XVA valley between two mountains allowed access from Diane's village onto the great grass plain. A year previously, a wooden barricade had been erected by the villagers, a distance of nearly a mile. The plain was lawless and troubled, and the barricade had been an attempt to keep out marauding bands of looters. Looters and worse.
But now, after the quake, no one manned the wooden gates standing in the middle of the barricade. Diane and Finn lifted the heavy bar that kept the gates locked at night and pushed them wide. Beyond, the plain stretched into the hazy distance. In the wind from the mountains, the grass had become a sea, waves sweeping through it. The track leading to Engn cut through it in a straight line to the horizon.
They closed the gates behind them and stood for a moment. T
