"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 sinuses 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."

The bald gnome inspected the box, then gave Teldin a glowing smile. "Marvelous-it's in perfect shape! You've taken excellent care of it, not what I would have expected from someone not born to the rigors and demands of science and technology, the exacting care that they-oops." He gingerly withdrew and pocketed a broken gear fragment from the open back of the box. "Do hope that wasn't important," he muttered. He looked up at Tel Jin again, the incident forgotten. "As I was saying, let's be off!"

"Off where?" Teldin asked cautiously.

"Why, off to find the fal, of course!" announced the gnome, as if the goal had been perfectly obvious from the start. "We'll go topside and swing our little thingfinder around and see what thing we find!"

Teldin looked down at the red box as if it were a live serpent. He remembered the way the gnomes with Dyffed had ducked when it was pointed in their direction, back in the hangar on Ironpiece. "Is that thing dangerous to use?"

"Dangerous? You mean dangerous?" The gnome appeared astonished. "Why, not at all. It's perfectly safe. There's not a thing it could do to harm either of us. At least, not that I know of. I mean, my colleagues on Ironpiece had made only this one model, and they hadn't had time to properly test it, but they gave me their utmost assurances that nothing could go wrong, nothing that they could possibly imagine. It's as safe as the Bank of Ironpiece, Reorx bless it." The gnome chewed his lower lip. "But I guess I shouldn't say that now, should I. How fast they go. The bank had experienced some difficulties, but no one had thought…"

Five minutes later, the two were on the top deck. The wind wasn't particularly troublesome because the gnome at the helm couldn't give the spelljammer the speed that the more-experienced wizard Sylvie could, but Teldin still kept his cloak reduced to necklace length to keep it from flapping against him. He suddenly felt queazy about approaching the low railing around the top deck while the ship was in flight. The suddenness with which the ship had entered Herdspace and the excitement of the earlier air battle had negated all his nervousness before; now the situation was very different. He kept low, reaching the railing and sitting down next to it with one leg against a railing post for additional support.