The Infinity Gate: Darkglass Mountain: Book Three - By Sara Douglass Page 0,57

go, his face hard. “I want a guard put on her, Lamiah. I want no one to speak to her or go near her apart from giving her food.”

“Isaiah —”

“I don’t know what is happening here, Lamiah. I don’t know what the Skraelings are doing, or what they want. I do not know why they haven’t attacked.”

“Why Hereward?”

“I have told you about the One.”

“Yes, yes.”

“I have told you that DarkGlass Mountain has been destroyed and the One along with it.”

“Yes. Isaiah —”

“The Skraeling told me the One was still alive. It intimated the One is now in our camp. I think the One may be residing in Hereward.”

Lamiah now shifted his gaze to the retreating form of Hereward. “How sure are you?”

“There is something wrong about her, Lamiah, but I cannot scry it out. It is a ‘new’ wrong, and dates from the moment of DarkGlass Mountain’s destruction.”

“Then as you order,” said Lamiah, “so shall it be.”

He set off after Hereward, and Isaiah turned one more time to watch the Skraelings. They were still waiting, watching, and Isaiah thought he would give his right arm right then and there to have his questions answered.

“Well?” said the several other Skraelings as they milled about the one they had sent out to talk with Isaiah. “What should we do? Attack? Eat? Go around them?”

The Skraeling who had spoken with Isaiah shook his head. “Just wait. There is something happening. Something coming. We wait. If Isaiah moves, then we follow.”

“Did Isaiah know where the One is?”

The Skraeling grinned. “He has no idea.”

The other Skraelings did not share his amusement. “Then what are we to do? The One has gone, we have no direction. No one to tell us where to go and what to do. Should we go home? Home to the frozen northern wastes?”

A great murmuring arose among the Skraelings.

Home to the frozen northern wastes.

“No,” said the Skraeling. “We wait a while, and watch, and see. I think . . . ”

“What?”

“I think there is something coming.”

Chapter 8

Elcho Falling

“The last thing you need to do,” Georgdi said as he rubbed a little more dirt into the lines of Axis’s newly shaved face, “is to look like the StarMan setting off to save the world. The Lealfast are sure to see you wandering along, so you need to look as much like a shepherd as possible.”

Axis did not reply. He was already in a foul mood, and the fact that Georgdi remained resolutely cheerful was driving him even further into ill-temper. He’d had his hair dirtied and dyed so it looked a faded brown, his beard was gone, he’d been forced to dress in clothes that bore more than a passing resemblance to rags, he had no weapon apart from a small eating knife, and Inardle was leaning against the far wall watching him with an expressionless face that Axis was sure hid amusement.

“You do realise you won’t be able to use your power, don’t you?” she said.

Axis glared at her.

“Any Lealfast within a league will feel it,” Inardle said. “Don’t use your power, don’t touch the Star Dance.”

“I understood you the first time,” Axis said. “But I still am not sure how you can hide us from the Lealfast. I thought you could still see each other when invisible.”

“There are two ways of invisibling,” Inardle said. “The second way will also hide us from Lealfast sight. It is difficult to accomplish; thus, the reason I can only take one other with me.”

Axis gave a small shrug, as if indifferent to her response.

“Be careful, Axis,” Georgdi said, the humour gone from his face and voice.

Axis nodded. “And you be careful of Elcho Falling, Georgdi. Don’t take any nonsense from your underlings.”

The others in the room — StarDrifter, Egalion, StarHeaven and Insharah — managed to smile at that, although their humour faded quickly in the tense atmosphere.

“Travel down the coast to begin with,” said Georgdi, “then strike inland. Hopefully, you will run across Isaiah and his army soon enough.”

“And, hopefully, it is before you run into Kezial,” Insharah said. “Maybe stick to the coast for four or five days, Axis. Kezial will be inland.” He looked at Inardle. “You will stay invisible?”

“For the most part,” she said. “I can hide myself better from my fellows that way . . . materialising to walk with Axis would be catastrophic.”

Thank the stars for that, Axis thought. At least he’d be travelling virtually on his own. There would be little opportunity for them to ever speak, let