Earl left Jest and made his way to Aarn, a civilized planet with a museum he searched for evidence of ancient
navigation
charts based on Earth. Watching a ship handler’s murder in a bar near the field, Earl deftly talks the dead man’s captain into hiring him. On the ship, the Moray, were Lin, the young steward, Claude, the drunken engineer, Nimino the mystic navigator and Captain Sheyan. Normally, the Moray plied the stars of a dust obscured cluster near the center known as the “Web”. Claude found a gem trader named Yalung to travel with them.
They landed at Henriks and Earl forced Claude to fix the loading ramp. Nimino realized Earl was not an ordinary traveller nor was he fleeing an ordinary foe. They picked up Iron implements and headed for Argonilla. Earl realized that Captain Sheyan was half mad from a lifetime staring at the immensity of interstellar space. Argonilla was a snow covered with only pelts to sell and another ship had recently taken the best cargo. They picked up a monk, Brother Angus, bound for Phane and went to Candara. At Candara, peopled by a severe religious cult, they fashioned their iron into fishhooks which the Candarans needed and traded them for precious oil that had been extracted from Candaran shellfish. They were asked to serve as a tribunal for the fate of an off world woman, Lallia, whose libertine ways had led their conservative society into conflict. She had been accused of witchcraft though the headman knew she was not guilty.
Nimino proposed she be judged by trial by combat to determine the will of the Almighty regarding her fate. Earl volunteered as her champion and the chief elder summoned Gilliam, a giant of the Candaran, to fight him. Earl defeated Gilliam in a contest of staves and the crew took Lallia and the oil and left Candaran. On the ship Lallia read Earl’s palm, but when she touched Kalin’s ring she read that he had had great love and loss and would love again. They headed for Tyann and Earl told Lallia of how he stowed away on a ship visiting Earth and made his way to the center of the Galaxy where Earth was forgotten. They went to Dreen, to Ohan, bleak planets all, and then with a load of passengers headed for Joy.
Joy was at
carnival. Lallia, now Earl’s lover and his first bad girl (though fiercely loyal) proposes that they steal wallets from the throng and Earl responds that while he is not against it if it is necessary, it is too risky. Lallia steals a wallet from a nobleman. Earl quickly ushers her into a clothing shop where she buys a carnival costume and they elude their enraged pursuer. They enter a freak show (The freaks are people with deformities trying to raise money so they can go to Shrine where they believe they will be healed. Lallia scolds a spectator tormenting a mutated beast. The beast breaks out and Earl attacks it to save her. Earl is almost killed but Yalung shows up and kills the beast with a bar. Earl is taken to the Moray where Lallia nurses him back to health. Claude gets drunk, kills Lin and allowed the engines to fail. Nimino kills Claude (worrying it will stain him spiritually) They hold the engines together long enough for the captain to land on Shrine.
Earl, Lallia, Yalung and Nimino survive. Shrine had an orange sun, a violet sky and was covered in snow. Nimino had been there before and remembered that it was warm. Earl, believing the captain set them as near the field as he could searched the horizon for signs of atmospheric heat distortion. They headed toward a shimmer on the horizon eventually coming to a line of saguaro cactus like trees surrounded by grass covered openings in the snow. Nimino entered one and was killed when the tree fired its spines at him. Earl led the others toward the shimmer between the spine trees.
Earl, Yalung and Lallia are saved by servants of the guardian of the Shrine, large bird like creatures, that carry them to the Shrine. Entering the Shrine, which is a beautiful cathedral like opening among ancient trees with a holy artefact in the middle, they are healed and Earl was shown in an over view of the Galaxy roughly where his beloved Earth lay. They staggered back exhausted, Lallia the most because with her psychic abilities she is able to comprehend some part of the immense length of time the Shrine has been there since its extragalactic ship crashed many ages before. Lallia told Earl she loved him, they slept and when Earl woke Lallia was dead, killed by Yalung. Yalung was in reality, an immensely strong and powerful Kha-tung fighter hired by the Cyclan to find Earl, get Kalin’s ring and bring Earl to them for interrogation. Earl did not yet know the secret of the ring but Yalung told him of the arrangement of 15 units hidden as motes in the ruby. Earl threw the ring at Yalung and threw his knife to kill Yalung as he grabbed for it. Alone again, but knowing at last which direction to head to search for Earth, Earl returns to the field and catches the ship for Thermyle and on out of the web.