CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

DarkGlass Mountain, Isembaard

T he Infinity Chamber rang with blackness and death and blood. Manic shadows writhed about the shattered chamber, and as, firstly, Ba’al’uz’ sword struck, then the two strikes from Isaiah’s sword, blood spattered in great, terrible gouts across the walls of the chamber.

There came a roaring, as if a giant, far, far below, was taking a massive intake of breath in order to bellow.

The room began to stink. Gaseous fumes and malodorous clouds billowed through the chamber, and the blood staining the walls appeared to thicken and then coagulate, before slumping to the floor in sickening, gelatinous masses.

Then, from far below, the giant bellowed, and the crack opened into a rent, and the abyss opened into the Infinity Chamber.

In the River Lhyl, the frogs cowered, and Isaiah, bending over Ishbel in his palace, looked up briefly, the tragedy deepening in his eyes.

The shadows continued to writhe, gaining strength and thickness with every frenzied turn about the Infinity Chamber. The formless, soundless bellow came once more, this time stilling the shadows.

As one, they fell to the floor and were absorbed by the masses of coagulated blood.

All was still.

Then, something…

The separate pools of blood were now one, and now were no more.

Instead, there lay on the floor of the darkened Infinity Chamber the form of a dog-headed man.

Kanubai.

He rolled over onto his back, still weak, but far, far stronger than he had been in an infinity of time.

And flesh! Flesh! The blood of the child, the dog, and Ba’al’uz had all combined, and Kanubai was now infused with the matter and power of all three.

Best of all, most delicious of all, he was now made flesh with the blood of his enemy, so that he could become his enemy, and his enemy could no longer have any power over him.

Kanubai raised his muzzle, and sent a thin howl shrieking about the chamber.

Thousands of leagues to the north, the Skraelings heard, and wept for joy.

Kanubai whispered to them, and his whispers were magic, and the Skraelings began to alter.

About Kanubai, as he lay on the floor of the Infinity Chamber, the glass mountain gloated.

Finally, it had the tool of its revenge.

Many leagues to the north, Maximilian suddenly awoke from his sleep. He stared into the night, riddled with cold and shock.

Kanubai had just risen.

Maximilian had been fast asleep when something in the Twisted Tower shifted, fell over, and shattered. It had been a simple glass vase, but Maximilian had learned that it was an object to be feared.

Its death would herald Kanubai’s rise.

Gods, Maximilian thought, how can I ever manage? How can I ever be what is needed to defeat Kanubai? And where are my helpers, my servants? Where Light, and Water?

He did not sleep again that night.