140

Though dangerously close to the ground, the craft glides smoothly out of its dive as you pull back on the lever. Your heart is pounding and, still shaken, you ease back the foot bar once the Ethetron is level once again. You are perhaps less than twenty feet above the ground and you notice that the Gyronome is piping even more loudly now that you are flying so low.

In the distance looms the shadow of the Crystal Tower surrounded by black holes—the result of the Academicians’ mining of the raw material of the Neverness. How are you to reach the Realm of the Singing City? Should you fly into the ground as the Gyronome suggests, or through one of the black holes of the cloud plain?

If you wish to enter a black hole, turn to 130.

If you wish to fly into the ground, turn to 109.

If you wish to gain altitude, turn to 19.