Jaspar came alive in his chair. 'My… Lord… cousin?'
Carnelian focused on the Master. The Labyrinth… it is only a cave.' He tried to force conviction into his voice.
Jaspar's mask stared at him for some moments before turning away. The stair.' His voice sounded dreamy.
Carnelian looked and was crushed as if the green cliff rising all around them were a tidal wave of water.
The Pillar… of course,' he muttered, daring to lift his eyes.
They were in a fissure of the Pillar rock that opened raggedly to the north-west. Up it funnelled, shadow- mottled, filled with heads and limbs. The fissure was all carved. His eyes floated higher and higher. The rock turned black but still it climbed and Carnelian's eyes could find no end to it. He gaped, stunned. This mountain dwarfed even the cliff edge of the Guarded Land, yet it was carved all the way to the sky.
The Rainbow Stair,' said Jaspar.
Carnelian's eyes came clambering back down the crags. They took a while to grow accustomed to the nearer scales. He could see nothing like steps, only, in the shadows, rills of water winding down among the mossy men. The ground was sodden, with a road crossing it. He narrowed his eyes to look out through the fissure's open side. He blinked several times. The stone forest of the Labyrinth fell away down a slope till over its green undulating roof he could see the Yden's melting emerald spreading out to meet the Skymere. His gaze crossed the causeway to where the wedge of the Valley of the Gate was cut into the girding mass of the Sacred Wall.
'We have waited for them long enough!' cried Jaspar, his anger stinging their chairs into movement.
Carnelian hung over his chair's arm, reluctant to disengage his eyes from the glorious vision of the crater. After the Labyrinth its airy freedom was a salve for his eyes. The mouldy smell of the Pillar's stone drew him back to the creatures that lurked in it. Like ferns, they grew up from the boggy earth, uncurling their limbs and smiles over the heart-stone. He saw the stair. Steps, striped with red chalcedony and amber, gold, jade, turquoise and lapis blue, and, where they touched the Pillar's wall, bordered by a band of amethyst. Among the green spiralled men, the stair's rainbow ribbon climbed as far as he could see.
They climbed the Rainbow Stair into the sky. The Labyrinth's roof stretched below as a vast scrubby plain merging its edge into the emeralds of the Yden. Beyond was the blinding blue of the Skymere. Humid air rose carrying hints of perfume that mixed with the wafting sweating of the bearers. The sun's heat was terrible. Carnelian was glad of the cowl of his robe.
The stair darned its way back and forth across the fissure. They kept to the red and amber bands so that if on one flight they were walking close to the fissure's carved wall, on the next they would be at the stair's edge where Carnelian would be able to see down the great fall to the ground. Parties of ammonites and Sinistrals passed them, returning to earth.
When the floor of the fissure looked the size of a shield, doorways began appearing among the carved men. The rock became riddled with windows, with stairs as steep as ladders. Hanging banners proclaimed the presence of Masters whose retainers were huddled up the steps. Tattooed faces turned to watch them pass as Jaspar's party picked its way through them.
They came to a long landing. On one side the Pillar's rock rose carved with avatars and balconies, all pierced with doors and windows. On the other a narrow pool ran alongside the rainbow paving. Here Jaspar had his chair put down and Carnelian, observing him climbing out, took the chance himself of stretching his legs.
The pool ruffled with sunlight. Its furthest edge was a bone of rock beyond which was the vast fall. Carnelian saw that Jaspar's people were hoisting chests up a stair to one of the apartments cut into the cliff. Two of them were feeding an Imago dragonfly banner over a balcony.
Carnelian went up to Jaspar. 'Are you planning to stay here?'
This is as good a halfway house as any to spend the night.'
The night?'
Jaspar's mask regarded Carnelian with contempt. He sighed. 'It is customary to spread one's journey up the stair over two days.'
'Why?'
'Because, my Lord, otherwise one can be afflicted by the sky sickness.' 'My Lord?'
Jaspar looked up and his mask mirrored the sheer cliff of the Pillar they still had to climb. 'Up there one breathes the sky. Even the Chosen must accustom themselves gradually to such purity.'
Carnelian gazed. The mountain was lodged like a thorn in the infinite depths of the heavens. 'One recovers from this sky sickness?'
'In time.'
'A day or two?'
Jaspar's hands made a gesture of exasperation. 'Sometimes three.'
'I am young, my Lord, I will take the hazard. I intend to see my father today.'
'It is unlikely they will let you see him.'
'Nevertheless, I will go, my Lord.'
Jaspar stood motionless, looking up the next flight of the stair. He shook his head. 'I will not come with you, my Lord.'
'I will gladly go alone.'
Jaspar gave a snort. 'Even the lowest Lord of the Lesser Chosen would not appear at the Skygate without an escort.'
'I was hoping my Lord would see fit to lend me some of his people.'
'You did, did you?'
'Currently, I am one of the Lords Imago. As such, I would not wish to bring such shame upon your House.'
Jaspar's mask regarded him.
'If I have to, I will go alone.'
'Oh, very well! If you will insist on this ludicrous course of action I will not stop you.' Jaspar clapped his hands and one of his guardsmen came instantly to throw himself before his Master. Jaspar arranged an escort, then turned to Carnelian. 'You will need a household.'
'For one day I can do without one.'
'One day, my Lord?'
'A household is being sent up from my coomb.'
'Indeed, my Lord, and you expect it to be up there with you so soon?' He made a fist. They will not.'
'But Jaspar, how can I use your people?'
'Aaagh, the delicate sensitivity shows itself again like the horns of a snail. My dear, I will give you blinded slaves who will suffer no punishment whatsoever should you appear before them unmasked. Does that assuage your scruples?'
Carnelian nodded.
'Well, let us give thanks that at least we have managed that.'
Carnelian sighed his relief as the Sinistrals carried him away from Jaspar. Behind him came dragonfly-faced guardsmen leading two blind slaves. Once they were out of sight of the pool, Carnelian settled into the gentle rhythm of his chair. They had to pass other halfway houses with their encampments of retainers. When at last they had left these behind, Carnelian was isolated in the rushing wind, watching the graven gods slip by or gazing out over vertiginous views of the crater.
The air grew progressively cooler until Carnelian was forced to pull his robe tightly round him for warmth. The crater had become a remote floor. Several times when the stair doubled back at a northern landing, he glimpsed the disc of the Plain of Thrones. However high they climbed, there always remained a vast mass of the Pillar looming above.
In a keening gale, they came to the Rainbow Stair's last step. Towering up behind it, the Skygate was an immense oblong of bronze studded with turtleshell sky glyphs. Carnelian's Sinistral bearers put him down and backed away to allow his Imago guardsmen to flank him as he climbed out of the chair.
Carnelian felt a surge of euphoria. Strangely, even the thought that his father's death might soon be confirmed did not darken his mood. More Sinistrals appeared wrapped in flapping cloaks of green and black.
