'No. But I didn't mean that, I was just—'
'No man, no Karku, would desire to exist beneath the mountain. It is necessity. The glory of the lords of the mountains, the sky, the air and the beasts that roam is all above. That is where our joy and our hearts lie. Do not speak until you understand. You will see.'
'I'm sorry, I meant no offence,' said Menas.
'Every mark on these walls is a reminder of where a Karku should walk.'
Harban turned back to the way ahead, muttering to his companions who walked either side of him.
'Grumpy, isn't he?' said Mirron from behind them.
'People make assumptions about you too, don't they?' said Jhered. 'How does it make you feel?'
'But they are the mountain men,' said Gorian. 'Everyone knows they are all miners.'
'Harban would disagree with you,' hissed Jhered. 'And I prefer to take the word of a Karku than a young pup who has spent his life coddled in Westfallen. Watch and learn. That's what Father Kessian used to say to you, isn't it?'
There was a pained silence and Jhered bit his lip.
'You shouldn't speak of him,' said Arducius quietly.
'I mean no disrespect to his memory, Arducius.'
A light was growing ahead and Jhered welcomed the distraction. They'd been travelling much of the day inside the mountain and the weight above pressed on his mind as it did on them all. It had led to many taut exchanges and long, uncomfortable silences. The Karku began walking faster, standing taller. The mules, dogged travellers, pricked up their ears, sampled the air and brayed contentment.
Jhered found himself cheering up too. The dank chill of the passage had leached through his furs and into his bones. The sun beyond would be cold but it would feel wonderful on his face. Harban glanced over his shoulder.
'This is land forbidden to the outsider. Remember you are honoured.'
Jhered emerged into the bright late afternoon sun and shaded his eyes with a hand. Below them, down a gentle snow-covered slope, was all the explanation Harban would ever have to give them about why they chose to live outside the mountains. It made him question the location of the villa he was building back in Caraduk.
Completely encircled by mountains was a lush, undulating grassed plain. He guessed it at two miles across at least and more than double that in length. A river ran straight through the middle of it, cascading from a cave mouth high above them to the right and disappearing into the maw of the mountain to the left. Every rock face he could see was covered in bright painted friezes up to a height of twenty feet and more. Multiple paths ran away up the slope to disappear into the snowline or into the mountains.
To the east and west, huge ice-laden slopes began hundreds of feet above their heads and led further up into the sky, dividing the mountains. Jhered felt a jolt of awe. They were surely not natural features but Karku-made. Their positions were too precise for there to be any other explanation. Without them, the plain would already be deep in late shadow. But the angle of the ice face caught the rays of the sun and drenched the whole extraordinary scene in light.
There was a small town built on the plain. On either side of the river, circular stone-walled buildings of one and two storeys were spread among wide plots of land planted with vegetables or grazed by sheep, goats and long-haired cattle. The roofs of the houses were domed and made of wood. Each had a chimney in its centre. Most were smoking gently.
To the north end of the town, larger buildings were grouped around an open area. It too was circular and laid with stone. There was a well in its centre and Jhered saw others dotted through the settlement.
'Oh, it's beautiful,' breathed Mirron.
Jhered nodded. Indeed it was.
'Small wonder they want to keep it secret,' said Menas.
'We have many faces,' said Harban. 'The outside sees only one. Welcome to Yllin-Qvist.'
He led the way down the slope and broad steps from the passage entrance. Down in the town, people had begun to stop and stare at the strangers being brought into their midst. Children ceased their play and were called to the skirts of their mothers. Groups of adults gathered, many carrying weapons, including short blades, staves, spears and a single-handed weapon that looked like a miniature crossbow.
Harban's two companions ran ahead, speaking to people, calming anxieties and telling them who had come. Caution turned to reverence. Jhered heard a whisper pass through the people. He smiled at them as he passed.
'Thank you,' he said in his imperfect Karku. 'Thank you for allowing us into your home.'
He wasn't sure if they understood him. Frankly, most of them ignored him to stare unabashed at the Ascendants travelling behind him. He looked back.
'Try and smile,' he said. 'God-around-us, you look like you're going to your own executions.'
'What's happening?' asked Ossacer.
'They are staring at us, Ossie,' said Arducius.
Ossacer studied them with his sightless gaze. He smiled. 'They like us,' he said. 'They want us.'
'You can feel that?' asked Jhered.
'Their thoughts bring warmth and calm to their energy maps. They aren't afraid.'
'Feels good, I expect,' said Kovan.
'It feels wonderful,' said Mirron, favouring him with a huge smile. The boy blushed almost purple.
Jhered looked past the others at Gorian. His expression was severe, even unhappy.
'Worried someone is going to accept you for what you are?' he asked.
Gorian stared at him. 'What is it they know? I don't like people knowing things I don't.'
'Then you must dislike an awful lot of people,' said Jhered, feeling a familiar impatience. 'Alternatively, you could decide to treat them with respect and ask them once we've stopped. It's one way to a longer life, I've found.'
'They shouldn't know so much about us,' he said.
'You have no idea what they know,' said Arducius. 'It's probably about as much as we knew about the Exchequer before we met him. Rumour and reputation.'
'Why doesn't it make you happy?' asked Ossacer. 'These are the first strangers who don't hate us.'
Kovan muttered something and Gorian snapped round in his saddle.
'What did you say, boy-marshal?'
'I said it's because you are paranoid,' he said. 'Only it's worse than that really, isn't it? You want people to hate and fear you. It makes you feel powerful. Father Kessian would be so disappointed if he knew.'
'If you ever mention his name again, I will burn you, Vasselis. He was our Father. Nothing to do with you and none of your business.'
'He did know,' whispered Ossacer, almost too quiet for Jhered to hear. Then again, louder. 'He did know. That's why he made you promise what he did on the oratory when he died.'
'Right, that's it,' said Gorian.
'Gorian,' warned Arducius.
Jhered heard the tone in his voice and was off his mule in a moment, striding the short distance to Gorian, who had already raised a hand. He grabbed the boy's wrist.
'I did not save you in order for you to demonstrate your petulant immaturity, boy,' he said. 'You will put your hand down and you will behave or it will not be Ossacer or Kovan who is hurt.' Gorian made to retort but Jhered closed his grip, making the boy wince. 'Do I make myself clear?'
He slapped Gorian's hand back down into his lap and did not wait for his response. He walked back to his mule but did not remount, choosing to walk the animal.
'Don't take your eyes off him,' he whispered to Menas who rode beside him. 'We cannot trust him and I don't think Arducius can control him.'
The people of Yllin-Qvist had watched the exchange without apparent comment. Harban was looking at Jhered in some bemuse-ment but he continued, leading them to the centre of the stone-paved circle and the well, where he bade them dismount. Karku were waved in to deal with the mules. Harban pointed to the town's dominating building. It was a high-domed structure atop a two-storey circular wall that was studded with small windows. It was painted with a mural of mountains and blue sky and its main doors stood open, revealing a roaring fire at its centre.
The buildings either side caught Jhered's attention. Both were low, not much taller than him, with steps leading down into gloom. Chimneys disgorged steam, not smoke. He asked the question of Harban.
'They are the baths,' he said. 'You have such things in your Conquord, I understand. But we are blessed. We sit on a natural hot spring here and the waters are warm and soothing after a day on the mountains. Or under them.' He stared pointedly at Menas. He indicated each in turn. 'This is for the relaxation and easing of our ills. This for the celebration of life and the worship of our lords. You can enter neither.'
Jhered made sure the Ascendants had heard before he ushered them into the domed hall. He grabbed Kovan's sleeve as the young man walked past.
'I know it's difficult but try not to anger him,' he said. 'We need him. He is the power. You know it, he knows it.'
'I'll do my best.'
Inside, the lattice of timbers that held up the roof were lost in shadow. Lanterns were set all around the walls of the single room and the fire smoke was channelled up and out through a chimney, the opening of which was just a couple of feet above the highest flame. The hall was set with ring after ring of benches facing inwards to the fire. A stone apron surrounded it.
Four Karku sat together on the inner ring of benches and the outsiders were gestured to join them. Jhered sat to their left and the Ascendants, Menas and Kovan ranged next to him. Harban stood behind Jhered to translate.
'Who are they?' he whispered.
'We are the Gor-Camas,' said one. He was old. His face and head were pale and almost hairless, his body wrapped in heavy furs though it was warm in the hall. 'The guardians of the mountain for Yllin-Qvist.' He thought for a moment. 'You would call us quaestors or magistrates, I think. I am Icenga-Qvist. Welcome. Welcome, all of you.'
'We are honoured to be invited into your town,' said Jhered. 'It is an act of friendship unexpected but very welcome. The mountain passes are cold and difficult.' He tried to speak in Karku but Icenga waved his efforts away.
'It is best you don't,' he said and Jhered saw the smiles on all their faces. 'Your inflection gives some of your words - uh - alternative meanings. But thank you.'
Icenga and the other Gor-Camas looked long and hard at the four Ascendants, studying their faces. Jhered sensed them begin to fidget and spared them a sharp glance. Arducius was whispering to Ossacer, telling him what was going on.
'Your great Conquord has shunned its future just as Gorian said it would,' said Icenga eventually.
Gorian lifted his head. 'Did you know him? Gorian, I mean?'
Icenga laughed, a warm friendly sound that boomed around the hall. 'No, younger. Do I really look so old? I am afraid stories of our immortality are just another falsehood among many.'
'Oh,' said Gorian, disappointed.
'But he was the first outsider we allowed onto our hearths. His words were like echoes of our forgotten past and we remember them in verse, spoken story and myth painting. He said others would come one day, chased from their homes by the very people that should have taken them to their hearts.'
'Did he,' began Mirron, pausing when the Gor-camas swivelled to face her. 'Did he find others like us here in Kark?'
Harban's low spoken translation brought nods from all four of them.
'Oh yes,' said Icenga. 'It was why he stayed here so long. We have forever been at the mercy of capricious elements. Our animals and crops exist on the edge of life. Nature dictated that there would be those among us who understood these things more intimately, just as the Lord of the Mountains dictated that some of us can divine copper and iron and gold.
'But they are not quite like you, though he said some with your knowledge would come, at risk to their lives. None can tame the gorthock like you, on a whim from your mind.'
'I'm confused,' said Jhered. He turned to Arducius. 'I thought the Echelon said that everything Gorian knew was documented in Westfallen. This is an enormous omission.'
Arducius had no answer.
'We made him swear that he would not reveal our secrets,' said Icenga, and there was the light of excitement in his eyes. 'The spirits of our ancestors that shield us from harm will be joyful today that their trust in him was not misplaced. It is the same trust we are placing in you. Nothing that you have seen or heard here can be spoken of to the outside.'