The mysterious creature that had visited them had given Gaby some bad moments. She thought at first it might have been one of Gaea's tools, like the obscene little creature that greeted new pilgrims in the hub. Now she doubted that. More likely it was one of Gaea's sports. She spent more and more of her time dreaming up biological jokes to unleash on the rim. Such as the buzz bombs. There was a nasty bit of business.
When she questioned Cirocco as to how the audience had gone, the Wizard seemed reasonably confident all was well.
"I built up her ego as carefully as I could. I wanted to leave her with the thought that she was far above Gaea so she won't even deign to talk next time Gaea calls. If she doesn't talk, she can't tell her I was there."
"You didn't tell her not to tell, I hope."
"Give me some credit, will you? I think I understand her as well as anyone can. No, I kept it all open and as routine as possible, considering I had second-degree burns over half my body the last time I left her. Incidentally, you can put a big black X by her name, if you haven't already."
"Are you kidding? I didn't even put her on the list."
Cirocco closed her eyes for a moment. She rubbed her forehead. "Next is Crius, and another X. I don't think this is going to go anywhere, Gaby."
"I never said it would. But we at least have to try."
The wind blew them past the long line of small islands dotting central Nox, then died away. For nearly a day they waited for it to return. When it did not, Gaby ordered everyone, including Cirocco, to the oars.
The valve began to open after they had been working at it for twenty revs. Contrary to what might have been expected, no torrent of water spilled out the rapidly widening hole above them. The valve was like a sponge. It soaked up the big thaw, and when it dilated, the water was squeezed out gradually. It emerged in a billion streams and broke into droplets. From there the process was complex, with cold water and chilled air hitting warm air masses below, moving inexorably downward. Since they were east of the valve though only slightly-the worst of the resulting storms and torrential rain tended away from them at first, moving as Robin had moved when she took the Big Drop: westward, toward Hyperion. It was impossible to know when the winds would become dangerous.
The fate of the debris littering the valve's upper surface could be determined by simple physical equations. When it hit, it would make quite a splash. Some of the "debris" would be entire trees bigger than redwoods. Gaby knew it would not be a problem since it was relatively unaffected by atmospheric friction and would tend to fall to the west.
They put their backs into it, even when the expected breeze developed, and watched the storm descending. It fell for hours, met the sea, and began to ooze out like an inverted mushroom cloud.
They began to encounter waves and stray gusts that whipped the tough fabric of the sail. Gaby could see the rain approaching, hear the steady hissing get louder. When it hit, it was like a wall of water. What her father had called a "frog-strangler" a long time ago.
The wind was not as bad as she had feared, but she knew it could get much worse. They were still a kilometer from land. Those who were not rowing began using the poles to feel for the bottom. When they found it, the Titanides left the oars to the humans and began poling the raft toward shore. Beaching it was going to be tricky since there were waves two meters high by now, but there were no rocks or reefs to worry about. Soon Hornpipe jumped into the water with a rope, swam to shore, and began hauling.
Gaby was beginning to think it was going to be routine after all when a wave crested the stern and swept Robin into the water. Chris was nearest; he jumped into the water and quickly reached her. Gaby went to help him get back aboard, but he decided it would be easier at that point to take Robin straight to the beach. He rode the waves into shallow water, helped her stand up, and they both were knocked down by a big breaker. For a moment Gaby could not find them; then Chris came up with Robin in his arms and carried her up beyond the reach of the surf. He set her on her feet, and she promptly went to her knees, coughing, but waving him away.
The Titanides got Constance onto the beach and spent five minutes dancing through the increasingly angry waves to get everything off. The sail was whipped away when they tried to take it down. Otherwise, everything was salvaged.
"Well, we came through that with some luck," Cirocco said when they had found a campsite on high ground with plenty of trees to break the wind. "Anything lost, aside from the sail?"
"One side of my pack came open," Valiha said. "There was water damage, and Chris's tent rests with the fishes now." She looked so mournful that Chris couldn't help laughing.
"He can double up with me," Robin said. Gaby had not expected that. She eyed Robin, who did not look up from the cup of hot coffee in her hands. She sat close to the small fire the Titanides had built, a blanket over her shoulders, looking like a drowned rat.
"I imagine you critters will want to stay in the tents this time," Cirocco suggested, looking from one Titanide to the other.
"If you critters will have us," Psaltery said. "Though I suspect you're going to be very boring company."
Gaby yawned. "I suspect you're right. What do you say, little ones? Shall we crawl into bed and be boring?"
Gaby had become the leader of the expedition through Cirocco's refusal to have anything to do with it. Since resigning her captaincy, Cirocco had never been eager to accept that sort of responsibility, though she still did well when such a position was forced on her. Now she would not even discuss it; Gaby was in charge, and that was that. Gaby accepted it, did not even become annoyed when the Titanides involuntarily looked toward Cirocco when Gaby told them what to do. They couldn't help it. She was the Wizard, but they would do what Gaby said so long as it was clear Cirocco had no objection.
And Cirocco was improving. The mornings were still the worst. Since she spent more time sleeping than anyone else, she had more mornings to contend with. She looked like death when she woke up. Her hands shook, and her eyes darted around, searching for help and not finding it. Her sleep was not much better. Gaby had heard her crying out in the night. But it was something she had to handle herself. What concerned Gaby at the moment was a simple matter of routes. They had landed at the northern bend of Long Bay. When Gaby sailed Nox, she always put into Snake Bay, the narrowing finger that led to the Ophion outflow. A rocky neck of land separated the two. Overland it was only five kilometers to the river. Following the beach would be at least twenty-five. She did not know this region well, could not remember if the beach extended all the way around. While she thought there was a pass between the rocky crags to the north, she was not sure of that either. Then there was the storm. The wind would be very bad if they followed the beach. Overland there would be mud and slippery trails to contend with, and the deeper darkness of the forest.
She waited a few hours to see if the storm would abate, consulted with Cirocco-who knew no more about it than Gaby-then ordered the camp broken and told Psaltery to strike out overland.
She never found out if it had been the best choice, but it was not a bad one. They had to pick their route carefully in several places. Yet the land was not as rugged as it had looked. They emerged on the southern beach of Snake Bay. It was not much of a beach-the bay was as sheer-sided as a Norwegian fjord-but she knew her way from there. The Circum-Gaea rejoined Ophion at that point after having made its way through North Rhea and down through the tortuous passes of the western Nemesis Mountains.