Then I heard something like a groan, directionless. This, too, was very brief.

Next — and for the first time, I was certain — there came a gray and white landscape like the surface of the moon. There and gone, perhaps a second’s worth, in a small area of my visual field, off to my left. Star snorted.

To my right appeared a forest — gray and white — tumbling, as though we passed one another at some impossible angle. A small-screen fragment, less than two seconds’ worth.

Then pieces of a burning building beneath me… Colorless…

Snatches of wailing, from overhead…

A ghostly mountain, a torchlit procession ascending a switchback trail up its nearest face…

A woman hanging from a tree limb, taut rope about her neck, head twisted to the side, hands tied behind her back…

Mountains, upside down, white, black clouds beneath…

Click. A tiny thrill of vibration, as if we had momentarily touched something solid — Star’s hoof on stone, perhaps. Then gone…

Flicker.

Heads, rolling, dripping black gore… A chuckle from nowhere… A man nailed to a wall, upside down…

The white light again, rolling and heaving, wavelike…

Click. Flicker.

For one pulsebeat, we trod a trail beneath a stippled sky. The moment it was gone, I reached for it again, through the Jewel.

Click. Flicker. Click. Rumble.

A rocky trail, approaching a high mountain pass… Still monochrome, the world… At my back, a crashing like thunder…

I twisted the Jewel like a focus knob as the world began to fade. It came back again… Two, three, four… I counted hoofbeats, heartbeats against the growling background… Seven, eight, nine… The world grew brighter. I took a deep breath and sighed heavily. The air was cold.

Between the thunder and its echoes, I heard the sound of rain. None fell upon me, though.