The Infinity Gate: Darkglass Mountain: Book Three - By Sara Douglass Page 0,134

no choice in the matter — Ravenna had become so used to her chore of removing the eggs from the spire and placing them about Elcho Falling she now conducted the business in a mild daze, her thoughts elsewhere.

Today she was thinking about the baby that lived higher in the citadel. She had managed a few hours the previous day to creep about Elcho Falling and discover who it was.

StarDrifter and Salome’s son. He was a powerful boy, and handsome, but Ravenna envied Salome simply for being able to love her son without the burden of curses. StarDancer, the baby, would grow happy and healthy into his full heritage.

Not so Ravenna’s son.

Ravenna had not entered StarDrifter and Salome’s chamber. She remained in the corridor, leaning against the wall of the chamber, sensing the presence of the child within. She would have stayed there for hours, save that StarDancer had realised her presence and Ravenna had hurried away, fearing he would say something to his parents.

Apparently he hadn’t, for she remained undiscovered.

That brief time spent huddled against the wall whetted Ravenna’s curiosity about StarDancer. So powerful, so keen. What must it be like to have a child of so much ability and potential? Could her son be as powerful if he had the chance to grow into his full potential?

StarDancer consumed her mind as she approached the spire. She was concentrating entirely on him and paying her routine business with the spire no mind at all. Ravenna wandered about the spire, her mind alerting her to the moment of arrival at the source of another egg and she leaned down to the spire without thought of what she was doing.

As her two hands came close to the side wall of the spire, two green glass hands reached out and grabbed her wrists, and before she had time to draw a shocked breath Ravenna found herself in the ground floor of Elcho Falling only to realise an instant later that it was a corrupted version.

Elcho Falling’s ground floor columned chamber was full of colour and majesty, but this chamber was grey and black hued and its columns were stunted and askew. There was no sense of magic here, either, only an emptiness and a sense of waiting.

And something else.

Another presence.

At first Ravenna thought it was Eleanon, but she quickly realised that this presence was vastly more powerful. She turned about, staring, her heart thudding in her chest as she saw that in the distance, beyond five or six rows of columns, the chamber disintegrated into black nothingness.

“Infinity.”

The word whispered out to her, and Ravenna spun around, trying to locate the person who had spoken.

“Who’s there?” she managed, her voice dry with fear.

“Do you not recognise this place?” the voice said.

Ravenna swallowed, still turning, if more slowly, her eyes darting everywhere.

This unknown stranger was so powerful . . . so dangerous.

“Who are you?” she said, glad her voice was a little stronger now.

“An old friend,” said the voice, and from behind one of the columns stepped a man made entirely of green glass. In the centre of his chest revolved a golden pyramid.

Ravenna froze. The One. She had never seen him before, but this could be nobody else.

“Hello, Ravenna,” the One said softly. He came to a halt a few paces away from her, smiling a little as she tensed. “You are being very brave. Tell me, do you not recognise this place?”

“It is the interior of the Dark Spire,” Ravenna said, guessing.

“Very good! I knew you were going to be useful. I was, for instance, greatly inquisitive regarding that baby which so consumed your mind as you pattered about the Dark Spire on your business.”

Ravenna instantly tried to empty her mind of all thought.

“Too late,” the One whispered. Then, in a louder voice: “You are Eleanon’s plaything, yes?”

“Yes,” Ravenna grated.

“Not any more,” the One said.

StarDancer lay in his cot and screamed. He rarely cried, let alone screamed, but right now he wanted his parents as fast as they could possibly reach him. The Icarii woman who had been watching him stood by his cot, not knowing what to do. Her first instinct had been to hold StarDancer, but the boy had only screamed the louder when she’d tried to pick him up.

StarDrifter and Salome rushed into the chamber, convinced their son was being murdered, or was caught in a fatal brainstorm. But the instant they entered the chamber StarDancer quietened, the only sign of his recent distress the trail of tears on