The old lady noticed his look. She gave him a jagged little grin. "I doubt I'll see another Brightness of the sun. That's okay. My children will have this land. There's a view; they might build a little inn here. But if I survive the Dark, I'll build a little cabin here and put up a big sign proclaiming me the oldest cobber living in the parish....And I'll look down into the dell. I hope it's washed clean. If the vermin are back, most likely it'll be because they murdered some poor farmer family and took their deepness."

After that, Lady Enclearre turned the conversation to other things, asking about life in Princeton and Sherk's own childhood. She said that now she had revealed her parish's dark secrets, he should reveal what he was up to driving an automobile down to Lands Command.

"Well, I was thinking about enlisting." Actually, Sherkaner intended that the Command enlist inhis schemes rather than the other way around. It was an attitude that had driven the University Professoriate nuts.

"Hmm-hmm. 'Tis a long way to come when you could enlist in a minute back in Princeton. I noticed the luggage end of your auto is almost as big as a farmer's cart." She waggled her eating hands in curiosity.

Sherkaner just smiled back. "My friends warned me to carry lots of spare parts if I wanted to tour the Pride of Accord by automobile."

"Shu, I'll bet." She stood up with some difficulty, supporting herself on both midhands and feet. "Well, this old lady needs her sleep, even on a nice summer's evening in such good company. Breakfast will be around sunup."

She took him to his room, insisting on climbing the stairs to show him how to open the windows and fold out the sleeping perch. It was an airy little room, its wallpaper peeling with age. At one time, it must have been for her children.

"...and the privy is on the outside rear of the house. No city luxury here, Mister Underhill."

"It will be fine, my lady."

"Good night then."

She was already starting down the stairs when he thought of one more question. There was always one more question. He stuck his head out the bedroom door. "You have so many books now, Lady Enclearre. Did the parish finally buy you the rest?"

She stopped her careful progress down the stairs, and gave a little laugh. "Yes, years later. And that's a story too. It was the new parish priest, even if the dear cobber won't admit it; he must have used his own money. But one day, there was this postal shipment on my doorstep, direct from the publishers in Princeton, new copies of the teachers' books for every grade." She waved a hand. "The silly fellow. But all the books will go to the deepness with me. I'll see they get to whoever teaches the next generation of parish children." And she continued down the stairs.

Sherkaner settled onto the sleeping perch, scrunched around until its knobby stuffing felt comfortable. He was very tired, but sleep did not come. The room's tiny windows overlooked the dell. Starlight reflected the color of burned wood from a tiny thread of smoke. The smoke had its own far-red light, but there were no flecks of living fire in it.I guess even pervertssleep.

From the trees all around came the sound of the woodsfairies, tiny critters mating and hoarding. Sherkaner wished he had some time for entomology. The critters' buzzing scaled up and down. When he was little there had been the story of the Lazy Woodsfairies, but he also remembered the silly poems they used to put to the fairies' music. "So high, so low, so many things to know." The funny little song seemed to hide behind the stridling sound.

The words and the endless song lulled him finally into sleep.

FIVE

Sherkaner made it to Lands Command in two more days. It might have taken longer, except that his redesign of the auto's drive belt made it safer to run the downhill curves fast. It might have taken less time, except that three times he had mechanical failures, one a cracked cylinder. It had been an evasion rather than a lie to tell Lady Enclearre that his cargo was spare parts. In fact, he had taken a few, the things he figured he couldn't build himself at a backcountry smith's.

It was late afternoon when he came round the last bend and caught his first glimpse of the long valley that housed Lands Command. It cut for miles, straight back into the mountains, the valley walls so high that parts of the floor were already in twilight. The far end was blued with distance; Royal Falls descended in slow-motion majesty from the peaks above. This was about as close as tourists ever got. The Royal Family held tight to this land and the deepness beneath the mountain, had held it since they were nothing more than an upstart dukedom forty Darks ago.

Sherkaner ate a good meal at the last little inn, fueled up his auto, and headed into the Royal reservation. The letter from his cousin got him through the outer checkpoints. The swingpole barricades were raised, bored troopers in drab green uniforms waved him through. There were barracks, parade grounds, and—sunk behind massive berms—ammo dumps. But Lands Command had never been an ordinary military installation. During the early days of the Accord, it had been mostly a playground for the Royals. Then, generation after generation, the affairs of government had become more settled and rational and unromantic. Lands Command fulfilled its name, became the hidey-hole for the Accord's supreme headquarters. Finally, it became something more: the site of the Accord's most advanced military research.

That was what most interested Sherkaner Underhill. He didn't slow down to gawk; the police-soldiers had been very definite that he proceed directly to his official destination. But there was nothing to prevent him from looking in all directions, swaying slightly on his perch as he did so. The only identification on the buildings was discreet little numerical signs, but some were pretty obvious. Wireless telegraphy: a long barracks sprouting the weirdest radio masts. Heh, if things were orderly and efficient, the building beside it would be the crypto academy. On the other side of the road lay a field of asphalt wider and smoother than any road. It was no surprise that two low-wing monoplanes sat on the far end. Sherkaner would have given a lot to see what was behind them, under tarpaulins. Farther on, a huge digger snout stuck steeply out of the lawn in front of one building. The digger's impossible angle gave an impression of speed and violence to what was the slowest conceivable way of getting from here to there.

He was nearing the end of the valley. Royal Falls towered above. A rainbow of a thousand colors floated in its spray. He passed what was probably a library, drove around a parking circle featuring the royal colors and the usual Reaching-for-Accord thing. The stone buildings around the circle were a special part of the mystique of Lands Command. By some fluke of shade and shelter, they survived each New Sun with little damage; not even their contents burned.

BUILDING5007, the sign said. Office of Materials Research, it said on the directions the sentry had handed him. A good omen that it was right at the center of everything. He parked between two other autos that were already pulled over at the side of the street. Better not be conspicuous.

As he climbed the steps, he could see that the sun was setting almost directly down the path he had come. It was already below the highest cliffs. At the center of the traffic circle, the statues Reaching for Accord cast long shadows across the lawn. Somehow he suspected that the average military base was not quite this beautiful.

The sergeant held Sherkaner's letter with obvious distaste. "So who is this Captain Underhill—"

"Oh, no relation, Sergeant. He—"

"—and why should his wishes count for squat with us?"