Surrender to the Will of the Night - By Glen Cook Page 0,171

the Great Sky Fortress. They had to see what was possible before they decided what to do. The ascendant admitted, “I haven’t been up farther than the foot of the rainbow bridge. I didn’t want to disturb anything without experts handy to fix whatever I break.”

Iron Eyes said, “Aelen Kofer have crossed the bridge to test it but they haven’t gone inside the fortress.”

Februaren suggested, “Let’s all get some rest. We’ll head up there first thing in the morning.”

That was a joke. Only Jarneyn got it. He awarded the effort a scowl.

It was always high noon in the Realm of the Gods.

* * *

Heris did not leave. She climbed the mountain.

That was a great fang rearing up all by itself. The view was spectacular. There was more to the Realm of the Gods than a harbor and an Aelen Kofer town. Or had been, once upon a time.

Spring had come to the nearest forests, sprawling out inland. But color faded with distance, green dwindling quickly to the hue of grass long covered by a rock. Farther still, gray ruled, occasionally tainted by shades of pale brown. The ascendant explained, “There wasn’t enough outside power to quicken the whole world.”

Cloven Februaren wanted to add something but was breathing too hard. The climb was killing him but he would not let the Aelen Kofer put him into one of their goat carts.

Aelen Kofer goats were the size of middle-world elk.

Heris said, “Maybe it’s because the magic is thin but everything that isn’t up close looks artificial. Like it’s all a clever painting. Like if you headed out that way, you’d run into a wall with the rest of the world painted on it.”

Iron Eyes nodded. “You’d be right. In a manner of speaking, though not literally. This world does get less real the farther you get from the Great Sky Fortress. That was always true. It’s just more obvious now. If we shut out the middle world entirely, a few thousand years from now nothing would survive but Aelen Kofer artifacts.”

Another dwarf interjected, “We build for the ages!”

They reached the rainbow bridge.

Jarneyn grinned broadly enough for it to show through his thicket of beard. “Here’s where we sort you out.”

The rainbow bridge was just that. Not a huge arc as after a storm, just a curved piece of the arc’s top spanning a chasm a hundred feet wide and a thousand deep, its bottom hidden by mist. The bridge was a bright tangle of brilliant hues. And transparent.

The mist below stirred, visible through the rainbow. The faces of the chasm were basalt knife edges all the way down. Some boasted the bones of giants fallen during one or another of that race’s periodic assaults on the Old Gods, ages gone.

“That’s a reassuring view,” Heris said.

“A fine moat,” Renfrow observed.

Jarneyn said, “Stick to the middle of the bridge. Have faith in what your feet tell you. Your eyes will lie. And don’t think inimical thoughts.” He grabbed the lead of the foremost goat cart and headed out onto the tangle of color.

Cloven Februaren gasped, “My pride is going on the shelf for now.”

“You going to crawl, Double Great?”

“I’m going to get into a cart.”

The Aelen Kofer crossed in single file, enjoying the discomfiture of the humans. Renfrow boarded a goat cart, too, and sealed his eyes.

The ascendant asked, “Heris? Will you take a cart, too?” The implication being that she had best hurry. Opportunities were dwindling fast.

Something in his tone, like a spark of condescension for the weakness of women, irritated Heris. “No. I’ll walk.” She strode forward, following Jarneyn’s advice. Trust feet, not eyes nor instinct. Don’t think inimical thoughts, which she could not have done, anyway. Her entire being focused on her feet.

The ascendant crossed behind her, close enough to catch her if she missed a step. She did not know.

Februaren, after dismounting, waited at the end of the bridge. He caught Heris’s hand as she stepped onto solid footing. “There you go. Now, take a look at Renfrow.” Still in a goat cart and shaking. “Most powerful man in the Grail Empire, maybe. Child of a god. Notice anything?”

“Not really. Unless the point of the lesson is that he’s in a cart.”

“There’s that. And the fact that his eyes are still closed. And his hands are still shaking.”

“So. The lesson is?”

“Don’t let your pride get you killed. You didn’t need to show anybody anything, girl. You needed to get across the gap alive.”

“Uhm?”

“Really. You don’t need to impress Jarneyn and