Chapter 24
FOR TWO DAYS, the balloon drifted northwards, making a decent pace for a balloon, helped by a stiff breeze.
Sady studied and mapped the country below, rediscovering the wonder of travel and fieldwork, which he had loved as a young man.
It was ancient land, rust-red rock with outcrops in brown. It was wild, rough, inhospitable. He could see no vegetation from the balloon’s height, and no animals. No rivers had ever marked this land.
He imagined that normally the sky would be mercilessly blue, and the air hot and dry. But the growing cell of low pressure had brought low clouds to the sky. It looked like it might rain soon. The barren soil that would normally be orange looked brown in the muted light.
Few humans had ever seen this land. Fewer still had seen it in overcast weat
