Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 716
43
"What are they doing? I gave no orders for them to
move!"
Lavin stood perilously near the open door of the
vagabond moon. He needed this vantage point to watch the
proceedings below. It was obvious from here that three of the
other moons had broken formation and were moving, like
ponderous floating islands, to cover the valley.
Lavin’s own moon had sailed south and swept around
behind the Titan's Peaks. For a while as the moon rotated he
had seen nothing but ocean, sunlit for a few kilometers then
abruptly plunged in darkness. Then the Titans' Gates had
appeared again, very close.
The moon had been moving with frightening speed.
Although the wind didn't penetrate the doors, somehow, he
could hear it roaring, and all across the floor of the moon the
guy wires popped and groaned as the great craft strove to keep
its shape. Almost continuous flashes of lightning lit its interior,
and the smell of ozone was overpowering. Once or twice as
they passed the lower peaks south of the Gates, brilliant bolts
had shot down, apparently from right under Lavin’s feet,
shattering wind-sculpted pine trees on the tops of the
mountains below.
A different Lavin would have found the experience