CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Tyranny of Isembaard

T hey had ridden out westward from Aqhat early in the morning, away from the River Lhyl and DarkGlass Mountain. Isaiah seemed to have something on his mind, for he was very introspective, and Axis did not push him for conversation. It was only when they’d reached the very edges of the Melachor Plains and had pulled their blowing horses to a halt that Isaiah finally looked to Axis, and spoke.

“Ba’al’uz contacted me last night.”

“Yes?”

“His companions are on their way home,” Isaiah said, “although Ba’al’uz has set off on a journey to Coroleas. Gods alone know why, but I for one don’t begrudge his continuing absence.”

Axis waited.

“Ba’al’uz and his companions have, apparently, accomplished their tasks better than expected in the north,” Isaiah continued. “The Central Kingdoms and the Outlands are at each other’s throats. Their best generals are dead. Disarray increases by the day.”

“I don’t like this, Isaiah. It is a miserable way to conduct a war, eh?”

“It is the successful way, Axis.”

Axis shrugged, and turned his eyes forward, looking over the Melachor Plains. Any semblance of lushness and fertility had been long left behind at the river. Here the landscape was a rolling vast barrenness, carpeted with scrubby plants that clung to rock crevices and the shaded sides of dust bowls.

It was a forbidding landscape, and Axis wondered that Isaiah should have ridden out to survey it. Did he find comfort here? Or challenge?

Comfort, Axis thought, and wondered that Isaiah needed such as this for comfort.

“There was something else,” Isaiah said.

Axis looked back at him.

“Ba’al’uz has kidnapped the new wife of Maximilian of Escator and is sending her back to Aqhat.”

“What?”

“Ba’al’uz said she would make me a fine wife.”

Axis could do nothing now but stare, aghast.

Isaiah had been looking straight ahead over the landscape, but now turned his head to look directly at Axis. “She would be a fine conquest, Axis. Together with the territory, I take one of their queens. It would be a total emotional subjection. Ba’al’uz said she was of fair aspect, and that I would not find her displeasing.”

“Isaiah—”

“Ba’al’uz has requested an escort for the lady from the FarReach Mountains back to Aqhat. He is worried that Maximilian might try to rescue his wife.”

“Frankly, I’d be a bit worried about that as well,” Axis muttered. Gods, what had Ba’al’uz done…and what in the world was Isaiah thinking?

“Axis, I ask that you lead a company of men north to the FarReach Mountains, there to meet Ba’al’uz’

men and this woman, Ishbel, Queen of Escator, and escort her to me.”

Axis was now rendered utterly speechless. The news that Ba’al’uz had kidnapped the new wife of Maximilian of Escator was startling, and the idea that Isaiah would take her as a conquest wife even more so, but that Isaiah should trust him to lead a company of armed men north…that was unbelievable.

And exciting. The idea of doing something was as heady as a draft of wine.

“Of course,” said Axis, then he smiled. “So long as you trust me with her.”

“You’re the one man I do trust with her,” said Isaiah. “I can’t see you betraying Azhure for any other woman. Besides, the trip will be useful in another way, for you can check to see how well the resettlement plans are progressing. Ezekiel and Morfah have sent regular and very reassuring reports, but it doesn’t hurt to have you cast your eye over their progress, does it?”

Later that night Isaiah sat in a chair in his private chamber, holding the Goblet of the Frogs in his hands.

He rolled it gently between his palms, watching the light play through its beautifully crafted shape.

Ishbel, here at Aqhat. Oh, the dangers, not merely to her, but to everyone.

But, oh, the possibilities. Isaiah knew Lister would be worried—frantic, even—but Isaiah wondered if more was at play here than just what Kanubai might be whispering into Ba’al’uz’ mind.

Ishbel coming back to Aqhat would be Ishbel coming home. Ishbel coming home could be an Ishbel awakened. From what Lister had said of her, Ishbel had shut herself off completely from her true nature.

She would need to wake, sooner or later.

Isaiah thought of what he’d sensed clinging to Kanubai’s back…of his sense that something else was rising with Kanubai.

Ishbel might be able to see more clearly than he.

After all, she was the one with the blood for it.

“What of you, my friend,” Isaiah murmured to the goblet. “Anxious, or pleased?”

The goblet responded, not with words, but with a wave of delighted emotion. Isaiah smiled, then raised the goblet to his lips and kissed it gently.

There were dangers, but Isaiah could protect her.