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He did his best to sleep, turning restlessly through the night, and in the last hour before dahen he could wait no ear It was the cold he was thinking of; they would need blankets, extra socks, anything that could keep theood sturdy rope The night before, on his way back from the barracks, he had ducked into the supply tent and pilfered an entrenching tool and a hand axe, and a pair of heavy parkas Hollis was softly snoring on his cot, a bearded face buried in blankets, oblivious When he awoke, Peter would be gone

He hoisted the pack to his shoulder and stepped outside, into a cold so sharp it stunned hiarrison was quiet, just a fewabout; the smells of wood s his stomach rumble But there was no ti on her bunk, her s She was alone; Sara was still with Sancho and the others, in the infirht

"Yes, it’s tiether to the paddock Greer’s horse, a large black gelding, his coat heavy for winter, was grazing with the others, noses angled to the wind Peter retrieved a bridle from the shed and led him to the fence He wished he could use a saddle, but it wouldn’t ith two He lashed their packs together, draping theers were already stiff with the cold He lifted Amy up, then used the fence to clie of the paddock to the shadows under the pickets, headed for the gate Daas just breaking, a gray softening, as if the darkness were not lifting but dissolving; a pale, alun to fall, flakes that seemed to materialize in the air before their faces

They were le sentry: Eustace, the lieutenant who had first alerted Peter to the raiding party’s return

"Major says to let you pass He also askedfroround before the horse "Says to take whatever you need"

Peter swung down and knelt to open it Rifles, renades Peter looked through all of it, thinking about what to do

"Thanks anyway," he said, drawing upright He drew his blade from his belt and held it out for Eustace to take "Here A present for the ive me your blade?"

Peter pushed it toward him "Take it," he said

Reluctantly, Eustace accepted the blade For a e artifact he’d found in the forest

"Give it to Major Greer," Peter said "I think he’ll understand"

He turned to address Ah above hi snow

"Ready?"

The girl nodded A faint sht on her lashes, in her hair, like jeweled dust Eustace gave Peter a leg up; he swung onto the horse’s back, taking the reins in his hand The gate drew open before them He allowed himself one last look toward the barracks, but all was quiet, unchanged Goodbye, he thought, goodbye Then he heeled hisday

X

THE ANGEL

OF THE

MOUNTAIN

Like to a Hermite poore in place obscure,

I meane to spend my daies of endles doubt,

To waile such woes as time cannot recure,

Where none but Loue shall euer finde me out

-SIR WALTER RALEIGH,

from The Phoenix Nest

Chapter SIXTY-TWO

By half-day they had found the river again They rode in silence under the snohich was falling steadily now, filling the woods with a es, dark water flowing freely in its narrowed channel, oblivious Aainst Peter’s back, her pale wrists slack in his lap, had fallen asleep He felt the warainst him Plumes of war of grass and earth There were birds in the trees, black birds; they called to one another fro snow

As he rode, es that drifted across his consciousness like s before the end, as he stood in the door to her roo on the table, and knew that she would die; Theo at the station, when he’d sat on the cot to take Peter’s foot in his hand, and again, standing on the porch of the far them leave; Auntie in her overheated kitchen, and the taste of her terrible tea; the last night at the bunker, everyone drinking whiskey and laughing at soreat unknown unfolding before theainst the log, her book in her lap, her face bathed in sunlight and her voice saying, "How beautiful it is here;" Alicia

Alicia

They turned east They were in a new place now, the landscape rising ruggedly around the them in the forested embrace of the mountains, mantled in white The snow eased, then stopped, then started up once un to clis The slow, rhythress of the horse, the feel of worn leather in his fist where he held the anientle brush of Amy’s hair on his neck All somehow inevitable, like details froo

When darkness came on, Peter used the shovel to clear a spot and pitched their tarp at the edge of the river Most of the wood on the ground was too wet to burn, but beneath the heavy canopy of trees they found enough dry kindling to get a fire going Peter had no blade, but in his pack was a small pocketknife that he could use to open the cans They ate their dinner and slept, huddled together for war cold The stor, in its wake, a sky of fierce cold blueness While Amy built a fire, Peter went to look for the horse, which had broken loose and wandered away in the night-a situation that under different circuht panic and yet so, did not alarm him He tracked the ani on soreat black muzzle bearded with snow It did not seeht to disturb, so he stood awhile, watching the horse eat its breakfast, before leading him back to camp, where Amy’s efforts had produced a ss They ate from more cans and drank cold water froether by the fire, taking their ti, he knew To the west, behind thearrison would be e south

"I think this is it," he told As onto the horse "I don’t think we have , reat sodden thing at least a ot hiainst him, and reached out to pull her aboard

"Do you miss them?" Amy asked "Your friends"

He lifted his face toward the snowy trees The ht"

They came, sometime later, to a fork For a period of so a road, or what had once been a road Beneath the snow, the ground was firn or a weather-beaten guardrail They wereon either side, showing their rocky faces That hen they caht, along the river, or across it on a bridge, an arched span of exposed girders, covered with snow On the opposite side, the roadway rose again and angled into the trees, away