The Twilight Country shore was still below the horizon, and it was a considerable time before we sighted it. Miela and I sat quiet, wrapped in a blanket, which, wet as it was, offered some protection against the biting wind. The girls seemed exhausted from their long struggle against the storm, and I was glad for them when we finally landed.
This was the place, they said, where Mercer and Anina had set Tao's men free, and where the two were standing when the girls had left with the platform. I looked about, and saw on the beach the pieces of cut cord with which the men had been bound.
Of Mercer and Anina there was no sign. We waited until well after the time of the evening meal, and still Mercer and Anina did not arrive. We concluded, of course, that they had followed Tao's men up the trail for some reason, and we expected it would be Anina who would come back to tell us where Mercer was.
"Let us go up a little distance," Miela suggested finally. "They cannot tell what the hour is. They may be near here now, coming back."
The girls were rested and warmed now, and we started off again with the platform. We flew low over the tree‑tops, following the trail as best we could, but in the semi‑darkness we could see very little from above. After a time we gave it up and returned to the shore.
Again we waited, now very much alarmed. And then finally we decided to return to the Great City for the night. Anina might have missed us some way, we thought, and flown directly home. She might be there waiting for us when we arrived. If not, we would return again with several hundred girls, and with them scour the country carefully back as near the Lone City as we dared go.
With our hearts heavy with apprehension we started back across the channel. Lua, Mercer and Anina were separated from us. All had been captured, perhaps, by our enemies! Things were, indeed, in a very bad way.
Without unusual incident we sighted the Light Country shore. Three girls were winging their way swiftly toward us.
"They wish to speak with us, Alan," said Miela. "From the Great City they seem to come. Perhaps it is Anina."
Our hopes were soon dispelled, for Anina was not one of them; they were three of the girls we had directed to patrol the seacoast.