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information from Vodina as I could, while she was still disoriented and confused. Doubtless she would become much less willing to volunteer intelligence once she was herself again.
    “Where were you when you were attacked?” I asked, as casually as possible.
    “The World Sea,” she said, her eyes distant. “On my island. I believe whomever did it must have been waiting there for some time, as I spend most of my time beneath the waves and do not often emerge.”
    I nodded.
    “The Sea. That is a long way down the line.”
    “Indeed.”
    “Fast time, right?”
    “Somewhat. I can dwell there for months and miss little that happens in the City.”
    I realized then that she probably did not know about the murders. Truthfully, I was afraid to tell her. Afraid of what might happen if she were so shocked that she lapsed into a coma again—and I had no way of judging the delicacy of her condition. Perhaps more that that, I was concerned that she might instantly draw the same conclusions regarding my guilt that Baranak and the others had. I did not fancy another twelve rounds with her furies.
    “Excuse me,” Evelyn said then, “but I’ve never heard of a ‘World Sea.’”
    “You wouldn’t have,” Vodina said. “It is not within your capacity to experience. At least, not without a guide.” She smiled up at the woman. “It seems that you have found one, though.”
    “It is in a pocket universe claimed by Vodina,” I explained quickly, suddenly uncomfortable. “It lies… one might say below your human plane.”
    “Like subspace,” Evelyn said, making the connection. “So time there flows slightly faster than in normal space.” She frowned. “So, you’re saying there are other layers to subspace?”
    I did not wish to be distracted into delivering a physics lesson—nor a metaphysics lesson—while the opportunity yet remained to pump the water goddess for information. But, I reasoned, perhaps a few basics would shut them up for a bit. So, “Somewhat,” I replied hastily. “Better to say that the ‘subspace’ you use for fast space travel is but one layer, one plane among many, both ‘Above’ and ‘Below’ your own. It lies in the Below, the faster but less powerful direction, while our Golden City lies in the slower but more powerful direction, the Above.”
    Cassidy leaned toward Kim.
    “That does fit with some of our theories,” he said. “It would sort of explain how our ship ended up where it did.”
    “You’re not seriously listening to this guy, are you?” Kim snorted. “I still say we’re jacked into some sort of Outworlder brain sim and they’re just waiting for us to get comfortable and hand over everything we know.”
    “That should not take terribly long, I would imagine,” I muttered, before returning my full attention to Vodina once more. “So, did you get any sort of a look at your attackers?”
    “No,” she said. “They must have been extremely good at concealing themselves both from me and from my remote defenses.” She squeezed her eyes closed tightly, as one who battled a growing migraine. “Which among our number excel at concealment?” she asked.
    I hastily turned the conversation away from this direction and back to the attack.
    “How were you hit? What did they do to you?”
    She gingerly flexed her left shoulder and winced.
    “A blast in the back. It knocked me senseless. I remember little afterward.”
    Her luminous eyes turned upward, as if searching the cave’s ceiling for answers.
    “I do not know if they tried to finish me off and failed, or thought I was already dead, or simply let me crawl away to die. Somehow I escaped, though I was extremely weakened, barely alive. My subconscious mind must have driven me here, to a hidden refuge of water I had discovered long ago. I am sure it also caused the generation of my water sprites. They simply lashed out at anyone who might prove a threat to my recovery.” The corner of her mouth turned up in something