Beko laughed. It had the taint of madness to it, but they all took it up and enjoyed the venting of emotion, amazed that they had made it, traumatized by the climb. Nomi felt sick and exhausted, and it was only now that she appreciated how weary the others looked. And they had been fighting as well as climbing.

Her laughter turned to tears, and the Serians did not notice because they also wept.

HER BODY NEEDED nothing more than rest, but Nomi could not allow that. Rhiana guessed they had climbed almost three miles, and the other Serians agreed, and Nomi found it incredible that such a short distance could separate two worlds.

They followed the line of the cliff to the west to begin with, finding no signs that anyone else had ever climbed this far. The first time they saw animal life, the Serians tensed, bearing their weapons against what was revealed as a herd of heavily horned goats. The animals scampered out of a gully a hundred steps to the south and wandered toward them, fearless and calm. Even when they started walking again, the goats simply watched them go.

There were birds up here, all of species strange to them. They twittered and whistled, sang and called, and for a while Nomi and the others were buzzed by a playful flock of small ocher birds. One of them landed on Beko's shoulder, another alighted on Rhiana's head, and after eating seeds from Nomi's palm they disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. She had plucked the seeds from a plant she did not know: stout green stem, wide white flowers, a bright red central seedpod.

I wish Ramus were here with me, she thought, and she felt a sudden pressure behind her eyes. How useless to let it go the way it had! How foolish, how stupid! They had let their closeness drive wedges between them—irrational jealousies and unforgivable betrayals destroying such a special, unique relationship. They had started this voyage together and they should still be together, here and now, to witness the wonders of this new land. There were much greater things than her and Ramus, if only the two of them had acknowledged that.

But I killed him. She thought of the agony of the sickness she had passed on. Hardly the gift of a friend.

“I wonder if Lulah and Ramus made it up,” Beko said.

“I was thinking the same.” Nomi looked past him to the east, the lush greenness atop the plateau to her right, the soft sea of cloud cover stretching toward the horizon on her left. “If he did, he'd have gone inland. I'm sure there's plenty to explore.”

“Look!” Rhiana said.

Nomi followed where she was pointing, and at first she saw nothing. A few goats on a small, distant slope, green grass spotted with purple and pink plants, sprays of white flowers here and there among the grass, trees . . .