The first part of their travel wasn’t too difficult: through the city of Altis, then through the outlying portions lying up against the slopes of the mountains rising behind the city. Mari was surprised at how rapidly the city dwindled as they moved inland, the road very quickly changing from a paved street lined with buildings to a dirt lane bordered by sheds and storage huts and then a narrow path lined only by a couple of small orchards before it vanished completely where it met the skirts of a mountain. As Mari and Alain climbed higher into the interior through territory unmarked by human artifacts, she looked back at the city beneath them. “If this tower does exist inland, it’s no wonder nobody but those old mapmakers know about it. Everything on this island seems to be focused toward the sea.”
Alain paused beside her, breathing deeply but evenly from their climb so far. “I thought the same from my study of the map. There are towns and villages elsewhere on the island, but all lie along the coast. The roads follow the coastline, but often end where cliffs going down to the water block their passage.”
Mari looked upward, where the mountains rose amid steep slopes and deep chasms. “The interior of this island is the perfect place to hide something, isn’t it? Even a long time ago people could have figured that out. How the blazes did anyone build a big tower in terrain like this, though?”
Their progress became slower and slower as they struggled through the rough landscape, and when night fell they had to sit wedged on a small shelf overlooking a sharp drop, taking turns sleeping while the one who was awake made sure neither of them slipped off. About midnight a sudden late-winter squall sent freezing rain to lash the mountains, further adding to the misery of the day.
In the morning the sun rose on a rough countryside glittering with an icy glaze. They had to wait for the ice to melt enough for their footing to be safe. Mari consulted the map often in search of landmarks as they went steadily higher and deeper into the island. Difficult climbs alternated with perilous descents, each complicated by scrub brush which all too often bore thorns instead of leaves. Measuring their apparent progress against the map, she felt despair. “It will take us a month at this rate.”
“Perhaps it will get easier,” Alain said.
“Right now I just wish one of those Mage Rocs would appear so we could fly to that blasted tower.”
This time, darkness descended while they were halfway up a scree-covered slope. Unable to keep going in the uncertain footing and poor visibility, they found a patch of bushes they could lie against, hoping the roots would hold until morning. Neither got much rest that night, either.
Mari blinked at the sun as it finally rose over the rocky peaks around them on the third day. “I hate this island. If that tower is empty I’m going to be one unhappy Mechanic, let me tell you. This little hike better prove to have been worth it.”
“We have had worse,” Alain pointed out, looking as worn out as Mari felt.
“Thanks. That makes me feel so much better.” Mari pulled out her far-seer and studied the ground around them, checking all directions. “Bad that way. That way’s worse. Wow. A lot worse. Hey.” She thought she saw something and blinked to clear her eyes, then took another look. “There’s somebody moving over there.”
“Where?” Alain asked, shading his eyes with one hand as he looked in the same direction.
“Along the side of that ridge there. He’s gone now. No, wait, there he is again, on the side of that mountain. All I can see is his head and a bit of his shoulder. How is he moving so fast? There’s got to be a path there even though we can’t see it.”
Alain shook his head. “Without your Mechanic device, I cannot see any sign of this traveler you are watching.”
“Looks like he’s disappeared for good.” Mari lowered her far-seer, thinking. “Suppose the tower does exist, and suppose there are people living there, and those people need to get to the outside world every once in a while.”
“They would need a path,” Alain agreed.
“But since practically nobody knows about this tower, whoever lives there must be keeping it secret, so…”
“Their path would be secret as well.” Alain looked at the ground ahead. “It will be difficult to reach wherever you saw this traveler, but it will be difficult to go in any other direction as well.”
Mari grinned fiercely, coming carefully to her feet on the slope. “Let’s go find us a path, my Mage. Down that way, up that slope, over that ridge and hope what’s on the other side isn’t too bad.”
The other side wasn’t great, but it wasn’t impassable, either. Not quite impassable, anyway. Mari had determined certain landmarks on the way to where she had caught brief glimpses of the traveler: a large rock with an odd shape, a cluster of evil-looking scrub bushes, and a nearly vertical ravine in one cliff face as if a huge knife had sliced into the rock. She was able to stay headed in the direction of what was hopefully a hidden trail while they toiled down, up and around numerous obstacles. About noon, as Mari was struggling up another steep slope, she suddenly found herself stepping onto a very low ridge and looking down at a path heading inland. Stumbling down onto the surface of the path and resisting an urge to kneel and kiss it, she helped Alain step down as well. “That ridge is almost like a wall running alongside this path, completely hiding it.” She looked up at an almost sheer cliff face. “You couldn’t see the path except from overhead, and nobody is going to be walking up there. If I hadn’t spotted that person, which I couldn’t have without my far-seer, we would have never known this was here.”
Alain sat down, relieved enough for the emotion to be obvious. “This is not a heavily used way, but it has clearly been here a long time.”
“Like part of the landscape,” Mari agreed. She studied what she could see of the path, puzzled. “It looks artificial, as if the path was cut through here, but I can’t tell what did the cutting through so much rock and left such smooth surfaces.” They took a break to eat, Mari hauling out the map and studying it again. “We haven’t even come halfway, but on this path we can move a lot faster. I think we should push on today until sunset, get a decent night’s sleep, then try to reach the tower tomorrow.”
Alain nodded, standing up with a heavy sigh. “I miss the White Wing.”
“I bet. Are you sure what you really miss isn’t being in bed with me?”
“That, too.” He looked back and forth along the path. “Perhaps tonight, on a level surface like this…”
“Do men ever stop thinking about that? And in any case, forget it. That’s rock and gravel. I will not engage in any vigorous activity on that kind of surface.”
Despite their weariness, the easier road lent Mari and Alain extra energy, and they covered a lot of ground before it grew too dark to travel. They slept on a level surface, hemmed in by the path’s concealing barrier and the slope rising on the other side, so that even though they alternated watches through the night both got a decent amount of rest for the first time in days.
Mari felt a curious mix of elation and dread as they started off the next morning. What if the tower was not there? What if the “records of all things” it once held had long since crumbled to dust? What if the current inhabitants had no idea the tower had been a place to keep important information safe and could tell her nothing?
But what if the tower was there and the people in it could answer her questions? The possibility lent wings to her feet as they walked.
Mari’s prediction from the map proved accurate. The sun was still just short of noon when they rounded a mountainous curve and found themselves gazing down into a pocket valley. It was bigger than Mari had expected from the map and greener, too. Meadows and cultivated fields covered a wide area beneath them, with stands of trees here and there as well as on the slopes of the valley. They could see the shapes of farm animals moving in some of the fields.