The Infinity Gate: Darkglass Mountain: Book Three - By Sara Douglass Page 0,34

Inardle just said. I’d like to hear more about ‘handing us the Skraelings’. Wouldn’t you?”

With that, Georgdi stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him.

Axis clenched his hands, taking several deep lungfuls of air, furious: at Inardle, at Georgdi, at himself, at the circumstances surrounding them all.

He muttered an obscenity, pacing about the room, trying to calm himself down.

Stars, what a mess.

Axis?

Axis spun about.

There was no one else in the chamber, and that had not been an Icarii voice.

Axis? It is I, Josia.

Axis hoped Josia hadn’t witnessed that little scene. He walked to the window, opening it.

About three paces away, suspended in the air, Axis saw the partial wall of what must be the Twisted Tower. In the centre of the wall was an open window, and a young dark-haired man sat in the window, one leg idly swinging over the windowsill.

“Axis?” he said.

“Josia. You have news?”

“Are you well, Axis? You are flushed and appear —”

“I am well, Josia. Do you have news?”

Josia studied Axis briefly, then gave a small smile and nodded. “Maxel, Ishbel, Avaldamon and their two companions have arrived at DarkGlass Mountain. They are well enough for the moment.”

“For the moment. Will you know if .”

“If they succeed? If they fail? Yes, I will. And I will be sure to let you know as soon as I might.”

Axis nodded, and as he did so Josia smiled, more widely this time, then he and the window faded from view, and Axis was left to stare at nothing but the view beyond Elcho Falling.

Chapter 17

Darkglass Mountain

Maximilian and his company settled in a room that ran off the courtyard. It had been the grooms’ common room in happier times, and it was equipped with tables and chairs and even several daybeds.

There was no food left, for the Skraelings had been through here and had eaten anything they could find, turning over the furniture and breaking doors from cupboards in the doing. They had also defecated throughout the room. Ishbel and Doyle had grimaced and taken upon themselves the task of cleaning away the foulness. By morning it was done, and the tumbled furniture rearranged. They did not expect to be here long, but while they were here they needed a base.

Out of sight of the pyramid.

They had been aware of it through the night. It had been a sense in every one of them, a subtle twisting of their nerves so that none of them could truly relax. The pyramid was probing, testing.

It knew they were here.

“Does DarkGlass Mountain exist only as an extension of the One?” Serge asked Avaldamon as they sat eating an abstemious breakfast.

“No. Two thousand years ago, the pyramid seemed to have a power and purpose of its own. My son Boaz told me how it murdered at will. He said that he could feel its consciousness with him, following him everywhere. The One is Infinity, come to flesh within the pyramid. They are close, entwined even, but the pyramid has its own consciousness. It regrew itself, not through the agency, or at the behest, of any other power. It is greatly to be feared.”

“Which is why we sit in this room,” said Maximilian. “It has no windows to the west, so we are not in its direct line of sight. That affords us some protection.”

“Then the pyramid will be difficult to destroy,” Doyle said. “How will Maxel manage it?”

Avaldamon, Maximilian and Ishbel shared a look, then Avaldamon took a deep breath.

“Maximilian will not be the one to destroy DarkGlass Mountain,” Avaldamon said.

“I will have to do it,” Ishbel said.

“My lady?” Serge said.

“But . . . ” Doyle added, his face as aghast as that of his friend.

“I have spoken of this briefly with Ishbel and Maximilian,” said Avaldamon, “but it is good we talk of it now and go into some detail. Ishbel is descended from the eldest child of Boaz, my son, and his wife Tirzah. When Boaz did battle with Threshold, as the pyramid was then known, and the entity which inhabited it — Nzame — Tirzah was present. She was also pregnant with their first child, the girl who would later found the line which culminated in Ishbel. Something happened during that battle. We know that both Tirzah and the child were touched by Threshold and we now know that something happened . . . some knowledge was passed to the child. A power . . . an understanding, if you will, of the very nature of the pyramid itself.”

“Ishbel is