"To my people, of course. Perhaps they will allow me to return now. Every one of us will be needed to counteract the two Earth minds working with the Faith."
"Ugh!" Eldon grunted, furious over her reiterated hints that Margaret—his Margaret, for she had come to him that last night on Earth—was Of the Faith.
They continued walking in strained silence.
"Can't you remember anything?" she asked again, her lips trembling. "About the Thin World? That you are El-ve-don?"
"No."
His tone was unintentionally sharp, for he was irked by his inability to remember. There was something—something he couldn't quite grasp. She responded by bursting into a flood of tears and he stared at her, astonished. She had seemed such a well-balanced girl, one who did not cry easily. And so healthy and active too. But now—
She was still sobbing intermittently when three heavily armed men stepped from among the trees and approached with swords and blast rods drawn.
Eldon tensed instantly at their hostile attitude, and though he was unarmed he prepared to resist.
But Krasna grasped his arm. "No. They are my people. We must go with them quietly."
With a guard on either side and the third behind they were hustled through the forest. Krasna stumbled occasionally and Eldon took her arm. They were not allowed to speak to each other, and the guards were so watchful they seemed almost afraid of their unarmed prisoners.