false step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their
right. After a while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level
ground, and they seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain.
The ascending slope on the right hand persisted for a few hundred
yards more. Then Sullenbode bore sharply to the left, and they found
level ground all around them.

"We are on the ridge," announced the woman, halting.

The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst
through the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.

Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view
was quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left,
shining down on them from behind. Straight in front, like an
enormously wide, smoothly descending road, lay the great ridge which
went on to Adage, though Adage itself was out of sight. It was never
less than two hundred yards wide. It was covered with green snow, in
some places entirely, but in other places the naked rocks showed
through like black teeth. From where they stood they were unable to
see the sides of the ridge, or what lay underneath. On the right
hand, which was north, the landscape was blurred and indistinct.
There were no peaks there; it was the distant, low-lying land of
Barey. But on the left hand appeared a whole forest of mighty
pinnacles, near and far, as far as the eye could see in moonlight.
All glittered green, and all possessed the extraordinary hanging caps
that characterised the Lichstorm range. These caps were of fantastic
shapes, and each one was different. The valley directly opposite
them was filled with rolling mist.