3 Old women, guy exercising with a log?

[chelck]

Hi,

I read this over 15 years ago. It may have been a triolgy. May have been a fisher king story. I only remember images.

Somehow the hero is in strange land. Three old women train him. They make him exercise by running for miles carrying a log over his head.

He goes through a gate and through a house to travel between worlds/realities. There is a women with crooked legs looking away. She has a floppy hat covering her face. She begins to turn. Hero is scared. If she looks at him he is dead.

There is also a fat man in a chair.

In the end hero is identified as a bird king (hence my Fisher king guess)?

Any help would be nice. This has been bugging me for years.

Thanks,
Christopher

[Al Simms]

This sounds like Greg Bear's 'Songs of Earth and Power' - originally published as two volumes: 'The Infinity Concerto' and 'The Serpent Mage'