Teal nodded slowly. "Yes -- yes, I understand. But where would such a door be?"

"Ah." Allel smoothed the mat and stretched her withered legs. "That's the question. Surely it could only be in one of the old Cities, at the northern extremes of the worlds... But nobody on either world knows of anything that sounds remotely like a door. No human, anyway."

Allel dropped her eyes, wrinkles clustering around her mouth. "And there's another question. Sometimes I think it would be better not to find the door. There's so much we don't know about the past. Why not? Suppose it's been deliberately forgotten. Suppose we shouldn't try to find out about the world, the Xeelee... about ourselves. Perhaps it's better not to know--"

But Teal wasn't listening. "What did you mean, 'no human'?"

Allel smiled at Teal. "Nobody here pays much attention to mummy-cows, you know. They're taken for granted... just walking meat and milk dispensers, a source of muscle power... but they were a real novelty to me when I arrived. And I've spent a lot of my time listening to their songs."

"But mummy-cows are so simple."

"Maybe. But they're almost as old as mankind. No? And they've remembered some things we seem to have forgotten."

Teal grabbed his grandmother's arm, forgetting his pain. "Do they say where the door is? Tell me."

"Not quite. Take it easy, now. But... there is a song about a place, somewhere to the north of this world. A place called the Eight Rooms.

"Seven of those rooms are strange enough, the song says. And when you've found your way through them to the Eighth--"

"What? What's in the Eighth?"

Allel's grooved face was neutral.

Teal found his mouth gaping. "I've got to go there," he said. "That's what you're telling me, isn't it? I have to find these Eight Rooms." He pushed back the blanket.

Allel's thin hands fluttered against Teal's shoulders. "Now, not so fast. You're not going anywhere for a while--"

"Or ever."

Allel jumped. The new voice was flat and harsh; a massive figure swathed in quilted leather stood over Teal's bunk.

"Damen." Teal subsided back with a sinking heart. "How long have you been in here? How much did you hear?"

"Enough. I'm surprised you didn't notice me coming in; I nearly blew the damn lamps out." Damen's bearded face was full of stern concern. "Grandmother, you should be ashamed, pumping his head full of this rubbish. Brother, I'm telling you now you're not leaving this village again. Not ever; not while I'm alive -- not unless you get yourself exiled, anyway...

"Damn it, man, Erwal's a good woman." His voice grew soft with unconscious envy. "Yes, a good woman. And she's bearing your kid. You can't go chasing sunbeams anymore."

Allel wiped off her stone knife and began picking at her fingernails.