"You helped him plot the course," said Dumarest. "What happened towards the end? Did he try to land near the settlement?"

"I told you, my friend, there is no settlement." The naviga shy;tor beat his hands together, vapor pluming from his mouth. "And I left him long before we hit the atmosphere. But he would have tried to land us close to the field. He was a good captain," he added. "But for him we would still be in space, drifting wreckage or fused metal, we could even have fallen into a sun. He gave us life."

Dumarest looked at the sky, the surrounding terrain. The feeling of impotent helplessness of the past few hours was over now that he was back among familiar dangers. Cold and hunger and the peril of beasts. The need to survive and to escape from their present situation.

He glanced at the sky again. The sun was small, a ball of flaring orange rimmed with the inevitable corona, hang shy;ing low in a bowl of violet. The ground towards the hills was thick with snow, the soft carpeting broken by shrubs and mounded trees. Turning he looked towards the plateau. The snow continued, broken in the far distance by un shy;familiar trees. They were tall and bulbous, set wide apart and each ringed with a circle of darkness. Beyond them the air held a peculiar shimmer.

Lallia shivered as a rising wind blew azure flecks into her face. "Earl, I'm cold."

Dumarest ignored the comment. To Nimino he said, "You were here before. What is the weather like? How low does the temperature fall?"

"I was at the sacred place," said the navigator. "Not out in the wilds. There the temperature is that of blood."

Warm air rising to meet upper layers of frigid cold would produce such a shimmer as lay beyond the trees. And Sheyan would have tried to put them down close. It was possible and yet, how in this wilderness could a place be so warm?

The wind strengthened a little, a flurry of snow streaming from the hills like azure smoke from a fire thick with ash.

"We had best find shelter," said Yalung. "The sun is set shy;ting and the cold will increase." He looked at the column of smoke, bent now, a ragged plume marring the sky. "The trees, perhaps?"

The shimmer lay beyond, it was the right direction.

"Yes," said Dumarest. "The trees."

They were further than he had guessed. In the clear air distance was hard to judge and it was growing dark by the time they reached the vicinity of the unfamiliar growths. He paused as they neared them, looking up at the soaring trees, alert for signs of aerial life. He saw nothing. Only the bulbous trunks spiked with a multitude of bristle-like protu shy;berances. Leaves, he thought, or branches, or protective spines like those on a cactus. The dark rings beneath them were areas clear of snow, a thick, springy grass showing a dull brown in the fading light.

"Please, Earl." Lallia was shaking with the cold, the thick mane of her hair coated with azure flecks borne by the wind. "Can't we find somewhere to stay, build a fire, per shy;haps?"

"We could get behind a tree," suggested Yalung. The dealer's voice was even, he did not appear to feel the cold. "At least it would protect us from the wind."

Dumarest hesitated, caution prickling his nerves. There was a stillness about the forest he did not like. There should have been underbrush, birds, small animals, perhaps. There should have been the feel of life instead of the eerie still shy;ness as if a giant animal were holding its breath and crouch shy;ing ready to spring.

"A fire," said Nimino. He blew on his hands, his dark skin puckered with the cold. "Always man has found com shy;fort in the leaping dance of a flame. I will gather wood while you select a place to rest." He was gone before Dumarest could object, his figure small against the bole of a soaring giant.

He jerked as something exploded.

It was a short, harsh sound like the vicious crack of a whip. Nimino stumbled and fell to roll on the dark mat of the grass. Dumarest caught Lallia as she went to run to shy;wards him.

"Wait!"

"But, Earl, he tripped and fell. He could be hurt."

"He didn't trip." Dumarest narrowed his eyes as he ex shy;amined the tree. "If he did he will rise. Yalung, that ex shy;plosion, did you hear it?"

"It sounded like the snapping of a branch," said the dealer slowly. "I think it came from the tree."

It came again as they watched, the hard, snapping sound accompanied by the flash of something dark which hit the ground close to where Nimino rolled in pain. Dumarest shouted towards the navigator.

"Don't move! Stay as you are!"

He ran forward as he shouted, head lowered, shoulders high. The cracking explosion came again as he reached the edge of the dark area and he sprang aside as a dozen shafts spined the place where he had been. More explosions echoed from the trees as he stopped, picked up the navigator and, cradling him in his arms, ran from the vicinity of the tree.

Something slammed into his back, his legs and arms, the impact accompanied by more vicious crackings. They ceased as he rejoined the others.

"The tree," said Yalung. "It fired spines at you. I saw the puffs against the bole."

"Earl!" said Lallia. "You were hit!"

Hit but not harmed, the spines had failed to penetrate the mesh buried within the plastic of his clothing. Nimino hadn't been as lucky. A half-dozen spines had hit his torso, finger-thick and covered with pointed scales. Dumarest touched one and felt the sting of poison. Even if they hadn't hit a vital part the navigator was as good as dead.

A defense mechanism, he thought. The trees protecting themselves or using the fired spines to bring down game so as to nourish their roots.

"Earl!" Nimino writhed in his agony, sweat beading his face. "Earl!"

"It's all right," said Dumarest. He lifted his right hand and rested the fingers on the navigator's throat. A pressure on the carotids and the man would pass quickly into uncon shy;sciousness and painless death.

"No!" Nimino twisted, one hand rising to knock away the fingers. "Not that, Earl. I want to see it coming. Meet it face to face."

He coughed and wiped his mouth, looking at the red bright against the darkness of his hand.

"It burns," he said. "God, how it burns!" His hand reached for Dumarest's, found it, tightened. "Earl, do you think I'll have to pay for Claude? Start again at the very beginning? It's such a long, hard climb, Earl. So long. Will I ever reach the Ultimate?"

"Yes," said Dumarest quietly. "You're going to it now. You won't have to pay for Claude. You killed him in order to save my life."

"Yes," said Nimino. He coughed again, blood staining his lips and chin. "Earl, I lied to you. About Earth. I said I didn't know anything about it. I lied."

"You know where it is?" Dumarest stooped close to the dying man, his eyes intent. "How I can find it?"

"Not where it is. But in the old books, the religious works, they talk of it." Nimino's voice faded, became a liquid gur shy;gling. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," he said. "The Earth, Earl! And there is more. In the Rhamda Veda it says: 'From terror did the people fly and they did scatter themselves in the heavens.' Terror, Earl, or Terra? I have thought much about it since you joined the Moray." He coughed again and his voice became clearer. "Find the Original People, Earl. They hold secret knowledge and legends born in ancient days. The Original People."

"A sect?" Dumarest gripped the hand within his own. "What are they, Nimino? A religious sect?"

"Yes, Earl. They will tell you of the Dog Star and the Plow, the magic signs of the zodiac. Where you can see them that is where you will find Earth. They-" The naviga shy;tor broke off, his eyes widening as he stared past Dumarest. "You!" he gasped. "But how-"