"No way, ma'am," Gerhardt said, hand shielding his eyes from the tubelight. The cross circled the compound, then rose to a needle-point speck against the plasma tube and vanished. "It's a real one. A boojum."

With sunset, the sky dimmed to midnight blue overhead. Where the final flat reddened edge of the sun was being swallowed by the ocean, a dark brown shadow line of cloud began, twisting and veering from the horizon to zenith, where it broke down into frothy streaks, the edge of each streak catching an electric purple gleam. Farley and Carrolson had retired an hour earlier; Frant world days were about forty hours long. Lanier was thinking steadily and was not ready for sleep. He watched the sunset from the patio, Heineman by his side. Patricia had not yet come out of her room after the conversation with Toller.

Barefoot, dressed in shorts and a long-sleeve blue jacket, Olmy walked across the sand a few meters away, spotted them and approached. "Mr. Heineman, Mr. Lanier," he said, and they greeted him with nods, for all the world like upper-class gentlemen lacking only pipes, formal wear and evening drinks to complete the picture. "Enjoying our stay here?"

"Very much," Lanier said. "The first real weather I've seen in a couple of months."

"A year, myself," Heineman said.

"Much longer for me," Olmy said. "I haven't had duty on an outside world in"—he seemed to look inward—"fifteen years. And I haven't visited this world in fifty."

"They keep you busy, Mr. Olmy?" Heineman asked, squinting at him.

"Very. How is Patricia? I understand Ser Toller had a talk with her, and she's been in her room since."

"Yes," Lanier said. "I'm going to check up on her in a few minutes. See if she'll eat some food."

"She has been under strain for some time now, hasn't she?"

"Ever since she came to the Stone—the Thistledown," Lanier said. "We put an awful lot of responsibility on her shoulders—too much, really."

"You thought she might riddle the mystery of the Thistledown?"

"We thought she might tell us whether what was in the libraries would also hold true for our world. As it turned out—"

"It did, and it didn't," Olmy finished for him.

Lanier stared at him, then nodded again, looking back at the declining twilight. "She's been acting strangely—even considering the circumstances."

Olmy leaned on the patio rail. "After we arrived in the Axis City, she and I had a very long and interesting conversation. She was eager to learn about the city, about us, and she was eager to fit in. She especially wanted to learn about gate opening. That's one of the reasons we're attending a gate-opening soon. Had she told you about her ultimate plans?"

"I don't think so," Lanier said. Heineman leaned forward, meeting Olmy's gaze earnestly.