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He wiped himself down, cleaned and dried his blade, and put his supplies away Many days had passed since he had properly slept, and still he was not the least bit tired He drew on his parka and boots, let himself out the back, and made his way down the alley It was nearly one AM, not a soul about, yet from all around Greer sensed a kind of molecular restlessness, a subaural hum of life He h the flatland to the stadium By the time he arrived, the moon was down He chose not to enter the structure, rather to stand in the absolute quiet and take it in whole, this blot of darkness against the starry sky He wondered: Would history remember this place? Would the people of the future, whoever they were, give it a name, one worthy of the events that had transpired here, to record it for posterity? A hopeful thought, a bit pre And Lucius Greer took a silent vow Should such a future come to pass, should the final battle for earth’s dominion be taken in victory, he would be the one to put pen to paper, to give the story words

He did not knohen this battle would be Amy had not told him that Only that it would come

He understood, then, what force had led hin would take, he could not say It ht not come at all Such was the burden of his faith He opened his ht, the stars, the living world; all passed through hi

Then:

Lucius My friend Hello

And on this night ofoutside the shoe store, awoke to the feeling that he was, in fact, not awake at all-that one dream had simply opened into the next, like a door behind a door A dreahter in his ar the same-the inky sky, the winter cold, the lateness of the hour-except for the fact that they were not alone

But it was not a dream

She crouched before him, in the manner of her kind Her transforone Yet as their eyes e wavered in his irl, and then a woman, and then both of these at once She was Amy, the Girl from Nowhere; she was Amy of Souls, Last of the Twelve; she was only herself Extending a hand toward hiht; Peter replied in kind A force of pure longing surged in his heart as their fingers touched It was a kind of kiss

How long they stayed that way, Peter didn’t know Between them, in the warm cocoon of his coat, Kate slept soundly, oblivious Tiether in the current Soon the child would awaken, or Sara would coone She would lift away in a streak of starry light Peter would return the sleeping child to her bed, and lie down hiray winter dawn, they would stretch their bones and load up their gear and continue on their long road south The s, into memory

But not just yet

Chapter 69

The driver this tiot into the car

"How do you do, Amy?" She offered her hand "I’m Rachel Wood"

They shook For a moment Amy was rendered speechless, arrested by the woman’s beauty: a face of delicate, well-loith youthful health; a tri body, her arms articulated with lean muscle Her hair, pulled away froolden streaks She earing what Ae see any lasses with tiny jewels embedded in the arms were perched on top of her head

"I’et you before," Rachel continued "Anthony thought you’d like a falad to meet you," Amy said

"That’s sweet of you to say" She sht and very white "Buckle up now"

They glided away from the overpass All was the sa lots, the sa past In the deep leather of her seat, A in a bath Rachel seehly at ho a shapeless tune under her breath as she guided thee pickup braked ahead of the the lane, Rachel flicked on her blinker and deftly swerved to pass

"For goodness sake," she sighed, "some people Where do they learn to drive?" She looked at Amy hastily and returned her eyes to the road "You know, you’re not quite what I iined, I have to say"

"No?"

"Oh, not in a bad way," Rachel assured her "That’s not what I meant at all Honestly, you’re just pretty as a picture I wish I had skin like that"

"So how a her words "I just thought you’d be, you know Younger"

They continued on Aht about aof e to her circu ht How very, very remarkable They were inside the ship, the Chevron Mariner, yet she had no physical awareness of this; as before, with Wolgast, every detail of the scene possessed an absolutely firm appearance of reality Perhaps it was real, in some alternate sense of the word What, after all, was "real"?

"Right there is where I stopped with hiestured out theto a block of stores "Sohnuts, can you iine?" Before Amy could asse you the grand tour I’m sure you know all about it And you ht," Aht" Rachel shook her head sadly "That poor man My heart just went out I said toFor once in your little life, get your head out of the sand But of course I was really thinking about rets on that score to last a hundred lifetimes I didn’t deserve him, not one iota"