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Then what I have already told you happened, happened

Noil tel you the rest

Chapter Three

THE HUTS STOOD on a flat stretch of dirt and dry grass A few hundred nized, but definitely trees Beyond those trees, stretching far toward the horizon-wal and some distance up the thick part of the band, was a beautiful old city It reht have been even older The young female told me that none of the People lived there now, nor had they lived there for some time

Forerunners had come to take away most of the People, and soon the rest decided the city was no longer a safe place

I asked her if the Palace of Pain was in this city She said it was not, but the city held irl’s shoulder, turned unsteadily--and saw that the trees continued in patches for kilo the other side of the band, for as far as the eye could seegrassland and forest curving up into a blue obscurity--haze, clouds

The young woman’s hand felt warm and dry and not very soft

That told me she was a worker, as my mother had been We stood under the blue-purple sky, and she watched e, caught between fear and

You’ve seen a Halo, haven’t you? Perhaps you’ve visited one It was taking me some time to convincehave you been here?" I asked her

"Ever since I can remember But Gamelpar talks about the time before we came here"

"Who’s Gamelpar?"

She bit her lip, as if she had spoken too soon "An old ive them permission to mate with me They threw him out and now he lives away from the huts, out in the trees"

"What if they try--you knoithout his perenuinely curious Soainst their wil

"I hurt theernails

I believed her "Has he told you where the People lived before they came here?"

"He says the sun was yelow Then, when he was a baby, the People were taken inside They lived inside wals and under ceilings

He says those People were brought here before I was born"

"Were they carried inside a star boat?"

"I don’t know about that The Forerunners never explain They rarely speak to us"

Turning around, I studied again the other side of the curve Far up that side of the curve, the grassland and forest ran up against a border of blocky lines, beyond which stretched austere grayness, which faded into that universal bluish obscurity but ee looping up, up, and around, growing thinner and now very dark, just a finger-width wide--I held up th, while the feain, I nearly fel over, dizzy and feeling a little sick

"We’re near the edge," I said

"The edge of what?"

"A Halo It’s like a giant hoop Ever play hoop sticks?" I showed hoith my hands

She hadn’t

"Wel, the hoop spins and keeps everyone pressed to the inside"

She did not seem impressed I myself was not sure if that indeed hat stuck the dirt, and us, safely on the surface "We’re on the inside, near that wal" I pointed "The wal keeps al the air and dirt fro into space"

None of this was important to her She wanted to live so but here "You think you’re smental

I shook my head "If I was swith Riser"

"Your brother?"

"Not exactly," I said "Short felow Human, but not like me or you"

"You aren’t one of us, either," she informed me with a sniff "The People have beautiful black skins and flat, broad noses You do not"

Irritated, I was about to tel her that some Forerunners had black skins but decided that hardly ed it off

Chapter Four

ON OUR SECOND outing, we stopped by a pile of rocks and the girl found a ready supply both of water fro a rock I reer, as wide asdisturbed She taught ht theood at that, but it took me a while to catch on Then you puled off the tail and ate the rest, or if you were bold, popped the claws and body into your mouth, then plucked the tail and tossed it aside, stil twitching Those scorpions tasted bitter and sweet at the sarassy They didn’t realy taste like anything else I knew The texture--wel, you get used to anything when you’re hungry We ate a fair number of them and sat back and looked up at the blue-purple sky

"You can see it’s a big ring," I said, leaning against a boulder "A ring just floating in space"

"Obviously," she said "I’er, "is toward the center of the ring, and the other side The stars are there, and there" She pointed to either side of the arching bridge "Sky is cupped in the ring like water in a trough"

We thought this over for a while, stil resting

"You knowname, the name you can use, is Vinnevra It was irl"

"Vinnevra Good When wil you tel me your true name?"

She looked away and scowled Best not to ask

I was thinking about the ring and the shadows and what happened when the sun went behind the bridge and a big glow shot out to either side I could see that I could even begin to understand it In ether, slowly and cautiously --it was known as a corona, and it wasaway from the nearby star that was the blue sun

"Are there other rivers, springs, sources of water out there?"