At the sound of Elcho Falling’s massive portal closing behind him, Axis sank down on his haunches, resting his back against one of the giant columns of the vast ground floor chamber. He was exhausted. He had not slept in almost two days, he had been driven to the edge both physically and emotionally, and he simply had no strength left with which to think, or plan, or solve.

And yet he had to do all three.

Somehow.

There were men and horses milling about, but they were gradually being sorted and redirected by Emerald Guardsmen, some of Georgdi’s Outlander men and by the citadel’s silent servants.

Axis closed his eyes, wondering if he could snatch just a few minutes sleep before he had to attend to that one thing that had been nibbling away at the back of his mind all day.

Inardle.

“Axis?”

He opened his eyes wearily. Maximilian and Ishbel stood before him, Ishbel leaning on her husband’s arm for support.

“Come up to the command chamber,” Maximilian said. “We need to talk.” He offered his free hand and Axis sighed, took it, and allowed Maximilian to pull him to his feet.

They filed into the command chamber where, so it felt to Axis, this current crisis had begun over a thousand years ago — and he’d been awake for all of it. Was it only a day since Maximilian had been murdered; only a day since he’d thought Inardle trustworthy, since he’d thought he’d loved her?

She was sitting in here now, on a stool against a far wall, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes downcast.

The perfect pose for the repentant traitoress.

Axis couldn’t look at her. He averted his face, choosing to move to a chair as far distant from her as possible.

The Outlander general Georgdi was here, too, as was Insharah, Egalion, StarDrifter, StarHeaven and a dark, handsome man Axis did not recognise but who he supposed must be somehow associated with the Isembaardians, perhaps a commander under Insharah.

He didn’t care, he was too fatigued. Axis exchanged a brief word with StarHeaven and then his father, then slumped down in the chair.

Maximilian and Ishbel sat down where they had a clear view of everyone else, and Maximilian gestured at those few still standing to take seats as well.

“We are safe enough for the moment,” Maximilian said, “although I cannot guarantee the morrow.” He gave a brief smile. “The moment shall have to do for now. There is something I need to tell you, but first, perhaps, we need to review what has happened here. Georgdi, Egalion, how stands security within Elcho Falling?”

“Good, so far as I can tell,” Georgdi said. “But who is to know what other traitors lurk in the shadows?” He glanced at Inardle as he spoke.

“Everyone who has entered Elcho Falling has been assigned quarters,” Egalion said. “Garth and Zeboath are attending the wounded as best they can, but many more will die from their wounds.”

“For your part this night,” Maximilian said, “I need to thank you, Egalion, and your guardsmen. We may all have been lost, had it not been for you.”

Egalion nodded, like so many others, too tired to waste energy on unnecessary words.

“What other threats lurk, Axis?” Maximilian said.

“The Skraelings are coming,” Axis said, rubbing at his eyes with one hand, “and they will be here as soon as they may. Eleanon has been reinforced with Bingaleal and his twenty thousand.” Axis sighed, thinking. “Kezial and some few score thousand Isembaardian soldiers are roaming the Outlands somewhere, but who knows if they are a threat or if they’ll be overwhelmed by the approaching tide of the Skraelings. But who am I to talk of what threats and treacheries we face? For that we have Inardle to ask.”

He looked at her then and she raised her eyes and caught his gaze. Inardle’s eyes were distraught, and Axis thought her a most talented actor. He hoped everyone else in the chamber saw through to the treacherous soul that she tried to hide.

“I will speak here,” Ishbel said. “Inardle is no traitor, not to Elcho Falling. If she had been, she would have been spattered with the blood — the blood of murdered Maxel — that I cast from the Goblet of the Frogs. It did not stick to her. She did not betray Elcho Falling.”

Axis banged his fist on the table, his exhaustion forgotten. “What? Have you not seen the murdered bodies of the Strike Force, Ishbel? Did you not see Isembaardian after Isembaardian cast down into death from the causeway? Could you walk the few paces to the window and look out on the waters which surround us and not see the corpses floating so thick the water is hid? Is Inardle not responsible for all —”

“No,” Ishbel said.

“She knew this was going to happen!” Axis shouted as he rose to his feet, now joined by StarDrifter, who had leapt to his feet also, sending Inardle a look of implacable hatred as he did so.

“She knew it,” Axis said, “and she said nothing.”

“She was torn by twin loyalties,” Ishbel said. “She was —”

“Sent here to betray us,” StarDrifter said, “and this she did perfectly.”

“Sit down, StarDrifter,” Maximilian said, his tone moderate. “Both of you. And Axis, take a deep breath and calm yourself. I understand your anger, everyone here does —”

“Don’t patronise me,” Axis snapped, remaining on his feet.

“I am not patronising you!” Maximilian said. “I just want you to calm down so that we can hear what Inardle has to say! None of us has the energy to deflect such bitter anger, Axis. Please, just calm down and let myself and Ishbel talk to Inardle.”

“I am not allowed to challenge her?” Axis said, his eyebrows raising.

“Not in the mood you are in now,” Maximilian said. “Be quiet for the moment, Axis.”

Axis hesitated, then gave a curt nod, sitting down and gesturing to his father to do the same.

“I think Inardle has a great deal to tell us,” Ishbel said, “and I think she will. Inardle, you must have felt yourself in an impossible position.”

Inardle looked at Ishbel, fighting back the tears. That single phrase of sympathetic understanding on Ishbel’s part almost undid her. She had kept herself under such tight control from the moment she’d seen Axis walk into the chamber . . .

“Inardle?” Ishbel prompted.

“I was sent by Eleanon and Bingaleal to spy on Axis,” Inardle said, her voice brittle and hard as she tried to stop herself from weeping.

“You put yourself through the horror at Armat’s camp deliberately?” Axis said. “You allowed Armat to cripple you, and Risdon to rape you . . . all to get into my bed and my trust?”

Inardle could not look at him. She swallowed, then gave a tight nod.

“And look at her now,” Axis said, his voice hard with hatred. “Her wings healed perfectly. Doubtless she could have healed herself any time she wanted, but no, she played the cripple well enough to engage our sympathies, and played BroadWing so that I would trust her above him. You are loathsome to me, Inardle.”

She flushed and her entire body tensed.

“Leave it for the time being, Axis,” Maximilian said. “For now it is information we need, not recrimination.”

Axis grunted in disagreement, but he leaned back a little in his chair and stared studiously at the far wall, and the mood in the chamber eased a fraction.

“The Lealfast always meant to betray Axis, and Maximilian?” Ishbel said to Inardle.

“No,” Inardle said, then cleared her throat to speak more clearly. “No. We were always undecided whether to offer our loyalty to you, Maximilian Persimius, as Lord of Elcho Falling, or to the One in DarkGlass Mountain.”

“You knew of the One,” Maximilian said.

“Yes,” Inardle said. “Always. We have known of the pyramid since the Magi first began its construction.”

At the back of the room the dark, handsome man who Axis had noticed earlier, leaned forward very slightly, his eyes intense.

“We, the Lealfast,” Inardle continued, “wanted power and we did not know who could best offer us that.”

“Just power?” Maximilian said.

“We wanted also, want also, more than anything else, to be free of our half and half heritage,” Inardle said. “Always we were half Skraeling and half Icarii, and both the Skraelings and the Icarii loathed us for it. We wanted our own identity and purpose, not our half and half hatefulness. We wanted our own home, far away from the frozen northern wastes. We did not know who could best offer us all that we wished, Maximilian or the One.”

“How did you know of the pyramid, and the One?” Ishbel asked.

“Two thousand years ago, give or take,” Inardle said, “the pyramid known as Threshold, which you know today as DarkGlass Mountain, was dismantled under the orders of the Magus Boaz and his half-brother Chad Zabryze, ruler of Ashdod. The glass was taken from its surface, the Infinity Chamber dismantled. Everything was buried, even the stone carcass of the pyramid itself. Worship of the One was forbidden and his Magi were disbanded. The libraries of the Magi were burned.”

Inardle’s voice strengthened, and she looked about the room with far more courage than previously.

“But not everything in the libraries was burned and not all former Magi forgot their loyalty to the One, nor their learning and training. Five escaped northward. They travelled fast, and they travelled far, fearful always that somehow the soldiers of Zabryze would find them, or cause others to apprehend them.

“With them they carried the few scrolls and books pertaining to the One and Infinity that they had managed to save from the hateful fires of Boaz and his brother.”

“I am descended from Boaz,” said Ishbel. “You know this, yes?”

“I know this,” Inardle said. “We were always wary of you.”

“The Magi travelled northward,” said the handsome stranger, “to your frozen wastelands? To the Lealfast?”

“Yes,” said Inardle. And think not that you are a stranger to me, Avaldamon.

Avaldamon’s mouth curved slightly as he recognised the power behind that thought, but he did not respond, allowing Ishbel to continue to question Inardle.

“The Magi travelled northward to the frozen wastes,” said Ishbel, “and there they met with the Lealfast. I imagine a deal was brokered, Inardle, for the Magi taught the Lealfast a great deal, didn’t they?”

“They taught us everything,” said Inardle. “They taught us the way of the One and the secrets of the Magi.”

“You control the power of the Magi?” StarDrifter asked.

“Yes,” Inardle said. “Not all of us, but many of us. I control a little of this power, but nowhere near as much as Eleanon and Bingaleal, who are the most powerful Magi among us. Now that they have combined with the One and have pledged him their utter allegiance, their ability to touch Infinity and to use its power must be a hundredfold to what it was a few short months ago. My own command of the power of the One is much poorer — I am female, and the One despises females for our power to subdivide the One.”

“The ability to give birth,” Avaldamon said, “and thus subdivide the One.”

Many in the chamber now looked at Avaldamon curiously, wondering at him, but Maximilian still chose not to reveal his identity.

“You combine the power of the One with the Star Dance,” Maximilian said, and Inardle nodded.

“It was how our forbears made the spires, which Lister gave to Isaiah and others to enable them to communicate over vast distances.”

Stars, Axis thought, Isaiah! Amid the chaos I had forgotten about him!

He would be travelling north toward Elcho Falling, by now somewhere between Margalit and the citadel.

And the Lealfast were in the air, and the Skraelings fast approaching from the south. Oh, stars, stars . . .

Axis almost opened his mouth to say something, but kept it closed. He would mention Isaiah’s plight to Maximilian as soon as he had a chance.

“So the Lealfast have the ability to use the power of the One,” said StarDrifter. “Wonderful.”

“Jealous, StarDrifter?” Inardle said softly.

“Why are you still here, Inardle?” Maximilian said abruptly. “You could have left hours ago. You can leave now,” he waved a hand at the windows, “for none here would stop you.”

“Perhaps she stays to spread the treachery a little deeper,” StarDrifter said. “Taunt us a little longer, work the Lealfast’s purpose a little more accurately.”

“Inardle?” Maximilian said.

“I stay,” she said, “because I think Eleanon and Bingaleal chose wrongly when they chose the way of the One over you, Maximilian Persimius, Lord of Elcho Falling.”

“And you expect us to believe that?” Axis said. “If you had decided that Eleanon and Bingaleal had chosen wrongly, why did you not tell me or Maxel what the Lealfast had done, and what they planned? Why did you leave it until so many lay dead?”

“How easy do you think it, StarMan, to abandon the loyalties of a lifetime for a new set?” Inardle said. “And how easy do you truly believe it could have been, to have come to you, and said, ’Oh Axis, all I have told you has been lies, but I am sorry for it, and as proof I shall tell you some secrets’‘ ? You would have hated me instantly, as you have now, and refused to listen to a word I said. I was trapped, trapped by conflicting loyalties and loves. There was nowhere for me to turn, and no one to believe me.”

“I abandoned the loyalties of a lifetime for a ’new set‘ ,” Axis said softly, “when I abandoned the Seneschal for the way of the Forbidden — the Icarii. I found my conscience a good guide. I suggest you might like to try that, too, one day. f you have a conscience.”

Inardle stared at him, her face losing its colour. “I stayed for love of you, Axis. That’s why I stayed. A bitter choice, I am sure you will agree.”

Then she sighed, and looked at Maximilian. “I do not blame any of you for not believing me. Nor for your distrust of me now. So, in order to alleviate just a little of that distrust, I shall tell you a secret, that when Eleanon or Bingaleal discovers I have spoken it, will be my death sentence.”

“Then speak it,” Axis snapped, “and earn your death sentence.”

Maximilian thought about reprimanding Axis, but decided that the man had good enough reason to be bitter. Inardle had truly played to all his weaknesses, as all his strengths, in gaining his trust.

He raised an eyebrow at Inardle. “And your secret is . . . ?”

“Elcho Falling is not secure,” Inardle said. “You know of the rose-coloured spires. But there is one other, made of pure magic and the power of Infinity, and perhaps beyond Infinity for all I know. It is what we know as the Dark Spire and it is a thing of great bleakness, of frightening potency. I believe that it is now somewhere within Elcho Falling. It is the only way the One could have gained access. Eleanon would have placed it here to aid and guide the One.

“And as long as it stays here, then we are all corpses walking. None of us can combat it.”

Eleanon and Bingaleal sat on the small hill north of Elcho Falling, arms resting on raised knees, chins resting on arms.

“There is nothing from the One,” Eleanon said. “Nothing. Whatever consumes his interest in Isembaard, it is not worry about us.”

“Do you mind overmuch?” Bingaleal said.

Eleanon’s mouth curved slightly. “No. But I’d like to know where he is and what he does. He’s moving south-west through Isembaard, probably to reach DarkGlass Mountain. Why, I wonder?”

“He feels safe there, perhaps,” Bingaleal said.

Eleanon grunted. “So he runs away, eh? Of what use is he to us now?”

“We do need to be careful, Eleanon.”

“We will be careful, brother.”

“What do you plan for the Dark Spire, Eleanon?”

Eleanon took a deep breath, and told him.

Bingaleal’s eyes widened progressively as Eleanon spoke. “Is this possible?”

“I believe so,” Eleanon said. “I do not know how I can get inside Elcho Falling again to do what I must . . . but if I can work that out, then, yes, it is possible. I have spoken to the Dark Spire, and it is ready. It has . . . grown.”

“The One will not object?”

Eleanon shrugged. “As I said, he appears to have lost interest in us for the moment. In any case, it will serve his purpose as well as ours.”

“And the Lealfast Nation?”

“They will need to come here. We seem to have acquired an empty encampment of thousands of tents for their comfort.”

“I will send word,” Bingaleal said, and Eleanon nodded.

“There is a prize sitting there,” he said, looking at Elcho Falling. “A portal into all the power we could ever want. A home that is more than we could ever want. The One had promised to achieve it for us, but now I doubt he could achieve the barbecuing of a small frog without someone holding his hand for the entire procedure. This is up to us, now, brother.”