1·01There Was Nothing to Look at but ValChapter I · The SmokeNo contact. It arrives in her the way weather does on this world, a day early and out of nowhere, and she lets it go through and does not ask it what it is.2·01Thin and Steady and Nearly StraightChapter I · The SmokeThe first thing either of them understands about this world. Somebody is tending something.IOne Thread of SmokeChapter I · The SmokeTwo women come down off a mountain with seventeen dead behind them, and the only thing in the whole valley that says anybody is alive down there is one thin line of smoke out of the trees.IIThe Black HandChapter I · The SmokeA man who has just seen two starving strangers walk out of the forest straightens up beside his burning mound and lifts one black hand, and that is the entire exchange.v2IIThe Black HandChapter I · The SmokeA man who has just seen two starving strangers walk out of the forest straightens up beside his burning mound and lifts one black hand, and that is the entire exchange.IIIAs Far as the Last FenceChapter I · The SmokeThe village comes out with a wooden fork and a flail and stops at the last fence, sleeves over their faces, and one word goes round and round among them.IVOne Piece at a TimeChapter I · The SmokeA stranger lays out skirts, shifts, bodices, shawls and two folded lengths of white cloth on a barrel head, one piece at a time, as if making sure of them himself, and takes nothing.Frederick ConsistentIVOne Piece at a TimeChapter I · The SmokeA stranger lays out skirts, shifts, bodices, shawls and two folded lengths of white cloth on a barrel head, one piece at a time, as if making sure of them himself, and takes nothing.
1·02She Stood up with HerChapter II · The CarryNot graceful and not gentle. An hour of carrying in the dark with the cold already coming down the ridge.VThumbprints on the CrustChapter II · The CarryA loaf of black bread in a soot-marked cloth, left on the step of a hut by a man who says nothing about it, with black thumbprints on the crust.IOver One ShoulderChapter II · The CarryThe village has turned them away and Val's broken leg has given out a few hundred feet below the pasture, and Kyra picks her up and carries her the rest of the way.Untitled · v4
1·03No Cold Air Left Between ThemChapter III · Your EyesIt is cold, and this is warmer, and a person would have to be a fool to argue with that at this altitude. Val lets her own hand come to rest on the shawl over Kyra's wrist, because it has to go somewhere.1·04It Ran HotChapter III · Your EyesRender nothing. A face in the dark with its eyes open, and a hand. The thing being felt has no visual component at all.1·04Black Thumbprints at KnotChapter III · Your EyesRender nothing. A face in the dark with its eyes open, and a hand. The thing being felt has no visual component at all.IIA Hand Under the RibsChapter III · Your EyesKyra turns over in her sleep, puts her hand flat just under Val's ribcage, and pulls her back until there is no cold air between them. No word is said, then or ever.UntitledIIIDon't Move. Look at Your Hands.Chapter III · Your EyesKyra wakes in a black hut and finds that she can see Val's wrists, and wakes her, and tells her, because they promised in the snow that nothing would be kept.UntitledIVYour EyesChapter III · Your EyesKyra soaks herself with a pail, laughs for the seventh time on that mountain, and Val looks up and sees that her eyes have gone gold.Untitled
2·02A Dog and a Mans VoiceChapter IV · You WillFrom outside the hut. The seams of the logs show faintly pale, and a young man is already going downhill fast with a dog.1·05Enough to See Through the Wall DraftChapter IV · You WillThe strongest the light ever gets, and it is still only on her own skin. The log wall's seams show faintly pale from inside. Outside, a dog has barked and a man has run.1·05Enough to See Through the WallChapter IV · You WillThe strongest the light ever gets, and it is still only on her own skin. The log wall's seams show faintly pale from inside. Outside, a dog has barked and a man has run.1·06She Watched the Light Go DownChapter IV · You WillThe light obeys the stillness. Render the last faint thread at the wrists, going.VIEnough to See Through the WallChapter IV · You WillA boy who came up early to mend a fence sees light coming through the gaps in the logs of an empty hut, and runs.VIIIt Went to GroundChapter IV · You WillKyra puts both palms on the hull and asks it for something she has no word for, and the color of rock and snow runs across it and it stops being there.
1·07That DoesntChapter V · SaltThere was only the one rule. A column in the ash by the hearth, beside Kyra's weather: things that ran, and how.VIIIHe Broke the Root Under His NoseChapter V · SaltA herb dealer has his hand on their cloths and a price that is a quarter of what the root is worth, and a man in a dark coat walks across the open ground and stops it without raising his voice.Frederick ConsistentIXThe BellsChapter V · SaltA sound all over the lower slope at once, small and dull and many, like rain on a hollow roof, coming nearer: a hundred animals, four men, three dogs, and the end of being alone.2·25Three Squares ClothChapter V · SaltAn object image. Val will not let her give any of them back empty, and they need something to put in them, and that is what the whole middle of the book is about.2·28Golden RootChapter V · SaltThe thing they have to trade , and the only plant on that mountain that runs strong.
2·06A Hundred Pale AnimalsChapter VI · The MendingThe view from a house nobody can see. Render it through a small thick port set into an organic hull wall.2·07Eight CupboardsChapter VI · The MendingA house, with eight cupboards they cannot open. It is still the safest room on the planet.XEight ShutChapter VI · The MendingA row of stowage lockers along what used to be a wall and is now the floor: six burst open in the fall, eight strapped shut and dumb, and one woman trying every one of them with her hands.2·27Band of LightChapter VI · The MendingThe one thing in that hull that still answers. Kyra went round the whole section on the second day with her palm flat on the walls, asking, and nothing else did.VThe MendingChapter VI · The MendingThree times a week for four months: Val's leg across Kyra's lap in the dark, Kyra's palm on the break and her other hand flat on the hull, asking it for something she cannot explain.Untitled · v2VThe MendingChapter VI · The MendingThree times a week for four months: Val's leg across Kyra's lap in the dark, Kyra's palm on the break and her other hand flat on the hull, asking it for something she cannot explain.Untitled
2·03Hand Arm Head FootChapter VII · LessonsHe teaches the way he does everything, carefully and with his whole attention and as though he had all year, because he does.2·05He Answered YouChapter VII · LessonsThree eggs in a cloth, returned for half a loaf of a baker's black bread.XIThings on a Barrel HeadChapter VII · LessonsAn hour a week, for a year: objects laid out on a barrel head, a word for each of them, and two women learning a language from a man who does not know what they are.Frederick ConsistentXIIHe Answered YouChapter VII · LessonsKyra sends half a loaf of the village's black bread back down to the charcoal burner as a joke he cannot hear the words of, and a week later the cloth comes back with three eggs in it.XIIIFour ChildrenChapter VII · LessonsKyra crosses the village with four children strung out behind her — one of them still behind the fence — while a man comes out of a doorway, sees her, and goes back in.2·23Week is Thing You Live byChapter VII · LessonsThe seventh day came round, and then it kept coming round.2·24Two StonesChapter VII · LessonsA small image of a path walked a hundred times, and a woman who could not have done it in the spring.2·29He Let Them Go byChapter VII · LessonsA man at his mound who decides, in about two seconds, to do nothing. It is the most consequential decision anybody in the valley makes.
1·08Her Leg Across Her LapChapter VIII · The First TimeThe mending. Render the film as something thin and almost colorless moving on a surface, not as radiance. Val talks through it flatly, in her panel voice, because a woman who says nothing is a woman who is lying.1·08Not Through ClearingChapter VIII · The First TimeThe mending. Render the film as something thin and almost colorless moving on a surface, not as radiance. Val talks through it flatly, in her panel voice, because a woman who says nothing is a woman who is lying.1·09The Hand That Was Not WorkingChapter VIII · The First TimeNo contact beyond the one being described, and nothing is said. She does not think about it in words at all, which is its own kind of answer.1·09Boy Running Wrong WayChapter VIII · The First TimeNo contact beyond the one being described, and nothing is said. She does not think about it in words at all, which is its own kind of answer.VIYesChapter VIII · The First TimeThe session is over, the film has gone back into the floor, and Kyra's hand does not come off Val's leg. It goes further, and stops, and she says her name, and Val says yes.Untitled · v2VIYesChapter VIII · The First TimeThe session is over, the film has gone back into the floor, and Kyra's hand does not come off Val's leg. It goes further, and stops, and she says her name, and Val says yes.Untitled · v3VIYesChapter VIII · The First TimeThe session is over, the film has gone back into the floor, and Kyra's hand does not come off Val's leg. It goes further, and stops, and she says her name, and Val says yes.UntitledVIIThere Isn't a DrawerChapter VIII · The First TimeAfterward, on the floor, Val tries to file what has happened and finds there is nowhere to put it, and says so, and Kyra asks whether it was all right.Untitled
1·10She Made a SoundChapter IX · The TarnShoulders and arms only. The warmest and funniest image in the book, in water that is merely cruel.1·11Youre NotChapter IX · The TarnThe first time either of them says it. She says it lightly and it does not land lightly.2·26SoapChapter IX · The TarnIt's made of what's left over from cooking an animal and it is the best soap I have ever had, and I have used the good soap, Kyra, I had an account at the— — I know you had an account.VIIIThe TarnChapter IX · The TarnThe only warm afternoon in the book: washing in meltwater, drying on the rock, one of them combing the other's hair out, and Val looking at Kyra in order, the way she reads a panel.UntitledIXTurn RoundChapter IX · The TarnKyra tells Val that the mark on her back has been fading for six weeks and that she has said nothing, because saying it would have meant talking about the mark.Untitled · v4
2·10Pale Shell Color UnderneathChapter X · The FragmentThe first piece of another world in a human hand, and nobody will ever know.XIVA Quarter of an Inch at a TimeChapter X · The FragmentKyra takes a piece of her own ship out of a sleeping boy's coat pocket a quarter of an inch at a time, and puts a horn-handled knife in its place, because there is no world in which taking it is not stealing.v2XIVA Quarter of an Inch at a TimeChapter X · The FragmentKyra takes a piece of her own ship out of a sleeping boy's coat pocket a quarter of an inch at a time, and puts a horn-handled knife in its place, because there is no world in which taking it is not stealing.
1·12Come HereChapter XI · The RidgeThe gold, once, in daylight, and she does not know. It is the most beautiful thing Val has ever seen and she does not know if it is killing her. Use the traits block.1·13She Did Not Say ThatChapter XI · The RidgeNo contact. The pact, operating for the first time in daylight, on the hardest possible case.XStill Slow on the TurnsChapter XI · The RidgeVal runs for the first time since the crash, barefoot on frozen turf, and Kyra stands at the end of the flat with both hands over her mouth.Untitled
2·11Two SmudgesChapter XII · AndromedaThe two smudges must be genuinely faint. If either reads as a nebula the image is wrong — they are the only two things in that sky anybody at home ever talked about going to.2·12It Isnt ProofChapter XII · AndromedaFive months of arithmetic, and the most enormous conclusion anybody on either world has ever reached, delivered as a disclaimer.XVA Woman in the SkyChapter XII · AndromedaKyra points at a faint smudge and asks its name, and Frederick gives her a chained woman on a rock, put there for something her mother said, and a thing coming out of the water for her.Frederick ConsistentXVIThe One With No MouthChapter XII · AndromedaA strap lets go, a locker opens, and Kyra sits down on the floor with a drawing four people made by a six-year-old — and the second-tallest figure has no mouth at all.XVIThe One With No MouthChapter XII · AndromedaA strap lets go, a locker opens, and Kyra sits down on the floor with a drawing four people made by a six-year-old — and the second-tallest figure has no mouth at all.XIThe SmudgeChapter XII · AndromedaKyra works out from the naked-eye sky which faint smudge is home, says it out loud with nothing to support it, and cannot stop her hands shaking.Untitled
2·13Mound Had Come OpenChapter XIII · The MoundNo body in this frame. The clearing is wrong and the pole is on the ground, and that is all the image needs.XVIIThe Mound Came DownChapter XIII · The MoundThe smoke has stopped. The flank of the mound has come open, the hooked pole is lying ten feet from it, and there is a man in the lean-to who got himself there.XVIIIBlack to the WristChapter XIII · The MoundThey carry him down on a litter of poles and sacking and their own two blankets, and the village comes out, and nobody says anything.Frederick Consistent
1·14Seventeen and OneChapter XIV · Come Live with MeShe says his name out loud about four times a day because Val asked her to. Once, badly, into the cloth of her own sleeve in the middle of the night, with Val's arm over her, and Val said nothing at all, which was right.1·14He Looked Without SurpriseChapter XIV · Come Live with MeShe says his name out loud about four times a day because Val asked her to. Once, badly, into the cloth of her own sleeve in the middle of the night, with Val's arm over her, and Val said nothing at all, which was right.2·15He Shook His Head OnceChapter XIV · Come Live with MeThe first time he has ever done that. He is protecting them and he is also telling them something.XIXThe GateChapter XIV · Come Live with MeThey come down on the seventh day for the burial and Frederick comes as far as the gate of his own yard and shakes his head, once, in a way that is not unkind.Frederick ConsistentXIXThe GateChapter XIV · Come Live with MeThey come down on the seventh day for the burial and Frederick comes as far as the gate of his own yard and shakes his head, once, in a way that is not unkind.XXThe Cat Is on the MatChapter XIV · Come Live with MeVal reads a child's primer aloud by firelight in a voice that is perfectly steady and absolutely wrong, with the gravity of a woman signing a protocol, and Kyra does not laugh for four entire evenings.XXITwice Across the HutChapter XIV · Come Live with MeKyra opens the poetry book in the middle, gets four words and a wall, and throws it across the hut — the first time in temper, and the second time to make Val look up, which works.CorrectedXIICome Live with MeChapter XIV · Come Live with MeKyra reads a shepherd's love poem out loud, badly, in a shepherd's hut, in a language she has had for six months, to a woman sitting four feet away with her eyes closed.Untitled
1·15Say the Nearest ThingChapter XV · SnowRender nothing happening to her. A woman sitting bolt upright on straw in the dark with her hands flat on either side of her, not moving for an hour, and another woman getting the fire up.XIIIA Palm on the BreastboneChapter XV · SnowThree nights in four, the change takes Kyra apart and she cannot hold her own timing, and the only thing on the planet that steadies her is Val's hand flat under her collarbone.Untitled
1·16Then DontChapter XVI · The StairNo contact. Both of them on the floor with their backs against the bench, four days of snow outside, and Val's hands palms up in her lap because that is where they hurt least.1·16Snow Four DaysChapter XVI · The StairNo contact. Both of them on the floor with their backs against the bench, four days of snow outside, and Val's hands palms up in her lap because that is where they hurt least.1·17There Were Eleven Chairs in the RoomChapter XVI · The StairFifty-nine years, and the second person she ever tells. She does it badly, because here she has nothing: a fire, and a woman on the floor beside her with her hands flat, not helping.1·17Val Could Not Write So RecitedChapter XVI · The StairFifty-nine years, and the second person she ever tells. She does it badly, because here she has nothing: a fire, and a woman on the floor beside her with her hands flat, not helping.XIVShe Turned Her Mouth Into ItChapter XVI · The StairVal has told Kyra the one thing she has never told anybody but her daughter, and the fire has been allowed to go out, and Kyra puts her hand against the side of Val's face.Untitled
1·18Kyra Tied it TighterChapter XVII · The HaircutThe best moment in the book and it is about a piece of string. After a winter of handing it over without comment.1·18Six Letters Went UphillChapter XVII · The HaircutThe best moment in the book and it is about a piece of string. After a winter of handing it over without comment.XXIII Want You to See ItChapter XVII · The HaircutVal rakes out a fire she has kept high for eleven months, stands up in a hut that has not been dark since the spring, and lets herself be seen lit all through.XXIII Want You to See ItChapter XVII · The HaircutVal rakes out a fire she has kept high for eleven months, stands up in a hut that has not been dark since the spring, and lets herself be seen lit all through.XXIII Want You to See ItChapter XVII · The HaircutVal rakes out a fire she has kept high for eleven months, stands up in a hut that has not been dark since the spring, and lets herself be seen lit all through.Tattered Grey ClothingXXIII Want You to See ItChapter XVII · The HaircutVal rakes out a fire she has kept high for eleven months, stands up in a hut that has not been dark since the spring, and lets herself be seen lit all through.XVThe HaircutChapter XVII · The HaircutA trim by firelight: a bench, a cloth over the shoulders, Kyra talking and Val silent behind her with a comb — and then a palm resting on the top of Kyra's head, and staying there.Untitled · v2XVThe HaircutChapter XVII · The HaircutA trim by firelight: a bench, a cloth over the shoulders, Kyra talking and Val silent behind her with a comb — and then a palm resting on the top of Kyra's head, and staying there.Untitled
2·19Somethings ComingChapter XVIII · The FlickerNothing is visible and nothing ever will be. She is the only person on the planet who can hear it and she is never going to be able to prove it to anybody, including herself.
XXIIIOn Her Knees in the MudChapter XIX · The ThawKyra comes out of the flood on her hands and knees, and the child's mother gets to her and goes down on her knees in front of her at a distance of about a foot, and the gold comes up where she can see it.
1·19Thats UsChapter XX · No SmokeNo contact. A small piece of polished tin at arm's length, and two faces that have not changed in a year that changed everything.1·20All the Way DownChapter XX · No SmokeNo contact, and the closing image of the first Earth book. It is the same frame that closed Book Nine and everything in it is different: they come down easily, neither faster, and they are talking. And there is no smoke.1·20Started Four MarkersChapter XX · No SmokeNo contact, and the closing image of the first Earth book. It is the same frame that closed Book Nine and everything in it is different: they come down easily, neither faster, and they are talking. And there is no smoke.2·21BosorkaChapter XX · No SmokeHe has never once come up, and he is standing where the path comes out of the forest, and he lets them come to him so that the walking is theirs.2·22Thing Not Said GrowsChapter XX · No SmokeNeither the pastor nor the woman by the water ever appears in a frame. They are the two most dangerous people in the book and both are entirely absent.XXIVA Person Should Be Able to See Her Own FaceChapter XX · No SmokeHe turns it over once before he gives it to her: a palm-sized piece of tin with its edges turned back so they will not cut, polished on one side until it gives back the yard and the sky.Frederick Consistent2·30No SmokeChapter XX · No SmokeThe closing frame, and the exact reverse of the first. The mound is cold. The thread of smoke that opened the book is gone.
