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No point escaping prison if you just ended up in a bigger cell.

The senior goddess said something.

The Bastard said, “That’s classical Andorayan. The Old Gods still had a rural following when I was young. I might be able to talk to her.”

Heris said, “Chances are, she’s following everything we’re saying. She wanted to talk to you without the god killers understanding.”

Hecht said, “A leopard is a leopard and a lion is a lion, Renfrow.”

“Folksy, but what does it mean?”

Heris knew from her middle-eastern days. “That you’re deluding yourself if you think a lion or a leopard can be turned into anything but a lion or a leopard. A major Instrumentality, even with his balls in a vise, will go right on thinking like a god.”

“Understood. And understood.” Renfrow faced the goddess. Who seethed, clearly.

Hecht expected nothing more. He thought Heris was trying to domesticate leopards.

Heris picked up the two soul eggs still nearly too warm to touch. “They aren’t gone permanently.” The hammer mill cycled. “But we won’t try to restore them while any of us feel uncomfortable about any of you.”

Ferris Renfrow asked, “We’re taking hostages?”

The goddess responded, “Save the bluster. I’m not Red Hammer. An offense to my dignity won’t shatter my reason. I know we’re dependent on your good will. That’s galling but even the gods themselves bend the knee to needs must.”

“No knee bending required,” Heris said. “Just cooperation. Tit for tat. We aren’t asking for anything beyond our lifetimes.”

“The situation is clear in all its aspects, Godslayer Heris. Go ahead with your work.” She turned.

The lone male deity appeared. He carried maybe fifteen feet of rope.

“Where was that hidden?” Heris grumbled.

“I’ll be damned!” Renfrow said, in pure awe.

“What?” Hecht demanded while Februaren nodded as though he understood, too.

“Geistrier, Commander.”

“Bless you. What’s happening?”

“Geistrier is a rope that’s always as long as it needs to be and so strong the giant Blognor couldn’t break it when it was used to tie him up.”

A beautiful, shining girl turned up carrying a spear. It looked perfectly ordinary, an infantry spear, made for thrusting, not throwing. Shaft eight feet long, blade adding another foot and two inches wide at its hips, its edges sharpened. The spearhead glowed with the opposite of light.

“Heartsplitter,” Renfrow said, clearly in awe.

Soon afterward someone turned up with a horn, then a hammer, ragged silk slippers, and a flute. None of the relics looked like much.

The Bastard muttered, “It’ll be scary as hell getting out if the bridge is gone. But we can do it with their help.”

“I’m still wondering what I’m doing here. I have a big war in the east that I should be getting ready for.”

Pella had not lingered after delivering his shaker. Now Vali rushed in. “Heris, Asgrimmur says to tell you the situation isn’t as bad as he thought. The rainbow is still solid. It’s just not wide enough for carts anymore.”

“I’ll strangle Iron Eyes next time I see him. That stubby prick saw this coming.”

Most mortals had to ride goat carts across because they were not psychologically fit to walk on air. The Aelen Kofer had taken the goats along when they scurried out of the Realm of the Gods. There would be no escapes from the Realm, however inept the overconfident middle-worlder mortal rescuers were.

Whatever happened, no one, mortal or Instrumentality, would depart the Great Sky Fortress without walking the rainbow bridge.

It was there for anyone with the nerve to walk it.

* * *

The hammer mill cycled for the last time. The Great Sky Fortress creaked and shook. Heris made sure every crumb of cracked egg, every recoverable speck of dust, preceded a silver ball into the hidden universe. “All right. Time for a beer. Or three. Or ten. And then a week of sleep. I’ll decide what next when I wake up.”

Nobody asked questions. Nobody wanted Heris thinking of something else that needed doing. Excepting the Trickster.

Even the least sensitive, like Piper Hecht, felt the desperation building as the trapped Instrumentality finally understood that he would not be released.

His peers were indifferent. He had exhausted their patience and friendship.

Hecht watched Heris pack the soul eggs of Zyr and Red Hammer, admiring her detailed and meticulous work, even in circumstances that encouraged haste and sloppiness.

Heris asked, “What should we do about the falcons? We can’t take them with us.”

“Damn! Give me a second to think like Kait Rhuk or Drago Prosek.” The observing Instrumentalities seemed intrigued.

“I’ll fix them so they can only be unfixed by one of my experts.” A challenge to the gods. “Iron Eyes will come back someday. After he gets over the beating I’m going to give him. He can rebuild the rainbow bridge, then haul the falcons out on his goat carts.”

“Make sure they can’t be used against us later, then let’s go drink some beer.”

“Where’s that keg of firepowder? All right. I see it. Go ahead and take off.” He wondered about her thirst as he pounded a sliver of iron into the touch hole of a falcon. Heris was not a drinker, unless she had developed a taste since coming to the Realm of the Gods.

The room shivered. Hecht felt a hint of rage from the trapped Instrumentality. He reflected momentarily. “Better do it. Just in case.” He collected the firepowder keg.

“Dad? You going to futz around all day?”

“Vali. How come you’re back up here?”

Glassware fell, crashed. They both jumped.

“Anna sent me to find out why you didn’t come down when Heris did.”

“Work to do here.” He fiddled with a spring. “I’m almost done.”

“They’ve started crossing the bridge.”

“I didn’t realize I was taking too much time.”

“She’s just worried. You know she worries.”

“Uhm.” He surveyed the falcons. All spiked. Firepowder keg, set to go.

“I mean really worries, Dad. When you’re away.”

“Let’s go.”

The room shivered again. Hecht thought this tremor was weaker. The prisoner had spent his strength and fury.

* * *

Clever gods had made crossing the bridge easy. One took an end of Geistrier across and tied it to a boulder. Heartsplitter, thrust into the fabric of the bridge, supported the rope midway. The near end was tied to an old, green brass post of memorial significance. Nobody remembered of what. Asgrimmur said, “It may have a part in the Twilight War. I’m not sure. You changed everything. A destiny that has been fixed since the beginning just isn’t anymore.”

“I wish I was that important to history. But Anna and Heris are bigger god killers than me.”

“Not true. You forget Seska and the ancients you put down in the Connec. But why worry about that? We have a bridge to cross.”

Hecht had been trying to tame his dread. There were heights and heights. This was the kind where you could not see a place to stop falling.

Nothing in his training had prepared him for this. Such a challenge could not arise because a situation like this could not exist. This was a fever dream of savages not yet blest with the Word of God.

Asgrimmur said, “Just step up to the post, take hold of the rope, close your eyes, and head out. I’ll be right behind you.”

Hecht took a quick look round. Most everyone was across. Lila was halfway over, striding confidently, fingers lightly dragging along the rope. A goddess walked in front of her. Another moved behind. Neither was close enough to help if the girl lost her footing.

Anna was over and waiting. If she could manage, he could.

Vali raced past as he moved toward the head of the bridge, ran out onto the span like it was a mile wide and built of granite. The youngest Shining One, Aldi, was close behind. Her courage flagged when she came to the bridge. Vali ran till she overtook the slow mover behind Lila.