They met at noon the next day. Isaiah, Axis and Inardle walked out once more to meet the Skraelings. Again they walked into a cleared circle in the heart of the Skraeling mass where, as before, Ozll, Mallx, and Pannh awaited them.

No one sat this time.

Ozll stepped forward from his two companions, and Inardle noticed that now the more regular alignment of his eyes was far more noticeable. She looked at Mallx and Pannh.

The same thing was happening to them.

“Have you made your decision?” Isaiah asked Ozll.

“Yes,” the Skraeling replied. “We choose the third option. Give us the power so that we may return to River Angels as we wish.”

Isaiah’s mouth curved in a very small smile. “There is no magical enchantment or spell, Ozll. No giving of ‘power’. It is just a piece of advice, but it does come with one or two cautions.”

Ozll frowned. “Advice? Traps?”

“Pieces of advice only, my friend. When you want to return to River Angels, then you must seek a large body of inland water. Not the ocean, but a large body of water bounded by land.”

The Skraelings hissed.

“You are creatures of water,” Isaiah said. “You will need to confront your fear of it one day.”

“Well, then,” Ozll said. “What do we do once we find our large body of water?”

“Then, as one — you must not do this individually — step into the water, as one, mind you . . . and you drown yourselves.”

The Skraelings erupted. The entire mass seethed forward, clawed hands grabbing, jaws salivating, throats shrieking.

Axis caught hold of Inardle, pulling her against him, reaching for the sword at his hip, but Isaiah stood his ground.

“It is no trick,” he said. “In order to return to River Angels you must drown yourselves. You must pass through death, via water, then you will return in your true form. It was why I made you loathe water, so that you would not return to your true form by accident.”

The circle had now contracted about Isaiah, Axis and Inardle until its inner edge was no more than an arm’s length from them.

“Isaiah!” Axis hissed.

Be still, Isaiah said to him. We will be safe.

“It is no trick,” Isaiah said, slowly and deliberately, holding Ozll’s furious stare.

“He just wants to murder us en masse!” Pannh said. “We are not that stupid!”

“If I wanted to destroy you I would only need to lift this finger,” Isaiah held up the middle finger of his right hand, “and it would be done. I wouldn’t bother trying to persuade you to drown. I don’t have the time to waste on such entertainment.”

Ozll stared at Isaiah. “I don’t believe you,” he said, but his voice was unsure and he shuffled his feet.

“You wanted control, yourself,” Isaiah said. “Now you have it. It isn’t easy, but then you chose the least easy of all the options.”

“Maybe we’d prefer option two, after all,” Mallx said. “You change us, here and now.”

“Too late,” Isaiah said. “You have made your choice.”

He paused, looking about the close circle of still hissing and muttering Skraelings, catching every silvery-orbed eye he could. “I am telling you the truth. You now have the knowledge to return yourselves to River Angel form if you so desire. But it will be your choice on the where and the when, and I am going to emphasise again what I said — you need to do this en masse. As a group you must step into the water. Otherwise it will fail and you will all just die.”

“We will all just die anyway,” a Skraeling muttered behind them.

Axis stepped forward. “Look at me,” he said. “I have been through death and back again. You can do it, too. It takes courage and resolve, but you can do it. And think what will happen if you do,” he said. He dropped his voice a little, emphasising each of his following words carefully. “And if you do discover courage and resolve within you, then look at what you might become.”

Axis lifted a hand, indicating Inardle. “But you will become more than her. Far more. More beautiful, more powerful. Nothing that splendid comes easy. I had to fight for everything I became. So will you. Have the courage to accept the future you have always wanted. You will need no power to lust after, for you will have power. You will need no lord to cower before, for you will be lords yourselves. No one will ever again regard you with revulsion.”

He paused. “Not even me. Not even the Icarii. You will be princes within the circle of princes.”

The Skraeling were quite silent, staring entranced at Axis.

“Go and take your future,” Axis said. “Go.”

“We can be princes?” one of the Skraelings asked.

“Every last one of you,” Axis said. “Envied, by all creation.” He hoped he wasn’t overdoing it. Flattery was going to be the only thing that would get the three of them out alive.

“Princes .” Ozll murmured, and suddenly his right eye shot all the way over to the right side of his face so that, once more, his two eyes sat evenly settled in his face.

Ozll nodded. “We will take it, Isaiah.” He waved a clawed hand, and the horde of Skraelings began to shuffle back, opening up the circle and the avenue back to safety.

Isaiah nodded at the Skraeling, then he turned and walked away, Axis and Inardle following.

None among the three dared breathe in case the Skraelings changed their minds.

When they were halfway down the avenue, Ozll called to them.

“Wait!”

They stopped, turning about slowly.

Ozll hurried up to them. “I will give you something in return,” he said, “for the choice you gave us.”

Isaiah raised an eyebrow.

“The One resides now in someone else,” Ozll said.

“Who?” Isaiah said.

“We are not certain,” said Ozll. “It was why we did not attack you instantly. We were scared the One might be within your number and we might eat him by mistake. But that woman you brought before us. He is not in her, and we doubt he resides anywhere within your army, for we should have felt him by now.”

“And yet, knowing this, you did not attack,” Isaiah said.

Ozll shrugged.

Isaiah smiled, happy with the choices that had been made here today. “Do you know where the One might be?”

“No true idea,” said Ozll, “but we suspect Elcho Falling. If not with you, then where else?”

“Then I shall hurry to Elcho Falling and discover for myself,” Isaiah said. He turned to go, but Ozll again called to him.

“Isaiah!” Ozll held out one of his great misshapen hands pleadingly. “Where is the nearest large body of water?”

By the gods, Axis thought, they’re actually going to do it!

Isaiah held Ozll’s gaze a moment. “Elcho Falling,” he said. “The lake that surrounds Elcho Falling.”

Then he, Axis and Inardle turned once more and walked back to the Isembaardian camp.

The next day, when Isaiah rose and instructed the soldiers to break camp to ride once more for Elcho Falling, it was to discover that the entire horde of Skraelings had vanished.

Every last one of them.