Dawn was breaking over Zitra as he emerged from the pyramid and made his way swiftly north.
Dawn was breaking over Berla when he reached it. It struck him through a tiny orifice for ventilation high in the wall, and fell in a golden shaft of light across the dungeon in which Naia of Aphur prayed to Ga, Mother of Life Eternal, for aid.
Then as she moved and rose from her knees, he called her, as always:
"Beloved."
Naia of Aphur heard, and smiled. Seating herself beside the child, she let the soul of her womanhood steal forth.
"Jason, Jason," she cried, the flame of life within her swiftly glowing with the meaning of his presence, "you come to me with the dawn, from whence, my dear one?"
And Jason Croft answered her simply, "From earth."
"And?" She stood before him—searching his soul for some hint of those things he had brought within it. "Jason—"
Croft replied to that appeal in almost cryptic fashion, yet knowing she would understand. "True, woman who prays to Ga for courage, it is a new dawn for us indeed."
"Praise Zitu." She wavered toward him. For a moment it was as though their two beings blended, lost each itself in the other, became one. And then Naia lifted a face exalted by a new hope. "Yet not so much for myself do I praise him, beloved, as for the little one. Knowledge waited you then when you arrived?"