At some distance the forest resumed. There the red leaves had been falling in uncountable numbers, as had been the way of things in the very beginning when Egdod had dwelled alone in the Land. Gazing down into that red sea from far above, he remembered fondly those days when all things had been as he made them, for better or worse. The red forest below would turn brown and bare as the leaves dried up and blew away, then become white and then green as the seasons took their turns, so on and so forth for thousands of years without any need for Egdod to stretch forth his hand. Now, from the high place, the forest looked as it had in those days, but he knew that beneath its red canopy the people who had formerly lived in Town were on the move, fanning out in all directions, cutting down trees and shitting on the ground wherever they went.

Some went west into the broad sea of grass that stretched toward the mountain ranges Pluto had raised along the Land’s western coast. Some went south, then bent their course eastward to avoid the rocky desert of the Land’s southwestern quadrant, and sought the green warm bottomlands of the central gulf. Others doubled back around the base of the Pinnacle and followed the course of the great river eastward, looking for places where they might settle in its broad valley.

Few as yet were going north, for there winter came earlier and harder, and the going was difficult. Mountain ranges alternated with deep gorges all the way to the Knot. And even if the people of Town had had wings to fly over those, they would have avoided venturing into that territory, since it was understood that it was the inviolable domain of Egdod and certain favorite members of the Pantheon.

Perhaps Longregard sensed that Egdod’s thoughts were directed toward the Fastness, for she glided down from her perch in the high tower and alit near him, to his right side, like him facing north toward the column of dark clouds that marked the eternal storm.

“Something very strange is afoot in those parts,” she announced. “And nothing here requires you.”