."

As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.

"Can we not bury that poor fellow?"

"By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves. But I do not
include Corpang."

"We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I am
the real murderer. I stole his protecting light."

"Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me." They left
the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three men had
arrived. After a few steps, they came to green snow again. At the
same time the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse a steep,
pathless mountain slope. The snow and rocks glimmered, their own bodies
shone; otherwise everything was dark. The mists swirled around them, but
Maskull had no more nightmares. The breeze was cold, pure, and steady.
They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow and
fascinating. Corpang came last. His stern eyes saw nothing ahead but an
alluring girl and a half-infatuated man.

For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope,
maintaining a slightly upward course. The angle was so steep that a
false step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right.
After a while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level ground,
and they seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain. The
ascending slope on the right hand persisted for a few hundred yards
more. Then Sullenbode bore sharply to the left, and they found level
ground all around them.

"We are on the ridge," announced the woman, halting.

The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst
through the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.

Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view was
quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shining
down on them from behind. Straight in front, like an enormously wide,
smoothly descending road, lay the great ridge which went on to Adage,
though Adage itself was out of sight. It was never less than two hundred
yards wide. It was covered with green snow, in some places entirely, but
in other places the naked rocks showed through like black teeth. From
where they stood they were unable to see the sides of the ridge, or what
lay underneath. On the right hand, which was north, the landscape was
blurred and indistinct. There were no peaks there; it was the distant,
low-lying land of Barey. But on the left hand appeared a whole forest
of mighty pinnacles, ne