As if they would, thought Ruth. She had noticed already how closely the other nineteen stayed together, as if to make up in physical closeness for the waning power of the Web.

They stopped for a meal at noon and drank the small amount of water that they had carried with them from the last stream they had passed.

“Now we're committed,” said Luke, with a tight smile. “We have to climb over the top of this ridge and down the other side to get more water.”

They set out again in silence. The dark trees slipped by as they climbed. Their feet made no sound on a mulch of fallen pine needles. They stepped on fallen trees that fell apart into orange powder at their touch. It was very still.

They climbed doggedly on, longing to be clear of the sombre trees, but it seemed that no matter how far they climbed the same trees loomed ahead of them.

“Luke, are you sure we're not going round in circles?”

“Will we really reach the river before nightfall?”

“We're climbing straight and we'll make it. According to the map the river's only fourteen kilometres from our last camp. ''

“On the map. The map's flat.”

“I know. I've taken that into account. It can't be much farther.”

Even Ruth's weak Esper power could detect the doubt in Luke's voice. She began to count her steps, as she had done in training back on Ark Three. Eighteen steps to a flight. Pause for breath on the landing. Eighteen steps up to the next. Eighteen times five makes ninety. No, the fifth floor had higher ceilings, didn't it? Ninety-six steps from the lowest level up to the Dome. Around the outside and down the next flight.

The problem was that it wasn't like that out here. Here you just climbed and climbed. She stopped, her hands pressed against her aching thighs. Then she gritted her teeth and began to count again. One, two, three . . . ninety-five, ninety-six. And again.

There was a cry, and she looked up to see Luke silhouetted against the sky. He had reached the top. She could see sky and more sky, and it was suddenly easy to speed up and join him. From the ridge where they stood they could see fold after fold of mountain, twisted and distorted by ancient forces and worn by time to smooth tops covered with the dark blanket of pine.

“We’ll never climb over that, never!”

“We don't have to,” Luke assured her. “We've already done the hardest part of the journey. Look down in the valley. Can you see that river?”

A white thread curling among the crumpled shapes. “Yes.”

“That's our road. Along that valley.”

“But that's not the way. It…” Ruth struggled with her feelings. “It feels all wrong. We shouldn't be going to the left.”