We are not in Uncia land?" "Not here.We are not in Uncia land?" "Not here." "And D'israeli lives in the Uncia lands?" "Yes." "Very strange. And this sort of happened, right? Like all things in life that happen while your making other plans." The Uncia looked at me strangely, then nodded. "I've read your papers, Shardik. You always declare you are not the wise man we make you out to be. But you occasionally do have flashes of wisdom." I blushed, I think. Praise from a Uncia is praise indeed, even if, as Shardik, I'm used to faint praise. "Thanks, RRawl." I turned to P'nyssa and said, "Ready?" "As ready as I'll ever be," she replied, with a nervous tremor in her voice. "Then lets go. Thank you for your aid, Uncia RRawl." "A pleasure, Father Shardik." P'nyssa and I shouldered our packs, walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. It did indeed look like it dropped for klicks. To one side we saw the mechanism of descent; a stairway carved out of the rock with disintegrators and fusers. We began our slow climb downward. We reached the bottom after about three hours of careful descent. |