The sun was a shrunken red disk against the starfields, a distant pale luminosity surrendering to the encroachment of the falling night. Hoarfrost crunched under Marley's feet as he walked by the still black waters of the canal, and then thin wind whispered over the sand and across the breasts of the ancient hills. Starlight gleamed in the dark water as the day faded. Earth hung low in the sky, like an emerald pendant over the bosom of a sleeping woman. Marley pulled his silks and furs closer ab