Prelude
“TELL ME THE REST OF THE STORY, BIRD.”
The raven cocked his head. “Story?”
“About the god Kupilas—about Crooked, as you call him. Tell the tale, bird. It’s pissing down rain and I’m cold and I’m hungry and I’m lost in the worst place in the world.”
“Us is wet and hungry, too,” Skurn reminded him. “Us has et scarce but a mashed cocoon or two lately.”
That idea didn’t make Barrick feel any better. “Just . . . tell me some more of the tale. Please.”
The raven smoothed his blotched feathers, mollified. “S’pose us could. What did us tell last?”
“About how he met his great-grandmother. And she was going to teach him . . .”
“Oh, aye. Us recalls it. ‘I will teach you how to travel in the lands of Emptiness, ’ his great-grandmother did tell Crooked, ‘which stand beside everything and are in every place, as close as a thought, as invisible as a prayer.’ Be that what us were telling?”
“That’s it.”
“Could p’raps find you somewhat to eat, first?” Skurn was in a good mood again. “This part of the wood be full of Whistling Moths . . .” He saw the look on Barrick’s face. “Well, then, Sir Too-Good-For-Everything—but don’t blame Skurn when you comes over all rumblystummicked in the night . . .”
“Crooked did spend long days at the side of Emptiness, his great-grandmother, learning the secrets of her land and its roads and growing wiser even than he had been. He learned many tricks traveling in his great-grandmother’s land, and saw many things when no one thought he watched ’em. And though his body was crippled and he had one leg shorter than the other, walking rickety-raw, rickety-raw like a wagon with a broken wheel, Crooked could travel faster than anyone—even his cousin Tricker, who men do call Zosim.
“Tricker was swiftest of all the clan of the Three Brothers, sly master of roads and poetry and madmen. In truth, clever Tricker had figured out some of Grandmother Emptiness’ secrets all on his ownsome, but he also called her ‘Old Wind in a Well’ when he didn’t know she were listening. After that she made sure Tricker never learned anything more about her lands and their weirdling ways.
“But Crooked she kept close to her heart and taught him well. The more Crooked learned, the more words and powers he gained, the more he felt it unfair that his father should have been killed and his mother stolen and his uncle and all his kin banished into the sky while the ones who had done it to them, especially the three biggest brothers—Perin, Kernios, and Erivor, as your folk call ’em—should live and laugh on the earth, happy and singing. Crooked brooded on this a long while until at last he thought of a scheme—the deepest, craftiest scheme that ever was.
“Now all of the three brothers were surrounded by guards and wards of frightsome power, so it were not enough simply to come upon them suddenly, looking to do harm. Water Man Erivor had sea wolves swimming all around his throne, and poison jellies, as well as his water soldiers who guarded him all the green day and green night. Sky Man Perin lived in a palace on the highest mountain of the world, surrounded by rest of his kin, and he carried the great hammer Crackbolt that Crooked himself had made for him, which could break the world itself if it hammered on it long enough. And Stone Man (called Kernios by your folk) had not so many servitors, but lived in his castle deep in the earth among the dead, and was warded round with tricks and words that could burn the eyes from your head or turn your bones to cracksome ice.
“But one weakness all the brothers had, which is the weakness any man has, and that were their wives. For even the Firstborn, it is said, are no better than any others in the eyes of their own women.
“Long had clever Crooked grown his friendships with the wives of two of the brothers: Night, who was Sky Man’s queen, and Moon, who had been cast out by Stone Man and then taken to wife by Water Man, his brother. Both of these queens begrudged their husbands’ freedoms and wished that they too could go out and all about in the world, loving who they pleased and doing what they chose. So to these two Crooked gave a potion to put in their husbands’ wine cups, telling them, ‘This will make them sleep the night long and not wake once. While they slumber you can do as you please.’
“Night and Moon were pleased by Crooked’s gift, and promised they would do it that very night.
“The third brother, cold, hard Stone Man, had found Crooked’s own mother, Flower—I think your kind calls her Zoria—when was wandering alone and heart-sick after the war’s end, and had taken her home to be his wife, casting out his own wife Moon to find her luck in the world. Stone Man then gave Crooked’s mother a new name, Bright Dawn, but although he clothed her in heavy gold and jewels and other gifts of the black earth, she never smiled and never spoke, but sat like one of those dead folk Stone Man ruled from his dark throne. So Crooked went to his mother by darkness and told her of his plan. No need did he have to lie to her, either, who had seen her husband killed, her son tortured, and her family banished. When he gave her the potion she still did not speak or even smile, but she kissed Crooked on his head with her cold lips before she turned away and walked back into the endless corridors of Stone Man’s house. He would see her only once more again.
“His scheme in place, Crooked went firstly to the house of Water Man, deep beneath the ocean. He traveled through the lands of his great-grandmother, Emptiness, as she had taught him, so that no one in Water Man’s house saw him coming. Crooked slipped past the unsleeping sea-wolves like a cold current, and although they guessed he was nearby they could not reach him to tear him to pieces with their sharp teeth. Neither could the poison jellies sting him—Crooked passed through them as though they were nothing but floating lily pads.
“When at last he found Water Man asleep in his chamber, drunken and senseless with the potion that Moon had given him, Crooked paused, a strange mood come upon him. Water Man had not joined in the torture of Crooked like the other two brothers, and Crooked did not feel the same hatred for him that he felt for Sky Man and Stone Man. Still, Water Man had made war on Crooked’s family and helped to make Crooked’s mother a widow, and then joined his brothers in banishing the rest of Crooked’s clan into the sky. Also, while he lived on the earth the line of the Moisture clan, Crooked’s enemies, would survive. Showing a kind of mercy, Crooked did not wake Water Man up to learn his fate, but instead opened a door into a part of the lands of Emptiness where no one had ever gone, a secret place even his great-grandmother had forgotten, and pushed Water Man through as he slept. Then, when Erivor the Water Man was gone from the world, Crooked closed the door again.
“He passed out of the undersea house again through his secret paths, wondering whether to go next to confront Sky Man or Stone Man. Of the three brothers, Sky Man was the strongest and cruelest, and had made himself lord of all the gods. He ruled them from his palace atop the mountain called Xandos—the Staff—and the godly court protected him more completely than any walls. His sons Huntsman, Horseman, and Shieldbearer were almost as powerful as their father, and his daughters Wisdom and Forest could also best almost any warrior, let alone a cripple like Crooked. It would make sense to wait until last to attack Sky Man in his great fortress.
“But the truth was that cold, silent Stone Man, not his raging brother, was the one that frightened Crooked most.
“So he traveled to the Staff on the paths of Emptiness, and all the clan of Moisture felt his passing but could not see or hear or smell him. Only Huntsman of the sharp eyes and Forest of the fleet foot could even guess where he was. Cruel, pretty Forest ran after Crooked but just missed catching him, pulling off a piece of his tunic. Huntsman fired a magical arrow that actually flew into the lost paths where Crooked walked and nicked his ear, so that blood dripped on his shoulder and his hand of ivory. But they could not stop him and soon he was deep in Sky Man’s palace, where the lord of the house slept his drugged slumber. Crooked bolted the door behind him.
“ ‘Wake up!’ he cried to sleeping Sky Man. He
wanted his enemy to know what was happening and who had done it to him. ‘Wake up, Loud Voice—I bring your ending!’
“Sky Man was very strong, even after drinking the potion Crooked had created. He sprang from his bed and took down his great hammer Crackbolt, big as a hay-wain, and swung it at Crooked. He missed and broke his own gigantic bed into splinters.
“ ‘That is nothing to worry about,’ Crooked told him. ‘You will not need that bed again. You will sleep in another, soon—a cold bed in a cold place.’
“Sky Man roared that Crooked was a traitor, then he threw his hammer as hard as his mighty arm could manage. If any other god or man but Crooked had been its target Crackbolt would have smashed him into bits and scorched those bits to charcoal. But the hammer stopped in mid-flight.
“ ‘Did you think I would make a weapon for you that you could use against me?’ Crooked asked him. ‘You call me traitor, but you attacked my father—your own brother—and threw him down by treachery. Now you will get what you deserve.’
“Then Crooked turned Sky Man’s hammer against him, and the clamor of the blows were like the rumbling-tumble-roar of the lightning. Sky Man Perin cried out to his family and servants to save him. All who lived atop the Staff came running to his aid. But Crooked opened a doorway into the lands of Emptiness and before Sky Man could say another word, he struck him again with the great hammer and knocked him backward into that doorway. The lands of Emptiness pulled at Sky Man like a sucking wind, but Sky Man held on to the floor with all the strength that was in his mighty hands. He would not let go, but neither could he pull himself back from the empty lands where Crooked’s great-grandmother reigned. Crooked smiled at that and stepped back. He opened the door of Sky Man’s chamber and hid behind it. All of the other gods of the mountain, Wisdom and Shieldbearer and Clouds and Caretaker, rushed in. Seeing their lord in such danger they ran to help him, grabbing his arms and trying to pull him back, but the magic of Grandmother Emptiness was strong and they could not overcome it. While they struggled, Crooked came out from behind the door and walked up behind scrawny Old Age, who was at the back of the crowd. Old Age could not even reach Sky Man, but he was pulling on Wisdom, who was pulling on Huntsman, who was holding onto Sky Man’s hand.
“ ‘I remember how you spit on my father’s corpse,’ Crooked said to Old Age, then lifted up his hand of bronze and his hand of ivory and shoved the ancient one in the back. Old Age stumbled forward and fell against Wisdom, who fell against Huntsman, and soon all those who had come from all over the palace to save their lord fell into the the land of Emptiness together. That broke Sky Man’s grip and they all tumbled into the cold darkness forever, every last one.
“Crooked laughed to see them fall, laughed as they shouted and cursed, laughed hardest when they were gone. He had brooded long on the evil they had done him and he felt no pity.
“One of Sky Man’s kin, though, had not come into the chamber to help his lord. That was Tricker, who never did anything he could let others do. When he saw what had happened, how Sky Man, the strongest of all the gods had been bested and banished, Tricker was afraid. He ran down from the palace of the gods to warn his father, Stone Man.
“So it was that when Crooked at last came down from the great mountain Xandos and ran toward the house of Stone Man, swift Tricker had run before him. Crooked had no surprise to help him, so when he reached the great gates of Stone
Man’s house he found them locked and barred and guarded by many soldiers. This didn’t stop Crooked. He stole around them on the roads only he and his great-grandmother knew, until he found himself outside the chamber of Stone Man himself. Tricker had warned his father and was just sneaking away, but Crooked caught him and they fought. Crooked grabbed him around the throat and wouldn’t let go. Tricker changed himself into a bull, a snake, a falcon, and even a living flame, but still Crooked wouldn’t let go. At last Tricker gave up and resumed his natural shape, a-begging for his life.
“ ‘I tried to save your mother,’ Tricker whined. ‘I tried to help her escape. And I have always been your friend! When all the others were against you, I spoke for you. When they cast you out, did I not take you in and give you wine?’
“Crooked laughed. ‘You wanted my mother for yourself and would have had her if she had not escaped. You did not speak for me, you took no side—that is always your way, so that you can ally yourself with whoever wins. And you took me in and gave me wine to make me drunk, so that you would learn from me how to make the magical things I gave to Sky Man and the others, but my ivory hand protected me by breaking the cup, and so you failed.’ He lifted Tricker up by the neck and carried him into Stone Man’s chamber. Crooked was still afraid of the lord of the dark earth, but he knew that one way or another the end was coming.
“Stone Man Kernios trusted no one, so he had not drunk the potion Crooked’s mother had prepared for him. He stood ready now in his frightsome gray armor, his awful spear Earthstar in his hand. He was in the greatness of his strength and in his own palace. But he had one other weapon, too, and when Crooked entered by the roads of Emptiness, appearing from the air in front of him, Stone Man showed that weapon to him.
“ ‘Here is your mother,’ said Stone Man, ‘who I brought into my house but who repaid me with treachery.’ Stone Man had her grasped tight in his arm and held the point of his spear against her throat. ‘If you do not surrender to me, binding yourself with the same spells of Emptiness that have allowed you to murder my brothers, she will die before your eyes.’
“Crooked did not move. ‘Your brothers have been shown more mercy than they showed my kin. They are not dead, but only sleeping in cold, empty lands, as you soon will, too.’
“Stone Man laughed. They say it were like a wind from a tomb. ‘How is that better than death? Sleeping forever in emptiness? Well, you shall have no such gift, as you deem it. You will destroy yourself or your mother will bleed out her life, then I will kill you anyway.’
“Crooked lifted up Tricker, still choking in the grip of his bronze hand. ‘And what about your son?’
“Stone Man’s voice was the unkind rumble of the earth shaking. ‘I have had many sons. If I survive I can make many more. If I do not, I care not what survives me. Do what you will.’
“Crooked threw Tricker aside. For a long time he and Stone Man looked at each other like wolves over a kill, neither willing to take the first step. Then Crooked’s mother raised her trembling hands to the sharp point of the spear and slashed her own throat with it, falling to the floor of Stone Man’s chamber in a great wash of blood.
“Stone Man did not wait. Even as Crooked stared at his mother gasping out her life on the floor, the lord of the black earth flung his great spear, still wet with his mother’s lifeblood, at Crooked’s heart. Crooked tried to make Earthstar obey him but Stone Man had laid his own words of power upon it and Crooked could not bend it to his mastery. Crooked only had time to step sideways into the empty lands. The spear flew past him and struck the wall so hard half the palace fell down and all the lands around shook and quivered.
“When Crooked stepped back out the roads of Emptiness, Stone Man was on him. They wrestled then for a long time as the palace itself fell around them, their strength so great and their contending so mighty that the very stones of the earth were all broken and crushed, so that what had once been a rocky fastness of peaks above Stone Man’s house fell down into dust, and the land sunk, and the ocean rushed in all around them, so at last they were fighting on an island of stone amid the waters.
“At last the two of them caught at each other’s throats. Stone Man was the stronger, and Crooked could only step into the ways of darkness, but Stone Man held on and was carried with him. As they fell through emptiness, Stone Man bent Crooked’s back until it was nearly breaking. Crooked could not draw another breath, and neither could he think as Stone Man crushed out his life.
“ ‘Now look into my eyes,’ Stone Man said. ‘You will see a darkness greater than anything Empt
iness can make or even imagine.’
“Crooked was almost caught, for if he had looked once into the eyes of the Lord of the Black Depths he would have been pulled down into death, but instead he turned his head away and sank his teeth into Stone Man’s hand. Stone Man was so pained that his grip loosened and Crooked was able to shake him off, then Stone Man fell away and away into the cloudy, cold dark.
“Crooked wandered a while in the most distant lands of Emptiness, dizzy and confused, but at last found his way back to Stone Man’s house where his mother’s body lay. He kneeled over her but found he could not weep. Instead he touched his hand to the place she had kissed him, then bent and kissed her cold cheek.
“ ‘I have destroyed your destroyers,’ he told her silent form.
“Without warning, a terrible pain went through him as Stone Man’s great spear pierced his chest. Crooked staggered to his feet. Tricker stepped from the shadows where he had hidden. The mischief-maker laughed and capered.
“ ‘And now I have destroyed you,’ Tricker Zosim cried. ‘All the great ones except for me are all dead, and I alone am left to rule all the world and the seven times seven mountains and seven times seven seas!’
“Crooked grasped with his hand of bronze and his hand of ivory at the spear Earthstar that had stabbed him. The great weapon burst into flames and burned away to a cinder. ‘I am not destroyed,’ he said, although he was sorely wounded. ‘Not yet . . . not yet . . .’ ”
It was only when the pause had gone on so long that Barrick found himself nodding toward sleep that he finally looked up. “Bird? Skurn? What happened next?” His eyes widened. “Where are you?”
A few moments later a mostly black shape flapped down out of the perpetual gray sky with a horrid something wriggling in its black beak.