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For abut because they were not, I looked for her; she would be green, I thought, like green Lune, but tipped hite where the ice-fields closed upon our chilled lands I could not find her, nor even the crie disk of the old sun Then I realized I had been looking in the wrong place If Urth was visible at all, Urth would be astern I looked there and saw, not our Urth, but a growing, spinning, swirling vortex of fuligin, the color that is darker than black

It was like so it was a circle of colored light, as though a billion billion stars were dancing Then I knew the miracle had passed without y sentence about Master Gurloes or the Ascian War We had penetrated the fabric of tiin vortex inning, then that shi suns, and the only trulythis universe would ever know

Hailing theh no one heard my voice but the Increate and me I drew my cloak to me and pulled the leaden coffer from it; and I held the coffer aboveas I cast it, out of my unseen cloak of air, out of the purlieu of the ship, out of the universe that the coffer and I had known, and into the new creation as final offering fro ht doard toward the part of the deck I had left, which ht well have killedby me I craned my neck to see the next; it was the last

Had I been an ell or two to the right, I ht have been brained by the very tip of the mast Instead I flashed between its final extension and the starsail yard, with the buntlines far out of reach I had outraced the ship Enorether, another of the uncountable masts appeared Sails sprouted from it like the leaves on a tree; and they were not the now faular ones

For a time, it seemed I would outrace this mast too, and then that I would strike it Frantically, I clutched at the flying jib stay Around it I swung like a flag in a changing wind I clung to its stinging cold for a th of the bowspritfor this final th of my arms I think that if I had crashed into the boould not have cared; I wanted nothingelse, than to touch the hull, anywhere and in any way

I struck a staysail instead, and went sliding along its immense silver surface Surface indeed it was, and seemed all surface, with less of body than a whisper, alht It turnedlike a wind-tossed leaf down to the deck Or rather, down to some deck, for I have never been certain that the deck to which I returned was that which I had left

I sprawled there trying to catch ony; held, but al never stopped or even slowed; and after a hundred such gasps, I realized er I struggled to rise Half-suffocated though I was, it was alain

A hatch was only a chain away I staggered to it, flung it ith the last of th, and shut it behind me The inner door seemed to open alh so breeze had penetrated a fetid cell To hasten the process, I took off way, then stood for a ti the cool, clean air, scarcely conscious of where I wassave for the blessed knowledge that I was inside the ship again, and not wandering wrack beyond her sails The gangas narrow and bright, painfully lit by blue lights that crept slowly along its walls and ceiling, winking and see any part of it Nothing escapes my memory unless I ae between my cabin and the hatch that had let me out onto the deck, and this was none of the rooms of chateaus, with pictures and polished floors

The broood of the deck had given way here to a green carpeting like grass that lifted rip the soles of reen blades were blades indeed Thus I was faced with a decision, and one I did not relish The hatch was behind ain and search from deck to deck forthis broad passage and search froe that I ht easily beco lost a, as I had been? Or in the endless space between the suns, as I had nearly been? I stood there vacillating until I heard the sound of voices It reminded me that my cloak was still, ridiculously, knotted aboutso when the people whose voices I had heard came into view

All were armed, but there all siht have been seen any day around the docks of Nessus; one of a race I had never encountered in allskin not of the pinkish broe are pleased to call white, but truly white, as white as foam, and crowned by hair that hite as well The third was a woman, only just shorter than I and thicker of li alht have been that of a massive man in armor complete They would have passed me without a word if I had allowed it, I think, but I stepped into the middle of the corridor, forced them to halt, and explained ure told me "Someone will come for you, or I shall be sent with you Meanwhile you ?" I asked, but he turned away as I spoke, gesturing to the two men

"Co kiss, but there seerip that see as a man's The ordinary sailor (who in fact did not look ordinary at all, having a cheerful and rather handsome face and the yellow hair of a southerner) said, "You'll have to come, or they won't knohere to look for youif they look at all