Her dream hand reached out and felt for a latch. A door Swung open and she felt against her face a gust of sweet cool air. But then she was back in the familiar nightmare, crossing a bridge over a raging river, knowing that the bridge was going to break - no, not break, but somehow tip her into the waters below.

She woke with a jolt and sat up. Had she yelled out? Apparently not. The other four lay still. She listened to their breathing for a while and then slid out of the tent, picking up her boots as she went.

The ground was noisy with leaves and twigs. She crept away from the tents and found herself in another glade, from which she could see the sky. The moon was up, a little more than half full, and she could see only the brightest stars. Ursa Major sprawled above her head. Arcturus cold and white. She had seen those stars in her dream, in the same parts of the sky. Somewhere, not far away, was a concrete bridge across a fast deep river ...

She stared cast towards the triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair. Tomi, do you hear me? I am here. We are coming.

A breeze shivered through the trees. Suddenly, clearly in her waking mind, she saw a face. It was the red-headed girls. A word came to her mind ... Rowan. Was the girl saying it? What did it mean? She felt for a minute warm and yet deeply sad. Then the feeling and the vision were gone as if someone had switched off a light.

At breakfast next day she asked, “What is a rowan, does anyone know?”

“It's a tree,” Athena answered. “Of the order Rosaceae, with pinnate leaves and white flowers borne in umbels, followed by clusters of red berries. Sometimes known as Mountain Ash. Why?”

“I don't know. It just came to my mind.”

The seventh day was a slow struggle up a brush-covered col between two mountains. Now they no longer followed the river there were no landmarks to guide them. Following Luke's map they had turned north-north-east, so that it seemed that they were getting further and further away from their destination. Halfway through the day they crossed another of the ancient roads and, just before they made camp for the night, they crossed a second. They both led south, over the crumpled mountains and down to the plain and the old cities that lay beyond. From this place they could look back down the long valley up which they had struggled for nearly three days.

“Let's camp here for the night.”

“No,” said the Initiator. “We will grow weaker if we look back. We must go on until we can see ahead.”