from him and drained most of it in one swallow and
then smashed it on the floor. She does things like that, though Sid's
tried to teach her better. Then she stared at what she was thinking
about until the whites showed all around her eyes and her lips pulled
way back from her teeth and she looked a lot less human than the two
ETs, just like a fury. Only a time traveler knows how like the wild
murals and engravings of them some of the ancients can look.

My hair stood up at the screech she let out. She smashed a fist into the
divan and cried, "Goddess! Must I see Crete destroyed, revived, and now
destroyed again? It is too much for your servant."

Personally, I thought she could stand anything.

There was a rush of questions at what she said about Crete--I asked one
of them, for the news certainly frightened me--but she shot up her arm
straight for silence and took a deep breath and began.

"In the balance hung the battle. Rowing like black centipedes, the
Dorian hulls bore down on our outnumbered ships. On the bright beach,
masked by rocks, Sevensee and I stood by the needle gun, ready to give
the black hulls silent wounds. Beside us was Ilhilihis, suited as a sea
monster. But then ... then ..."

Then I saw she wasn't altogether the iron babe, for her voice broke and
she started to shake and to sob rackingly, although her face was still a
mask of rage, and she threw up the wine. Sid stepped in and made her
stop, which I think he'd been wanting to do all along.

CHAPTER 5

Whenever I take up a newspaper and read it, I fancy I see ghosts
creeping between the lines. There must be ghosts all over the world.
They must be as countless as the grains of the sands, it seems to
me.

--Ibsen

SID INSISTS ON GHOSTGIRLS

My Elizabethan boy friend put his fists on his hips and laid down the
law to us as if we were a lot of nervous children who'd been playing too
hard.

"Look you, masters, this is a Recuperation Station and I am running it
as such. A plague of all operations! I care not if the frame of things
disjoints and the whole Change World goes to ruin, but you, warrior
maid, are going to rest and drink more wine slowly before you tell your
tale and your colleagues are going to be properly companioned. No
questions, anyone. Beau, and you love us, give us a lively tune."

Kaby relaxed a little and let him put his hand carefully