She was gone, into a doorway of the opposite wing. The silent, empty garden sounded with the distant, reassuring snores of the still sleeping Spawn.
I went back to my room and lay on my bed. And drifted off on a sea of magic memories. The world—my world before this night—now seemed to have been so drab. Empty. Lifeless. But now there was pulsing, living magic in it for me.
I drifted into sleep, thinking of it.
CHAPTER IV
The Mine in the Cauldron Depths
I was awakened by the tinkling, buzzing call of the radio-diaphragm beneath my shirt. I had left the call open.
It was Hanley. I lay down, eyeing my window which now was illumined by the flat light of dawn.
Hanley's microscopic voice:
"Phil? I've just raised President Markes, there in Nareda. I've been a bit worried about you."