NORTHWORLD

drew iMy a deep breath and pretended to look for another chip of stone to throw: "I canJt prevent North from
seeing whatever he Chooses to see," Roils said.. "But he observes for reasons... and I observe beccause it's my
life." For a moment, a look as bleaak as a snowfieid wavered across Roiis' soft, handsomme features. "/iwonJt
be the one to inform your father that you're visiting Ruby," he said. Below and beyond them, scouts rejoined
the army. A trumpet call quavered through the discontinuity and the wind skirling past the crag. "Ail right,"
Fortin said. His voice and visage were carelessly without expression again. "If you can occuupy Penny outside
her room—and without her necklace—-for half an hour, say—Roils chuuckled againy. "That should be
possible," he agreed.. "—then I'll see about 'borrowing' it for you." There were two armies visible now. To the
men on the crag, they seemed to be fighting as though mirrored in the flat surface of a pond.. Chapter Seven
Hansenfelt the shock of landing before he knewhe was alive'. The ground was solid enough to knock his
breath away. He could see again. He still existed—or existed again. Hansen hasdnlt fallen far. In fact, he'd just
gotten his feet tangled during the moment—or however long; maybe he didnlt want to think about that—
during which Diamond forced itself through the space of Hansen's being. The sun here iwas a little past
midpoint. He was on aforty-meter bluff, overlooking a considerable floodplain forested with scrub conifers as
well as willows. The river which had carved the bluff was now an occasional glint through the trees a
kilometer away. On thefar horizon was a conical mountain from which trailed wisps of yellow vapor. There
was snow on the leaf mmould and in the creviced bark ofthe trees aroundHansen,, but the air didnt seem
particularly cold. A fieldmouse gnawed audibly nearby, rotating a pinecone with tiny forepaws to bring hidden
seeds in range of the glittering incisors. Hansen wasnlt on Diamond.. He could be quite sure of that, becauuse
riders carrying lances and crossbows were picking their way from left to right through the trees below. A