Maximilian did not go straight to Ravenna. Instead he went first to the Dark Spire.

It was far worse than he could have imagined. The Dark Spire had grown physically since he’d last seen it (it now had grown through six levels, by the gods!), but, far more, Maximilian could sense the damage it had done to Elcho Falling. Somehow, the spire had grown into Elcho Falling.

He paused, gathering his courage, then crouched down at the base of the horrid thing, feeling it gently with his fingers.

It felt like cool living flesh.

Living, indeed.

Maximilian withdrew his hand, feeling cold to the very core of his being. He could feel the One inside, and feel also the layers of protection wrapped about him.

Hello, Maximilian, Lord of Elcho Falling.

Maximilian did not respond. He rose, and left the chamber.

Maximilian paused outside the guarded chamber which held Ravenna and looked at the man who had risen from a chair placed by the door.

Garth Baxtor.

“Have you spoken with her?” Maximilian said.

Garth inclined his head. “Welcome home, Maxel.”

Maximilian grunted. “It is not a particularly warm welcome . . . have you heard about the One?”

Garth nodded.

Maximilian’s eyes drifted to the locked door. “How is she?”

“She is not well, for she has been badly treated by both Eleanon and the One, but she is not dying. If she were restored to her power she —”

“I do not yet wish to speak of ‘ifs’. Just of the here and now.”

“Then she is grey and tired and underweight, but all of these conditions can be remedied with time and care.”

“And the baby?” Maximilian said softly, his eyes still on the door.

“Underweight as well, and not particularly strong.”

Now Maximilian shifted his eyes back to Garth. “Your prognosis, if you please?”

“As Ravenna’s health improves, then so shall his.”

Maximilian drew in a deep breath. “I am faced with a terrible decision.”

“If you need to talk, then I am here.”

Maximilian nodded, and rested his hand briefly on Garth’s shoulder. “How is Ravenna,” he said. “Not her health, her .”

“She is more the girl we once knew,” Garth said. “She does regret what has happened, Maxel, and now she will help if she can. Her ambitions are long lost.”

“But do I trust her?” Maximilian murmured, then he stepped past Garth and nodded at the guards to unlock the door.

He paused inside the door as the guards closed it behind him, his eyes adjusting to the lower light in the chamber.

He caught her movement first, shifting as she swung her legs over the side of her bed so that she sat on its edge.

“Maximilian.” Ravenna’s voice caught, as if she were nervous, but Maximilian didn’t allow himself to trust whatever emotion she chose to show him.

He walked over to a chair that sat a couple of paces from the bed, and sat down. “What have you done to Elcho Falling?” he said.

“I removed eggs from the Dark Spire and have placed them in the walls of Elcho Falling.”

“What is their purpose?”

“I don’t know. I don’t, Maximilian,” Ravenna added at the expression on his face. “Eleanon told me to do it. Made me do it. I was not allowed a choice.”

Maximilian forbore to ask what her choice may have been, had she been able to make it.

“Ishbel’s curses left me vulnerable —”

“Don’t make excuses,” Maximilian said. “I don’t want to hear them.”

“But if I had not been so cursed then I —”

“Could have done what? Destroyed Elcho Falling of your own volition, rather than Eleanon’s?”

Ravenna dropped her eyes.

“Will you tell me where these ‘eggs’ are?”

“They are scattered evenly about the outer walls of the citadel. Start at the second level, the outer eastern corner, and from there you should be able to sense them out easily yourself.”

“And can I do anything about them?”

“I doubt it.”

A muscle worked in the corner of Maximilian’s jaw. “What are the Lealfast doing? What are their plans?”

“I do not know this, either, Maximilian, truly. Maximilian —”

“Now you work for the One.”

“No. StarDancer broke his hold over me.”

“StarDancer is truly powerful.”

“Perhaps he can aid you against the One.”

Maximilian allowed a small silence to develop. “Did StarDancer tell you of his plan?”

“That I should trap the One in the Land of Nightmares? Yes?”

“Dare I ask if you think it has any merit?”

Ravenna gave a small, sad smile. “It will work, Maximilian, but only if you trust me completely and I cannot see the day you could do that.”

“That is the first piece of truth you have spoken since I came in that door, I think.”

“It has all been truth.”

Maximilian grunted. “It is the perfect plan for you, isn’t it. You get the power of the Lord of Elcho Falling for your son after all this.”

For our son, Ravenna thought. “And yet be trapped inside the Land of Nightmares. I do not think that is power for him. Our son will never enjoy the privileges of Elcho Falling.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you are willing to trap yourself and your son in the Land of Nightmares for an eternity?”

“Yes, to make amends for all I have —”

Maximilian cut her off with a harsh bark of laughter. “How long would that selfless resolution last, then? A year? A hundred? A thousand? Eventually you would grow tired of your promise and your repentance, and you would escape the Land of Nightmares and haul the One with you.”

“Speak to Drava, Maximilian. Speak to the Lord of Dreams. Once I am trapped with our son and the One inside the Land of Nightmares, Drava can cut it off entirely from your world and his. He has been longing to do that for aeons, I think.”

“I have had enough of casting the One in various prisons,” Maximilian said. “I cannot believe that this would work.”

“Speak to Drava. I am sure you would trust him.”

Maximilian rose from his chair. “I do not trust you, Ravenna, nor this apparent repentance of yours.”

“Nonetheless, it is genuine, Maximilian.”

He studied her a moment, then banged on the door for the guards to let him out.

“I’m sorry, Maxel,” Ravenna said. “For everything.”

But Maximilian had gone, and did not hear her.

He paused in the corridor outside, shaking with anger and such deep regret that he did not think he could bear it.

He heard Garth walk up beside him.

“How did it end like this?” Maximilian said, his voice breaking down. “How could it possibly have ended like this?”

Garth didn’t know what to say. How could it have ended like this? The bond the three of them had shared, the adventures, the laughter.

The journey beyond the hanging wall.

How could it have ended like this?

Garth felt tears well in his own eyes, and he put a hand on Maximilian’s shoulder and stood close while they both wept.

While Maximilian was with Ravenna, Insharah sought out Ishbel.

“My Lady?” he said, as he entered the chamber where she sat.

“Insharah,” Ishbel said, rising. She had much to do and consider, but she knew why Insharah had come, and Ishbel knew she owed him this and did not begrudge the interruption. She took Insharah’s hands and kissed his cheek in greeting. “It is good to see you, and once more allied with my friends. Come, sit.”

“My Lady,” Insharah said, “I, as all my countrymen at Elcho Falling, need to know what you and Maximilian found in Isembaard.”

Ishbel felt her tears welling, and wished she had the power to stop it. Insharah had not yet heard the story of Hairekeep, unless Axis or Georgdi had told him in the meantime . . . and he wouldn’t be sitting here with such hope in his eyes if he’d heard that dreadful tale.

“There is little good news, Insharah. I am so sorry. We were at Aqhat and travelled north then east through Sakkuth and past Hairekeep. There . . . well, all those who had sheltered at Hairekeep had died.”

Insharah sat back, withdrawing both physically and emotionally from Ishbel.

Ishbel remembered the piece of bone she had read with the name of Insharah’s wife on it. She wanted to tell him, but couldn’t.

He knew, anyway.

“Thank you,” Insharah said in a flat voice, and he rose and left the chamber.

Ishbel sat for a long time, staring at the closed door, tears running silently down her face, wishing there had been something else she could have told him. Then she stood and walked to the chambers she shared with Maximilian.