Part 10 (1/2)

The ogre glanced at Atreus, then growled, ”If Atreus wants.”

”Good,” she said. As she turned to Ris.h.i.+, the sound of clattering stones beganto echo up through the mist ”Do you also promise?”

The Mar glanced toward the sound and said, ”Surely it is better for Tarch to diethan all of us.”

Seema's eyes grew sad, and she stepped down off the boulder. ”I must leaveyou,” she said. ”I am the one he is looking for, and there will be no more killing if Igo to him.”

”Wait” Atreus caught her by the arm, turned to Ris.h.i.+, and said, ”Make the promise. I can't let Seema go by herself, even if there is to be no more killing.” Ris.h.i.+'s eyes narrowed. ”Good sir, you are a very bad liar,” he said. ”It is onlySeema that Tarch wishes alive. He will be most happy to kill you... and Yago.”

”He will try,” said Atreus, ”but now that Yago's here, perhaps we can subdue himwithout killing him. Are you sure you want to be the only one trying to kill him*orthe only one left, if we fail?”

Ris.h.i.+ considered this a moment, grew pale, and licked his lips. He turned toSeema. ”I promise.”

She studied the Mar for several moments. The clattering below continued togrow louder, but it was impossible to tell how close Tarch was. Atreus had learnedduring his sea crossing that everything sounded different in fog, and the only thing he could see below was Yago's heavy breath swirling the vapor.

After a time, Seema nodded to Ris.h.i.+ and said, ”I will take you at your word, but ifyou are lying to me....””I'll be responsible for him,” Atreus a.s.sured her, casting a warning glance at the Mar. I'm sure he won't give me reason to regret it” ”Never! I am being most honest arid truthful,” Ris.h.i.+ said, turning up the couloir.

”Now may we please hurry?”

Seema caught the Mar by the arm and said, ”Not that way.”

She motioned toward the couloir's rocky wall, then looked down the slope.

”Tarch,” she called, ”you must take shelter again. We have found a loose boulder!”

She caught Yago's eye and pointed to the boulder upon which she had been standing. The ogre grinned and pa.s.sed the supply bundle to Atreus. Wrapping hisgangling arms around the stone, he heaved it into the fog. The rock landed with a resounding crash and began to bound down the slope. Soon the rumble of ama.s.sive rockslide was reverberating up the couloir.

”Follow me.”

Seema's voice was barely audible over the clamor of the falling rocks. She turned to the couloir wall and slipped her hands into a crevice, then scrambled upthe twenty-foot cliff in a few quick moves. Atreus could not help feeling sheepish.Seema was the rescuer now. She probably knew a thousand ways to evade Tarch, and none of them involved fighting.

With the clatter of the rockslide still masking their escape, Yago boostedRis.h.i.+ up, then scrambled up the wall himself. Atreus tossed the supply bundle tothe ogre and brought up the rear. Soon they were crossing the face of a rockycrag. Although the outcropping was not much steeper than the couloir, it feltimmeasurably more dangerous, with the mist-slickened rock dropping away into bottomless fog and nothing but white cloud at their backs.

Seema sauntered along the crag as though it were a balcony walkway, barelytouching its stony face with her uphill hand. Ris.h.i.+ and Atreus faced the rock andinched along sideways, keeping both hands on the stone at all times. Yago turned away from the outcropping and leaned back against it, crawling along likea back-jointed spider and holding the supply bundle in one hand. It was not long before a nervous rumble began to reverberate from his chest ”Yago, do you think it would be easier if you turned around?” Atreus askedsoftly. ”That way you can see the rock.”

”I can feel the rock.” Yago's deep whisper cut through the fog like a hissing wind. Fortunately, the rockslide was still clattering to a halt back in the couloir, soit seemed unlikely Tarch would hear. ”If I fall, I want to see where I'm going.”

Atreus sighed and reached out Knowing it would do no good to argue, he said,”Let me carry the supplies. We don't want to lose them if you fall.”Yago refused to yield the bundle. ”Keep your hands on the rock!” the ogre said too loudly. ”You'll fall.” ”Our lives depend on our silence,” Seema hissed. She stretched a hand pastRis.h.i.+, then added, ”I will not fall. Pa.s.s me the supplies.”

Yago scowled but quietly pa.s.sed the bundle forward. They continued acrossthe outcropping and the sound of the rockslide died away behind them. A short time later, they heard Tarch in the couloir, his feet kicking stones and gravel downthe gully as he climbed past They all breathed a little easier, and it was not long beforethey began to hear a steady roar echoing up through the fog. Guessing that thiswould be the waterfall he had seen that morning, Atreus began to keep a watchfor the hanging glacier.

He almost didn't recognize it when they reached it The rocky crag simply ended,as though they had come to the edge of the mountain itself. Seeing nothing but grayhaze beyond, Atreus expected Seema to climb around the corner and continue on.Instead, she stepped down off the-outcropping and seemed to simply hover in thefog.

Ris.h.i.+ stopped and peered over the edge, his mouth gaping in astonishment.”What are you standing on?”

”Snow, of course. Come along.” Seema reached out with her freehand and warned,”Be very careful of your footing. This glacier is more dangerous than the hillside wehave been crossing. It is very steep, and you do not want to slide off the bottom. It-is along plunge down to the swamp.”

Ris.h.i.+ allowed her to help him down, and to Atreus they appeared to be floating inthe fog. She turned and started to angle up the glacier it looked as though she wereclimbing the cloud into the heavens themselves.

”Be careful to step only where I step,” Seema said, looking back over her shoulder.”Glaciers are full of hidden perils. It is easy to fall into a creva.s.se or drop into the melt water underneath,”

Yago peered over the edge of the cliff into the gray haze, then looked back to Atreusand said, ”I don't see no snow. Let's go another way.”

Atreus gave Yago a gentle push, ”One foot at a time,” he whispered, mindful of the ogre's pride. ”We're going in the right direction. These are the High ”Yehimals, and.Langdarma is somewhere up there.”

”According to those bird scratches on your map?” sneered Yago dubiously.

Despite his doubts, the ogre gingerly lowered himself over the edge. When his foot finally touched the snow, he smiled and stepped away from the crag. In theflat light, Atreus still could not tell the snow from the fog. It looked as though even anogre could walk on air.

Atreus lowered himself over the edge and started up the glacier after his companions. The climbing quickly grew steep and fatiguing, with Seema zigzagging back and forth so sharply that they seemed to take four steps to advance one pace uphill. Sometimes, Atreus could see her reason for swerving.From time to time they would encounter a looming tower of ice*what Seemacalled a serac*that seemed ready to topple over, or an abyssal creva.s.se so narrow and snow-choked it was almost invisible. Other times, it was more difficult to tell what she was avoiding. Here and there a small furrow marked a buried creva.s.se,or a faint gurgling showed only her where a snow-covered pit opened into theriver of melt water beneath the glacier. She gave any rock a wide berth, for stonescollected heat when the sun was out and melted treacherous holes around themselves, and she always avoided exposed ice. On such a sheer slope, even atiny slip could mean plunging into a deep creva.s.se or slamming into a serac.

The steep climb aggravated Ris.h.i.+'s leg wound. He fell back to the end of theline, and soon Yago was hauling the Mar on his back. Atreus followed close behindSeema, carrying the supply bundle over his shoulder so her hands would befree in case she ran into trouble route-finding. After a time they came to a highice cliff and began to traverse along the base, looking for a way around. Atreus finally caught his breath enough to start a conversation.

There hasn't been time to thank you for staying with Ris.h.i.+ and me.”

”You and your servant were in poor health when Tarch pulled you from theriver.” As she spoke, Seema continued along the ice cliff, peering into the whitefog ahead. ”I wanted to be certain you would recover.”

”Still, it was kind of you not to leave with your people,” said Atreus. ”At the moment, my resources are limited, but if there is anything I can do to repay you. ..”

Seema stopped and turned, looking up into Atreus's pouchy eyes. ”If youkeep your promise,” she said, ”that will be enough. Besides, the others were not'my people.' They are from Gyatse and Yamdruk. I come from much higher.”

The names caused Atreus's heart to leap into his throat Both places were onhis map, and Yamdruk was no more than six valleys from Langdarma.

Seema started forward again, casting a wary eye on the cliff above their heads.Atreus followed along, trying to quell his growing excitement and avoid alarminghis beautiful guide. Given her anger over the dead slavers, he was far from certain she would be eager to help him find Langdarma, especially if that happenedto be the high place from which she came.

Atreus took a deep breath, then tried to sound casual as he asked, ”If you aren'tfrom Yamdruk or Gyatse, how did you come to be captured with their people?””I needed yellow man's beard,” she explained. ”They do not grow in my home,so I came down to search for ft.”

Atreus frowned and, confused, asked, ”Do you mean you have no men in yourhome?” Perhaps she came from some sort of devotional order that allowed onlywomen. ”Or that your men have no beards?”

”We have men! What kind of place has no men?” she laughed. It was a light,happy sound that chimed off the ice cliff and sang away into the fog. ”We do not have hemlock trees, and they are where yellow man's beard grows. It is a moss good for curing black-belly fever.”

”So Tarch captured you in Yamdruk?”

It was a hopeful guess. On his map, Yamdruk was closer to, Langdarma than Gyatse. Seema grew quiet, then said, ”He caught me near Yamdruk, yes. But my people do not make a habit of visiting others.””Perhaps you will allow me to repay your kindness by going to Yamdruk andcollecting some yellow man's beard for you?”Seema glanced over her shoulder warily, then shook her head saying, ”The child is long dead. Black-belly fever kills quickly, and I have been gone for weeks.”Atreus could not tell whether her tone was suspicious or sad. ”I am sorry to hearthat,” he said.

Seema was careful not to turn around.

”Yes, so am I”

They reached the edge of the ice cliff and began to pick their way up a jumble oftoppled seracs, pausing every now and then to offer Yago a steadying hand. Asthey climbed, the fog began to thin. The wind came up, the temperature dropped,and the glacier came alive with silver light and blue shadows. They cut holes in their extra blankets and wore them over their shoulders like tunics, but this did nothing toprotect their fingers and noses from the biting cold.

At last they crested the slope and found themselves looking across a vast crinkledplain of ice, bulging with pressure ridges and furrowed with concentric rings ofcreva.s.ses. Here and there, pyramids of granite jutted up through the ice in theinterior, while long curving glaciers swept like spider arms down into the canyons along the edges. Scattered along the rim, scratching at a cobalt sky with pinnacles as sharp and gleaming as sword tips, were the impossibly high peaks Atreushad seen from the far side of the swamp. And there, almost directly across the icefield, were three bell-shaped spires. The Sisters of Serenity.

The crash of a tumbling serac rumbled up the glacier behind them. Atreus cast a wary took down the slope but saw only the billowing white clouds through which they had just ascended.

”Probably just an avalanche,” he said.