“Maxel, Ishbel, I am glad to see you.” Josia beckoned them up to the fifth level of the Twisted Tower where he had managed to clear a space and find some chairs for them to sit on. “Ishbel, Maxel told you why I wanted to see you?”

“Yes,” Ishbel said, seating herself. “Hairekeep is stuffed full of souls, whom we need to release. Or are they as yet alive, Josia?”

“Alive,” Josia said, giving a smile that lightened his normally serious face. “They are people still alive. In torment of spirit, but alive. Many, many tens of thousands of them.”

“In Hairekeep?” Maximilian said. “It is big, yes, but —”

“It has altered, grossly so,” Josia said. “It now pulsates with the power of the One. Nothing you could do would ever murder him, Ishbel. He lives. Where, I have no idea. But he lives, and doubtless spends his time plotting your own murders.”

Ishbel bridled a little at the “nothing you could do would ever murder him, Ishbel”, but let it go. Josia had reason enough not to have kept up with the social niceties after his time spent locked inside the Weeper.

“What can we do, Josia?” she said.

“Look,” Josia said. “I have done a rough sketch of the fort as I have seen it from the window on the top level. I could take you there, but .”

“We would die, I know that, Josia,” Ishbel said, bending forward to look at the paper Josia had produced. “Maxel! That looks a little like the Twisted Tower!”

“A parody of the Twisted Tower,” Maximilian said. “It is black, and vile.”

Josia nodded. “As is the One. This drawing is bad, I know, but it gives you some idea. The ‘fort’ is perhaps five times as large as what you saw when riding past it on your way out of Isembaard, Maxel.”

“What do we do, Josia?” Ishbel said.

“You unwind it, as you did DarkGlass Mountain,” Josia said. “Look,” he drew out another page of sketches and plans, “this is where the key foundation stone lies. Unwind that, and the entire edifice falls apart, freeing those trapped inside.”

“I can’t do it by myself?” Ishbel said.

“For this you will need Maximilian and his power,” Josia said. “You complement each other perfectly. And . . . it may be that the One has reinforced Hairekeep since the destruction of his pyramid. It is better you both enter.”

“Well,” Maximilian said, smiling and squeezing Ishbel’s hand, “I for one am happy enough about that. I thought I would die of fear for Ishbel while waiting for her outside DarkGlass Mountain.”

“Good, then,” Josia said. “How goes your journey eastward?”

“We have left the boat,” Maximilian said, “and had thought we’d need to walk the entire distance to the east coast of Isembaard. But a day into our journey we found a small herd of horses who were as happy to see us as we them. So now we ride, and make good time. Can you imagine such luck?”

Josia beamed. “You must truly be blessed by the gods.”