Chapter Forty-One
Waning Days
Andel gazed from the bluff, watching icy veils of snow beat against the mountains. Their ramparts reminded her of bony scutes, perhaps the backbone of a giant beast asleep within the terrain, and she wondered if the freeze had yet breached them to whiten the shores of the inner sea. For the past few days, even the volcano had been lulled into dormancy, and she missed its fiery glow.
After a nod to the majesty of the land, she walked back to the campsite and prepared to step through to her worksite. Beyond the volcano, in a wide valley sheltered from the encroaching snows, the Uri’madu hurried to complete their surveys before the whole planet became locked in ice.
When she crossed to the survey site, Sari was there to greet her with a warm, thick beverage t
