Who could have built this? Nissa wondered. She was looking up at the symmetrical switchbacks, which looked so much like sutures holding the canyon together.
Anowon was standing next to her. The old stories say the giants were once great builders.
Of what? Booby traps? Sorin said. He squinted at the path. Fine droplets of sweat clung to his upper lip. He lifted one trembling hand to brush his hair back. He s afraid of heights , Nissa thought, filing that realization away for later use.
Are we all ready? Nissa said.
Sorin said nothing.
But Anowon stepped up and held out his bound wrists for Nissa to see. I have done all you asked. I am a vampire, but not all vampires are like the ones you perhaps met in the jungles of your home.
Nissa studied the vampire before responding. Just so, she said, and cut the rope from his wrists with a small eating knife she kept strapped to her inner forearm.
I thank you, Anowon said, rubbing his wrists.
Nissa nodded.
They began to ascend the trail. It started steeply from the canyon floor and became progressively steeper, but Anowon talked as they walked. Something had to build those monuments dotted over the landscape. It couldn t have been the vampires. We were personal slaves that were used for manual labor of certain sorts. But we lacked the raw strength to move the large blocks.
And you think the creatures that built the huge statues and palaces were giants? Nissa said.
It is possible.
They were all quiet as they climbed. Far behind and below, Smara and her retinue of goblins followed the switchbacks in silence. Nissa wasn t sure she had ever heard the mad kor speechless, but it was a good thing she was. The trail had become so steep that the travelers were compelled to use their hands as they ascended.
They used vampires, not giants. It was Sorin who spoke. Nobody else spoke for a moment, at which point Anowon asked the question hanging on Nissa s lips.
How do you know that? Anowon said.
I know, said Sorin. He looked back down the way they had come and grimaced. He was even paler than before. The droplets of sweat that had dotted his lip and forehead had grown into full sweat trails running down through the dust on his face. As Nissa watched, he unhitched his sword belt and slipped it over his shoulder before pulling the belt buckle tight again. No jokes now, Nissa thought and turned her attention back to the canyon.
This is madness, Sorin said. We should be harnessed in for this kind of climb.
This is nothing compared to what we will encounter in Akoum, Nissa said.
I can hardly wait.
Anowon scrambled up the trail in front of Nissa without the least hesitation. She noticed with approval that he always kept three of his limbs attached to the rock as he climbed. Something about the way his limbs moved reminded her of the Tajuru Hiba who had been killed by the brood in MossCrack. She pushed him out of her mind and kept walking.
The trail s pitch was somewhere between steep and vertical. Not so steep that they needed rope works, but steep enough that one could easily peel off the face if one slipped. The way forward involved handholds, and they climbed until the sun fell in the sky.
Later the moon rose in the dark sky, and the trail showed a ghastly pale silver. From the dark shadows cast by the moonlight came the moaning of rock lizards hunched therein, and soon Nissa s feet were staggering under her, and her numb hands fumbled over the rocks.
We must stop, she said.
Sorin s breath hissed out from between his teeth as he climbed. Nissa could hear the tightness in his voice when he spoke.
Stop where? he replied.
She leaned against the canyon wall and looked up. Even with the moon as bright as it was, the rock outcroppings obscured her view of the trail ahead. Nissa always found it impossible to gauge the height of a high place while actually climbing on it. The Joraga kept boards they could hang and sleep in. What she wouldn t have done for one of those.
Smara and the goblins were the last to arrive, and they all climbed in almost utter silence. When they attained a small shelf, the goblins plopped down and began playing a game, it seemed, that involved slapping each other s hands and then the rock trail. As Nissa watched, Smara took the corner of her robe and almost daintily dabbed the sweat from behind her ears and temples. She did not mutter or roll her eyes.
Climbing suits her, Nissa said, to nobody in particular.
Do you see where the crystal resides? Anowon said.
Nissa looked. The kor s odd crystal was tucked into the waistband that bound her rags to her body.
It is not in her hand, Anowon said.
Just so, Nissa said. It is not directly contacting her skin.
A rock rolled down from above. Nissa followed its descent as it plummeted by them and far to the right.
The trail might continue like this for a long time, Nissa said. She leaned against the cool wall. A warm breeze rustled her hair. If she could just close her eyes Sleep was about to take her when Anowon coughed.
We must continue, he said. She heard his metal cylinders clink off each other as he began climbing again. It took some effort, but Nissa leaned out from the wall and started climbing too. He was right. For one, they were as exposed as babies out here on the face. If a drake decided to sweep in for a snack, they would have little way to defend themselves. And the giants. Better to not wonder if the two giants were still shadowing them.
She listened for Sorin to begin climbing. Why had his destructive singing not worked on the giants?
She asked him.
They must be composed, he said, breathing hard as he climbed. Must be composed of stone. I am only able to rot the living.
Nissa turned back to climbing. Rot the living, she thought. She tried to speed up so Sorin was not so close behind her.
The first reddening of the sky found them still climbing, though slowly. Nissa found that if she stopped thinking about anything, her hands found their own handhold, and her progress was more satisfactory. Sorin must have found the same thing. The rhythm of his steps sounded more regular, and his breathing had steadied.
Farther down, the goblins followed behind Smara, pushing and heading her up the trail, making good progress. They lived in rocky crevices and could clearly move in high, precarious places easily.
They attained the lip of the mesa when the sun was low in the sky. Panting, Nissa clambered onto the grassy veldt. To the right, a river poured over the edge of the mesa and cascaded the heights into the dark mist of the canyon. Nissa crawled to the river and had a drink. Her hands were cut and raw, and she put them into the cold water and cried out with the sting. Soon Sorin and Anowon were at the river. Sorin put his whole head in. Anowon put only his lips in the clear water and sucked peacefully. After he was filled, he walked up the stream with his eyes on the stream bed as he walked.
What are you looking for? Nissa said.
Signs.
As she watched, he fell to his knees next to the water and plunged his hands into the rocks and pebbles at the bottom of the stream. His hands came out holding something.
What is that? Nissa asked. Her soreness made kneeling difficult, but she did it anyway.
The palms of Anowon s hands were filled with many small pebbles and a couple of rocks. Something about the scratches on the rocks set her curiosity on edge, and she bent to look closer at a green one. Soon a brow became apparent. Then slit eyes. The rock was crudely carved into the likeness of a head with an expression of anger. She looked up at Anowon.
Each is similarly carved, he said.
She looked still closer at the pebbles in his hands. He was right each of them, no matter how small, was carved to look like an earless head. Some had tentacles for mouths and some did not.
She looked at Anowon again.