Tanus lowered the gong over the stem.
The broad smear of clouds vanished, and for a long moment the full blackness of the sky opened before him, dotted with tiny, cold stars, as though green angel tower had torn free of its moorings and now floated above the storm. The man gave him a strange look. He looked a little frightened, when he recognized me, as his conscience must have been troubling him because of his desertion of me.