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“‘It seemed obvious to me that you could not raise a rose that did not know deep in its stem and roots hoilt and die,’ the ferryht freeze one in its bloo…’”

THE

FERRYMAN’S TALE,

CONTINUED

THERE ARE MOUNTAIN PEAKS WHICH NO POOR, earthbound creature can see Clouds hang fros, veil them and shroud them, and ould not see them either, if the sky were not for us a road, and if we could not see that the road keeps going past what you would call the su ht Their tips frosted, their shadows on the snoere fitful and pale Fro leather strap, which held a sackful of ould pass asof the world I was so close to the sky I could sedin her coal-dark core, I would have—would I?—been able to touch her as she spun

In time, I came to a peak beyond which the road does not extend I do not say that there is no higher crag, but it is the summit of the Hsien, as those rocks far beloere the suhs at hts I do not know; it is not s burned with the effort I walked in the snow shoals ringed by sharp stones, ringed by crags like the prongs of a crown The peak of a mountain takes ranite teeth all along the edge, cut with many frozen rivers and ponds, which had once floater when the mountain-table was lower, in the history before history before history

Along these old, hard rivers were tiny houses all of glass, or ice, or both—I suspected that they had once been lass, and broken in the harsh winds of the country, but froze again so quickly that no one noticed the shattering Perhaps this had happened soleft of theasps of ice To these houses I shuffled in snowshoes made of wicker and my own feathers When I reached the center of the town, I satin the drifts, drawing quick, lively patterns in the white I was prepared to wait a good while, but hardly a week had passed before the shattered door of one of the houses cracked open and a s shambled out to me

I had codom of the Kappas, and one of those reluctant, recalcitrant creatures was even then shifting uncomfortably froht turtle, though even upright she no irl’s eyes, her limbs mottled as moss, leathery and lithe Her hands and feet, bethich there was little enough difference, were large and webbed, like a duck’s, but her wrists and ankles were thick, knotted with muscle She had a few thick yellow teeth in her face, which contorted into soe of brown hair cut like a monk’s tonsure It fell flat and frosty across her forehead, and bald in the center, where the turtle-girl had no skin, but a deep hollow in her skull, which was filled with still blue water—save that considering the snow and wind, it had frozen solid and now shimmered silver and safe in the bones of its owner

“I aravelly voice like feet scraping the bottom of a lake

“And I aht, I suppose I have co a treasure from you, but I have not come without barter” I opened , and drew out a handful of green fruits, long and glossy Yoi sniffed at them and her black eyes widened

“Cucumber,” she whispered

“You are very wise, Yoi-as-born-in-the-evening I have culled cucumbers for you froreen and white as a ghost’s nightclothes, sandwich quality and rough, hardy breeds good enough to be boiled in stew Gherkins the size of your thumb and rare hybrids, tiny as peas There is even a southern varietal whose blossoe”

The Kappa’s h her saliva froze at the corners of her lips

“And what is it you wish to trade for?” she asked

“A rose which will live forever, and never fade or wilt or drop petal”