But I don't like it. It gets in the way of the stars." Amdi knew all about the stars; Jefri had told him. Somewhere out there were the friends of Jefri's parents. Jefri was silent for several minutes. He wasn't looking at the sky anymore. Amdi wriggled a little closer,
mbt trainers, watching the shifting light in the sky. Behind them the wind-sharpened crest of the drift was edged with yellow light from the torches. Amdi could imagine what the other was thinking. "The commsets from the boat, they really aren't good enough to call for help?" Jefri slapped the ground. "No! I told you. They're just radio. I think I can make them work, but what's the use? The ultrawave stuff is still on the boat and it's too big to move. I just don't understand why Mr. Steel won't let me go aboard.... I'm eight years old, you know. I could figure it out. Mom had it all set up before, before ..." His words guttered into the familiar,
复件 (34) air max1, despairing silence. Amdi rubbed a head against Jefri's shoulder. He had a theory about Mr. Steel's reluctance. It was an explanation he hadn't told Jefri before: "Maybe he's afraid you'll just fly away and leave us." "That's stupid! I'd never leave you. Besides,
复件 (68) air max2, that boat is real hard to fly. It was never meant to land on a world." Jefri said the strangest things; sometimes Amdi was just misunderstanding -- but sometimes they were literal truth. Did the humans really have ships that never came to ground? Where did they go then? Amdi could almost feel new scales of reference clicking together in his mind. Mr. Steel's geography globe represented not the world,
复件 (62) air max2, but something very, very small in the true scheme of things. "I know you wouldn't leave us. But you can see how Mr. Steel might be afraid. He can't even talk to you except through me. We have to show him that we can be trusted." "I guess." "If you and I could get the radios working, that might help. I know my teachers haven't figured them out. Mr. Steel has one, but I don't think he understands it either." "Yeah. If we could get the other one to work..." That afternoon the guards got a break: their two charges came in from the cold early. The guards didn't question their good fortune. Steel's den had originally been the Master's. It was very different from the castle's meeting halls. Except for choirs, only a single pack would fit in any room. It was not exactly that the suite was small. There were five rooms, not counting the bath. But except for the library, none was more than fifteen feet across. The ceilings were low, less than five feet; there was no space for visitor balconies. Servants were always on call in the two hallways that shared a wall with the quarters. The dining room,
复件 (96) air max1, bedroom, and bath had servant hatches, just big enough to give orders and to receive food and drink, or preening oils. The main entrance was guarded on the outside by three trooper packs. Of course, the Master would never live in a den with only one exit. Steel had found eight secret hatches (three in the sleeping quarters). These could only be opened from within; they led to the maze that Flenser had built within the solid rock of the castle's walls. No one knew the extent of that maze, not even the Master. Steel had rearranged parts of it -- in particular the passages leading from this den -- in the years since Flenser's departure. The quarters were nearly impregnable. Even if the castle fell, the rooms' larder was stocked for half a year; ventilation was provided by a network of channels almost as extensive as the Master's secret passages. All in all,
air max1, Steel felt tolerably safe here. There was always the possibility that there were more than eight secret entrances, perhaps one that could be opened from the other side.
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