Was Louis Wu going senile? So quickly? He was well over two hundred years old. Boosterspice had kept some humans hale and sapient for half a thousand years, sometimes more. But without his medical benefits, Louis Wu might age fast.
And Chmeee would be gone.
No matter. The Hindmost was in the safest place imaginable. His ship was buried in cubic miles of cooled magma near the center of the Ringworld Repair Center. Nothing was urgent. He could wait. There were the librarians. Something would change… and there was the dance.
PART ONE — THE SHADOW NEST
CHAPTER ONE — A WAR OF SCENTS
A.D. 2892:
Cloud covered the sky like a gray stone plate. The yellow grass had a wilted look: too much rain, not enough sun. No doubt the sun was straight overhead and the Arch was still in place, but Valavirgillin hadn’t seen either for twenty days now.
The cruisers rolled through an endless drizzle, through high grass, on wheels as tall as a man. Vala and Kay rode the steering bench; Barok rode above them as gunner. Barok’s daughter Forn was asleep under an awning.
Any day now-any hour-
Sabarokaresh pointed. “Is that what you’ve been looking for?”
Valavirgillin stood up in her seat. She could just see where the vastness of grass turned to a vastness of stubble.
Kaywerbrimmis said, “They leave this pattern. We’ll be seeing sentries or a harvesting party. Boss, I don’t understand how you knew they’d be Grass Giants here. I’ve never been this far to starboard myself. You, you’re from Center City? That’s a hundred daywalks to port.”
“Word came to me,” Valavirgillin said.
He didn’t ask more. A merchant’s secrets were her own.