The Infinity Gate: Darkglass Mountain: Book Three - By Sara Douglass Page 0,17

few score thousand Isembaardian soldiers are roaming the Outlands somewhere, but who knows if they are a threat or if they’ll be overwhelmed by the approaching tide of the Skraelings. But who am I to talk of what threats and treacheries we face? For that we have Inardle to ask.”

He looked at her then and she raised her eyes and caught his gaze. Inardle’s eyes were distraught, and Axis thought her a most talented actor. He hoped everyone else in the chamber saw through to the treacherous soul that she tried to hide.

“I will speak here,” Ishbel said. “Inardle is no traitor, not to Elcho Falling. If she had been, she would have been spattered with the blood — the blood of murdered Maxel — that I cast from the Goblet of the Frogs. It did not stick to her. She did not betray Elcho Falling.”

Axis banged his fist on the table, his exhaustion forgotten. “What? Have you not seen the murdered bodies of the Strike Force, Ishbel? Did you not see Isembaardian after Isembaardian cast down into death from the causeway? Could you walk the few paces to the window and look out on the waters which surround us and not see the corpses floating so thick the water is hid? Is Inardle not responsible for all —”

“No,” Ishbel said.

“She knew this was going to happen!” Axis shouted as he rose to his feet, now joined by StarDrifter, who had leapt to his feet also, sending Inardle a look of implacable hatred as he did so.

“She knew it,” Axis said, “and she said nothing.”

“She was torn by twin loyalties,” Ishbel said. “She was —”

“Sent here to betray us,” StarDrifter said, “and this she did perfectly.”

“Sit down, StarDrifter,” Maximilian said, his tone moderate. “Both of you. And Axis, take a deep breath and calm yourself. I understand your anger, everyone here does —”

“Don’t patronise me,” Axis snapped, remaining on his feet.

“I am not patronising you!” Maximilian said. “I just want you to calm down so that we can hear what Inardle has to say! None of us has the energy to deflect such bitter anger, Axis. Please, just calm down and let myself and Ishbel talk to Inardle.”

“I am not allowed to challenge her?” Axis said, his eyebrows raising.

“Not in the mood you are in now,” Maximilian said. “Be quiet for the moment, Axis.”

Axis hesitated, then gave a curt nod, sitting down and gesturing to his father to do the same.

“I think Inardle has a great deal to tell us,” Ishbel said, “and I think she will. Inardle, you must have felt yourself in an impossible position.”

Inardle looked at Ishbel, fighting back the tears. That single phrase of sympathetic understanding on Ishbel’s part almost undid her. She had kept herself under such tight control from the moment she’d seen Axis walk into the chamber . . .

“Inardle?” Ishbel prompted.

“I was sent by Eleanon and Bingaleal to spy on Axis,” Inardle said, her voice brittle and hard as she tried to stop herself from weeping.

“You put yourself through the horror at Armat’s camp deliberately?” Axis said. “You allowed Armat to cripple you, and Risdon to rape you . . . all to get into my bed and my trust?”

Inardle could not look at him. She swallowed, then gave a tight nod.

“And look at her now,” Axis said, his voice hard with hatred. “Her wings healed perfectly. Doubtless she could have healed herself any time she wanted, but no, she played the cripple well enough to engage our sympathies, and played BroadWing so that I would trust her above him. You are loathsome to me, Inardle.”

She flushed and her entire body tensed.

“Leave it for the time being, Axis,” Maximilian said. “For now it is information we need, not recrimination.”

Axis grunted in disagreement, but he leaned back a little in his chair and stared studiously at the far wall, and the mood in the chamber eased a fraction.

“The Lealfast always meant to betray Axis, and Maximilian?” Ishbel said to Inardle.

“No,” Inardle said, then cleared her throat to speak more clearly. “No. We were always undecided whether to offer our loyalty to you, Maximilian Persimius, as Lord of Elcho Falling, or to the One in DarkGlass Mountain.”

“You knew of the One,” Maximilian said.

“Yes,” Inardle said. “Always. We have known of the pyramid since the Magi first began its construction.”

At the back of the room the dark, handsome man who Axis had noticed earlier, leaned forward very slightly, his eyes intense.

“We, the Lealfast,” Inardle continued,