"Yes." Feeling stronger she turned and surveyed the Room. There were hatchlike doors in all four walls, and in the floor and ceiling; through each door she could see people in other Rooms running fingertips over the walls, their expressions slack. "It's very strange..."

...Wait a moment. Rooms beyond each door? But this one Room was big enough to fill up the cube she had seen from outside, so that beyond the doors should be only snow or sky...

And yet there were Rooms where there was no space for them.

Vaguely she remembered Teal's impatient descriptions of how the Rooms were folded over each other, and briefly she struggled to understand. Then she sighed, deciding to put the mystery of the folded-up place out of her mind. If it didn't bother the children, why should it bother her?

Arke went on, "Erwal, we've done well, even if we go no further than this. We are warm and dry, and we still have the mummy-cow for food. We could stay here, bring the mummy-cow inside, allow the children to grow..."

"But that's not why we came here," she said, suddenly impatient. "Teal went further." She looked up, recalling how Teal had described climbing up through the roof hatch. "Come on," she told Arke. "Help me up."

Arke allowed her to climb onto his shoulders; soon others, already in the upper Room, were pulling her up through the hatch/door.

The upper Room was just like the first, with light from nowhere filling the air. A few adults stood here, looking lost. Silently she climbed to her feet. She tried to picture Teal as he had taken these steps. Straight ahead from the hatch in the floor, he had said, and push at the door...

Beyond the door was the Eighth Room. It was shaped like the rest but its walls were clear, as if made of ice.

Beyond the walls was a black sky sprinkled with tiny lights.

There was a body on the crystal floor.

Arke stood beside Erwal. "Are they 'stars'?"

Shuddering, she said: "That's the word Teal gave us."

"And that--" He pointed straight ahead; beyond the farthest wall an object like a large, black seed pod floated in emptiness. "Do you think that's the 'ship'?"

Erwal tried to speak but her throat was dry.

She forced herself to look down.

The body was little more than bones swathed in rags of clothing. In one clawlike hand it clutched an elaborate knife. Erwal bent, took the knife; the skeletal fingers fell to pieces, clattering against the warm material of the floor. "This was Allel's knife," she told Arke. "Teal's grandmother. Teal treasured this knife."

Arke held her elbow. "It's a miracle he made it this far, you know. And the second time he came he didn't have a mummy-cow."

"He died alone. And so close to his goal."

"But he didn't die in vain. He brought us here."