Nightwings Read Free

it?"
    "Everything! Thousands of people! Lights! Boulevards! A market! Broken buildings many cycles old! Oh, Watcher, how wonderful Roum is!"
    "Your flight was a good one, then," I said.
    "A miracle!"
    "Tomorrow we go to dwell in Roum."
    "No, Watcher, tonight, tonight!" She was girlishly eager, her face bright with excitement. "It's just a short journey more! Look, it's just over there!"
    "We should rest first," I said. "We do not want to arrive weary in Roum."
    "We can rest when we get there," Avluela answered. "Come! Pack everything! You've done your Watching, haven't you?"
    "Yes. Yes."
    "Then let's go. To Roum! To Roum!"
    I looked in appeal at Gormon. Night had come; it was time to make camp, to have our few hours of sleep.
    For once Gormon sided with me. He said to Avluela, "The Watcher's right. We can all use some rest. We'll go on into Roum at dawn."
    Avluela pouted. She looked more like a child than ever. Her wings drooped; her underdeveloped body slumped. Petulantly she closed her wings until they were mere fist-sized humps on her back, and picked up the garments she had scattered on the road. She dressed while we made camp. I distributed food tablets; we entered our recepta-

    cles; I fell into troubled sleep and dreamed of Avluela limned against the crumbling moon, and Gormon flying beside her. Two hours before dawn I arose and performed my first Watch of the new day, while they still slept. Then I aroused them, and we went onward toward the fabled imperial city, onward toward Roum.
    The morning's light was bright and harsh, as though this were some young world newly created. The road was all but empty; people do not travel much in these latter days unless, like me, they are wanderers by habit and profession. Occasionally we stepped aside to let a chariot of some member of the guild of Masters go by, drawn by a dozen expressionless neuters harnessed in series. Four such vehicles went by in the first two hours of the day, each shuttered and sealed to hide the Masters proud features from the gaze of such common folk as we. Several rollerwagons laden with produce passed us, and a number of floaters soared overhead. Generally we had the road to ourselves, however.
    The environs of Roum showed vestiges of antiquity: isolated columns, the fragments of an aqueduct transporting nothing from nowhere to nowhere, the portals of a vanished temple. That was the oldest Roum we saw, but there were accretions of the later Roums of subsequent cycles: the huts of peasants, the domes of power drains, the hulls of dwelling-towers. Infrequently we met with the burned-out shell of some ancient airship. Gormon examined everything, taking samples from time to time. Avluela looked, wide-eyed, saying nothing. We walked on, until the walls of the city loomed before us.
    They were of a blue glossy stone, neatly joined, rising to a height of perhaps eight men. Our road pierced the wall through a corbeled arch; the gate stood open. As we approached the gate, a figure came toward us; he was hooded, masked, a man of extraordinary height wearing the somber garb of the guild of Pilgrims. One does not
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    approach such a person oneself, but one heeds him if he beckons. The Pilgrim beckoned.
    Through his speaking grille he said, "Where from?"
    'The south. I lived in Agupt awhile, then crossed Land Bridge to Talya," I replied.
    'Where bound?"
    "Roum, awhile."
    'How goes the Watch?"
    "As customary."
    "You have a place to stay in Roum?" the Pilgrim asked.
    I shook my head. "We trust to the kindness of the Will."
    "The Will is not always land," said the Pilgrim absently. "Nor is there much need of Watchers in Roum. Why do you travel with a Flier?"
    "For company's sake. And because she is young and needs protection."
    "Who is the other one?"
    "He is guildless, a Changeling."
    "So I can see. But why is he with you?"
    "He is strong and I am old, and so we travel together. Where are you bound, Pilgrim?"
    "Jorslem. Is there another destination for my