into the distance like a scattered bolt of mourning crepe. Rocks
and cliffs jutted out of the green tangle of the jungle, poking
forth like trapped creatures seeking to breathe. Kilieshan thrust
skyward in mute silence, steam curling from fissures down the
length of its lava-rock skin. Far distant to the north, a glimpse
of the island’s desert side revealed a harsh, broken surface over
which a blanket of sulfuric mist had been thrown and on which
nothing moved.
The Rover girl and her companion washed and ate a hurried
breakfast, anxious to be off. The day’s heat was already begin-
ning to settle in, chasing the ocean’s breezes back across her
waters. Seabirds glided and swooped about them, casting for
food. Crabs scuttled about the rocks cautiously, seeking shelter
in cracks and crevices. All about, the island was waking up.
Wren and Garth shouldered their packs, checked the read-
iness of their weapons, glanced briefly at each other, and
started in.
The beach faded into a short patch of tall grass that in turn
gave way to a forest of towering acacia. The trunks of the an-
cient trees rose skyward like pillars, running back until distance
gave them the illusion of being a wall. The floor of the forest
was barren and cleared of scrub; storms and risen tides had
washed away everything but the giant trees. Within the acacia,
all was still. The sun was masked yet in the east, and shadows
lay over everything. Wren and Garth walked slowly, steadily
ahead, watchful for any form of danger. They passed out of the
acacia and into a stand of bamboo. They skirted it until they
found a narrowing of the growth and used short swords to hack
their way through. From there they proceeded along a meadow
where the grasses were waist-high and wildflowers grew in col-
orful profusion amid the green. Ahead, the forest rose along the
slopes of Killeshan, trees and brush amid odd formations of lava
rock, all of it disappearing finally into the vog.
The first day passed without incident. They traveled through
open country whenever they could find it, choosing a path
that let them see what they were walking into. They camped that
night in a meadow, comfortably settled on high ground that
again gave them a clear view in all directions. The second day
passed in the same manner as the first. They made good prog-
ress, navigating rivers and streams and climbing ravines and foot-
hills without difficulty. There was no sign of the monsters that
Tiger Ty had warned them about. There were brightly colored
snakes and spiders that were most certainly poisonous, but the
Rovers had dealt with their cousins in other parts of the world
and knew enough to avoid any contact. They heard the harsh
cough of moor cats, but saw nothing. Once or twice predatory
birds flew overhead, but after a series of cursory passes these
hunters soon sped away in search of easier prey. It rained fre-
quently and heavily, but never for very long at one time, and
except for threatening to trap them in dry riverbeds with an
unexpected flash flood or to drop them into newly formed sink-
holes, the rain did little more than cool them off.
All the while the haze blanketing Killeshan’s slopes drew
closer, a promise of harsher things to come.
The third day began in the same way as the two before,
shadowed and still and brooding. The sun rose and was visible
briefly through the trees ahead, a warm and inviting beacon.
Then abruptly it disappeared as the lower edges of the vog de-
scended. The haze was thin and untroubling at first, not much
more than a thickening of the air, a graying of the light. But
slowly it began to deepen, gathering in patches that screened
away everything more than thirty feet from where they walked.
The country grew rougher as the shoreline lowlands and grassy
foothills gave way to slides and drops, and the lava rock turned
crumbly and loose. Footing grew uncertain and the pace slowed.
They ate a hurried, troubled, silent lunch and started out
again cautiously. They tied thick hides about their legs above