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--Co Come to me

She reached the top of the rise

And there Alicia awakened What waited in the valley beyond the hilltop was not yet hers to see, though she believed she knehat it was, as she also knew theof the other dreams, of Peter and Amy and Michael and all those who goodbye

--

A night ca of fullness All she had meant to do had been accomplished; the work of her life was complete

On the crutch she had fashioned froh the debris, three blocks north and one block west Even this short distance left her gasping with pain It was htfall she had reached the fifty-seventh floor Her water was nearly gone She slept on the floor of a ed office, so that the sun would wake her, and at dawn she resumed her cli that Michael set sail? Alicia preferred to think it wasn’t That the sight of the Nautilus, pulling away on the wind, was a sign, and meant for her Could Michael feel her? Did he, in so him from above? Iht suddenly look up, startled, as if touched by a sudden breeze The Nautilus was departing the inner harbor, headed for open sea Sunlight gli the balustrade, Alicia watched as the tiny shape beca into nonexistence Of all people, Michael, she thought And yet he had been the one He had been the one to save her

A tall fence, curved inward at the top, fixed into the top of the balustrade, had once formed a barricade around the perimeter of the platform; many sections remained, but not all Alicia had saved a little water She drank it noeet it was, the scavenged rain She experienced a profound sense of the interconnectedness of all things, the eternal rising and falling of life--how the water, which had begun as the sea, had ascended, gathered into clouds, and descended froathered in the pots she’d laid Now it had become a part of her

Alicia sat on the balustrade Below, on the outer side, was a s her hands to assist her disobedient legs over the rail Faced away fro, she scooted a few inches forward on the concrete until her feet touched the ledge How did one do it? How did one say farewell to the world? She took a long breath and let the air out slowly She realized she was crying Not with sadness--no, not that--although her tears did not seem unrelated to sadness They were tears of sadness and happiness conjoined, everything over and done

My darling,with her palms, she drew herself erect Space jumped away beneath her; she pointed her eyes to the sky

Rose, I aht have said she fell Others, that she flew Both were true Alicia Donadio--Alicia of Blades, the New Thing, Captain of the Watch and Soldier of the Expeditionary--would die as she had lived

Always soaring

--

Night came on

Ahfares behind, s were heavy, full of a deep, almost pleasurable exhaustion As darkness fell, shefireflies, ate her simple supper, and lay down beneath the stars

Coht

All around her, and all above, the shts of heaven danced A stout fullthe shadows

I’ for you I’ll alait Co Tiuid course Then, like the brush of a feather inside her:

Ahs of the trees, she saw and heard a rustling; Peter dropped down He had just eaten, a squirrel or mouse perhaps, or some small bird; she could feel his contentment, the rich satisfaction he had taken in the act, like waves of warh her blood A the fireflies There were sotogether in a sea of stars A her name Aap between theether, the soft pressure of Peter’s palainst her own

A to you?

She sensed his confusion The trauers, pressing their palether, and held his eyes with hers