XXXIIIThey reached the base of the leaning, broken pillar without being assaulted or attacked. The wheels they'd seen from afar were, as they'd thought, a ladder of interlocking cogs, each thirty of forty feet tall. The wheels were turning slowly, reluctantly, hauled around by a rattling chain from above. One wheel turned clockwise, the next anticlockwise and so forth. Welded to the front, where the 9, 18, 27 and 36 would be on a clock face, were little square platforms, big enough for one person to ride up and down.
“You think we're supposed to hop from cog to cog?” said Diane.
Finn gazed up at the towering assembly of slowly moving wheels. “Looks like it. Strange it's been left running. Strange it's not better defended.”
“They usually have no need,” said Whelm. “I told you; until now
