The Infinity Gate: Darkglass Mountain: Book Three - By Sara Douglass Page 0,47

were on their feet by this stage.

“What —” Lamiah began.

“I have no idea,” Isaiah said, his eyes following Hereward as she walked unsteadily away into the night. “I have no idea at all.”

“Grab my hands!” Avaldamon shouted, and Maximilian and Ishbel spat out water, shaking their heads, reaching for Avaldamon’s, and Serge’s and Doyle’s, hands.

“The river!” Ishbel said as she managed to find firm footing.

“Ishbel!” Maximilian said, and wrapped his wife in an embrace so tight that she laughed in protest.

Everyone was laughing and hugging each other.

“You did it!” Avaldamon said, trying to prise Ishbel away from Maximilian and not succeeding. “The pyramid is gone . . . gone!”

They all turned to look over the river. There was nothing where DarkGlass Mountain had been save a low cloud of drifting dust. No stones, no glass.

Nothing.

“Are you all right, Ishbel?” Maximilian said. “You’re bruised . . . and cut .”

“I am well enough,” she said. “They are just scrapes. Oh, I have so much to tell you!”

“The One?” Maximilian said.

“Gone, I think,” Ishbel said. “I saw him crumble before my eyes. He tried to use the power of Infinity within the very machinery of DarkGlass Mountain and it only accelerated his own destruction. Can you feel him? Avaldamon?”

Both men shook their heads.

“Nothing,” Maximilian said. “What did —”

“Look!” Ishbel said, laughing anew. She reached into the water, searching with her hands, then she straightened, holding up the Book of the Soulenai. It dripped water everywhere, but looked otherwise undamaged.

“I am well, the Book is returned, the river is made water once more, the pyramid is destroyed, and the One with it,” Ishbel said. She grinned wildly, looking about the group. “Is this it? Can we go home now? Are we done?”

Maximilian kissed her. “We are done, Ishbel. We can go home.”

Neither of them saw the shadow of worry in Avaldamon’s eyes, but he smiled when they turned to him, and nodded.

“Yes, we can go home.”

In the Outlands, the Skraeling surge northward faltered suddenly.

The One’s presence had abruptly faded.

I think, said the leader among them, that we ought to proceed with a little more caution. Just until we hear from the One again.

Part Two

Chapter 1

The Outlands

Isaiah walked through the camp, looking for Hereward, when suddenly he stopped. His eyes stared, his mouth opened. He felt . . .

Whole.

He bent over, resting his hands on his knees.

His power was filtering back!

Isaiah could hardly believe it. He had thought he was reconciled to a mortal life without power, but now .

Was this a trick of the One?

Taking a deep breath and straightening up, Isaiah tested himself (hardly daring to, in case it was a trick!) by sending out a probe, trying to scry out the One.

His power worked perfectly, but he could feel nothing of the One. Nothing.

Nothing.

And the river was back! Isaiah could sense it flowing in delight, full of life as it swept down from the FarReach Mountains toward Lake Juit.

The River Lhyl flowed again.

Isaiah sank down and sat in the dirt. All about him the camp was rousing for the day, but he just sat there in the dirt, his eyes gleaming, ignoring the curious looks sent his way.

The water was back.

His power was back.

He was whole.

The river was back.

He was whole.

DarkGlass Mountain was gone. Every sense of it had vanished. It was gone.

And the One . . . Isaiah could not feel him at all.

He, too, was gone.

Isaiah gave himself one moment of sheer happiness, then he rose to his feet. It must have been Maximilian or Ishbel, or both. Nothing else could have managed the destruction of the One or of DarkGlass Mountain.

Isaiah chuckled. “I had not thought either of you capable of managing it,” he said softly, “but I am more than glad to be proved wrong.”

He couldn’t decide what to do next. Talk to Hereward? To Lamiah? To the damned juit birds and find out why they were here and what they knew? Try to communicate with Axis, or Maximilian, or Ishbel?

Out of all those possibilities, Hereward was coming a distant last, but as he turned to retrace his steps Isaiah saw her tent and decided he might as well speak with her while he was here.

Besides, she would be pleased to learn he had his power back.

Smiling happily (and drawing strange looks from the soldiers for that smile), Isaiah walked over to Hereward’s tent.

“Hereward?” Isaiah lifted the flap and looked inside.

Hereward was sitting on her camp bed and looked at him irritably when he came in.

“I do