Far above us we watched as a big-horned sheep scaled the mountainside with ease, as if his feet were made for such terrain. Of course—the World-Maker had designed them for this place, just as he had fashioned me for another. I breathed deeply. It felt good to see with clear eyes again. The mountain cut a swath in the blue sky, pointing me upward.

The pack felt light on my back—I’d started to feel its weight less since I’d lost some weight of my own. As we began our ascent in earnest, I felt intoxicated by the piercing purity of pine-scented mountain air. Even as our altitude rapidly increased, the oxygen was still so plentiful my lungs scarcely knew how to handle it. It wasn’t city air, not suburban air, not even country air, but otherworldly air. Fresh and cool, enriching to the mind.

I liked the challenge of the climb, and every step helped me crawl out from under the ballast I’d carried since Quon died. Walking on the flat road had gotten to me—I wasn’t made for passivity; I couldn’t wander aimlessly and wait for death. I needed a tangible goal, a bull I could take by the horns. This mountain promised to provide it.

As I walked, I recited words from the GuideBook. As the breath of the spoken words hit the brisk air, I watched the swirling steam.

“The snow’s getting so deep we can’t see the red road,” Shad said. I heard worry in his voice.

“Look!” I pointed down to the right.

A mule deer foraged on the other side of a white-capped stream. I watched it as I leaned against an old hemlock plastered with windblown snow, bare brown on one side and thick white on the other.

Shad walked quietly beside me.

“Old man, I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“Where did you come from?”

“From … the other side of the chasm.”

“That’s not what I mean. Were you born in this world?”

He didn’t answer for a long time. “No,” he finally said.

“How’d you get here?”

“I once lived on the planet with a yellow sun and one moon.” He said this as if he couldn’t remember its name. “I followed the King when I was young. But then I took control, went my own way, did things I’m ashamed of. I made such a mess of my life, I thought it was over. I lost all hope.”

“And then?”

“Then … I woke up here in Thuros, in a dark cave on Hagias, the volcanic mountain above Babel.”

“How long ago?”

“I don’t know for sure. At first I tried to keep track, but the years are longer here … or shorter—I don’t know. It’s impossible to measure time.”

“What about the others? Victoria and Malaiki and David? What about Quon? Did they all come from Earth?”