"You got big," she said.
John knelt down in the dark beside her. He did it carefully, so that Ainen and Corvin could come down with him without letting go.
"I did," he said.
"You were so small." She reached out a gray hand and touched his face. Her fingers blurred against his cheek, but he did not pull away.
"You were the smallest of all of us. I had to carry you over the river at the third gate. Do you remember?"
"I remember."
"Did you get through, Johnny? At the end?"
"I got through."
"Good." She patted his cheek and took her hand back. "Good. I told you. Go quickly."
Then she turned away from him.
She turned back to the road, to the crowd of walkers going past in the pale light. She leaned out over the dark toward them, the way she had been leaning when they found her.
"Go east, my loves," she called. "Go quickly, when you come out. Before they take..."
"Stop," John said.
She stopped. She looked back at him, puzzled.
