by Glen Cook
“Which might be in just a few outside hours.”
The ascendant and the Bastard concluded that they needed to go up for a firsthand look at 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 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 mountain.
Behind the gate lay a level, open field. To either hand were what had been gardens and orchards. The magic was gone.
The ascendant said, “I don’t remember much. First time round I was a prisoner. What I saw was less colorful than this. Last time, I was too crazy to notice much. The Aelen Kofer will have to guide us.”
Heris stared off to their left, at the bones of an orchard, recalling that it had been sacred to one of the Old Goddesses. The remains of the apple trees were covered with scale and fungi.
Did that bode ill for the larger mission? The gods had depended on that fruit for their immortality. But it looked like the orchard depended on the gods in turn. “Did all that die since you were here?”
The ascendant responded, “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Double Great, this might not be as dangerous as I feared. But let’s take every precaution anyway.”
The old man looked puzzled.
The bulk of the Great Sky Fortress reared ahead, climbing far higher. There was no color in it. Sunlight fell upon it and died.
Heris continued to quiz the ascendant. Who continued to insist, “I was just a prisoner here. I don’t know anything.”
She glanced at Iron Eyes. The dwarf lord shrugged, said, “It’s been a long time. We weren’t invited in much once the place was finished.”
So she snapped at the ascendant, “Parts of you lived here. All of you knew enough to turn the place inside out.”
The ascendant went rigid. Then he began to swell.
And Heris could not hold her tongue.
“Yeah. Go ahead. Get all huffy and pissed off. Turn into something uglier than you already are. That’ll be real productive.” She turned her back. “Double Great, this whole expedition is about to turn sour. We’re just plain not ready, except maybe for Asgrimmur. He’s all set to tremble and shake if the Old Ones won’t cooperate.”
Though she was not behaving well the old man seemed more pleased than troubled. “You keep making the point. I heard it. Now say something useful.”
“We need to make sure there’s no way they can get out without them doing what we want. Meaning all the damned doors better be locked before we open the way. Meaning we have to use up all of whatever magic still exists here. Meaning we have to send the Aelen Kofer home so the Old Ones can’t bully them into engineering their escape into the middle world. I might even borrow some of Gisors’s toys in case we have to enforce an attitude adjustment.”
Februaren grinned. “Darling girl! I think we’ve found our Twelfth Unknown. Clever, that. And I do see your point. Gentlemen. My student has, again, made a powerful argument. We dare leave nothing to chance. We won’t be conjuring everynight demons.”
Eyeing Heris, Ferris Renfrow observed, “The overconfident sorcerer has become a cliché. There’s a reason things become clichés.”
Heris showed him a thin smile. Remarkable. She said, “Iron Eyes. We can adjust to this. With Aelen Kofer help. Come talk to me.” She headed back toward the rainbow bridge.
Cloven Februaren watched. He glowed with pride. He muttered, “She’s coming along just fine.” Then, “Boys, how about we explore this dump while we’re waiting?”
34. Commander of the Righteous:
Raiders and Invaders
The move into the Eastern Empire by the Commander of the Righteous was a complete surprise. The immediate reaction to the news, everywhere, was that people up there on the frontier were in error and unduly alarmist.
Hagan Brokke and Clej Sedlakova led mounted infantry in swift dashes to isolate the Krulik and Sneigon works. Carava de Bos and Rivademar Vircondelet got the opportunity to demonstrate that Titus Consent’s faith in them was not misplaced. They roamed the wilderness around the establishment, romancing the locals, then the mercenaries protecting the manufactory.
The Commander of the Righteous reached the sprawl of smelters, foundries, timber ricks, and charcoal kilns five days after launching the incursion. There was no resistance.
Carava de Bos brought out the managers. Hecht had spoken to some of the same men after the destruction of their Brothen enterprise. They had pledged to restrict sales of their product to the Patriarchal forces.
Hecht ignored their pleas. “De Bos. Do you have an inventory?”
“I don’t have enough fingers, sir.”
“What?”
“Sorry, sir. A poor joke. It’s incomplete. There’s so much firepowder we may not be able to haul it all away. That could be true for the weapons, too. I’ve found nearly sixty finished pieces already. They’d just started to make deliveries.”
“Then we got here in time.”
“We did, sir. Shall we start pulling things down?”
“Yes. And don’t waste time. Sooner or later someone from the Eastern Empire will decide that something has to be done.”
Hecht spent hours touring, inspecting, and being amazed. Krulik and Sneigon had performed prodigies here.
***
Locals helped with the demolition. Hecht let them take whatever they wanted, excepting only weapons, firepowder, and the belongings of guards who had stood with the raiders. Everyone else would be bare naked but alive when the Righteous left.
Titus Consent chose not to show himself. He needed fashion no more enmities amongst the Devedians. Instead, he headed downriver to Liume to hire coasters. Hecht wanted to get his plunder into Imperial territory as fast as possible. The nearest friendly country lay across the Vieran Sea.
Clej Sedlakova approached Hecht the second afternoon. “What’ll we do with all these Deves, boss?”
“You don’t think we should just leave them naked in the rain?”
Head shake.
“Why not?”
“They’ll just start over. Maybe here, maybe somewhere else. But right now they figure you’re gonna kill them so they can’t.”
“And you think they’ve got the right idea?”
“Just don’t ask me to do it. I’m not that hard.”
“Be a serious waste of talent and knowledge. Let’s take them with us. We can lock them up in Hochwasser. They can pursue their trade in service to the Empire.”
“Make slaves of them?”
“Forced labor. My father would find that delicious.”
Sedlakova showed confusion. “Sir?”
“Nothing. Identify the most valuable people. Have Vircondelet take them away as soon as he can.”
“Yes, sir.” Sedlakova’s relief was obvious.
Why had the man not believed that they would be left naked and starving?
Hecht reflected briefly on the legacy left him by Redfearn Bechter. Had there been more to that than just Grade Drocker’s journal? If so, he could not figure it out. And Drocker had not been the sort to indulge himself with deep puzzles and riddles.
***
The Empress, accompanied by fewer than a hundred companions and guards, arrived as Sedlakova went to deal with the prisoners. She
did not look comfortable. Hecht thought she was sick and putting on a bold face. He ran to greet her, stifling the protests she was sure to have heard a hundred times, already. She was here. He would have to pretend to be pleased.
Katrin made no effort not to be noticed. “I want Monestacheus Deleanu to know that this was my adventure, not a rogue action by my Commander of the Righteous. God’s enemies cannot be allowed to arm themselves with these horrible weapons.”
Then greed flashed. Her thinking included the savings this meant for the Imperial treasury.
The presence of the Empress only added to the chaos.
***
The Commander of the Righteous received a summons to the Imperial Presence the evening of the day following her arrival. The lifeguard who brought the message told him the Empress expected him to dine with her. He should dress accordingly.
That meant a hurried bath and a change to his other clothes. He traveled light in the field, seldom dressing better than his soldiers.
He grumbled because this might cause a delay in leaving.
He was ready to go, having accomplished his mission.
The Empress had taken the quarters of the directors. Living rough. She did not mind, though she had only two distraught young women to manage her needs, leaving much to her lifeguards. Who, Hecht noted, went about their business grimly.
Protecting this impulsive Empress might be more difficult than had been protecting the Captain-General. Katrin had no real need to go dangerous places. She did not have to be difficult. But she did feel compelled to be her father’s daughter.
Katrin was not in a good mood. “Is that the best you have to wear? You look like one of your foot soldiers.”
“It is, I fear, Your Grace. I did not anticipate a need for anything better.”
Katrin dropped it. “This went well. What next?”
“Back to Hochwasser and Alten Weinberg. Then steady training and planning for next year. For now, we should send an advance party to the Holy Lands. What we know now isn’t much more than rumor.”
Katrin had established herself behind the bulwark of a large, rude table. She remained there, unmoving, occasional flickers of discomfort darkening her features. She was, for sure, not well.
