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 his cohorts.”
Iron Eyes remarked, “She doesn’t, but it was still worth seeing, her walking the rainbow bridge. The list of middle-worlders who have managed is quite short.”
Heris snapped, “Let’s just get on with it!”
Renfrow descended from his cart. “All right. You people have me ninety-eight percent convinced.” He glared at the rainbow bridge.
Februaren said, “Let’s go inside and arm you with total conviction.” He eyed the bridge himself. His voice quavered.
Heris understood, suddenly. He was afraid. The Ninth Unknown was frightened!
Hell! After a studied look around she realized they were all frightened. Even the Aelen Kofer and the ascendant.
“Double Great, you haven’t planned this out, have you?”
“Child?”
“The plan, stated so far, is: You go in there and open the way. And hope these Instrumentalities are going to behave. That they’ll be grateful and cooperative.”
“That’s a little simplistic…”
“But essentially true. Is there anything in the mythology to make you think they’ll respond the way you want? Aren’t they all vilely self-centered?”
“You’re being too harsh.”
Renfrow interrupted, “She’s right. Dwarf. Iron Eyes. Did you have any plan deeper than what the girl just described? Did you, Asgrimmur?”
The ascendant said, “I intend to make them swear oaths to behave and help in return for their release. Beforehand.”
Uncertain if she ought to resent or appreciate being referred to as a girl, Heris said, “I grew up in a different part of the world. I don’t know the fine details of northern myth. But isn’t one of the prisoners the Trickster? Won’t his very nature compel him to mess with us?”
Iron Eyes grunted unhappily. “You have a point. A definite point.”
Heris said, “Then we ought to have the means to compel him. Or any of the others who don’t want to cooperate.”
“They’re gods, woman. They won’t take to having their arms twisted.”
“I don’t care what they like.”
Iron Eyes shrugged, turned away. “Ascendant. This goes to you, now. Look inside yourself and find an estimate of…”
“Already done. She’s right. Though he might risk eternal imprisonment, the Trickster will try something. But we’ll have the time it takes for the Old Ones to get a read on the present. The others should accept terms for freedom.”
Heris asked, “Do we need the Trickster to handle Kharoulke? Can we just leave him in there?”
The ascendant said, “We’ll need them all. And, given a chance to understand the situation, even the Trickster will behave till the grander threat is gone.”
The Ninth Unknown’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Heris. Girl. You’re scheming something. I beg you. Not against the gods. Not even pagan gods.”
“I won’t do anything stupid. But I want all this to stop. Now. Let’s build a point-by-point operation, absent the influence of beer.”
They were just steps from the tower gate of the Great Sky Fortress.
Iron Eyes announced, “This used to be a hundred times more glorious. Now it’s about as beautiful as a castle in the middle world. Only bigger.”
“Focus, dwarf!” Heris snapped. “That’s irrelevant. We’re here to deal with Instrumentalities.”
Renfrow muttered something to Cloven Februaren, who replied, “Would you believe that three years ago she was scared of her own shadow? I blame my grandson. And her brother, a little.”
“Double Great, you talk too much. Family matters should stay family matters.” Then Heris swore. If Renfrow had not gotten the point from hearing the old man, she had made it plain that he ought to take note.
Renfrow, however, did not seem interested. He was overawed by his ancestral home.
The gates of the Great Sky Fortress were open, as the ascendant had left them. One leaned on a damaged hinge. Korban Iron Eyes said, “We came no farther forward than the end of the bridge. Repairs to the Great Sky Fortress aren’t necessary.”
The ascendant said, “The place gives me the creeps,” as he headed through the gateway.
Inside, the place was dull, gray, lifeless. The power from the middle world had not reached the top of the
