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She tried to push the thought away—it was nervousness brought on by the vastness of the desert, the memories of this old life of hers when she’d still felt so real, so alive, so absolutely unthinkingly herself

It was deceptive, just like the sense of distance in the darkness was deceptive Edge was right—if you allowed yourself to go too far into this strange dreaht never find your way back

‘That is why I depend on you, Edge,’ she said lightly ‘I know you will never allow yourself to lose track of the real world I dare say you know precisely how far we have come and when to stop so we do not lose our way’

‘You thinkfellow, don’t you, Sam?’

She flushed

‘I think you do not allow yourself to be carried away But there is nothing wrong with being sensible There have been many, many times I’d wished I was more so’

‘You’ve changed’

‘Of course Eight years is a long tied’

‘It isn’t the years, Sam What happened to you?’

‘What happened toin half-measures, do you?’

She tried to laugh but a whole sky’s worth of pain was filling her, expanding like the inundation of the Nile—swift and unstoppable ‘Let’s return’

‘Not yet Are you crying?’

‘Not yet, but I shall if you keep prodding I’land and it is all too much You may be made of stone, Mr God of the Earth, but I’m not If you wish to stay here, I shall find my oay back’

‘Perhaps it would do you good to cry out here where no one can hear you I need toCliffs’

She didn’t knohether to laugh or kick him for his dispassionate practicality

The truth was she didn’t want to return yet She wanted to stay cocooned in the night, wrapped in the strange thoughts bubbling inside her, but somehow separated from them by his presence In the dark she h

‘I never really understood you, Edge’

‘There isn’t much to understand about a lump of rock’

His voice was flat, but suddenly she could hear the currents beneath, as if not seeing his face she could hear things his expression would never give away There was bitterness and resents