"Perhaps that is well," the Frant said solicitously. "Until such time as you awake, we are a dream."

After that exchange, they did not speak for hours. Patricia lay facing the window, noting that the corridor had changed its character yet again. Now it was covered with lines resembling densely clustered freeways. As they spiraled around the plasma tube, one turn every fifteen or twenty minutes, she saw that the entire floor was covered with the designs, whatever they signified. There didn't seem to be anything moving, but across a distance of more than twenty kilometers, she couldn't be sure.

The aircraft's spiral course was hypnotic. With a start, she realized she had been staring at a new phenomenon for several minutes without conscious awareness. The dense-packed patterns on the floor of the corridor now crawled with moving lights. Strung along the "freeway" lanes were lines of red and intense white beads. Lances of light swung up in arcs above the patterns and illuminated the edges of low-flying disks. Girdling walls at least two or three kilometers high broke the flow at regular intervals of about ten kilometers.

"We are nearing Axis City," Olmy said.

"What's all this?" Patricia asked, pointing.

"Metered traffic between domestic gates," Olmy said.

"What are gates?"

"You called them wells when you discovered the first and second bands. They lead to spaces beyond the Way—the corridor."

Patricia frowned. "People go between the wells, enter and leave the corridor?"

"Yes," Olmy said. "The Axis City regulates the flow along a billion kilometers."

"But the wells—the gates—they can't possibly open into our universe, not in present time."

"They don't," Olmy said. "Now please, hold your questions until after we arrive. Too much information could reduce your purity."

"Excuse me," Patricia said with false contrition.

"However, you must not miss this," Olmy said. "Please look straight ahead, at the wall over your couch."

She stared at the smooth white surface. Olmy made a few quick clicking noises and the surface rippled like a disturbed pool. The ripples spread wide into a broad rectangle and solidified. The rectangle became black, then filled with colorful snow. The snow attracted her eyes and the rectangular frame blurred, passing from her notice.

She might have been flying through the corridor alone. All around, the glowing, pulsing lights traveled their complex paths along the floor. Ahead, a dark circle was strung on the singularity, stretching from one side of the plasma tube to the other. Interrupted by the circle, the plasma tube changed color from white to a vivid oceanic blue.

"The Axis City lies beyond that barrier," Olmy said nearby. "We'll be given clearance soon, and pass through."

She turned her head and the illusion dissipated.

"No, no, please," Olmy said. "Keep watching." His tone and expression were almost little-boy eager, proud. She faced the rectangle of snow again.