He had always liked learning, even as a very young child. He had spoken early, and had asked more questions than the other children. His heritage as a hunter had been a good one in regard to his love of knowledge; he had been not merely permitted, but required, to learn the habits of the various creatures that roamed the grasslands, to learn the patterns of the weather, to learn to read an animal's trail. He had been able to study the animals he hunted-not merely their behavior when pursued, but every aspect of their behavior, their anatomy, their environment. He had been free to roam the countryside, to explore more or less wherever he chose, and he had pitied those people who stayed always in the village. He had thought that he knew his world well.

Now he was discovering that he knew almost nothing, and he wanted to learn more. He did not want to go quietly back to his village and wait there while Geste rescued Lady Sunlight for him.

“You know, you don't really need to take me home,” he said. “I don't mind coming along while you… while you do whatever you're going to do."

“Who's taking you home?” Geste asked, startled out of his reverie. “I never said I was taking you home."

“But… but you told the platform to take me home!” Bredon blurted.

“I said take us home. I meant my home,” Geste replied coldly.

Bredon hesitated, confused, but unsure asking the obvious question would be wise.

Every story he had ever heard about Geste the Trickster had emphasized that Geste was a wanderer, that he roved about wherever he pleased. Other Powers had their holds, their places of power, but a few carried all the power they had with them-Rawl the Adjuster and Geste the Trickster were the two wanderers Bredon knew of.

He could not restrain his curiosity.

“What home?” he asked. “I thought you didn't have one."

Geste smiled, for the first time since the drone had attacked the platform.

“Ah,” he said smugly.

Bredon waited, but the Trickster did not continue.

“What home?” Bredon repeated.

Geste smiled, and gestured mysteriously with an upraised finger. “You'll see!” he said.

Bredon felt himself growing angry, but before he could say anything more Geste gave in and continued.

“It's true,” he said, still smiling cheerfully, “that I don't stay home much, and that I don't let anyone else in, as a rule. I don't suppose my home gets into the stories you people tell about us. It may well be that even some of the other Powers, as you call us, don't know it exists, since I've never held a party there, never had more than one or two guests. It's real enough, though, and you'll be the first mortal to see it in, oh, two or three hundred years."

Mollified, Bredon relaxed, and tried to think of more questions to ask.

They stood on the platform, surrounded by darkness, and Bredon knew that the world was rushing by them, but he could neither see nor feel any movement.

“How will you know when we're there?” he asked.

Geste shrugged. “I'll know."

Bredon could think of no polite way to pry further into that subject, so he switched to another that had been preying on him. “Do you really think Lady Sunlight is trapped in that place, that castle we saw?"

“Probably.” Geste's smile faded. “If she's not, if she's faked all this somehow, then she's managed a stunt that makes any of mine look trivial.” His expression turned thoughtful. “I wonder… I wonder, could she have put all this together? Got them all into a little conspiracy to get back at me?"

He hesitated, considering, then said, “No. She could never get Thaddeus to help. And Brenner wouldn't let them shoot up the High Castle for a joke, and that attack on us seemed pretty serious. Besides, if it were a set-up, they couldn't know when I'd come across it. I only tried to find Sunlight to help you; I might have gone years without checking on her whereabouts otherwise, so you'd need to be in on it, and I can't imagine Sunlight finding you and recruiting you into something like that."

Bredon agreed, “Nobody recruited me for anything. I don't know what's going on at all."

“Oh, it's simple enough, really. We Powers squabble amongst ourselves all the time, but nothing much comes of it; we all have so many machines and devices protecting us that it would take a real effort to do each other any harm. But now it looks as if one fight has turned nasty, and Thaddeus is making that effort against Brenner, and Sheila and Sunlight and the others got caught in the middle."

Bredon thought he glimpsed something in Geste's expression, something that indicated that the Trickster did not believe his own explanation, that he was worried, as if he thought something else, something more, was involved. Bredon could not imagine what else could be involved, but he could not find the nerve to ask directly, to admit he did not believe Geste. Instead, he poked around the edges of the subject.

“Do you think Lady Sunlight may be hurt?"

“She could be,” Geste admitted.

“Is it my fault? Would she have gotten involved if I hadn't tried to get into the Meadows?"

Geste glanced at him, then looked away again. “Oh, I wouldn't worry about that,” he said. “I doubt she paid any attention to you at all."

Bredon hardly found that flattering, but he let it slide as he pressed his inquiry.

“Could she be killed?” he asked. “Can a Power die?"

Geste laughed bitterly, then said, “Oh, we can die, all right, but it takes a lot to kill one of us. There isn't much on Denner's Wreck that could kill a Power except another Power, and even then it isn't easy."

“Do you think Thaddeus the Black might kill Lady Sunlight?"

Geste glanced at him again, his face unusually serious. “Not intentionally,” he answered. “Are you hungry?"

The abrupt change of subject caught Bredon by surprise. “Yes,” he said, realizing suddenly that he was indeed very hungry.

“Good; so am I,” Geste said. “Worrying always gives me an appetite. We'll be at my hold in a minute, but I'd rather not wait.” He reached out and began pulling foil packets and glittering crystal vials from the air and handing them to Bredon.

When Bredon's arms were full Geste settled down cross-legged on the platform. Bredon followed his example; they sat facing each other as they peeled open packets and popped the lids from vials, and both ate and drank heartily of Geste's strange and wonderful viands.

Chapter Ten

"The Skyler's job, of course, is to maintain the sky, to put fallen stars back in their places, to herd the clouds into rainstorms, to polish the sky dry after every storm. She cleans the clockwork that moves the sun across the heavens, paints the colors of the sunset, collects the stars each sunrise and then hangs them back up at dusk.

"It's a hard, lonely job, and the Skyler is always much too busy to spare any thought for the mortals below. She hasn't even got time to go to and from a home on the ground, so long ago she picked up an island from the sea and set it sailing in the sky, where we call it the Skyland. This makes her work much easier, since she can keep all the stars and clouds neatly stored away in compartments aboard the Skyland, ready when she needs them. Imagine what the bins and cupboards must look like, with the stars twinkling and the sunsets glowing softly, the clouds piled up everywhere, white and fluffy on top, grey and dripping below! What a wonderful sight it must be!

"Of course, it can be a bit startling for people on the ground to see that island hanging overhead, but it's nothing to be afraid of, just the Skyler at her work, keeping the heavens clean and beautiful for us all."

– from the tales of Atheron the Storyteller