It was a relief to see buildings ahead of us, mid-afternoon the next day. We hadn’t passed a single shelter on the way.

  We’d halted for lunch the first day at a y-by that had a stone pool in which fresh water bubbled up and a narrow channel led it off to the side to pour over a cliff. Anezke was casual about the drop next to us, but my friends and I were nervous, and Aryennos had been unwilling to even get out of the wagon.

  Overnight had been better, although we’d had to set the tents up on multiple levels, since no single spot had enough room for more than one. The ornithians had their own, and the horses had shelter as well, in pairs. I wasn’t sure it was entirely from the wind that developed more of a bite as the sun descended. We ate and retreated into tents, also in pairs, Heket and Myu with me, Terenei and Aryennos in the other, and Anezke to her own.

  We paused te in the morning to let the horses and ornithians drink from a stream we crossed, but there was nowhere else to pull off the road so we ate lunch on the move, Aryennos taking the reins to let Terenei eat without that distraction.

  It just felt like the baseline level of nervousness was higher here, always watching out for pces the world went abruptly downwards, possibly assisted by broken ground that could twist or slide or the irregur rising wind that could occasionally pack a significant amount of force. Only the road was completely solid and ft, and it went up and down rises and occasionally over stone bridges spanning particurly problematic gorges.

  Was it beautiful? Oh, absolutely. The colours of stone and vegetation were muted and soft compared to, say, the Forest, creating a more subtle but still sublime palette. The slopes and crags made fascinating shapes, highlighted by the shadows the sun cast, but those sharp lines were also a reminder that this was terrain that demanded respect.

  And it was alive with wild things—goats with mindboggling twisty horns, lmas, several kinds of small mammals down to a little chipmunk-sized variety with bold markings in chocote and cream and honey, birds that flew and birds that apparently preferred to stay on the ground, brilliant butterflies rger and brighter than the delicate flowers they were nding on so it looked like they themselves were the flowers.

  It was still stressful.

  Which made the sight of buildings all the more welcome.

  Unsurprisingly, Brightridge was even more tilted towards a jotun and lmid popution than Crystal Pass had been, but otherwise had the same sort of architecture and animals. This was, however, the first time I’d seen a town that was not absolutely ft from edge to edge. It was built on multiple terraces, with switchback ramps between them for regur traffic and stairs as shortcuts for those who could use them.

  Anezke stopped her wagon in front of a store and had a brief talk with the owner, then came back to us and stepped into the back of our wagon with Heket and I.

  “Right, they’ll start unloading what’s theirs and keep an eye on the horses while I show you where Zanshe lives. Since you won’t be starting out today, no time to get anywhere before dark, I’ll make sure you can leave the ornithians with the horses again and your wagon with mine.”

  “Thanks,” Terenei said. “Making sure they’re safe and comfortable is obviously important but it’s turning out to be difficult at times. At least it’s only for a few days.”

  Zanshe’s house was on an upper terrace, giving her an impressive view of the whole town. All the houses were generously rge, of course, and it was impossible to compare the size of hers to those of her neighbours. The stone was predominantly a sparkly fine-grained grey that was nearly white, but scattered blocks of pale gold and pale pink broke any monotony, and the trim around doors and windows was all bck threaded with silvery-white. A broad porch spanned the entire front, and the upper surface of it was a balcony of the same size but the roof extended out over some two-thirds of that. On both levels, the uprights of the balustrade were pale stone but the horizontal railing id over them was more bck marble.

  It was impossible to see it as stark, however, when pnters along the upper balcony housed pnts that dripped long viny tendrils downwards to brighten the lower level with a rainbow of vivid cup-shaped flowers, and more of them climbed metal trellises at the corners of the balcony above.

  Anezke pulled a chain of verdigrised copper next to the front door, and I heard a chiming noise inside.

  It took only a moment for the door to open.

  “Oh, good! Not that I doubted you, Anezke, but it’s wonderful to see that you got here safe and sound. And made good time, too.” Zanshe gave Anezke an unhurried kiss. “I owe you a favour.”

  Anezke just ughed. “As though everyone who ever comes through Brightridge doesn’t owe you a dozen. I haven’t the slightest doubt that sooner or ter I’ll be on your doorstep for more personal reasons. It’s fine.” She gestured invitingly, and stepped to the side, seating herself on one of the stone benches against the wall.

  Zanshe was tall, of course—she was a jotun, after all, although she was at least half a head shorter than Anezke. Her skin was a warm gold that made me think of liquid honey, possibly with just a faint hint of a metallic sheen when the sunlight touched it, but I couldn’t begin to guess whether the metallic gradient of her hair, from a rich blue near her scalp down through turquoise and into a vibrant green, was natural. Presumably the heavy lock at the front that was very pale pink was dyed, at least. Other than the pink lock, the rest was pinned back from the left side of her face with ornate silver combs, but it fell free on the right.

  Her close-fitting bck top bared her left arm and shoulder entirely, with only a wide strip of fabric supporting it on the right. That exposed her gorgeous body art. A waterfall spilled from her hairline down the side of her face just outside her left eye, down her cheek and throat and chest, painted with a delicacy that captured the rush and power of it. A rainbow arced along the natural upper curve of her left breast, disappearing under her top into her cleavage. More striking still, there were actual tiny glittering stones embedded in the water that caught the light and fshed like moving droplets, and coloured ones made the pastel rainbow sparkle. Her eyes were lined heavily with the same blues and greens, and her lips had a definite, if light, green-to-blue shimmery ombre effect.

  It was a breathtakingly exotic and gorgeous look, equivalent to Terenei’s when he made an effort but very much her own.

  She gave Terenei a warm hug without missing a beat. “It’s been a long time. I didn’t intend that one trip to Coppersands to need four years for a sequel.”

  “I did want to take you up on that invitation to visit here,” Terenei said. “But, well, I wasn’t about to travel alone.”

  “Understood. Let’s both try to do better, hm? Serru told me everything, including how close we came to losing her again although she assured me that there was no chance her new friend would have left her to that and was able to prevent it. Introduce me?”

  Terenei did, and Zanshe distributed hugs with enthusiasm, warm and tight but not hard enough to hurt. She was more careful with Heket, I thought, and greeted Myu by allowing the little cat to sniff her fingers before delicately stroking the side of her face. She insisted on meeting the ornithians, as well, and asked where and how they liked to be touched before doing so.

  After which, we hauled our things inside, which was certainly fast with Zanshe and Anezke helping, and then Anezke and Terenei and Aryennos left for the moment to get the ornithians settled safely.

  The rooms of Zanshe’s house all opened around three sides of the great central space we were in, and a broad flight of steps led to the second floor at the far corner on the left, while a spiral stairway reached upwards from the second floor in the far corner on the right to... maybe the roof or an attic? While the walls and floor were stone, grey-white with bck marble around doors, the stairs were bronzy metal instead, and so were the ce-like mesh doors themselves. Lumina stones, white alternating with tinted, glowed softly along the edges of the upper nding, and sunlight brightened the rooms along two sides, visible through open doors; thick rugs, mostly in blues and greens with touches of pinks and yellows, made the stone much less cold and harsh.

  “This is beautiful,” I told Zanshe honestly. “I... actually, I’ve been in tents and sometimes inns and a few nights in a portable house, but I haven’t actually been in anyone’s home since I got here.”

  She smiled. “Thank you. Consider it your home for tonight, at least. I’d invite you for a longer stay, but getting back to your own home matters, of course. The little one is perfectly safe, I checked that there’s nothing out that could do her any harm. My workroom is the only possible danger zone and the door is closed. You can leave her basket anywhere for the moment. Sorting out who is sleeping where will take a little discussion.”

  “Thanks,” Heket said, and set the basket down on the floor next to a beautifully-carved wooden bench upholstered in fabric woven into a pattern that matched the rugs. Myu ventured out cautiously and looked around. “Something smells good.”

  She was right, something did.

  “For that matter,” Zanshe added, “everything can just stay here for the time being, although we do need to make time to go through all supplies to make sure we won’t come up short on anything. Excuse me. I need to keep an eye on dinner and make sure it keeps smelling good. Feel free to wait for your friends, or wander around, or have a seat anywhere you like—the sunroom at the back of the house, maybe?” She gestured in the direction opposite the door we’d come in, and strode off to one side, her long loose violet-and-blue skirt swirling around her legs and glittering with a few gold threads. “I’ll be right back.”

  I was curious, but not sure I felt comfortable enough to take her up on that invitation to explore. I really had no idea how long it might take Terenei and Aryennos to get the ornithians settled.

  “Sunroom?” I asked Heket.

  “I was about to say the same,” she chuckled.

  The sunroom was two stories tall—and that was jotun-height stories. The uppermost third snted, but there was still ample space inside for what I could only call small trees in stone pots. Several simir but smaller pots held those fire-coloured pnts that generated heat, which were apparently called fireflowers and continued to offer warmth as long as they were properly cared for. It seemed like a lot for this room, but maybe they liked the sun and she could move them when other rooms needed more heat.

  Aside from an ankle-high rim of stone, the walls were only stone columns supporting windows, and the ceiling was likewise gss.

  The gss of roof and walls all had an intricate yer of fine metal on the outside, the same thing I’d observed in Crystal Pass. The mesh on the ceiling held occasional crystals that caught the light, some clear and acting as prisms to make scattered rainbows, some coloured and casting spots of their own hue around the room. On the walls, the metal had been worked into shapes strongly reminiscent of trees, some of the lines heavier and some finer, and also set here and there with both clear and coloured crystals.

  The furniture here was obviously chosen for comfort: a couple of jotun-sized reading couches, a trio of rge upholstered chairs. The royal-blue-and-burgundy colour scheme made the furniture stand out but didn’t csh with the lush green of the pnts. There was even a small fountain, just water bubbling up into a spout and falling down into a basin full of rounded pebbles of many colours, the sound quiet but then, so was the room.

  By now, I knew to watch for the lumina stone holders, in coloured gss, and the subtle speakers that could be linked to for sound.

  Within a hard ndscape of muted shades, this room was soft and bright, and would be equally enjoyable on a sunny day or during a storm.

  “This,” Heket said, “was created to be a pce of peace and pleasure, and it succeeds.”

  Myu had followed us, and prowled around, investigating the pnts.

  “Agreed. Why do all the windows always have metal on the outside?” It obviously wasn’t for security purposes.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with Highnds weather. It’s pretty, but that hardly seems to account for its presence on every bit of gss.”

  “Hm. I’ll ask Zanshe.”