"But Unwyrm couldn't be happier. We've got to sleep sometime."

"Now," said Patience.

"Not now," said Reck. "We have to get higher.

Where there's no human or gebling to send after us."

Patience could see heavy clouds moving in from the west, at their level. "There'll be fog. We can hide in the fog."

"It won't be fog, it'll be snow," said Ruin. "We need shelter. And we need to get higher."

"Can't we use the tunnels yet?" asked Patience. Tunnels would be shelter and a passage to Unwyrm that they could follow easily.

"Oh, yes, of course," said Reck. "But the entrances are pretty rare up this high. We're nearly at the top of the inhabited area now. We'll just have to find another way up."

The herb acted quickly, taking away enough of Reek's pain that she could keep up, though she kept losing blood in a thin trickle as a scab formed and broke, formed and broke. Finally they found a stairway along the surface of the steep and polished wall that led up to the next level.

The gate at the bottom was wide open. The gate at the top was less cooperative.

"They could at least have had the decency to lock the gate at the bottom, too," said Reck.

But Patience had been trained as a diplomat, and among his other lessons. Angel had taught her that a simple lock like this meant that the owner wasn't really serious about wanting privacy. Using a short stick and a dart, she had it open in a few moments.

They emerged in another garden, this time without trees. Behind the garden Skyfoot rose steeply again. This time, however, it was no polished wall. It was the raw mountain, with a few caverns yawning in its face. They had not seen natural rock like this since they reached Cranning. It looked as though no human hand had ever cut into it.

"Is this the top?" asked Patience.

Reck shook her head. "The top is a glacier, but the city may not go any higher than this. At this point, anyway."

"Do you know where we are?"

"I would if I could stand in that cave," said Ruin.

They began to trot toward it, between two low hedges that seemed to lead in that general direction. Then the clouds moved in, and a few seconds later they couldn't see at all.

They stopped at once and touched each other, held hands so they wouldn't be separated.

"You're cold, Heptarch," said Reck. "You're trembling."

"She doesn't have fur," said Ruin. "We'll have to hold her until the cloud passes."

"He doesn't want me to wait," murmured Patience.

"He's waited so long already."

They lay on the ground. Reck in front of her, Ruin behind, shielding her as best they could from the snow that now fell heavily from within the cloud.

"Are you all right?" Reck asked her once.

"All I can think about," said Patience, trembling, "is how much I want him." Then she laughed slightly. "All I can think about is sleep."

They held her tighter, and in the warmth of the geblings' embrace she slept.

The cloud was gone and the stars were out, but the snow half-covered them and the air was thin. Reck felt the wound in her thigh throbbing. The pain was not intense, but it had been enough to wake her. Reck felt no breath on her back from the human girl that slept behind her. She called her brother silently.

Ruin opened one eye and looked at her.

"How is she?" Reek whispered.

"She's weak. But then, I think he wants her weak."

"The caves won't help much. They're colder than outside."

"Stand up and see if there are any lights," said Ruin.

"I'll hold her."

Reck pulled herself away from the sleeping human.

There were some lights twinkling far away. A long walk in the darkness.

"A long way," said Reck. "But we can't go for help.

So we'll have to take her, cold as it is." Reck knelt and stroked Patience's cold bare arm, then shook her lightly.

"She won't wake up."

As if in answer. Reck suddenly felt what she had not felt in all the time they had been with Patience: the repulsion of Unwyrm. But here, so close to his lair, it came with such power that she could not breathe. She cried out with the pain of it. "We're too close to him!" she cried. With Patience asleep, Unwyrm could focus on them, on pushing them away.

"Wake her!" Ruin gasped.

Reck hardly heard him. She could hardly think of anything at all now except her urgent need to run to the wall of the garden and throw herself over the cliff, downward, all the way through the air down to the water at the base of Skyfoot, to sink into Cranwater. She got up and started staggering toward the wall.

"No!" screamed Ruin. He clutched at her feet. Strong as the repulsion was, he was more practiced at resisting it; her wound had weakened her a little, too, and so he held on to her. "Wake up, damn you!" he screamed at Patience. "Wake up, so he'll have to call you again!"

In answer, Patience began to tremble from the cold.

She whimpered. She called her father softly. She did not wake up.

"Let go of me!" shouted Reck. "Let me fly!"

"He's trying to kill us!" cried Ruin, though he, too, felt the need to leap.

"What is it!" called someone in the distance.

"Where are you, ta-dee, ta-doo!" sang someone else.

"It's kickety cold!" cried someone else. Obviously the group was in a good mood, whoever they were.

"Here!" shouted Ruin. "Help!"

"Let go of me!" cried Reck.

The would-be rescuers bounded up to them. Ruin saw only that they were humans. "Let go of her!" said one of them. "Help him," said another.

They were old, and they sounded either drunk or stupid. Ruin doubted they could hold Reck if she wanted to get away. There was only one hope. "Wake up the one that's lying there! She's lying there, the girl in the snow-wake her up!"

"Look at this! She's not very warmly dressed-"

"In the snow-that's not very wise."

"Good thing we came. We know what's what."

They pulled Patience upright.

"Slap her!" Ruin shouted.

He heard several slaps. Then the sound of Patience crying. "Stop it," she said.

And suddenly the need to die faded. Reck stopped struggling.

"Take this frozen young thing into the house-"

"No," said Ruin. "Not without us! Keep her near us-"

"Do we want geblings?"

"Oh, they're quite all right. This is a gebling city, after all. Very nice geblings."

"Yes. Keep us together," said Ruin.

Many hands lifted him, helped him stand. They were carrying Reck, who was too exhausted to walk. Patience walked ahead of them, murmuring, "I'm coming, I'm coming, this isn't the way-"

"Of course it's the way. We know the way, don't we? Isn't this the way?"

Fires at both ends of the long, low room kept it almost hot. Ruin and Reck sat on either side of Patience, holding her hands as they faced the fire. The old men surrounded them, commenting inanely.

Patience tried to ignore them. She was worried about how they could go on from here. The snowstorm was none of Unwyrm's doing, of course. But he had been able to use it well enough. And now she was afraid to sleep, for fear that Reck and Ruin could be made to kill themselves or run away while she wasn't there to protect them. It was so complicated-they needed her to protect them so they could get to Unwyrm; she needed them to kill Unwyrm before he could mate with her. And Unwyrm was too strong, they were no match for him. No one was a match for him.

"No," said Reck.

"Is he doing it to you, too?" asked Ruin.

"Despair. We can't do it," said Reck.

Patience nodded.

The old men changed their babbling a little. "What are these little ones talking about? Buck up, children, don't despair. This is a happy place, don't look so mournful. Maybe a song, what?"

A few of the old men began a song, but since no one could remember the lyrics, it soon petered out.