The Burning Shore

I think, Mijnheer, it is time for my bed. I wish you good sleep and pleasant dreams. She stood up and moved heavily behind the tarpaulin that screened her sleeping place.

Garry lay on his own blankets, his hands clenched at his sides, and listened to the rustle of her clothing from behind the tarpaulin screen, and his body hurt like a fresh bruise. From behind the screen came a long-drawn-out rumble that startled him; for a moment he could not place it. Then he realized that A

I'm in love, he exulted. For the first time in over thirty years, I'm in love. However, in the dawn all the transient courage he had gathered in the night had evaporated, only his love was still intact. A

Garry sat beside A

Suddenly, in the middle of an afternoon that trembled with heat, the watery curtains of mirage opened ahead of them for a few moments and they saw the begi

Mountains, Garry said softly, a mountain range of sand. Nobody ever warned us of this. There must be a way through!

Garry shook his head dubiously. They must be five hundred feet high."Come, A

When they stepped too close to the edge of the razorback, the lip collapsed and an avalanche of sand went hissing down the slip-face.

This is dangerous! Garry murmured. If you went over the edge, you'd be smothered. A

Incredibly, Garry felt his body react again, as though a giant's hand had seize is crotch, and his fatigue fell away. Sliding and stumbling in the soft footing, he scrambled upwards after her, and A

He came out on the crest of the dune before he realized it, and A

My God, he whispered, it's a world of sand, an entire universe of sand. They stood upon the foothills of the great dunes and even A

Nobody, nothing could get through them. A

She is out there. I can almost hear her voice calling to me. We ca

Come. She led him back from the crest. We must find the way round. The convoy with the Ford leading turned inland, skirting the edge of the high dunes while the day wasted away and the sun fell down the sky and bled to death upon their soaring crests. That night as they camped below them, the dunes were black and remote, implacable and hostile against the moonlit silver of the sky.

There is no way round. Garry stared into the fire, unable to meet A

The next day they retraced their tracks, riding in their own tyre-prints, and it was evening again before they had returned to the point where the dunes met the ocean.

There is no way, Garry repeated hopelessly, for the surf ran right up under the sand mountains and even A

If we wait here, she whispered huskily, perhaps Centaine is making her way down towards us. Surely she knows that her only hope is to head southwards. If we ca

Come. She raised him to his feet and led him behind the canvas screen. His hands were shaking so that he could not unfasten the buttons of his shirt. A

He scrambled on top of her with frantic haste, desperate to bury himself in her, to lose himself in that great white softness, to hide there from the world that had been so cruel to him for so long.

Then suddenly it happened again, and he felt the heat and strength drain from his groin, he felt himself wilt and shrivel just as he had on that other dreadful night over thirty years before. And he lay on the white mattress of her belly, cradled between her thick, powerful thighs, and he wished to die of shame and futility. He waited for her taunting laughter and her scorn. He knew it would destroy him utterly this time. He could not escape, for her powerful arms were wrapped around him and her thighs held his hips in a fleshy vice.

Mevrou, he blurted. I am sorry, I'm no good, I've never been any good. She chuckled again, and it was a fond and compassionate sound.

There's my baby, she whispered huskily in his ear. Let me help you a little. And he felt her hand go down, pressing between their naked bellies.