But Traggis Mole was dying anyway; those were words Raif needed to avoid hearing at all cost. If Thomas Argola ever said them he would kill him.

Suddenly weary, Raif said, "I leave at dawn. Tell me what you have learned about the Red Ice."

Argola had protested, asking for more time, but he of all people had to know that once you set a top spinning it was was out of your control. Raif guessed he had discovered something, for he had not forgotten Mallia's words. My brother sends a message: Come see him tonight.

In the end what Thomas Argola had been able to tell him was little. He was one of the few people in the Rift who could read and write, and had managed to collect many parchments that had been seized by Maimed Men on raids. They saw no value in them and traded them gladly, though it was known that all manuscripts containing maps were to to be surrendered to the Mole. Argola had discovered little from searching his own collection and wanted time to search the Mole's. The thought of the outlander rifling though Traggis Mole's possessions was distasteful to Raif and he hoped that Stillborn would not allow it.

"If you are determined to leave tomorrow then all I can advise is this," Argola had said at last. "It is written that the Lake of Red Ice exists at the border of four worlds and to break it you must stand in all four worlds at once."

Raif had been frustrated. The words sounded like nonsense, designed only to confuse. "You said east."

Argola's smile had been indulgent. "Yes, there is that."

Raif had turned and left him. He had not spoken any word of farewell Thomas Argola knew either less or more than he claimed, and Raif could not decide which was worse: To know more and not reveal it? Or fake what you didn't know?

Maimed Men hailed him as he returned to Stillborn's cave, and Raif had no choice but to ignore them. Acknowledge their calls of "Twelve Kill" and he risked undercutting Stillborn's position. Raif Sevrance was not yet ready to declare himself Lord of the Rift. That thankless job went to Stillborn, and Raif knew that the best way to support Stillborn was to remove himself from the Maimed Men's attention. And not run the risk of anyone naming him "Chief."

Briefly, he had looked for Mallia as he climbed to the higher ledge, but Argola's sister was nowhere to be seen.

Once he had arrived back at Stillborn's cave he'd eaten the small meal of smoked meat and panbread that had been left for him, built up the fire at the cave mouth, and then lay on Stillborn's mattress and slept. He dreamed there was a black worm living in his shoulder, gnawing its way through his flesh.

The next morning he was awakened by Stillborn in the dark hours before dawn. "Addie's waiting outside," he had said, handing him a cup of water.

It took Raif a while to understand this statement. He swallowed a mouthful of water. "No."

Stillborn was ready for this. "You tell him then. He's been camped there for the past five hours. Won't listen to a thing I say. Doubt if he'll listen to you."

The Maimed Man was a bad schemer, Raif reckoned, for all the time he was speaking, Stillborn had not once looked him in the eye. It made a refreshing change from Argola.

"It's nothing to do with me," Stillborn continued, compelled to fill the silence. "Just told him when you were leaving. Didn't put no ideas in his head."

Raif rose and went out onto the ledge. He noticed Yelma now had two iron pots for breasts.

"You cannot come with me," he had said to Addie before the cragsman had chance to speak. "You are old and you will slow me down."

Addie Gunn had been sitting on a camp chair with his back to the fire and the cave mouth, and did not bother to turn at Raif's approach. "Fancy a journey east," he said, looking straight out across the darkness of the Rift. "Got a hankering to see trees—real ones not piss-thin bushes. I imagine I'll set off soon. 'Magine when I do no one will try and stop me, it being a free world and all and a man being free to travel where he pleases."

Raif breathed softly and deeply. It occurred to him that all you had to do to know a man's resolve was look at the back of his neck. "Addie I do not know where I go. How can I allow someone to accompany me when I don't know the dangers or how long I will be gone? Traggis Mole took a fatal blow to save my life. His death weighs on me. Do not put me in a position where yours might too."

The cragsman continued staring ahead. Time passed. The fire crackled and spat as a willow knot filled with pitch went up in flames. Eventually Addie Gunn stood and turned to face Raif. "I hear you, lad," he said, "but do you ever wonder if some might feel the same about you? Your death would not be a weight this Rift Brother is willing to bear."

Raif had bowed his head, defeated and heartsore. He had needed this and didn't even realize it: someone to stand second to his oath. "We travel light and take no animals." Addie nodded wisely. "I imagined we would." It was hard to believe that conversation had taken place less than twelve hours ago. Already it seemed to belong in the past, in the city they'd left behind. Look west now and you could not see it Not even the smoke from the grass fires.

With Addie leading the way they made better time. He had a goat's instinct for the ways between the crags. Raif was content to follow, glad to have no responsibility for a while beyond the placement of his feet. The sky grew bluer as they moved to higher ground and subtle changes took place in the air. Below them the Rift was a trough filled with shadows, narrower here than in the city of Maimed Men.

The discussion as to whether or not to take the hidden bridge across to the clanholds had been a short one. Raif had not been for it, and the cragsman had acceded to his choice. "It means a couple of days on the journey," he had told Raif, so there was no misunderstanding. "The path to the north is rocky and we'll have to put our backs into it. After the third of fourth day it should begin to level off."

To Raif it was a price worth paying. He had a strong preference for not walking on land claimed by clan.

Addie wasn't much for conversation so they climbed in silence. Sometimes the cragsman would whistle a few notes of one of the old lambing songs, and other times he would pluck dried grass heads from the snow and chew on them. He kept an even, unhurried pace, and did not look around to check on Raif. Every so often he would halt to check the depth of a snowdrift with his stick.

Evcn though the light was failing they made good progress, and they topped the tiered and fractured cliff face just as the mist began to rise. Rail shivered as the sweat beneath his sealskins coded against his skin. For the last quarter they had been moving northeast lo the Rift and when they paused at the cliff top he tamed around and saw that the crack in the earth had filled with cloud

"Happens quick," Addie said, fallowing his gaae. "We wont be able to continue much longer."

Raif took the lead from him. He did not want to stop. While his mind was occupied with walking he did not hi to think about the look in Traggis Mole's eyes as he died.

Swear it.

As the hour wore on the shadows disappeared, driven away by the mist, Islands of cloud rose from the Rift and drifted slowly in circles. The rocks underfoot slickened and the surface of the snow mounds turned to grease ice. Rait had to bend his head to see his feet, and after a while he could not see them at all. Sunset had taken place some time back, but the light remained strangely, quivenngly while. Behind him he could hear the steady pad of Addie's thinly soled boots. The cragsman was not whistling anymore.

"Lad." Addie's voice pierced the mist like an arrow." I'm done here."

The words carried an authority that Rail had not expected. They did not mean I. They meant We. Rait put up no argument, and tracked Addie's footfalls through the mist. The cragsman had in rrand somc-where he meant to go.