Axis sat at the table, his breakfast sitting uneaten and cold before him, one hand rubbing at the side of his forehead, regarding Inardle.

She looked worse than what he imagined he did. Axis had managed to snatch a few hours sleep last night.

Inardle looked like she’d had none.

Axis was not looking forward to this interview. If he were truthful with himself, all he wanted to do was to walk away from her and forget she’d ever existed. Forget everything that had been between them. Forget how he’d begun to feel about her.

How he’d trusted her.

StarDrifter had warned him about Inardle, but, no, Axis had refused to listen. He’d simply wanted her, and had shoved to one side all the problems associated with trying to bring a Lealfast into his bed and into the heart of the inner circle about Maximilian.

He’d believed her before BroadWing and before his father. He’d humiliated BroadWing and his father because of her.

And look what she had done to them.

“What a traitorous bitch you truly are,” Axis said softly.

It wasn’t how he’d meant to begin this conversation, but it was what he was feeling.

“And what an unfeeling, unapproachable, arrogant son of a bitch you are,” she snapped back.

He hadn’t expected that, attack instead of tearful defence, and his anger roared to the surface yet once more. He half stood, sending his plate of food flying, hoping to see her at least flinch, but she did not move, or otherwise react.

For a moment Axis hovered in his half-standing, half-sitting posture, hating her that she had him at this disadvantage, then he completed standing in a smooth movement and wandered over to a side table, fiddling with a decanter of water, as if it might serve him some purpose.

“There can be nothing to excuse the fact you did nothing to warn us,” he said.

“Who would have listened? You? You know that I could never have approached you with this, and there was no one else.”

“Ishbel? She would have listened.”

Inardle dropped her eyes at that. “I did not think of her.”

“Ha!” Axis walked back to the table and sat once again. “What the hell do you want, Inardle? Why are you still here? What further treachery do you plan?”

“What do I here? Stars alone know! I don’t!” She took a deep breath. “I stayed because there is nowhere for me to go, Axis. Look . . . I am sorry for what I have done. I wish I never had deceived you, or BroadWing, or any other that I have hurt or —”

“Murdered. Many hundred members of the Strike Force died in your brother’s attack. Almost two hundred other men from among the forces gathered within Elcho Falling also died. A single word from you could have prevented their deaths.”

“I am sorry, Axis.”

“Sorry? Sorry? What an abysmal word with which to attempt amends!”

Inardle looked away, her face flushed, a muscle in her jaw twitching.

“I now control Elcho Falling and all who shelter within its walls,” Axis said, his voice soft. “Your continued life or your death are now at my whim, Inardle. It is my decision. What should it be?”

“Whatever you want. I am too tired of this life, and of you, to care.”

Axis wanted to scream, to pick up his chair and smash it against either the table or Inardle. His need to do something violent was so overwhelming that he had to close his eyes and clench both fists in order to fight it off.

He didn’t want her to drive him to this.

Oh stars, what was he supposed to do with her? He was so angry and so hurt and so damned cursed furious at himself for trusting her, for allowing himself to start to fall in love with her, that —

“Let me stay, and help you now,” Inardle said. “Let me make amends, Axis.”

“I thought you were too tired of life to want to continue breathing.”

“Axis, let me make some tiny recompense by helping.”

“How?”

“By telling you now all I know about the Lealfast, about the power they command, about what they might do. There must be something I can tell you that will prove useful!”

“And I should trust this?”

Tears sprang into her eyes, and she flung an arm toward the window. “I could fly out there in an instant, Axis, and what would happen? My beloved brothers would murder me within a heartbeat! They no longer trust me, they no longer need me, and —”

“Ah, so you are more interested in saving your own skin than in making any kind of recompense for the deaths you have caused.”

“Well,” Inardle said, “surely that motivation at the least should make you more inclined to trust me.” She paused. “If that is what you prefer to believe, then so be it. Yes. My only chance of living is to remain within Elcho Falling, thus I am willing to aid you in return for the chance to stay here. Will that do?”

Again she paused, taking a deep, shuddery breath. “Stars, Axis, I told you about the Dark Spire! I didn’t have to do that! If I had kept silent, how many weeks would it have taken you to discover it? It would have sat there, doing its malignant work for the One and you would never have known!”

“Then tell me how to counter it.”

“I can’t,” she said. “I am sorry, Axis, but I truly do not know how to counter it.”

Axis took a deep breath. “Then I for one am sorry I ever saw your face.”

Inardle’s eyes widened, then she slapped both hands down on the table and rose abruptly.

“Oh, that is enough! I am sick of your melodrama! Ask yourself, if you dare, why you were stupid enough to trust the Lealfast in the first instance. It was your lust only that made you elevate me to your second-in-command, it was BroadWing’s lack of thought that saw him confess every Strike Force strategy to Eleanon and, overall, it was your overweening arrogance that made it impossible for me to come to you and betray my own kin! By the heavens, Axis, you might as well have opened your shirt, painted a red cross on your chest and followed Eleanon about, hoping he’d put an arrow into it and put you out of your misery! I have had enough of all the blame being heaped about my shoulders. Shoulder some of it yourself, if you dare.”

The door opened behind them, but neither noticed.

Axis was on his feet now, too. “I have no idea why you are still here, Inardle. I cannot think why you are not back with your kith and kin whom you were so loath to betray. There is nothing for you here.”

“I remain only because I still — stupidly! — seem to believe more in Maximilian than I do in the One!”

“You can contribute nothing. Get out. You are useless to me.”

“You fool,” Inardle hissed. “I can hand you the Skraelings. You think they’re your enemy . . . but what if they can be turned into your allies? How would you like that then, Axis, eh? A new and pretty title to add to your vast collection. Axis, Lord of the Skraelings!”

“ Get out! Get out before I —”

“Leave, Inardle. I will speak with you later.” Georgdi had come up, unnoticed by either Axis or Inardle. He took Axis by the elbow and pulled him back a pace or two as Inardle glared a final moment at him, shot Georgdi a black look, then stalked from the room.

“How dare you —” Axis began as he wrenched his elbow from Georgdi’s grip.

“I dare very easily,” Georgdi said. “Don’t be a fool, Axis. All this condemnation of Inardle is driven almost entirely by your frustrated desire for her. She is guilty only of keeping her mouth shut when she might have spoken, and I can actually understand why she didn’t feel able to speak to you. She also spoke a great deal of truth just now, Axis. You’re a brilliant commander, but you are as flawed as any other man alive or dead. Get some distance, get some perspective and get some sense.

“And while you’re in the get-some-sense mode, think about what Inardle just said. I’d like to hear more about ‘handing us the Skraelings’. Wouldn’t you?”

With that, Georgdi stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him.

Axis clenched his hands, taking several deep lungfuls of air, furious: at Inardle, at Georgdi, at himself, at the circumstances surrounding them all.

He muttered an obscenity, pacing about the room, trying to calm himself down.

Stars, what a mess.

Axis?

Axis spun about.

There was no one else in the chamber, and that had not been an Icarii voice.

Axis? It is I, Josia.

Axis hoped Josia hadn’t witnessed that little scene. He walked to the window, opening it.

About three paces away, suspended in the air, Axis saw the partial wall of what must be the Twisted Tower. In the centre of the wall was an open window, and a young dark-haired man sat in the window, one leg idly swinging over the windowsill.

“Axis?” he said.

“Josia. You have news?”

“Are you well, Axis? You are flushed and appear —”

“I am well, Josia. Do you have news?”

Josia studied Axis briefly, then gave a small smile and nodded. “Maxel, Ishbel, Avaldamon and their two companions have arrived at DarkGlass Mountain. They are well enough for the moment.”

“For the moment. Will you know if .”

“If they succeed? If they fail? Yes, I will. And I will be sure to let you know as soon as I might.”

Axis nodded, and as he did so Josia smiled, more widely this time, then he and the window faded from view, and Axis was left to stare at nothing but the view beyond Elcho Falling.