Tsang spent most of the day pressed next to me whenever it came time to meet anybody. I guess my novelty still hadn't worn off for him, even though we'd been through a few scrapes together. The curious part is that the more I saw of Tsang, somehow the less I saw of Tando. In between handshakes, kisses on the cheek, sharing pipes or drinks, or slices of cake, I managed to snag Xato by the belt.

I asked him “What happened to our captain? Where's Tando?”

He didn't hear me at first, some loud music had started to play, but then he answered “He got a message.”

“What did it say?” three people appeared from out of the throng and kissed me on the cheek at once, then vanished almost as quickly.

“I didn't get to see it!” Xato shouted, trying to lean past Tsang. “Somebody pulled him aside and gave it to him. He was with us for the last few stops, then I saw him reading it over and over and he got a very scared look on his face.”

Fireworks began to light the darkening sky over the palace and a dark hand with many rings on the fingers turned my head by the chin so I could see a series of airships float by, from which rolled banners spelling out, one letter from each “WELCOME CYLAS”. Somebody else put a drink to my mouth just as I was sucking breath and I wound up coughing.

When I could get a word in, I said “Tsang! Xato, ugh, get one of our admirers to track down our captain, will you?”

Somebody I'd met earlier that day, and I'd met so many, stepped up out of the knot of merrymakers and removed his headdress, which had suffered from the close company. His name was Yazo Dor “Something you need, Cylas? I am at your service.”

“Yazo!” I said, too loudly, “It's our captain, Tando. Where has he gone?”

Yazo looked curiously around and back to me.

Xato said “It's been at least an hour and he didn't say where he was going. He-” now somebody pulled Xato away to kiss his red cheek.

“He never goes away without letting us know,” Tsang offered.

“What room did you see him in last?” Yazo Dor asked. “I think you've been all along the rim on this level.”

“It was in that jade room, I'm pretty sure” Tsang answered.

“Which one? There are...”

“The one with the carousel of sculpted black figures that move in time with the sun.”

Yazo brightened “The Solar Gallery! I will send someone, excuse me just a moment.” He fought his way to the door and called back “I'll see to it they let you wait here.”

I reached down and pulled Xato up on the dais with me and asked him “Sure is a nice fella, that Yazo. What does he do around here again?”

“High council.” he answered, wiping up drink that had spilled on him with a silk handkerchief.

“So he's some kinda advisor to-”

“He's one of the twelve supreme leaders of Selenium.”

“No kidding? For being such a high leader he sure is accessible!”

Somebody climbed up and worked his way between Xato and me, but Tsang managed to pull him back.

Xato answered “They're all like that. If they keep themselves too much from people it can be bad. It's something Selenium is all about, nobody is invisible.”

We waited, and since we didn't leave the balcony room where we were, people who waited in other crammed rooms began to flow in to us. I only just managed to get some sentries in the room to convince the crowd that we'd had enough cake and plenty of hard drinks as well.

Stolen story; please report.

A messenger came to ask Xato about which room Tando had taken the message in, apparently they still had to track down that part of it.

In time the smiles around us faded and the rooms emptied, and only as people finally left for the evening did Yazo Dor re-appear. Sadly, he only showed up to admit that nobody knew where the messenger came from or where Tando had gone.

None of we three remaining crewmen knew just what to do, but we had rooms to sleep in and Yazo suggested that we might rest and our captain might well be back by the time we woke. I had a gloomy feeling that he was wrong, but I went along to the suite of rooms just the same.

I know everyone says that nothing is ever solved by worrying, but I had a very black feeling about the fate of Tando.

The suite, I'm sure, was very spacious and extravagant, but I barely noticed. I just walked through without even putting on the lights and found the bed.

In my fitful dreams I was back in the cabin with Morninghawk, long ago, back in my old life in 1879. The cabin shook, a heavy wind pulling at the worn timbers. Some terrible storm massacred the woods outside, whipping up the saltwater around the island.

He and I huddled close, for it felt like soon the roof would be torn away and the wind would suck us up into a violent sky.

“Be still, Cylas,” Morninghawk said to me, “it will pass. It is loud, but it will spend itself.”

For some reason the storm disturbed me very badly, it seemed like an end of everything “No, it won't, not this one.”

Morninghawk pulled a blanket around me “It's wind and rain. It is only there to clean out the dead branches from the trees. By morning it will all be just fine again.”

“No, Morninghawk, please. Isn't there someplace we can go?” All reason fled from me, like the shingles off the roof.

He turned my face toward his “You must be calm, Cylas. I know you've seen storms before, hell, probably storms worse than this. It is loud and frightening, but you must remember that it is temporary. There is no sense going mad over a thing you know will soon end.”

Yes, I'd seen storms before, I know I saw a few right there in the cabin with my long lost companion, Morninghawk. None of those things could compare with this nightmare,

The lightning split trees outside, it lit up all the slats and gaps in the rattling structure.

My fear reached a crescendo, and I burst suddenly away from him “I must get away, away!”

I ran from the cabin, out into rain shooting sideways, like rain made of nails!

No sooner had I started out for the trees than did the wind take me. I was falling into the sky!

I sat up in bed like some kind of explosion and stood up.

The room was strange, but it came back to me soon enough. I put on an electric switch and brought on the lights in the bedroom.

Fancy places like this one had electric communicator tubes you could speak into, just like on a rocketship. I found one in the room and asked for the all night service.

Really, I just wanted to know if anybody had heard yet from Tando. When I asked, the person on the line told me “I haven't heard anything yet. I could try and get someone in authority on the line.”

“How long will that take?”

“I'm not sure, Mr. Renford. Although, if he did get back to his room, it's just down the hall from yours, near the passage to the terrace.”

I thanked them and ran out into the hall. Only then did it dawn on me what a big place this one, really anyplace seems bigger when you have to run through it in a big hurry!

The door to the room set aside for Tando opened, and I ran all around inside, calling for him. Nobody had been in the room, though. Everything was just the way the housekeepers had left it.

I sighed and went slowly from the room.

The moonlight through the passage lured me out to the terrace. The night sky was blue, and streaked with cloud, lit up by a series of moons hanging like Chinese lanterns. No stars out, though, I noticed.

From beside a dome that came up on the edge of the roof, a figure appeared. I couldn't make out anything about them, yet they saw me and started to wave me over.

Desperate and hardly wide away, I ran over, thinking it could only be the person I was looking for.

As I ran over, another things appeared from a nearby flight of stairs. About this I could only discern darkness, like a drop of ink spreading in a glass of water. In a moment it had grown and spread and I couldn't see the figure in front of me.

The black cloud spread over my vision, yet it was no cloud, this was a piece of the night, a black night dotted with stars!

It swallowed me up and I knew no more.