She didn't care. Very soon she would be unleashing her own havoc.

Ravenna turned and walked back to the Dark Spire.

Once there she began searching for the next egg. She walked around and around the spire, concentrating.

Nothing.

Ravenna felt sick. Were there no more? If there were no more eggs, then she would need to move onto the task the One had set her.

The eggs, initially easy to find, had, in the past few days, become ever scarcer. Instead of placing ten or fifteen a day, there had been only eight, and then five, and yesterday merely three.

Perhaps her time working as the Dark Spire's midwife was almost at an end.

Her feeling of nausea grew as she continued to walk about the spire for another two hours.

Nothing.

Eventually she stopped. There were no more eggs. The Dark Spire had finished with her.

Now you must do what I need, the One whispered in her mind.

Ravenna swallowed. Oh G.o.ds .

Now, the One said. The eggs are set. Now you do what I need, before it is too late.

Ravenna took a step away from the spire toward the stairs leading upward.

Another step, then she turned for the stairs and walked up, one leaden foot in front of the other.

Chapter 25.

Elcho Falling and Surrounds.

She opened her eyes. It was so warm! Where was she? The sky was blue above her, enormous, infinitely blue. There were some birds nearby -- she could hear their soft chattering -- but none in the sky.

It was so warm. She was bathed in sunlight. She could feel it playing along her flesh.

Rivers ran wild in her blood, and for a while she lost herself within their rhythm.

Gradually she became aware that she lay on something soft.

Inardle turned her head. Reeds. There were reeds everywhere, and the surface she lay on was undulating, very slightly. She lay in the reed beds. She watched the reeds moving in a gentle breeze.

Their movements mirrored the running of the rivers in her blood.

There were insects crawling up and down the shafts of the reeds, dragonflies here and there among their bushy heads.

It was so pleasant here. She didn't have to think. She could just lie still.

After a long while, Inardle turned her head in the other direction.

Axis sat, a few paces away, leaning back against a thick stand of reeds. He was naked, his clothes spread out as if drying.

Behind him, in the distance, Elcho Falling.

She looked once more to the sky.

There were several Lealfast above, invisible to most eyes, circling and watching.

Inardle wondered what they made of her lying here so exposed.

Then she thought of Eleanon, and the river within her turned bleak.

Inardle looked back to Axis. He was watching her and gave a small smile at her regard.

Inardle rolled her head again to look at the sky. She lifted a hand, laying it on her sternum between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

The skin was soft, unbroken, not even by a scar.

"I am sorry," Axis said, very softly. "It was the only way to escape the hex."

Inardle gave a nod. "I have been dreaming," she said.

Axis said nothing, waiting.

"I dreamed I ran with the Skraelings," she continued.

"Was it reality?" Axis asked.

Inardle gave another nod. "We ran in a strange, strange place. Axis, the Skraelings are in a strange place, both physically and mentally."

"In what manner?"

"They are going to return to the water, Axis."

"Here?"

She gave yet another nod.

"When?" Axis said.

She shrugged. "When they wish."

They fell into silence, and Inardle slept once more.

Isaiah stood with Georgdi on one of the balconies on the eastern wall of Elcho Falling.

"What are they doing?" Georgdi said.

Isaiah didn't reply immediately. He, as everyone else, had been convinced that Axis and Inardle were lost when the ice hex turned black and crumpled apart, but a few hours ago one of the guards had reported that the pair lay in a small circle of trampled reeds to the east of Elcho Falling.

Isaiah and Georgdi had rushed to see. At first they'd thought one or both might be injured, but now it was apparent both were well enough.

"G.o.ds alone know what they are doing," Isaiah said. "But Axis is aware of the way into the citadel, and if he chooses not to take it . . . well ." He paused. "I'll place a lookout here to keep an eye on them, but for the moment, my friend, we have worse things to worry about than when Axis and Inardle might rouse from their stupor long enough to let us know what happened."

"You can't contact them?" Georgdi said, knowing of Isaiah's ability to speak with Axis over considerable distance.

Isaiah gave a little shake of his head. "He's actually cut himself off. Whatever happened to them has changed both somewhat. I think they are both readjusting to the land of the living. They're doing it in a b.l.o.o.d.y dangerous spot, but that's what I think is happening. They were in there for many, many days, Georgdi."

Georgdi heaved a theatrical sigh. "These winged races ." he said, then he and Isaiah turned and walked back into Elcho Falling.

When she woke, Axis was still sitting, watching over her.

"It is pleasant here," Inardle said.

Axis gave a small smile. "Yes. It is. I worry about being so exposed, though. When you feel able, we should move to a place more concealed."

"There are Lealfast overhead," she said.

Axis glanced upward, his eyes creasing in worry.

"Don't worry about them, Axis," Inardle said.

He looked back to her, his expression still concerned.

"Don't worry about it," she said again. "How long have we been here?"

"We returned from the hex yesterday. You have slept through the night and through half of this day."

Time must have pa.s.sed, she thought, for Axis was clothed now. His clothes must have dried. "It was a terrible journey out of the hex, Axis."

"I thought you were dead."

"I dreamed. I ran with the Skraelings. But I also dreamed of you."

He shifted slightly. "Inardle, I am sorry for what I did. I --"

"Eleanon made that hex and made those circ.u.mstances which meant you needed to kill me. It was the only way out for you. It was the only way for you to survive the hex. But . . . why am I here? I should not be here. I was to have died, no matter what."

I have changed, she thought. The river runs murderous in me, now.

"Ah." Axis smiled so broadly his entire face was wreathed in laughter lines. "Eleanon created a hex that was to recreate for me my battle with Borneheld. It was perfect, Inardle, his trap was perfect. Either both you and I died trapped in the hex, or I lived, but at your expense. Eleanon thought of everything. Save for one thing."

Save for two things. "Which was?"

"Eleanon had heard of the story of my battle with Borneheld in the Chamber of the Moons. He'd a.s.sumed that the battle was about one thing -- our bitter, hateful rivalry. The Chamber of the Moons was where it was to be settled. But a battle to the death to end a rivalry wasn't the ultimate purpose of that night. The ultimate purpose was a rebirth -- in the original situation, the rebirth of an Icarii prince named FreeFall. That was the magic that encased that night. Eleanon didn't realise it. That magic was there again . . . I could sacrifice you, but I could also bring you back."

"You dragged me through the ice and the snow. You risked everything. Ice encased your chest and you could not breathe. You dragged me back through the ice and the snow."

Axis didn't say anything for a moment, remembering that terrible journey. "Yes," he said, finally.

"I know of it," Inardle said. "I know how bad it was. Thank you." The rivers ran gentle now, and Inardle understood they would never harm Axis.

"Do you know what I swore to do, during that journey?" Axis said.

Now Inardle regarded him with very bright eyes. "Kill Eleanon."

"Yes. I will do that for you."

Inardle rolled her head so she stared at the sky. The Lealfast had long gone -- to report her life to Eleanon, no doubt.

Axis wanted to kill Eleanon.

A small smile curved Inardle's mouth. Only if he got to her brother before she did.

Whatever ties had bound her to the Lealfast had now broken completely.

"Don't worry about the Lealfast," she told Axis. "I will know if they return, and I know they will not be able to harm us."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

She could see that Axis didn't understand, but she saw also that he decided to trust her.

"Very well," he said. "Sleep for a while longer, Inardle. I will build a fire for the evening and we can talk some more then."

"I would like to talk about Azhure," she said, and Axis nodded.

"We can talk about Azhure."

She slept, and the rivers raged.

"They are alive?" Eleanon stared at the scouts. "They are alive?"

"Yes, brother," replied one of the Lealfast who had circled high above the reed bank where Inardle and Axis rested. "They have a little camp in the reed banks just east of Elcho Falling. They . . . "

Eleanon didn't hear much else the scout said. How could they still be alive? Axis, perhaps, if he'd had the wit and the b.a.l.l.s to murder Inardle (and Eleanon had gambled on him having neither). But the pair of them should not have survived.

There was no way Inardle should ever have emerged from that hex save as a brutalised corpse.