They had even very carefully reset some of the comm parameters… then nervously set them back when nothing happened. Maybe they hadn't given the changes enough of a chance to work. Maybe now they had really messed something up.
They stayed in the command cubby all through the afternoon, their minds cycling trough fear and boredom and frustration. After four hours, boredom had at least a temporary victory. Jefri was napping uneasily in his father's hammock with two of Amdi curled up in his arms.
Amdi poked idly around the room, looked at the rocket controls. No… not even his self-confidence was up to playing with those. Another of him jerked at the wall quilting. He could always watch the fungus grow for a while. Things were that slow.
Actually, the gray stuff had spread a lot further than the last time he looked. Behind the quilt, it was quite thick. He sent a chain of himself squirreling back between the wall and the fabric. It was dark, but some light spilled through the gap at the ceiling. In most places the mold was scarcely an inch thick, but back here it was five or six — wow. Just above his exploring nose, a huge lump of it grew from the wall. This was as big as some of the ornamental moss that decorated castle meeting halls. Slender gray filaments grew down from the fungus. He almost called out to Jefri, but the two of him in the hammock were so comfortable.
He brought a couple more heads close to the strangeness. The wall behind it looked a little odd, too… as though part of its substance had been taken by the mold. And the gray itself: like smoke — he felt the filaments with his nose. They were solid, dry. His nose tickled. Amdi froze in shocked surprise. Watching himself from behind, he saw that two of the filaments had actually passed through his member's head! And yet there was no pain, just that tickling feeling.
"What — what?" Jefri had been jostled into wakefulness, as Amdi tensed around him.
"I found something really strange, behind the quilts. I touched this big hunk of fungus and — "
As he spoke, Amdi gently backed away from thing on the wall. The touch didn't hurt, but it made him more nervous than curious. He felt the filaments sliding slowly out.
"I told you, we aren't supposed to play with that stuff. It's dirty. The only good thing is, it doesn't smell." Jefri was out of the hammock. He stepped across the cubby and lifted the quilting. Amdi's tip member lost its balance and jerked away from the fungus. There was a snapping sound, and a sharp pain in his lip.
"Geez, that thing is big!" Then, hearing Amdi's pain whistle, "You okay?"
Amdi backed away from the wall. "I think so." The tip of one last filament was still stuck in his lip. It didn't hurt as much as the nettles he'd sampled a few days earlier. Amdijefri looked over the wound. What was left of the smoky spine seemed hard and brittle. Jefri's fingers gently worked it free. Then the two of them turned to wonder at the thing in the wall.
"It really has spread. Looks like it's hurt the wall, too."
Amdi dabbed at his bloodied muzzle. "Yeah. I see why your folks told you to stay away from it."
"Maybe we should have Mr. Steel scrub it all out."
The two spent half an hour crawling around behind all the quilting. The grayness had spread far, but there was only the one marvelous flowering. They came back to stare at it, even sticking articles of clothing into the wisps. Neither risked fingers or noses on further contact.
Staring at the fungus on the wall was by far the most exciting thing that happened that afternoon; there was no message from the OOB.
The next day the hot weather was back.
Two more days passed… and still there was no word from Ravna.
Lord Steel paced the walls atop Starship Hill. It was near the middle of the night, and the sun hung about fifteen degrees above the northern horizon. Sweat filmed his fur; this was the warmest summer in ten years. The drywind was into its thirtieth dayaround. It was no longer a welcome break in the chill of the northland. The crops were dying in the fields. Smoke from fjord fires was visible as brownish haze both north and south of the castle. At first the reddish color had been a novelty, a welcome change from the unending blue of sky and distance, and the whitish haze of the sea fogs. Only at first. When fire struck East Streamsdell, the entire sky had been dipped in red. Ash had rained all the dayaround, and the only smell had been that of burning. Some said it was worse than the filthy air of the southern cities.
The troops on the walls backed far out of his way. This was more than courtesy, more than their fear of Steel. His troops were still not used to the cloaked ones, and the cover story Shreck was spreading did nothing to ease their minds: Lord Steel was accompanied by a singleton — in the colors of a Lord. The creature made no mind sounds. It walked incredibly close to its master.
