“I said let us by! We have no time for myths. And don’t try to scare us by talking about death. We have major building projects and long-term plans as soon as we’re out of the mountains. We intend to go right on living, thank you.”

“Look around you, man!” I said, trying to catch my breath. “Feel your frozen eyelashes. We may all die on this mountain. And even if we survive, we’ll all die eventually.”

The man stared sternly. David whispered from behind, “Just shut up and don’t hassle him!”

I thought about Quon. Perhaps the King arranged this appointment with them. Or perhaps I was being a fool. I looked at Shad in front of me and Malaiki behind me, their heads bowed, lips moving.

“You know what bothers me about you people?” asked the chinless man in the orange stocking cap. “It’s your wishful thinking. You want there to be a City of Light, so you pretend there is. Me, I’m a realist. I don’t play games.”

“Wishful thinking?” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking, yet feeling warmer the more I spoke. “If I were to wish for something, do you think I’d have wished for a flying beast so deadly, a scorpion so horrid, a web so hideous, a chasm so vast, a cost so great? Never in a million years would I have believed or wanted to believe such things. I would have wished for something easier, and if I had made it up, it would be a lot more attractive and a lot less costly. But the universe isn’t governed by my wishes. It’s you who practice wishful thinking.”

“Me? What do you mean?”

“You believe there’s no King because you wish there to be none, correct? If you’re like I used to be, you wish you could make up your own rules and get away with it; you wish you wouldn’t be held accountable for your choices, that you wouldn’t have to answer to someone after this life. You wish there was no creator because you don’t want to face a judge. It’s not my belief that’s wishful thinking. It’s your unbelief.”

The man in the stocking cap started to retort, then stopped abruptly. He said nothing, but I could see his wheels turning.

“I’ve had it,” the big man said. “Get out of my way or I’ll toss you off the ledge. Do you hear me?”