star
, the Mistress sent, and Marika fixed
her gaze upon the Redoriad star she had chosen as her destination.
Gather those-who-dwell. Keep that star firmly fixed in your
mind. Do you have them? Star and those-who-dwell?
I do.
Make the star grow slowly larger in your mind’s eye.
Squeeze those-who-dwell with all the will you have. Let them know
that you will not release them till that star has become a
sun.
The horde of ghosts Marika gathered was larger than any she had
seen any void-faring Mistress gather before. She did as she was
instructed, squeezing down with a mind strong on the dark side.
The stars around her went out like electric lights suddenly
extinguished. For an instant she almost lost the spark that was her
destination. She resurrected it in imagination, pounded it into
those-who-dwell, who boiled around the darkship, frenzied by the
effort she exerted, furious in their effort to escape.
The spark swelled swiftly in sudden jerks, as though she and the
darkship were skipping vast tracts of intermediate void. That star
became the size of a new coin.
Let go!
the Mistress sent.
Let go now!
Marika
had become so fixed upon driving toward her destination that she
had not thought to release her bearers.
What did I do wrong?
You almost hurled us into that star.
The Mistress was
in a state approaching shock.
I apologize, Mistress. I was concentrating upon controlling
those-who-dwell.
You did so. You definitely did. Never have I seen a passage
made so swiftly, so suddenly. We will see how you manage
the return journey. If you are more aware of your destination. If
so, I will tell the most senior you are ready to fare on your
own.
You seem distressed, Mistress.
I have experienced nothing like this. I have encountered no
such overwhelming demonstration of power. You hardly needed the
bath.
She then let it drop, and refused to be drawn forth on
the matter again.
Feel for the world. You are on the sunward
side of its orbit.
Marika found it, to the left of and slightly beyond the sun.
Up-and-Over?
Carefully. You do not need to set records getting
there.
Marika repeated her performance, though with a gentler touch.
How was that, Mistress!
Less unsettling. But you need to develop a subtler touch.
Take the darkship down.
The Mistress presented a mind picture
of their destination.
From orbit the planet looked little different from
Marika’s homeworld. Less icy, perhaps, but even here,
according to her tutor, the interstellar cloud had begun to have
its effect. In a few hundred years this world, too, would be
gripped by an age of ice.
As stellar distances go, Marika, we are still very close to
home. We see very few stars in our home sky. If we go out in the
right direction, so that we pass beyond the cloud, we can see stars
by the tens of thousands.
As Marika watched the world expand and become down, she
realized, with a chilly feeling of déjà vu, that she had fulfilled
her dream. She had walked among the stars. As a dream it had lost
meaning and impact in the pressure of more immediate concerns.
“Stars beneath my feet,” she whispered.
The darkship dropped through feeble clouds and turned out over a
desert, an environment familiar to Marika only from photographs and
tapes. There were no deserts in those parts of her own world that
she knew. She realized that she had no broad, eyewitness
familiarity with her native planet. She knew only a long, narrow
band running from the Rift through the Ponath, Maksche, TelleRai,
and on south to Ruhaack. She had seen perhaps a thousandth of her
world. And now she was stalking the universe!
Toward the sun, Marika. Two points to your right. Can you
feel it?
Yes.
This world felt nothing like her own. It felt incredibly empty,
lonely. Her touch rang hollow here, except in one very well-defined
direction, sharp as a knife stroke. She pushed the darkship
forward, through a wind she found unnaturally warm even at that
high altitude.
Barren mountains rose above the horizon.
, the Mistress sent, and Marika fixed
her gaze upon the Redoriad star she had chosen as her destination.
Gather those-who-dwell. Keep that star firmly fixed in your
mind. Do you have them? Star and those-who-dwell?
I do.
Make the star grow slowly larger in your mind’s eye.
Squeeze those-who-dwell with all the will you have. Let them know
that you will not release them till that star has become a
sun.
The horde of ghosts Marika gathered was larger than any she had
seen any void-faring Mistress gather before. She did as she was
instructed, squeezing down with a mind strong on the dark side.
The stars around her went out like electric lights suddenly
extinguished. For an instant she almost lost the spark that was her
destination. She resurrected it in imagination, pounded it into
those-who-dwell, who boiled around the darkship, frenzied by the
effort she exerted, furious in their effort to escape.
The spark swelled swiftly in sudden jerks, as though she and the
darkship were skipping vast tracts of intermediate void. That star
became the size of a new coin.
Let go!
the Mistress sent.
Let go now!
Marika
had become so fixed upon driving toward her destination that she
had not thought to release her bearers.
What did I do wrong?
You almost hurled us into that star.
The Mistress was
in a state approaching shock.
I apologize, Mistress. I was concentrating upon controlling
those-who-dwell.
You did so. You definitely did. Never have I seen a passage
made so swiftly, so suddenly. We will see how you manage
the return journey. If you are more aware of your destination. If
so, I will tell the most senior you are ready to fare on your
own.
You seem distressed, Mistress.
I have experienced nothing like this. I have encountered no
such overwhelming demonstration of power. You hardly needed the
bath.
She then let it drop, and refused to be drawn forth on
the matter again.
Feel for the world. You are on the sunward
side of its orbit.
Marika found it, to the left of and slightly beyond the sun.
Up-and-Over?
Carefully. You do not need to set records getting
there.
Marika repeated her performance, though with a gentler touch.
How was that, Mistress!
Less unsettling. But you need to develop a subtler touch.
Take the darkship down.
The Mistress presented a mind picture
of their destination.
From orbit the planet looked little different from
Marika’s homeworld. Less icy, perhaps, but even here,
according to her tutor, the interstellar cloud had begun to have
its effect. In a few hundred years this world, too, would be
gripped by an age of ice.
As stellar distances go, Marika, we are still very close to
home. We see very few stars in our home sky. If we go out in the
right direction, so that we pass beyond the cloud, we can see stars
by the tens of thousands.
As Marika watched the world expand and become down, she
realized, with a chilly feeling of déjà vu, that she had fulfilled
her dream. She had walked among the stars. As a dream it had lost
meaning and impact in the pressure of more immediate concerns.
“Stars beneath my feet,” she whispered.
The darkship dropped through feeble clouds and turned out over a
desert, an environment familiar to Marika only from photographs and
tapes. There were no deserts in those parts of her own world that
she knew. She realized that she had no broad, eyewitness
familiarity with her native planet. She knew only a long, narrow
band running from the Rift through the Ponath, Maksche, TelleRai,
and on south to Ruhaack. She had seen perhaps a thousandth of her
world. And now she was stalking the universe!
Toward the sun, Marika. Two points to your right. Can you
feel it?
Yes.
This world felt nothing like her own. It felt incredibly empty,
lonely. Her touch rang hollow here, except in one very well-defined
direction, sharp as a knife stroke. She pushed the darkship
forward, through a wind she found unnaturally warm even at that
high altitude.
Barren mountains rose above the horizon.
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