The Evolutionary Void Read Free Page B

to her
collarbones, but she gritted her teeth and kept going.
    Her skin was completely numb when she finally came staggering out on the
other side. The shakes were so bad, she couldn’t even undo the bundle of
clothes that were now her sole possessions in the universe. She spent a long
time alternating between being hunched up, shivering violently, and trying to
walk while flapping her arms around. Eventually her fingers finally began to
work again. Her skin still had a horrible white pallor when she forced shaking
limbs into her clothes once more.
    The walk didn’t warm her up noticeably, nor did she reach the high tree
line on the other side of the valley before night fell. She curled up into a
ball beside a small boulder and shivered her way to a fitful sleep. It rained
twice in the night.
    Morning was when she realized she didn’t have anything to eat. Her tummy
was grumbling when she bent over a tiny trickle of water running around the
base of the boulder to lap up the icy liquid. She couldn’t remember ever being
this miserable; not the day she left Laril, not even watching her apartments
going up in flame. This was just wretched. Worse, she’d never felt so alone
before. This wasn’t even a human world. If anything went wrong, anything as
simple as a sprained ankle or gashed knee, there was no emergency service to
call, no help within light-years. She’d just have to lie down here in the
valley and starve to death.
    Her limbs started trembling with the thought of it, at the full
realization of the risk she’d taken yesterday wading through the river. Delayed
shock, she decided, from both the river and the terrible fight in Bodant Park.
    After that, she was a lot more careful walking up toward the tree line
high above. There was still no sign of anything she could eat. Underfoot was
just the yellowy grass with its speckle of tiny lavender flowers. As she
plodded on gloomily, she tried to remember everything she’d ever heard about
the Silfen paths. It wasn’t much; even the general encyclopedia in her storage
lacuna contained more mythology than fact on the subject. They existed, there was
no such thing as a map, and some medievalist humans set off down them in search
of various personal or irrational goals—few of whom were ever heard of again.
Except for Ozzie, of course. Now that she thought about it, she’d vaguely known
he was a Silfen Friend. And so was Mellanie, whoever she
used to be . Araminta could have kicked herself for not running even a
simple search with her u-shadow. It was over a week since Cressida had told her
about her odd ancestry, and she had never bothered to find out, had not asked a
single question. Stupid .
    The thought of Cressida made her concentrate. Cressida would never give
up or sink into a bout of self-pity. And I’m related to
her, too .
    She began to sketch out a list of more positive aspects as she drew close
to the woodland where she was sure the next path began. For a start, she could
sense paths, which meant there would be an ending to this trek, a conclusion.
Lack of food was a pig, but she had a strong Advancer heritage, and their ethos
was to equip humans to survive the galaxy over. As she’d learned during her
childhood on the farm, playing nibble dare with her brother and sisters, it was
quite difficult for Advancer humans to poison themselves with alien vegetation.
Her taste buds had a strong sampling ability to determine what was dangerous.
Unless a plant was hugely toxic, her metabolism could probably withstand it.
    Even so, she didn’t like the look of the grass on the mountain.
    I’ll wait till the next planet before I resort to
that .
    The air was noticeably colder by the time she reached the first of the
moss-cloaked trees. Way down the valley, thick hammerhead clouds were sliding
toward her. Rain at this temperature would wreck what little morale she’d
recovered.
    Long honey-brown leaves fluttered on the branches overhead as she moved
deeper into the