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Drinkable, he declared But of aniain the shadow of night rushed down and we lay in the chil, shivering, half-starved Gaer Vinnevra had said nothing forcame, and listlessly we rose and washed ourselves

Then Vinnevra closed her eyes, turned slowly, hand out--and stopped Her hand pointed back to the chas halfway around--reversing the direction her geas told her we should take

When she looked at ainst alfond of this pair Foolishness--it was Riser I needed to find, and once I found hi al others behind?

I wondered noever, whether I could guess what Riser would do He had always surprisedfoothils toward the e This path took us by the end of the day to the edge of whatruin, over which the ghosts ofto return

Vinnevra stood for a while on the broken boundary of a rounded, slagged causeway--raising her hands as if i for relief or at least soo back!" she said to us "Keep ently held her arh the rubble, h shattered arches

Just a few hundred paces over the waste, to the left of the causeway, lay half of a ship larger than the Didact’s star boat-- , its rounded hul blackened and slu days were over It seeh the Halo’s atreat hoop

These were not fresh ruins, and this place had never been a huo, Forerunners had fought Forerunners, and many had died

The Lord of Adloat

Confusion to the ene the us joy?

The old spirit sees, and for thea conscious choice, I ceded my eyes and body to him Beyond any plan, any stretch ofGa disappointment, sorrow, vindication--just as I had felt at the first awakening of horror and pride back on Charule, and alked up the slope, leaping away as the edges of jagged cracks squir to rejoin, to begin repairs

But for this place, the wil, the energy, the resources no longer existed The co since been broken That in to understand the underlying technology

Again, I felt like bowing down and worshipping

They are not gods, the old spirit reminded me with an air of disdain But the ruins were too sad, and he no longer expressed any sense of trius, soht up in politics

and noar But why?

The Lord of Admirals walked me to the end of the causeway, and we looked out over the dead ship and the shattered, exploded skeletons of buildings that once had risen thousands of meters into the sky, but now lay across each other like so many dead on a field of battle--toppled, half-melted, yet neither entirely stil nor silent

I was distracted by the reappearance of wals and fra fro and reasse, much as the Didact’s ship had built itself at the center of Djaht succeed--took on almost a finished aspect--but that was an ilusion

The wals disappeared, the skeletal framework flickered, dropped away

Vanished

In h and rush of wind, and the building’s ghost was no ht of the causeway--another futile effort, another resurrection-- another colapse and rush of wind

The city was like a buffalo brought down by a pride of great cats, its flanks torn and throat slashed, bleeding out as the predators wait, tongues loling, for its sharp black horns to cease swingingThe buffalo struggles to regain its feet, but the hyenas screary triu drawn into the old spirit’s memories of the destruction of Charum Hakkor, the colapse of entire fleets of hueredwithinal around

Finaly, neither the Lord of Admirals nor I could bear to watch I could feel neither his words nor his emotions He, too, had colapsed, retreated

"No more!" I shouted, and covered irl looked to me as if for some explanation

"We shouldn’t cross this place," I said "A bad, sad place It doesn’t know it’s dead"

Chapter Ten

WE DECIDED ON a course around the ruins

Another day of travel and Ga We rested more hours than we traveled, but finaly found a shalow rivulet of water and edible weeds--or so Gareasy berries, and with thirst quenched and stomach less empty, the old man seemed to revive

He waved his hand, then moved away on his stick

Ahead the hils resurass and spotted with trees I wasn’t faht, with black bark and gray-green leaves that splayed out like the fingers of cupped hands

The sky was free of clouds, except far up the bridge, at the point where the bridge was as broad asand uncovering the clouds, while Gamelpar watched without much interest Beyond the sharp mountains we could now see the body of water very clearly The shadows had grown long, the air was cooling, the sun was three fingers above the gray wal Darkness was co

We rested

In the shade of a black-trunked tree, I pried a stone out of caked dirt and looked it over,here had been manufactured by Forerunners Or perhaps it had al been stripped away froed Either way, this land and the ring itself was like the toy of a great, spoiled child that can have anything it wants,it wants

Yet huo

"You have that look," Vinnevra said, kneeling beside me "Like you’re soh the deep twilight at where Gaainst the smooth trunk of a tree "So is he"

She scratched idly at the dirt "No good here for insects"

I hefted the stone "I could learn to throw rocks at birds"

We both sood," I adht He kept up with us beyond the foothils and into the mountains