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This was advice Tim took, even holding his breath until he was past that deadly grove filled with treacherous, sunshiny death.
Near the end of the third day, he emerged on the edge of a narrow chasm that fell away for a thousand feet or more. He could not see the bottom,
for it was filled with a drift of white flowers. They were so thick that he at first mistook them for a cloud that had fallen to earth. The smell that wafted
up to him was fantastically sweet. A rock bridge spanned this gorge, on the other side passing through a waterfall that glowed blood-red in the
reflected light of the setting sun.
“Am I meant to cross that?” Tim asked faintly. It looked not much wider than a barn-beam . . . and, in the middle, not much thicker.
No answer from Daria, but the steadily glowing green light was answer enough.
“Maybe in the morning,” Tim said, knowing he would not sleep for thinking about it, but also not wanting to chance it so close to day’s end. The
idea of having to negotiate the last part of that lofty causeway in the dark was terrifying.
“I advise you to cross now,” Daria told him, “and continue to the North Forest Kinnock Dogan with all possible speed. Detour is no longer
possible.”
Looking at the gorge with its chancy bridge, Tim hardly needed the voice from the plate to tell him that a detour was no longer possible. But
still . . .
“Why can’t I wait until morning? Surely it would be safer.”
“Directive Nineteen.” A click louder than any he had heard before came from the plate and then Daria added, “But I advise speed, Tim.”
He had several times asked her to call him by name rather than as traveler. This was the first time she had done so, and it convinced him. He left
the Fagonard tribe’s basket—not without some regret—because he thought it might unbalance him. He tucked the last two popkins into his shirt,
slung the waterskin over his back, then checked to make sure both the four-shot and his father’s hand-ax were firmly in place on either hip. He
approached the stone causeway, looked down into the banks of white flowers, and saw the first shadows of evening beginning to pool there. He
imagined himself making that one you-can-never-take-it-back misstep; saw himself whirling his arms in a fruitless effort to keep his balance; felt his
feet first losing the rock and then running on air; heard his scream as the fall began. There would be a few moments to regret all the life he might
have lived, and then—
“Daria,” he said in a small, sick voice, “do I have to?”
No answer, which was answer enough. Tim stepped out over the drop.
The sound of his bootheels on rock was very loud. He didn’t want to look down, but had no choice; if he didn’t mind where he was going,
he would be doomed for sure. The rock bridge was as wide as a village path when he began, but by the time he got to the middle—as he had
feared, although he had hoped it was just his eyes playing tricks—it was only the width of his shor’boots. He tried walking with his arms
outstretched, but a breeze came blowing down the gorge, billowing his shirt and making him feel like a kite about to lift off. He lowered them and
walked on, heel-to-toe and heel-to-toe, wavering from side to side. He became convinced his heart was beating its last frenzied beats, his mind
thinking its last random thoughts.
Mama will never know what happened to me.
Halfway across, the bridge was at its narrowest, also its thinnest. Tim could feel its fragility through his feet, and could hear the wind playing its
pitch pipe along its eroded underside. Now each time he took a step, he had to swing a boot out over the drop.
Don’t freeze, he told himself, but he knew that if he hesitated, he might do just that. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw movement below, and
he did hesitate.
Long, leathery tentacles were emerging from the flowers. They were slate-gray on top and as pink as burned skin underneath. They rose toward
him in a wavery dance—first two, then four, then eight, then a forest of them.
Daria again said, “I advise speed, Tim.”
He forced himself to start walking again. Slowly at first, but faster as the tentacles continued to close in. Surely no beast had a thousand-foot
reach, no matter how monstrous the body hiding down there in the flowers, but when Tim saw the tentacles thinning out and stretching to reach even
higher, he began to hurry. And when the longest of them reached the underside of the bridge and began to fumble its way along it, he broke into a
run.
The waterfall—no longer red, now a fading pinkish-orange—thundered ahead of him. Cold spray spattered his hot face. Tim felt something
caress his boot, seeking purchase, and threw himself forward at the water with an inarticulate yell. There was one moment of freezing cold—it
encased his body like a glove—and then he was on the other side of the falls and back on solid ground.
One of the tentacles came through. It reared up like a snake, dripping . . . and then withdrew.
“Daria! Are you all right?”
“I’m waterproof,” Daria replied with something that sounded suspiciously like smugness.
Tim picked himself up and looked around. He was in a little rock cave. Written on one wall, in paint that once might have been red but had over
the years (or perhaps centuries) faded to a dull rust, was this cryptic notation:
JOHN 3:16
FEER HELL HOPE FOR HEVEN
MAN JESUS
Ahead of him was a short stone staircase filled with fading sunset light. To one side of it was a litter of tin cans and bits of broken machinery—
springs, wires, broken glass, and chunks of green board covered with squiggles of metal. On the other side of the stairs was a grinning skeleton
with what looked like an ancient canteen draped over its ribcage. Hello, Tim! that grin seemed to say. Welcome to the far side of the world! Want a
drink of dust? I have plenty!
Tim climbed the stairs, skittering past the relic. He knew perfectly well it wouldn’t come to life and try to snare him by the boot, as the tentacles
from the flowers had tried to do; dead was dead. Still, it seemed safer to skitter.
When he emerged, he saw that the path once more entered the woods, but he wouldn’t be there for long. Not far ahead, the great old trees pulled
back and the long, long upslope he had been climbing ended in a clearing far larger than the one where the bumblers had danced. There an
enormous tower made of metal girders rose into the sky. At the top was a blinking red light.
“You have almost reached your destination,” Daria said. “The North Forest Kinnock Dogan is three wheels ahead.” That click came again, even
louder than before. “You really must hurry, Tim.”
As Tim stood looking at the tower with its blinking light, the breeze that had so frightened him while crossing the rock bridge came again, only this
time its breath was chilly. He looked up into the sky and saw the clouds that had been lazing toward the south were now racing.
“It’s the starkblast, Daria, isn’t it? The starkblast is coming.”