The four blue sides of the ladder were no longer simply fading into nothingness. Instead, she could see where they ended. Far, far above, she could see the actual summit of the tower. Novato’s claws hung half out of their sheaths, and her tail, floating in the air behind her, twitched left and right. She thought of Rewdan and the Vine. A giant blackdeath. A wingfinger that laid eggs of gold. Which would it be? The four sides of the tower flared into a vast blue bulb at the top. Long panels were extended from the sides of the bulb, panels so dark as to be visible only because they blocked the stars behind them. The whole thing looked like some deathly daisy with black petals and a blue, impossibly long stem. The lifeboat began to slow, preparing to stop at the summit. Novato drifted toward the roof. Any moment now. The lifeboat slid up, farther and farther, past the bottom of the bottom into the cavernous interior.
