Part 26 (1/2)
”I wish I were dead, too.”
”Doubtless, but wishes are not going to do you any good. Now, we need to discuss something.”
Ravenna tried to take a step back, but Eleanon closed the distance between them and grabbed her wrist, making Ravenna gasp in fear.
”You will go nowhere,” Eleanon hissed, ”until I command it of you! You live and breathe only at my wish, Ravenna.”
She stared at him, then dropped her eyes, and Eleanon's grip loosened fractionally.
”Good girl,” he said. ”I have some work to do here, Ravenna, to make you the best servant possible, and it may hurt a little. Do try not to scream. My people sleep close by.”
Ravenna tried to pull away, but Eleanon was too strong. He dragged her very, very close and grabbed her face with his other hand.
”Don't worry,” he said, grinning at the horror in her eyes, ”you won't feel the caress of my loving this time. You might wish you did, though. It might have been preferable to what I am going to do.”
He altered his grip on her face, digging his fingers deep. ”Do you know what I command, Ravenna?” he said softly, so softly Ravenna could almost not hear his words over the sound of her own harsh, terrified breathing. ”Do you know what I command? A magic, Ravenna, such as you have never seen, not even in your Land of Nightmares. A magic and an object, and tonight I am going to introduce you to it. The Dark Spire. You are going to get to know it intimately, Ravenna, because you are going to midwive its children. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Ravenna? It will give you fine practice for when you birth your own child . . . should it survive.”
Eleanon grabbed her consciousness then, as he had grabbed her face, and he wound it with his and with that of the Dark Spire so that the three of them danced together in a nightmarish communion.
Feel it, Ravenna, touch it, know it, and allow it to touch you, and to know you.
Ravenna screamed, her body jerking, but she could escape neither Eleanon's grip nor the embrace of the Dark Spire.
Do you see it, Ravenna? Do you understand what you must do?
”Yes! Yes!” she screamed, wanting only to be allowed escape from both Eleanon and the Dark Spire before either harmed her baby.
Are you sure you understand, Ravenna?
”Yes! Yes! Yes!”
There was but one more thing to do. Eleanon used some of his power, melded with that of the Dark Spire, to endow Ravenna with the Lealfast invisibility. He wouldn't use it now, but when Eleanon sent Ravenna inside Elcho Falling he would enable it so that no one inside would be able to see her.
At least while she had a task to do. After she'd completed that, Eleanon didn't care who saw the sad witch.
Finally, satisfied, Eleanon let Ravenna go, breaking the connection with the Dark Spire as he did so.
Ravenna fell to the ground, white and shaking and moaning.
”You will be able to enter Elcho Falling,” Eleanon said. ”Not even the citadel will realise your presence. So now, Ravenna, you are perfectly suited to my purpose. To enter Elcho Falling and to midwive the Dark Spire's babies.”
Chapter 16.
The River Lhyl, Isembaard.
Maximilian jerked awake. Above his head the stars whirled through the velvet blackness of the sky, beside him Ishbel lay warm and completely relaxed in sleep. Behind him, at the tiller, Maximilian could hear Avaldamon draw in a deep breath, then resettle his weight.
This would be their last night in the boat. Tomorrow they should reach that part of the Lhyl where they would abandon the water for the long trek eastward toward the coast and, hopefully, a waiting vessel to take them back north to Elcho Falling.
Maximilian lay, staring at the stars. He'd had the dream again, drawn into the Otherworld by someone's desperate need to speak to him.
Yet still he did not know who, or, more worryingly, what was so important that Maximilian was being drawn into the Otherworld to discover it.
He was wide awake now, with no hope of slipping back into sleep for the remainder of the night. Maximilian drew in a small sigh, letting it out silently, not wanting to alert Avaldamon to his wakefulness, then closed his eyes, and travelled the eighty-six steps to the door of the Twisted Tower.
Perhaps Josia might have some clue.
”It has been a long time, Maxel,” Josia said as Maximilian opened the door and entered the tower. ”I had thought you to have forgotten me.”
Maximilian tipped his head in apology. ”I am sorry, Josia. To be honest, I have been enjoying the first relaxing period of time since . . . G.o.ds alone know when. Just drifting northward in our small riverboat, with nothing to occupy me save drawing Ishbel close at night and watching the countryside drift past during the daylight hours, has been refres.h.i.+ng. What news from Axis and all at Elcho Falling?” ”Ah, well, Axis has left Elcho Falling. He --”
”What?”
”You should have come sooner, Maxel. Yes, Axis and Inardle have left Elcho Falling on some foolhardy mission to save Isaiah from the Skraeling advance. I do not know the full details.” Josia turned about, fiddling with an item on one of the crowded tables. ”Georgdi is left in charge of Elcho Falling. I do not like him as well as Axis.”
Maximilian chewed his lip, wis.h.i.+ng desperately that Axis had not left Elcho Falling. Georgdi was a good man, but . . . ”Any other news?”
Josia turned back to face him. ”The Lealfast Nation have arrived at Elcho Falling, and have taken up their residence in Armat's old camp. Kezial and some sixty thousand men have now allied with Eleanon, who leads the Lealfast. Elcho Falling lies under tight siege.”
So much for his unworried days, Maximilian thought. He'd spend the rest of the time before he reached Elcho Falling in a state of sick anxiety.
”Any news of Ravenna?” he asked, and Josia shook his head.
”I have not noticed her,” he said.
Maximilian sighed. ”Well, that at least is some good news.”
”What brings you here now, Maxel?”
Maximilian perched on the end of one of the tables. ”I have been having dreams.”
”Dreams?”
Maximilian told Josia about his dreams of the Otherworld, of his sense that someone wanted to meet with him quite desperately. ”Avaldamon says it must be important, that someone needs to tell me something, warn me of something, very badly.”
”Ah,” Josia waved a hand dismissively. ”It is likely little more than a remnant of the time you spent dead, Maxel. How many hours was that? Two? Three? You hovered at the very border of the Otherworld until Ishbel pulled you back. I think the dreams are little more than that. Just a shadow of the time you began the journey.”
”You think? If so that would be a relief.”
”Maxel, I am glad that you found the time to visit with me tonight. I need to see both you and Ishbel urgently.”
”Why?”