Ran-Del woke with a bad headache. He felt grass under his face, and thought that he was back in the garden, but when he sat up, there were no walls in sight. Instead, he was in a sort of meadow. A clump of silver oaks some distance to his left suggested the presence of water, and the sun on the horizon told Ran-Del that it was early morning. There were no buildings. Except for a blanket on which he lay, and a bundle of bedding behind him, he saw no sign of human habitation at all.
Shangri-La seemed to have disappeared completely. Ran-Del felt a surge of excitement as he realized that Stefan Hayden must have released him from the city. He jumped to his feet eagerly, and found he wasn’t as free as he had thought. A narrow band clasped his left wrist; a length of silver-gray cable attached to it snaked to the ground. When Ran-Del moved the cord to see where it ended, the bundle of bedding moved. Ran-Del heard a low, moaning sound.
He yanked back the blankets and uncovered Francesca Hayden lying on the ground. In the next second, he saw that the other end of the two-meter long cable was attached to a second band that fastened firmly around Francesca’s right wrist.
Francesca moaned again, and held her hand over her eyes. Ran-Del waited tensely while she sat up and looked around. He could tell as easily from her expression as from his psy sense that she was as surprised as he was to find herself in these circumstances.
“Damn,” she said, groaning. “I’m sorry, Ran-Del. I’m afraid my father is a hopeless romantic.”