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.And so, instead of entering the forest, Jon turned in the opposite direction and walked tothe river.Both moons were full, and their light sparkled on the micaceous gravel of the riverbed.The water must have been low.He could hear its sound, but in the darkness it took him a whileto make out the river flowing in narrow braids close to the east bank.He climbed down carefullyand approached the water.Surely this was the very place he d crossed the river with John andZoë and Klei.Straining his eyes, he could see the dim lines of the eastern hills.Humidityshrouded their heights, but above them the procession of stars moved through the cloudless nightsky.Men said the stars controlled your fate, but that was nonsense.And yet the motion of thestars was like fate, wasn t it? Once you start on a course, there s no turning back.Thephilosophers who argued against astrology spoke of free will, but accident was really the mostpowerful force in nature.And once accident had set you going, your course was set until anotheraccident sent you reeling in another direction.John had stumbled on him in the Valley ofWomen and, on a whim, given him the broken tritargon; the High Commander had appointedhim Aide because he enjoyed the company of tall men; and now the Great Teacher himself hadtaken an interest in Jon because, by yet another accident, Jon had been at his side when sixcrazies had gone after him with their knives.In such a world, you made the best of the situationyou found yourself in.No one could be expected to do any more than that.They would reach the Southern Army tomorrow afternoon, and, if Jon knew the HighCommander, he wouldn t wait to commence an assault on the valley.He d want to show how itshould have been done in the first place.They d lose men to the archers if the pass was stillguarded but the Commander wasn t afraid of losing a few men.That was the price for success.Should Jon tell him about the high pass? That way fewer lives would be lost on both sides,probably.It would result in an easy surrender, and the Great Teacher s instructions had been topreserve lives except for the Foresters, against whom he had a grudge.Why was that?Yet revealing the secret of the high pass would appear a betrayal of the Emperor,wouldn t it? Even though the result would be to their benefit, Zoë would believe he d turned against her.And Klei, too if Klei was there.He was the one Jon wanted to see.Klei understoodhim, and Klei belonged to him or at least Klei had always felt that way.He remembered hiswords that day: I didn t mean that I wanted you to take care of me.I meant that I loved you. But some crazy stubbornness had gotten in the way, and now Klei had gone off with Saash.There was no telling where he might be.It was absurd even to think of him.Jon had been a childthen, and now he was an adult.But Klei was the kind of person who never grows up.They couldhave little in common anymore.He d never seen another man as beautiful as Klei he couldn t deny that.But it wasweakness to allow such things to influence his behavior.Look at the High Commander.He liveda meaningful life without giving in to passion.Besides, it was better to be alone the way Jonnow found himself alone under a starry sky, with no connection to any other human being.Once the battle was won he d be free of everyone the Teacher, the Emperor, the HighCommander.He d simply slip away at the moment of victory, when no one was paying attention.He d leave the camp and set out for the sea.The path was fixed in his mind.He d never visitthose islands the Emperor had tried to give him, but he d be able to live in sight of them orfurther to the North, where there were fruit trees and streams full of fish.A man could live in aplace like that without needing the company of another human being
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