Ramus was searching for something else. And he found it just outside the remains of the camp, buried beneath a leather groundsheet that was smothered with a growth of pale pink fungi. There were ropes, pitons, waist straps and other climbing gear, even down to a bag containing gloves and spiked boots. Some of the ropes had become brittle and decayed, and the first big coil that Ramus picked up virtually crumbled in his hands. But as he dug down into the store, he found several coils that were dry and tough, and he and Lulah unwound one and pulled to test its strength.

They left the camp, keen to distance themselves from that scene of death. Ramus had felt a sense of something there, a wretched thing aware of their presence but unable to change. A wraith, perhaps, seeking comfort from the place where it had been made. He saw nothing, but he felt observed, skin itching under that unknown attention.

Lulah was more nervous than ever, and she kept her bow drawn and an arrow strung as she rode.

When they stopped for lunch, Ramus knew that things were about to change. The ground was becoming steeper, the slopes varied from shale to damp soil to compact moss, slippery and sickly to the touch. The horses were becoming agitated, and the huge cliff loomed over them as if ready to fall at any moment.

“We need to leave the horses now,” Ramus said.

Lulah nodded. “I know. But what about when we come back down?” When you come back down, Ramus thought, but he could not say that. “We worry about that when it happens. Nomi and I had planned on leaving one of you down here with the horses as the rest climbed, but I don't want us to split up. We'll take off their saddles and let them go. Who knows, they might even wait.”

“They'll be dead or long gone by the time we come back down from there,” she said, staring up at the rock face. She shook her head. “I've climbed sea cliffs before, but never anything like this. Ramus, I've never imagined anything like this.”

“That's why I'm here,” Ramus said. “Because it's beyond imagination.”

They unsaddled their horses, both of them working slowly because neither really wanted to lose this link to the north. Even though Ramus was sure that once he started climbing, that would be the end of his time in Noreela, the option of turning back would no longer be his once the horses left.

The animals stood close to them, stripped of their gear yet still ready to ride on. Ramus and Lulah cooked and ate a bird that Lulah shot from the sky, a small creature whose meat tasted tough and bitter. Then they divided up the climbing gear and stood to leave.

“You're sure?” Lulah said. “If we're tied together up there and you pass out from your illness . . .”