The birds of the Seven Towers came out to greet Silvas and the others as soon as they emerged in the courtyard. The dirge was gone from their song. They wove cheerful music over the travelers, welcoming them home. If the peach-colored tint to the sky bothered the birds, they did not show it in their song, or in the way they capered about.
"It doesn't appear to be a threat," Silvas conceded, his head tilted back so he could look directly up at the colored sky, "but I don't like not knowing what it's about. I think we should have a look immediately."
"Yes." Maria had not bothered to dismount, since Silvas had not. The cats had leaped down from the wagon, but everyone else was waiting.
"I'll see to our defenses here," Braf said.
"Bosc and I'll see to the rest," Koshka said.
Silvas and Maria turned their horses back to the gate. They crossed the drawbridge-the normal vista of the valley lay outside the walls of the Seven Towers now-and headed toward the nearest edge of the valley, now to the west of the Glade.
"The folk in the village will have questions," Silvas said as they cantered toward the forest that covered the slope. "But I'd like to have answers before we hear the questions."
"I'm surprised there weren't people from the village waiting for us when we arrived," Maria said.
"They knew we were gone, no doubt, but they couldn't know when we would return. Our people here have seen a lot, and have tales about more than they've seen. Having all three sorts of people makes this village unique. It takes more to frighten them than it does the good people of Mecq-or most other villages in the realm."
Within the valley, the peach-colored sky did not have the appearance of a bubble or aura as it had had from the outside. The sky was a strange color, but the sky seemed normal apart from that. There were a few high clouds, an even lighter tint of the basic peach color on top and a rust color below, and on the shadow sides. The sun was still visible, moving toward mid-afternoon. The sky gave the greens of grass and trees an unusual cast, but the overall visual impression was pleasant, almost an improvement over what nature had granted. It had a warm, comfortable feel to it.
But neither Silvas nor Maria felt comfortable. The sky might yet harbor some dire menace.
The hillside forest never came within two hundred yards of the Glade's moat. There was no deep cover for any enemy close to the walls. Silvas and Maria followed a path that led up the slope toward the edge of the valley. The Seven Towers itself was on high ground, but not the highest ground in sight.
Where the forest canopy was thickest, there was little hint of the strange sky. The greens and grays of nature seemed to remain undisturbed, somber, quiet.
"A beautiful place," Maria said. They had to ride slowly climbing the tree-covered slope. "I never dreamed any place could be this lovely."
"Given a few years of proper water, the valley of Mecq will be as beautiful," Silvas replied. "There's no special magic making this valley look the way it does-save for whatever this new magic is."
The trees thinned out as they approached the top of the hill. And the pink-peach-orange sky dominated again.
"It seems to follow the ridgeline exactly." Maria moved her arm and pointed to emphasize her words. "It jumps from peak to peak and dips down into the passes between them."
Bay stopped for a moment. He looked one way and then the other. "To my eyes, it seems to be a veil, a distinct line, as if someone has cast an immense sheet of some gossamer fabric over the valley."
"Let's test the veil then," Silvas said, and Bay moved forward.
Bay moved right to the edge of the veil and stopped again. He seemed to have a better perspective on it than either Silvas or Maria did. To them, there was a fuzziness rather than a distinct border.
"There's no feel to it at all," Silvas said. "I can see it, but I can't touch it with my mind, or identify the signature to the magic."
"Shall I press through?" Bay asked.
"Go ahead."
But Bay encountered a problem. His head seemed to press against a physical barrier.
"It wasn't like this before," Bay said.
Silvas could feel the resistance that Bay had met. He reached forward with his mind and pressed with Bay against the barrier. Only then could Bay make any progress. Slowly, he stepped forward, into the barrier, forcing it to stretch around him. Finally, he broke through, and the barrier snapped shut behind. Maria followed on Girabelle, keeping her horse's nose as close to Bay's tail as possible. Even so, Girabelle had more difficulty getting through the veil than Bay did. Maria had to be especially firm with the horse to keep her from shying away from the attempt.
The sky beyond the veil was normal. Looking west, or anywhere but back into the valley, the sky was blue, the clouds untinted white and gray.
"It is just our valley," Silvas said as Maria emerged from the veil. "The land looks different as well here just outside."
"It does look strange," Maria said, "all twisted awry."
"If we were to go on a little ways and look back?" Bay suggested.
"Yes, let's," Silvas said.
The slope on this side of the hill was steeper than it was within the valley of the Seven Towers, but Bay and Girabelle were able to pick their way down and away from the ridgeline, moving somewhat to the north in the process.
"There's a road, about a half mile from this point," Silvas said. "If we follow that road for a few hundred feet, we should be able to get a good look."
It was a strange ride that seemed to defy natural law. The scenery seemed to press close against horses and riders on either side, while stretching away oddly before and behind. Riding side by side, or in line, Maria and Silvas could even see the distortion in each other.
"Has something gone wrong with our eyes?" Maria asked after they had examined both sorts of distortion.
"No. Whatever this is, it's part of the magic that cups its hand over the valley," Silvas said. "I can still get no grip on that."
As soon as they reached the road, they looked back toward the ridge. There were trees obscuring the immediate view, but both Maria and Silvas noticed instantly that they were not seeing what they expected to see.
"The halo is almost invisible," Maria said.
Silvas shook his head. "I know the ridgeline here. I've seen it often enough over the centuries. That is not the line that exists at this point. Let's move farther on along the road. We should have a better vantage just past that bend."
When they reached the outlook, Silvas pointed up at the ridgeline again. Now, there was no hint of the peach-colored aura hanging over the valley. "That's wrong. It's as if the valley of the Seven Towers no longer exists."
"Let's go on to the crossroads," Bay suggested.
That was another mile and a half along the narrow track they had been following. There were two roads that crossed the valley of the Glade, one from east to west across the narrow diameter of the valley, the other north to south, along its length. The road coming in from the west toward the valley ended at the lane that Silvas and Maria had been following. Rather, it merged with the lane, going south, back the way they had come.
Silvas closed his eyes and concentrated.
"The road is still there," he announced after a moment. "It's simply not visible. Bay, head along the road, as you remember it, not as you see it now."
"It's an effort," Bay said after he had taken several steps. "There's a dizziness in my head that I have to fight against."
"We feel it as well," Silvas said. He glanced back. Girabelle was fighting Maria's control. Silvas gave a quick spell of calming for the other horse. "Keep her nose as close to Bay as you can," he told Maria. "She'll follow Bay, no matter how impossible the view is to her."
At first, it looked merely as if the horses were trying to climb the hill without a path, fighting their way up a difficult slope. Then, the terrain seemed to scrunch in against them from the sides, as if they were figures on a painting that someone had wadded up. There was no sign of the aura hanging over the valley beyond the hill in front of them.
…Until Bay came right up to the ridgeline and pressed against the barrier. Then, the road was visible directly beneath his feet. The pastel coloring was in front of him, and-through that filter-they could see the valley of the Seven Towers, but only as dark shadows.
Once more, Bay had to exert himself to break through the barrier. Girabelle found it almost impossible to follow. When Maria finally did get Girabelle's nose through the shroud, by exerting her own will, she found Silvas waiting. Bay had turned around to watch the veil during the struggle to get Girabelle through.
"Someone has very effectively quarantined our valley," Silvas said. Girabelle was panting hard from the effort. It had quite clearly taxed her strength almost to the limit.
"Barreth?" Maria suggested.
Silvas shrugged. "His name does come to mind first, but it could as easily have been Mikel, or any of the others. One or more of the gods doesn't want us contaminating the rest of this world. Doesn't want the world to know about our valley. We needed to use real power to break through. I doubt that any mortal could do it alone, even a wizard."
"They'll be anxious about this in the village," Bay said.
"Yes, we need to go there next," Silvas said. "And then beyond. We need to check the other passes."
"I don't think Girabelle is up to another effort like this last," Maria said. "It is completely beyond her."
"We'll test the veil on foot after this," Silvas said.
Bay held his pace to a slow walk as they followed the road down the slope of the hill toward the village. Even so, Girabelle quickly lagged behind, tired from the trek back from the Shining City and from all that had been required of her since. The villagers had plenty of time to see them coming, even though they were not coming from the direction of the castle. People-of all three sorts who worked in the Seven Towers-started to gather at the crossroads at the exact center of the valley, just on the southern edge of the village.
Bay stopped right in the intersection, and Silvas dismounted.
"Lord Silvas, what has happened to us?" one of the humans in the group, March the miller, reeve of the village, asked.
"Someone has thrown a veil over us, Master March," Silvas said. "The world beyond is still there. We are merely cut off from it for the time being. An outsider wouldn't even know that our valley is here. The roads bend around us, as if we had disappeared from the face of the earth."
"We can't get out, and outsiders can't get in?" That came from one of the esperia, a farmer, first cousin to Koshka.
"Not at present, Eschmin," Silvas said. "It takes an effort even for me to penetrate the veil, and I have more power than I dreamed of a week past."
"Who attacks us?" March asked.
"I don't know of a certainty that it is an attack, or exactly who has cut us off from the world," Silvas replied. "I assume that it was one of the gods. It would take godly power to do this, or to make it difficult for me to pass through?"
"One of the gods?" Eschmin asked, an edge of fear showing in his voice.
"One of the old gods," Silvas said. There was a trace of a smile on his face now, but it was a grim smile. The villagers knew, on a superficial level at least, what had happened to Silvas and Maria, that they were themselves now gods. "It may even have been for our protection that the veil was erected," Silvas continued, though he could not convince himself that it was true.
"But how can we get goods in from outside?" March asked. "We don't make everything we need here."
"Salt, especially," Eschmin added. "Where will we find salt?"
"If the way remains blocked to normal commerce long, I'll see that we get whatever is needed," Silvas said. "The way is not closed to Maria and me."
"I have a cousin over in Darping on Wey," March said. "What will the folk there think when our village is missed?"
Silvas uttered a short laugh. "If the situation remains, we will become a myth, a reality outsiders cannot prove. But be at peace. I feel no threat in this fruity sky. So far, it is merely an annoyance."
"Will you be able to clear the veil from our sky?" another villager asked. "Will things ever be as they were?"
"It's too soon to know for sure," Silvas said. "But this valley is under our protection, and that is no mean blessing. And now, we have to check the rest of it. When I have word, I'll make sure you all hear what I learn."
Each of the other ways out of the valley was similarly blocked. On foot, Silvas and Maria could press through the veil with only a modest effort of will, but they could not rip the airy fabric of the barrier. It remained intact, hiding the valley of the Seven Towers from any mortal eyes.
Finally riding back to the castle after examining the last blocked road, Maria put words to the thought that she and Silvas shared.
"It seems we're not to be left in peace, after all."
Bay commented, "The battle is not over."
"I think we need to hold a Council, as quickly as possible," Silvas told them.