All this time I had been still, hanging in the air. Now I
willed myself to the horizon again, and once more. I must have travelled a
third of the length of the canyons in an instant, for the river there runs very
straight. Then, on the fourth attempt, the Ark only accelerated, and I knew
that in one thing at least it had a limit, like the starspears I had used. But
it went quite swiftly, as fast as any valkyrie and more, and I knew I would
reach the ocean soon. The rock walls flew by in a blur, and the peaks of the
mountains overhead. If I slowed down, it was only for my own terror.
The sun
climbed. It had been early morning when I had woken in Ariel. By the time the
rock walls of the canyons fell away and the river swelled to a brackish bay,
not more than three watches could have passed. It was only midmorning now, and
still as fine as it had been in Ariel. The banks of the river grew broad and
sandy where it met the sea, and I looked up and down those beaches until I saw
what I sought: hundreds of Arks like this one, sitting quiescent on the pale
brown sand. With them were a number of rafts pulled up above the surf and
perhaps a thousand people, standing and sitting in two distinct groups.
I flew
toward them, slowing even more as I descended. If my Ark disturbed the sand as
it kissed the shore, I did not know it. A woman walked forward from the group
nearest the Arks. She wore a crisp white shirt and trousers which did not look
like they had been worn before. Her hair was tawny blonde and she was of average
height and unremarkable build. But the flare of her hips told me who she was as
she approached and I stepped out of the Ark.
“Guardian
Cassan Vala,” I said.
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