a voice twice her size. "We're not afraid of the dark."
There was a pause while everyone tried not to look at Damon. At last he said, "Somehow I got talked into this insanity - I'm Stillwondering how it happened. But I've come this far and I'm not going to turn around now."
Sage turned toward the final door and it brightened. Not by much, however. It looked like the shady underside of a very large tree. What was odd, though, was that there was nothing at allgrowing under it. No ferns or bushes or seedlings, not even the normal y ever-present creepers and weeds. There were a few dead leaves on the ground, but otherwise it was just dirt.
Sage said, "A planet with only one corporeal form of life upon it. The Great Tree that covers an entire world. The crown covers al but the natural freshwater lakes it needs to survive."
Elena looked into the heart of the twilit world. "We've come so far, and maybe together - maybe we can find the star bal that wil save our town."
"This is the door you pick?"asked Sage.
Elena looked at the rest of the group. They al seemed to be waiting for her confirmation. "Yes - and right now. We have to hurry."She made a motion as if to put her cup down and it disappeared. She smiled thanks at Sage.
"Strictly speaking, I shouldn't give you any help,"he said. "But if you have a compass..."
Elena had one. It was always dangling from her backpack because she was always trying to read it.
Sage took the compass in his hand and lightly traced a line on it. He gave the compass back to Elena and she found that the needle no longer pointed to the north, but at an angle northeast. "Fol ow the arrow,"he said. "It wil take you to the trunk of the Great Tree. If I had to guess at where to find the largest star bal , I would go this way. But be wary! Others have tried this path. Their bodies have nourished the Great Tree - as fertilizer."
Elena scarcely heard the words. She had been terrified at the thought of searching an entire planet for a star bal . Of course, it might be a very smal world, like...like...
Like the little diamond moon you saw over the Nether World?
The voice in Elena's mind was both familiar and not. She glanced at Sage, who smiled. Then she looked around the room. Everyone seemed to be waiting for her to take the first step.
She took it.
Chapter 34
"You've been fed and taken care of as best as we can manage,"Meredith said, looking at allthe taut, frightened young faces turned toward her in the basement. "And now there's just one thing I want to ask of you in return."She made an effort and steadied her voice. "I want to know if anybody knows of a mobile phone that connects to the Internet, or a computer that is Stillworking. Please, please - if you even think you know where one might be, tel me."
The tension was like a thick rubber cord, dragging Meredith toward each of the pale, strained faces, dragging them to her.
It was just as well that Meredith was essential y well -
balanced. About twelve hands went up immediately, and their lone five-year-old whispered, "My mommy has one. And my daddy."
There was a pause before Meredith could say, "Does anybody know this kid?"and an older girl spoke up before she could.
"She just means they had them before the Burning Man."
"Is the Burning Man cal ed Shinichi?"Meredith asked.
"'Course. Sometimes he would make the red parts of his hair burn up way over his head."
Meredith filed that little fact away under Things I do not want to see, honest, cross my heart, ever.
Then she shook herself free from the image.
"You guys and girls, please, please think. I only need one, one mobile phone with Internet access that Stillhas power right now. One laptop or computer that is Stillworking now, maybe because of a generator Stillmaking electricity. Just one family with a home generator Stillworking. Anybody?"
The hands were down now. A boy she thought she recognized as being one of the Loring siblings, maybe age ten or eleven, said, "The Burning Man told us that mobile phones and computers were bad. That was why my brother got in a fistfight with my dad. He threw al the mobiles at home in the toilet."
"Okay. Okay, thanks. But anybody who's seen a working mobile or computer?