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Overhead, the sun was black in the center, rays blazing out in intense bursts froe, and I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first, until Lewis said, hoarsely, "Eclipse"

"It’s not an eclipse out there," David said "Not one scheduled in this part of the world for years to come"

It didn’tshe wished here If she wanted to blot out the sun, she could

I looked up At the top of the cliffs above us was a harsh glitter of glass s built into the structure of the rocks "She’s up there," I said "We’re on the wrong side The stairs are behind it"

The Chapel of the Holy Cross was built bythat had been there for ages,here, I could see through this world and into the next, with Oversight, and the chapel took on huge, shadowy dinificance, pain and endurance

"No time for the stairs," Venna said, and tried to take our hands Lewis and I both stepped back She raised her eyebrows "What?"

"No more of that," Lewis said "We’ve pushed the odds too far already You’d lose one of us this tio up there," she pointed out "What would you like us to do?"

"Carry us," I said "Get us to the top, but not through the aetheric Can you do that?"

She considered it for a few seconds, locking eyes with David in silent communication, and then they both nodded

"She’s going to try to stop us," David said "Whatever you do, don’t let go"

He put his arainst hi It was ridiculous He towered over her on approxi over all of us What was she going to do, hug his knees?

Venna looked vexed, then she si out into the size of an adult woman She kept the pinafore and the blond hair, but when she’d finished, she was Lewis’s height "There," she said "That should do"

"Talk about one pill er

," Lewis said, which even now, at the end of the world, made me smile

Venna wasn’t as amused "Turn around"

David and I were face to face, but evidently Venna didn’t feel that close to Lewis He turned his back to her She stepped up and fastened her arms around his waist, and without even a pause, she launched herself, and hi airborne, without any real means of support or propulsion, made the less rational parts of , steady and controlled, as the cliff’s s flickered by in front of us

"All right?" David asked e, and I pulled it out of ri the conversation ere about to have with our child "Alood enough I’d noticed the height of the cliffs before we’d taken to the air, and we should have already been to the top They weren’t that tall But now the cliffs see the on and on, racing to get to a point that continued to outpace us

"Imara!" I yelled "Imara, stop! Let us in, please

!"

For a long few seconds, it seeame until the Djinn ran out of power and plummeted back to the canyon floor, hter Just pissed

The cliffs stopped rising, and in a matter of seconds ere on the rocks I tried not to look back at where we’d been We were far, far too high for comfort

There were no trails on this side of the chapel, so we had to scraet to the peak, which rose up in a defiant jut of glass and a siant cross that buried itself into the rocks

There was a kind of a path on the downslope that intersected with the stairs, and I led the way down it to the concrete steps

This was how I’d always come here, up these steps

This here I’d seen hter die, and the memory still burned, both here and on the aetheric My heart pounded harder as we ascended, heading for the entrance to the chapel at the top

Venna stopped "I have to wait here," she said "I can feel it You three have to go on"

I cast an uncertain look at David, as holding o alone"

As we clioing to tellabout Jonathan"

"It’s about how he died," David said "I told you he died in battle, and that’s true What I didn’t tell you is that ere losing Our forces were being slaughtered; the plains were heaped with our dead and dying Jonathan and his guards--I was one--were the only ones left"

We reached the top landing The unnaturally occluded sun seemed to cast a shadow over all of us Below, Venna stood watching with her gli blue eyes, and I realized she’d stopped in exactly the place where Imara’s body had come to rest, broken, when she’d died

"Jonathan reached out to the Mother," David said "In fury, and rage, and desperation He woke her up That’s why sohimself But instead, shetook him Made him Djinn That’s how he died I was already wounded, probably dying He held on to h with him But she consu else when she’s drawn to a human If you do this--"

Leas very still, listening to this, and I wished I understood what he was thinking He was usually much easier to read, but nownow I didn’t know My skin was cold, and even though the air was still, I felt phanto in this place The aetheric was unsettled, on the verge of explosion

"Before we go in," said Lewis, "I want to say solance at"What is it?"

Lewis smiled "I wanted to tell you that the best man won," he said "I would have loved her, but you adore her You make her better You protect her, and honor her, and that lad"

David said nothing I didn’t think he really knehat to say to that

Lewis shifted his attention to me "You were the only woman who ever really touched ood for you And noe can leave all that behind"

It was good-bye, and it was final, and I felt the changes in him, in me, even in David

David silently offered his hand Lewis took it and shook I stepped forward, and he kissed my cheek With his lips close to nant, Jo Tell asped and pulled back, staring into his face, suddenly overcome with shock "I would know--," I said, and stopped, because I did know I did I felt it now, that tiny seed of life, still just a cluster of undifferentiated cells David’s baby, conceived on the ship Our baby

I looked at David, and I saw the knowledge in his face, too The wonder And a little bit of fear I reached for his hand, and he alrip