Wheeling Gull Isle Oh my friends, my friends forgive me….

It seemed Heda was closer than he had known.

She came through the lavender just as Everett turned away and began his own path down the hillside.

John's voice faded. Everett would not stick around for the retelling. He took the man to be an honest one, and from him, Heda would learn, and come to know. Everett expected she would come after him to help him in his search -- yet he hoped to find the girls first, that she might simply swoop in and take over with the comfort and wisdom only a mother could give a daughter.

They were by the coast, past the densite, is all he called over his shoulder. Heda would surely know the words unspoken: I'm going to find them.

He didn't know how much John had hurt Ana, if he had hurt her at all. He hadn't divulged this, but Everett read between the lines --

And John believed he had hurt her, and that was enough to make Everett hurry all the harder to find her, before it was too late.