assertive, but I suddenly became aware that she was trembling, too.
I gave a deep, shuddering sigh. “The forest is at the mouth of a valley, which opens onto a wide savannah. I see a narrow river winding through it. There are mountains on one side of the valley and low hills on the other. All the colours are of a soft hue. There are exotic plants and giant trees, and herds of—of—I don’t know what they are.”
“Antelope, like in Africa?”
“No—similar, but not antelope. And a lot of flying things. They don’t look like birds. More like sea life, but floating in the air with—um—buoyancy sacs, I suppose. Here come the—the—” My voice failed me as the “Wise Ones” scuttled into view and clambered aboard the Ptall’kor. They placed bulging and sloshing skins into a pile and the one called Yazziz Yozkulu announced, “Only two new ones delivered to us—and strange ones at that—but at least we have plenty of Dar’sayn and can now leave this accursed place. On with our journey, and Saviour protect us!”
Our “vehicle” rose into the air and pulled itself past one of the colossal trees. At my companion’s request, I described it in greater detail: the raised roots, so tall a man could easily walk among them; the trunk, silvery grey, at least thirty feet wide but proportionately short; and the feathery fern-like leaves that arched outward from its top. They were of a soft pinkish hue and comprised of ever-thinning filaments that became so slight as to be almost invisible, causing the edges of the fronds to melt into the air. This was common to much of the flora that I subsequently observed—the thinning of foliage to the point where it became a nimbus around its parent plant. Together with the dominant pastel shades, it gave the landscape such a lack of definition that it might have been a dream.
Perhaps it was!
Wake up, Fleischer! Wake up!
“I’m so drowsy,” I mumbled as the Ptall’kor glided out over the grassy plain.
“Probably shock,” Clarissa said. “I daresay I’d be the same if I could see. Apart from that, how are you—your health, I mean?”
“I feel heavy and lethargic but—but I’m all right.”
“No traces of fever?”
“No! Apart from this dragging weight and tiredness, I feel physically fine.”
“Perhaps gravity is a little more powerful here, and that’s why you feel so sluggish. But the kichyomachyoma is cured?”
“I’d forgotten about that! Yes, it appears to be. Gravity? What do you mean?”
“Isn’t it obvious, Aiden? This isn’t Earth.”
“I have to sleep now.”
I lay down, closed my eyes, and shut it all out.
° °
When I awoke, Kata, the Koluwaian woman, pushed an object into my hand and said, “Eat.”
The thing, which was the size of a grapefruit, looked like a perfectly spherical nut with a single groove running around its circumference. It was green, and firm to the touch. Following Kata’s lead, I bit into it. It had the texture of an apple but tasted like a cross between a melon and pear. It was delicious.
“For how long did I sleep?”
Clarissa answered. “It’s hard to say, but I’d estimate three or four hours. What time of day is it?”
I looked at the twin suns. They hadn’t moved at all. Our shadows were still long.
Kata said, “We are early in the sight of the Saviour.”
I examined her more closely. She was a short, fat woman of indeterminate age with a very broad and flat forehead, a crooked nose, and a protuberant jaw.
“Kata has been telling me about Ptallaya,” Clarissa said. I saw that she now had a cloth wound about her head, like a blindfold, to protect her eyes. “The things you called monsters are Yatsill. They are divided into the Wise Ones and the Shunned.”
Kata gestured toward the front of the Ptall’kor, where the six creatures who’d been in the forest with us stood. “The Wise Ones,” she said, and then pointed to the rear where nine more squatted, “Those are children. We are taking them to Immersion, where some will be made Wise and others Shunned. All the newly born Yatsill make this journey when the Eyes of the Saviour open. The rest are on other Ptall’kors, which are far ahead of us. We will be last to Immersion, for we travelled first to the forest to collect Dar’sayn.”
I didn’t comprehend any of this.
I took another bite of the fruit and chewed it, the sweet juice quenching my thirst. We were drifting past a slow-moving river. I watched as little cone-shaped animals