Morlock thought about what he had seen. "No. Unless you think there is something I should know."
"That's more thinking than we bargained for. You'll agree I carried out my part?"
Morlock went into his pack to get the agreed-upon sum of gold and handed it to her. The gold meant nothing to him; he could have easily have doubled the amount, or given her as much as she could carry. But he knew that the gold was important to her, not only for itself, but as a symbol of independence. The bag of coins he handed her had the exact amount they had agreed on back in Seven Stones.
She shook it with some enthusiasm. "No more working for Thyrb," she exulted. "Maybe I can even set up my own retreat."
Morlock nodded.
"Well," she said after a few moments, "I think I'll be getting out of here. Especially if the guy who dropped that mountainside on you is just asleep in there."
Morlock nodded. "Go back the way you came," he suggested. "It seems to be clear of traps."
"Right." She turned to go, paused, turned back. "Think you'll ever be back up Seven Stones way?"
Morlock thought about how angry Merlin would probably be when he freed himself. He thought about Roble and Naeli and her children, and how much they had suffered from knowing him. He thought of Stador, dead under a head of rocks in the Kirach Kund. "No," he said.
"Oh. Good-bye, then."
"Good fortune to you."
She left, and he turned away to explore the rest of Merlin's cave.
Eventually, he found what he was looking for. In a room that looked more like a butchering shed than a wizard's workshop, he found a metal dish with a pair of silver eyes in it.
They looked at him-quizzically, perhaps with a little fear, certainly with recognition. He recognized them, too: they belonged to his horse, Velox.
"Hello, my friend," Morlock said, not sure if Velox could hear him, not sure if he would understand if he did. He was never sure about Velox.
Merlin, of course, had been lying when he had told Morlock that Velox was dead. Morlock had suspected as much. For one thing, he wasn't sure that Velox could die. An unusual beast in many ways.
Velox's separate pieces all seemed to be present in the dreadful bloodsoaked room. Morlock settled down to reassemble them. He was tired, his body battered and aching, but the task itself gave him strength. This was a deed he had set himself to do, and it was near to completion now.
Slowly, the immortal steed took shape in the stony womb beneath the mountain.
Trapped in the jar, the old man struggled against his bonds of clay and sleep.
Already far off, the wounded woman walked away through the long cold night.
APPENDIX A
CALENDAR AND ASTRONOMY
1. ASTRONOMICAL REMARKS
The sky of Laent has three moons: Chariot, Horseman, and Trumpeter (in descending order of size).
The year has 375 days. The months are marked by the rising or setting of the second moon, Horseman. So that (in the year before This Crooked Way begins) Horseman sets on the first day of Bayring, the penultimate month. It rises again on the first of Borderer, the last month. It sets very early in the morning on the first day of Cymbals, the first month of the new year. All three moons set simultaneously on this occasion. (The number of months are uneven-fifteen-so that Horseman rises or sets on the first morning of the year in alternating years.)
The period of Chariot (the largest moon, whose rising and setting marks the seasons) is 187.5 days. (So a season is 93.75 days.)
The period of Horseman is 50 days.
The period of Trumpeter is 15 days. A half-cycle of Trumpeter is a "call." Calls are either "bright" or "dark" depending on whether Trumpeter is aloft or not. (Usage: "He doesn't expect to be back until next bright call.")
The seasons are not irregular, as on Earth. But the moons' motion is not uniform through the sky: motion is faster near the horizons, slowest at the zenith. Astronomical objects are brighter in the west, dimmer in the east.
The three moons and the sun rise in the west and set in the east. The stars have a different motion entirely, rotating NWSE around a celestial pole. The pole points at a different constellation among a group of seven (the polar constellations) each year. (Hence, a different group of nonpolar constellations is visible near the horizons each year.) This seven-year cycle (the Ring) is the basis for dating, with individual years within it named for their particular polar constellations.
The Polar constellations are: the Reaper, the Ship, the Hunter, the Door, the Kneeling Man, the River, the Wolf.
There is an intrapolar constellation, the Hands, within the space inscribed by the motion of the pole.
This calendar was first developed in the Wardlands, and then spread to the unguarded lands by exiles. In the Wardlands, years are dated from the founding of New Moorhope, the center of learning. The action of This Crooked Way begins in the 464th Ring, Moorhope year 3245, the Year of the River. But in the Ontilian Empire, the years are dated from the death of Uthar the Great, a system that came into widespread use north and south of the Kirach Kund.
2. THE VEAR OF THIS CROOKED GUAM
The novel begins early in the month of Brenting, 333 A.U.
48th Ring, A.U. 333: Year of the River
1. Cymbals.
New Year. Winter begins.
1st: Chariot, Horseman, and Trumpeter all set.
8th & 23rd: Trumpeter rises.
2. jaric.
1st: Horseman rises. 13th: Trumpeter rises.
3. Breij ip~.
1st: Horseman sets. 3rd and 18th: Trumpeter rises.
4. Drums.
1st: Horseman rises. 8th and 23rd: Trumpeter rises. Midnight of 94th day of the year (19 Drums): Chariot rises. Spring begins.
5. Rain.
1st: Horseman sets. 13th: Trumpeter rises.
6. Marryitjg.
1st: Horseman rises. 3rd and 18th: Trumpeter rises.
7. Ambrose.
1st: Horseman sets. 8th and 23rd: Trumpeter rises.
8. Harps.
1st: Horseman rises. 13th: Trumpeter rises. Evening of the 188th day of year (19 Harps): Chariot sets; Midyear-Summer begins.
9. Tort
1st: Horseman sets. 3rd and 18th: Trumpeter rises.
10. Rememberiv .
1st: Horseman rises. 8th and 23rd: Trumpeter rises.
11. Vicjory.
1st: Horseman sets. 13th: Trumpeter rises.
12. Harvesli1g.
1st: Horseman rises. 3rd and 18th: Trumpeter rises.
6th: Chariot rises, noon of 281st day of year. Fall begins.
13. Mojljer and Maider).
1st: Horseman sets. 8th and 23rd: Trumpeter rises.
14. Bayrin..
1st: Horseman rises. 13th: Trumpeter rises.
15. Borderer.
1st: Horseman sets. 3rd and 18th: Trumpeter rises.
APPENDIX B
SOURCE5 AND BACKGROUNDS FOR AMBROSIAN LEGEND
When the Allied forces firebombed Dresden in 1945, their real target was, of course, the Dresden Museum of Occult Antiquities, the infamous Ubersinnlichaltertumswissenschaft- museum, which was believed to be the site of the Axis magical weapons research program. Destruction of the central complex was so complete that we will never know whether the fear was justified.
Because it was considered bizarre and questionable even by that institution's unusual standards, the Von Brauch collection had long been exiled to a basement storage facility off the main site. For that and other fortuitous reasons, a significant amount of the collection survived, including an almost undamaged holograph copy of Von Brauch's so-called Gray Book (Liber Glaucus), which until recently was our best source of information about the sorcerous Ambrosii.