He ran to stand beside her, taking her arm as
gently as he could.
'Sylviana, please. Let me lead the way. I do not think it is far,
but we must be careful. Please.'
She finally looked at him, and remembered. She wanted to collapse in
his arms and weep. She wanted to say that nothing else mattered. She
wanted to go back to their life by the sea and never again think of
islands and men. But she could not. She took his hand firmly in hers,
kissed it, and yielded to what had to be. She must go on, and he must
lead her. As he must somehow understand.
Together, more slowly, they dipped two more valleys and climbed a final
ridge. They reached the top of it, Kalus for some reason hugging close
to the shadows of a stunted oak.....
There, in that small recession, their lives changed forever. An outdoor
cooking fire, a row of low stone buildings. Two women and a man moving
about a table with plates and cups. And not dressed like animals, but
men. Overalls, a blue NASA worksuit, an Oriental dress. Sylviana
looked on, not surprised she told herself, then felt the ground rush up
to meet her.
*
Kalus caught her beneath the arms and pulled her under the partial cover
of the tree. But it was too late. They had been seen. Without audible
word or gesture, the three stopped what they were doing and began to
move toward them.
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