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hovering in midair. “Sky-plane: to Castle Numanteal,” Ravagin said, and they turned and headed downward.
    â€œWe’re going to land in the castle?” Danae asked uneasily, the descriptions of Shamsheer’s guardian trolls flashing through her mind.
    â€œNo, I’ll cancel the course again before we get there,” he assured her. “This is the best way to see the place, though.”
    She pursed her lips, acrophobia evaporating as she studied the stronghold they were approaching. “Are all those houses clustered around the wall inside the troll perimeter?” she asked.
    â€œThe inner perimeter, yes. You can see that they form a rough hexagon, too, like the castle wall and the outer protectorate boundary.”
    Danae nodded again. “The info packet seemed to talk a lot about hexagons when describing the Shamsheer landscape.”
    â€œOh, the obsession is definitely there. The Dark Towers are also six-sided, as are the forest and desert areas surrounding them. No one knows why.”
    â€œSounds like a giant game board,” Danae said, only half jokingly.
    â€œDon’t laugh—there are people who take that theory seriously,” Ravagin said, an oddly grim note to his voice. “Someone built the Tunnels, after all—why couldn’t they have built both of the Hidden Worlds, too? And made Shamsheer into a giant game?”
    Danae shivered. “I don’t like that idea at all. Two complete worlds, just for a game?”
    â€œI don’t buy it myself,” Ravagin shrugged. “Where’s the gamemaster, for instance, if that’s what’s happening? And if Shamsheer’s a game, what’s Karyx supposed to be? There are other theories that make more sense.” He leaned over toward the sky-plane’s side. “We’re coming up on the castle.”
    Danae followed his gaze. They were no more than half a kilometer from the outer wall now and perhaps two hundred meters above it. A half-dozen buildings were visible inside the wall, and she tried to match them up with the sketches she’d seen. The manor house itself was easy—looking vaguely like a huge inverted mushroom with four rocket fin-shaped entrance halls anchoring it to the ground, it dominated the space near the center of the enclosure. In one corner of the hexagon was a smaller hex-shaped building that was probably the local House of Healing; in another corner was the Giantsword power generator/broadcaster. Near the manor house, in the exact center of the enclosure, was a small geodesic dome. “The Shrine of Knowledge?” she asked, pointing to it.
    â€œRight,” Ravagin nodded. “It’ll be where the castle-lord’s crystal eye is kept.”
    â€œI’d think he’d put it inside the house where he could get at it more easily.”
    He shrugged. ‘The villagers can petition the castle-lord to use the eye for information on what’s happening elsewhere on Shamsheer, and this way he doesn’t have to let them into the manor house itself. And you have to remember that none of these people understand these gadgets, not even the ones they use every day. Once tradition has the crystal eye in a shrine of knowledge, who’s going to risk moving it into the manor house?”
    Danae grimaced. “No one, I suppose.” They were starting to come around in a wide circle now, and she could see another building and a flat area set against the closer parts of the castle wall: the horse/vehicle stable and the sky-plane landing area, respectively.
    And they were aiming directly toward the latter. “Shouldn’t we be getting out of here?” she asked, starting to feel a bit nervous. Trying to explain an unauthorized landing inside a castle enclosure wasn’t the way she really wanted to start her trip.
    â€œIn a minute,” Ravagin said calmly. “Castle-Lord Simrahi’s used to people buzzing his