I was debating how to tell them what I had guessed when Dameon suddenly commented that the way was so smooth we might be walking on a road. Then the others stared about with thunderstruck expressions much as I must have done when I had realised the truth. For the remainder of the night they speculated endlessly about the road and why the Beforetimers would build such a thing in the middle of the mountains. Curiously, although Dameon took part in the conversation, he did not mention my past-dream about the Skylake, which would have given one very good reason why the road might have been constructed. Perhaps he thought I had told him in confidence.

We continued northward for the remainder of the night, although I had half expected that the wolves would lead us east, which would be the quickest route out of the mountains and down to the Blacklands. But it might be that the city that was our immediate destination lay a good deal further north, in which case it made sense to stick to the mountains, where there was untainted ground. It might even be that we were to traverse the whole of the range to its distant and unknown end, before descending to the Blacklands to find a city that lay even further north. That was not a prospect I relished, for the mountains further along the range were higher than any I had climbed, and they were said to be completely tainted besides. But even if the taint was less than I had heard, and there were Beforetime roads to ease our passage, it would be very cold and we would have to contend with snow.

The sky was growing lighter in the east and the stars were beginning to fade when the Beforetime road ended abruptly under another great rock fall, and the way beyond it was broken and difficult to negotiate by moonlight. The ruddy flush of dawn was showing in the east and firing on the peaks of the highest mountains by the time we made our way down the side of a narrow canyon that had looked as dark as a river of shadow from a distance. I found myself yawning repeatedly and struggling to keep my eyes open as we reached the bottom of the gorge and continued along it. I was not especially tired, having slept well the previous afternoon, but I was not accustomed to staying awake all night.