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. It was a winter ocean that came into .view
across the distance; slate-gray and .white-capped. Many birds wheeled far
out over the waves, and one very sinuous dragon.
We passed through the Great Arch and came at last to the landing and
looked downward. It was a vertiginous prospect, out across a brief, broad
stair-the steep drop to the tan-and-black beach far below. I regarded the
ripples in the sand left by the retreating tide, wrinkles in an old man's
brow. The breezes were stronger here, and the damp, salty smell, which had
been increasing as we approached, seasoned the air to a new level of
intensity. Coral drew back for a moment, then advanced again.
"It looks a little more dangerous than I'd thought," .she said, after a
time. "Probably seems less so once you're on it."
"I don't know," I replied. "You've never climbed it?"
"Nope," I said. "Never had any reason to."
"I'd think you'd have wanted to, after your father's doomed battle
along it."
I shrugged: "I get sentimental in different ways." She smiled. "Let's
climb down to the beach. Please." "Sure," I said, and we moved forward and
started. The broad stair took us down for perhaps thirty feet,
then terminated abruptly where a much narrower version turned off to
the side. At least the steps weren't damp and slippery: Somewhere far below,
I could see where the stair widened again, permitting a pair of people to go
abreast
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