by Glen Cook
Heris asked, “And what did he do?”
“Nothing. He was a perfect gentleman. A perfect houseguest. Then he went away. Leaving me addicted. The most daring thing I ever did was go to Brothe, find him, and make him my lover.”
“You’ve been tangled up with us long enough, now, to know how messed up we are. So, enjoy the ride. Oh. I promise I’ll get you back to the boring same old same old before the sun goes down,” she said in a world where it was always high noon.
Hecht listened. And agonized. And kicked himself for letting himself be so affected by the women in his life.
He had not yet shaken the deep impacts Katrin Ege had had, with all her sick needs. Nor could he shed his obsession with Helspeth Ege. Nor could he forgive himself the hurts he had done Anna Mozilla even though Anna had no idea.
Several faces crossed his mind. Recollections from the Vibrant Spring School, Gordimer the Lion at a younger age, Grade Drocker, and Redfearn Bechter. Bottom line, he was becoming a whining, self-involved fool.
Anna seized his good hand. “Piper? Are you all right?”
“No. I’m learning about getting old the hard way.” He shut up. Most everyone here was older. King Gjore might be millennia older.
They arrived at the downhill end of the rainbow bridge. The Aelen Kofer loaded people into goat carts. Mostly they offered no option.
Hecht watched Heris practically strut across, well ahead of the cart in which he, Anna, and the Ninth Unknown rode. He had no real idea what was going on or he would have blown up when Lila and Vali headed over behind Heris, with the ascendant close behind them, unnoticed.
Hecht looked down.
He should have kept his eyes shut, like Anna and the old man. He would not have come close to shrieking and losing his breakfast, peering down at giants’ bones, sharp basalt knives, and bottomless death.
He would not have seen his daughters walking on air.
He would learn that they had crossed over unaware that the rainbow bridge was imaginary and a thousand-foot fall awaited the least misstep.
Pella crossed in a cart he shared with Ferris Renfrow. Pella had paid attention. Pella had a damned good idea what lay beneath the feet of those who walked the rainbow bridge. He crossed with his eyes closed. As did his companion.
Afterward, with feet on solid stone but soul still drawn by the siren fall, Hecht exploded, “You let Lila and Vali walk across that?”
Heris gestured. The girls were already at the gate, talking to a couple of dwarves as curious about human girls as the girls were about dwarves. In a moment they would go look at the only living thing native to the Great Sky Fortress, a sickly, waist-high apple tree.
“Don’t you ever, ever, put my kids at risk like that again. Ever!”
Anna agreed but was so shaken herself she could do nothing but nod.
Heris sneered. “You’re just pissed off because I didn’t trust you to do something that a couple of girls managed with no trouble.”
Not true. But, deftly, she had painted him into a circle where he would look bad if he kept on barking.
“Ever, Heris. Ever.”
***
For Piper Hecht, then, it seemed like only minutes till he followed his sister into a large room filled with colorful clutter. She snapped, “Everybody stays here, inside the green circle, till I tell you what to do.”
Aelen Kofer who were there already moved carefully amongst the tables, falcons, giant glass bottles, and things less easily identified. Heris spoke to them quietly, in succession. Those dwarves departed.
“Pella!” Heris’s voice was not loud but was compelling. “Stand still. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t touch anything. There’s a stone bench under the windows. Sit on it. Piper, Anna, the rest of you, you, too. Never touch anything unless I tell you to. Otherwise, chances are, you’ll get yourself dead. And take the rest of us with you.”
Aelen Kofer continued to murmur with Heris, then go. The royal three were among the last. Iron Eyes lighted slow matches at each falcon station before he left. “Best of luck, Heris.”
Two teams of two dwarves each brought in a pair of shelved carts that made no sound. They floated. On the shelves were felt-lined trays filled with scores of soul eggs, large, small, and flaked. Most could have passed as bits of amber. There were so many that Hecht could not believe he and his men had created them all.
“Piper. Same thing I told Pella applies to you. Sit down. Anna, hold on to him.” Heris turned back to the eggs, showed the dwarves where she wanted the carts hoisted onto the tables. She beckoned Februaren, Renfrow, and the ascendant, muttered with them in the space between tables. The carts came back down off the tables, out of the lines of fire of the falcons. “It’ll just be more crowded. I didn’t know there’d be so damned many.”
Hecht planted himself, let Anna hold his hand and keep him planted. He took in the colorful marvels and listened to Pella complain. He admired Anna.
Anna Mozilla’s finest feature was her eyes. They were big and brown and full of warmth. Right now, right here, they were bigger than he had ever seen. She was in complete awe. And trembling. Because she was in complete terror as well.
Heris said, “Lila. Vali. Come.” She positioned the girls behind the two falcons farthest out to the flanks. She gave precise instructions about how and when she wanted the falcons fired. “And don’t hesitate. When it’s time, it’s time. You’ll have less than two seconds if there’s a breach.” She approached the bench under the window. “Piper, I want you and Anna to man the two center falcons. Anna? Are you all right?”
“Just a bit overwhelmed.” In a voice like a strangled whisper. “I can do it. Just tell me what to do and when to do it.”
“And you, Piper?”
“I can handle it.” Though he was disgruntled about being one of the foot soldiers.
“Good. That’ll free Asgrimmur to help me up front.”
“What about me?” Pella demanded, surly.
“I’ll let you know what I need you to do. In the meantime, sit. Be quiet. And don’t touch anything.”
To head off any confrontation Hecht asked, “What happens if somebody fires? Assuming you’re loaded with godshot? This is a room where the walls, floor, and ceiling are stone. Might be some ricochets, big sister.”
“Taken into consideration, baby brother. Each weapon is aimed at one of those silver glass bottles. The wall behind is coated with ten inches of soft clay and plaster.”
She moved on to Vali. Pella fumed, “Why is she treating me this way?”
“Because you’re acting that way. No. Listen! What she’s doing here could shape the futures of three worlds. Or we could end up dead. And all she sees from you is self-absorbed discontent, apparently because you don’t get to do whatever you want. Even though you don’t know what that is.”
He was not getting through.
“Look, all she has to go on is what she sees and hears. What have you done that would make her think you’re trustworthy and reliable? And can be counted on to do the right thing when the crunch comes?”
“Oh, shit!”
Hecht almost snapped. But the boy was reacting to something happening across the room.
Heris had just opened a vein in Ferris Renfrow’s left wrist and was taking blood. Cloven Februaren stood by with a bandage. When she had about a scarlet cupful in a silver glass beaker, she nodded to the old man. Februaren slapped the bandage on. Renfrow nodded. “Healing already.”
“Pella,” Heris said. “Now it’s your time. Get up into one of those windows and watch the waterfront. Let me know when the golden barge changes.”
Frowning and sneering, Pella climbed into a window opening, leaned out. And said, “Oh, shit! Oh, Holy Aaron!” He eased back inside, shaking. “Dad. Don’t … I can’t do that.” He was ashamed and terrified at the same time.
Heris said, “You watch, then, Piper. Pella, take the falcon next to Vali. That’s the most important one. You chicken on me there, you kill us all. But don�
�t be firing for no good reason, either. Piper. The window.”
He did as instructed. And had no trouble understanding Pella’s distress. That was a long, long way down. And it called to him, come, take the plunge!
His gut tried telling him he was falling already.
Heris fiddled. She sent the Ninth Unknown to the falcon beside Lila. She positioned the Bastard and the ascendant precisely. “Nobody moves now, except me. And Piper after he reports. Then he goes to his falcon.” She took Renfrow’s blood to a point she had calculated to a fraction of an inch. Then she stopped moving, too. Stood looking back at Hecht, waiting.
Hecht lay down on his stomach and gripped the stone of the Great Sky Fortress. He stared all that long way down and tried to conquer terror. No human mind ought to have to endure this.
Dwarves still moved down the switchbacks on the mountain, apparently running. They dwindled, became dots moving toward the golden barge. Dots from the waterfront town joined them. They all streamed onto the ship.
Minutes passed. Then, sharp as a hammer strike — bam! — all color went out of the barge and waterfront. The gateway to the Andorayan Sea snapped shut.
Hecht said, “Heris, the color just went away.”
“Good. They’re gone. The Realm is closed.”
Meaning all the Aelen Kofer were gone, with their exits sealed up behind. No matter what happened here, now, none of the Old Ones would be able to follow or escape to the middle world.
Heris asked, “Everybody set? Girls? Piper? Anna? Pella? Double Great? Here we go.” She tilted the beaker of divine blood.