The Infinity Gate: Darkglass Mountain: Book Three - By Sara Douglass Page 0,3

flat coldness of Axis’ voice.

“I shall take responsibility for her,” said Ishbel. “All fighters are needed elsewhere.”

“No,” said Axis. “She needs swords and —”

“I shall take responsibility for her,” Ishbel said again. “Go now, Axis, you are needed elsewhere desperately.”

Still Axis held on to Inardle’s wrist. “What about the One?” he said to Maximilian.

“The One is my battle alone,” said Maximilian. “Axis, do as Ishbel says.”

“Be careful of her,” Axis said to Ishbel. He tipped his head at Inardle. “She deceived me too easily, the treacherous bitch. Trust not one word she utters.”

Then he was gone, running upward past Ishbel and Maximilian, and vanishing down a side corridor. Inardle crouched on the stairs, her eyes wary as they followed Axis, then she looked at Ishbel, one hand rubbing at her bruised wrist.

Ishbel lifted the hand she’d used to scatter the blood and laid it against Maximilian’s cheek. “What can I do to aid you?” she said.

“Nothing,” he said. “This must be my battle.”

Ishbel nodded, accepting it. “Then be careful, and come back to me.”

Maximilian kissed her cheek, and was gone down the stairs.

“Now there’s just you and me,” Ishbel said to Inardle. “What shall I do with you?”

Axis had taken two turns down the corridor, racing for the Strike Force’s quarters, when StarDrifter appeared from a doorway.

“I have an idea,” he said to Axis, taking his son’s arm as he spoke low and rapid.

The One rose slowly through the stairwell that wound upward from the very pit of Elcho Falling. He was climbing with more caution than he had initially, and had stopped singing.

The Lord of Elcho Falling knew he was here. The element of surprise had vanished.

“I rise to greet you,” the One whispered, his obsidian eyes gleaming.

Then he jumped in surprise as thick, dark blood spattered over his face, neck and chest.

Chapter 2

The Twisted Tower

Within the Twisted Tower, Josia was horribly aware of the crisis in Elcho Falling, but he was so stunned by its sheer suddenness, as by the strange appearance of the cat, that momentarily he was incapable of rational thought, let alone action. He gaped at the open door of the tower, then he gaped at the red tabby cat, now investigating a table on the far side of the ground floor chamber, then he looked at the stairs rising upward.

He had to see what was happening. He needed to get to the window in the top chamber.

Josia closed the door, then tried to grab the cat. He had no idea what the cat represented, nor if it boded good or ill, but he didn’t want to leave it on its own. He lunged once, then a second time, and a third, but the cat scampered out of his reach each time.

“Damn it,” Josia muttered. He looked again at the stairwell, increasingly distraught at what he felt emanating from Elcho Falling, then made a decision.

The cat could wait.

Josia turned for the stairs.

“Stay,” said a voice behind him.

Josia turned about, feeling as if his heart had literally thudded out of his chest into his throat.

A tall naked man stood behind one of the tables. He was an older man, having a strong beak-nosed face under greying dark hair with intense deep-blue eyes that stared unwaveringly at Josia. He radiated assured power, and Josia felt his knees weaken with despair.

“I am the One’s companion,” the man said. “I have been sent to murder you — yet once more — and to destroy this fabrication of memory.” He waved a hand at the crowded interior of the Tower.

“Neither my death nor the Twisted Tower’s destruction will harm Maximilian,” Josia managed to say.

“Ah, but they will eat away at his confidence,” said the man. “The One leaves no stone unturned. He is determined to destroy Maximilian and Elcho Falling completely this day.”

“Who are you?” said Josia. His heart thudded less violently now, and he stared at the man, who was moving across to another table. There was something about him. . .

“You do not know?” the man said, lifting a bundle of folded linen from the table, shaking it out and winding it around his hips to cover his nakedness. “Ah, do not worry, Josia. I am sure that Maximilian has long retrieved the memory from this piece of linen. He shall not notice the cloth’s absence.”

The man gave a slight, secretive smile. “The memory involves the construction of the strange columns on the ground floor of Elcho Falling, if I am correct.”

“Gods,” Josia whispered, grasping at the edge