“Thanks,” he said, and closed his eyes and allowed sleep to come back in on waves. And this time the dreams did not follow and he slept soundly.

CHAPTER 51

He woke, or half-woke, to the sound of Chris in the other raft, saying, “So weird. I always need to pee first thing, but this morning, not a bit.”

Even still lost on the edges of sleep, Tom smiled, and more as Chloe said, “Well, that’s a relief for all of us.”

Closer, Barney said, “It’s because we’re all dehydrated.”

Tom became conscious of Alice’s hand still in his. He opened his eyes and looked around. It was daylight, but he was already becoming familiar enough with the subtle tonal shifts that he could tell it hadn’t been light for long. Alice was sleeping next to him, and most of the others were still asleep but they all started to stir now at the sound of voices.

Alice woke and released his hand and stretched.

“Morning,” said Tom.

“Good morning,” she said, smiling before a little frown crossed her face. “I feel like something died in my mouth.”

With a comical flourish, Barney handed her a tube of toothpaste. “Multipurpose—it’ll also ward off the hunger.”

She took it, smiling. “You’re a genius, Barney.”

Tom glanced forward to where Kate and Jess were rowing, then at the river around them. It looked no different, as though they’d traveled no distance at all since darkness had fallen. They seemed to be at the start of a long shallow bend to the right, but even that was a repeat of the section they’d been on when the sun had set.

Everyone was awake now, everyone except Perro, who was curled up contentedly in the middle of the raft. A couple of tubes of toothpaste were being passed around, and then the remaining drinks.

Alice said, “How’s Nick?”

It was Nick’s own voice that came from the bottom of the other raft. “I’m doing okay.”

“Good,” Alice called back, even as Shen gave her a grave look, contradicting his patient’s assessment of how he was doing.

Ironically, though, despite their situation being marginally worse, the whole group seemed in better spirits this morning, most of them chatting amiably, Chris and Chloe even bickering in a good-humored way. Only Joel seemed oddly quiet, a satisfied expression on his face that was hard to fathom.

Tom took some of the toothpaste Alice offered him, happy that it had freshened his mouth but pretty certain it had only made his hunger worse. He looked forward again, where the shallow bend was revealing one slight change—the river seemed to be opening even wider as they rounded it.

He said, “Would either of you like a break from rowing?”

Jess turned with a smile. “We haven’t been doing it long. We took over from Sandeep and Barney.”