And still up they went. The sea was appallingly far below now, so distant that the leaping whales looked like minnows. Looking straight ahead, Jan saw clouds swirling by. Twisting his neck, he saw the dark spout, and the strange sea creatures trapped within it. A moment later they were spun back inside the whirling wall of water themselves, and he could see nothing.

Then, like a cork bobbing to the surface, the ship burst out of the water spout. Jan shook his head, causing water to spatter from his long hair. He blinked to clear his vision, then cried out in astonishment.

“What is it?” gasped Samos. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” said Jan. “It looks as if we are on the sea again. But how can that be, when the spout carried us so high away from it? Is this a sea in the sky?”

“Perhaps the spout has taken us to another world,” said Samos gravely.

Jan thought of the stories his mother used to tell, stories of worlds beyond worlds, and shuddered. He began to fumble with the rope that held them to the mast. At first the sea-soaked knots were hard to undo, but finally he managed to loosen them.

When he looked up again, he cried out in surprise. “What is it?” asked Samos.

“An island. We’re sailing straight toward it. Brace yourself. We may run aground.”

And, indeed, moments later they ran right up onto the sand—crossing the line where the sea met the shore and continuing on for twice the length of the ship. Jan was still marveling at this when he realized something else.

“Come on!” he cried. Still holding Samos by the arm, he helped him climb over the edge. They dropped to the sand, which was warm and silky beneath their feet.

“What is happening?” asked Samos breathlessly.

“The ship is getting smaller,” said Jan. His eyes widened. “And smaller still! Now it is no longer than you are tall. And still it shrinks. And now—”

He stopped, too surprised by what had happened to speak for a moment.

“What?” asked Samos. “What is it?”

“The ship has become a coin,” said Jan. He plucked the shining disk from the sand. On one side the coin was engraved with a perfect replica of the ship. On the other the golden surface showed a gull in flight with a single star above it.

“What does it mean?” asked Jan.

“I’d say that it means we’re supposed to take it with us,” said Samos.

“Take it where?”

The old man shrugged. “Wherever we’re going next.”

Jan looked around. The beach ended at a jungle. It would have been too thick to walk through, save that directly ahead of them was a clear path. Taking Samos by the arm, Jan led him forward.