"Dure smiled, obviously still puzzled. "We all expected to triumph or die the first night," said the Consul. "We hadn't anticipated a long stay here." Brawne Lamia stood and brushed off her trousers. "I'm going," she said. "I should be able to carry back four or five days' rations if they're field foodpaks or the bulk-stored items we saw." "I'll go too," said Martin Silenus. There was a silence. During the week of their pilgrimage, the poet and Lamia had almost come to blows half a dozen times. Once she had threatened to kill the man. She looked at him for a long moment. "All right," she said at last. "Let's stop by the Sphinx to get our packs and water bottles." The"