The Ash Girl
by A’Lis Bly
For my daughter Claire
Hun Vedverte
Chapter XI
1953 CE
The Road to Asmara
Asmeret walked out of the woods as the sun came up to her right. North. How far, how long a walk, how many hours or days before she should turn west, into the mountains? She opened her mouth to ask the question aloud; closed it again. No bird or dog to hear.
Chapter XV
Goddesses’ Basecamp
I turned toward the clackclackclack of something trotting across the ice and a haruff behind me. The smirk on the goat’s face caught my eye first. So familiar.
Chapter XVI
Oxford
Charlotte clicked the remote on the projector. “Behold the ever-expanding universe. The latest triggering event spurring this research was the unexplained sudden influx of stars in the constellation Ara. Some counts say by over a million newly visible astronomical objects. By calculating . . .”