vii i fell into a black slumber that night , a dreamless sleep filled with nightmares that were not dreams , but visions i saw the damned winds as they bore my charge over the land and seas , across mountains and deserts that no earthly being has known , across the vast distances between the stars , blazing onwards through the trails of mighty comets , heedless of the heat of the supernovae they left in their terrible wake , intent upon their dreadful journey .