and dirt. All was thunder, instability, motion, confusion.

Before they had time to realise their position, they were in the
sunlight. The upheaval still continued. In another minute or two the
valley floor had formed a new mountain, a hundred feet or more higher
than the old. Then its movement ceased suddenly. Every noise stopped, as
if by magic; not a rock moved. Oceaxe and Maskull picked themselves
up and examined themselves for cuts and bruises. The shrowk lay on its
side, panting violently, and sweating with fright.

"That was a nasty affair," said Maskull, flicking the dirt off his
person.

Oceaxe staunched a cut on her chin with a corner of her robe.

"It might have been far worse.... I mean, it's bad enough to come up,
but it's death to go down, and that happens just as often."

"Whatever induces you to live in such a country?"

"I don't know, Maskull. Habit, I suppose. I have often thought of moving
out of it."

"A good deal must be forgiven you for having to spend your life in a
place like this, where one is obviously never safe from one minute to
another."

"You will learn by degrees," she answered, smiling.

She looked hard at the monster, and it got heavily to its feet.

"Get on again, Maskull!" she directed, climbing back to her perch. "We
haven't too much time to waste."

He obeyed. They resumed their interrupted flight, this time over the
mountains, and in full sunlight. Maskull settled down again to his
thoughts. The peculiar atmosphere of the country continued to soak into
his brain. His will became so restless and uneasy that merely to sit
there in inactivity was a torture. He could scarcely endure not to be
doing something.

"How secretive you are, Maskull!" said Oceaxe quietly, without turning
her head.

"What secrets--what do you mean?"

"Oh, I know perfectly well what's passing inside you. Now I think it
wouldn't be amiss to ask you--is friendship still enough?"

"Oh, don't ask me anything," growled Maskull. "I've far too many
problems in my head already. I only wish I could answer some of them."

He stared stonily at the landscape. The beast was winging its way
toward a distant mountain, of singular shape. It was an enormous natural
quadrilateral pyramid, rising in great terraces and terminating in a
broad, flat top, on which what looked like green snow still lingered.

"What mountain is that?" he asked.

"Disscourn. The highest point in Ifdawn."

"Are we going there?"