Never had the aroma been so sweet, so pervasive.

It passed and faded, leaving in its wake an absolute silence.
Then, at length, the silence of the night, that silence to which Vanamee had so long appealed, was broken by a tiny sound.

Alert, half-risen from the ground, he listened; for now, at length, he heard something.

The sound repeated itself.

It came from near at hand, from the thick shadow at the foot of the hill.