“No,” said Old One shortly. “Only Lily goes there. And myself. Once. Once I
saw.”
Satin sank back, profoundly disappointed.
“Perhaps there is no such human,” Bluetooth said.
Now Old One’s ears lay back, and there was an intake of breath all about them.
“It is a Time,” said Satin, “and my journey. We come very far, Old One, and we
cannot see the images and we cannot see the dreamer; we have not yet found the
face of Sun.”
Old One’s lips pursed and relaxed several times. “You come. We show you. This
night you come; next night others… if you are not afraid. We show you a place.
It has no humans in it for a short time. One hour. Human counting. I know how to
reckon. You come?”
From Bluetooth there was not a sound. “Come,” Satin said, and felt his
reluctance as she tugged at his arm. Others would not. There were none so
daring… or so trusting of the strange Old One.
Old One stood up, and two of his company with him. Satin did, and Bluetooth
stood up more slowly.
“I go too,” Bigfellow said, but none of his companions came with him to join
them.
Old One surveyed them with a curious mockery, and motioned them to come, down
the tunnels, into the further ways, tunnels where hisa could move without masks,
dark places where one must climb far on thin metal and where even hisa must bend
to walk.
“He is mad,” Bluetooth hissed finally into her ear, panting. “And we are mad to
follow this deranged Old One. They are all strange who have been here long.”
Satin said nothing, not knowing any argument but her desire. She feared, but she
followed, and Bluetooth followed her. Bigfellow trailed along after all of them.
They panted when they must go a long way bent or climb far. It was a mad
strength that the Old One and his two fellows had, as if they were used to such
things and knew where they were going.
Or perhaps—the thought chilled her bones—it was some bizarre humor of the Old
One to strand them deep in the dark ways, where they might wander and die lost,
to teach the others a lesson.
And just as she was becoming convinced of that fear, the Old One and his
companions reached a stopping place and drew up their masks, indicating that
they were at a place which would break into human air. Satin swept hers up to
her face and Bluetooth and Bigfellow did so only just in time, for the door
behind them closed and the door before them opened on a bright hall, white
floors and the green of growing things, and here and there scattered humans
coming and going in the lonely large space… nothing like the docks. Here was
cleanliness and light, and vast dark beyond them, where Old One wished to lead
them.
Satin felt Bluetooth slip his hand into hers, and Bigfellow hovered close to
both of them as they followed, into a darkness even vaster than the bright place
they had left, where there were no walls, only sky.
Stars shifted about them, dazzling them with the motion, magical stars which
changed from place to place, burning clear and more steadily than ever Downbelow
saw them. Satin let go the hand which held hers and walked forward in awe,
gazing about her.
And suddenly light blazed forth, a great burning disc spotted with dark, flaring
with fires.
“Sun,” Old One intoned.
There was no brightness, no blue, only dark and stars and the terrible close
fire. Satin trembled.
“There is dark,” Bluetooth objected. “How can there be night where Sun is?”
“All stars are kindred of great Sun,” said Old One. “This is a truth. The
brightness is illusion. This is a truth. Great Sun shines in darkness and he is
large, so large we are dust. He is terrible, and his fires frighten the dark.
This is truth. Sky-sees-her, this is the true sky: this is your name. The stars
are like great Sun, but far, far from us. This we have learned. See! The walls
show us the Upabove itself, and the great ships, the outside of the docks. And