The Keep

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 8Most of the rest of the morning was spent making preparations for the journey back to the village. Though he was not openly hostile, it was apparent by his general demeanour that Nyk was far from happy at the prospect of the long trek through the snow-covered mountains. There was a stiffness about him and an edge to his voice as he spoke to Henk and Qualto which made Josyff reflect that his decision had indeed been rather impulsive. He almost started as the thought came to him, out of nowhere, that he might be running away from this place. He crushed it ruthlessly, allowing less disturbing doubts to occupy him.

Perhaps he should have made the suggestion to go to the village sooner. Would he be able to explain his delay to his superiors? He ordered the past few days in his mind and decided that, yes, he could. He had acted properly throughout. But it would be far better if it did not come to that. Hopeful resolutions began to form. Once they had his equipment, he and Badr should be able to make rapid progress. Unconsciously, he gazed around the room as if examining the entire Keep. It was elaborate but it wasn’t that big a place after all, at least judging from the outside, and, for most of the work, they wouldn’t have to contend with those age-old problems for surveyors — the weather and unhelpful terrain. He set aside the prospect of dealing with the moat for later consideration. That would depend on his brief anyway.

Then everything was ready and he and Nyk were standing at the main gate making final adjustments to their large packs.

Nyk looked around at the snow-covered mountains, bright and sharp against a clear blue sky. He took a deep breath and let it out in a grey misting cloud which vanished almost immediately. His manner had softened through the morning.

“This’ll help clear your head, boss,” he said.

Josyff smiled and, less ostentatiously, did the same. The cold air filled him like light. This was a beautiful place. This was a beautiful moment. This was how things should be. But still niggling underneath this exhilaration was the faint and heretical thought that it was good to be moving away from the Keep. Josyff gave it no rein, but he hesitated slightly as he turned round to say good-bye to the others. For a moment, it seemed to him that they were not really there, that they were ill-focussed smudges in the bright clarity of the day, and the Keep itself was the shadow of a dark shape in another place. The impression passed almost immediately but the memory lingered like shapeless images dancing behind closed eyelids after an inadvertent glance at the sun.

“Carry on with working out a basic framework for the place,” he said to Badr, needlessly repeating a previous instruction.

“I will,” Badr replied flatly.

“Better be off, then,” Nyk said, looking up into the clear sky and tapping his stick authoritatively on the drawbridge. It echoed hollowly. “Make what we can of the day.”

Josyff had half-heartedly protested the need for a stick. “I’m not that old yet.”

“You’ll need it,” Nyk had replied curtly. It was not a matter to be debated.

Nyk took the lead along the narrow path and set a comfortable pace. He proved to be a quiet companion which suited Josyff in his present mood. The start of a new job was always unsettling, but usually fell into a familiar pattern. Virtually every aspect of this job was strange however, not least that he was having to trail through snow-covered mountains to find his equipment after six days. He found himself rehearsing again his excuses to his superiors but a couple of slips and an urgent, “Careful!” from Nyk brought him sharply back to the present.

“Not used to the mountains, are you, boss?” Nyk said, as his supporting hand steadied him. “No disrespect, but it doesn’t do to let your mind wander. Especially when it’s like this.”

A sweeping arm took in a broad sunlit vista of snow-capped mountains.

“Always the same, always different,” he went on. “But there’s no words for them when they’re like this.” He shook his head reflectively, then shrugged briskly. “Still, they’ll kill you just like that — fair weather or foul — if you don’t pay heed.” His gloved hand made an ineffectual shift at snapping its fingers. He smiled unexpectedly. “Good for your sense of perspective.”

Josyff could only mumble a muffled, “Yes,” in reply to this mixture of concern and philosophizing before Nyk was off again, his retreating back inviting only silence.

When they stopped again, a little later, the concern returned as he watched Josyff rubbing his calves ruefully.

“Tell me if I’m going too fast for you, boss,” he said. “It’s tiring work walking in this stuff.”

Josyff nodded reassuringly, but he scarcely noticed the remark. Nyk’s comments about his sense of perspective were proving very apt. While watching where he was putting his every step did not make for relaxed walking he realized that all thoughts about the Keep, his work there, the missing equipment, his eerie dreams, had retreated into the distance. Almost as if the hulking presence of the Keep, now long out of sight, had drawn them back to itself. And even as they came back to him, much of their power was gone.

“I’m managing,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if I’m having problems.”

Nyk looked at him shrewdly. “We’re not doing too badly, but there’s a small cave I’d like to reach before nightfall. We’ll have to press on.”

Josyff straightened and motioned him forwards with a flick of his stick.

As they continued, Josyff tried to note the way they were travelling. He must have come this way with the guides as there had been no dividing of the path that he had seen, but he could not recognize any of it. Then again, he reflected, it hadn’t been covered in snow. And too, he had been going the other way. That could be bewildering even in a city full of conspicuous landmarks. But he should take Nyk’s advice — he should pay heed. He should not be a witless passenger. Nyk, after all, was only part of the maintenance staff of the Keep, he was not meant to be a guide. What would he do if something happened to the wiry little man — if he slipped and injured himself? Come to that, what would Nyk do if he fell. They were alarming thoughts.

“Pay heed,” he muttered to himself.

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Just... missed my foot.”

Nevertheless, despite his best endeavours to mark out the route in his mind, Josyff found that just keeping pace with Nyk and watching where he was walking kept him occupied enough. He was glad of the stick.

Late in the afternoon they came to the top of a shallow rise and a cold wind greeted them. Ahead of them lay a slope into a col. Nyk stopped and blew out a noisy breath.

“I thought we’d been having it too easy, boss,” he said, pointing down the slope. Josyff could not see the cause of his concern and said so.

“The snow’s drifted across this side of the col.”

“That’s dangerous?”

Nyk looked at him slightly suspiciously and then paternally. “You really don’t get much snow where you come from, do you?” he said.

Josyff shook his head.

“It means we’re going to have to be even more careful picking our way. And if the snow’s soft and deep it’ll be really hard walking.”

“Is it far to this cave you were talking about?”

“Not very. It’s up the other side and over, but...”

Doubt showed on his face. Josyff said nothing.

Nyk looked up at the sky. “Still, not much choice, really,” he said. “We can’t stay here and it’s too late to turn back. Fortunately the light’s still with us. And it’ll hold.”

He hitched his pack. “Come on. Mind how you go. Slow and steady.”

The descent into the valley was not particularly steep, but, as Nyk had indicated, it was markedly more demanding than their journey so far. Josyff found the deep, unsupportive snow and the uneven rock-strewn slope that it covered both wearing and alarming. In addition, they were moving in the shadow of the mountains and a cold wind was blowing in their faces.

He was breathless, aching and flushed when they finally reached more even ground.

“Well, it should be easier to find our way back,” he said sourly, looking back at the ragged path they had cut.

“Providing it doesn’t snow again,” Nyk chuckled darkly. Face concentrated, he was rooting deep into one of his pockets.

“Here,” he said, eventually, and with difficulty, producing two apples. He proffered one to Josyff. “Eat. We’ll rest a little. It’s not a good idea to sweat in this weather.”

Josyff did not feel particularly hungry, but took the apple out of courtesy. Nevertheless, as he bit into it, its sharp taste seemed to throw off some of his fatigue.

“Sneaks up on you when you’re walking,” Nyk said, as though sensing this. “Tiredness. It’s important to get your pace right. Stop every now and then whether you feel like it or not.” He looked with open delight at the apple he had nearly finished. “And eat something.”

Josyff had been beginning to feel a little guilty at effectively forcing Nyk into this journey. He was, after all, not a young man, for all his vigour. But the man’s brief effusion of pure pleasure set his concerns aside. He had no idea where he was, their situation was one which could easily become desperately dangerous, but he felt remarkably easier in himself.

Running away from the Keep? came the thought again, taunting him, but he set it aside. It was good to be away from the Keep but he had no qualms about returning to it — in fact, he was looking forward to it now. For when he did return, he would have everything that he needed to do his work, and the Keep, like many another large and complex building before, would gradually yield its geometrical secrets to his relentless, methodical searching, would gradually have its twisting passages, sweeping arches and elaborate rooms reduced to ordered perspective, to calculation, to lines on paper.

As he gazed around idly at the silent mountains, a hint of recognition formed in his mind.

“I think I remember this place when I was with the guides,” he said. He pointed to one of the mountains. It was lower than most of the others and its broad, rounded peak was jagged and broken, quite unlike any of its neighbours.

“Valsen,” said Nyk, looking up. “Supposed to have been the highest mountain in the range once. And the site of the First Keep.”

Josyff’s eyes widened and he waited expectantly for Nyk to continue, but his guide was busily extracting the last from his apple.

“A gift to the mountain,” he said as the well-chewed core arced out of his hand. “Better be off, boss. Shouldn’t press our luck.”

Josyff did not even attempt to rein in his curiosity. “The First Keep?” he exclaimed. “The first. How many have there been?”

Nyk was moving off. He gave an airy wave. “Only the one,” he replied with a slightly embarrassed laugh. “It’s just a tale. You know the kind of thing — a mountain has a fancy shape, so a giant used it for a chair... the devil tore it apart... a dragon rested in this cave, lovers in another, and so on. Myths, kids’ tales.”

Josyff caught up with him. “Are there any “Kids’ Tales” about the real Keep?” he asked pointedly. Before Nyk could reply, he pressed on. “Come to that, I know nothing whatsoever about the place, and haven’t had time to ask — are there any grown-up tales about the Keep. Like, what it was? Who built it? Why? Not to mention, how?”

“Up there’s where we’re going,” Nyk said, pointing with his stick as if to fend off the questions.

“Talk as we walk?” Josyff offered.