Free Working God's Mischief by Glen Cook Page B

end. We should have been suspicious.”
    â€œStuff happens when you get in a hurry. The bucket is turned over now. Let’s get down there. I have the tools to deal with this.”
    Hecht was amazed. Heris remained unconcerned. The escape of a seriously wicked Instrumentality was just a piece of business to be handled.
    While the old folks fussed the girls ran to the edge of the gap to see what happened to Asgrimmur and Eavijne. Lila said, “Can’t see them. But they’ll be the first ones down.”
    The girls considered the creeping stain on the face of the fortress. They considered the bridge, then the gap beneath. They whispered. Then Vali darted across the bridge.
    Hecht bit down on a potentially distracting bellow. Asgrimmur was not there to catch another falling girl.
    Anna held her tongue, too.
    Pella said, “I love her, but that girl is a freak.”
    Hard to argue, watching her fearless dash across colorful air.
    Vali whipped Geistrier off the brass post and headed back, coiling as she came. She plucked Heartsplitter out of the fabric of the bridge, then managed it and the rope both as she came on.
    Anna said, “You’d almost think she was one of them.”
    â€œYes.” For the first time in a long time Hecht wondered about Vali Dumaine.
    She came straight to him, handed him the spear. “Can you believe it’s that light?”
    Hecht exchanged looks with Anna while the others watched Geistrier shorten to its original length.
    Vali tied the coil to her belt. “Where did that hammer end up? I bet we could break the bridge with it.”
    The creeping treacle had vanished behind the curtain wall surrounding the Great Sky Fortress.
    Hecht responded, “That could be. But it’s not here. Girl, we need to talk about you taking risks.” From the corner of his eye he caught Lila pulling a face at Vali, then smirking.
    Heris said, “Save the lecture, Piper. We’re going to be last down the mountain as it is.”
    â€œLet’s get hiking.”
    Anna quipped, “This should be easier than coming up.”
    â€œKids. No running.”
    *   *   *
    The black stain flowed into Eavijne’s garden. It possessed just enough energy to keep moving. Saturated with silver dust, it suffered abiding agony. Already diminished by its struggle to break through compromised seals, it had not been alert enough to smell the silver powder trap.
    It lived, but with little power or strength, little ability to reason, and little sense of identity. Instinct took it to the orchard where it found just one overlooked, shriveled green apple that did little to restore it.
    It did what no rational god would have done. It engulfed the only living tree. It understood the enormity of its action only after it finished.
    That was the last tree. There might be no more golden fruit. Starved for life and restored immortality, the Trickster might have written the deaths of all the Old Ones.
    Hatred and rage so possessed him that he did not care for long.
    He took the shape of a slim youth of middle height, his hair a mixture of streaks and shades of ginger that made it look like his head was on fire. He had a hatchet face, flushed because of his emotional state.
    He stepped through the broken orchard wall, headed for the rainbow bridge. He thought he was moving brisk and businesslike. An observer might have suspected intoxication or mental defect.
    He started across.
    Once again hunger trumped reason.
    He swallowed some of the magic holding the bridge together. It was Aelen Kofer magic. He did not gain much from it. He would need massive draughts to benefit, like a man surviving by eating grass and river mud.
    The rainbow unraveled.
    He cried out once, startled, as he began his fall.
    He had stolen just enough magic to change into a generic-looking gliding thing that, nevertheless, could do no more than slow its descent enough to choose a place to smack down.
    The