She smiled up at him, but she was not quite content.
'And the message?' she asked.
They had reached level ground, and he quickened his pace, once again taking her hand and pulling her along as he took long strides towards the car.
'Where are we going now?' she asked.
He looked back to her and laughed out loud again.
'To save it!' He shouted so that the hillside rang with his voice. 'We've just about time to beat Yusel in to work. The new Renaissance begins in about an hour from now - if we get cracking.'
He bundled Andre into the car. After he had walked round to the driving seat he paused for a second, looking up to the sky, already paling with the false dawn. The stars were going out. Very dimly, between the Lady in the Chair and the Pole Star he could make out the hazy light of the great Andromeda galaxy across the immensity of space.
THE END