“How do you know so much about Ark One?”

“Haven't you guessed? You strangers with your Esper powers! We are the slaves who escaped from the city. From the stun guns of the soldiers and the whips of the Lords.”

“You were all slaves?” The Initiator looked around the ring of people, shadowy in the dying firelight.

“Not all of us. Rowan, Groundsel, Arbor, and all the little ones you see - they were born free. But for the rest of us the memory is still fresh. When we eat our food in freedom and breathe the clean air, we cannot forget those who are still inside. Our freedom is bitter.”

The fire was a drift of white ash over a heap of red charcoal. Ruth saw the expression on the Initiator's face dimly, but she knew what she was thinking. That one of the Arks should have failed so completely! It hadn't preserved civilization at all. It had mirrored its worse excesses. Was she also wondering about the success of Ark Three? Into Ruth's mind came the voice of Healhand. 'What use is your Esper skill? No more use than the soldiers or slave-drivers.'

“We are very tired,” she said at last, since the Initiator still did not speak. “Could we sleep and talk again in the morning?''

“Of course. There is always a spare hut, and enough furs to keep you warm.” Healhand got to her feet and beckoned them to follow her.

Later, resting on a wooden bed heaped with furs, Ruth couldn't sleep in spite of her tiredness. The freedom song went round and round in her head. That's funny, she thought. There's a verse missing. One they didn't sing.

AFTER A breakfast of berries and flat cakes she asked Rowan about it.

“How funny you should know that. But you're quite right.

Different slaves bring different parts of the song with them. Stargazer brought us one from the muck shovellers of level Five. I wonder if it was that.”

Ruth sang the verse that had run through her mind all year.

“So the Freedom Man dreamed out of the Ark,

Over the hills so shady.

Into the light and out of the dark

To be with his red-haired lady.

It's like the one you sang last night, but a bit different. Why, whatever's the matter?”

Rowan was blushing. Her face and shoulders were flooded with colour. She looked up and her eyes shone. “You've seen him? Tomi?”

“No. Though I know his name ... “

“Then where did you get that song?” She grabbed Ruth's arms as if she were about to shake her.

“Through my dreams ... I dream of you often, but not as if I were Ruth, but as someone else ... someone I think of as Tomi.”