Chapter 8Pia sank to the ground beside a small spring issuing from a crack in the rocky hillside, exhausted from the longer than anticipated walk from the patch of low scrub where she’d concealed the transporter to the agreed meeting point. After a long refreshing drink, she refilled her flask and stretched out on the soft ribbon of grass growing either side of the water. According to her communicator, Kaire should reach the hills in about an hour, giving them ample time to retrieve the transporter and be well on the way to the Sky-ship before dawn.
Lying on her back gazing up at silver stars and a full moon floating free in the black tropic night, she thought of those toiling in fields far to the north, adolescents denied the comfort of family for three long years. Tilling the soil, plan
