Part 7 (1/2)

We have found it, StarMan. It stands in the lowest bas.e.m.e.nt of Elcho Falling. And . . .

And?

And . . . it has grown.

Chapter 11.

Elcho Falling.

”StarHeaven has found the spire,” Axis said, interrupting Maximilian, who had been about to speak. ”Where?” several people said at once.

”In a chamber in the lowest bas.e.m.e.nt level,” Axis said. ”Wait, there is more . . . let me speak with her.”

The others waited, s.h.i.+fting impatiently on chairs and exchanging glances, before Axis spoke again.

”It has grown,” he said. ”It now stands just above the height of a man. And StarHeaven says it has set roots into Elcho Falling. She won't go closer to it than the head of the steps which lead down into the chamber where it rests . . . even now she waits several levels above it. Maxel, you can't leave. Not with this.”

”I must,” Maximilian said. ”Avaldamon says that Ishbel and I have but one chance at DarkGla.s.s Mountain and it must be soon. Today, or tomorrow at the latest.”

”Oh, rubbish,” Axis said. ”It's been standing there for millennia and I am sure it can --”

”It is not so much DarkGla.s.s Mountain,” Avaldamon said, ”but what it hides within the Infinity Chamber. When I first travelled from Elcho Falling to Ashdod to marry my princess, I brought with me one of Elcho Falling's greatest treasures, the Book of the Soulenai. I died, and Boaz -- thank every G.o.d in existence -- actually kept it, and it has rested within the land of Ashdod, now Isembaard, ever since. It has fallen into the hands of the One, who understands its power if not its purpose, and he left it in the Infinity Chamber. Maximilian and Ishbel need to get to it before the One storms back there and either destroys it, or uses it himself. Axis, they, as I, need to go soon. We have no real idea where the One is, although all three of us sense that he is not at DarkGla.s.s Mountain. Yet.”

”For the moment, Axis,” Maximilian said, ”I must leave Elcho Falling in your hands. I am sorry, but this cannot wait.”

Axis rose, intending to argue the matter, but Maximilian ignored him, rising to his feet himself and holding out a hand for Ishbel.

”Come,” Maximilian said. ”We need to see this Dark Spire.”

They gathered where StarHeaven waited, in the third lowest of the nine bas.e.m.e.nt levels. Georgdi was there, as well as Egalion.

Everyone from the command chamber had come down, including Inardle.

”I can feel it,” Ishbel said, rubbing her shoulders as if she were cold.

Most of the others murmured a.s.sent. The air was cold here, as you might expect so far below ground, but there was something else. Axis thought it an otherworldly chill. He looked at his father, seeing the strain on his face.

He s.h.i.+fted his gaze to Inardle. She stood slightly apart from the rest of the group, her wings close to her side as if she tried to shelter within them.

Stars, she had betrayed them all . . . whimpering about her injuries when she could have healed them herself within an instant, playing on all their sympathies and emotions, reporting to her brothers his every move and thought .

I never did that, Axis, she said to him, holding his eyes, although with some apparent effort. I did not betray -- He turned his back and walked over to Maximilian who was standing at the steps leading down.

”What do you feel?” he asked Maximilian.

”Enough to know I should have picked up something else was in Elcho Falling,” Maximilian said. ”But with everything that has been happening, its 'wrongness' was lost amid the turmoil.”

He stepped down, then turned and looked around. ”Ishbel, Avaldamon, Axis, StarDrifter, Inardle . . . if you please.”

And with that he was running lightly down the steps.

Axis let the others go down before him, then he brought up the rear.

He wanted to keep a close eye on Inardle.

They stopped halfway down the stairs into the chamber in the lowest bas.e.m.e.nt, staring at the corkscrewed dark spire in the centre of the floor.

”Inardle?” Maximilian said. ”How greatly has it changed?”

”Hugely so, my lord,” she said softly, coming down to stand beside him. ”It has grown. Previously I could hold it easily in my hands. Now .”

Now the spire stood well above the height of a man. It was not perceptibly throbbing or moving, but everyone who looked upon it could sense that it lived. No one had any doubt that if they stepped up and laid a hand to it, the spire would be warm to the touch.

No one wanted to test this belief.

It was dark, as Inardle had said, almost black, but shot through with lines of bright blue and a dark red. Its corkscrews twisted wildly, asymmetrically, to the point of the spire which looked wickedly sharp.

At its base, thick roots had grown into the stone flooring, twisting and upsetting the flagging across virtually the entire bas.e.m.e.nt. A tip of one root had crawled up the lowest stair, sitting there as if to survey the journey upward but also as if to trip up any who were foolhardy enough to try to approach the spire.

As they watched, the tip of the root waggled slightly, searching about for a crack to invade.

”Can anyone here understand it?” StarDrifter said, standing by his son. ”I cannot . . . it is entirely foreign to me.”

”As it is to me,” said Axis. ”Avaldamon? Maxel? Ishbel?”

”It feeds from the cold winds of Infinity,” said Avaldamon. ”That I can sense and only because I spent time with the Magi who wors.h.i.+pped the One, who used its power. I'll wager some of those roots touch Infinity itself. It sends a chill down my spine.”

Maximilian looked at Inardle, and raised an eyebrow. ”Tell us everything you know about it, Inardle.”

She sighed, wrapping her arms about her shoulders as Ishbel had earlier.

”It was made with the aid of the original Magi who had come north from Ashdod,” she said. ”They had knowledge that we didn't. Not at that stage. They said it was a gift to us. Who knows. Maybe the One suggested its crafting.”

Not at that stage, Axis thought, and shuddered at the remembrance of sharing his bed and body with this bleak witch.

”You used no Star Dance in its making?” StarDrifter said, and Inardle glanced at him as she replied.

”A little, I believe,” she said. ”The Lealfast who sat with the Magi and who helped in its construction drew on the power of the Star Dance to create the Dark Spire, but the Star Dance did not go into the Dark Spire's flesh, as it were. That was all the power of Infinity.”

”Do you know how to use it, how to negate it?” Axis asked.

”Not really,” Inardle replied, and Axis made a noise of disbelief.