Francesca climbed down from the lamel’s back feeling almost as stiff and sore as she had at the end of a day walking with Ran-Del.
“How are you?” Ran-Del asked, helping her down.
“All right.”
Isayah Jahanpur appeared behind them. “Come with me, Ran-Del. The others will make camp. I need to hear your story.”
Ran-Del waited while Francesca finished stretching and then took her arm to lead her after his grandfather.
Isayah sat down on a grassy patch of ground in the open. Around him, the Sansoussy warriors were gathering wood, building fires, laying out blankets, and preparing food. Francesca's stomach reminded her how hungry she was as she sank to the ground.
“Now,” Isayah said, “tell me what happened, Ran-Del. You left us in the morning and never returned.”
Ran-Del sat cross-legged across from his grandfather. “I was hunting. I had my bow, and I had just seen what could have been a tree bear, when the air between two trees split open and there were people there with strange machines.”
Isayah frowned and then turned to Francesca. “How is this possible?”
She shrugged, feeling inadequate as a technology translator. “Pop didn’t fill me in on the details of how he planned to abduct Ran-Del. It sounds as if he had a force-field blind set up, like a hunter uses when he goes after game. It’s virtually invisible until you turn it off, which you have to do in order to fire your weapons.”
Isayah turned back to Ran-Del. “Go on. What happened when the air split open?”
“One of the men shot me with a dart.” Ran-Del went on to relate the details of the event. “When I woke up,” he concluded, “it was much later that same day, and I was in Shangri-La.”
Isayah looked amazed. “In less than one day?”
Ran-Del nodded.
“Go on,” Isayah said. “What happened next?”
Francesca listened while Ran-Del described the events of the last six days. Her home sounded exotic and alien. She hadn’t realized that Ran-Del’s world hadn’t prepared him for the concept of a corridor, and that a ride in a lift would seem a mysterious experience. If they made it all the way to the Sansoussy Forest, would she find it as strange as he had found her home?
Isayah listened, asking questions from time to time, but not making any comments of his own. His face looked grim when Ran-Del described using the Fifth Discipline, but he didn’t stop his grandson to ask any questions about that episode.
Ran-Del arrived at the point in his narrative when Francesca had bathed in the stream. He didn’t mention the incident that had occurred between them, but his face reflected embarrassment. Francesca was amused and wondered how much Isayah understood. The older man looked from his grandson’s face to hers and nodded his head as if in answer to an unspoken question.
“And that’s all, Grandfather,” Ran-Del went on. “We woke up this morning and started traveling. I could tell someone was headed toward us some time ago, but I couldn’t tell who it was.”
Isayah sat back. “Father will want to hear you tell it all again when we get you back.” He smiled at Ran-Del with affection. “Your grandmother will be relieved to see you. She’s been very worried.”
Ran-Del let out a deep breath. “I was worried myself. I didn’t think I’d ever get away.”
“You’re not home yet,” Francesca said. “Pop doesn’t give up easily, and you’ve still got me with you.”
Isayah raised his eyebrows. “We mean you no harm, Francesca, but we can’t take Ran-Del home without taking you, also. Once my father has freed the two of you, he will undoubtedly send you back to your city.”
“I can understand that,” Francesca said. “I just hope Pop will think it through before he acts.”
Isayah shrugged. “We’ll do what we can to prevent a misunderstanding. Meanwhile, we’ll move as fast as we can to get back home.”
Kishor, the young warrior who had brought the lamel, was busy doling out food to everyone. Isayah called it trail rations, and Ran-Del identified it more specifically as dried meat and dried fruit on a small slice of vegetable bread. Francesca ate greedily as soon as she received her share, and she noticed that Ran-Del seemed in just as much of a hurry. Isayah watched them curiously.
“Did you eat at all on the trail?” he asked.
Ran-Del nodded. “I shot an animal called a paca the first day, and we found a unicorn carcass on the second day. I had no luck this morning.”
Francesca felt compelled to defend his skill. “Ran-Del did very well once I stopped spoiling his aim. The cable was a real handicap for him.”
Isayah seemed to derive amusement from this comment, and Ran-Del looked embarrassed again.
“After you’re free of that, Ran-Del,” Isayah said, touching the flexitron with one hand, “you and I will have a talk.”
Ran-Del looked mortified. “Yes, Grandfather,” he said, ducking his head.
Francesca stared at him, perplexed, wondering why he seemed so chagrined. He said nothing, and she let it go.
They prepared for sleep much as they had before they encountered the Sansoussy, except that the presence of so many other people made Francesca and Ran-Del's enforced closeness awkward in a way that it hadn’t been before. In spite of the cold, Francesca was reluctant to move nearer to Ran-Del to stay warm. Instead, she pulled the blanket up tightly around her, sighed, and went to sleep wishing that it were just the two of them lying under the light of Haven’s four moons.