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"Everybody ready?" asked the captain When he’d received a positive response froo Dropping altitude and setting down at Fort Decatur Approximate arrival time is, oh, I don’t know Three or fourall’s well Ladies and gentle in the city of Seattle, such as she is"
Mercy strained her neck but didn’t see what the captain was talking about, so she took his words on faith When the ship began its dipping drift doard, she held on to her stolad that no one could see her face very well She wasn’t going to be sick, not froht of the last eance, now that she was very nearly at her destination
She was there, in the place where the yellow sap came from--she was virtually certain of it, even before she could see the s nasty wet ses the color of boiled yolks
She was there, in the tohere her father had disappeared to all those years ago
As the ship dropped lower, deeper into the thick, awful air, she struggled to remehout the trip The way he’d taught her to shoot The smell of his beard when he’d come inside from the farm The bulk of his arms and the plaid of a shirt he wore ave her the sweet ping of nostalgia she was hoping for All of it felt foreign and dreamlike, as if it had happened to someone else and she’d heard about it only secondhand
But here she was
The ship caainst the metal bench Then it ca shook softly as the anchoring chains were detached and affixed to soh the sreat lens of the windscreens she could see lights strung together The lights were steadier than mere torches, but they were fuzzy bubbles without too much definition, and she couldn’t discern their actual nature They showed a sickly yellow-tinted world, and a wall er than anything she’d ever seen down South The wall disappeared in each direction, but that , she could see perhaps only twenty yards, and those yards were none too clear
Her chest hurt, and she felt quite distinctly breathless, as if she’d been running She reached up to the mask to adjust it, or move it, but the sheriff stopped her hand
She said, "Don’t I know it takes so used to, but we’re down in the thick now Once the anchor claws have been deployed, you can’t trust the air in here" A pop and a sigh interrupted her When they’d faded, she said, "And that was the sound of the botto"
Mercy shook her head "It justit feelsI can’t"
"I know, and I understand, but you can You have to Wear it or die, at least for now But I pro" Briar’s eyes behind her own mask tried to convey reassurance, and a lift to her cheeks iainst her expectations and her will, her eyes filled up
The sheriff leaned forward and all but whispered, "It’s all right, darling, I proether if you can, not because there’s anything wrong with crying, but because having a stuffy nose in one of these things is a godda nurse’s ar later All the crying you like, and all the crying you can stand Coo see your daddy"
Mercy fumbled with her harness and extracted herself with difficulty By the time she was finished, she noticed that the captain and the boys had already disappeared down the hatch, down into the fort
Briar helped, untangling the last canvas strap and setting it back in place against the ship’s interior wall She stood up straight and urged Mercy to do likewise, and she brushed a stray bit of travel dust off the taller wo to be just fine"
"I don’t know It’s been so long, and he’s never said a thing We ain’t been close I ain’t never heard from him, not since I was little"
The sheriff nodded at all of this She said, "I’m not sure what it’s worth to hear me say so, but he saved ot a reputation for it--for looking after newcoerous place, but, your pahe erous People love him because he looks out for theht he was dying, theyhe wanted The last thing he asked for"
"Me"
"You And I know you figure that I don’t understand, and thatnice to you And that’s true, partly I aht to know: I lost a husband too, a long tio, before Zeke was even born I also lost my father; and, like you and yours, eren’t none too close It’s a world of s and orphans down here" The sheriff looked away, out the , and past the log walls