Part of that routine was steering. The task was performed on the bridge, where a large ship's wheel was mounted. The spoked wheel was linked to an elaborate system of scoops, sails and rudders that provided steerage.

"How fast does she go? Safar asked Biner one day. It was Biner's turn at the wheel, while Safar had the task of keeping an eye on the compass.

"Depends on the wind, Biner said, and the temperature. We've made as much as three hundred miles in a day. Other times we've been becalmed and made less than thirty in a week."

Safar watched Biner work the wheel. Despite the elaborate steering system it seemed to him direction was mainly determined by the wind.

"What happens in a storm? he asked.

Biner chortled. We pray a lot. And Methydia casts her spells. But mostly we pray. If there aren't any mountains about it's best just to let the storm be the boss. If there are, we tie up to something and hang on. Worst thing you can do is put her on the ground. That's if the storm doesn't give you any notice and you can't find a barn big enough to hold her. Wind can rip her up before you get the balloons collapsed and stowed away."

Safar could see straight off that, storm or not, the best place to be was sailing high above the earth where no oneking or outlawcould reach you.

He thought of his recent troubles in Walaria and said, It's too bad you ever have to come down."

Biner nodded understanding. Safar had told the crew an abbreviated version of his tale of woe.

"Gotta eat, he said. Food may grow in trees, but not in the air. His massive shoulders rolled in a shrug. Ground's not all bad. Wait'll you work your first show. Nothing like an audience's applause to restore your good feelings about folks. Especially the tikes, way their eyes light up warms you from the inside out."

It had already been agreed that Safar could travel with the troupe for awhile. To earn his keep he was being trained to handle the hundreds of small details that went intoin circus parlance"wowing the rubes."

"How did you become a circus performer? Safar asked. Or were you born to it?"

Biner shook his massive head. My parents were actors, he said. Came from a long line of board trodders, as a matter of fact. Made my first appearance while I was still suckling my mother's breast. Played all kinds of child parts. Kept on playing them way past my time. I'm kind of short, in case you didn't notice. My mother and father were normal-sized and never did figure out what to make of me. Then I started growing out, instead of up. And I couldn't play tikes anymore."

Biner's face darkened at some painful memory. Then he shook it off, displaying his wide teeth in a grin.

"Swept theater floors and other drudge work for a time. Then one day this Cloudship sailed right over the town, music playing, folks way up in the sky waving at us like they were gods and goddesses. They shouted for everybody to follow. So I followed. And I was bitten by the circus bug the very first show. I begged Methydia for a tryout. She gave me one and I've been with her ever since. Going on fifteen years, now. Even gave me a new name after awhileBiner, from the carabiners that hold us up. She said it's because she depends on me so much."

Although Biner's story was entirely different in its details from the background of the others, Safar soon learned the members of the troupe all had one thing in commontheir appearances had made them outcasts from regular society so they'd formed their own. It was Methydia who'd given them that chance, coming along at just the right time, it seemed, to rescue them from unpleasant circumstances.

"Weren't fer Methyida, Kairo said one day, I'd still be back at me village, gettin conked wi rocks. Kairo was the acrobat with the detachable head. Uster hide in me house, he said, so's I wouldn't get conked. So th lads'd stone me house, breakin windows and stovin holes in th roof. So me muvver threw me out. Rather I got conked th'n the house, I s'pose."

Rabix and Elgythe snake charmer and the snakehad been seasoned circus performers when Methydia found them. But they'd had a disagreement with their employer over unpaid wages and had been left at a roadside in the middle of nowhere.

"We had not even a copper to buy a slender mouse for my weekly dinner, Elgy said in his oddly lilted tones.

Elgy was the snake with a man's face. He was also the brains in the act. Rabix, he of the turban and breech cloth, was a mindless soul who sat or stood placidly wherever he was put. Elgy alone could communicate with him and cause him to act.

"He plays an excellent tune on the pipes, Elgy said. As witless as the poor fellow is, he is a much better musician than the last man I had."

Arlain, the dragon woman, was being hunted by a mob set on vengeance when Methydia rescued her.

"I wath hiding in a thed and thort of thet it on fire. And then it thpread and thet fire to the whole thity. Arlain wiped her eyes, overcome by the memory. It wath an acthident, she said. I thaid I wath thorry, but they wouldn't lithen."

Arlain had no idea where she came from. I thuppoth my father dropped me when he wath changing netht, she said. A farmer'th wife found me and raithed me ath a pet. But then I got older and tharted having acthidenth and her huthband chathed me off the farm. And that'th why I wath hiding in the thed."

Methydia was not so forthcoming as the others. Although she never refused to answer any of Safar's questions, her answers tended just to tease the edges of the central question. Details of her background came only in veiled hints or casually dropped remarks.

Much later, after she took Safar as a lover, he complained about her habit of never revealing anything personal.

Methydia was amused. I was born to be a woman of mystery, my sweet, she said. It is a role I have cherished all my life. And with each passing year the mystery deepens, does it not? For then there is more for me not to tell."

She shifted in his arms. Besides, she said, I fear you would be disappointed if you knew all there was to know. What if I was merely a milk maid who ran away with her first lover? Or a young town wife who fled a fat old husband?"

Safar thought for a moment, then said, I can't imagine you as either one. You were never ordinary, Methydia. That I know for certain."

"Are you, now, my sweet? she murmured. Then she nibbled her way up his neck. Are… you… really… really… entirely… certain…? She found his lips, shutting off any reply.

They made love and afterwards Safar thought she was an even greater mystery than before. A delicious mystery, he thought. Then he realized perhaps that was her point.

All he ever really knew about her was that she was a strong-willed woman, a kind-hearted leader others felt comfortable to follow.

She was also a witch.

Safar sensed it the first time he became fully conscious. The atmosphere had been charged with more than her seductive presence. Little whorls of energy swirled about her, making the hair rise on the backs of his hands. And deep in those almond eyes he could see flecks of magic that sparkled when the light struck just so.

He said nothing of his own powers, partly because he didn't know how she'd react. Would she be jealous, like Umurhan? But mainly it was because he was so shaken by his experience in Walaria he was loathe to visit his magical side until he'd had time to recover.

Evidently Gundara felt the same way. The little Favorite was silent for a long time. For awhile Safar worried that the desert ordeal might have been too much for Gundara and his twin. He would take the stone turtle out of his purse from time to time to check. The idol was cold to the touch, but he could still feel a faint shimmer of magic. He thought of summoning Gundara to see if he needed anything, but then he wondered if the spell commanding the Favorite's presence might do more harm than any good he could offer. He thought, Let him rest and heal himself. And so that is what he did.