Her face was radiant and alive. She looked as if she had just stepped out of a cold shower and had rubbed her beautiful body with a rough towel to bring the blood close to the surface of the skin.
"You look wonderful," Zen muttered, remembering what John had hinted. "Did you have a good night's sleep?"
"A couple of hours."
"No more than that?"
"I needed no more."
"Mm?" Zen said. He started to add another word, "Alone?" but managed to catch the question before it was out of his mouth. He examined her thoughtfully. "You look very contented," he said, without adding that in his experience women who looked so contented had only one reason for it.
"Why shouldn't I look contented? After spending so much time in the wilderness, I'm back on the stairway to heaven."
"What's the wilderness?"
"The world down below." She swept her hand in a gesture that included the unseen ranges and the plains below.
"Ah, yes," he yawned himself to wakefulness. "I was reading the most fascinating book before I dropped off to sleep. Here. I'll show you."