Enid said, “The airship was seen crossing the channel to the next island north. Whether the ship returned to Haven or stopped among the islands, we don’t yet know, though it won’t take long for our friends to find out.”
Melanie had been talking with others in the room, but now she returned, asking them to hurry. “Will you go with us?” she asked Enid, who turned away from her with an expression of revulsion.
“I’ve seen enough of it,” said Enid angrily. “She seems all right! Why don’t you just tell her about it? Why put her through . . .”
“She has to see it,” said Melanie firmly. “If she is to understand, she must see. I’ll take her, and Joncaster can drive.”
“Oh, yes, I’ll drive,” said Joncaster. “But Enid has the right of it.”
Enid shrugged, took Genevieve’s hand and squeezed it almost hurtfully, then abruptly left the table.
Melanie waited while Genevieve finished the last of the food before her. “Joncaster and Enid are intellectual heirs of the environmental engineers on the ark ship, those responsible for maintenance of the machines that kept our cargo alive.” This had a rehearsed sound to it, as though she had offered the explanation more than once.
“Oh, I like that,” said Joncaster, with a wry twist of his lips. “Intellectual heirs. She says that just to cheer us. We’re more like persistent fumblers. Trial-and-error tinkerers. Luckily, the machines we have today are practically foolproof, or we’d never make them work.”
“Where do you get them?” asked Genevieve.
“Well, though we continually expect to be caught at it, we usually steal them from Haven. That’s where we get sand-sleds, one of which we’ll be using today. Come along. Melanie’s right. We should leave before the wind rises. The sleds weren’t designed to work in places as dusty as this, and they need constant fiddling with to keep them running.”
Genevieve put on the hooded robe that Melanie handed her, the one with Aufors’s smell to it, the one she had worn when she arrived, though the malghaste rags had been removed. They went out through the atrium to the rooms on the far side, a dormitory, a library, and down the hall between them into another wide, low room, this one reeking of oil and chemicals. The sleds rested before an overhead door, their tops only inches off the floor, and Joncaster showed Genevieve how to arrange herself by lying prone on the padded deck that slanted slightly upward to a pillowed chin rest. Her arms went on either side of the rest. Melanie lay on her right and Joncaster on her left, his hands on the controls, which were in a shallow well before him. He moved a lever and the overhead door rose slowly until it was just above their heads.
Genevieve wriggled uncomfortably, and he waited while she pulled her robe flat beneath her, saying, “For spying purposes, we’ve modified the sled to have a low profile. We removed the superstructure, took off the railings, turned the foot-operated controls into hand controls, padded the floor . . .”
His words were lost in a rush of air as they left the shed, skimming out beneath the door and darting away around a dune, immediately losing any sight of the refuge behind them.
“I hope you know where you’re going,” muttered Melanie.
“I have the desert well in mind, madam. I will not lose you in it.”
Melanie continued unrepentently. “I trust someone found the flags?”
“Yes, Melanie. Of course, Melanie. I did. Early this morning. We’ll pick them up at the farthest point south from Mahahm-qum. The procession won’t reach it until afternoon.”
“I walked for days,” cried Genevieve. “And we can cover the distance in a morning?”
“You didn’t really walk,” soothed Melanie. “You stumbled, mostly, up and down dunes, through heavy sand. As the bird flies, we are not actually very far from Mahahm-qum.”
Though Genevieve had a dozen questions she wanted to ask, the air was so full of grit that talking was impossible. Instead, she followed Melanie’s example by lowering her hood over her eyes and turning her head to one side, resting it on the chin rest as on a pillow. Joncaster was the only one of them who had goggles, and even he soon wound a strip of fabric over his nose and mouth.