But Crooked opened a doorway into the lands of Emptiness and before Sky Man could say another word, he struck him again with the great hammer and knocked him backward into that doorway. The lands of Emptiness pulled at Sky Man like a sucking wind, but Sky Man held on to the floor with all the strength that was in his mighty hands. He would not let go, but neither could he pull himself back from the empty lands where Crooked's great-grandmother reigned. Crooked smiled at that and stepped back. He opened the door of Sky Man's chamber and hid behind it. All of the other gods of the mountain, Wisdom and Shieldbearer and Clouds and Caretaker, rushed in. Seeing their lord in such danger they ran to help him, grabbing his arms and trying to pull him back, but the magic of Grandmother Emptiness was strong and they could not overcome it. While they struggled, Crooked came out from behind the door and walked up behind scrawny Old Age, who was at the back of the crowd. Old Age could not even reach Sky Man, but he was pulling on Wisdom, who was pulling on Huntsman, who was holding onto Sky Man's hand.

" 'I remember how you spit on my father's corpse,' Crooked said to Old Age, then lifted up his hand of bronze and his hand of ivory and shoved the ancient one in the back. Old Age stumbled forward and fell against Wisdom, who fell against Huntsman, and soon all those who had come from all over the palace to save their lord fell into the the land of Emptiness together. That broke Sky Man's grip and they all tumbled into the cold darkness forever, every last one.

"Crooked laughed to see them fall, laughed as they shouted and cursed, laughed hardest when they were gone. He had brooded long on the evil they had done him and he felt no pity.

"One of Sky Man's kin, though, had not come into the chamber to help his lord. That was Tricker, who never did anything he could let others do. When he saw what had happened, how Sky Man, the strongest of all the gods had been bested and banished, Tricker was afraid. He ran down from the palace of the gods to warn his father, Stone Man.