Elcho Falling was a nightmare to clean up. Everything inside had been water damaged, and close to half of the furniture and bedding had been rendered unusable.

Worse, scores of people had died, drowned or battered to death in the torrents of water that swept down staircases or filled lower chambers.

Among those who had died were the three Enchanters who’d been in the lower basement chamber with the Dark Spire. No one knew if the Dark Spire had killed them, or if they had drowned when the lower chambers had filled with water, but any knowledge they may have had about the cause of the mayhem moving inside had died with them.

Maximilian was furious at the intrusion of the mayhem into Elcho Falling. He knew he shouldn’t be. He knew that neither Isaiah nor Axis could possibly have predicted this, but still he was angry. He knew this was likely a product of his frustration more than anything else, but it didn’t stop him spending a good few long minutes shouting at both Axis and Isaiah before he finally quietened, and apologised.

“The mayhem destroyed all the work Ishbel and I had done on cataloguing the items in the Twisted Tower,” he said. “We’ll need to start all over again.”

“I’m sorry, Maxel,” Isaiah said.

Maximilian gave a little shrug of his shoulders, accepting the apology. They were standing on the largest landing of the main staircase, backs against a wall as scores of people hurried past carting bedding and clothes to windows and balconies to be draped out in the open air. Ropes had been strung between many of the balconies to hang sheets and blankets. Maximilian thought that from a distance Elcho Falling must look like a laundress’ tower.

“Can it happen again?” Axis said. “I mean, can Eleanon now direct anything we do outside of Elcho Falling, inside Elcho Falling. If I direct a soldier to shoot an arrow at a passing Lealfast, will Elcho Falling then be filled with thousands of arrows bouncing about?”

Maximilian gave a small shake of his head. “I talked to Elcho Falling before I came down here, worried about the same thing. Apparently what Eleanon did was take the enchantment of the mayhem and reflect it inside via the Dark Spire. Neither Elcho Falling nor myself believe that an ordinary occurrence — a non-magical occurrence — can be reflected the same way. But it does dampen your use of the Star Dance, Axis, as it does whatever you can summon, Isaiah. Be careful.”

Georgdi approached them, climbing the stairs. “The lower chambers have been drained of their water,” he said. “The Dark Spire . . . you need to see the Dark Spire, Maximilian.”

Maximilian began the walk down the stairs.

Axis could barely believe it. Maximilian had told them that eventually the Dark Spire would recreate Elcho Falling within itself, but this .

Since the mayhem the spire had grown, pushing through three more levels (and into the chamber that had held the pool leading to the tunnel to the lake); detritus from the broken floors lay scattered about the chambers the spire had grown through, making walking difficult. But, more than its growth, it was the change in the spire’s appearance that shocked everyone.

It was developing balconies and windows.

As yet these were mere bumps and depressions in the outer skin of the spire, but their overall pattern clearly revealed what one day they would become.

“Worse news,” said StarDrifter, coming down the stairs behind them. “The Lealfast have returned.”

Axis and Isaiah stood on one of the eastern balconies, looking out to where the Lealfast had recommenced their slow flying in of boulders to dam off the lake about Elcho Falling. Maximilian had returned to his eyrie, to Ishbel and their task of finding a way to remember all the objects in the Twisted Tower, and StarDrifter and Georgdi were occupied inside, supervising repairs. Axis had warned StarDrifter about using the Star Dance, and asked him to spread the word among the remaining Enchanters.

Stars . . . ’remaining Enchanters’. At this rate StarDrifter would be Talon of nothing but memories.

“Have you heard any word from Inardle?” Isaiah said.

“No.”

“I wish I knew what was happening with those damn Skraelings,” Isaiah said. “They have the power to completely destroy us if they decide to combine with their old allies the Lealfast and attack.”

“She will contact us as soon as she can,” Axis said.

“We don’t even know if she escaped,” Isaiah said.

Axis repressed a sigh. “If she escaped, and once she has news, then she will contact us as soon as she can.”

They watched for a few more minutes as two more pairs of Lealfast flew in and dropped their boulders into the channel. Axis and Isaiah could make out the shadows of the submerged boulders now — they were only just under the surface. In only a few hours the lake would be dammed completely.

“Why do they want that ribbon of land surrounding Elcho Falling’s lake?” Axis muttered. “For what purpose are they going to use it?”

“Well, I, for one, have had enough of this standing about uselessly,” Isaiah said. He stepped to the door leading inside Elcho Falling and shouted for a couple of bowmen.

“Stars, Isaiah,” Axis said as two Isembaardian bowmen hurried out onto the balcony. “Be careful.”

“Maximilian said this would not harm us,” Isaiah said, and Axis wondered if Maximilian had any idea, really. He wanted to ask Isaiah to wait a few minutes just to warn the people inside Elcho Falling, but Isaiah was not in any mood to wait.

“Shoot those two Lealfast,” Isaiah said to the bowmen, indicating a pair of Lealfast flying in with a boulder in a sling between them. “Can your arrows reach that distance?”

“Easily, Excellency,” said one of the men, and without further hesitation they raised their bows, fitted their arrows, and let fly.

The arrows flew straight and true, arching high over the lake before beginning their descent toward the Lealfast.

“They are flying true!” Isaiah said, but, no sooner were the words out of his mouth than the waters of the lake erupted and twin black tendrils reached into the sky, snatching the arrows as they fell and bearing them back underwater.

The four men on the balcony stood in silence, shocked.

“A volley,” Isaiah snapped. “Shoot a volley.”

The bowmen again raised their bows and, their movements honed by years of practice, shot a volley of arrows into the air toward the Lealfast. These — because of the speed at which they were delivered, as many as six per breath between the two men — were not so accurately aimed, yet nonetheless they flew toward the Lealfast.

A score of black tendrils erupted from the lake, snatching the arrows from the sky.

“Shetzah!” Isaiah cursed.

The Lealfast continued to drop the boulders. They had not once glanced toward the arrows.