Now, how do I go about this? he wondered. He'd never consciously used the cloak for information-gathering before. He took several deep breaths, letting the tension flow from his muscles. As he felt his mind grow calm, he let his awareness of the cloak grow. Warmth on his shoulders told him that the artifact was responding. Mentally, he posed a question: What is the nature of this crystal sphere? As he let the warmth wax against his back, he concentrated on that question.
Without warning he felt a new sensation: warmth on his chest as well, where the bronze amulet hung on its chain. Apparently something had triggered the power of that artifact as well. For a moment he felt as though he stood between twin suns, their light shining bone-deep into his body.
Then he gasped as information flooded into his mind….
*****
Djan, Julia, Lucinus, the navigator, and the Cloakmaster stood in the helm compartment around the Boundless's chart table. To the aft of the large compartment, Blossom sat on the helm, a look of calm patience on her face.
Teldin had spread a blank sheet of mapping parchment on the table. He picked up a broad-nibbed pen and dipped it in the table's inkwell. He leaned across the sheet and drew a large circle. "That's the crystal sphere," he said. "As you said, Djan, about a full day's sail in diameter." He drew a black blob halfway between the center of the circle and its periphery "This is a outer planet of the system," he said. "An air world, a small one, about six hours inside the crystal sphere. Frigid-cold, apparently-cold enough that some of the gases in its atmosphere are probably frozen solid."
"Can that be Nex?" Julia asked.
It was Djan who answered with a shake of his head. "I don't think so. And if it is, we may as well leave now and save time and effort. There's no way anything could live there-not anything like life as we know it, that is."
The Cloakmaster nodded agreement. From what he'd read about the Juna, the worlds they chose to colonize and alter were similar in climate to Krynn and Toril, hinting that the mysterious creatures shared at least some characteristics of humans and demihumans.
"Are there any other planets?" Lucinus, the ginger-haired halfling navigator, wanted to know.
"One," Teldin announced. "Here, right at the center." He drew another blob in the middle of the circle. "It's an earth world…." His voice trailed off.
"But… ?" Djan prompted.
"But I didn't find any fire bodies," the Cloakmaster continued. "No sun, or suns. Now," he went on quickly, "I didn't actually see the system. I… "-he paused, trying to find the right word-"I felt it. And I don't know whether I learned everything about it."
Djan nodded slowly, looking at Teldin's rough drawing. "An earth-centric system without a sun," he mused. "Unusual. Very unusual." He looked up. "You're sure about this?"
"As sure as I can be, considering."
Lucinus piped up again. "Maybe your… your perception has a size limitation," he suggested. "Maybe you can't… experience anything smaller than a certain size. Class B, for example, thirty leagues or so in diameter. Much too small for a sun."
"Couldn't you have a tiny, very bright sun?" Teldin asked.
The halfling didn't answer, just gave the Cloakmaster a patronizing smile.
"Is there anything else?" Djan asked after a few moments.
"Yes," Teldin said slowly. "There's something, but I'm not sure I know exactly what it is." With the pen, he scribbled in an amorphous band encircling the central blob, a fraction of the way out.
"What's that'" Lucinus wanted to know, standing on tiptoe for a better view.
"A dust cloud of some kind, I think," Teldin said. "It forms a complete shell around the world at the center, about an hour out."
"Maybe it glows on the inner surface," Julia suggested. "Maybe it gives heat and light to the planet…"
Teldin cut her off gently. "According to what I felt, it's almost as cold as the outer planet." He frowned grimly. "But there's got to be something I'm missing. The book said ships that came here never returned. There's nothing I've seen that could do that."
"Maybe," Djan said with a shrug. "But maybe not. There's no light, no stars to navigate by. Ships would be flying totally blind. Maybe they rammed the frozen air world. They couldn't even detect the boundary of the crystal sphere," he went on. "They could have rammed right into it." He shrugged again. "It's possible."
Teldin wouldn't be swayed. "Then what about the ships that did make it back?" he demanded. "The ones that told of being attacked by immense forces of magic?"
"Spacefarers' tales, perhaps?" the half-elf suggested. Then he smiled. "But you're right, of course, it is a mystery, isn't it'\? I hate leaving a mystery unsolved. And anyway, it's not as if it'll take long to find out. If this is Nex"-he tapped the central dot-"we can be there in twelve hours at full speed."
*****
They didn't travel all the way at full speed, of course. The Boundless plunged through the blackness of wildspace, only to slow just outside where the dust cloud began. At tactical speed, the squid ship edged inward.
Teldin and his two mates were on the foredeck as the vessel began to penetrate the cloud. To the Cloakmaster's naked eyes, there was nothing different about this part of space. Outside the radius of illumination cast by the Boundless's running lights, there was just impenetrable darkness, with no details or texture visible. At first, Teldin had wondered whether the information the cloak and amulet had given him had been wrong, whether there wasn't anything in this region of space at all. But then word had been relayed up from the helm that the ship was encountering some kind of resistance and traveling slower than projected.
Both Julia and Djan had expressed worry about the dust or gas or whatever diffusing into the squid ship's atmosphere envelope, possibly fouling or even poisoning it. Yet that didn't seem to be happening. Teldin took a deep breath, scenting the air. If there was anything filtering into the ship's air, he couldn't detect it with any of his senses.
"What's that?" Julia was leaning on the forward rail, pointing.
Teldin looked in the direction she was indicating, straight out along the squid ship's ram.
He saw light! It was a faint, unfocused glow, so weak that he could almost believe it was his imagination.
But Djan was staring in the same direction, his mouth hanging open in surprise.
At first too faint to be said to have color, the light was taking on a red-orange hue, rather like the glow of a sunrise seen through a pre-dawn fog. With each passing second, the illumination grew in intensity. The Boundless was emerging from the inner edge of the dust cloud, Teldin realized.
The three comrades watched in silence as the light continued to intensify. Then, with shocking suddenness, the squid ship emerged into clear space once more.
After a long moment, Djan turned from his gaping stare at the vista to ask Teldin, "Just what in all the hells is that?"
Teldin felt a broad smile spreading across his face. "Nex," said the Cloakmaster.