said, “when you have returned flushed of cheek and exhilarated of spirit after soaring a league into the sky.”

  He lifted the robe over her back again, then stood looking at her.

  “Yes?” she said.

  “Sorry,” Axis said. “You have been reminding me of someone, and I have only just remembered.” He looked at his father. “You don’t see it?”

  “No. Who?”

  “There are none so blind,” Axis murmured. Then said, louder, “Salome, you are the
spitting image of my grandmother, your great-grandmother and StarDrifter’s mother—MorningStar SunSoar. Not only in features, but you have something of her flair and directness as well. I remember the day she tried to seduce me—”

  “My mother tried to seduce you?” StarDrifter said.

  Axis laughed. “And you seduced your granddaughter, StarDrifter. Perhaps we can lay the blame for this entire grandparent-grandchild attraction at her feet, eh? Now, let me look at your back.”

  If anything, his father’s back looked even worse than Salome’s. “Gods, StarDrifter…”

  “I don’t complain,” StarDrifter said. “I rejoice in every twinge.”

  “I am sure you do,” Axis said, knowing how his father must have hated living flightless. “But I don’t understand, how is it that you are growing your wings? I have never heard of anything like this before.”

  “I told you that I’d seduced Salome in an effort to steal the deity known as the Weeper,” StarDrifter said.

  Axis nodded.

  “Well,” StarDrifter continued, “Maxel thinks, and I agree with him, that the Weeper has done this. It is the only possibility I can think of.”

  “Is the Weeper the bundle you carried from the bakery?” Axis said.

  “Yes,” said StarDrifter. “Usually only Maximilian carries the Weeper, but for the journey from the bakery it accepted me as an old friend, if only because I would return it to Maxel’s side.”

  “Salome,” Axis said, “what is the Weeper? I mean, what soul went into its creation? It must have been powerful indeed.”

  “All I know,” said Salome, “is what legend tells us: the man who gave his soul into the deity was a man from a distant land, and very, very powerful. Stunningly so.” She gave a slight shrug. “That would explain the power of the Weeper, of course.”

  “I think the Weeper has only ever wanted to get to Maximilian,” StarDrifter said. “These”—he indicated his back and Salome’s—“are thank-you gifts to Salome and myself.”