Aelfred looked up at the lake, then down at the map. He snorted and smiled. "Mother Nature having one of its jokes," he said. "Looks like something stepped there, doesn't it?"
"Something did step there," said Dyffed, peering at the map through his gold-rimmed spectacles. "Quadrupedal megafauna. One of the bigger ones, I'd say."
There was a short silence.
"Dyffed," said Aelfred conversationally, "that lake is about a hundred and twenty miles long."
The gnome merely nodded. "I'd say a hundred and thirty, myself, a third the she of Ironpiece. Just a rough guess, of course. We can make more accurate measurements when we're airborne again."
The silence returned. Aelfred lowered the map and looked off into the distance, in the direction the leading edge of the footprint indicated. "Then how big…?" he started to say, but his voice trailed away. Teldin and Gaye followed his gaze, looking over the treetops and into the infinite blue beyond.
"We'll know soon enough," Dyffed said cheerfully, still looking at the map. "One Six Nine lives on top of one."
Chapter Thirteen
Within a few hours, Teldin's allergy had begun to clear up. His head felt less likely to burst, and he could go for almost twenty minutes before sneezing. The frustration of it was still torture, but he felt he could command at least a shred of dignity when he walked about, as long as he kept upwind of the rastipedes.
He also learned from Sylvie and the now-friendly rastipedes that the antimagical effects of the lake water apparently extended for a few feet around the lake itself. The leader of the armed rastipedes, he recalled, had been careful to motion Teldin away from the water when he came ashore, no doubt so that its own spell for translating languages would function.
By the time Teldin thought to see if his cloak's powers had ›een negated by the lake water, the necklace part had dried off and was working normally. Given the presence of the rastipedes, Teldin put off any further test of lake-water effects on the cloak until later.
"We've just about got the ship in position," Aelfred said, sitting down beside Teldin on a fallen tree near the edge of the forest. The big warrior held a wooden cup full of ale, fresh from the ship's stores. "Those rastipedes are damn good engineers. Between them and the gnomes, they had some weird crane-and-pulley system set up and going in about three hours. They hauled the ship right out of the water like it was a toy. Amazing what you can do without magic." He took a swallow from his cup, then offered it to Teldin.
"No, thank," Teldin said. "I've had more than my share already." He sniffed and rubbed his stuffed-up nose. "Medicinal purposes, of course."
Aelfred gave his friend a lopsided grin. "You've saved our lives several times running now, and the gods reward you with this. There's no justice." He turned around, hearing footsteps from behind them. "Come on over," he called. Teldin turned just as Sylvie walked up and casually sat on the log beside Aelfred.
"You get some rest?" Aelfred asked, nudging the half-elf gently in the side. "You've stayed up too long already."
Sylvie elbowed Aelfred back, though more sharply. "I can't get to sleep now," she said glumly. "Sunset and night can't be possible in this sphere because the land area is exposed to overhead sunlight all the time. I can't find a place that's dark enough to sleep. Someone did a bad design job when this sphere was being made." She poked at the leaves on the ground with the toes of her soft shoes. "I'm in a bad mood. Just ignore me."
Aelfred laughed, but Teldin stared at Sylvie in astonishment at her revelation that night wasn't possible here. He'd been wondering for some time now when the huge sun was going to drop toward the horizon; he now felt intensely foolish for not having realized that "sunset" was out of the question. How did the natives get along without night? This was the strangest world he had seen since entering wildspace.
"Lady, you can be as mean as you want, and I promise not to pay any attention to you at all," said Aelfred, grinning from ear to ear. He began to stroke Sylvie's back with his right hand. After a moment, she closed her eyes and visibly relaxed. "Besides, some people do manage to get to sleep here. The rastipedes live underground, for instance. They sleep in shifts, so two-thirds of their colony is always awake. I was talking with their leader a while ago-he has no name, as we know it, since their language is based in part on smell-and he told me about their life here. They're descended from a spelljammer crew. Their ship landed in the lake just like ours did, but their ship broke up on landing, so they just stayed on. They run the forest and most of the land on this side of the lake. One of them could give an ogre a fit. Teldin did us a real favor in talking things out with them, even if our buddy the giff wanted to charge them." Aelfred reached over and gave Teldin another punch to the shoulder.
"You know," said Sylvie slowly, "I was thinking earlier that there was something odd about the horizon, where the view was clear through the trees. The earth and sky fade together in a blur, with the land reaching slightly up into the sky. Then it hit me that I was seeing the curvature of the inside of the crystal sphere."
Sylvie suddenly turned around to face both Aelfred and Teldin. "Did either of you think about how big this place is?" she asked. "Seriously, I mean. Do you know how huge this place really is?"
"Looked damn big to me," Aelfred said, "but Dyffed told me a few weeks ago in the phlogiston that Herdspace wasn't the biggest crystal sphere there was."
"That doesn't matter," Sylvie said, brushing her long silver hair back over her pointed ears. "This crystal sphere could be half the size of any major one, but it would still have more living space inside it than a million planets. Think about it: We're living on the inside of a crystal sphere, which is maybe a million times bigger than a world. Do you see what I'm saying?"
Teldin thought about it and shivered slightly. The idea was almost too crazy to believe. He realized that he could not picture how truly big a single world was, much less imagine the size of the inside of a crystal sphere. "Then what's beyond the atmosphere?" he said, pointing up at the sky.
Sylvie looked up for a moment, shading her eyes and squinting against the glare. "There could be some planets orbiting the sun, but I don't see any of them. Dyffed said there weren't any there, anyway. Maybe the air envelope on the inside of this sphere extends all the way up to the sun, though- blue sky everywhere you go, and clouds a thousand miles high. I don't know."
Teldin saw Sylvie frown as she stared straight up. "That's odd," she whispered. "Is the sun getting darker?"
Teldin and Aelfred immediately leaned back and looked up. Teldin thought he had noticed a slight dimming in the light, but he had put it down as a visual quirk.
"Damn," said Aelfred. "It is getting darker. I can tell now. Gods of Toril, what's going on here?"
Teldin heard a sudden increase in the volume of the gnomes' distant conversation. Several were calling to each other about the sun going out. They sounded quite panicked. He hardly blamed them.
"Maybe we'd better get back to the ship," said Aelfred, rising to his feet, his cup forgotten on the ground. "We can ask our multilegged friends if this is natural and harmless, or if we're supposed to scream now."
"Aelfred," said Sylvie. "If the sun is-"
"You no fear," said a chirping, singsong voice behind them. They turned in surprise to see a tall rastipede approaching, its eight legs thumping softly through the undergrowth. Teldin couldn't tell if it was the leader he had spoken with earlier. They all looked so much alike.
"Sun is healthy," said the insect-centaur. "Sun have not much light now. World is dark soon. World you have no night? You fear dark?"
"You mean the sun is going out?" Teldin asked in amazement. His nose twitched, but he fought the urge to sneeze. "We are not afraid of the night, but we thought there was no night here because the sun couldn't set."
"I not listen you true," said the rastipede, twisting its head slightly. "You say 'set'? What is 'set'?"
Teldin started to explain what a sunset was, but the urge to sneeze overcame him too
rapidly. He backed away, trying not to fall over, as he sneezed violently two dozen times in a row. Sylvie abruptly took over for him, quickly explaining to the rastipede the rudiments of day and night on spherical worlds. The rastipede appeared to be even more confused as she spoke, asking a stream of strange questions, until Sylvie finally gave up.
"It's no use," she said. "They've lived here for so many generations that they don't remember what it's like to live on a regular planet. They've never seen their sun set. The sun just goes out, and it gets dark. The sun goes back on again eventually, and that's dawn here." She looked up at the rapidly darkening star. Teldin looked up, too, and found that he could now see the sun's broad, reddened disk clearly. It was featureless and smooth, seemingly perfect.
Aelfred dropped his gaze. "I'm in serious need of a drink. If there's anything left of that little keg of ale we pulled off the ship, let's drain it and get some sleep. This place has been very entertaining, but I've almost lost all sense of time. And you," he said, nudging Sylvie again, "you need your beauty est. You've worked too hard. I'm your captain, and I'm ordering you to turn yourself in for a nap."
"Will you tuck me in?" Sylvie asked straight-faced, then glanced at Teldin and colored, biting her lip.
Aelfred saw her expression and laughed, putting his arm around her. "Sure, I'll tuck you in," he said. "Excuse us, Teldin. I've got some official duties to perform."
Sylvie mumbled something in embarrassment as Aelfred led her away to the ship. Teldin managed to smile in spite of himself, then sneezed and sneezed until he felt he would never stop. When he finally finished, exhausted, he looked up and noticed that the rastipede was gone, too.
Grandfather, he thought to himself as the red sun went out overhead, the things you've missed. If I die from this wretched allergy and find you by Paladine's side, I'm going to tell you some tales that will lay you out all over again.
Nightfall could not have come soon enough for the ship's tired crew. Dyffed and the other gnomes, once they had gotten used to the phenomenon, watched the sun go out until the gnomes were nearly incapacitated from stiff necks. During the sun's fade-out, the gnomes built a bonfire and talked with the rastipedes until exhaustion overcame the former and they fell asleep across the lakeshore in every possible spot. The insect folk stayed up, moving to and fro among the sleeping travelers and keeping guard over them.
Teldin watched it all, unable to sleep because of his allergy. The rastipedes were changing their guard in shifts, he noticed; a few would leave together just as other rastipedes would approach the informal encampment. He decided the new creatures were fresh from the underground home that Aelfred had spoken of. It was impossible to tell, really, but as a theory it wasn't a bad one. If they were communicating by smell, as Aelfred had suggested earlier, then they were "talking" up a storm.
Teldin found Gaye asleep under a tree, wrapped in a light blanket that Teldin recognized in the firelight as having come from his cabin aboard the ship. The night air was warm enough that he didn't think she really needed it, but he wasn't in the mood to bother her about it. After making sure she was in good shape, he got up and continued his slow walk around the lakeshore, sniffing and sneezing and wishing, just a little bit, that he could cut off his nose.
His feet finally brought him to the numerous poles and ropes strung from the lakeshore to a hastily built framework about a hundred feet inland, on which the Perilous Halibut rested about a man's height off the ground. The ship's tail fin had been straightened, the oars and propeller drive had been repaired with the rastipedes astounding carpentry skills, and the two large mounds of active fur tied on long rope tethers to a nearby tree attested to the complete recovery of the giant hamsters. Teldin listened to the hamsters' rumbling reeep! reeep! sounds, then turned away, shaking his head and smiling despite his sinus agony.
It was then that Teldin heard a faint, deep voice from the other side of the ship. He stopped and listened, trying to make out the words, but the noise from the obviously nocturnal giant hamsters drowned it out. He hesitated for a moment, then walked toward the source of the talking as quietly as he could.
"We should leave in the morning, shortly after the sun lights up," he heard the voice say. It sounded like Gomja. He must be talking with a rastipede leader, one that could cast a language-translating spell. He knew from talking with Sylvie and other wizards that such a spell was fairly minor, but the idea that insects could cast spells at all still surprised him, even when he felt nothing could surprise him anymore.
Still moving in silence, Teldin rounded the side of the ship. It was impossible to see anything clearly in the darkness. The bonfire was far on the other side of the ship, and Teldin had noticed earlier that the sky had no stars; it was pitch black above him, though he imagined he could see faint, distant lights near the horizon.
"No, they've been very friendly so far," Gomja's voice said. "Our situation is quite good. We shouldn't need any assistance unless… oh." Teldin heard a rustling in the darkness. "Sir? Is that you?"
"Who are you talking to?" Teldin asked. He wished his eyes would stop tearing up. He could barely see as it was. He walked forward slowly, one hand out to keep from walking into the wooden struts holding up the Perilous Halibut. "I thought I heard you talking with someone."
"Oh," said Gomja. Teldin heard something big move right in front of him, and he stopped. He could hear the giff breathing hoarsely and rapidly, perhaps only ten feet away. "I, um, was talking with myself, sir. Forgive me for that. I don't do it very often."
"I don't mind," said Teldin, puzzled. He looked around, seeing and hearing no other being. "I just thought that… well, forget it. You should get some sleep, First Colonel-Commander. We could have a busy day tomorrow."
"Yes, sir!" said Gomja, heartily and quickly. "I'll turn in in a short while, not long at all. I was having trouble getting used to things here, I'm afraid. You must admit, sir, that this is a very queer place." Teldin heard the giff yawn. It was still too dark to see more than Gomja's outline.
Teldin nodded, then turned to go. "Well, good night to you. Let's hope we get off the ground without any trouble. We have a giant four-legged beast to find, Dyffed says. I don't want you to blink and miss it."
"Oh, very good, sir!" Gomja said, laughing briefly. "Good night to you, too!"
Teldin made his way back around the ship to the vicinity of the campfire. He wiped his face with his hands, feeling his thick moustache and realizing how long it had been since he'd shaved. He'd have to take care of that first thing in the morning. Was this antimagical lake water good to shave with? He'd know soon enough.
He found a spot at random and lay down, settling himself near a tree, and forced himself to relax and ignore his sinuses. It was difficult, but he managed to drift off after a long period and enter a realm full of strange and bothersome dreams.
He was in his room aboard the Perilous Halibut with Gaye. It was night, and she was leaning close to him. "Teldin," she said softly. He could smell her perfume as she started to reach for him. He knew they were doing wrong, and they were about to crash. The ship was falling straight down toward the other side of the darkened sphere, falling like a rock from an infinite tower. He tried to hold on to something and tried to protect Gaye, but he couldn't find a way to do it. They were falling toward the sea on the far side of the black sphere. In the sea were monstrous shapes greater than whales, their blackness darker than the night-lit waters in which they swam. "Teldin" Gaye said, holding his face. A titanic shark leaped out of the sea, its white-fanged mouth wider than a world. It wasn't going to miss them.
"Teldin, wake up!" Gaye said, shaking his arm. He blinked, then involuntarily shielded his face against the brilliant sky. Gaye looked down at him, her black tangled hair littered with small sticks and bits of leaves and grass. "Time to get up. The sun's on again! Boy, you slept like a rock!"
After two hours of traveling straight up, Teldin could see that the footprint shape of the lake was much clearer. His sinuse
s clearing up at last, he stared out of his cabin porthole, feeling a curious sense of deja vu. Hadn't he done this before? He had the feeling that someone was about to enter his cabin, but he shrugged off the feeling and concentrated on the view. He guessed that they were about seventy miles up.
Loomfinger was on the helm for now. Sylvie had slept badly the night before, and she was so exhausted that she could not be awakened. Aelfred had made the helm substitution so the ship could get on its way as soon as possible. With enough altitude, Aelfred hoped the ship's speed would increase regardless of who ran it. Then, too, if they had to find a beast like the one that had made those unbelievable footprints, they would need all the altitude they could get.
Someone knocked on Teldin's door. Gaye, he thought, not quite sure why he believed it was her. He heaved a sigh and left the bed, walking over to his door. He crouched as he opened it, to avoid banging his head on the door frame.
"Ah, Teldin!" cried Dyffed. "Just the man I wanted to see, and here I am, seeing you!" The gnome gave a hearty chuckle. Dyffed had not changed his clothes in the last month; his brown tweed suit was fraying apart at the elbows, his lime-green shirt was a lifeless green-brown, and his bright yellow tie was decorated with hundreds of food stains.
Maybe seeing Gaye wouldn't have been such a bad idea, Teldin thought. "What do you want?" he asked tiredly.
"Miss Gaeadrelle Goldring informs me that you have the thingfinder!" Seeing Teldin's blank expression, the gnome hurried on. "The thingfinder! Smallish crimson box, about so big, which I thought I had lost when the hamsters got loose but which Miss Gaeadrelle Goldring says she found and took with her when we left Ironpiece, then-"
"I've got it," Teldin said, leaving the door open to walk back to his bed. He reached down and opened a drawer in a bedside dresser, then pulled out the red box. He gave it to Dyffed. "I forgot all about it. Forgive me for that."
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