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It seeit in to the point of thinkin it ain’t never gonna end when I start to see light an it gits brighter an brighter, spil in into the darkness Then the tunnel ends an we step outside, into the golden sky of a midsummer afternoon

Everyone’s waitin fer us Emmi, Tommo, Ike, Ash an Epona Herrass He lifts his head an whickers when he sees es

Ike, Ash an Epona look at each other an grin They look at it lost?

I feel a hot flush crawl up my neck Lucky fer me, Hermes trots over an I busy ht to put out the fire, says Jack

Saba, says Erabs e we’re standin on The ridge runs al around the edge of the val ey, like the rim of a bowl It’s covered with thick stands of oak an tal pine trees A wide at val ey lies spread out below us It’s covered in rows an rows of low bushes covered with shiny dark green leafs Lots of workers in white tunics move between the rows, bendin, pickin the leaf from the bushes an put in ’em into sacks on their back Slaves

Helen was one of these once An Jack an Ike

It’s a land of plenty Lush an beautiful Like Pa told us it used to be back in Wrecker times Paradise, he cal ed it When the air eet an the earth was good When they grew so much to eat that they heaped it in o with their bucket an fil it up

But this ain’t no Paradise

There it is, says Ike Freedom Fields

Ash points Across the val ey, on the far side, a wal of rainbow light shi’s Palace

Jack pushes so-looker that Emmi broke back at the Wrecker city

Jack fixed it! she says Jest like he said he would!

I put it to ht!

Directly opposite where we are, on the far side of the val ey, a big house, the biggest I ever seen, sprawls out half-ways between the val ey oor an the ridge above it The wal s is completely covered in shiht Red, yel ow, pink, green, purple The colors streak out, like shootin stars, sparkin an dancin so bright that black spots appear in front of awd, it’s amazin! I says I never seen nuthin like it

They’l be keepin Lugh there unner guard, says Jack Ain’t that right, Ike?

Yup, says Ike An they’l be takin good care of hiit him

D’you real y think so? I says

You can bet on it, says Ike

The Palace I squint at it sidewise Now I can see it’s gotthe front of it Two massive front doors made of hammered copper Wide steps lead down to a path arden to the elds below I think of Ma with her garden of stones at Silverlake She would never of dreareat carved basin with jets of water sprayin way up into the sky There’s ower an vegetable beds laid out in fancy pat erns, an a grove of fruit trees

Lots of peopleblack robes and body armor, but some slaves dressed in their white tunics

See the stables? says Ike Of to the right?

I focus the long-looker on the low stableyard next to the house Got ’eation system? he says

Runnin al across the elds, raised above the bushes on long legs, there’s what looks like troughs with silvery streaether

That’s what you cal theht, says Jack Keeps the bushes watered with a steady drip Chaal bushes like it daot a be careful Too much water kil s