it. He knows now that I'm not Rakhal, if
he didn't know it all along! Come on, girl, we're getting out of here!"

This time there was no pretense of normality as we dashed through the
workroom. Fingers dropped from half-completed Toys as they stared after
us. _Toys!_ I wanted to stop and smash them all. But if we hurried, we
might find Rakhal. And, with luck, we would find Evarin with him.

And then I was going to bang their heads together. I'd reached a
saturation point on adventure. I'd had all I wanted. I realized that I'd
been up all night, that I was exhausted. I wanted to murder and smash,
and wanted to fall down somewhere and go to sleep, all at once. We
banged the workroom door shut and I took time to shove a heavy divan
against it, blockading it.

Miellyn stared. "The Little Ones would not harm me," she began. "I am
sacrosanct."

I wasn't sure. I had a notion her status had changed plenty, beginning
when I saw her chained and drugged, and standing under the hovering
horror. But I didn't say so.

"Maybe. But there's nothing sacred about _me_!"

She was already inside the recess where the Toad God squatted. "There is
a street-shrine just beyond the Bridge of Summer Snows. We can jump
directly there." Abruptly she froze in my arms, with a convulsive
shudder.

"Evarin! Hold me, tight--he's jumping in! Quick!"

Space reeled round us, and then....

Can you split instantaneousness into fragments? It didn't make sense,
but so help me, that's what happened. And everything that happened,
occurred within less than a second. We landed in the street-shrine. I
could see the pylon and the bridge and the rising sun of Charin. Then
there was the giddy internal wrenching, a blast of icy air whistled
round us, and we were gazing out at the Polar mountains, ringed in their
eternal snow.

Miellyn clutched at me. "Pray! Pray to the Gods of Terra, if there are
any!"

She clung so violently that it felt as if her small body was trying to
push through me and come out the other side. I hung on tight. Miellyn
knew what she was doing in the transmitter; I was just along for the
ride and I didn't relish the thought of being dropped off somewhere in
that black limbo we traversed.

We jumped again, the sickness of disorientation forcing a moan from the
girl, and darkness shivered round us. I looked on an unfamiliar street
of black night and dust-bleared stars. She whimpered, "Evarin knows what
I'm doing. He's jumping us all o