The discovery of the carvings had given Ivkarha a fresh inducement to keep on going, and leaving behind the shelter of the boulders she hurried forward across the fresh blown snow, clambering up the slope with a lightness of step that defied the conditions. Or there own weariness after such a long and grueling journey.

Upwards, ever upwards they climbed, until at last the scrambled to the top of the saddle, the peaks of the mountains rising up on either side of them. It was but a short walk across the saddle to where it once more dropped away, and upon reaching it they could see an enclosed valley within the mountains, but one clouded in. The grey clouds rolled through the valley, lapping against the slopes rising above them to the snow shrouded peaks.

The pair stopped and looked down over it, cloaks billowing around them in the wind that gusted over the saddle. Aedmorn scratched at his beard and gave a shake of his head.

“If there is anything there, we will never see it,” he said.

Ivkarha laughed and shook her head. “So quick to give up,” she told him. “Especially after our discovery. If we were to get under the clouds we could see.”

“Maybe,” he responded. “Or it may cover anything in mists and shadows.”

A break in the clouds above allowed sunlight to seep through, and a beam of gold swept across the clouded valley. As it did so, the clouds seemed to shift and part and then a glorious vision unfurled before them. The valley beneath them was green and lush, a place of many crystal pools and small lakes, of fields of long grass and tall stately pines.

And among it all stood a tower, one rising to a gleaming height; at first it appeared pristine white but as the sunlight played across it, colours rippled across its surface, a blaze of all the shades and hues of the rainbow. It shimmered and gleamed as a beacon of coloured light, dazzling in its intensity, filling the valley with colour.

Then the clouds crossed over the sun again and once more the valley was shrouded by grey, the sight they had seen for but a moment hidden from their eyes.

“You saw that, did you not?” Ivkarha asked, wonder in her voice and in her eyes.

“Aye, that I did,” Aedmorn admitted. “A sight to behold, if but for a moment. There was another thing that I noticed; a lack of any other indications of anyone being there. No other buildings, no farms or livestock, just a single tower.”

“Another mystery,” Ivakrha responded and smiled. “One to find out more about.”

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“You mean to go down?” Aedmorn asked her.

A quick nod of the head. “Of course. We have come to far to turn back now for a little cloud. We know that it exists and if we do not investigate further, we shall grow to regret it.”

“If nothing else, we can find a place of shelter there, among the trees. Water too; maybe even some food, which we are beginning to run short of.”

Ivkarha waved such concerns aside. “We have done well enough with those until now,” she said. “The tower beckons, it calls to us and we must be away.”

With a bound she was away, heading down the slope on the other side of the saddle, descending towards the valley and the clouds. Aedmorn hurried to keep up, for she would not slow, not even for the unsteady ground beneath their feet, scurrying and sliding down through stones and snow.

Down into the clouds they entered, and all about was sudden grey and moistness, stillness and silence. The clouds hung there and they could make out only a short way ahead of them, with shadows looming sudden in the grey, outcrops and boulders emerging from the snowy slopes.

It was the silence that they noticed most of all, an almost unnatural one, for the winds did not blow down among the clouds and nor were there any cries of animals or birds. All that they could hear was their own breathing and their boots crunching on snows and stones as they walked upon them.

Another stone loomed before them, and as they began to pass, Aedmorn halted. “Stay a moment,” he called out to Ivkarha as he began to inspect the stone more closely. Ivkarha turned about and clambered back up to join him.

The stone stood a little taller than them and had a more regular shape than a stone of natural origin; it had been carved into a rough, almost pillar like shape; at the base was what appeared to be a carved, elongated skull, and more of the tall, skinny people could be seen across the length of the stone. These ones had their hands raised towards where a sun could be seen at the top of the stone, rays of wavy light radiating from it.

“Are they praising the sun?” Ivkahra asked.

“That, or trying to ward it off,” Aedmorn replied. “These clouds have an unnatural quality to them, as if they were meant to hide this place, to keep the sun from it. It may be that it has something to do with these mysterious people.”

A sound came to them, one that appeared loud in the silence that hung about them; a rumbling sound from above, of slipping and sliding. Nearer it drew, coming down the slopes from more than one direction, louder yet.

“We must move!” Aedmorn yelled and started hurrying down the slope, trying to outpace what was coming, to find somewhere to shelter. Ivkarha needed no encouragement as she took off after him, both headed down at a reckless speed, indifferent to any danger but the one crashing down the slopes behind them.

The sound reached an almost deafening roar and they risked a glance behind them, to see a wall of white crashing down the slope, like waves dashing themselves upon the shore, and within it were stones being tossed and carried.

A small cluster of boulders appeared before them and with a final, desperate effort, their lungs and legs aching, they dove behind them just as the wall of snow crashed down over them.