The Glass Word by Kai Meyer Read Free Book Online Page A

moment, but then her eyes strayed to the window—and beyond it the monstrosity that rose over the delta of ice.
    â€œIs
that
the Iron Eye?”
    Seth didn’t look out, keeping his expressionless gaze on Merle. No one needed his confirmation. They all knew the answer.
    Junipa also pressed her face against the narrow glass. Ice patterns had formed around the edges of the windows, finely branching fingers that reached toward her mirror eyes.

    It looked like a mountain, a pointed cone of ice and snow, an unnatural pucker in the flat landscape, as if someone had bunched the horizon together like a piece of paper. As they came closer, Merle could make out details. The image in front of them was pyramid-shaped, but with steep slopes, cut off at the top as if someone had struck off the point with a scythe, and there, in place of the point, peeling itself out of the snowdrifts, was a collection of towers and gables, balconies, balustrades, and arcades of columns. Whatever was hidden in the interior of the Iron Eye, that up there was the
true
eye. It seemed to Merle like the crow’s nest of a gigantic ship, which could look out over the country and perhaps the entire Empire. The colossus—was it of steel or stone, or really made of iron?—appeared to Merle functional, without decoration, without any useless flourishes. But the upper buildings with which the fortress culminated sparkled in fantastic elegance: playful buildings with much decoration, narrow bridges, and extravagantly framed windows. If there was a place where the sphinxes really
lived—
not reigned, not commanded—then it was there at the tip of the Iron Eye.
    The fortress was high, perhaps higher than the sky; but no, it was just that the cloud cover was hanging so gray and heavy over it, as it had everywhere on their journey. All-powerful the Iron Eye might be, but not supernatural, not heavenly.
    He is a bad man, but the sphinxes are infinitely worse.
Merle heard Junipa’s words about Seth once more, a whispering echo in her thoughts.
    The bark circled in a wide arc around the whole area. Merle was not sure what Seth was intending by that. Did he mean to impress them with a final glorification of his magic powers? Or did he want them to see the power of the sphinxes along with the fortress? A warning?
    Finally he guided the bark toward one of the countless openings in the south side of the eye, horizontal slits in the snow-covered white of the steep side. As they approached, Merle could see a whole squadron of sun-barks inside.
    A dozen reconnaissance craft circled around the fortress, keeping the frozen arms of the river delta under surveillance. Yet their movements were sluggish, the cloudy sky having robbed the dreaded sunbarks of their agility. The birds of prey had turned into lame ducks.
    â€œWhat are you going to do now?” Merle asked.
    Seth closed his eyes again, concentrating on the landing. “I must land the bark in the hangar.”
    â€œBut they’ll see us when we disembark.”
    â€œThat’s not my problem.”
    Vermithrax took a step toward Seth. “It could easily become yours.”
    Once more the priest opened his eyes, but his gaze was directed toward Junipa, not at the lion who threatened him. “I could try to land up on the platform. The patrolswill see it, but if we have any luck, we would already have disappeared between the buildings by that time.”
    â€œWhy is he risking his life for us?”
the Queen asked mistrustfully.
    â€œThat’s a trick,” growled Vermithrax also.
    Seth shrugged, now with his eyes closed again. “Do you have a better suggestion?”
    â€œTake us away from here, now,” said the lion.
    â€œAnd the truth you are seeking?” Seth smiled. “Where else will you find it?”
    Vermithrax was silent then. Merle and Junipa said nothing more either. They had the choice between being set down in the snow again or hiding