after coming to Sanctuary. He’d be happy if he never had to get on another one.
The trees were perhaps fifteen or twenty deep from the river’s’ edge. They
dismounted, removed the saddles, and hobbled the beasts again. Then they walked
through the tall cane-like plants, brushing away the flies and other pestiferous
insects, until they got to the stream itself. Here grew stands of high reeds,
and on a hummock of spongy earth was Smhee’s boat. It was a dugout which could
hold only two.
‘Stole it,’ Smhee said without offering any details.
She looked through the reeds down the river. About a quarter of a mile away, the
river broadened to become a lake about two and a half miles .across. In its
centre was the Isle of Shugthee, a purplish mass of rock. From this distance,
she could not make out its details.
Seeing it, she felt coldness ripple over her.
‘I’d like to take a whole day and a night to scout it,’ he said. ‘So you could
become familiar with it, too. But we don’t have time. However, I can tell you
everything I know. I wish I knew more.’
She doffed her clothes and bathed in the river while Smhee unhobbled the horses
and took them some distance up to let them drink. When she came back, she found
him just returning with them.
‘Before dusk comes, we’ll have to move them down to a point opposite the isle,’
he said. ‘And we’ll saddle them, too.’
They left the horses to go to a big boulder outside the trees but distant from
the road. At its base was a hollow large enough for them to lie down in. Here
they slept, waking now and then to talk softly or to eat a bite or to go behind