Araminta gave them no response. She stood resolute in front of the disintegrating flecks of light, mute and distraught. Her personal staff members were dismissed with a curt gesture when they ventured out onto the sleek expanse of floor. Even the loyal Darraklan was sent away without a word.

Inevitably, as she knew he would, Ethan appeared and began the lonely walk toward her. Those sharing her dismay felt the anguish recede as she straightened herself. She made no attempt to wipe the tears from her eyes. Then her followers were standing on soft grassy land that fell away to a shoreline encased by high dunes. Sunlight shimmered off the idle waves that spanned the ocean’s clear waters. A Silfen stood before her, majestic and ominous with his dark leather wings extended, tail poised high. “You can do this,” he assured her.

“I know.”

The pendant around her neck flared with the joyous azure light of affirmation. And there was Ethan standing in front of her on the observation deck, his eyes narrowed against the cold light radiating from the pendant on its slim chain that now rested outside her white robe.

“Second Dreamer,” he said formally.

“Cleric Ethan.”

The absolute hatred directed by the followers of Living Dream at their ex-Conservator was staggering in its passion. He hesitated, then recovered with a sure smile that simply confirmed his dishonor before his audience.

“Perhaps you would like to tell your people what dismays you so,” he suggested smoothly.

“Are you aware?” she asked.

“Yes, Dreamer.”

“There is only one person in the universe who could have told you.”

“Indeed. However, the messenger is not important. What she told me is.”

“In this case the message and the messenger are one, nor is the method by which the message was procured insignificant. She is the cause.”

“Nonetheless, she has named you false.”

“Ilanthe lies. That is what she is now. The serpent among us all.”

“Is it true? Are you many?”

“I am.”

“Then I must question your intent.”

“Of course you must. Yet I will keep my word. I will lead this Pilgrimage into the Void as I promised.”

“You seek to thwart us,” he spit.

“I seek our true destiny. I seek to avoid the folly and fate of the Last Dream for the devout. I seek the Void’s own fulfillment.”

“By allowing those who would destroy it to enter. That cannot happen.”

“I tell you now what I told Ilanthe and what I have also told Inigo. Our fate will be decided within the Void. It will be decided by the Void. Not by you or anyone else. I have been chosen as the instrument to open a path into the Void; that is all. I am not a gatekeeper. All those who seek their fulfillment, whatever its nature, are free to enter the Void. Simply because their vision is different from yours and that of Living Dream does not entitle me to deny them passage. I do not judge, Cleric. Unlike you, I do not consider myself infallible.”

Ethan’s uncertainty couldn’t have been more apparent if he’d allowed it to shine out through his gaiamotes. “You have spoken to Inigo?”

“We are both Dreamers. We are together even now. Didn’t your dearest Ilanthe tell you that?”

“Ilanthe is no friend of mine.”

“And yet you defer to it, whatever it is, whatever it seeks. The Dreamer Inigo released the Last Dream as a warning. Do you really think that dreary destiny of bored supermen is one to which we should aspire for our children?”

“I believe we have the right to choose our future. I wish to live my life on Querencia and achieve fulfillment and be guided to the Heart. You and Oscar and Aaron are trying to prevent that.”

Araminta gave him an icy smile. “Sometimes to do what’s right you have to do what’s wrong.”

Ethan glanced about the massive observation deck as if seeking allies. “If you deny us the Void, it will go badly for you. That I promise. My life has been given to serving Living Dream. All I have done, all I have sacrificed, has led to the launch of this Pilgrimage. I will not tolerate betrayal.”

“You will enter the Void, Cleric. You will yet walk upon Querencia. You have my word on it. Now, why don’t you go and ask Ilanthe what future she desires for all of us. Or perhaps she doesn’t trust you enough to answer.”

He nodded impersonally. “As you say, the Void will ultimately triumph. I don’t worry about Ilanthe’s intent. What any of us do, our petty schemes and conspiracies, is an irrelevance in the face of the Void’s majesty.”

“I’m glad we are as one in that view. Now, don’t bother me again.” She turned away from him and waited. Finally, she heard him walk away.

The gaiafield was awash with confusion and dismay. Her followers needed her to explain what was happening, what the Dreamer Inigo was doing.

“You’ll see,” she assured them. “In the Void there will be truth.”

It was a yellow star whose meager family of planets consisted of a couple of airless solid worlds and a single gas giant that boasted over twenty moons. None of them had ever had a chance to evolve life; wrong orbits and lack of volatile organic chemicals had seen to that. Now they were just circling endlessly, waiting for the star to run through its main sequence and inflate into a red giant, devouring them all.

Mellanie’s Redemption emerged from hyperspace eighty million kilometers from the star and immediately activated its stealth systems. Inside the overcrowded cabin the mood was bleak. Oscar wasn’t sure he could take many more emotional swings on this kind of scale. Abandoning poor Cheriton to the Cat had been tough on them all, though strangely, Araminta-two had been the most affected. Tears had streamed down his face as the starship fled from the Spike. No amount of comforting from Inigo and Corrie-Lyn had helped.

Then both Dreamers had abruptly joined in surprise as Justine’s dream of landing at Makkathran came rushing through whatever tenuous contact they had with the Void.

“She made it,” Beckia exclaimed in surprise as the Silverbird touched down gently in Golden Park and the dream faded.

“Never expected her to do anything less,” Oscar said. “I remember her from my first life. The Burnellis were a formidable lot.”

“Is she part of your plan?” Tomansio asked Aaron.

“Not as far as I know. Her voyage certainly doesn’t trigger any alternatives or imperatives. We proceed as agreed.”

“Okay. Troblum, how long does this thing take?”

Oscar was interested to see that Catriona had gone away during the short flight. Once he was on his own, Troblum hadn’t said ten words to them, and there certainly hadn’t been anything given away from his gaiamotes. In fact, Oscar wasn’t certain Troblum had gaiamotes.

“I’ll bring the device up to active status now,” Troblum said.

“Great. So how long?”

“The wormhole parameter will have to be reformatted. I was working on that during the flight. Loading it in shouldn’t take more than a quarter of an hour. After that, we simply have to launch it into the star.”

“How long, then?”

“That depends on the distance we launch from. The smartcore is reviewing the corona’s radiant output for a definitive safe distance, but I’d say it’ll be about a million kilometers. The device itself will activate when it reaches the upper corona. It only needs a reasonably dense plasma layer to initiate a chain-reaction propagation within the quantum instability. I based that part of it on our standard novabomb.”

“Troblum. How long until the wormhole forms? From right now?”

Oscar was seriously impressed by Tomansio’s restraint.

“Oh. About twenty-five minutes.”

“Good work,” Aaron said, obviously amused by Tomansio’s suppressed frustration. “And how far will the new wormhole reach?”

“I think, now I’ve got the new profile, twenty-eight thousand light-years.”