Hellen searched into Johnny"s mind. But it was hard to see anything through the fog of his fear.
“I just thought that … well, an invasion"s bound to happen isn"t it?” he said. “I mean, like, sooner or later?”
“You have forgotten the An,” said Ariane. “It has kept us safe for many hundreds of years. A single miraculous flight is one thing, an invasion quite another.”
He opened his mouth. He prepared to speak, but he stopped himself.
“You have heard the Song,” Hellen said to him. “You have heard the beauty of it.”
He looked haunted. “I have.”
“The song is the land,” said Hellen. “The land is the song. There is no difference. They are like the sound of the river and the river itself. You heard the discord in it?”
He looked down. “Yes.”
“Sometimes there are breaks in the rhythm, comple
