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The es of the massive continent shaped the course of the Great Mother River She rose out of the highland north of one glacier-covered range and flowed east Beyond the first chain of e the basin of an inland sea—and, farther east, a second range curved around in a great arc Where the easterne met the flysch foothills at the northwestern end of the second, the river broke through a rocky barrier and turned abruptly south

After dropping down karst highlands, sheinto separate channels and rejoining again as she wove her way south The sluggish, braided river, flowing through flat land, gave the illusion of changelessness It was only an illusion By the time the Great Mother River reached the uplands at the southern end of the plain that swung her east again and gathered her channels together, she had received into herself the waters of the northern and eastern face of the first, e

The great swollen Mother swept out a depression as she curled east in a broad curve toward the southern end of the second chain of peaks The twothe occasional channels and strea to meet her as they came to they leaps; on their side rolling hills clie

“I don’t think we’ll find the end of Donau before winter,” Jondalar re to wonder if there is one”

“There’s an end, and I think we’ll find it soon Look how big she is” Thonolan waved an expansive ar? We have to be near the end”

“But we haven’t reached the Sister yet, at least I don’t think we have Ta as the Mother”

“ThatYou don’t really believe there’s another river like that flowing south along this plain?”

“Well, Taht about the Mother turning east again, and about the people who took us across her ht about the Sister I e’d known the language of that Cave with the rafts; theyas she is”

“You kno easy it is to exaggerate great wonders that are far away I think Tamen’s ‘Sister’ is just another channel of the Mother, farther east”

“I hope you’re right, Little Brother Because if there is a Sister, we’re going to have to cross it before we reach those mountains And I don’t knohere else we’re likely to find a place to stay for the winter”

“I’ll believe it when I see it”

A s, which brought it to the level of consciousness, caught Jondalar’s attention By the sound, he identified the black cloud in the distance,wind, and he stopped to watch as the V-foreese approached They swooped lower as a single entity, darkening the sky with their nuround with lowered feet and flapping wings, braking to a rest The river swerved around the steep rise ahead

“Big Brother,” Thonolan said, grinning with exciteeese wouldn’t have set down if there wasn’t a er the Mother empties into it I think we’ve reached the end of the river!”

“If we cliet a better view” Jondalar’s tone was carefully neutral, but Thonolan had the impression his brother didn’t quite believe him

They cli hard when they reached the top, then caught their breath in ah to see for a considerable distance Beyond the turn the Mother widened, and her waters became choppy, and, as she approached a vast expanse of water, she rolled and spuer body of water was cloudy with mud churned up from the bottom, and filled with debris Broken liht by conflicting currents

They had not reached the end of the Mother, They had met the Sister

High in the un as rivulets and streams The streams became rivers that raced down rapids, spilled over cataracts, and coursed straight down the western face of the second great e With no lakes or reservoirs to check the flow, the tuathered together on the plain The only check to the turbulent Sister was the glutted Mother herself

The tributary, nearly equal in size, surged into theinfluence of swift current She backed up and surged again, throwing a tantrum of crosscurrents and undertows; te debris in a perilous spin to the bottoed confluence expanded into a hazardous lake too large to see across

Fall flooding had peaked and a marshland of mud sprawled over the banks where the waters had recently receded, leaving afor the sky, waterlogged trunks and broken branches; carcasses and dying fish stranded in drying puddles Water birds were feasting on the easy pickings; the near shore was alive with the, undisturbed by the flapping wings of black storks

“Great Mother!” Thonolan breathed