The Spear Cuts Through Water

The Spires are enormous and sheer, and a fall from their cliffs means death. The First Terror knows this as he watches his sons fall from the broken bridge and into the chasm below. He screams and cries.

The horses pulling the wagon collapse and die. The driver mourns their loss and then enters the back of the wagon to retrieve the old woman, startling Keema. Keema and the driver fight while a group of apes watches from the trees. The oldest ape is impressed with their skill but knows that they are too evenly matched and that there will be no winner.

Suddenly, the back of the wagon explodes. The driver turns to the dead woman, drops to his knees, and apologizes. Keema is confused. He can hear nothing, but the driver responds as if the woman speaks to him. Keema suddenly understands that this woman is the empress, the Moon goddess who fell from the sky centuries ago. Overhead, the apes in the trees also recognize her.

The driver places the woman’s seated body on a cushion and lifts her over his head. He then asks the apes for help on her behalf, saying, “The empress recognizes the Green Hill Tribe” (106).