But it was not the star-fall they feared. His madness told him it was not, that it was still on its way, and he walked, the same as before. The dying star went beyond and lost itself in the distance of the eastern lowlands, where it became Luz’s problem. But Luz went on talking to him, steadily now, showing him visions that half blinded him to his sight of the road.

“A star just fell,” he said to Luz under his breath, feeling he possibly had her ear for the moment, at this time when Luz must want to know every detail of what transpired. “A star fell toward you. Did you see that? We’re going slowly down the cliffs. If we go faster, we’ll break our necks. Don’t nag me. I need to see. It’s dark. It’s damned dark and bad ground, and the earth is shaking. I’ve told them camp close to the cliffs: if there’s going to be a storm after this, I’m thinking the wind will carry the sand out, not down on us. Am I right?”

He got nothing but the ring of fire, twice repeated. Was that a wind? Was it fire? Was it anything he knew? He had no idea. He heard no answer. But he heard nothing from the voices, either, so perhaps that silence was Luz’s sign that she was thinking about it. It was almost too late for thinking.

He knew that Norit was safe. He felt her presence. He felt, he thought, Lelie’s. Tofi had gotten down and put the tent up.

Small stones slid past him, some striking his ankles, and the ground was loose under his feet, so that at the left edge the slide had bitten deeply into the trail. Panic wanted him to go on, ignore the hazard so long as he and Hati cleared it.

But he stopped. He squatted and methodically moved small stones until he hoped he had reinforced the eroded edge. He knew that tribesmen were behind him, and he hoped they would note that and maintain the trail under their own feet, to keep it fit for those that followed. He did the best he could, and when he had done what he could he got up and continued the downward course—no hurry, no haste, no risk he could avoid.

The earth shivered, and Osan, canny beast, simply sat down, quickly, and so the ones behind sat down, while rocks slid and bounced downslope, and gravel slides piled up against the beshti, not getting past them.