CARIAD SEARCHED AND called Ethan’s name, walking along the river bank in both directions. Hours passed and she grew light-headed with hunger and fatigue. She couldn’t see or hear the slightest sign of him. She even went as deep as she dared go into the vegetation. But the only footprints she saw were her own. Nothing seemed to exist to indicate that Ethan or his flitter had been at the place. Cariad had even double checked on her interface that she had the right spot, but there couldn’t be any doubt about it.
She paused in her search at last and leaned on her vehicle, gazing absently at her footprints in the sand. The evidence of her meanderings deeply saddened her. If she had left so much clear evidence of her presence, Ethan should have done the same. But everywhere she’d been the silt
