*****
The Boundless hung in a high orbit, three thousand leagues above the surface of the planet. On the afterdeck, Teldin stared down with a sense of awestruck amazement at the world below him.
It was a vibrant, living world-the brilliant blues of oceans contrasting with the verdant greens of forest-covered continents-streaked and swathed with the gleaming white of clouds. From this altitude it looked so much like his last glimpses of Krynn as to bring a lump into the Cloakmaster's throat and sting his eyes with tears.
With a sudden laugh, he threw the cloak back from his shoulders. Even this high above the planet, space was comfortably warm. From the vegetation he could pick out below him, he guessed the climate of the world would probably be much like that of Ansalon.
We should have thought of this, he told himself. One of us should have guessed. But no-we're all so used to the standard pattern, where a planet orbits around a much larger sun, or perhaps where the sun orbits the planet. Our preconceptions prevent us from anticipating the wonders the universe puts before us.
The planet-it had to be Nex, didn't it?-had not one sun, but many. Orbiting at an altitude of about two thousand leagues were two dozen tiny spheres, burning so brightly with red-orange light that to look directly at them set tears streaming. The "mini-suns," as he'd taken to calling them, moved rapidly, each following its own orbit, yet somehow never coming near any of the others. Teldin guessed that, at any given time, any point on the planet would have at least two mini-suns in the sky. Hence, there'd be no night, and a new "mini-dawn" every couple of minutes.
He chuckled again. No wonder the cloak had shown him no sun. When he'd brought Lucinus up on deck to show him the spectacle, the halfling navigator had abashedly admitted that each mini-sun was no more than a league in diameter. "Class A suns," he'd muttered. "Who'd have thought it?"
Not you, Teldin thought.
I should be excited, he told himself, on edge to get down there and see what there was to be seen. But he found himself calmer than he'd been in a while-a long while. The phlogiston river, the crystal sphere, and the world of Nex- all had been just where the old book had said they were. As to the Juna themselves… Well, there was no reason to go charging down to the planet's surface right away. Everything would come in its own good time.
Anyway, it simply wouldn't be safe to move yet. Djan, Lucinus, and Julia were up on the foredeck now, using astrolabes, sextants, and other instruments to track the movements of the mini-suns, analyze their orbits, and figure out how to project their future positions. The burning spheres moved fast, faster than a spelljammer at tactical speed. Until the experts worked out their paths and found a "window," any attempt to land would be a crazy risk. An impact from a mini-sun would smash the squid ship into burning splinters, while even a near hit might set the vessel on fire.
The view from up here was so beautiful; Teldin was in no hurry to give up this perfect vantage point. As he watched, a spot on the upper left limb of the planet seemed to glow yellow, then red. Then another mini-sun soared clear, looking for all the world like a flaming spelljammer climbing from the land into space.
He forced his eyes away from the vista as Djan clambered up the ladder to the afterdeck. Teldin could see the anticipation in the half-elf s face. "Have you found your window?" he asked.
"We've found it," the first mate confirmed, it's narrow, but safe enough. It'll take us down about there"-he pointed to the lower right quadrant of the planet-"on that large continent. If that's what you want, of course, Captain," he corrected. "Once we're past the mini-suns, we can cruise anywhere you want to go."
"One place is as good as another." Teldin shrugged.
"Do you want to take the window?"
"Let's do it," the Cloakmaster confirmed.
*****
The afterdeck was crowded as the Boundless began its descent. Lucinus and Julia continued to take bearings on the speeding mini-suns, every few seconds wiping streaming eyes. Djan had a sextant, too, and used it occasionally; however, most of his attention was taken up with relaying course corrections to Blossom on the helm. Teldin considered clearing the deck to give them more room. But they seemed to be managing fine, and the afterdeck was his favorite vantage point.
"Steady as she goes," Djan instructed down the speaking tube.
Nex was swelling steadily below them now, as they descended to the altitude at which the mini-suns orbited. He could see now how frighteningly fast the fiery bodies actually moved, and how large they were. When Lucinus had told him they were "only" a league in diameter, he'd been thinking in planetary terms. Now he realized that the smallest had a diameter more than two hundred times the length of the squid ship. If Julia and the navigator made a mistake with their bearings, the chances of anyone surviving were zero.
But Teldin had little fear that they would make a mistake. They'd taken enough time analyzing the mini-suns' orbits, and even now they were cross-checking each other's results to eliminate any chance of error. The "window" was still open, and would remain so for almost a dozen more minutes-plenty long enough to get the Boundless to a safe altitude.
He craned his neck to look all around. The mini-suns orbited at different altitudes-which was why they never collided, he guessed-spread out over a range of more than a hundred leagues. The squid ship was already in the midst of that "danger band," closer to the planet than some of the fire bodies, but higher than others. For the next couple of minutes, they'd theoretically still be at risk.
"Steady as she goes," Djan said again. Then he asked the observers, "Everything still on track?"
"Still on track," Julia confirmed.
Then, suddenly, "No!" She pointed up and back, over the ship's stern. "Port astern, high. One's off track!"
Teldin felt tension grip his chest. His fingernails bit into his palms as he clenched his fists. He looked back, following the direction of Julia's arm.
He could immediately see the mini-sun she meant, about fifteen degrees above the stern rail and an equal angle to port of the squid ship's track. It was still a good distance away, not a direct threat to the ship… yet.
"Observation error?" Djan queried. "Check it again."
The two observers raised their instruments, confirming the bearing of the speeding object. "It's off projected course," Julia answered after a few moments. "Ten degrees off." Then, a couple of heartbeats later, "No, more. Fifteen degrees and increasing."
"What in Paladine's name is happening?" the Cloakmaster demanded. He felt suddenly, sickeningly powerless. For an instant he felt an almost uncontrollable urge to use the ultimate helm, to speed the Boundless on its way. But he couldn't, he recognized at once. His crew had computed this "window" based on a certain ship speed. If he changed that speed, or the ship's course, he ran a very real risk of driving the vessel into the path of another mini-sun.
"Mini-sun increasing speed!" For the first time ever, he heard real panic in Julia's voice. "Twenty-five degrees off projected course, deviation increasing!"
In a hushed voice, Lucinus echoed the realization that had, an instant before, struck Teldin. "It's coming after us!"
"Helm," Djan yelled down the speaking tube, "full speed! Now!"
"What about the atmosphere?" Lucinus cried. "If we hit the atmosphere at full speed…"
"By the mind of Marrak!" Djan snarled. "If we don't get out of the way now, we'll never get that far."