Before the creature crossed the chimney window, its shadow reached Solla's kitchen. The dinner pot knocked hard against its bar, and Dey dropped a bowl. It rattled in its groove without leaving the counter.
Beyond the three yellow lamps of Rillhold's west approach, a pale plate rose against the sky. Another followed it. The plates opened and closed along the belly of something broad enough to hide the upper streets. Houses rode its back on stakes driven between folds of hide. Smoke rose from their chimneys, then streamed across Rillhold as the creature turned. A woman on one of its balconies had both arms around a child and was shouting to someone below her.
Its mouth was open beneath the moving houses. The row of homes tied to Asti's lost street swung toward it, and the west lamp house stood farther along the same line.
"Are there people in all of those houses?" Dey asked.
