Chapter 222: What Is Kept

Link got to him first.

The young man came back along the ledge in three long strides and took hold of the old man’s belt from behind with one hand. He set his feet. Rishin stopped leaning.

He did not straighten up. He hung there against Link’s grip, with his heels on the stone and his body tilted out over the drop, and Vina’s hand still locked in his.

"Grandpa!" Vina had both her hands round his now. She was pulling back. "Grandpa, what is it?"

"Walk," said Rishin.

He said it through his teeth, thin and tight.

"Walk, little one. In front of me. Down the ledge. Go."

Vina did not understand. Logan could see that she did not.

But she did it. She let go of his hand with one of hers, turned round, and started down the ledge with her other hand reaching back for his. Rishin went after her.

As soon as he took the first step behind her, he straightened.

Logan saw it. The old man’s body came upright as if a weight had been cut off it. He walked close behind the girl with his hand in hers, and he did not lean.

Link walked behind him with his hand still on his belt.

"Stop," said Rishin, after a dozen steps.

Vina stopped. Rishin tipped toward the edge again at once. Link held him.

"Walk," said Rishin.

She walked. He straightened.

It was Alice who worked it out first, again.

"Two promises," she said. She said it low, to Logan. "He has two. One to stay behind her, all the way down. And one that wants him at the bottom."

Logan looked at her.

"When she walks down, he can keep both," Alice said. "When she stops, the second one pulls him on. The first one will not let him pass her."

’The thread,’ Logan thought. ’The one that went over the edge in the Seam. It is the same thing.’

He did not say it. Alice did not either. They looked at each other, and then at Vina’s braids going down the ledge ahead of the old man.

Billy had worked out Logan’s problem too.

He rolled up to the head of the line, past Halden, and stopped there. Then he turned round on the ledge and looked back at Logan over everyone’s heads.

"Boss," he said. "I am in front."

"I can see that."

"I am in front of you. And you cannot do anything about it." Billy’s blades gave a small happy rattle. "I have wanted this since the first match."

"Watch the edge."

"I am always watching the edge, Boss. That is what being in front is."

Vina asked when they stopped to rest.

She chose the place herself, where the ledge widened enough for her to sit down with her back to the wall and Rishin beside her. Link sat on the other side of him, with one hand on his belt.

"Grandpa," she said. "Who did you promise?"

The old man was slow to answer.

"I made a promise a long time before I made yours," he said at last. "It wants me at the bottom."

"To who?"

He looked down at her. Then he took her hand, turned it over, and pressed it flat between both of his.

"Walk, little one," he said. "That is all I need from you. Walk in front of me, and I will keep them both."

Vina searched his face. Then she nodded and did not ask again.

They found out about Bram’s promise after that.

The dwarf had seen a narrow bridge going out from the ledge, across a gap in the wall to another ledge beyond. He wanted to look at it. He walked toward it.

His feet turned round. They carried him three steps back toward the family before he could stop them.

Bram stopped dead on the ledge. He tried again. His feet turned round again.

Edda laughed.

"Coppervein owes you four lives," she said, when she could. "Papa. You said it. On the rings."

Bram glared at her. Then he glared at Logan, as if it were Logan’s fault.

"I meant it," he said.

"It knows you did," said Edda. "That is the trouble."

Isolde had been watching Garen.

"You promised me once," she said. "You said you would never do anything as stupid as walking into a monster’s mouth."

"I did not say it in love, dear. I said it to stop you shouting."

"So you can still walk into one."

Garen looked down at the drop below the ledge. He gave it serious thought.

"I would rather not test it," he said.

The lights below were villages.

They passed the first of them a little later in that waking. It was a cluster of small houses built on a wide shelf in the wall of the pit, with roofs of slate and doors of wood.

Rope bridges ran out from it to other shelves.

There were people on the shelf. Most of them were sitting.

They sat along the edge of the shelf with their legs over the drop, side by side, looking down. Some were young. Most were old. One old man had a beard so long it lay in his lap.

Not one of them looked up as the family came along the ledge.

Logan stopped beside the old man with the beard. He crouched down.

"Are you waiting for someone?" he asked.

The old man did not take his eyes off the dark.

"My daughter," he said. "She went down to see what was there. I told her I would wait right here until she came back up."

He smiled a little.

"I said it in love. So I am waiting."

A little farther along the shelf, a young woman sat with her arms round her knees. Helen stopped beside her. Logan saw his mother crouch down, the way she crouched beside Vina.

"Who is it?" Helen asked. "For you?"

"My husband." The young woman did not look up either. "He has a red scarf. He went to look at the next bridge. Have you seen a man with a red scarf?"

Helen was quiet.

"No," she said. "I am sorry. We have not."

The young woman nodded, as if she had expected that. She turned back to the drop.

They slept on that shelf, among the people who were waiting.

The houses were empty. Nobody lived in them. Everybody on the shelf was sitting at its edge.

There was no rule here to keep their counts from falling, and they fell. Logan looked at his before he slept and found it lower by one.

[ Time remaining: 322 days ]

Alice was lying against his back. She found his hand in the dark and held it.

"Did you promise anybody anything?" she whispered. "Except me?"

Logan thought about it. He thought about the garden at home, and his father’s hand on his shoulder, and the old man on the mountain.

"I do not think so," he said.

"Good," said Alice. "Do not start."

He woke once in the dark.

Rishin had gone to sit among the waiting people with his feet hanging over the dark. Link sat beside him with one hand hooked into Rishin’s belt. Vina was asleep with her head on Rishin’s knee.

The old man was looking down into the pit.

Logan watched his lips move. He was too far away to hear what they said.