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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19029-h.zip b/19029-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..22b56da --- /dev/null +++ b/19029-h.zip diff --git a/19029-h/19029-h.htm b/19029-h/19029-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8063091 --- /dev/null +++ b/19029-h/19029-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1163 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Gifts of Asti, by Andrew North. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; } + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .tr { text-align:left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; + background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: solid black 1px;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gifts of Asti, by Andre Alice Norton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Gifts of Asti + +Author: Andre Alice Norton + +Release Date: August 11, 2006 [EBook #19029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIFTS OF ASTI *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<p class="tr"> <b>Transcriber's notes.</b><br /> +<br />This etext was produced from Fantasy Book Vol. 1, No. 3 1948. +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright +on this publication was renewed.<br /> +<br />A number of typographical errors found in the original text have been +corrected in this version. A <a href="#note">list</a> of these errors is found at the end +of this book.</p> + +<h1>THE GIFTS OF ASTI</h1> + +<h4>by </h4> + +<h2>ANDREW NORTH</h2> + + +<h5><i>She was the guardian of the worlds, but HER world was dead.</i></h5> + + +<p>Even here, on the black terrace before the forgotten mountain retreat of +Asti, it was possible to smell the dank stench of burning Memphir, to +imagine that the dawn wind bore upward from the pillaged city the faint +tortured cries of those whom the barbarians of Klem hunted to their +prolonged death. Indeed it was time to leave—</p> + +<p>Varta, last of the virgin Maidens of Asti, shivered. The scaled and +wattled creature who crouched beside her thigh turned his reptilian head +so that golden eyes met the aquamarine ones set slantingly at a faintly +provocative angle in her smooth ivory face.</p> + +<p>"We go—?"</p> + +<p>She nodded in answer to that unvoiced question Lur had sent into her +brain, and turned toward the dark cavern which was the mouth of Asti's +last dwelling place. Once, more than a thousand years before when the +walls of Memphir were young, Asti had lived among men below. But in the +richness and softness which was trading Memphir, empire of empires, Asti +found no place. So He and those who served Him had withdrawn to this +mountain outcrop. And she, Varta, was the last, the very last to bow +knee at Asti's shrine and raise her voice in the dawn hymn—for Lur, as +were all his race, was mute.</p> + +<p>Even the loot of Memphir would not sate the shaggy headed warriors who +had stormed her gates this day. The stairway to Asti's Temple was plain +enough to see and there would be those to essay the steep climb hoping +to find a treasure which did not exist. For Asti was an austere God, +delighting in plain walls and bare altars. His last priest had lain in +the grave niches these three years, there would be none to hold that +gate against intruders.</p> + +<p>Varta passed between tall, uncarved pillars, Lur padding beside her, his +spine mane erect, the talons on his forefeet clicking on the stone in +steady rhythm. So they came into the innermost shrine of Asti and there +Varta made graceful obeisance to the great cowled and robed figure which +sat enthroned, its hidden eyes focused upon its own outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>And above the flattened palm of that wide hand hung suspended in space +the round orange-red sun ball which was twin to the sun that lighted +Erb. Around the miniature sun swung in their orbits the four worlds of +the system, each obeying the laws of space, even as did the planets they +represented.</p> + +<p>"Memphir has fallen," Varta's voice sounded rusty in her own ears. She +had spoken so seldom during the last lonely months. "Evil has risen to +overwhelm our world, even as it was prophesied in Your Revelations, O, +Ruler of Worlds and Maker of Destiny. Therefore, obeying the order given +of old, I would depart from this, Thy house. Suffer me now to fulfill +the Law—"</p> + +<p>Three times she prostrated her slim body on the stones at the foot of +Asti's judgment chair. Then she arose and, with the confidence of a +child in its father, she laid her hand palm upward upon the outstretched +hand of Asti. Beneath her flesh the stone was not cold and hard, but +seemed to have an inner heat, even as might a human hand. For a long +moment she stood so and then she raised her hand slowly, carefully, as +if within its slight hollow she cupped something precious.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 468px;"> +<img src="images/fig1.jpg" width="468" height="700" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>And, as she drew her hand away from the grasp of Asti, the tiny sun and +its planets followed, spinning now above her palm as they had above the +statue's. But out of the cowled figure some virtue had departed with the +going of the miniature solar system; it was now but a carving of stone. +And Varta did not look at it again as she passed behind its bulk to seek +a certain place in the temple wall, known to her from much reading of +the old records.</p> + +<p>Having found the stone she sought, she moved her hand in a certain +pattern before it so that the faint radiance streaming from the tiny +sun, gleamed on the grayness of the wall. There was a grating, as from +metal long unused, and a block fell back, opening a narrow door to them.</p> + +<p>Before she stepped within, the priestess lifted her hand above her head +and when she withdrew it, the sun and planets remained to form a diadem +just above the intricate braiding of her dull red hair. As she moved +into the secret way, the five orbs swung with her, and in the darkness +there the sun glowed richly, sending out a light to guide their feet.</p> + +<p>They were at the top of a stairway and the hollow clang of the stone as +it moved back into place behind them echoed through a gulf which seemed +endless. But that too was as the chronicles had said and Varta knew no +fear.</p> + +<p>How long they journeyed down into the maw of the mountain and, beyond +that, into the womb of Erb itself, Varta never knew. But, when feet were +weary and she knew the bite of real hunger, they came into a passageway +which ended in a room hollowed of solid rock. And there, preserved in +the chest in which men born in the youth of Memphir had laid them, Varta +found that which would keep her safe on the path she must take. She put +aside the fine silks, the jeweled cincture, which had been the badge of +Asti's service and drew on over her naked body a suit of scaled skin, +gemmed and glistening in the rays of the small sun. There was a hood to +cover the entire head, taloned gloves for the hands, webbed, clawed +coverings for the feet—as if the skin of a giant, man-like lizard had +been tanned and fashioned into this suit. And Varta suspected that that +might be so—the world of Erb had not always been held by the human-kind +alone.</p> + +<p>There were supplies here too, lying untouched in ageless containers +within a lizard-skin pouch. Varta touched her tongue without fear to a +powdered restorative, sharing it with Lur, whose own mailed skin would +protect him through the dangers to come.</p> + +<p>She folded the regalia she had stripped off and laid it in the chest, +smoothing it regretfully before she dropped the lid upon its shimmering +color. Never again would Asti's servant wear the soft stuff of His +Livery. But she was resolute enough when she picked up the food pouch +and strode forward, passing out of the robing chamber into a narrow way +which was a natural fault in the rock unsmoothed by the tools of man.</p> + +<p>But when this rocky road ended upon the lip of a gorge, Varta hesitated, +plucking at the throat latch of her hood-like helmet. Through the +unclouded crystal of its eye-holes she could see the sprouts of yellow +vapor which puffed from crannies in the rock wall down which she must +climb. If the records of the Temple spoke true, these curls of gas were +death to all lunged creatures of the upper world. She could only trust +that the cunning of the scaled hood would not fail her.</p> + +<p>The long talons fitted to the finger tips of the gloves, the claws of +the webbed foot coverings clamped fast to every hand and foot hold, but +the way down was long and she caught a message of weariness from Lur +before they reached the piled rocks at the foot of the cliff. The puffs +of steamy gas had become a fog through which they groped their way +slowly, following a trace of path along the base of the cliff.</p> + +<p>Time did not exist in the underworld of Erb. Varta did not know whether +it was still today, or whether she had passed into tomorrow when they +came to a cross roads. She felt Lur press against her, forcing her back +against a rock.</p> + +<p>"There is a thing coming—" his message was clear.</p> + +<p>And in a moment she too saw a dark hulk nosing through the vapor. It +moved slowly, seeming to balance at each step as if travel was a painful +act. But it bore steadily to the meeting of the two paths.</p> + +<p>"It is no enemy—" But she did not need that reassurance from Lur. +Unearthly as the thing looked it had no menace.</p> + +<p>With a last twist of ungainly body the creature squatted on a rock and +clawed the clumsy covering it wore about its bone-thin shoulders and +domed-skull head. The visage it revealed was long and gray, with dark +pits for eyes and a gaping, fang-studded, lipless mouth.</p> + +<p>"Who are you who dare to tread the forgotten ways and rouse from slumber +the Guardian of the Chasms?"</p> + +<p>The question was a shrill whine in her brain, her hands half arose to +cover her ears—</p> + +<p>"I am Varta, Maiden of Asti. Memphir has fallen to the barbarians of the +Outer Lands and now I go, as Asti once ordered—."</p> + +<p>The Guardian considered her answer gravely. In one skeleton claw it +fumbled a rod and with this it now traced certain symbols in the dust +before Varta's webbed feet. When it had done, the girl stooped and +altered two of the lines with a swift stroke from one of her talons. The +creature of the Chasm nodded its misshapen head.</p> + +<p>"Asti does not rule here. But long, and long, and long ago there was a +pact made with us in His Name. Pass free from us, woman of the Light. +There are two paths before you—."</p> + +<p>The Guardian paused for so long that Varta dared to prompt it.</p> + +<p>"Where do they lead, Guardian of the Dark?"</p> + +<p>"This will take you down into my country," it jerked the rod to the +right. "And that way is death for creatures from the surface world. The +other—in our old legends it is said to bring a traveler out into the +upper world. Of the truth of that I have no proof."</p> + +<p>"But that one I must take," she made slight obeisance to the huddle of +bones and dank cloak on the rock and it inclined its head in grave +courtesy.</p> + +<p>With Lur pushing a little ahead, she took the road which ran straight +into the flume-veiled darkness. Nor did she turn to look again at the +Thing from the Chasm world.</p> + +<p>They began to climb again, across slimed rock where there were evil +trails of other things which lived in this haunted darkness. But the sun +of Asti lighted their way and perhaps some virtue in the rays from it +kept away the makers of such trails.</p> + +<p>When they pulled themselves up onto a wide ledge the talons on Varta's +gloves were worn to splintered stubs and there was a bright girdle of +pain about her aching body. Lur lay panting beside her, his red-forked +tongue protruding from his foam ringed mouth.</p> + +<p>"We walk again the ways of men," Lur was the first to note the tool +marks on the stone where they lay. "By the Will of Asti, we may win out +of this maze after all."</p> + +<p>Since there were no signs of the deadly steam Varta dared to push off +her hood and share with her companion the sustaining power she carried +in her pouch. There was a freshness to the air they breathed, damp and +cold though it was, which hinted of the upper world.</p> + +<p>The ledge sloped upwards, at a steep angle at first, and then more +gently. Lur slipped past her and thrust head and shoulders through a +break in the rock. Grasping his neck spines she allowed him to pull her +through that narrow slit into the soft blackness of a surface night. +They tumbled down together, Varta's head pillowed on Lur's smooth side, +and so slept as the sun and worlds of Asti whirled protectingly above +them.</p> + +<p>A whir of wings in the air above her head awakened Varta. One of the +small, jewel bright flying lizard creatures of the deep jungle poised +and dipped to investigate more closely the worlds of Asti. But at +Varta's upflung arm it uttered a rasping cry and planed down into the +mass of vegetation below. By the glint of sunlight on the stone around +them the day was already well advanced. Varta tugged at Lur's mane until +he roused.</p> + +<p>There was a regularity to the rocks piled about their sleeping place +which hinted that they had lain among the ruins left by man. But of this +side of the mountains both were ignorant, for Memphir's rule had not run +here.</p> + +<p>"Many dead things in times past," Lur's scarlet nostril pits were +extended to their widest. "But that was long ago. This land is no longer +held by men."</p> + +<p>Varta laughed cheerfully. "If here there are no men, then there will +rise no barbarian hordes to dispute our rule. Asti has led us to safety. +Let us see more of the land He gives us."</p> + +<p>There was a road leading down from the ruins, a road still to be +followed in spite of the lash of landslip and the crack of time. And it +brought them into a cup of green fertility where the lavishness of +Asti's sowing was unchecked by man. Varta seized eagerly upon globes of +blood red fruit which she recognized as delicacies which had been +cultivated in the Temple gardens, while Lur went hunting into the +fringes of the jungle, there dining on prey so easily caught as to be +judged devoid of fear.</p> + +<p>The jungle choked highway curved and they were suddenly fronted by a +desert of sere desolation, a desert floored by glassy slag which sent +back the sun beams in a furnace glare. Varta shaded her eyes and tried +to see the end of this, but, if there was a distant rim of green beyond, +the heat distortions in the air concealed it.</p> + +<p>Lur put out a front paw to test the slag but withdrew it instantly.</p> + +<p>"It cooks the flesh, we can not walk here," was his verdict.</p> + +<p>Varta pointed with her chin to the left where, some distance away, the +mountain wall paralleled their course.</p> + +<p>"Then let us keep to the jungle over there and see if it does not bring +around to the far side. But what made this—?" She leaned out over the +glassy stuff, not daring to touch the slick surface.</p> + +<p>"War." Lur's tongue shot out to impale a questing beetle. "These +forgotten people fought with fearsome weapons."</p> + +<p>"But what weapon could do this? Memphir knew not such—."</p> + +<p>"Memphir was old. But mayhap there were those who raised cities on Erb +before the first hut of Memphir squatted on tidal mud. Men forget +knowledge in time. Even in Memphir the lords of the last days forgot the +wisdom of their earlier sages—they fell before the barbarians easily +enough."</p> + +<p>"If ever men had wisdom to produce this—it was not of Asti's giving," +she edged away from the glare. "Let us go."</p> + +<p>But now they had to fight their way through jungle and it was +hard—until they reached a ridge of rock running out from the mountain +as a tongue thrust into the blasted valley. And along this they picked +their slow way.</p> + +<p>"There is water near—," Lur's thought answered the girl's desire. She +licked dry lips longingly. "This way—," her companion's sudden turn was +to the left and Varta was quick to follow him down a slide of rock.</p> + +<p>Lur's instinct was right, as it ever was. There was water before them, a +small lake of it. But even as he dipped his fanged muzzle toward that +inviting surface, Lur's spined head jerked erect again. Varta snatched +back the hand she had put out, staring at Lur's strange actions. His +nostrils expanded to their widest, his long neck outstretched, he was +swinging his head back and forth across the limpid shallows.</p> + +<p>"What is it—?"</p> + +<p>"This is no water such as we know," the scaled one answered flatly. "It +has life within it."</p> + +<p>Varta laughed. "Fish, water snakes, your own distant kin, Lur. It is the +scent of them which you catch—"</p> + +<p>"No. It is the water itself which lives—and yet does not live—" His +thought trailed away from her as he struggled with some problem. No +human brain could follow his unless he willed it so.</p> + +<p>Varta squatted back on her heels and began to look at the water and then +at the banks with more care. For the first time she noted the odd +patches of brilliant color which floated just below the surface of the +liquid. Blue, green, yellow, crimson, they drifted slowly with the tiny +waves which lapped the shore. But they were not alive, she was almost +sure of that, they appeared more a part of the water itself.</p> + +<p>Watching the voyage of one patch of green she caught sight of the +branch. It was a drooping shoot of the turbi, the same tree vine which +produced the fruit she had relished less than an hour before. Above the +water dangled a cluster of the fruit, dead ripe with the sweet pulp +stretching its skin. But below the surface of the water—</p> + +<p>Varta's breath hissed between her teeth and Lur's head snapped around as +he caught her thought.</p> + +<p>The branch below the water bore a perfect circle of green flowers close +to its tip, the flowers which the turbi had borne naturally seven months +before and which should long ago have turned into just such sweetness as +hung above.</p> + +<p>With Lur at her heels the girl edged around to pull cautiously at the +branch. It yielded at once to her touch, swinging its tip out of the +lake. She sniffed—there was a languid perfume in the air, the perfume +of the blooming turbi. She examined the flowers closely, to all +appearances they were perfect and natural.</p> + +<p>"It preserves," Lur settled back on his haunches and waved one front paw +at the quiet water. "What goes into it remains as it was just at the +moment of entrance."</p> + +<p>"But if this is seven months old—"</p> + +<p>"It may be seven years old," corrected Lur. "How can you tell when that +branch first dipped into the lake? Yet the flowers do not fade even when +withdrawn from the water. This is indeed a mystery!"</p> + +<p>"Of which I would know more!" Varta dropped the turbi and started on +around the edge of the lake.</p> + +<p>Twice more they found similar evidence of preservation in flower or +leaf, wherever it was covered by the opaline water.</p> + +<p>The lake itself was a long and narrow slash with one end cutting into +the desert of glass while the other wet the foot of the mountain. And it +was there, on the slope of the mountain that they found the greatest +wonder of all, Lur scenting it before they sighted the remains among the +stones.</p> + +<p>"Man made," he cautioned, "but very, very old."</p> + +<p>And truly the wreckage they came upon must have been old, perhaps even +older than Memphir. For the part which rested above the water was almost +gone, rusty red stains on the rocks outlining where it had lain. But +under water was a smooth silver hull, shining and untouched by the +years. Varta laid her hand upon a ruddy scrap between two rocks and it +became a drift of powdery dust. And yet—there a few feet below was +strong metal!</p> + +<p>Lur padded along the scrap of shore surveying the thing.</p> + +<p>"It was a machine in which men traveled," his thoughts arose to her. +"But they were not as the men of Memphir. Perhaps not even as the sons +of Erb—"</p> + +<p>"Not as the sons of Erb!" her astonishment broke into open speech.</p> + +<p>Lur's neck twisted as he looked up at her. "Did the men of Erb, even in +the old chronicles fight with weapons such as would make a desert of +glass? There are other worlds than Erb, mayhap this strange thing was a +sky ship from such a world. All things are possible by the Will of +Asti."</p> + +<p>Varta nodded. "All things are possible by the Will of Asti," she +repeated. "But, Lur," her eyes were round with wonder, "perhaps it is +Asti's Will which brought us here to find this marvel! Perhaps He has +some use for us and it!"</p> + +<p>"At least we may discover what lies within it," Lur had his own share of +curiosity.</p> + +<p>"How? The two of us can not draw that out of the water!"</p> + +<p>"No, but we can enter into it!"</p> + +<p>Varta fingered the folds of the hood on her shoulders. She knew what Lur +meant, the suit which had protected her in the underworld was impervious +to everything outside its surface—or to every substance its makers +knew—just as Lur's own hide made his flesh impenetrable. But the +fashioners of her suit had probably never known of the living lake and +what if she had no defense against the strange properties of the water?</p> + +<p>She leaned back against a rock. Overhead the worlds and sun of Asti +still traveled their appointed paths. The worlds of Asti! If it was His +Will which had brought them here, then Asti's power would wrap her round +with safety. By His Will she had come out of Memphir over ways no human +of Erb had ever trod before. Could she doubt that His Protection was +with her now?</p> + +<p>It took only a moment to make secure the webbed shoes, to pull on and +fasten the hood, to tighten the buckles of her gloves. Then she crept +forward, shuddering as the water rose about her ankles. But Lur pushed +on before her, his head disappearing fearlessly under the surface as he +crawled through the jagged opening in the ship below.</p> + +<p>Smashed engines which had no meaning in her eyes occupied most of the +broken section of the wreck. None of the metal showed any deterioration +beyond that which had occurred at the time of the crash. Under her +exploring hands it was firm and whole.</p> + +<p>Lur was pulling at a small door half hidden by a mass of twisted wires +and plates and, just as Varta crawled around this obstacle to join him, +the barrier gave way allowing them to squeeze through into what had once +been the living quarters of the ship.</p> + +<p>Varta recognized seats, a table, and other bits of strictly utilitarian +furniture. But of those who had once been at home there, there remained +no trace. Lur, having given one glance to the furnishings, was prowling +about the far end of the cabin uncertainly, and now he voiced his +uneasiness.</p> + +<p>"There is something beyond, something which once had life—"</p> + +<p>Varta crowded up to him. To her eyes the wall seemed without line of an +opening, and yet Lur was running his broad front paws over it carefully, +now and then throwing his weight against the smooth surface.</p> + +<p>"There is no door—" she pointed out doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"No door—ah—here—" Lur unsheathed formidable fighting claws to their +full length for perhaps the first time in his temple-sheltered life, and +endeavored to work them into a small crevice. The muscles of his +forelegs and quarters stood out in sharp relief under his scales, his +fangs were bare as his lips snapped back with effort.</p> + +<p>Something gave, a thin black line appeared to mark the edges of a door. +Then time, or Lur's strength, broke the ancient locking mechanism. The +door gave so suddenly that they were both sent hurtling backward and +Lur's breath burst from him in a huge bubble.</p> + +<p>The sealed compartment was hardly more than a cupboard but it was full. +Spread-eagled against the wall was a four-limbed creature whose form was +so smothered in a bulky suit that Varta could only guess that it was +akin in shape to her own. Hoops of metal locked it firmly to the wall, +but the head had fallen forward so that the face plate in the helmet was +hidden.</p> + +<p>Slowly the girl breasted the water which filled the cabin and reached +her hands toward the bowed helmet of the prisoner. Gingerly, her blunted +talons scraping across metal, she pulled it up to her eye-level.</p> + +<p>The eyes of that which stood within the suit were closed, as if in +sleep, but there was a warm, healthy tint to the bronze skin, so +different in shade to her own pallid coloring. For the rest, the +prisoner had the two eyes, the centered nose, the properly shaped mouth +which were common to the men of Erb. Hair grew on his head, black and +thick and there was a faint shadow of beard on his jaw line.</p> + +<p>"This is a man—" her thought reached Lur.</p> + +<p>"Why not? Did you expect a serpent? It is a pity he is dead—"</p> + +<p>Varta felt a rich warm tide rising in her throat to answer that teasing +half question. There were times when Lur's thought reading was annoying, +He had risen to his hind legs so that he too could look into the shell +which held their find.</p> + +<p>"Yes, a pity," he repeated. "But—"</p> + +<p>A vision of the turbi flowers swept through her mind. Had Lur suggested +it, or had that wild thought been hers alone? Only this ship was so +old—so very old!</p> + +<p>Lur's red tongue flicked. "It can do no harm to try—" he suggested +slyly and set his claws into the hoop holding the captive's right wrist, +testing its strength.</p> + +<p>"But the metal on the shore, it crumpled into powder at my touch—" she +protested. "What if we carry him out only to have—to have—" Her mind +shuddered away from the picture which followed.</p> + +<p>"Did the turbi blossom fade when pulled out?" countered Lur. "There is a +secret to these fastenings—" He pulled and pried impatiently.</p> + +<p>Varta tried to help but even their united strength was useless against +the force which held the loops in place. Breathless the girl slumped +back against the wall of the cabin while Lur settled down on his +haunches. One of the odd patches of color drifted by, its vivid scarlet +like a jewel spiraling lazily upward. Varta's eyes followed its drift +and so were guided to what she had forgotten, the worlds of Asti.</p> + +<p>"Asti!"</p> + +<p>Lur was looking up too.</p> + +<p>"The power of Asti!"</p> + +<p>Varta's hand went up, rested for a long moment under the sun and then +drew it down, carefully, slowly, as she had in Memphir's temple. Then +she stepped towards the captive. Within her hood a beaded line of +moisture outlined her lips, a pulse thundered on her temple. This was a +fearsome thing to try.</p> + +<p>She held the sun on a line with one of the wrist bonds, She must avoid +the flesh it imprisoned, for Asti's power could kill.</p> + +<p>From the sun there shot an orange-red beam to strike full upon the +metal. A thin line of red crept across the smooth hoop, crept and +widened. Varta raised her hand, sending the sun spinning up and Lur's +claws pulled on the metal. It broke like rotten wood in his grasp.</p> + +<p>The girl gave a little gasp of half-terrified delight. Then the old +legends were true! As Asti's priestess she controlled powers too great +to guess. Swiftly she loosed the other hoops and restored the sun and +worlds to their place over her head as the captive slumped across the +threshold of his cell.</p> + +<p>Tugging and straining they brought him out of the broken ship into the +sunlight of Erb. Varta threw back her hood and breathed deeply of the +air which was not manufactured by the wizardry of the lizard skin and +Lur sat panting, his nostril flaps open. It was he who spied the spring +on the mountain side above, a spring of water uncontaminated by the +strange life of the lake. They both dragged themselves there to drink +deeply.</p> + +<p>Varta returned to the lake shore reluctantly. Within her heart she +believed that the man they had brought from the ship was truly dead. Lur +might hold out the promise of the flowers, but this was a man and he had +lain in the water for countless ages—</p> + +<p>So she went with lagging steps, to find Lur busy. He had solved the +mystery of the space suit and had stripped it from the unknown. Now his +clawed paw rested lightly on the bared chest and he turned to Varta +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"There is life—"</p> + +<p>Hardly daring to believe that, she dropped down beside Lur and touched +their prize. Lur was right, the flesh was warm and she had caught the +faint rhythm of shallow breath. Half remembering old tales, she put her +hands on the arch of the lower ribs and began to aid that rhythm. The +breaths were deeper—</p> + +<p>Then the man half turned, his arm moved. Varta and Lur drew back. For +the first time the girl probed gently the sleeping mind before her—even +as she had read the minds of those few of Memphir who had ascended to +the temple precincts in the last days.</p> + +<p>Much of what she read now was confused or so alien to Erb that it had no +meaning for her. But she saw a great city plunged into flaming death in +an instant and felt the horror and remorse of the man at her feet +because of his own part in that act, the horror and remorse which had +led him to open rebellion and so to his imprisonment. There was a last +dark and frightening memory of a door closing on light and hope—</p> + +<p>The space man moaned softly and hunched his shoulders as if he struggled +vainly to tear loose from bonds.</p> + +<p>"He thinks that he is still prisoner," observed Lur. "For him life +begins at the very point it ended—even as it did for the turbi flowers. +See—now he awakens."</p> + +<p>The eyelids rose slowly, as if the man hated to see what he must look +upon. Then, as he sighted Varta and Lur, his eyes went wide. He pulled +himself up and looked dazedly around, striking out wildly with his +fists. Catching sight of the clumsy suit Lur had taken from him he +pulled at it, looking at the two before him as if he feared some attack.</p> + +<p>Varta turned to Lur for help. She might read minds and use the wordless +speech of Lur. But his people knew the art of such communication long +before the first priest of Asti had stumbled upon their secret. Let Lur +now quiet this outlander.</p> + +<p>Delicately Lur sought a way into the other's mind, twisting down paths +of thought strange to him. Even Varta could not follow the subtile waves +sent forth in the quick examination and reconnoitering, nor could she +understand all of the conversation which resulted. For the man from the +ancient ship answered in speech aloud, sharp harsh sounds of no meaning. +It was only after repeated instruction from Lur that he began to frame +his messages in his mind, clumsily and disconnectedly.</p> + +<p>Pictures of another world, another solar system, began to grow more +clear as the space man became more at home in the new way of +communication. He was one of a race who had come to Erb from beyond the +stars and discovered it a world without human life: So they had +established colonies and built great cities—far different from +Memphir—and had lived in peace for centuries of their own time.</p> + +<p>Then on the faraway planet of their birth there had begun a great war, a +war which brought flaming death to all that world. The survivors of a +last battle in outer space had fled to the colonies on Erb. But among +this handful were men driven mad by the death of their world, and these +had blasted the cities of Erb, saying that their kind must be wiped out.</p> + +<p>The man they had rescued had turned against one such maddened leader and +had been imprisoned just before an attack upon the largest of the +colony's cities. After that he remembered nothing.</p> + +<p>Varta stopped trying to follow the conversation—Lur was only explaining +now how they had found the space man and brought him out of the wrecked +ship. No human on Erb, this one had said, and yet were there not her own +people, the ones who had built Memphir? And what of the barbarians, who, +ruthless and cruel as they seemed by the standards of Memphir, were +indeed men? Whence had they come then, the men of Memphir and the +ancestors of the barbarian hordes? Her hands touched the scaled skin of +the suit she still wore and then rubbed across her own smooth flesh. +Could one have come from the other, was she of the blood and heritage of +Lur?</p> + +<p>"Not so!" Lur's mind, as quick as his flickering tongue, had caught that +panic-born thought. "You are of the blood of this space wanderer. Men +from the riven colonies must have escaped to safety. Look at this man, +is he not like the men of Memphir—as they were in the olden days of the +city's greatness?"</p> + +<p>The stranger was tall, taller than the men of Memphir and there was a +certain hardness about him which those city dwellers in ease had never +displayed. But Lur must be right, this was a man of her race. She smiled +in sudden relief and he answered that smile. Lur's soft laughter rang in +both their heads.</p> + +<p>"Asti in His Infinite Wisdom can see through Centuries. Memphir has +fallen because of its softness and the evildoing of its people and the +barbarians will now have their way with the lands of the north. But to +me it appears that Asti is not yet done with the pattern He was weaving +there. To each of you He granted a second life. Do not disdain the Gifts +of Asti, Daughter of Erb!"</p> + +<p>Again Varta felt the warm tide of blood rise in her cheeks. But she no +longer smiled. Instead she regarded the outlander speculatively.</p> + +<p>Not even a Maiden of the Temple could withstand the commands of the All +Highest. Gifts from the Hand of Asti dared not be thrown away.</p> + +<p>Above the puzzlement of the stranger she heard the chuckling of Lur.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2>THE END.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="note" id="note"><b>TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS CORRECTED</b></a></p> + +<p>The following typographical errors in the text were corrected as +detailed here.</p> + +<p>In the text: "Then she arose and, with the confidence of a child in +its father, she laid her hand palm upward upon the outstretched hand +of Asti.... " the word "outstreched" was corrected to "outstretched."</p> + +<p>In the text: "Varta touched her tongue without fear to a powdered +restorative," the word "restoritive" was corrected to "restorative."</p> + +<p>In the text: "Varta threw back her hood and breathed deeply of the +air which was not manufactured by the wizardry of the lizard skin ... " +the word "manufacured" was corrected to "manufactured"; and the word +"wizardy" was corrected to "wizardry."</p> + +<p>In the text: "A thin line of red crept across the smooth hoop, crept and +widened.... " the word "widdened" was corrected to "widened."</p> + +<p>In the text: "Then time, or Lur's strength, broke the ancient locking +mechanism.... " the word "machanism" was corrected to "mechanism."</p> + +<p>In the text: " ... so different in shade to her own pallid coloring...." +the word "palid" was corrected to "pallid."</p> + +<p>In the text: "One of the small, jewel bright flying lizard creatures of +the deep jungle poised and dipped to investigate more closely the worlds +of Asti...." the word "closly" was corrected to "closely."</p> + +<p>In the text: " ... his long neck outstretched, he was swinging his +head back and forth across the limpid shallows...." +the word "outstreched" was corrected to "outstretched."</p> + +<p>In the text: "What goes into it remains as it was just at the moment of +entrance...." the word " at" was corrected to "as."</p> + +<p>In the text: "the flowers which the turbi had born naturally seven months +before," the word "born" was corrected to "borne."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gifts of Asti, by Andre Alice Norton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIFTS OF ASTI *** + +***** This file should be named 19029-h.htm or 19029-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/2/19029/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Gifts of Asti + +Author: Andre Alice Norton + +Release Date: August 11, 2006 [EBook #19029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIFTS OF ASTI *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +This etext was produced from Fantasy Book Vol. 1, No. 3 1948. +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright +on this publication was renewed. + +A number of typographical errors found in the original text have been +corrected in this version. A list of these errors is found at the end +of this book. + + * * * * * + + + + + +THE GIFTS OF ASTI + + +ANDREW NORTH + + +_She was the guardian of the worlds, but HER world was dead._ + + +Even here, on the black terrace before the forgotten mountain retreat of +Asti, it was possible to smell the dank stench of burning Memphir, to +imagine that the dawn wind bore upward from the pillaged city the faint +tortured cries of those whom the barbarians of Klem hunted to their +prolonged death. Indeed it was time to leave-- + +Varta, last of the virgin Maidens of Asti, shivered. The scaled and +wattled creature who crouched beside her thigh turned his reptilian head +so that golden eyes met the aquamarine ones set slantingly at a faintly +provocative angle in her smooth ivory face. + +"We go--?" + +She nodded in answer to that unvoiced question Lur had sent into her +brain, and turned toward the dark cavern which was the mouth of Asti's +last dwelling place. Once, more than a thousand years before when the +walls of Memphir were young, Asti had lived among men below. But in the +richness and softness which was trading Memphir, empire of empires, Asti +found no place. So He and those who served Him had withdrawn to this +mountain outcrop. And she, Varta, was the last, the very last to bow +knee at Asti's shrine and raise her voice in the dawn hymn--for Lur, as +were all his race, was mute. + +Even the loot of Memphir would not sate the shaggy headed warriors who +had stormed her gates this day. The stairway to Asti's Temple was plain +enough to see and there would be those to essay the steep climb hoping +to find a treasure which did not exist. For Asti was an austere God, +delighting in plain walls and bare altars. His last priest had lain in +the grave niches these three years, there would be none to hold that +gate against intruders. + +Varta passed between tall, uncarved pillars, Lur padding beside her, his +spine mane erect, the talons on his forefeet clicking on the stone in +steady rhythm. So they came into the innermost shrine of Asti and there +Varta made graceful obeisance to the great cowled and robed figure which +sat enthroned, its hidden eyes focused upon its own outstretched hand. + +And above the flattened palm of that wide hand hung suspended in space +the round orange-red sun ball which was twin to the sun that lighted +Erb. Around the miniature sun swung in their orbits the four worlds of +the system, each obeying the laws of space, even as did the planets they +represented. + +"Memphir has fallen," Varta's voice sounded rusty in her own ears. She +had spoken so seldom during the last lonely months. "Evil has risen to +overwhelm our world, even as it was prophesied in Your Revelations, O, +Ruler of Worlds and Maker of Destiny. Therefore, obeying the order given +of old, I would depart from this, Thy house. Suffer me now to fulfill +the Law--" + +Three times she prostrated her slim body on the stones at the foot of +Asti's judgment chair. Then she arose and, with the confidence of a +child in its father, she laid her hand palm upward upon the outstretched +hand of Asti. Beneath her flesh the stone was not cold and hard, but +seemed to have an inner heat, even as might a human hand. For a long +moment she stood so and then she raised her hand slowly, carefully, as +if within its slight hollow she cupped something precious. + +[Illustration] + +And, as she drew her hand away from the grasp of Asti, the tiny sun and +its planets followed, spinning now above her palm as they had above the +statue's. But out of the cowled figure some virtue had departed with the +going of the miniature solar system; it was now but a carving of stone. +And Varta did not look at it again as she passed behind its bulk to seek +a certain place in the temple wall, known to her from much reading of +the old records. + +Having found the stone she sought, she moved her hand in a certain +pattern before it so that the faint radiance streaming from the tiny +sun, gleamed on the grayness of the wall. There was a grating, as from +metal long unused, and a block fell back, opening a narrow door to them. + +Before she stepped within, the priestess lifted her hand above her head +and when she withdrew it, the sun and planets remained to form a diadem +just above the intricate braiding of her dull red hair. As she moved +into the secret way, the five orbs swung with her, and in the darkness +there the sun glowed richly, sending out a light to guide their feet. + +They were at the top of a stairway and the hollow clang of the stone as +it moved back into place behind them echoed through a gulf which seemed +endless. But that too was as the chronicles had said and Varta knew no +fear. + +How long they journeyed down into the maw of the mountain and, beyond +that, into the womb of Erb itself, Varta never knew. But, when feet were +weary and she knew the bite of real hunger, they came into a passageway +which ended in a room hollowed of solid rock. And there, preserved in +the chest in which men born in the youth of Memphir had laid them, Varta +found that which would keep her safe on the path she must take. She put +aside the fine silks, the jeweled cincture, which had been the badge of +Asti's service and drew on over her naked body a suit of scaled skin, +gemmed and glistening in the rays of the small sun. There was a hood to +cover the entire head, taloned gloves for the hands, webbed, clawed +coverings for the feet--as if the skin of a giant, man-like lizard had +been tanned and fashioned into this suit. And Varta suspected that that +might be so--the world of Erb had not always been held by the human-kind +alone. + +There were supplies here too, lying untouched in ageless containers +within a lizard-skin pouch. Varta touched her tongue without fear to a +powdered restorative, sharing it with Lur, whose own mailed skin would +protect him through the dangers to come. + +She folded the regalia she had stripped off and laid it in the chest, +smoothing it regretfully before she dropped the lid upon its shimmering +color. Never again would Asti's servant wear the soft stuff of His +Livery. But she was resolute enough when she picked up the food pouch +and strode forward, passing out of the robing chamber into a narrow way +which was a natural fault in the rock unsmoothed by the tools of man. + +But when this rocky road ended upon the lip of a gorge, Varta hesitated, +plucking at the throat latch of her hood-like helmet. Through the +unclouded crystal of its eye-holes she could see the sprouts of yellow +vapor which puffed from crannies in the rock wall down which she must +climb. If the records of the Temple spoke true, these curls of gas were +death to all lunged creatures of the upper world. She could only trust +that the cunning of the scaled hood would not fail her. + +The long talons fitted to the finger tips of the gloves, the claws of +the webbed foot coverings clamped fast to every hand and foot hold, but +the way down was long and she caught a message of weariness from Lur +before they reached the piled rocks at the foot of the cliff. The puffs +of steamy gas had become a fog through which they groped their way +slowly, following a trace of path along the base of the cliff. + +Time did not exist in the underworld of Erb. Varta did not know whether +it was still today, or whether she had passed into tomorrow when they +came to a cross roads. She felt Lur press against her, forcing her back +against a rock. + +"There is a thing coming--" his message was clear. + +And in a moment she too saw a dark hulk nosing through the vapor. It +moved slowly, seeming to balance at each step as if travel was a painful +act. But it bore steadily to the meeting of the two paths. + +"It is no enemy--" But she did not need that reassurance from Lur. +Unearthly as the thing looked it had no menace. + +With a last twist of ungainly body the creature squatted on a rock and +clawed the clumsy covering it wore about its bone-thin shoulders and +domed-skull head. The visage it revealed was long and gray, with dark +pits for eyes and a gaping, fang-studded, lipless mouth. + +"Who are you who dare to tread the forgotten ways and rouse from slumber +the Guardian of the Chasms?" + +The question was a shrill whine in her brain, her hands half arose to +cover her ears-- + +"I am Varta, Maiden of Asti. Memphir has fallen to the barbarians of the +Outer Lands and now I go, as Asti once ordered--." + +The Guardian considered her answer gravely. In one skeleton claw it +fumbled a rod and with this it now traced certain symbols in the dust +before Varta's webbed feet. When it had done, the girl stooped and +altered two of the lines with a swift stroke from one of her talons. The +creature of the Chasm nodded its misshapen head. + +"Asti does not rule here. But long, and long, and long ago there was a +pact made with us in His Name. Pass free from us, woman of the Light. +There are two paths before you--." + +The Guardian paused for so long that Varta dared to prompt it. + +"Where do they lead, Guardian of the Dark?" + +"This will take you down into my country," it jerked the rod to the +right. "And that way is death for creatures from the surface world. The +other--in our old legends it is said to bring a traveler out into the +upper world. Of the truth of that I have no proof." + +"But that one I must take," she made slight obeisance to the huddle of +bones and dank cloak on the rock and it inclined its head in grave +courtesy. + +With Lur pushing a little ahead, she took the road which ran straight +into the flume-veiled darkness. Nor did she turn to look again at the +Thing from the Chasm world. + +They began to climb again, across slimed rock where there were evil +trails of other things which lived in this haunted darkness. But the sun +of Asti lighted their way and perhaps some virtue in the rays from it +kept away the makers of such trails. + +When they pulled themselves up onto a wide ledge the talons on Varta's +gloves were worn to splintered stubs and there was a bright girdle of +pain about her aching body. Lur lay panting beside her, his red-forked +tongue protruding from his foam ringed mouth. + +"We walk again the ways of men," Lur was the first to note the tool +marks on the stone where they lay. "By the Will of Asti, we may win out +of this maze after all." + +Since there were no signs of the deadly steam Varta dared to push off +her hood and share with her companion the sustaining power she carried +in her pouch. There was a freshness to the air they breathed, damp and +cold though it was, which hinted of the upper world. + +The ledge sloped upwards, at a steep angle at first, and then more +gently. Lur slipped past her and thrust head and shoulders through a +break in the rock. Grasping his neck spines she allowed him to pull her +through that narrow slit into the soft blackness of a surface night. +They tumbled down together, Varta's head pillowed on Lur's smooth side, +and so slept as the sun and worlds of Asti whirled protectingly above +them. + +A whir of wings in the air above her head awakened Varta. One of the +small, jewel bright flying lizard creatures of the deep jungle poised +and dipped to investigate more closely the worlds of Asti. But at +Varta's upflung arm it uttered a rasping cry and planed down into the +mass of vegetation below. By the glint of sunlight on the stone around +them the day was already well advanced. Varta tugged at Lur's mane until +he roused. + +There was a regularity to the rocks piled about their sleeping place +which hinted that they had lain among the ruins left by man. But of this +side of the mountains both were ignorant, for Memphir's rule had not run +here. + +"Many dead things in times past," Lur's scarlet nostril pits were +extended to their widest. "But that was long ago. This land is no longer +held by men." + +Varta laughed cheerfully. "If here there are no men, then there will +rise no barbarian hordes to dispute our rule. Asti has led us to safety. +Let us see more of the land He gives us." + +There was a road leading down from the ruins, a road still to be +followed in spite of the lash of landslip and the crack of time. And it +brought them into a cup of green fertility where the lavishness of +Asti's sowing was unchecked by man. Varta seized eagerly upon globes of +blood red fruit which she recognized as delicacies which had been +cultivated in the Temple gardens, while Lur went hunting into the +fringes of the jungle, there dining on prey so easily caught as to be +judged devoid of fear. + +The jungle choked highway curved and they were suddenly fronted by a +desert of sere desolation, a desert floored by glassy slag which sent +back the sun beams in a furnace glare. Varta shaded her eyes and tried +to see the end of this, but, if there was a distant rim of green beyond, +the heat distortions in the air concealed it. + +Lur put out a front paw to test the slag but withdrew it instantly. + +"It cooks the flesh, we can not walk here," was his verdict. + +Varta pointed with her chin to the left where, some distance away, the +mountain wall paralleled their course. + +"Then let us keep to the jungle over there and see if it does not bring +around to the far side. But what made this--?" She leaned out over the +glassy stuff, not daring to touch the slick surface. + +"War." Lur's tongue shot out to impale a questing beetle. "These +forgotten people fought with fearsome weapons." + +"But what weapon could do this? Memphir knew not such--." + +"Memphir was old. But mayhap there were those who raised cities on Erb +before the first hut of Memphir squatted on tidal mud. Men forget +knowledge in time. Even in Memphir the lords of the last days forgot the +wisdom of their earlier sages--they fell before the barbarians easily +enough." + +"If ever men had wisdom to produce this--it was not of Asti's giving," +she edged away from the glare. "Let us go." + +But now they had to fight their way through jungle and it was +hard--until they reached a ridge of rock running out from the mountain +as a tongue thrust into the blasted valley. And along this they picked +their slow way. + +"There is water near--," Lur's thought answered the girl's desire. She +licked dry lips longingly. "This way--," her companion's sudden turn was +to the left and Varta was quick to follow him down a slide of rock. + +Lur's instinct was right, as it ever was. There was water before them, a +small lake of it. But even as he dipped his fanged muzzle toward that +inviting surface, Lur's spined head jerked erect again. Varta snatched +back the hand she had put out, staring at Lur's strange actions. His +nostrils expanded to their widest, his long neck outstretched, he was +swinging his head back and forth across the limpid shallows. + +"What is it--?" + +"This is no water such as we know," the scaled one answered flatly. "It +has life within it." + +Varta laughed. "Fish, water snakes, your own distant kin, Lur. It is the +scent of them which you catch--" + +"No. It is the water itself which lives--and yet does not live--" His +thought trailed away from her as he struggled with some problem. No +human brain could follow his unless he willed it so. + +Varta squatted back on her heels and began to look at the water and then +at the banks with more care. For the first time she noted the odd +patches of brilliant color which floated just below the surface of the +liquid. Blue, green, yellow, crimson, they drifted slowly with the tiny +waves which lapped the shore. But they were not alive, she was almost +sure of that, they appeared more a part of the water itself. + +Watching the voyage of one patch of green she caught sight of the +branch. It was a drooping shoot of the turbi, the same tree vine which +produced the fruit she had relished less than an hour before. Above the +water dangled a cluster of the fruit, dead ripe with the sweet pulp +stretching its skin. But below the surface of the water-- + +Varta's breath hissed between her teeth and Lur's head snapped around as +he caught her thought. + +The branch below the water bore a perfect circle of green flowers close +to its tip, the flowers which the turbi had borne naturally seven months +before and which should long ago have turned into just such sweetness as +hung above. + +With Lur at her heels the girl edged around to pull cautiously at the +branch. It yielded at once to her touch, swinging its tip out of the +lake. She sniffed--there was a languid perfume in the air, the perfume +of the blooming turbi. She examined the flowers closely, to all +appearances they were perfect and natural. + +"It preserves," Lur settled back on his haunches and waved one front paw +at the quiet water. "What goes into it remains as it was just at the +moment of entrance." + +"But if this is seven months old--" + +"It may be seven years old," corrected Lur. "How can you tell when that +branch first dipped into the lake? Yet the flowers do not fade even when +withdrawn from the water. This is indeed a mystery!" + +"Of which I would know more!" Varta dropped the turbi and started on +around the edge of the lake. + +Twice more they found similar evidence of preservation in flower or +leaf, wherever it was covered by the opaline water. + +The lake itself was a long and narrow slash with one end cutting into +the desert of glass while the other wet the foot of the mountain. And it +was there, on the slope of the mountain that they found the greatest +wonder of all, Lur scenting it before they sighted the remains among the +stones. + +"Man made," he cautioned, "but very, very old." + +And truly the wreckage they came upon must have been old, perhaps even +older than Memphir. For the part which rested above the water was almost +gone, rusty red stains on the rocks outlining where it had lain. But +under water was a smooth silver hull, shining and untouched by the +years. Varta laid her hand upon a ruddy scrap between two rocks and it +became a drift of powdery dust. And yet--there a few feet below was +strong metal! + +Lur padded along the scrap of shore surveying the thing. + +"It was a machine in which men traveled," his thoughts arose to her. +"But they were not as the men of Memphir. Perhaps not even as the sons +of Erb--" + +"Not as the sons of Erb!" her astonishment broke into open speech. + +Lur's neck twisted as he looked up at her. "Did the men of Erb, even in +the old chronicles fight with weapons such as would make a desert of +glass? There are other worlds than Erb, mayhap this strange thing was a +sky ship from such a world. All things are possible by the Will of +Asti." + +Varta nodded. "All things are possible by the Will of Asti," she +repeated. "But, Lur," her eyes were round with wonder, "perhaps it is +Asti's Will which brought us here to find this marvel! Perhaps He has +some use for us and it!" + +"At least we may discover what lies within it," Lur had his own share of +curiosity. + +"How? The two of us can not draw that out of the water!" + +"No, but we can enter into it!" + +Varta fingered the folds of the hood on her shoulders. She knew what Lur +meant, the suit which had protected her in the underworld was impervious +to everything outside its surface--or to every substance its makers +knew--just as Lur's own hide made his flesh impenetrable. But the +fashioners of her suit had probably never known of the living lake and +what if she had no defense against the strange properties of the water? + +She leaned back against a rock. Overhead the worlds and sun of Asti +still traveled their appointed paths. The worlds of Asti! If it was His +Will which had brought them here, then Asti's power would wrap her round +with safety. By His Will she had come out of Memphir over ways no human +of Erb had ever trod before. Could she doubt that His Protection was +with her now? + +It took only a moment to make secure the webbed shoes, to pull on and +fasten the hood, to tighten the buckles of her gloves. Then she crept +forward, shuddering as the water rose about her ankles. But Lur pushed +on before her, his head disappearing fearlessly under the surface as he +crawled through the jagged opening in the ship below. + +Smashed engines which had no meaning in her eyes occupied most of the +broken section of the wreck. None of the metal showed any deterioration +beyond that which had occurred at the time of the crash. Under her +exploring hands it was firm and whole. + +Lur was pulling at a small door half hidden by a mass of twisted wires +and plates and, just as Varta crawled around this obstacle to join him, +the barrier gave way allowing them to squeeze through into what had once +been the living quarters of the ship. + +Varta recognized seats, a table, and other bits of strictly utilitarian +furniture. But of those who had once been at home there, there remained +no trace. Lur, having given one glance to the furnishings, was prowling +about the far end of the cabin uncertainly, and now he voiced his +uneasiness. + +"There is something beyond, something which once had life--" + +Varta crowded up to him. To her eyes the wall seemed without line of an +opening, and yet Lur was running his broad front paws over it carefully, +now and then throwing his weight against the smooth surface. + +"There is no door--" she pointed out doubtfully. + +"No door--ah--here--" Lur unsheathed formidable fighting claws to their +full length for perhaps the first time in his temple-sheltered life, and +endeavored to work them into a small crevice. The muscles of his +forelegs and quarters stood out in sharp relief under his scales, his +fangs were bare as his lips snapped back with effort. + +Something gave, a thin black line appeared to mark the edges of a door. +Then time, or Lur's strength, broke the ancient locking mechanism. The +door gave so suddenly that they were both sent hurtling backward and +Lur's breath burst from him in a huge bubble. + +The sealed compartment was hardly more than a cupboard but it was full. +Spread-eagled against the wall was a four-limbed creature whose form was +so smothered in a bulky suit that Varta could only guess that it was +akin in shape to her own. Hoops of metal locked it firmly to the wall, +but the head had fallen forward so that the face plate in the helmet was +hidden. + +Slowly the girl breasted the water which filled the cabin and reached +her hands toward the bowed helmet of the prisoner. Gingerly, her blunted +talons scraping across metal, she pulled it up to her eye-level. + +The eyes of that which stood within the suit were closed, as if in +sleep, but there was a warm, healthy tint to the bronze skin, so +different in shade to her own pallid coloring. For the rest, the +prisoner had the two eyes, the centered nose, the properly shaped mouth +which were common to the men of Erb. Hair grew on his head, black and +thick and there was a faint shadow of beard on his jaw line. + +"This is a man--" her thought reached Lur. + +"Why not? Did you expect a serpent? It is a pity he is dead--" + +Varta felt a rich warm tide rising in her throat to answer that teasing +half question. There were times when Lur's thought reading was annoying, +He had risen to his hind legs so that he too could look into the shell +which held their find. + +"Yes, a pity," he repeated. "But--" + +A vision of the turbi flowers swept through her mind. Had Lur suggested +it, or had that wild thought been hers alone? Only this ship was so +old--so very old! + +Lur's red tongue flicked. "It can do no harm to try--" he suggested +slyly and set his claws into the hoop holding the captive's right wrist, +testing its strength. + +"But the metal on the shore, it crumpled into powder at my touch--" she +protested. "What if we carry him out only to have--to have--" Her mind +shuddered away from the picture which followed. + +"Did the turbi blossom fade when pulled out?" countered Lur. "There is a +secret to these fastenings--" He pulled and pried impatiently. + +Varta tried to help but even their united strength was useless against +the force which held the loops in place. Breathless the girl slumped +back against the wall of the cabin while Lur settled down on his +haunches. One of the odd patches of color drifted by, its vivid scarlet +like a jewel spiraling lazily upward. Varta's eyes followed its drift +and so were guided to what she had forgotten, the worlds of Asti. + +"Asti!" + +Lur was looking up too. + +"The power of Asti!" + +Varta's hand went up, rested for a long moment under the sun and then +drew it down, carefully, slowly, as she had in Memphir's temple. Then +she stepped towards the captive. Within her hood a beaded line of +moisture outlined her lips, a pulse thundered on her temple. This was a +fearsome thing to try. + +She held the sun on a line with one of the wrist bonds, She must avoid +the flesh it imprisoned, for Asti's power could kill. + +From the sun there shot an orange-red beam to strike full upon the +metal. A thin line of red crept across the smooth hoop, crept and +widened. Varta raised her hand, sending the sun spinning up and Lur's +claws pulled on the metal. It broke like rotten wood in his grasp. + +The girl gave a little gasp of half-terrified delight. Then the old +legends were true! As Asti's priestess she controlled powers too great +to guess. Swiftly she loosed the other hoops and restored the sun and +worlds to their place over her head as the captive slumped across the +threshold of his cell. + +Tugging and straining they brought him out of the broken ship into the +sunlight of Erb. Varta threw back her hood and breathed deeply of the +air which was not manufactured by the wizardry of the lizard skin and +Lur sat panting, his nostril flaps open. It was he who spied the spring +on the mountain side above, a spring of water uncontaminated by the +strange life of the lake. They both dragged themselves there to drink +deeply. + +Varta returned to the lake shore reluctantly. Within her heart she +believed that the man they had brought from the ship was truly dead. Lur +might hold out the promise of the flowers, but this was a man and he had +lain in the water for countless ages-- + +So she went with lagging steps, to find Lur busy. He had solved the +mystery of the space suit and had stripped it from the unknown. Now his +clawed paw rested lightly on the bared chest and he turned to Varta +eagerly. + +"There is life--" + +Hardly daring to believe that, she dropped down beside Lur and touched +their prize. Lur was right, the flesh was warm and she had caught the +faint rhythm of shallow breath. Half remembering old tales, she put her +hands on the arch of the lower ribs and began to aid that rhythm. The +breaths were deeper-- + +Then the man half turned, his arm moved. Varta and Lur drew back. For +the first time the girl probed gently the sleeping mind before her--even +as she had read the minds of those few of Memphir who had ascended to +the temple precincts in the last days. + +Much of what she read now was confused or so alien to Erb that it had no +meaning for her. But she saw a great city plunged into flaming death in +an instant and felt the horror and remorse of the man at her feet +because of his own part in that act, the horror and remorse which had +led him to open rebellion and so to his imprisonment. There was a last +dark and frightening memory of a door closing on light and hope-- + +The space man moaned softly and hunched his shoulders as if he struggled +vainly to tear loose from bonds. + +"He thinks that he is still prisoner," observed Lur. "For him life +begins at the very point it ended--even as it did for the turbi flowers. +See--now he awakens." + +The eyelids rose slowly, as if the man hated to see what he must look +upon. Then, as he sighted Varta and Lur, his eyes went wide. He pulled +himself up and looked dazedly around, striking out wildly with his +fists. Catching sight of the clumsy suit Lur had taken from him he +pulled at it, looking at the two before him as if he feared some attack. + +Varta turned to Lur for help. She might read minds and use the wordless +speech of Lur. But his people knew the art of such communication long +before the first priest of Asti had stumbled upon their secret. Let Lur +now quiet this outlander. + +Delicately Lur sought a way into the other's mind, twisting down paths +of thought strange to him. Even Varta could not follow the subtile waves +sent forth in the quick examination and reconnoitering, nor could she +understand all of the conversation which resulted. For the man from the +ancient ship answered in speech aloud, sharp harsh sounds of no meaning. +It was only after repeated instruction from Lur that he began to frame +his messages in his mind, clumsily and disconnectedly. + +Pictures of another world, another solar system, began to grow more +clear as the space man became more at home in the new way of +communication. He was one of a race who had come to Erb from beyond the +stars and discovered it a world without human life: So they had +established colonies and built great cities--far different from +Memphir--and had lived in peace for centuries of their own time. + +Then on the faraway planet of their birth there had begun a great war, a +war which brought flaming death to all that world. The survivors of a +last battle in outer space had fled to the colonies on Erb. But among +this handful were men driven mad by the death of their world, and these +had blasted the cities of Erb, saying that their kind must be wiped out. + +The man they had rescued had turned against one such maddened leader and +had been imprisoned just before an attack upon the largest of the +colony's cities. After that he remembered nothing. + +Varta stopped trying to follow the conversation--Lur was only explaining +now how they had found the space man and brought him out of the wrecked +ship. No human on Erb, this one had said, and yet were there not her own +people, the ones who had built Memphir? And what of the barbarians, who, +ruthless and cruel as they seemed by the standards of Memphir, were +indeed men? Whence had they come then, the men of Memphir and the +ancestors of the barbarian hordes? Her hands touched the scaled skin of +the suit she still wore and then rubbed across her own smooth flesh. +Could one have come from the other, was she of the blood and heritage of +Lur? + +"Not so!" Lur's mind, as quick as his flickering tongue, had caught that +panic-born thought. "You are of the blood of this space wanderer. Men +from the riven colonies must have escaped to safety. Look at this man, +is he not like the men of Memphir--as they were in the olden days of the +city's greatness?" + +The stranger was tall, taller than the men of Memphir and there was a +certain hardness about him which those city dwellers in ease had never +displayed. But Lur must be right, this was a man of her race. She smiled +in sudden relief and he answered that smile. Lur's soft laughter rang in +both their heads. + +"Asti in His Infinite Wisdom can see through Centuries. Memphir has +fallen because of its softness and the evildoing of its people and the +barbarians will now have their way with the lands of the north. But to +me it appears that Asti is not yet done with the pattern He was weaving +there. To each of you He granted a second life. Do not disdain the Gifts +of Asti, Daughter of Erb!" + +Again Varta felt the warm tide of blood rise in her cheeks. But she no +longer smiled. Instead she regarded the outlander speculatively. + +Not even a Maiden of the Temple could withstand the commands of the All +Highest. Gifts from the Hand of Asti dared not be thrown away. + +Above the puzzlement of the stranger she heard the chuckling of Lur. + + +The End. + + + * * * * * + +TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS CORRECTED + + +The following typographical errors in the text were corrected as +detailed here. + +In the text: "Then she arose and, with the confidence of a child in +its father, she laid her hand palm upward upon the outstretched hand +of Asti...." the word "outstreched" was corrected to "outstretched." + +In the text: "Varta touched her tongue without fear to a powdered +restorative," the word "restoritive" was corrected to "restorative." + +In the text: "Varta threw back her hood and breathed deeply of the +air which was not manufactured by the wizardry of the lizard skin ..." +the word "manufacured" was corrected to "manufactured"; and the word +"wizardy" was corrected to "wizardry." + +In the text: "A thin line of red crept across the smooth hoop, crept and +widened...." the word "widdened" was corrected to "widened." + +In the text: "Then time, or Lur's strength, broke the ancient locking +mechanism...." the word "machanism" was corrected to "mechanism." + +In the text: "... so different in shade to her own pallid coloring...." +the word "palid" was corrected to "pallid." + +In the text: "One of the small, jewel bright flying lizard creatures of +the deep jungle poised and dipped to investigate more closely the worlds +of Asti...." the word "closly" was corrected to "closely." + +In the text: "... his long neck outstretched, he was swinging his +head back and forth across the limpid shallows...." +the word "outstreched" was corrected to "outstretched." + +In the text: "What goes into it remains as it was just at the moment of +entrance...." the word "at" was corrected to "as." + +In the text: "the flowers which the turbi had born naturally seven months +before," the word "born" was corrected to "borne." + + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gifts of Asti, by Andre Alice Norton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIFTS OF ASTI *** + +***** This file should be named 19029.txt or 19029.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/2/19029/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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