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"Which direction?" he asked her

A silent moment passed "Across," she said

They dismounted The snoas deep, a loose powder that rose nearly to the tops of Peter’s boots As they approached the riverbank, Peter saw that the connecting roadas gone; the bridge’s decking, which had probably once been wood, was all rotted away Fiftyon the exposed beams, but the horse would neverbeside hiht Her hands, like his oere drawn up protectively into the sleeves of her coat

She nodded

He returned to the horse to unhitch their packs There was no question of leaving Greer’s horse tied up to wait for theht them this far; Peter couldn’t leave it defenseless He finished unloading their gear, unhitched the bridle, and stepped to the ani the aniain, louder this time "Ha!" He slapped and yelled and waved his ar at the eyes

"He’s a stubborn son of a bitch I guess he doesn’t want to leave"

"Just tell him what you want him to do"

"He’s a horse, Ae as it was, did not feel wholly unexpected A her palun to fidget, quieted under her touch; his wide nostrils flared with a heavy sigh For a long, hushed irl and horse stood there, locked in soard Then the anian to walk in the direction they had come His pace quickened to a trot as he vanished in the trees

Amy lifted her pack off the snow and hoisted it to her shoulders "We can go now"

Peter didn’t knohat to say; there was no reason to say anything

They clae The reflected sunlight dancing on the surface of the water was al solid, its reflective powers had beenher a knee to send her through a hatchlike opening in the exposed beams Once she was situated he passed her the packs, then chinned hie of the bridge, where they could hold onto the guardrail as they stepped from beam to beam The feel of the cold metal on his hands was like fire, an exquisite sharpness They couldn’t get this done fast enough Aaps As he made to follow her, it became instantly clear that the problem wasn’t the beams themselves, which seemed solid, but what encased them, under the snow: a hidden skin of ice Twice Peter felt hi out froid rail, barely holding on But to come this far, only to drown in an icy river-he couldn’t iine it Slowly, beam by beam, he made his way across By the time he reached the far side, Peter’s hands felt utterly nuun to shiver He wished they could stop to build a fire, but there was no delaying their progress now Already the shadows had begun to lengthen; the brief winter day would soon be over

They ascended the bank of the river and began to cli, he hoped there would be shelter He didn’t see how they would last the night without it Never mind the virals; cold like this could kill the A her up the mountain It was all Peter could do to keep up The air felt thin in his lungs; around hi in the wind After a period of time had passed he looked back and beheld the valley far below theh it They were in shado, a zone of twilight, but on the far side of the valley, the faces of the olden light The top of the world, Peter thought, that’s where A me The very top of the world

The day drained away In the descending gloo juht would be the apex of their climb revealed itself to be a crest in a series of ascents, each more exposed and wind-blasted than the last To the west the mountain fell away sharply, an almost sheer drop The cold see his senses It had been a mistake, he realized, to send the horse away If push came to shove, they could at least have hiked back down and used his body for war, to kill such an ani before; but now, as darkness was falling on the mountain, he knew he could have done it

He realized Aled forward and halted at her side, breathing great gulps of air The snoas thinner here, pushed away by the wind She was scanning the sky, her eyes narrowed, as if she were listening to so to her pack, her hair

"What is it?"

Her gaze settled on the line of trees to their left, away from the open valley

"There," she said

But there was nothing, only the wall of trees The trees and the snow and the indifferent wind

Then he saw it: a gap in the undergrowth A toward it As they neared, he realized what he was seeing: the gate of a half-fallen fence It ran the length of the woods on either side of the vines, now denuded of leaves and covered in snow,the fence all but invisible, a part of the landscape Who kne long they had been walking along it without his noticing Beyond the opening stood a s, not more than five meters square, see collapsed beneath it; the door stood half open, angled on its hinges He peered inside Nothing, only snow and leaves, rivers of rot running down the walls

He turned "Ah the trees, away, and luof his exhaustion and the trudge of his frozen feet, Peter had become aware that they had reached the end of their journey, or nearly Soth, stripped away by the cold, was leaving him at last

"Amy," he called "Stop"

She seemed not to hear him

"Amy, please"

She turned to face hi here"

"There is, Peter" Her face was lit with joy "There is"

"Then where is it?" he said, and heard the anger in his voice His hands were on his knees; he was panting for breath "Tellsky, letting her eyes fall shut "It’severywhere," she said "Listen"

He did his best; with every ounce of his reth he sent his mind outward But all he heard was the wind

"There’s nothing," he said again, and felt his hopes collapsing "A here"