Titans of Chaos

Victor said, "We have as yet made no experiment as to the capacities of this ship, Vanity's ship, tocarry us to places we cannot describe or name. Does it have a memory? A database oflocations?"

Vanity said, "What happens if we say, 'Sail to the nearest person who can protect us from Lamia'?

Will the ship go anywhere? Do we need to know the name of the person or the place where he is?

Can we say, 'Sail us away outside of the range of the Olympian detection system'? 'Sail us beyondthe range and reach of their spells' ?"

Quentin said gently, "I hate to keep bringing this up, but even if we decide to go somewhere andtake horoscopes or experiment with the Argent Nautilus, do we dare do it in any place where thehumans live? It is going to be one or the other.

"Leader," Quentin continued, turning to me, "if we are willing to live among the humans, let usgo now to shore, find an apartment we can rent or a kindhearted farmer who will take us in orsomething, and hide, and do our experiments and investigations in secret. There are bigadvantages to getting help from the humans. We could hire scientists or detectives. We could gethot running water and cooked meals.

"If we are not willing to risk living among the humans, then let us turn this boat around now andseek some deserted place on this world or in another, and do our experiments where no humanwill see. But that issue we must decide now, before we decide anything else. Do we land here, anddrag our boat ashore? Or do we sail away to a lonely wasteland? It is your decision, Amelia."

I sat for a time on the bench, one arm on the back and my cheek on my arm, looking back acrossthe stern. The sun rose higher, burning off the mist of dawn, and the level beams of cherry lightgrew more yellow, bright, vertical, and strong. The mosaic of white and gray, steel and glass,grew more clear and particular as details emerged from the departing gloom. I saw the tinysparks, red and green by turns, of streetlamps; I saw a surprising number (considering the hour)of cars crawling the roads, the bridge, the highways, made, by the distance, into a caterpillar ofmany-colored metal scales. I saw motion at the marina and docks, ships of many shapes and sizes,trailing white foam in their wakes, busy in the early morning waters.