Xilsi crossed her arms. “Don’t you get bored with the same routine, over and over?”

“The path is never the same from one month to the next, just as people are never the same from one year to the next, even if only in small ways. I am content.”

It was even true, except for her nagging worry about Kem. Who would she be now that Kem was leaving her? She didn’t know, and as she stared over the lake and its highland valley, she wondered if the circuit would become a burden once she had no one waiting at home. Still, Captain Jinyan had recommended her for surveyor’s training. That would be something. Wouldn’t it?

“Here they are,” said Xilsi as Simo and the haunt caught up to them. Simo was winded by the steepness of the slope, puffing and blowing, while the haunt wasn’t even breathing hard. After all, the haunt had the use of the prince’s very fit body, honed through climbing the ten peaks and mastering the graceful eloquence of the Wind Dance.

“We’re almost there,” said Elen to Simo, who glared at her.

“Then why are you waiting?” he demanded.

She headed up.

“You shouldn’t say such things to the captain,” said Xilsi, keeping pace.

“What things?”

“You’ve insulted Simo by suggesting he will be relieved to reach the top of the ridge.”

“Won’t he be? He’s out of breath.”

“Yes, but it’s impertinent for you to say it aloud. Now, if you were to say the same to Jirvy, I would applaud.”

“I see,” said Elen, deciding this was dangerously slippery ground. “Here we are, just this last climb over these rocks. Careful of that crevice. There’re nettles.”

She clambered atop a flat rock and halted with the world laid like a platter before her. Xilsi leaped up beside Elen and, eyes widening, exclaimed aloud. They looked over a rocky slope. Bristling cloudberry thickets, yellowing stands of sedge, and tall drifts of hill-grass grew among the many outcroppings that littered the slope. A fair distance away, there was, indeed, a massive tuft of what looked like feather-grass, but because she knew it was a dead griffin, Elen could only see it as spiky wing feathers in the early stages of fading and decay. The body would be wedged among the rocks.

Farther down, the slope cut abruptly away into a stark cliff face. A few pine trees still dangled over the precipice created by part of the slope peeling off as an entire section had come crashing down. The view was tremendous.