Chapter Fourteen
A Blinding Wind
Despite Hazel’s obvious enthusiasm for it, Valentina did not enjoy travel by balloon. She never got used to the bucking and swaying of the gondola, the blur of motion when she tried to focus on the ground. Travel by rover had been cramped, but it was still better than this.
But balloons were faster. Kiyoshi had brought up a map on the balloon’s GPS and found enough places that Valentina and he were familiar with that they could gauge their progress with more than Hazel’s assurances of “we’re making good time,” so she knew it was true. When her motion sickness was at its worst, she focused on how much less time it was taking to get to her brother than when she had set out from the north pole on foot. It helped.
There hadn’t been any more storms. Hazel ag
