“They actually make things for themselves?” I ask.
“Some do,” she answers. “Others just take what they want from the weak.”
“Survival of the fittest.”
“That’s life in the Barrens,” she says before abruptly changing the subject. “I don’t want to go to our next stop.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“I want to talk to the Aerodyne. Let’s go to the river.”
“That’s almost one hundred thousand miles from here,” I argue.
“If they’ve seen her,” she says, “that’s one hundred thousand miles we don’t have to search. They fly from the river to the outer ends of their domain along the southern barrier. If they haven’t seen anything, we only lose one morrow asking them.”
“Wouldn’t they have killed her if they saw her?”
“Not if she stayed off their land.”
“I guess it’s worth a try,” I say.
Sash glances up at the sky and then back at me. “Darkness is coming. We need to get out of this area.”
“Hop on,” I say to Maya, turning my back to her and crouching low to the ground.
In a routine we’re all too familiar with, she’s fastened in the traveling harness in a matter of seconds. As soon as her hands clasp across my chest, I charge down the side of the hill. I can’t get into my blend after only a few strides the way Sash can, but I don’t have any trouble staying neck and neck with her once we get going.
Before the first drops of rain plummet down, five hundred miles of gloomy wasteland is behind us. What I estimate to be forty thousand miles per hour isn’t an uncommon speed for us to reach during our treks through the Barrens. At times, I think we get closer to fifty. I base that estimate on how fast we can reach the edge of the Infinite Expanse if that’s where our starting point for the morrow is. But with the limited light of Darkness, twenty thousand is probably our top speed.
Anytime Darkness falls while we have Maya with us, we weave through open spaces in an unpredictable path. As Sash once told Larn, our speed is what keeps us safe in the realm of the Murkovin, so we never come to a standstill during Darkness. But instead of traveling in a circle around our next stop like we usually do while waiting for light to return, we blaze a path to the east.
By the time the rainfall ends and the murky light of the Barrens returns, we’re halfway along the southern barrier to the river. Once bright rays fill our vision again, we cover the next fifty thousand miles in a little over an hour. After I follow Sash over the top of a hill, we come to a stop in a wide-open space at the bottom.
No more than a mile to the south of us, fluctuating, semi-opaque colors tint an otherwise gray sky. Below the barrier to the Expanse, the upper ledge of a cliff extends to the west as far as I can see. Between us and the edge of the cliff, the ground is blanketed by tiny black crystalline rocks that look like they came from the black sand beaches of Hawaii.
Starting halfway between us and the edge of the cliff and spaced about a hundred yards apart, enormous, fern-like plants grow from the ground. The dark-purple plants are roughly three times my height and have leaves that are large enough to wrap around my body. Splattered on the leaves are bright yellow spores the size of peas. The roots of the ferns seem to be almost entirely above ground and extend across and rocky dirt like they’re the tendrils of an octopus in search of something. A thunderous whoosh of water resonates across the land all around us.
“What’s that sound?” I ask Sash.
“The Great Falls,” she answers. “We’re not far.”
After Maya climbs off my back, I look towards the east. Flashes of light reflect off the waves of the river in the distance. White foam sprays from the frothing water where the river spills over the side of the cliff.
The undulating colors of the barrier to the Expanse stop at the edge of the river closest to us and begin again on the other side. Through the mist-filled air above the Great Falls, seven spectacular rainbows arc high into the sky and curve out over the Expanse. The rainbows aren’t two-dimensional lines of refracted color like they are on Earth. These seem to have volume, as though each individual color is a chromatic spotlight that blends with the next.
“The rainbows are amazing!” Maya exclaims.
Sash turns her face to Maya. “I know it’s hard on you being out here, but at least you’re getting to see a lot of incredible things that many never get to see.”
“Is the entire width of the river the Gateway to the Expanse?” I ask Sash.
“The Falls are the Gateway,” she answers. “There’s no need for a barrier over them. The water drops over a mile with sharp rocks below. Not even a Serquatine would survive going over the waterfall. The only way through this Gateway is to fly on the back of an Aerodyne.”
“Is the Stone of Passage near here?” I ask.
Sash shakes her head. “There’s not one on this side of the river. I don’t want to waste time going all the way up to the Stone Crossing and then back down. I’ll try to summon an Aerodyne another way. Follow me and make sure not to step foot in their domain.”
“How do we know where their domain is?”
“Do you know what a geyser is?” she asks.
“Yeah, we have them on Earth.”
“Once you pass the first geyser, you’re in their domain. The ferns all grow close to geyser holes.”
“I’ve never seen an Aerodyne in person,” Maya says.
“They’re fascinating
