'How long will it take us to go down?' he shouted, stunned. He looked up when there was no answer. Osidian was standing away from the rock leaning into the wind with his back to him, his head up and very still. Carnelian released his hold and carefully moved to his side. The wind roared in his ears. Osidian looked so solid that he had to fight a desire to grab hold of him. Osidian's eyes were piercing the south-west. Carnelian shaded his eyes and squinted. Dazzling blue sparked off to a dip in the Sacred Wall. Above, the pearl sky tainted darker.
'What is it?' cried Carnelian, swallowing wind.
'Rain,' cried Osidian, not looking round.
Carnelian looked again. It made him remember his father organizing the Rebirth. What if his father had need of him? He put the thought out of his head. He had made his decision.
Osidian was saying something. Carnelian turned and saw him mouthing sounds. He shook his head and pointed to his ears. Osidian took him by the shoulders and leaned in towards him. 'Do not worry. We have time.' Carnelian felt Osidian's lips brush his face and was aware of the hands gripping his shoulders. 'It is still more than ten days away,' said Osidian in his ear.
As he was released, Carnelian put his hand up to stop the warmth of Osidian's breath from escaping. Slowly he relaxed the tension in his other hand and, daring to trust to the wind, braced himself against it to look down. He mastered his terror of that airy gulf. He was more determined than ever to follow Osidian down, whatever the consequences.
The steps were cracked, treacherous with scree, an uneven, narrow flight ablaze in the sun. On one side rose a chaotically jointed wall of slabs. On the other, a vision of falling. It was a height vast enough to daunt a hawk.
Carnelian felt Osidian looking at him and saw that he was frowning. We had better go back, he signed. The wind is too violent.
I do not fear, signed Carnelian, with shaky hands.
You are still weak from the sky sickness.
That was days ago.
The wind, the sun-
/ am fine, chopped Carnelian. He pointed at the steps. / will go first. I do not want to take you with me if I fall.
Try not to be a fool, flashed Osidian's hand. Do you know the way? He stormed off down the steps.
Carnelian watched nervously, terrified that he had stung Osidian into a perilous anger. But then he observed how carefully his heels were finding the angles in the steps and he decided that he would do better to worry about himself.
Carnelian was already struggling with the steps when they came to the first ladder. Osidian crouched on the edge. Carnelian snatched at him as he slipped over and out of sight. He leaned out with cold fear expecting to see him falling and saw instead Osidian's face grinning up at him. Carnelian's eyes lost their focus on that face. It became a speck in limitless blue. Carnelian wobbled, cracked to his knees. Clutching the edge made him feel that he was pivoting on his wrists, into flight. The vertigo would not even allow him to close his eyes.
'Carnelian.' His name cried by the wind. He took a deep breath and managed to wrench his eyes back into focus. Osidian was already some way down wedged into a crack like a lizard. His mouth was moving. Carnelian caught only the merest scratches of words. He shook his head then gaped as Osidian released a hand to sign. Carnelian slapped the rock repeatedly until Osidian resumed his hold. Osidian grinned then grew concerned.
Carnelian scowled at him. I see the handholds, he jerked with his fingers. Osidian shook a puzzled face. Carnelian repeated the signs more slowly, sketching them larger, then added, You go down first, I will follow.
He ducked back and crammed his body into a cleft that was furthest from the edge. Eyes closed, he pressed his head back against the rock until it hurt. He rasped breaths in and out, his heart rattling his chest. At last he forced his eyes open. The cold wind on them made him blink. He looked up the steps, yearning to go back. In front of him was the terrifying edge. Sky brink.
'Gods' blood,' he grumbled. 'Gods' flaming, fiery blood.'
Osidian was down there. What would he think of him? He was behaving slavishly. Jerking his head, spitting curses, Carnelian scraped his way on hands and knees to the edge. For a moment he saw nothing but a whirling drop. Then his eyes focused on a tiny shape floating on the air below. A bird, not Osidian falling. Carnelian felt he was tying his friend to safety by making his eyes follow the line of the ladder down. Osidian was waving.
Before the terror could overpower him, Carnelian turned and let himself over the edge, feeling the sheer face with a desperate foot. It found a crack. He wriggled his toes into it as if it were a shoe. He released some of his weight onto it to allow his other foot to feel down. He touched another fissure like the corner of a mouth. He slipped it in. Slowly he trusted his weight to the cracks. He felt for the next one and saw another near his face. Slowly, one hold at a time, he descended, always pressing his cheek against the cracked stone, never looking down. He stiffened when he felt Osidian's hands on him.
'It is very hard, the first time.' Carnelian could only growl at him.
It was as if his life had become trapped in a falling dream. Ledges led to flights of steps, then handhold ladders, then to more steps, in an unending, gruelling succession. They had been cursed like serpents to squeeze along on their bellies with the sun always burning its stare into their backs. Carnelian's longing for the next rest stop was like a thirsty man's for water. But, every time they stopped, he found the waiting for the next leg a torture and would hurry Osidian on. Here and there a cave had been cut back into the jointing between two slabs. He feared their coolness more than anything else. Each time they crammed in, he was not sure he would find the courage to come back out.
'Halfway… down…' said Osidian, panting.
Carnelian fanned himself. He tried to loosen the tension in his throat enough to speak. 'Have you… done this… many times before?'
Osidian lifted his hand up to perhaps the height of a man's waist. 'Since I was that tall.'
Carnelian gaped. 'You dared… as a child? Who… showed you the way?'
'I found it for myself,' Osidian's eyes were sun through leaves, 'and always, before, alone.' He closed his eyes and rested his head back on the rock.
Carnelian smiled at the compliment. His eye traced the curve of Osidian's throat up to his chin, over his lips up to the beautiful jutting of his nose. In the gloom his birthmark was like an open eye.
The sun was rifling down its rays, wilting Carnelian with the onslaught. He craved release from his tunic, lusting after the wind's cold caress. But he did not even loosen it, fearing for his skin.
His head and shoulders cooled. He looked up, through his fingers, expecting to see some cloud momentarily blinding the sun. Instead, the burning eye was impaling itself on the Pillar's black spear. As Carnelian watched, the sun melted away till there was only a smouldering rind, then that too went out and the Pillar was holding up a smooth blue sky.
'Look,' cried Osidian below him.
Clinging hard, Carnelian dared to look down the Pillar's craggy narrowing plunge into the ground. Its shadow was beginning to creep out over the Yden. He closed his eyes, hugged the rock, rejoicing at their deliverance from the burning tyranny of the sun.
His rejoicing was short-lived. The wind blowing up from the Yden abated until it became a gentle breeze. It grew steadily colder until he was pressing himself against the rock to suck up what he could of its fading heat.
Down they climbed and ever down, the passage of time measured by the Pillar's shadow-creep over the Yden.