Page 120 (1/1)

There is Hanna, ascending the road that leads to the gate of Quedlinhaatia, who is propped up so that she can take it all in After all this, her grandlant! He rides with an arh forested country on a well-traveled road that she suddenly recognizes as the eastern reach of the Hellweg

There flutters a daiaze upward, toward the moon, and between one breath and the next, one step and the next, she vaults up the ladder and passes like lightning through the gate guarded by a dai spear as pale as ice The sphere of the Moon gleams with a pearl’s luster, but she crosses beyond it as with swift and unerring steps she mounts the ladder--for the ladder itself holds the structure of the aether within it Through the blinding sea of whiteness that is the sphere of Erekes Beyond the horned gate of So furnace of the Sun, and crossing the vast charnel house that is Jedu’s angry lair The daimones who live in the upper spheres watch her pass, but lifted on the current of aether, she is too fast for them to catch or to threaten, even if they wanted to They have seen her before, or will see her again--it is difficult to tell They recognize her; they knoho her kinfolk are That is enough

The feasting hall of Mok lies drowned in incense Its heavy scent drags at her, but she pushes on, she pushes up, as the soulrelease The storm winds of Aturna buffet her, but she cliht toward the golden wheels that thruher, until she comes to the realm of the fixed stars, the white hot firestorm, as terrible as it is beautiful Her mother’s home, permeated by the ele place She need only choose, and she can leave her mortal body behind and return to her kinfolk

And yet even so beyond this there is h its fire has been weakened by the cataclysh Earth and heaven alike The river of aether runs in a trickle, like a streaone With winter rains, it will refill--but in the span of the heavens, who kno many earthly years or centuries that will take?

Beyond this crossroads the aether spills outward For there is no end to it Does the aether filter from the heavens down onto the Earth, or does it well up also from the heart of the Earth into the heavens? What if there is an infinite circle of aether, a strip , ?

Beyond the realm of the fixed stars lies an infinite span Clots of black dust tangle in shifting clouds A nautilus of light churns around a dark center Nests of blue-white stars glow hotly, the birthplace of angels A spiral wheel composed of unnuht, so deep that it is fatho of all things

Not all change cos from without All this lies within us as well We just have to find it

Then she was yanked free, gasping and choking

A fluttering against her wrist, like the brush of ht touch to cause such a rude awakening

One of the creatures squatted an arth away It made no immediate move, now that it had her attention She stared at it, but she could not tell if it stared back It was ies had a fixed point they focused on, and she supposed it was possible that it did not "see" in the same manner she did How so, then?

She had no way to ask the question

It tapped a rapid pattern onto the floor All around, barely seen above the slope of the hollow, the others paused in their study Like her, they waited It tapped again Wondering, she rapped her forefinger one, then twice, then three times on the floor Was this a form of communication?

Her companion made no reply It wore no facial expression she could conized it as the one with pewterlike skin, which had passed her in the tunnel and, she believed, guided her here It had worn the glowing arh a different one carried that armband now

Pewter Skin rose, shuffled up out of the hollow, and halted by the ht a statue,not at all When she did not move, it vanished into the darkness beyond

After a ain, turned and vanished; reappeared, tapped, vanished; reappeared

She rose "I see what you are trying to communicate," she said aloud "I am no harm to you I would like to understand your books"