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"Om?"

"Yes?"

"I don't think I can swim"

Gods are not very introspective It has never been a survival trait The ability to cajole, threaten, and terrify has alorked well enough When you can flatten entire cities at a whis-from-the-other-fellow's-point-of-view is seldom necessary

Which had led, across the multiverse, totheir entire lives to the service of deities who couldn't beat theame of dominoes For exa and walked unharmed across a bed of coals and propounded a philosophy of sensible ethics on behalf of a goddess whose only real interest was in hairstyles, and Brother Zephilite of Klatch left his vast estates and his fa to the sick and poor on behalf of the invisible god F'ruenerally considered unable, should he have a backside, to find it with both hands, should he have hands Gods never need to be very bright when there are humans around to be it for them

The Sea Queen was considered fairly duic to her thoughts, as she moved deep below the storetbut here was a bigger one, full of people, sailing right into the storame

The Sea Queen had the attention span of an onion bahji

And, by and large, she created her own sacrifices And she believed in quantity

The Fin of God plunged fro at its sails The captain fought his way through waist-high water to the prohere Vorbis stood clutching the rail, apparently oblivious to the fact that the ship ing half-subed

"Sir! We must reef sail! We can't outrun this!"

Green fire crackled on the tops of the ht was reflected in the pit of his eyes

"It is all for the glory of Olory is our destination"

The captain had had enough He was unsteady on the subject of religion, but felt fairly confident that after thirty years he knew so about the sea

"The ocean floor is our destination!" he shouted

Vorbis shrugged "I did not say there would not be stops along the way," he said

The captain stared at hi deck What he knew about the sea was that storms like this didn't just happen You didn't just sail fro hurricane This wasn't the sea This was personal

Lightning struck the mainmast There was a screa crashed on to the deck

The captain half-swam, half-climbed up the ladder to the wheel, where the hellow

"We'll never make it alive!"

CORRECT

"We'll have to abandon ship!"

NO WE WILL TAKE IT WITH US IT'S A NICE SHIP

The captain peered closer in the murk

"Is that you, Bosun Coplei?"

WOULD YOU LIKE ANOTHER GUESS?

The hull hit a subin the water, the Fin of God folded up Baulks of ti sky

And there was a sudden, velvety silence

The captain found that he had acquired a recentin his ears, and the sensation of cold fire in his lungs But it was fading He walked over to the rail, his footsteps loud in the quietness, and looked over the side Despite the fact that the recenttotally sain In a way

"Uh," he said, "we appear to have run out of sea"

YES

"And land, too"

The captain tapped the rail It was grayish, and slightly transparent

"Uh Is this wood?"

MORPHIC MEMORY

"Sorry?"

YOU WERE A SAILOR YOU HAVE HEARD A SHIP REFERRED TO AS A LIVING THING?

"Oh, yes You can't spend a night on a ship without feeling that it has a sou-

YES

The h the silence There was the distant sighing of wind, or of the ales

"Uh," said the ghost of the captain, "did you just say `were'?"

YES

"I thought you did"

The captain stared down The creas asse up at him with anxious eyes

He looked down further In front of the crew the ship's rats had assembled There was a tiny robed shape in front of theht: even rats have a Death

Death stood aside and beckoned to the captain

YOU HAVE THE WHEEL

"But-but where are we going?"

WHO KNOWS?

The captain gripped the spokes helplessly "Butthere's no stars that I recognize! No charts! What are the winds here? Where are the currents?"

Death shrugged

The captain turned the wheel aihost of a sea

Then he brightened up The worst had already happened It was aood it felt to know that And if the worst had already happened

"Where's Vorbis?" he growled

HE SURVIVED