No answer came. She waited, knocked again, then tried the door handle. It was unlocked, so she peeked inside.
Teldin sat in the helm, facing the door. Maps hung on the walls around him in the small room, and low tables held stacks of papers and boob. A magical ceiling light spread soft radiance across the room, blending with the shining pink from Teldin's spelljamming cloak.
She smiled and opened her mouth to say hi, but she saw the expression on Teldin's face and stopped. He seemed to be stunned at something he was staring at over the door. Gaye carefully looked up but saw nothing except the door frame and another map on the wall.
She slid into the room and shut the door behind her. "Teldin?" she asked. "Are you okay?"
His jaw worked slightly. "Yes," he said in a whisper. He never looked at her.
"You just look strange," she said. "Is it because you're spell-jamming? Is the helm comfortable? You just have the funniest look on your face."
Teldin tried to swallow with a dry mouth. Still he gazed into the distance at some invisible scene. "It's… you can't see it from in here. You could if you were on deck." He tried to smile. "I found one of Dyffed's megafauna. Great gods of Krynn, you can't believe this thing."
"What? What's it look like? How big is it?" Gaye was instantly torn between rushing to the upper deck and staying with Teldin. She thought she would go nuts with indecision. "Talk to me!" she said.
"I can't be sure how big it is," Teldin said slowly. "It has a huge blue-and-red-striped body, with a long neck and a tail. I think only its legs are in the atmosphere; the rest of it rises out far beyond it. Maybe it's ten thousand miles high, I don't know. Wait-the hatches are opening on the main deck. Gnomes, some gnomes and Aelfred are coming out. Maybe they saw it through the portholes. There's Gomja, too. They're just looking at the creature. I've adjusted our course so that we can fly around it, and I've dropped our altitude a few thousand miles so that we can be on its level." His voice faded off, his vision still riveted on the sight.
"Keep talking," said Gaye.
Teldin licked his lips. He was aware of a pleasant scent in the air. Gaye, probably. She was wearing some kind of perfume again. "We're coming closer to the creature. It has a tremendous multicolored shadow on the ground, fuzzy. I can see a vague sort of haze around its neck and head, maybe gas or clouds. It might have its own air envelope around it, maybe its own gravity field. It would have to, wouldn't it, since it's so big. The head is very strange, like a lizard with fanlike ears. There might be gills on the side of its head, ahead of the neck. It has only one eye, very big and dark green. Some of the gnomes are waving at it, but I don't think it sees us. No one seems to be saying much. It's so big that it looks like it could walk over a planet."
Gaye was silent, picturing the scene herself. She glanced down, lost in her reverie, and saw Teldin's left hand lying limp on the arm of the helm. After a moment, she reached out slowly and put her right hand on top of his and squeezed. His skin was very warm, almost hot. Something happened inside her when she felt his heat. He didn't pull his hand away, but he didn't return the squeeze.
"It's beautiful," Teldin said, unaware of her. "I never dreamed it would ever be like this."
Gaye felt her cheeks flush with a heat of her own. She couldn't look up at him. After a moment, she came to and looked around, then pulled her hand away.
"I'll go up on deck," she said softly. "Look for me up there."
"I will," Teldin said, still looking into space.
Gaye closed the door and walked through the ship for the nearest ladder to the upper deck. Her heart pounded in her ears every step of the way.
This is stupid, she thought. I can't believe I'm doing this. I've never had this happen to me. I'm falling for him. He's a human, but so was my rather. He and Mom worked out pretty well. But why this guy? Why am I breathing so fast? This is the dumbest thing I've ever done. Where is the ladder? I missed it-I have to go back two doors now. What is the matter with me? Will he see me if I'm on deck? Where will I have to stand for him to see me? Will I be able to see him, or what?
She found the ladder and climbed through the already open hatchway. Light poured down from the great, perfect sun at the zenith. A vault of dim color arced overhead, swirls of blue and white and dark green and tan everywhere. She stood up, looked in the direction everyone else was looking, and immediately forgot about Teldin.
But only for a little while.
*****
"We should be there in less than an hour," said Aelfred in the helm room. "Dyffed got a good fix with the thingfinder on our buddy, the slug, and he just went topside to take one last look at it. I wish Sylvie was up, but the longer she sleeps now, the better off she and the rest of us will be. She should be able to use the helm now that it's fixed. We'll just take the arm off when you want to use it."
"Speaking of Dyffed," said Teldin, "I can see him on the top deck now. Doesn't he ever change clothes?"
Aelfred laughed. He was slowly becoming the old Aelfred Teldin knew, one less stressed than he'd been since arriving at this bizarre sphere. "I could ask Gomja to catch him and hold him down while we scrub him off, but neither of us would like to get that close to him. I'll see what I can do to suggest a change. He is getting a bit stale."
Teldin was silent for a moment, obviously using his helm vision. "I'm trying to see what Dyffed is looking at with that thingfinder," he said. "I don't see another world-beast yet, but I probably will, soon. Did Dyffed say what the one we want look like, or do they all look the same?"
"I had the impression from Dyffed that these monsters were unique. Half the time, though, he talks too far over my head to catch what he's saying. If he'd talk normally instead of using twelve-syllable words, maybe I'd-what's wrong?"
Teldin's body went rigid, his fingers digging into the arms of the helm. "Aelfred, get someone on the top deck!" he said. "Dyffed's thingfinder blew up on him!"
*****
"Kobas," said a soft voice in the darkness of the room. General Vorr was instantly awake. His right hand strayed down to his side and tugged free his sword, oiled so that it made no sound.
"Kobas, wake up." Her voice came from the room's far side. Vorr listened carefully but heard nothing out of the ordinary.
"What do you want?" he asked. It had to be an emergency. Usso had been warned too many times to never disturb his sleep for any other reason. He reached for the wall beside his floor mat and pressed his hand against it. The magical lights in the ceiling came on as he did.
Usso flinched at the lights, then steadied herself. She sat in a respectful posture by the doorway, hands folded in her lap, fox tail curled around her side.
"Let's hear it," he said, sliding his sword back into its sheath and sitting up. He wore only his kilt.
"Something weird just happened," Usso said. Her face was tight with tension. "I was on deck, invisible, when I noticed one of the scro, Sergeant Dlavish, at the signaling lamp. I thought he was working on it, but I recalled that the lamp had been in perfect shape earlier, so I investigated. Dlavish was aiming the lamp at the pyramid ship, two miles trailing, and was preparing to send a message. I read his mind with a spell, then confirmed my findings with other spells. He was acting as a spy for the false lich, Skarkesh. I checked him magically using a few devices of my own and found that he had been placed under a spell of charming recently. He was about to send a message that indicated our current crew, weapons, and supply status."
Vorr grunted and rubbed at his face. He'd been expecting news like this for some time. "Go on," he said.