Dawn came. He looked toward the mountains, blue with distance. He would not be able to make them. Soon the sun would be overhead. The heat (it was already promised) would be intense. He would have to have water. I could change the sand to water—the air—the plants, he thought. (Forential could, he told himself.) I could: If I only knew more; if I only had practice. If I could only see just how water is put together. Forential should have explained things like that to us.
Hello, he thought to Julia.
He received no answer.
She's suspicious, he thought. What did I do to make her suspicious? She wasn't when I first contacted her. But there was something funny about her.... Maybe she knows I know she's a traitor. Forential said lie to her.
Hello, he thought. I'm a Lyrian traitor, too.
Julia, he thought. Where are you?
Damn her: she isn't going to answer.
He looked at the mountains. He was walking automatically now.
Forential has confidence in me, he thought. Or else he'd have given me more instructions. He knows I can get there. It's up to me to do it, that's all.... Well, I can't make the mountains by walking....
He crossed to the highway; he dreaded his first contact with earthlings.