The land sloped upward and became rocky. The trees became smaller and wider spaced so that whole trunks were visible and the light of upper day descended. A patch of blue sky, then more as they ran shouting with gladness, and a bare mountain crest reared in the distance. They embraced in wild joy and the woman cried, "Thank you, oh _loveliest_ Morwenna!" "Pia, we're human again," Cole said. "We're back in the world. And I love you." * * * * * Fearful of stompers, they moved rapidly away from the forest over steadily rising ground. The growth became more sparse, the ground more rocky, and near evening they crossed a wide moorland covered with coarse grass and scattered blocks of stone. Ahead a long, low fault scarp bounded it and there they found a cave tunneled into the rock, too narrow for a stomper. At last they felt safe. Morwenna rode silvery above the distant forest. Water trickled from the cave which widened into a squared-off chamber in which the water spilled over the rim of a basin that looked cut with hands. Underfoot were small stone cylinders of various lengths and as his eyes adjusted Cole saw that they were drill cores. "Prospectors made this," he told Pia, "in the old, innocent days when they still hoped to find heavy metals." Then he saw the graven initials, T.C.B., and the date, 157 A.S. They ate red berries growing in their dooryard, gathered grass for a bed and slept in a great weariness. Next day and the next they ate red berries and fleshy, purple ground fruits and slept, gaining strength. Secure in their cave mouth they watched stompers cross the moorland. When night fell they gazed at the bunched moons, but the three Maidens did not quite form a house and Hoggy Darn was still pursuing them. "A few days," Pia said. "If this isn't Emrys Upland, Arscoate will kill us with fire mist." She nodded. More stompers crossed the moorland, some white crested. They moved there randomly at night and from the forest came a far-off sound of stompers singing. The Maidens formed a house and Hoggy Darn grazed the side of it before they fled. To south and west faint rose glowed in the night sky. "Fire mist," Pia said. "The nights of harrying have begun. Oh Flinter, if this is really Emrys Upland it will be perfect." "What will?" "You--us--oh, I can't say yet." "Secrets, Pia? Still secrets? Between _us_?" "You'll know soon, Flinter. I mustn't spoil it." The love in her eyes was tinged with a strangeness. She sought his arms and hid her face in his shoulder. Stompers on the moorland all day so they dared not leave the cave. Flyers streaking high overhead, scouting. "Pia, I believe this _is_ Emrys Upland. I'll help after all with the great killing." "You will help, Flinter." "Afterward I'll take you to Belconti." "We will never see Belconti, Flinter." The strangeness in her eyes troubled him. He could not kiss it away.