Riding over the land, it had been a breathless whistling of wind, a
swift surging of the ground beneath Frannie's feet. Here in the lake it
was quiet and calm; the warm lapping of the silver-streaked water; the
quiet stars overhead. Frannie heard Rokk talking back over his shoulder
to Leela, and then Leela drew in her mount and spoke to Frannie.
"He says the giants have all gone back through Reaf to their own world.
One was wading out here toward Reaf. He was very large then; he is to
stay in Reaf on guard, while we go on. He is there now--it is not far."
"How big are we, Leela? Did he say?" There was no way, here in the
lake, by which size could be compared. The exaltation of the ride--its
swift, tempestuous movement--the wild, romantic fantasy of it--all this
was leaving Frannie. A depression was upon her. She added, "Oh, Leela,
Brett did not see us! And Frank--will we ever see them again?"
Leela said, "We are about twice normal size--it will not be far to
Reaf, swimming like this." In the starlight, Frannie could see that
Leela was smiling; a wistful, heavy-hearted smile. She was trying to be
brave. And Frannie smiled back.
"We mustn't get frightened, Leela. Just watch our chance--try to
escape. You stay by me all you can. I mean--when we get"--there was a
catch in her voice--"when we get--under the mountains beyond Reaf."
Leela nodded. Rokk was calling, and Leela urged her dhrane forward.
Soon the left-hand shore and the mountains ahead were visible. The
water grew warmer. Small islands appeared. The dhranes panted with the
heat of the water; in the muddy channels between the islands, sometimes
they floundered. Steam was in the air; ahead it lay like a bank of fog,
with the frowning mountains rising above it.
Presently, through the fog, the houses of Reaf came into view. Small
ghostly outlines of houses on stilts. To the right of them was a
yawning black mouth where one of the rivers plunged into the mountain.
The turgid current was swinging that way; Rokk urged the dhrane across
it, to the left.
Soon they were swimming among the houses. These seemed very small.
Frannie reached up from the dhrane's back and laid her hand on the
roof of one as she passed it. Rokk was heading inshore. The mountain
here was a frowning cliff-face, with a very narrow ledge at the water
level. The ledge ended in a wooden incline bridge leading upward to a
group of buildings near shore. Six or eight small houses with doors
and rectangles of windows, clustered there together, perched on stiff
wooden legs over the water. The incline bridge connected them with the
shore, and they were strung together by a broad wooden platform.
Rokk shouted, and from behind the buildings a giant appeared. He had
been sitting in the water. He stood up, with mud and slime dripping
from him. A man, like Rokk, but younger. His hair was sleek and black,
and fell long to his bared chest, across which a skin was draped. His
face was broad and flat, and hairless. He stood with the water to his
knees, beside the buildings with his arm arched over their roofs as he
leaned against them.