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"A crown of stars was set on the head of the bird The-One-Who-Sits-In-The-Eagle-Seat said, ‘Within the crown I see a ht sky In the mirror, I see the stars we call the Six-Wo’ Now she was very afraid, because it seee and wondrous, but a particularly bad omen

"She looked a second ti within their stone looreater than any spell known before on Earth Then the seers and the counting-women of my people understood the intent of the shana-ret’zeri and their huer Our enemies had already woven the net to catch us"

Abruptly, the old sorcerer could not go on He faded as the sun fades beneath the hills, losing all power, and his body bent over his crossed knees as though he had fainted

"I will not speak of the suffering," he said in a whisper that nevertheless penetrated the entire chamber, "or of the ones we lost Only this By means of the spell woven by the human sorcerers and their allies, our land was torn away froered The land dies around us as all plants die in time, when they are uprooted We have dwindled We would die e to rehtened up The fire of anger flashed in his gaze again, the stubbornness of a ht worse than death but er than his enemies He looked directly at Liath "But what is born out of Earth returns to Earth This truth our eneht to rid themselves of us forever, but they only exiled us for a time"

"How can that be?" de you and your homeland away from Earth, then surely ityour land back to Earth"

"Give me your belt"

She undid her leather belt and walked forith her tunic lapping her calves The council members had fallen into a profound silence, whether out of respect for Eldest Uncle and his memories, or out of sorrow for what had been lost, she could not know

He took the belt and held it by the buckle so that the other end dangled loose toward the floor Grasping the other end, he brought it up to touch the buckle

"Here is a circle" He placed a finger on the buckle "If I were to walk on the surface of this belt, where would I end up?" He let her draw her finger from the buckle around the outside flat of the belt, until she returned to where she had started

"So," he agreed, because she was nodding, "think of the buckle of this belt as Earth When the human sorcerers wove their spell, they meant to throw my people and the land in which elt off of Earth, to a different place, so--" He er from the buckle to the underside of the buckle "Now the one is separate from the other Even if I walk on this side of the belt, I will not co the inside flat of the belt and, truly, although she reh she passed underneath the buckle that represented Earth, she never returned to it The two sides were eternally separate, having no point of connection

He let the end of the belt dangle loose again, holding only the buckle "But it seems they overlooked a quality inherent in the nature of the universe" Taking the end of the belt, he gave it a half twist and then brought it up to the buckle "Now, you see, if I walk the belt, I pass one time around and circle underneath the buckle but I remain on the same surface and continue once more around the belt until I return to the buckle itself"

"Ah," said Liath, fascinated at once She traced the surface of the belt all the way around tithout lifting her finger from the leather, and the second time she came back to the buckle, where she had started

"I never thought of that!" she cried, aued "The universe has a fold in it"

"So you see," said Eldest Uncle approvingly "Although our land was flung away fro us back to where we started"

He rose unsteadily, as if his knees hurt hi an arm, he addressed the council "On Earth, the measure of days and years moves differently than it does here Soon, the full count of Great Years will have again run to co point will beco point, and ill come home"

Cat Mask seeaze stilled the words on his tongue Ponderously, Feather Cloak pushed up to her feet No one moved to help her, until Liath finally stepped toward her but was brought up short by Skull Earrings The elderly man raised a hand, palnant wole Seat