"We all fear some aspect of the landscape," Faraday said again, and looked at Gwendylyr steadily.
"All of us."
"I know what I fear," DareWing said, but Faraday would not let him finish, either.
She stopped him with a gentle hand, leaving her chair to kneel beside him. "DareWing, I think I know what you fear, and I think I know how strong that fear is."
Faraday grinned, but sadly. "No wonder you have ground fever." Then she raised her head and looked at the other three, keeping her hand on DareWing's shoulder. "We must confront our fears first, and then, stronger, be ready to support Dare Wing. Goldman?"
"What? Oh ... I, ah ..." Goldman lapsed into silence, his eyes unfocused, then his mouth thinned and his hands clenched on his knees.
"I loathe dead ends," he said, and Faraday nodded. Goldman was ever the aggressive, determinedly successful businessman.
"There is nothing worse," Goldman said, and his eyes were now flinty and hard, "than walking through the countryside and finding yourself in some dead end gully, and having to retrace your steps to find another way forward. It's so time wasting*. "
"Non-productive," Leagh said, understanding a little more the process they must all endure.
"Yes!" Goldman said, and he stood and paced about the dome. "Dead ends are so frustrating! So pointless!"
Faraday watched him carefully. It seemed almost as if hate consumed Goldman, and she realised that somewhere here was a deeper lesson they must all learn.
"So pointless," Goldman said again, and then he vanished.
Goldman found himself standing before the infuriatingly calm — and very high and very steep —
rock wall of the canyon, and he raged.
He had walked hours to get to this point, put in effort and time that could have been spentmore profitably elsewhere.
He had walked and walked down this canyon, thinking it would lead him to a better life, moremoney, and even, perhaps, a profounder understanding of life itself, and all it had presented himwith was a dead end, a rock wall, a point past which Goldman could not walk.
He raged. Was it possible to demolish the dead end? Perhaps a force of several hundred menarmed with pickaxes and shovels could clear it in a week or so. Perhaps a smaller force of menarmed with fire powder could destroy it in less time. Something had to be done to force this rockwall to give way to Goldman's needs and ambitions and ...
... and Goldman quailed at the force of his rage. Why did he think such things? Why was heso angry?
He was railing at a stand of rock, for the Field's sake!
Goldman stared at the rock wall and wondered how best to combat his inner frustration andanger.
Youhave walked to this rock wall, he thought, and thus there must needs be a purpose to thisdead end. What is it?
He sat down cross-legged on the ground and stared at the rock.
"What do you have to teach me?" he asked, and instantly all his frustration and hate fellaway and he felt a great joy fill him.
The rock absorbed the joy ... and then it leaned forward and began to speak to Goldman in avery earnest manner.
Goldman dusted off his tunic, and smiled at the four faces staring at him.
"Your turn," he said to Gwendylyr.
She was in the garden, almost incandescent with fury.
How long had she tended that hedge? How many hours had she pruned and clipped? Howmany days had she spent carefully digging in the soil about its roots to add light and airand fertiliser?
And the hedge was so necessary! Its (once) neatly-clipped length had tidily divided field fromgarden (and what a neat garden, with its carefully measured garden beds and precise rows ofstakes), providing the line that everyone needed between order and disorder.
But now disorder had invaded the garden.
Disorder in the form of a rigorous ivy. It had taken over the hedge, weaving and creeping itsway through the hedge's dark interior spaces before bursting triumphantly through to wave long,gleeful tendrils into the bright summer air down the length of the hedge.
The hedge was ruined! It was doubtless dying! How could it support the parasitic ivy and stillmanage to keep —
Gwendylyr realised suddenly that she was very, very afraid. There was no dividing linebetween order and disorder, was there? It was all a lie. Disorder would win every time. It could never be kept at bay.
Gwendylyr backed slowly away, terrified that one of those tendrils would reach out andsnatch at her at any moment. Where could she hide? Was there anywhere to hide? Perhaps thecellar ... surely the dark would keep the ivy at bay ... the dark would be safe... safe...
Gwendylyr stopped, appalled. She would hide herself in the dark the rest of her life to avoiddisorder?
Was that a life at all?
She swallowed, stepped forward, raised an arm, and took one of the waving tendrils gently inher hand.
"Very pleased to make your acquaintance," she said.
"Likewise, I am sure," said the ivy, and the sun exploded and showered both hedge and ivyand Gwendylyr in freedom.
"Leagh?" said Gwendylyr.
