Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 722
heads were blocking what little light tried to come through it.
"It's fine!" he shouted cheerfully. His heart was still
racing. "Just follow along."
I'd better be right about this. The light cut off below
him, and then he was rising in darkness, supported apparently
only by faith.
It will not happen again. Galas slipped out the gates of
the monastery, grabbed a pike that a harried monk handed her
without looking, and raced after the line of men heading south
along the plateau. She had entered the monastery on Armiger’s
orders; he wanted her safe. At her first opportunity she had
raided a closet and stolen a robe, and with this as her disguise
she had slipped out again.
They will not die for me.
She knew that the Heaven hooks were after Armiger, and
that they were using the soldiers of Parliament's army as their
own. The army was obviously decapitated; she couldn't
imagine Lavin agreeing to place his men in such jeopardy. If
he had he was a fool.
Galas knew she could not compel the Winds to retreat.
The men who had once been her loyal followers however, were
another matter.
Sore as she was, she forced herself to keep up with the
monks as they raced around the southern curve of the
mountain. Here the ledge opened out into a vast grassy plateau
encircled by spires of stone. Pyramids of mist stood beyond
these, permanent residents of the space between the two Gates.
As she ran the sound of roaring water became louder, and
Galas remembered the first time she had come here. She had
gone to stand on the edge of the plateau, and peered down into
mist and the vision of a hundred waterfalls that plummeted into