Диана Дуэйн - The Door Into Shadow

spark jumped from bridge to sword. "Fire-work, all right," he said, rubbing his arm as if it stung. "And a life-wreaking. No wonder poor Efmaer never came back. She either died of this wreaking or didn't recover enough Power to fight her way out again before Glasscastle vanished and took her away forever."
"You're going to have to do a life-wreaking too, to seal it off." Freelorn looked uneasy.
Herewiss stood with one hand on his hip, staring at the bridge the way a carpenter stares at a tree he must fell. "Well, the sealing has to be done whether I survive it or not. Don't worry, though, Lorn. Merely sealing it won't cost me the kind of effort building it cost Efmaer. I'll lose a month or two of life, and my head'll hurt tonight, but that's all."
Sunspark came up with Moris, whose great bulk left no room for other passengers, and then with Harald, Dritt, and Lang. Finally it paced over to Herewiss, peering over his shoulder at the bridge. Herewiss reached around its neck, patted it, then turned as if he had noticed something disturb-ing. "You all right, loved?" (It's cold up there,) Sunspark said.
Herewiss looked shocked. The others glanced at one an-other: they'd never heard the elemental say anything like that before. It pawed the ground uneasily, melting snow.
(All this water,) it said. (It's uncomfortable. And there's something else. .)
Segnbora turned her face away and considered what she felt coming from Sunspark: a cold that had nothing to do with the bone-chilling wind whispering about the summit. Up near the end of the bridge, something was pouring down a cold of the spirit that grew stronger as twilight grew deeper and the mountains less distinct. All of them were shivering, but the looks of foreboding and concern on their faces were far more disturbing.
Herewiss stroked Sunspark's neck. "We'll be down soon enough, loved. This won't take long. Shall we?"
It turned, offering him the stirrup. Herewiss mounted and sat looking at the bridge for a moment. It was a dark silhou-ette against the crystalline clarity of the golden mountain sunset. Abruptly he sent Fire down Khavrinen, lighting the whole mountaintop, and nudged Sunspark with his heels. The elemental walked off the cliff on the east side and stood on the empty air two thousand feet above the southface cirque.
"Down a bit," Herewiss said. Sunspark sank leisurely through the air, as if sliding down a stairway banister. "Torve," Herewiss called up to the peak, "where are the usual accesses?"
"East face," Torve said, "and northwest. But a climber with stepping-spikes and a rope could go up about anywhere. As for the suicides, the Queen said they find themselves on the summit without climbing."
"Thanks," Herewiss said. "It's got to be the whole thing, then." He reined Sunspark close to the sheer cliff that fell down from the summit, and touched the ice and snow with Khavrinen. Despite her trouble with heights, Segnbora crowded close to the edge with Torve and the others to watch the wreaking.
Blue Fire lanced from Khavrinen's point, melting snow and striking into the bare red rock of the mountain, which heated from red— to yellow— to white-hot and finally to an azure incan-descence. Flame leaped up from the kindled stone, though the tongues were small and sluggish, like those of an ordinary fire upon wet wood.
Sunspark moved around the peak, staying within arm's reach, and as elemental and rider progressed the bright line of blue melted itself into the stone behind them. Around the southeast spur they went, and out of sight. Most of Freelorn's band went around to watch the work on that side, but Torve stood by the cirque-facing cliff with Lang and Segnbora, shak-ing his head.
"This is a marvel," he said. "And strange. He's not what I expected a man with the Fire to be …" "The Rodmistresses in the Precincts agreed with you, I'm afraid," Segnbora said absently. For the moment her mind wasn't on Herewiss.
file:///G|/rah/Diane%20Duane%20-%20Tales%20Of%20The%20Five%2002%20-%20The%20Door%20Into%20Shadow.htm (73 of 155) note 9 Note9 2/13/2004 11:52:50 PM

For all her uneasiness with heights, something different was stirring in her now: a desire to lift wings and fall out into that glorious gulf of darkening blue air beneath her. A smile crossed her face at the realization that Dragons, like any of the more common soaring creatures of the world, preferred to drop from a height rather than to work for altitude. (And why not,) Hasai said, stretching wings lazily inside her and admiring the view himself. (Why waste energy, or man-ipulate field, when you don't have to? This is a fine height. Not as high as the Eorlhowe, to be sure, but a respectable height—) "There it is," Torve said, his voice very quiet. Segnbora glanced up from the glacier.
High to the west, above the vista of Adine peak behind them, past Esa and Mirit and the long sleek flank of White-stack, had risen a slim crescent of Moon. To its right, and lower, a point of light glittered: the Evenstar. Quickly Segn-bora looked upward along the silver-blue curve of the Sky-bridge. . and forgot to breathe.
It had come out as silently and suddenly as the Moon. The Skybridge, half of a curve before, was whole now. The new part of the span did look to be made of the sky — cerulean blue, transparent, yet very much there. And at the span's end rose Glasscastle. It was like a castle in an old story, a place built for pleasure rather than defense, fanciful and wide-windowed and fair. Halls and high towers pierced the upper air; slender spires were bound together by curving bridges and fairy buttresses. Everything, from the wide-flung gates at the end of the bridge to the highest needle spire, was built of the same airy crystal as the bridge.
The evening sky could plainly be seen through walls and towers. The fading hues of the sunset — rose, gold, and deepening royal blue — were reflected from them, pale and ghostly. Yet there was nothing fragile about the place. Glasscastle stood as immovably founded on the air as if on rock. It reflected the sunset colors, the icy light of the Moon,
and even the frozen gleam of the Evenstar, but cast no shadow.
"Not a moment too soon," Herewiss said, his voice hushed, as Sunspark stepped up to the peak again, completing their circuit of the mountaintop. All around the barrel of the peak burned a line of blue, the circle within which the spell would be confined. Herewiss dismounted and stood for a moment with Khavrinen in his hand, gazing up at the crystalline appa-rition.
"Beautiful," he said. "But from now on, that's all it's going to be." He struck Khavrinen,'s point down into the snow at the foot of the bridge, and looked up the curve of metal, raising his arms—

Nine
THE DOOR INTO SHADOW
"It's dangerous to invoke the Goddess as you conceive Her to be," said lav. "and more dangerous still to invoke Her as She truly is."
"Right enough," said Airru. "Breathing is dangerous too. But necessary.. "
fates from the South, x, 118
Herewiss's anguished shout came back as echoes, but had no effect on the small dark silhouette that hurried purposefully up the bridge. Herewiss swung Khavrinen up two-handed, pointing at Freelorn, and the sword spat a blinding line of Fire that ran upward toward him — but whatever wreaking he had in mind came unraveled before it ever touched Lorn. Many feet short of the bridge, the Fire hit some unseen bar-rier and splashed in all directions like water thrown at a wall. Freelorn kept walking. Another twenty paces would see him up onto the phantom portion of the span. Herewiss wasn't waiting; he ran up the bridge after his loved, swearing fright-fully in an ancient Arlene dialect, Khavrinen streaming frantic Fire behind him. Sunspark went galloping up after, unable to leave his loved.
"Damn!" Lang said, and followed. "Torve, wait here!" Segnbora said, unsheathing Char-riselm as she headed after Lang. "Are you joking? The Queen would. ." Torve began to say as he followed her and the others onto the bridge. They didn't run long — the altitude saw to that. Only Torve could run fast enough to catch up with Herewiss. In addition, the bridge was longer than it looked: an eighth mile, perhaps, to the point where it truly became sky. Far ahead of them, Freelorn's small figure slowed in its stride, hesitating only briefly. He put one foot on the phantom bridge, found it would support him, and went on as before, in a confident but hurried walk.
Damn! Segnbora thought as she ran. She clutched Char-riselm harder than necessary, for her hands and face were
numb from the chill. That other, more inward cold was pour-ing down more bitterly than before, yet she didn't suffer much from it. Something was blunting its effects; something inside her, burning— (Hasai!) she said as she caught up with Herewiss and Sun-spark and Torve. (Is that you?) (Sdaha, against the great cold of the outer darknesses, this is nothing. We have learned to deal with cold.) (I'm glad!) she said silently.
Herewiss and Torve had paused at the edge of the phantom span, and behind them Sunspark stood, looking downright dubious. The Fire— wrought part of the bridge was as thick and wide as the railless metal span, but clear and as fragile as air. Herewiss knelt to brush his fingers across it and straightened quickly, as if burnt.
"Whoever did this wreaking," he gasped, "they've got more Power than I have — and they're up there now, fueling it!" He got to his feet and stepped out onto the crystalline part of the bridge, realized that the footing was secure, and took off after Freelorn again at a run.