Teldin couldn't answer out loud. His throat felt so tight that he could hardly draw breath, let alone speak. He nodded-the slightest inclination of his head, but Julia saw it.

"And that's why you need me, Teldin," she went on. Her voice was pitched barely above a whisper, but still the Cloakmaster had no trouble hearing it over the hubbub from the deck below. "You need someone who understands you. And someone who cares."

Teldin found himself unable to look her in the eyes. He could feel her gaze burning into him. "When you left…" he murmured.

"I know I hurt you," she conceded, "probably more than you let yourself admit. I'm not asking for forgiveness, or for anything like that. All I ask is that you let me care."

Again, the Cloakmaster couldn't answer. There wasn't anything to say, anyway. He reached out, took Julia's soft hand, and squeezed hard, almost fiercely, and felt her return the pressure. Then both let their hands drop back to the rail. He felt a sense of release, deep in his chest-the sense that tension, so long-lived that he'd grown totally unaware of it, had now been relieved.

"I'm glad you're back," Julia said quietly.

Teldin raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't me who went anywhere," he reminded her.

"Maybe not physically," Julia replied, and left it at that.

For a few more minutes they stayed across the rail. The crew seemed to be coming together, coalescing from a mob of disparate individuals into a team that could work smoothly as a unit.

Except for one. Beth-Abz, the big man who'd come aboard with Julia, was among the other crewmen on the main deck, but he didn't seem to be one of them. Even working shoulder to shoulder with the others, he seemed somehow apart. It wasn't solely that the crew seemed to give him a wide berth-though that was part of it-but his manner, and the way he moved.

Was that the truth, or were Teldin's two strange experiences with the big man-the conviction of danger, and the image of a tooth-filled maw-warping his perceptions? No, he decided after a moment, Beth-Abz was different.

But how? And what did those two experiences mean? Were they flashes of insight from the cloak? Or were they twinges of paranoia, with no basis in fact? Either way, he decided it was about time to find out…

Julia seemed to pick up on his thoughts. "Beth-Abz," she said slowly. "Maybe I shouldn't have brought him aboard."

Now that she'd opened the subject, Teldin could ask Julia the questions he'd wanted to since he'd first seen her in the Compact alley. "Who is he?" he queried. "Where did you meet him?"

The copper-haired woman shrugged. "I met him on the docks," she answered. "We'd both just come into port-our ships landed at almost the same time-and we'd both decided to look for berths on other vessels. We got to talking." She paused. "He's an interesting man, Teldin… if you can get him to talk. He's traveled a lot-visited places I've never even heard of. And he's got a unique way of looking at the world."

"So you thought you'd sign on with the same ship?"

"Why not?" she asked simply. "He was the only interesting person I'd met since Bral, and we both wanted passage off Crescent. Remember, this was before I heard that 'Aldyn Brewer' was hiring a crew. When I heard that, I… well, I decided to look into it, and suggested Beth-Abz tag along."

Teldin was silent for a moment. "This Beth-Abz," he started, "he didn't have any particular interest in sailing with 'Aldyn Brewer,' did he?"

She shot him a sharp look. "That's paranoid," she told him flatly.

It was his turn to shrug. "Paranoia's the price I have to pay for staying alive." Then his lips quirked up into a wry smile. "And that sounds even more paranoid, doesn't it?"

She returned his smile. "We'll have plenty of time to talk through your neuroses later," she chuckled. "But, no, he didn't know whose ship we were going to approach, and he didn't care. He just wanted to get back into space."

She hesitated, then went on more firmly, "Listen, Teldin, I just want to make one thing clear. I've never sailed with Beth-Abz. I don't want you to think I'm vouching for him"- she paused again-"in any way. All right?"

He nodded. "All right."

"So, fearless leader," she said with a wicked grin, 'don't you think it's time you told us exactly where we're going? And maybe a little hint about why?"

"Why don't you go get Djan," he suggested, "and meet me in my quarters? There are a few things you should know."

*****

Teldin pulled a tightly folded piece of parchment from his belt pouch and spread it out on the table. Both Julia and Djan leaned forward for a closer look, then glanced up expectantly at Teldin.

"A chart?" Djan asked.

The Cloakmaster nodded. "I copied it from a book in the archive. It contained material from even earlier books, material dating back several hundred years at least." He reached out and tapped a circle near one side of the parchment. "This is Heartspace. And this"-he indicated another-"is Realmspace over here. These lines are rivers in the phlogiston. I think, but I'm not sure, that the book drew the faster rivers wider and the slower ones narrower. Anyway, I tried to copy the width as accurately as I could."

Djan leaned over the table again and examined the roughly scribed chart in silence for a few moments. Then he tapped a couple of symbols on the parchment. "I think you're right," he agreed. "If this is Krynnspace over here"- Teldin nodded confirmation-"then this is the major river leading to Heartspace. It's one of the fastest ever discovered, and it appears as the widest on your map."

Julia had been studying another portion of the map. With a fingertip, she traced another set of lines leading from the vicinity of Heartspace right across to the other side of the parchment. "Then what's this?" she asked. "If you've got the width right, it's almost as fast as the Krynnspace-Heartspace channel, which makes it a major potential trade route. But I've never heard of it before." She looked an unspoken question at Djan, who shook his head as well.

"I got the width right," Teldin said quietly. "If the book's right, it is one of the largest phlogiston rivers in the universe."

"And it leads right here." Djan tapped a circle on the far side of the chart. "To this crystal sphere." He looked closer. "What's this symbol? A flower of some kind?"

Teldin smiled. "You could say that." He caressed the three-petaled flower-which he'd drawn a lot more carefully than anything else on the map-with a calloused forefinger. "That's our destination. Nex."

"Nex?" Djan echoed. "It's a crystal sphere? I've never heard of it."

"I'm not surprised," Teldin agreed. "According to all of the other charts I looked at, it doesn't exist. Neither does the phlogiston river leading to it. But this chart claims it does."

Julia was silent for a moment, then said slowly, "You have to have some good reason to chase wild spacefarers' tales."

"I do," Teldin agreed. "Several of them. First, this symbol. I didn't choose it. It appeared on the chart I copied, and elsewhere in the book as well. Where have you seen it before, Julia?"

She didn't say anything, but Teldin saw her eyes widen, and her gaze drifted to the cloak around his shoulders. She nodded slowly.

"There's more," the Cloakmaster continued. "According to the book, Nex-that's the name of the crystal sphere and the major world inside it-is associated with an ancient race of immense power, capable of reforming entire planets, even entire systems, to suit their needs."

"That sounds like Stardust to me," Djan broke in. "I'm sorry, Captain," he went on apologetically, "but I've heard many myths like that, about some godlike race or other, and I can't bring myself to believe any of them."