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But the fathers of our fathers becaan to take old from the nests of the Griffin, and to hunt theht, when the sun blazed in the sky instead of hiding its face under the snow’s crossed spears The Griffin took their revenge—they gobbled up our herds, mare and stallion They slurped the nificent anian to take the beautiful linted like the pelts of cats and whose voices were sweet as autumn harvests

When I was born, there were only a few Griffin left in the world, hidden away in otten mines, in vales concealed by sheets of ice, in the desert where the wind burns Likewise, there were only a few maidens left in the Ocular—and no horses at all When the time came for the Ritual of Ob, which would make me a man and allow me to take the place ofof the Ari Griffin One dwelt on the Hidden Isle, in the Boiling Sea, whose water steams with constant bubbles The other hid itself away in an aerie atop the great Mount Nuru, a ht blinds all who approach it

Oluwatobi gave ed of Griffin-gold according to the ancient rites or else it is nopressed into a uilt of our fathers’ fathers’ lust for gold, but we could not defy the traditions of our people We had to have the gold, whatever the cost to the Griffin—it is our right, you understand The Ocular is all things; without it we are like a leopard without a head I could no more deny the Ritual of Ob than I could deny my own limbs And after all, we had no more horses left; the scale would not be balanced until the Griffin had no gold In the end, I chose the ruby crags, for we are not a seafaring people With the blessing of my father I clothed ht breastplate of the sons of Oluwa, forged froold of the first Griffin’s hoard I went out froht out the Red Mountain of Nuru

In those days I carried in my head an eye of beryl, which is the old of their yolks is the purest of all I traveled easily in ht fire The Red Mountain was not far frohts could be glimpsed from my father’s hut when the sun set low in the winter sky, shining through the peak like arrows dripping with blood I followed the light of Nuru, but in my heart I quailed, for I did not kno I could protectprisms of its faceted stones

But the World-Eye does not close on its favored children, and on the ninth day of h the san to perceive what sort of beast it was, and guess at its shape It was a Monopod, a race of beings who live further to the East than even le huge calf and foot—the foot itself so large that legend tells of a bygone age when fleets of Monopods sailed the ocean on those huge, curving soles My fellow traveler was just this sort of ait was so , dressed in a beautiful vest of e kind of skirt which accoreat cloud of broken leaves and dust

“Hail, Monopod!” I cried, and held up both hands as a gesture of friendship

“Hail, Cyclops!” he cried in return, turning towards rin Indeed, several of his teeth were , and his hair was a disaster of curls darkened by the dirt of the road

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bsp; “You are nant pride “The Cyclops is an island-dweller and a drunkard besides They are not even cousins, the sheep-herding simpletons, but an embarrassment to all one-eyed folk I am the heir to the Arimaspian Oculos, Oluwakim by name”

The Monopod looked shrewdly at ems in a vault “Then you’ll be headed for the Red Mountain, yes? For Jin’s nest I did not realize the old Oluwa had grown so ancient”

“He is still hale, but the generations increase in the sight of the Eye, and the tiain I aim for the red peak of Nuru, and the Griffin—I did not know his name”

The Monopod see private, and couess “Well, then! I offer uide to the honorable son of the Oluwa! Chayim is my name, and I am bound for the aerie side you With your one eye and ether we can both get ant” He clapped ered hand and rocked back and forth on his great foot I agreed—I was glad of the company, I will admit

“Why do you seek the Griffin?” I asked as alked—rather, as I walked, and he hobbled

“Well, that’s quite a story,Prince…”

I WAS BORN FAR FROM HERE IN THE SILVER-RICH city of Shadukiam, in the year that the Rose Dome was erected and the dias built with tax o mad My family was modest—like all Shaduki Monopods we lived in the Ghetto of Moss and Root, a great expanse of open land on the north edge of the Dome There ere allowed to live as our ancestors had, without the painful constriction of human houses—which reck with our clumsiness and which scab our feet with their difficult corners and edges In the Root we lived out our days on the open moss under the ht pulls on her dark socks, we lie on our backs, and our curving feet arch over our heads, protecting us fro the days ork side by side, e, the delicate wines of Shadukiarapes we are uniquely equipped to crush