They rode on beneath the clouds, only able to make out the position of the sun from the paler, lighter spread of sky to the west. And the closer they drew to the Divide, the closer the sun came to touching the cliff, until the time came when shadows grew even deeper, the air cooler, and the Great Divide cast its shadowy influence over them.

“I've heard things—” Lulah began, but Ramus cut her off.

“It's not true.”

“How do you know? How many people do you know who have returned from where we are right now?”

“One,” he said. “But that's proof enough for me.”

“I don't know,” Lulah said, shivering. She pulled a rolled blanket from her saddle and placed it loose around her shoulders, ready to throw it off should the birds approach again. “I don't know, I feel different. Don't you? Can't you feel the shadow?”

“It's cooler,” Ramus said. He looked down at the ground and saw that grasses had given way to moss and a type of stumpy herb, with wide leaves and a thick, low stem. “The sun doesn't shine here for very long. But that doesn't mean anything.”

Lulah shook her head but seemed unconvinced.

The flora changed rapidly the closer they rode to the Great Divide. Ramus knew that there would come a place soon where the sun never shone, through all the seasons of the year. A place where the shadow of the Divide always fell, and where its influence dictated what could live there, and what could not. That would be where Lulah made her choice.

And can I assume I'll pass by that place without a moment's doubt?

He knew that the answer was yes. He was going to be the greatest Voyager of them all. And though nobody would remember his name, that had never really been his desire. For Ramus, the thrill of discovery was a very personal thing.

IT WAS ALMOST dusk when they reached the place where much of the flora changed. If Lulah noticed, she said nothing, and Ramus did not bring it to her attention. By then the Divide dominated their view, rising high before them until it disappeared into the cloud cover, and stretching left and right as far as they could see. It was magnificent and terrible, awe-inspiring and shocking. And the thought of climbing that great cliff almost made Ramus weep.

He kept thinking that they were close enough to see surface imperfections that could mark a route up the Divide, but then they would ride for another hour and still seem to be no closer. Perspective was shattered by the wall of rock.

The end of Noreela, Ramus thought. He tried to imagine what he would see if this cloud cover ever shifted or faded away.