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diff --git a/old/68425-h/68425-h.htm~ b/old/68425-h/68425-h.htm~ new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f56a5f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/68425-h/68425-h.htm~ @@ -0,0 +1,4128 @@ +<!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" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <title> The Project Gutenberg eBook of the Power and the Glory, by Henry Kuttner.</title> + +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + + <style type="text/css"> + body { margin-left:8%;margin-right:10%; } + .it { font-style:italic; } + + p { text-indent:0; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em; + text-align: justify; } + div.lgc { } + div.lgl { } + div.lgc p { text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } + div.lgl p { text-indent: -17px; margin-left:17px; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } + + h1 { + text-align:center; + font-weight:normal; + page-break-before: always; + font-size:1.2em; margin:2em auto 1em auto + } + + .sub-head { font-size: smaller; } + hr.tbk { border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; width:30%; margin-left:35%; margin-right:35%; } + hr.pbk { border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:100%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em } + + .figcenter { + text-align:center; + margin:1em auto; + page-break-inside: avoid; + } + + x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + + p.line { text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } + .pindent { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:1.5em; } + .noindent { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:0; } + .hang { padding-left:1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em; } + </style> + <style type="text/css"> + + .literal-container { margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em } + div.lgc { margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em } + p { margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The power and the glory, by Henry Kuttner</p> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> + +<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The power and the glory</p> +<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Henry Kuttner</p> +<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 29, 2022 [eBook #68425]</p> +<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> + <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan, Alex White & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net</p> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POWER AND THE GLORY ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> + <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr class='pbk'/> + +<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' --> +<p class='line' style='font-size:3em;'>The Power and the Glory</p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'><span style='font-size:x-large'>By HENRY KUTTNER</span></p> +<p class='line'> </p> +<p class='line'>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br/> +Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1947.<br/> +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br/> +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> +</div> <!-- end rend --> + + +<div><h1>CHAPTER I<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>Transmutation</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Carrying the coffee-pot, the Belgian +shuffled out of the room. The door +thumped behind him. Miller met +Slade’s inquiring stare and shrugged.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So he’s crazy,” Miller said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Slade drew down the corners of his thin +mouth. “Maybe he is. But I’ve got other +sources of information, remember. I’m sure +there’s—something—up on Peak Seven Hundred. +Something plenty valuable. You’re +going to find it for me.” His teeth clicked on +the last word.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Am I?” Miller said sourly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Suit yourself. Anytime you feel like it +you can go back to the States.” There was a +threat in the way he said it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller said, “Sure. And then you send a +few telegrams . . . It was a sweet little +frame you fixed up on me. A murder rap—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well,” Slade interrupted, “<span class='it'>that</span> happened +to be a frame. I’ve got to protect myself, +though, in case you ever want to turn State’s +evidence.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ve done your dirty work for ten years,” +Miller growled. “It’s too late now to try +crossing you up. But we’re both guilty of +one particular murder, Slade. A guy named +Miller who was an honest lawyer, ten years +ago. I feel sorry for the poor sucker.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Slade’s strong, implacable face turned +away from him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The man with the gun has the advantage. +Up on Peak Seven Hundred there’s the biggest +gun in the world—I think. Something’s +sending out terrific power-radiations. I’m +no scientist, but I’ve got men working for +me who are. If I can get that—weapon—from +the Peak, I can write my own ticket.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller looked at him curiously. He had to +admit Slade’s strength, his powerful will. +Head of a slightly criminal and completely +unscrupulous political empire for a decade +now, Slade was growing restive, reaching +out for new worlds to conquer.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Word of this power-source on the peak in +Alaska had sounded fantastic even back in +the States but it seemed to fascinate Slade, +who could afford to indulge his whims. And +he could afford to trust Miller—to a certain +extent. Miller was in Slade’s hands and knew +it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They both looked up as the Belgian came +back into the room, carrying a fresh bottle +of whiskey. Van Hornung was drunk and +well aware of his own drunkenness. He +peered at them from under the huge fur +cap he wore even indoors.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Could man be drunk forever with liquor, +love and fights</span>—” he murmured, hooking +out a chair with his foot. “Ah well, it doesn’t +matter now. Have another drink, gentlemen.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller glanced at Slade, then leaned forward +across the table.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“About Peak Seven Hundred, now,” he +said. “I wish you’d—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Belgian slapped a fat hand on the +table. “You ask me about Seven Hundred. +Very well, then—listen. I would not tell +you before—I did not wish you to die. Now +I am drunker and, I think, wiser. It does not +matter whether a man lives or dies.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“For twenty years I have been neither +alive nor dead. I have not thought nor felt +emotion nor lived like a man. I have eaten +and drunk and tried to forget. If you wish +to go to the Peak I’ll tell you the way. It’s +all quite futile, you see.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He drank. Miller and Slade exchanged +glances in silence.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If you go,” Van Hornung said, “you will +leave your soul behind you—as I did. We +are not the dominant race, you see. We try +to achieve the summits but we forget that +there may already be dwellers on the peaks. +Oh yes, I will tell you the way to the Peak +if you like. But if you live you will not +care about anything any more.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller glanced again at Slade, who gestured +impatiently.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ll take a chance on that,” Miller said to +the Belgian. “Tell me the way.”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>In the dim twilight of the arctic noon Miller +followed his Innuit guides up the snowy +foothills toward Seven Hundred. For many +days they had traveled, deeper and deeper +into this dry, sub-zero silence, muffled in +snow. The guides were nervous. They knew +their arctic gods, animistic, watchful, resented +intrusion into sacred areas like Peak +Seven Hundred. In their fur-hooded Esquimaux +faces oriental eyes watched Miller mistrustfully.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was carrying his gun now. Two of the +Innuits had deserted already, in the depths of +the long nights. These two remained and +hated him, and went on only because their +fear of his gun was greater—so far—than +their fear of the gods on Seven Hundred.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Peak lifted great sheer cliffs almost +overhead. There was no visible way of +scaling it. But the Innuits were hurrying +ahead as if they had already sighted a clearly +marked trail. Miller quickened his steps, +a vague uneasiness beginning to stir in his +mind.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then the foremost Esquimau dropped to +his knees and began to scrabble in the snow. +Miller shouted, hearing his own voice come +back thin and hollow from the answering +peaks. But when he reached the two, one +of them looked up over his furclad shoulder +and smiled a grim smile. In his native tongue +he spoke one of the strange compound +words that can convey a whole sentence.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Ariartokasuaromarotit-tog</span>,” he said. “Thou +too wilt soon go quickly away.” There was +threat and warning and satisfaction in the +way he said it. His fur mitten patted something +in the snow.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller bent to look. An iridescent pathway +lay there, curving up around a boulder +and out of sight, rough crystal surfaces that +caught the light with red and blue shadows. +Here in the white, silent world of the high +peaks it looked very beautiful and strange. +Miller knelt and ran a gloved hand over it, +feeling even through the leather a slight +tingling. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Erubescite!” he murmured to himself, +and smiled. It meant copper, perhaps gold. +And it was an old vein. The color spoke of +long exposure. There was nothing strange +about finding a vein of erubescite in the +mountains—the interpenetrating cubes +twinned on an octahedral plane were common +enough in certain mining regions. Still, +the regularity of the thing was odd. And +that curious tingling. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It looked like a path.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Innuits were watching him expectantly. +Moving with caution, Miller stepped +forward and set his foot on the path. It was +uneven, difficult to balance on. He took +two or three steps along the iridescent purple +slope, and then. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And then he was moving smoothly upward, +involuntarily, irresistibly. There was a +strange feeling in his feet and up the long +muscles at the back of his legs. And the +mountain was sliding away below him. +Peaks, snow-slopes, fur-clad men all slipped +quietly off down the mountainside, while at +Miller’s feet a curving ribbon of iridescence +lengthened away.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’m dreaming!” was his first thought. +And his head spun with the strange new +motion so that he staggered—and could not +fall. That tingling up his legs was more +than a nervous reaction, it was a permeation +of the tissues.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Transmutation!” he thought wildly, and +clutched in desperation at the slipping fabric +of his own reason. “The road’s moving,” he +told himself as calmly as he could. “I’m fixed +to it somehow. Transmutation? Why did I +think of transmutation? I can’t move my +feet or legs—they feel like stone—like the +substance of the road.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The changing of one element into another—lead +into gold, flesh into stone . . . The +Innuits had known. Far away he could see +the diminishing dots that were his guides +slide around a curve and vanish. He gestured +helplessly, finding even his arms +growing heavy, as if that strange atomic +transmutation were spreading higher and +higher through his body.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Powerless, one with the sliding path, he +surrendered himself without a struggle to +that mounting glide. Something stronger +than himself had him in a grip that seemed +purposeful. He could only wait and . . . it was +growing difficult to think. Perhaps the +change was reaching to his brain by now. +He couldn’t tell.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He only knew that for a timeless period +thereafter he did not think any more about +anything. . . .</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Thin laughter echoed through his mind. +A man’s voice said, “But I am bored, +Tsi. Besides, he won’t be hurt—much. Or if +he is, what does it matter?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller was floating in a dark void. There +was a strangeness about the voice he could +not analyze. He heard a woman answer and +in her tone was a curious likeness to the +man’s.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t, Brann,” she said. “You can find +other—amusements.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The high laughter came again. “But he’s +still new. It should be interesting.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Brann, please let him go.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Be silent, Tsi. I’m master here. Is he +awake yet?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A pause. “No, not yet. Not for a while yet.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can wait.” The man sighed. “I’ve preparations +to make, anyhow. Let’s go, Tsi.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a long, long pause. The voices +were still.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller knew he was floating in nothingness. +He tried to move and could not. Inertia +still gripped his body but his brain was +free and functioning with a clarity that +surprised him. It was almost as if that +strange transmutation had changed his very +brain-tissues to something new and marvelous.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Transmutation,” he thought. “Lead into +gold—flesh into stone—that’s what I was +thinking about when—when I stopped thinking. +When that sort of change happens, it +means the nuclear charge in the atoms of +one substance or the other has to change too. +The tingling when I touched the road—was +that when it happened?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But he paused there, knowing there was +no answer. For when had a man ever before +felt the shifting from flesh to crystal take +place in his own body?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>If it had happened that way, then it must +have been a force like the coulomb forces +themselves that welded him into one with +the moving road—the all but irresistible +forces that hold the electrons in their orbits +and rivet all creation into a whole.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And now—what?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There are two methods of transmutation,” +he told himself clearly, lying there in the +dark and groping for some answer to the +thing that was happening to him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Rationalize it,” his mind seemed to say, +“or you’ll go mad with sheer uncertainty. +Reason it out from what you know. A +chemical element is determined by the number +of electrons around the nucleus—change +that and you change the element. But the +nucleus, in turn, determines by its charge +the number of electrons it can control. If +the nuclear charge is changed, then this—this +crystalline state—is permanent.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But if it isn’t, then that must mean there’s +constant bombardment that knocks off or +adds electrons to whatever touches that road. +The change wouldn’t be permanent because +the original charge of the nucleus remains +constant. After awhile the extra electrons +would be dropped, or others captured to +restore the balance, and I’d be normal +again. That must be the way of it,” he told +himself, “because Van Hornung came this +way. And he went back again—normal. Or +was he really normal?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The question echoed without answer in +his brain. Miller lay quiet a moment longer +and then began to try once more to stir his +inert body. This time, a very little, he felt +muscles move. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>What seemed a long while later, he found +he could open his eyes. Very cautiously he +looked around.</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER II<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>Tsi</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>He was alone. He lay on something +hard and flat. A dome of crystal +arched overhead, not very high, so that he +seemed in effect to lie in a box of crystal—a +coffin, he thought grimly, and sat up with +brittle care. His muscles felt as stiff as if the +substance of the iridescent roadway still +permeated his flesh.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The dome seemed to have strange properties, +for all he saw through it was curiously +distorted and colored with such richness it +almost hurt the eyes to gaze upon what lay +beyond.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He saw columns of golden trees upon +which leaves moved and glittered in constantly +changing prisms of light. Something +like smoke seemed to wreathe slowly among +the trees, colored incredibly. Seen through +the dome about him the color of the smoke +was nameless. No man ever saw that hue +before nor gave a name to it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The slab on which he sat was the iridescent +purple of the road. If it had carried +him here, he saw no obvious way in which +it could have left him lying on the crystal +coffin. Yet, clearly, this was the end of the +moving roadway and, clearly too, the forces +which had welded him to it were gone now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The unstable atoms created in the grip of +that strange force had shaken off their abnormality +and reverted to their original +form. He was himself again but stiff, dizzy +and not sure whether he had dreamed the +voices. If he had, it was a nightmare. He +shivered a little, remembering the thin, inhuman +laughter and its promise of dreadful +things.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He got up, very cautiously, looking around. +As nearly as he could tell through the distorting +crystal there was no one near him. +The coffin stood in a grove of the golden +trees and, except for the mist and the twinkling +leaves, nothing moved. He put out a +tentative hand to push the crystal up.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>His hand went through it. There was a +tinkling like high music, ineffably sweet, and +the crystal flew into glittering fragments +that fell to the ground in a second rain of +sound. The beauty of it for a moment was +almost pain. He had never heard such music +before. It was almost more beautiful than +any human being should be allowed to hear, +he thought confusedly. There are sensations +so keen they can put too great a strain upon +human nerves.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then he stood there unprotected by the +dome and looked around him at the trees and +the mist and saw that the dome had made +no difference. These incredible colors were +no distortions—they were real. He took a +tentative step and found the grass underfoot +so soft that even through his shoe-soles he +could feel its caress.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The very air was exquisitely cool and +hushed, like the air of a summer dawn, almost +liquid in its translucence. Through it +the winking of the prism-leaves was so +lovely to look at that he turned his eyes +away, unable to endure the sight for more +than a moment.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>This was hallucination. “I’m still somewhere +back there in the snow,” he thought. +“Delirium—that’s it. I’m imagining this.” +But if it were a dream, then Van Hornung +had known it too, and men do not dream +identical dreams. The Belgian had warned +him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He shook his shoulders impatiently. Even +with all this before him he could not quite +bring himself to believe Van Hornung’s story. +There was a quality of dream about this +landscape, as if all he saw were not in reality +what it seemed, as if this grass of ineffable +softness were—and he knew it was—only +crusted snow, as if those cliffs he could +glimpse among the trees were really the +bare crags of Peak Seven Hundred, and +everything else delirium. He felt uneasily +that he was really lying somewhere asleep +in the snow, and must wake soon, before +he froze.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That high, thin laughter rang suddenly +through the air. In spite of himself Miller +felt his heart lurch and he whirled to face +the sound with a feeling of cold terror congealing +him. It was odd how frightening the +careless voice had been, talking impersonally +of its pleasures.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A little group of men and women was +coming toward him through the trees. He +could not guess which of them had laughed +the familiar laughter. They wore brilliantly +colored garments of a subtle cut that hung +like a toga or a sari, with a wonderful sophistication +of line. The colors were incredible.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller blinked dazedly, trying in vain to +find names for those shimmering hues that +seemed to combine known colors into utterly +unknown gradations and to draw from the +range of colors above and below the spectrum +as we see it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A women said, “Oh, he’s awake,” and a +man laughed pleasantly and said, “Look how +surprised he is!” All of them smiled and +turned bright, amused faces to Miller.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said something—he never remembered +what—and stopped in sheer shock at the +harsh dissonance of his own voice. It was +like an ugly discord tearing through smooth, +lilting arpeggios of harmony. The faces of +the others went blank briefly, as though +they had concentrated on something else to +avoid hearing the sound. The woman Miller +had first noticed lifted her hand.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wait,” she said. “Listen to me, for a moment. +There is no need to speak—<span class='it'>aloud</span>.” +A faint distaste was in her tone. Her . . . +tone? That could not be right. No voice +was ever so sweetly musical, so gently harmonious.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller looked at her. Her face was a small +pale triangle, lovely and elfin and strange, +with enormous violet eyes and piled masses +of hair that seemed to flow in winding +strands through one another. Each strand +was of a different pastel hue, dusty green or +pale amethyst or the yellow of sunshine on +a hazy morning. It was so in keeping, somehow, +that Miller felt no surprise. That +bizarre coiffure fitted perfectly with the +woman’s face.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He opened his mouth again, but the woman—it +shocked him a little, and he wondered +that it did not shock him even more—was +suddenly beside him. A split-second before +she had been ten feet away.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You have much to learn,” she said. “First, +though—remember not to speak. It isn’t +necessary. Simply frame your thoughts. +There’s a little trick to it. No—keep your +mouth closed. Think. Think your question.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Her lips had moved slightly, but merely +for emphasis. And surely normal vocal cords +could not have been capable of that unearthly +sweetness and evenness of tone, with its amazing +variations and nuances. Miller thought, +“Telepathy. It must be telepathy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They waited, watching him inquiringly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The woman said, silently, “Think—<span class='it'>to me</span>. +Frame the thought more carefully. The concepts +must be rounded, complete. Later you +may use abstracts but you can’t do that yet. +All I can read is a cloudiness. . . .”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller thought carefully, word by word, +“Is this telepathy?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Still cloudiness,” she said. “But it’s clearer +now. You were never used to clear thinking. +Yes, it is telepathy.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But how can I—where am I? What is +this place?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She smiled at him, and laughter moved +through the group. “More slowly. Remember, +you have just been born.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Just—what?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And thoughts seemed to fly past him like +small bright insects, grazing the edges of his +consciousness. A half-mocking, friendly +thought from one of the men, a casual comment +from another.</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Brann</span>, Miller thought, remembering. +<span class='it'>What about Brann? Where is he?</span></p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>There was dead silence. He had never +felt such stillness before. It was of the +mind, not physical. But he felt communication, +super-sensory, rapid and articulate, between +the others. Abruptly the rainbow-haired +woman took his arm, while the others +began to drift off through the prism-leaves +and the golden trees.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She pulled him gently away under the +tinkling foliage, through the drifts of colored +mists. Brushing violet fog before them with +her free hand, she said, “We would rather +not mention Brann here, if we can avoid it. +To speak of him sometimes—brings him. +And Brann is in a dangerous mood today.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller looked at her with a frown of concentration. +There was so much to ask. In +that strange mental tongue that was already +coming more easily to him, he said, “I don’t +understand any of this. But I know your +voice. Or rather, your—I’m not sure what +you’d call it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The mental voice, you mean? Yes, you +learn to recognize them. It’s easy to imitate +an audible voice but the mental one can’t be +imitated. It’s part of the person. So you remember +hearing my thoughts before? I +thought you were asleep.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re Tsi.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” she said and pushed aside a tinkling +screen of the prisms. Before them stood a +low rampart of light—or water. Four feet +high, it ran like liquid but it glowed like +light. Beyond it was blue sky and a sheer, +dizzying drop to meadows hundreds of feet +below. The whole scene was almost blindingly +vivid, every lovely detail standing out +sharp and clear and dazzling.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “I don’t understand. There are +legends about people up here, but not about—this. +This vividness. Who are you? What +is this place?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi smiled at him. There was warmth and +compassion in the smile, and she said gently, +“This is what your race had once, and lost. +We’re very old, but we’ve kept—” Abruptly +she paused, her eyes brightening suddenly +with a look of terror.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said. “Hush!” and in the mental command +there was a wave of darkness and silence +that seemed to blanket his mind. For +no reason his heart began to pound with +nervous dread. They stood there motionless +for an instant, mind locked with mind in a +stillness that was more than absence of +sound—it was absence of thought. But +through the silence Miller caught just the +faintest echo of that thin, tittering laugh he +had heard before, instinct with cold, merciless +amusement.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The prism leaves sang around them with +little musical tinklings. From the sunlit +void stretching far below bird-song rippled +now and then with a sweetness that was almost +painful to hear. Then Tsi’s mind relaxed +its grip upon Miller’s and she sighed +softly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s all right now. For a moment I +thought Brann . . . but no, he’s gone again.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Who is Brann?” Miller demanded.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The lord of this castle. A very strange +creature—very terrible when his whims are +thwarted. Brann is—he cares for nothing +very much. He lives only for pleasure and, +because he’s lived so long and exhausted so +many pleasures, the devices he uses now are +not very—well, not very pleasant for anyone +but Brann. There was a warp in him before +his birth, you see. He’s not quite—not +quite of our breed.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’s from the outside world? Human?” +As he said it Miller knew certainly that the +woman before him was not human, not as he +understood the term.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But Tsi shook her head. “Oh, no. He was +born here. He’s of our breed. But not of our +norm. A little above in many ways, a little +below in others. <span class='it'>Your</span> race—” there was +faint distaste and pity in the thought, but +she let it die there, unelaborated.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You can’t understand yet,” she went on. +“Don’t try. You see, you suffered a change +when you came. You aren’t quite as you +were before. Were you ever able to communicate +telepathically?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No, of course not. But I don’t feel any +different. I—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A blind man, given sight, wouldn’t realize +it until he opened his eyes. And he +might be dazzled at first. You’re at a disadvantage. +I think it would be best for you to +get away. Look there, across the valley.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She lifted an arm to point. Far off across +the dazzling meadows hills rose, green in the +sunlight, shimmering a little in the warm, +clear light. On the height of the highest a +diamond glitter caught the sun.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“My sister,” Tsi said, “has that palace over +there. I think Orelle would take you in, if +only to thwart Brann. You aren’t safe here. +Fur your sake, it was a pity the port of entry +you reached was here in Brann’s castle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There have been others, then?” Miller +asked. “A man named Van Hornung—did +he come here?”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>She shook her head, the rainbow hair +catching the sunlight. “Not here. There +are many castles in our land and most of +them live at peace within and without. But +not Brann’s.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Then why are you here?” Miller asked +bluntly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She smiled an unhappy smile. “Most of +us came because we felt as Brann does—we +did not care very much any more. We +wanted to follow our pleasures, being tired +of other pursuits after so many thousands +of years. All except me.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Thousands of. . . . What do you mean? +Why are you here then?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Her mouth turned down at the corners in +a rueful smile.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well—perhaps I too was warped before +birth. I can’t leave Brann now. He needs +me. That doesn’t matter to you. Brann’s +dangerous—his heart is set on—on experiments +that will need you to complete. We +won’t talk about that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller said, “I came here for a purpose.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know. I read part of your mind while +you lay asleep. You’re hunting for a treasure. +We have it. Or perhaps I should say +Orelle has it.” The violet eyes darkened. +She hesitated.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps I’m sending you to Orelle for a +purpose,” she said. “You can do me a great +service there—and yourself too. That treasure +you seek is—should be partly mine. You +think of it as a power-source. To me it’s a +doorway into something better than any of +us knows. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Our father made it, long ago. Orelle has +it now, though by rights she and I should +share it. If you find a way to get that treasure, +my friend, will you bring it to me?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Long-grooved habit-patterns in Miller’s +mind made him say automatically, “And if I +do?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She smiled. “If you don’t,” she said, +“Brann will have you sooner or later. If I +can get it I think I can—control Brann. If +I can’t—well, you will be the first sufferer. +I think you know that. You’ll do well to +persuade Orelle if you can. Now—I’ve made +a bargain with Brann. Don’t ask me what. +You may learn, later.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go to Orelle, watch your chance and be +wary. If you ask for the treasure you’ll +never get near it. Better not to speak of it +but wait and watch. No one can read your +mind unless you will it, now that you’re +learning telepathy, but watch too that you +let nothing slip from your thoughts to warn +her.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You want me to take her hospitality and +then rob her?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Distress showed in Tsi’s face. “Oh, no! I +ask only what’s mine, and even that only for +long enough to control Brann. Then you +may return the treasure to Orelle or strike a +bargain with her over it. Five minutes with +that in my hands is all I ask! Now here is +something I’ve made for you out of your own +possession. Hold out your wrist.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Staring, he obeyed. She unclosed her hand +to show him his wristwatch in her palm. +Smiling, she buckled the strap around his +arm. “It isn’t quite as it was. I changed +it. If you need me concentrate on this and +speak to me in your mind. I’ll hear.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There were countless questions still unasked. +Miller took a deep breath and began +to formulate them in his mind. And then—Tsi +vanished! The earth was gone from underfoot +and he spun through golden emptiness, +dropping, falling. The water-wall hung +beneath him. He floated in midair a hundred +feet above the crag-bordered stream at the +cliffs bottom!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Panic struck him. Then Tsi’s reassuring +thought said, “You are safe. This is teleportation.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He scarcely heard. An age-old instinctive +fear chilled his middle. For a million years +men have been afraid of falling. He could not +now control that fear.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Slowly he began to drop. He lost sight of +Tsi and the golden trees and then of the +water-wall.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Under him the stream broadened.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He sank down at an angle—and felt solid +ground beneath his feet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was silence except for the whispering +murmur of the stream.</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER III<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>The World That Couldn’t Be</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller sat down on a rock and held +his head in his hands. His thoughts +were swimming. Cold, fresh air blew against +his cheeks and he raised his face to meet that +satisfying chill. It seemed to rouse him. He +began to realize that he had been half asleep +during the interview with Tsi, as though the +mists of his slumber had still blanketed his +senses. Otherwise he would scarcely have +accepted this miraculous business.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Or was there another reason?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He felt a desperate impulse to see Tsi +again. She could answer his questions, if she +would. And she had been the first friendly +face he had seen in this terribly strange land.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He looked up and willed himself to rise.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Impossible, of course. <span class='it'>My own bootstraps</span>, +he thought, with a wild sort of amusement. +Were his feet pressing less heavily on the +rock beneath him?</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And then, from above, came a high, thin +laughter that was not truly audible—Brann!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even before the mental voice came, that +malicious, slow thought sent its familiar radiations +before it. Something as recognizable +as sound or color—more so!—fell down the +cliff and crept coldly into Miller’s brain. He +knew that unheard voice.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You had better not come up,” it said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller stood motionless, waiting. Instinctively +he had fallen into the fighter’s +crouch. But how useless ordinary precautions +would be against this super-being!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He tried to close his mind.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go to Orelle, then,” it said. “I’ve made +my bargain with Tsi and I’ll keep it. But +she’s a fool. She always tries to close her +mind to unpleasant things. She’ll never really +admit we’re at war with her sister. As +long as she doesn’t name it <span class='it'>war</span>, she thinks +it’s something else.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Again the high laughter.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go to Orelle,” Brann said. “I’m winning +too easily. Perhaps they can use another +fighter. Then they may be able to give me +more of a battle. Though, if I chose, I could +crush you with a thought—turn the air itself +into a weight that would flatten you in an instant. +But Orelle may think of a use for you. +I can’t, except to divert myself with your reactions +to certain experiments.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The unheard voice grew carelessly casual.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Too easy a victory is no victory at all. +Go away.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Anger stirred in Miller at that calm assumption +of superiority. Brann was thoroughly +justified, of course, yet no man likes +to be discounted utterly. With all his power +Miller willed himself to rise, to float upward +as easily as he had floated down—and this +time he was certain that his feet lost contact +with the earth.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then a weight like a great stone crushed +down on him. Only for an instant did that +frightful, unbearable pressure continue, while +the veins swelled on Miller’s forehead and +he heard his breath coming in deep, rasping +gasps as he tried to resist the onslaught.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He went to his knees—down till he lay on +his back, prostrate, helpless beneath that +furious assault of the air itself. A screaming +river of wind thundered down and the thin +bushes in the gorge stirred and small landslides +began as the air-river rushed in hurricane +force from above.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann laughed idly again and obviously +lost interest. The pressure vanished. Sweating, +breathing hard, Miller struggled to his +feet. He did not try teleportation again. For +a moment he stared up at the cliff-rim. Then +he turned and began to walk up the gorge in +the direction of Orelle’s palace. His mouth +was thin and his eyes held an angry glow.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So Brann was winning too easily. Well—perhaps +something could be done about that!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Far off across the glimmering valley a +green hillside rolled high against the sky. +The diamond twinkle that was the castle he +must reach grew larger as he walked—grew +larger with abnormal speed. Miller looked +down and was surprised to find that measured +by the pebbles and the flowers underfoot +he was taking increasingly long steps.</p> + +<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Seven-league boots</span>, he thought, as he +found himself striding like a giant through +the softness of the grass. The earth slid by +beneath his feet with dream-like fluidity. +Now the diamond glitter of Orelle’s palace +was dividing into hundreds of tinier glitters +and he saw the walls of pale-colored glass +rising fantastically upon the green height of +the grass-clad mountain. A palace of glass—or +ice.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Ice,” he thought suddenly. “Ice and +snow and rocks. That’s all there is here. +This is a dream. There’s no such world—there +couldn’t be.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And then reason, stirring in his mind, argued, +“Why not? How do we know the limits +of possibility? Out of the few simple building +blocks of the universe—out of neutrons, +protons, electrons—everything we know is +made. How much else may there be we can’t +even perceive—unless transmutation takes +place and the structure of a man’s nuclear +patterns change to let him see. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“After all, you aren’t the first. There was +Van Hornung and who knows how many before +him? There was Tannhauser in the +magical mountain of Venusburg—there was +Thomas the Rhymer under the hill in fairyland. +Paradise itself sounds like a distorted +tale of just such a land as this. Legend remembers. +You aren’t in any new world. +You’re only exploring a very old one, and—”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Without warning the world dropped +away under his feet and all logical +progression of thoughts ceased abruptly. The +sky was beneath him now and the shining +world whirling dizzily over and over around +him. But something firmer than gravity +clasped him close so that there was no +vertigo, even though the earth had forsaken +him. Green translucence cradled him. There +was a sensation of great speed, and then—</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Glass walls flashed past, spun, righted +themselves gently. A solid pavement fitted +itself against his soles and leveled off to the +horizontal. He stood in a small, high room +whose walls were row upon row of lenses, +like bull’s-eye panes, all looking down upon +him with—eyes? Black mechanical pupils +that moved whenever he moved, following +him as he walked toward the nearest wall. +For an instant he felt stripped and naked under +that multiple scrutiny.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then a telepathic voice said, “You come +from Brann.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller looked around wildly. He was +alone. Almost automatically he said, “No!” +aloud, so that the air shivered to the harsh +sound. He wasn’t sure why he denied it. +Brann had spoken of war.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t lie,” the voice said coldly. “I can see +the dust of Brann’s mountain on you. Do you +think we can’t identify a simple thing like +dust from a given mountain? It streams off +you like purple light in the fluorescents. +You come from Brann. Are you a spy?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Tsi sent me,” Miller said. “Take me to +Orelle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Orelle speaks,” the telepathic voice told +him without emotion. “My sister loves me—but +Tsi is no woman to trust. No one on +Brann’s mountain is worth trusting or he +wouldn’t be with Brann at all. What Tsi finds +distasteful she denies existence. What do you +want here?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller hesitated, glancing around the walls +at the impassive, watching eyes of the—machines? +Power, he wanted to say. Give me +that power-source and I’ll go. But he was +silent, remembering Tsi’s warning.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>How much of it he could believe he didn’t +know now but it was second nature for him +to keep his own counsel until he was sure +enough to act. Orelle could not read his +mind. Tsi had confessed that would be impossible +once he began to master telepathic +communication. He would be safe enough as +long as he could give the right answers.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’m from the outside,” he offered hesitantly, +thinking that hesitation and uncertainty +might be his best defense until he +learned more about this place. Exaggerate +them, play up even more than was really +genuine his bewilderment and confusion. “I—Tsi +said you’d help me get oriented here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The disembodied voice was silent for a +brief, considering moment. Then it said, “I +think you lie. However—are you willing to +accept our search? Only after you’ve been +proved weaponless can we admit you here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>What could he say but yes? For an instant +he remembered the watch Tsi had strapped +to his wrist and what she had said of it. But +it was for communication only—she had said—and +surely she knew that a routine search +would probably be made. She wouldn’t have +branded him with something that would give +him away to the first inspection. Or would +she? What he had heard of Tsi did little to +increase his confidence in her. Still . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Search if you like,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The room went dark. Miller, blinking in +the sudden blindness, felt something like the +vertigo he had not suffered in flight seize him +relentlessly now he was on solid flooring. The +air spun around him in a shrill diminishing +vortex and it seemed to him limitless gulfs +were opening underfoot and sucking him +down, tight, tight, into a crushing spiral of +darkness. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Out of the dark lights suddenly sprang into +being, cold, blue lights that struck him like +cold water—struck and penetrated. Looking +down, he was aghast to see his own blood +coursing red through transparent veins, to +see his bones stand out cleanly white in their +lacings of muscle, moving startlingly when he +bent to stare.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The lights went out again. The darkness +ceased to whirl. And then for one instant he +felt all through his body an indescribable +shifting, a terrible motion of inconceivable +multiplicity. And in that flash of the instant +he was <span class='it'>changed</span>.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The atoms went back into their normal pattern. +That unstable isotope which was himself +shed its changed form and he was as he +had always been, solid, human, normal.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was a hideous feeling. Until that moment +he had not realized how much he had changed +already, what nascent, nameless senses had +begun to open up in him, pushing back horizons +upon glories beyond glories. It was +like deafness and blindness suddenly closing +in about a normal man. It was worse—it was +like having all the properties of death itself +imposed upon the living. Miller held his +breath, closed his eyes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He felt the shift again as the isotope form +renewed itself within him. The shifting +stirred in the unthinkable myriads of the +nuclei that formed him. He was whole again.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Once more the vortex whirled and roared +in darkness. Then the dark lifted and he was +standing beside a bank of thick yellow flowers +under an arched vault of glass. The floor was +tiled in brilliant colors, resilient to the foot. +The flowery bank rising from it might be real +earth and flowers or it might be a skillful +imitation. For it was also a divan.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle lay upon it, smiling at him. He knew +it was Orelle. He was aware, though he could +not have explained how, of the telepathic +emanation from her mind to his, individual +as the pattern of the brain. She was beautiful—as +everyone in this world seemed beautiful.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>He saw something of Tsi’s features in +hers but she was not dressed with the +extravagance her sister affected. She was +very slender, and her graceful body was +sheathed tightly in something like clear satin +that covered her to the wrists and ankles and +flowed in long smooth lines over the flowers +she lay on. She was pulling them idly and +twirling the blossoms between her fingers.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Well, you are welcome,” she said, almost +reluctantly, eyeing Miller with a smile that +had wryness in it. “We found no weapons, +though we searched you down to the very +structure of the protons. To tell you the truth, +we have no reason to trust you.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But Tsi must have had some reason for +sending you here and I think we’re safer +coping with her schemes at first hand than +goading her on to try something more subtle +still. Be sure you’re watched, my friend. Be +careful what you do.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller said wryly, “I’m not likely to do +anything. From what I’ve seen of this place, +I feel helpless. Do you all have the same +powers as Tsi? How many of you are there? +And what—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle shrugged. “We’re not used to hurry. +Of course we have all the time we need. +Your race doesn’t—even here. I can see your +curiosity. And I’ll satisfy it, too. Yes, everyone +here has the same powers, though +naturally some are stronger than others. +There is the telepathic factor, and—other +things.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Bred into your race? But what about me? +I’m not your kind.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said slowly, “A million years ago your +ancestors were, though. Since then your people +have gone down. It took eons to reach +the peak when Atlantis and Mu were great +cultures, and it will take eons more for your +race to regain what they have lost. Only +here, on this secret mountain, have we retained +the strength of the old civilizations.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller said. “But what happened?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Oh, the usual thing. Men took weapons +they weren’t ready to use. In that time—try +to understand this—the atomic structure of +the world itself was different. You know +that? That the atom can change—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I do indeed,” Miller told her grimly. “If +electrons change, or if the nucleus changes, +the structure changes too.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said, “Well, that was what happened. +All earth is dull and dead now. Only here +does the old special type of matter still exist. +It throws off a certain radiation that makes it +possible for us to be born and live as we are. +In Atlantis there was experiment with nuclear +structures, and transmutation.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We have atomic power now,” Miller said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The beginnings of it. You’re merely beginning. +It will be a long, long time before +you stand where Atlantis once stood. First +you must change the very structure of your +world! Only then will <span class='it'>you</span> change, will the +radiation-caused mutation alter you and give +you the powers and senses you lost when a +world went to war a millennium ago.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The fires of matter itself moved across the +planet, and where it passed, structure altered +and what was bright and shining and glorious +became a dull, empty thing. Men lost their +specialized, hard-won powers then. But the +seeds remain latent in their bodies, recessive +characteristics. Here, on the mountain, the +recessive can become dominant for a little +while. It is unstable, of course. . . .”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Then—I’m like you? Tsi told me but I +couldn’t believe it. I’m a—a sort of superman?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Every gift has its price,” she said oddly. +“There is beauty here but there is terror too. +You must have noticed that you see with +clearer eyes—the eyes of the mind.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” he said. “I’ve noticed that. Things +are—shining, somehow.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It would be well if you remembered your +own world,” Orelle said, after a little pause. +Her eyes were troubled. “Your own atomic +structure has altered but that can take place +only once.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A man came into view through a glassy +wall that melted at his approach, and solidified +again behind him. He looked no older +than Orelle, a firm-fleshed, smiling man +whose vari-tinted hair lay smoothly across +his scalp. But his eyes were old, grey and +cloudy with the mists of incalculable centuries.</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER IV<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>The Bomb</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>“Orelle—” he began. And then the +aeon-misted eyes fell upon Miller, +and a look of bewildered recognition seemed +to grow in them. “This man,” he said uncertainly. +“Should I know him, Orelle? Has +he been here before, or. . . .” Suddenly the +mists cleared from his eyes and he looked +old no longer but resolute and certain.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know him!” he said in a crisp voice. +“His face was in the Time Pool. It meant +danger. But the likelihood was so remote +that—well, I dismissed it. I didn’t believe.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What was the danger?” Orelle leaned +forward anxiously, her satin skirts moving +with a gentle rustle over the flowery bank +where she sat.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The man shook his head. “You’ve seen the +Time Pool, child. There are so many possibilities +of the future—who can say in what +ripple this man’s face floated for a moment +before the bubble burst? But it was danger. +I remember that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They turned in one motion and looked at +Miller with wise, wary, thoughtful eyes, astonishingly +alike in the two faces. He realized +they must be closely akin, and both akin +to Tsi, whom no one trusted far.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said quickly, “If you can read the future +you must know I’m not a man to break my +promises—and I swear to you both I mean +no harm.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The man made an impatient gesture. “The +future is never that clear. There is no ‘must’ +in time—only ‘perhaps’.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Tsi sent him,” Orelle said. “She must have +had her reasons.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“She sent me because of Brann,” Miller +declared. The two nodded.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle said, “Well, sometimes she’s moved +to save one of Brann’s victims. Sometimes I +think she helps him in his—call them experiments—on +those he captures. She’d like us to +think only whims move her. But we know +the thing that lies behind all she does. Llesi +and I—we know.” She smiled grimly at the +man beside her.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“She wants the Power,” the man called +Llesi said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller thought to himself, “So do I,” but +aloud he said only, “The Power?” in a voice +of innocent inquiry.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Llesi nodded, his eyes fixed speculatively +upon Miller as if he gazed through the mists +of incalculable years.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A toy my brother and I once made that +became far more than a toy before we were +finished. Now Tsi claims her share in her +father’s treasure. These two are my brother’s +children but sometimes I think Tsi has no +blood of mine in her veins.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle said, “No, Llesi, she’s only weak. If +Brann didn’t rule her so completely—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“She’d be welcome to her heritage. But we +know that to give her what she asks is to +give it straight into Brann’s hands. And +there’d be an end to this castle and all who +live here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Who is Brann?” Miller asked impatiently. +“I’ve heard so much about him, I’ve even +heard him speak. But I’ve never seen him. +What does he look like?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle shook her head. Small bells she +wore in her ears tinkled at the motion, and +even the tiny sounds they made were vividly +beautiful to Miller’s increasingly keen new +senses.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said, “No one has seen him except Tsi. +No one but she can tell you what he is. He +receives his friends only in the dark or from +behind curtains. Ever since he built that +castle, centuries ago, he’s kept his secret hidden—whatever +it may be. I should like to +see him dead.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said it without passion. “Brann is true +evil, perhaps pure evil in its most flawless +form. He’s very wise and very powerful. +I’m not sure why he chose us for his enemy +but I only know now we must fight or be +killed.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller made up his mind suddenly. “As I +left his castle,” he said, “Brann spoke to me +from beyond the wall. He said this was a fight +he would win too easily. He told me to come +to you as another fighter, to make the battle +more interesting.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle leaned forward quickly on the +flowery bank, her earrings tinkling musically. +“He said that? You know, I’d have guessed +the opposite.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’d have said Tsi sent you here knowing +Brann would covet you for his experiments—knowing +that with you here, he’d redouble +his efforts to conquer us and drag you back. +If his interest were flagging, that might be +the best way to revive it against us and force +her entry here. Because she’d do anything +in the world to get her hands on the Power.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Llesi interrupted her in a thoughtful voice. +“She might send an envoy here armed with +some secret weapon Brann could devise—something +that could pass even our careful +searching. Remember, Orelle, I’ve seen this +man before in the Time Pool—this man’s +face, and danger!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’ve given you my word I didn’t come to +harm you,” Miller said, realizing that though +he sailed close to the wind of truth in saying +that, at least it was accurate as far as it went. +“Still, I’d like to know more about this +Power. Unless you—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He never finished. For suddenly there was +a blast of appalling sound in the room, and a +rush of white-hot fire that seemed to flow +down his arm and burst in a blinding gush +from his wrist.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When he could see again, what he saw was +stunning. For Llesi was collapsing where he +stood, his knees buckling, his face strangely +drained and empty as if he were dead before +he struck the floor. There was a curious +shimmering glow bathing him, sinking inward +like a devouring acid.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle was on her feet, stumbling forward, +and from all around figures were closing in +through the glass that melted at their approach.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Blinded and deafened by a sound that he +knew was not truly audible, Miller tried to +spring back.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He could not move. The white dazzling +flame still poured from him upon the falling +Llesi. Louder and louder that unheard, cataclysmic +shout roared through the room. Now +Miller felt energy of some strange sort pouring +from Orelle and the others—mental +power, a silent, tremendous flood that beat +upon the white flame and—snuffed it like a +candle.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The fire was gone. But Llesi had fallen.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A dozen men and women had crowded +into the room by now, bright in their sleek +rainbow garments. Two men fell to their +knees beside Llesi.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle had swung toward Miller. Hot rage +blazed tangibly from her—tangibly, for Miller’s +mind winced beneath that telepathic +red fury. Through the scarlet twisted a +black thread—the thought and intention of +death, cold black against crimson.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Orelle!” he cried desperately. “I didn’t—it +was some trick!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He could not speak, even telepathically. +For he could see nothing now but Orelle’s +dark eyes, and they were expanding, growing +into luminous pools that chilled him, +and effectively paralyzed muscle and nerve +and mind.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Eerily a thought that was not his own +moved suddenly in his frozen brain—moved +and reached out toward Orelle.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Wait, child, wait!</span>” the thought said. “<span class='it'>This +is Llesi speaking.</span>”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>All must have heard it, for every head +in the room turned sharply. The +blinding pools that were Orelle’s eyes began +to fade and dimly Miller could see again. +In his mind that voice of another brain said, +“<span class='it'>The bracelet on his wrist—take it!</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>No one stood near Miller but he felt a +violent tug at his wristwatch, saw it torn +free. It sprang through the air to Orelle as +if thrown by an invisible hand. She spread +her fingers and received it. But she was +looking at Miller.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Llesi?” she said uncertainly, still staring +into Miller’s eyes. “Llesi—you hear me?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Yes. Wait. I must speak with this man +. . . Miller . . . wait.</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle gestured. Llesi’s body was lifted +without support and floated toward the +bowery couch. It sank down gently. One of +the men came forward and made a quick +examination.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He isn’t dead. It’s stasis, of a sort. But +I can’t communicate with him. Try it, +Orelle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Llesi?” Orelle’s thought arrowed out. +“<span class='it'>Llesi?</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller roused from his stupefied amazement. +That fantastic voice in his brain was +speaking quietly to himself alone.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t fight me. They’ll kill you unless +you obey me. Empty your mind, Miller. Let +me speak through you. Now. . . .”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller listened to the thought that was +not his, riding on the waves of his own +telepathic mind, speaking to Orelle and the +others. But he believed it spoke to himself +as well.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“This must be Brann’s doing,” Llesi said. +“The bracelet—when I guessed at a weapon +the man Miller could have brought Tsi must +somehow have been listening. Even our +tests failed to find it but a weapon that +bracelet must have been. Well, Brann failed +but only thanks to you for smothering the +weapon so soon. I’m not destroyed but I +think it may be a long while before I can +think or move in my own body.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But you can hear us, Llesi?” Orelle’s +voice was soft.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Through this man—yes. This is a telepathic +rapport with him. There must have +been electronic contact at the crucial moment. +Without Miller I would be cut off +completely until my body mends again. I +think it will in time. I know the sort of +weapon Brann used. My body will have to +absorb vital energy, to overcome the insulation +of atomic stasis the weapon threw +about me.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Now listen, because my strength is going. +The mental must draw on the physical and +my body’s an ember now. I must sleep and +gather power. Brann will know what’s happened +here—depend on it, he’ll strike while +I’m still helpless. I must think—and rest.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle said, “We can handle Brann!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We can handle him if I can lead you. +Otherwise. . . Take no risks. Remember, +my only contact with you is through this man +Miller. Brann will destroy him if he can. +But the sword is two-edged. Through Miller +I can fight if I must. Now let me rest. +I must gather my strength, and think.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The thought trembled on the air—faded—and +was gone into an enormous stillness. +Miller was alone again in his own brain.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle stared at him, anger still bright in +her mind but leashed anger now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How much of this have you passed on to +Brann already?” she demanded.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller said, “I swear I didn’t know I was +carrying a time-bomb like that. Tsi told me +it was only a communication device she’d +built into my watch. I can only say I’ll help +you fight Brann in any way I can.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle came forward with quick steps, her +satin robes rustling, and took Miller’s shoulders +in a tight grip, reaching high with both +hands to do so. Her eyes were close to his. +She stared compellingly up at him and he +felt the warm force of her mind probing his +with angry emphasis.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Tell me one thing—the truth,” she demanded. +“<span class='it'>Are you Brann?</span>”</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER V<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>The Signal</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>The stars were glittering rayed circles of +colored fire in the night sky. Miller +lay staring for what seemed a long while, +wondering vaguely what had wakened him. +The wall before his bed was clear glass +through which the night sky seemed to look +in at him with its countless silver eyes. He +had never seen the stars before, he knew +now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>With his other eyes, they had been only +dots of brilliance, without pattern. Now he +could see that there was indeed a pattern to +their arrangement—one too vast for even +his augmented mind to grasp but something +he could recognize as being there, even +though it lay outside the range of human +understanding.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He could see colors change and glitter in +the discs of light that had been only points +without dimension to his old sight. He could +even make out dimly the shapes of continents +on one or two of the planets. And there +was a strange, distant, ringing music, almost +inaudible, circling through the dark vault +above.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He knew now that it was no legend which +told of the music of the spheres and the +stars that sang together. Light-waves and +sound-waves blended into a melody that was +neither one nor the other, neither sight nor +sound, but a beautiful medley of both.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Men in the old days must have heard it,” +he thought to himself, half-asleep. “Maybe in +ancient times they were still close enough to—<span class='it'>this</span> +state—to catch the echoes of the old +music. . . .”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Deep in the center of his drowsing mind +a thought stirred that was not his own. +“<span class='it'>Miller, Miller, are you awake?</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He framed the answer with an eerie feeling +of double-mindedness. “Yes, Llesi. What +is it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I want to talk to you. I’ve gathered +enough strength now to last me awhile. +What’s been happening? Are you safe?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller let a ripple of amusement run +through his mind. “Thanks to you. Can +you tell from my thoughts that I didn’t know +what I was bringing into your castle? I +didn’t mean to attack you.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I believe that—with reservations. Does +Orelle?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“She thought I was Brann. She may still +think so though I hope I’ve convinced her.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can’t read your mind. But I must trust +you—no more than I can avoid! Get up, +Miller, and look toward Brann’s castle. I +have a feeling of danger. I think that was +what roused me. Something evil is coming +our way.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Conscious of a slight chill at the gravity +with which Llesi spoke, Miller rose. The +floor was ineffably soft to his bare feet. He +stepped out into the little glass bay that +formed one side of the room. From there he +could look down over the valley he had +traversed that day. Far off lights glimmered +at the height of a sheer cliff—Brann’s castle.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Why—I can see in the dark!” he exclaimed +in surprise, staring out at the soft, +dim landscape that seemed to be lit by a +soil of invisible starshine so that details were +delicately visible as they had never been before.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes, yes,” Llesi’s mental voice said impatiently. +“Turn your eyes to the left—I +want to see that wall of the valley. There—now +right. . . .”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The commands, couched in mental terms +that took only a flashing fraction of the +time words would have taken were almost +like reflex commands from Miller’s own +brain.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I think you’d better dress and go down +to the Time Pool,” Llesi said at last. Miller +could feel the profound uneasiness stirring +in the disembodied mind that his own brain +housed. “Hurry. There’s no guessing what +unnatural thing Brann may have shaped to +attack us. He wants you, Miller. Your coming +brought our war to a climax and I know +now he won’t stop until he gets you—or dies. +It depends on you and me which thing happens.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a guard at Miller’s door—or +the glass wall that melted like a door when +he approached it. Llesi’s mental voice spoke +and the guard nodded and followed down +the long sloping ramp of the glass castle, +through great, dim, echoing rooms, along +corridors behind which the people of Orelle’s +dwelling slept.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They came out at last into a garden in the +heart of the castle. Circled by glass walls, +it lay dim and fragrant around the broad +shallow pool in its center. Starlight shimmered +in changing patterns on the water +that rippled slightly in the wind.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller found himself glancing up toward +the wall-top without being sure whether +the impulse was his own or Llesi’s. In a moment +he knew, for there was a whispering +rush and in obedience to some command +from his own brain—and from Llesi’s—a +domed roof of glass moved across the garden, +closing it in.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now the starlight fell in prismed rays +through the dome. It struck the pool in somehow +focused patterns and the water seemed +to respond to that unimaginably light pressure.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Circles formed where the rays struck, +formed and spread outward in interlocking +rings that seemed to gather momentum instead +of losing it, so that they were seething +together in a very short time, breaking over +one another in tiny waves, tossing up bubbles +and foam. The pool boiled in the cool +starlight.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>And among the boiling rings there were +reflections. Pictures moved chaotically +through one another, so rapidly and so bewilderingly +that Miller grew dizzy as he +watched. Once he thought he saw Tsi’s face +with the rainbow hair disordered, streaming +in the wind.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Once he had a glimpse of himself, seen +confusingly from the back, struggling against +something that seemed to tower and stoop +above him but the vision rolled under again +before he could focus on it and the faces of +strangers floated among bubbles to replace +it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Is it real?” he asked Llesi inaudibly. “Is +this the future?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was an impatient movement in his +own mind. Llesi, who had been studying the +pictures in the profoundest silence, said, +“No—yes—partly. These are the likeliest +futures. No one understands fully, but the +theory is that somewhere in hyperspace all +possible futures work themselves out from +any given point.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And the light-rays—the pictures of all +that happens—move on out into space endlessly. +When the glass dome is closed starlight, +falling through the moving rays, projects +these pictures back into the pool for +anyone to read who knows how. Men from +time everlasting have tried to read the future +in the stars but you can see from this +how difficult it is and how unreliable even +a trained mind can be when it has only this +to work from.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“One decision may alter all probable futures. +And those are unstable, shifting and +changing—no man can know the future with +any certainty. But it’s possible to see dangers, +sometimes, and prepare for them—though +that may mean facing a worse peril +later on. Wait—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the pool a ripple took form at the impact +of a reflection and began to spread. +It showed the picture of a shifting, cloudy +mass moving against the translucent water—but +moving with a directive purpose, Miller +thought. The background took form. He +saw himself and Orelle in miniature with +the cloud no longer shifting but swooping +purposively above them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Another ripple collided violently with the +first and the picture vanished in a burst of +bubbles. But it took shape again in the +next moment, though different now, with a +shift in background. The ripples raced over +that image and washed it out with another, +like a not-quite-identical copy. Then he +saw the castle in which he stood and it was, +he thought, collapsing into ruins.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That changed. He saw himself in tiny reflections, +facing Tsi— And then a ripple +washed across the pool in which he saw his +own face and Slade’s and there was something +inexplicably terrible about both.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Shaken, he asked Llesi a mental question. +Llesi answered him briefly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If part of what you just saw happens, +other parts can’t happen. But you saw that +cloudy pillar? It appeared too often against +too many backgrounds to be very far off in +space or time. Brann is sending a warrior +against us. Not a human warrior. I think +we can expect the cloudy thing we saw +quite soon, in one or another of the versions +we’ve been watching.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But what is it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know. Something dangerous—that +much you can be sure of. I think we +can defeat it, once we discover what it is. +So far we’ve always been able to defeat +Brann’s warriors, no matter what form they +had.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So far?” Miller asked. “And then someday—what?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Mentally Llesi shrugged. “Who knows? I, +who read the future, realize better than most +men that I have no way of guessing what is +to come. I can see the possibilities here in +the pool, I can foresee the worst dangers and +prepare against them—but beyond that I +can’t go. No. I don’t know what the outcome +will be between Brann and me.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller said with abrupt decision, “You’ve +looked too long in the Time Pool! You’ve +been depending on what you see there to tell +you what to do. Why not take the future into +your own hands?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a curious stillness in his brain +at that, as if Llesi were suddenly wary and +watchful. Finally the voice that shared his +mind spoke cautiously.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What do you suggest?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Someday, if I understand you, Brann +may succeed at last in creating a kind of +warrior you can’t overcome. I saw this +castle falling in one of those pictures in the +pool, so I know it’s possible—no, even probable, +that this thing he’s sending, or maybe +the one after it, will be the one to destroy +you. It that right?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Still caution and distrust ruled Llesi’s +mind, but there was reluctant interest in +the mental voice that said, “Go on. What are +you thinking about?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Brann wants one thing—the Power. Is +that right?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The Power and yourself, now. Yes,” +Llesi answered.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So he’ll keep on attacking until he gets +one or both. Why haven’t you attacked him +first?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Do you think we haven’t tried? Brann’s +castle is invulnerable. We’ve failed and +failed and failed again to force any entry by +any means we know. But Brann’s failed, +too, against us. It’s stalemate.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It needn’t be. I have an idea.” Miller +hesitated. “I won’t tell you now. You +wouldn’t accept it. Later on, if things go +wrong, maybe you’ll be willing to listen. +Maybe—”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>From across the Time Pool, in the dimness +of the garden, Orelle’s mental voice +said clearly, “Don’t go on, Miller. Or are +you really Brann?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller had the curious sensation in his +brain that both he and Llesi had actually +moved in the center of his skull, as he spun +toward the dark tree where she stood watching.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How long have you been here, child?” +Llesi said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Long enough. I saw the cloudy thing +coming in the Pool. I know what we’ve got +to face—but not with treachery to make it +even worse than it is. Oh, Llesi, won’t you +let me kill him?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not yet,” Llesi said with a deadly sort of +practicality. “Not yet, because you need me +in the fight, and I’m helpless without this +man. Nor am I wholly sure he can’t be +trusted, Orelle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I heard what he was trying to suggest. +Something treacherous—some way to help +Brann win at last. Llesi, I’m afraid! This +isn’t safe. I—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A flash of soundless white light without +warning illumined the garden and the whole +castle around it, so that every figure stood +out in abrupt silhouette against the whiteness. +As suddenly as it came, it went out, +leaving momentary blindness behind it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle caught her breath and said, “The +signal! Llesi—hurry! Whatever it is, it +must be almost here!”</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER VI<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>Invasion</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>They saw it first far off on the plain, +moving toward them through the clear +darkness. At first it seemed only a mist +that drifted with the wind but, when the +wind shifted, the grey fog came on. Its heart +was thicker and dimly the eye could glimpse +intricate matrices of light far inside the +cloud, glittering patterns like diamond cobwebs +arranged in lattice formations.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller and Orelle, with Llesi a bodiless +awareness beside them, stood at a glass wall +looking out over the plain toward Brann’s +castle.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Llesi breathed softly. “I know that pattern. +It’s a bad one. The thing’s brain and control +and energy-source are in the bright +matrix you see. Watch now.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The lattices shifted into new geometric +formations and out of the cloud rippling, +soft grey tentacles thrust, thickening as they +moved.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“That would be stronger than iron once it +took shape,” Llesi was saying. “The pseudopod +principle, of course. It will be a hard +thing to fight.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They stood watching in silence while the +grey cloud flowed forward with increasing +speed until it was nearly within reaching +distance of the castle. Far off, across the valley, +the lights of Brann’s walls watched like +eyes. Miller spoke impatiently.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Aren’t you going to do anything? Can’t +you stop the thing?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I could. But I want to see what new ideas +Brann has incorporated into this. It’s better +to know than to guess. If I destroy this he’ll +just send another. I’m going to let it try the +gate.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The cloud flowed up to the outer wall. . . +paused . . . seemed to be considering the +massive glass barrier before it. Then the +lattices rearranged, glittering. A finger of +greyness reached out, seeped through the +crack between gate and wall.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Metal groaned in the quiet of the night. +That tiny pseudopod was expanding with +monstrous force. The gate shivered, crumpled—gave +way.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Radiant shimmers of color flared down +from the walls upon the cloudy thing as +Llesi’s batteries went into action at last. In +his own brain Miller could feel Llesi’s tense +watchfulness as he waited to see how the +creature would meet them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Its lattice-work heart shifted like a kaleidoscope. +The clouds thickened, grew dark. It +shrank—expanded again—and moved on +into the castle, a wreathed thing of velvety +blackness that swallowed up the attacking +lights and ignored them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now they lost sight of it but they could +hear, partly through the vibrations of the +castle walls themselves and partly through +the confused mental cries of the people +below them, the progress the machine was +making. A transparent wall gave way before +it and the crash of the collapse sent a +terrible, ringing music all through the castle. +There was the silent voiceless cry of a man +caught in its unimaginable grip—a cry that +shivered up to an unbearable peak in the +brains of all who heard, and then went +silent with a suddenness that made the +listeners reel.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle seized Miller’s arm in a tight grip. +“Come with me,” she said. “Hurry!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She was half-running as she led the way +through the dark castle which was yet so +clearly visible to the sight. The confusing +halls were strange to him but before they +reached their goal Miller was leading the +way, Llesi in his brain sending out the +mental orders that guided him, so that the +corridors and doors and sloping glass ramps +seemed to swing around and to fly open before +him without the need of knowledge on +his part.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was pandemonium below. Miller +could feel the tension in Llesi’s mind and in +Orelle’s as they raced toward the breached +wall of their fortress. Llesi was unsure.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Maybe this is the one,” he said, half to +himself, as the translucent walls spun past. +“Maybe this one we can’t fight.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>More than one wall had been breached by +the time they reached the scene of the fight. +The castle was filled with the jangling, musical +crashes of shattered glass and the cries—some +of them vocal cries now—of the defenders. +But from the attacking machine +itself no sound came.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller saw it through jagged walls and +over the heads of the castle’s men—a great +coagulated cloud, velvet-soft and iron-hard, +the colored lights of the defenders’ strange +weapons beating upon it in vain. There were +colors in the weapons such as Miller had +never seen.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Photon showers,” Llesi told him briefly. +“Very high-frequency light waves with an +energy increase great enough to utilize the +mass of the light. Those latticed patterns +would be smashed by the impact—if we +could reach them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“When you deal with anything as delicate +as this you need a delicate weapon. The lattices +would be impervious to heavy weapons +but the mass of light itself could crush the +patterns if I had some way to penetrate the +cloud.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The photons should do it,” Orelle said in +a worried voice. “Always before—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Brann has something new this time.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The cloud rolled on. Through the shattered +walls they saw it engulf the men in its +path, moving like a velvet-soft juggernaut +that crushed all before it. It pressed its misty +surface against another wall—there was a +surging all through the mass and, briefly, a +pattern of clouded lights glimmered deep in +the smoky bulk.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The castle rang with the jangled music of +another falling wall.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s making straight for the Power,” +Orelle said, quietly now. “Llesi, you’ve got +to stop it.”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller felt in his own brain Llesi’s +rapid, orderly thoughts, marshalling +the facts and measuring against them his +varied resources. Then, decisively, he spoke.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We must get to the Power first. I can stop +it but we’ll have to hurry.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>To Miller it seemed as if the castle spun +around him again as, in obedience to the +orders in his brain, he whirled and ran with +Orelle at his heels. The corridors opened +up before them, unfamiliar pathways looking +strangely familiar to the double vision in +his mind. Another wall smashed into ringing +fragments behind them as they ran.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>With his new night-sight Miller could see +a long way through the translucent walls +of the glass castle. Lights had been kindled +through the building now so that the glimmers, +far and near, reflecting beyond intervening +barriers, made the whole castle glow +bewilderingly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But ahead of them, growing larger as they +neared, was one part of the building that +even this new sight could not penetrate. It +was a great cube whose walls gave back the +vision opaquely, as it loomed before them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle pushed past him as they reached it, +spread both hands flat upon the dark surface. +It parted before her, melting away as +the other walls melted to admit entry, and +she pressed through into the hidden room. +Miller followed her, his brain spinning with +his own curiosity and the complicated planning +of Llesi who shared it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Afterward Miller could never remember +clearly what he had seen in that great dark +room. He had only an impression in retrospect +of an immense number of delicate +shining things that might have been instruments—of +countless rows of containers over +which light seemed to ripple and play from +within the colored holders, like votive lights +seen far off down the aisle of a cathedral—of +things without name or recognizable +shape. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the center of the room, hanging in the +heart of a filligreed framework which it did +not seem to touch anywhere, a clear transparent +cube three feet through floated free. +Within it a tilted halo of—of stars?—rotated +slowly through the solid substance of the +block. And very faintly, Miller thought he +could hear music as it turned, the same music +he had caught from the night sky, subsonic +but still perceptible to his new senses.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The Power,” Orelle said, nodding toward +the cube.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller went forward slowly until he stood +by the delicate framework within which the +block floated. He could feel a slight pressure +constantly beating out from the rotating +stars, and at the same time a slight equal +suction—an impossible sort of double force +that did not equalize itself but kept him in +a continual state of muscular readjustment +to balance the opposite pulls while he stood +within its range.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was trying to control the excitement +that poured through him at his nearness to +this unimaginable thing he had come so far +to find. Slade would give all he had to +possess it for, inexplicable as it was, there +was a harnessed power in the mysterious +thing unlike any power at man’s disposal in +the lower world beyond Peak Seven Hundred.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then, in his brain, Llesi said impatiently, +“Later you can examine it. I need you now, +if we’re going to stop Brann’s beast. Turn +around—go to the far wall, reach up to that +container of blue light and. . . .”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller’s conscious mind ceased to make +sense out of the orders Llesi gave it but his +body was obedient. He did not try to resist. +He relaxed his own will and allowed Llesi +full control, so that he was only dimly aware +of what his body did in the next few minutes. +His hands were busy, and there was an intense, +quiet activity in his mind.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>An activity that gradually began to slow. +Lights swelled and sank beneath his busy +fingers. Heat and cold and other stranger +sensations he could not name bathed his +hands and arms, beat against his intent face +bent above them. But into his mind slowly a +sense of frustration crept.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He made an effort to bring his own mind +back into focus and asked Llesi a quick +mental question.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know,” Llesi’s mind replied. “It +isn’t easy. I think I can stop the thing but +at a cost we can scarcely afford. And I could +only do it once. Brann will know that. He’ll +have only to send another just like it and—” +The thought blanked out as if even in his +subconsciousness Llesi did not want to shape +the end of that idea.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller put forth greater effort and shrugged +off the inertia of his mind which had been +necessary while Llesi worked. He was keenly +alert now. He had a job to do.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Will you listen to me?” he asked. “I think +I’ve got an answer—if you’ll trust me.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Llesi’s reply was wary but there was +eagerness in it too. “What do you want us to +do?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Tell me first—can you duplicate this +Power source?”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>With a double accord both Llesi and +Miller turned to gaze at the floating +cube with its lazily rotating halo of glittering +light.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I can, yes,” Llesi said. “Why?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Easily? Soon?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not in time to stop Brann’s creature, no. +It would take several hours.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Then,” Miller said, bracing himself for +the storm he knew must follow his suggestion, +“then I think you’ll have to let the +thing downstairs take your Power and carry +it back to Brann.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a mental explosion of fury and +refusal.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>After it had died down, while Orelle still +gazed at him with burning dark eyes full +of distrust and hatred, and Llesi still smouldered +angry thoughts in his brain, Miller +went on.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know—I know. In your place I’d feel +the same. But look at it dispassionately if +you can. Brann has you where he wants you +now. You can only drive off this mechanism +downstairs once and Brann can send another +to take the Power source anyhow. If +you stay passive you’re beaten. But listen +to me—and maybe you can still win. Attack! +Let the Power go—but follow it.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was silence for a moment, while the +two others digested this idea. Then Orelle +said, “We could only follow to Brann’s walls. +We’ve never been able to get into his castle +and—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Don’t you see, this is the only way! He’ll +have to make room for the cube of the Power +to enter. If we follow, there ought to be a +way for us to force an entry too. Especially +if he doesn’t suspect. Oh, I know—you think +I <span class='it'>am</span> Brann. I wish there were some way to—wait! +Could you read my mind if I opened +it to you? Would you believe me then?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Slowly Orelle said, “I think it might be +possible. Are you willing to let me try?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller hesitated for a moment. There is a +curious reluctance in the human mind to +strip aside the last dark barrier that separates +each individual from the world he +lives in. The privacy of the mind is so jealously +guarded a secret that not even if a man +wills it can he wholly bare his thoughts to +another. But unless Miller let Orelle into +those innermost chambers there was little +hope of success for any of them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If I don’t,” he thought, “Brann will win, +in the end. And if he wins—well, I have +more to lose than anyone here.” Aloud, in +his mental voice, he said to Orelle, “Yes—try +if you’re able.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She smiled a little. “Let your mind go +blank. Don’t offer any resistance—no, none +at all—you <span class='it'>are</span> resisting me, Miller. Let me +have the truth. Brann—Brann . . . are you +Brann? I must know. . . .”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Her eyes held his and, as they had done +once before, began to grow larger and larger +until they blotted out the room and were a +dark pool in which his consciousness was +sinking. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Thank you,” Orelle said quietly. “I’m +sorry. You were telling me the truth all +along—unless you’re more cunning than I +think you are and know how to hide your +secrets even deeper than the unconscious +mind. I see that you mean us well. I see +another thing, too—why you came here.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes. You had to know that anyhow. It +was why I asked about duplicating the +Power cube.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He wants to take it away with him, +Llesi,” Orelle said and for the first time Miller +realized that Orelle had been in even +closer communion with his mind than Llesi +himself, who dwelt in its very center. For +Llesi had not seen the depths of it—he did +not know what Orelle knew now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“To take it away?” Llesi demanded, incredulity +in his thought. “But—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” Orelle said quickly. “We could +arrange for that, Llesi. If this plan works +well owe him more reward than that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“But Orelle,” Llesi persisted, “doesn’t he +understand? Doesn’t he know that—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The thought ceased abruptly, and Miller +had the uneasy feeling that the two were +communicating on some higher plane of +silence where he could not follow them. He +was suddenly uneasy. There was something +here he didn’t understand. The two of them +knew something—about himself?—that he +did not yet know, something that affected his +future intimately.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What is it?” he demanded. “If I help you, +I’ve a right to know.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle turned to him, her dark eyes gentle +now, the hatred and mistrust gone out of +them. “There isn’t time,” she said. “Listen.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Far off, but audible through the opaque +walls, the tinkle of falling glass came clearly +to them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s the machine,” Llesi said. “We haven’t +time to waste now. If we follow your plan +we mustn’t let it win too easily or Brann will +suspect. Do you have any ideas of what to +do after we enter Brann’s castle?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not yet,” Miller said almost absently. +He was thinking hard about the strange +little passage just ended. Until this moment +he had not dared offer to open his whole +mind for their inspection, because he had had +nothing to bargain with. Inevitably Orelle +would have seen that he wanted the Power +and he had nothing to offer in return—until +now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Well, it was a success in one way, but in +another—failure? He couldn’t be sure. Oddly +the balance had shifted and it was he who +mistrusted his companions and they who +believed at last that he could be depended +on. Certainly they were hiding something +vital from him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not yet,” he said again, forcing his mind +to take up the immediate problem as the +jangle of another falling barrier came more +loudly through the walls. “I only know it’s +easier to work on inspiration when you’re +on the offensive—and once in Brann’s castle, +we’ll need inspiration!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Brann’s—unbalanced. We know that. +Push him farther off balance by attacking +and maybe we’ll have an advantage. You +know, there must be something important +he’s hiding or he wouldn’t operate from the +dark as he does. If we can see him face to +face—well, who knows?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“When you say ‘we’,” Orelle interrupted, +“whom do you mean?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Myself. Llesi and me.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“And Orelle,” the girl said quietly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Of course not! It’s going to be dangerous. +Besides—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“No more dangerous to go than to wait for +Brann’s vengeance if you fail. Tsi is my +sister. I think I can control her and that +should be a weapon you may need. You can’t +take more than one or two with you if you +hope to get in secretly so an army would do +no good. But one companion—I think I could +be useful to you, Miller.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Llesi,” Miller said to the voice in his +brain, “what do you think?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was silence for a moment. “Let her +come,” Llesi said. “What she says about Tsi +is true enough. We may need her.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the quiet a musical ringing of more +breaking glass sounded clearer than before.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It’s coming,” Llesi said. “Now we have +work to do. Are you ready, Miller? Take +down that lens mounted on the tesseract and +do as I tell you. We mustn’t let the machine +win without a struggle. . . .”</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER VII<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>Battle of the Titans</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>In the light of earliest dawn they could +see it rolling toward them far off across +the plain. Crouching under the loom of +Brann’s castle walls, Miller and Orelle waited +almost in silence. It had seemed wisest to +hurry ahead by teleportation and take shelter +while Brann was presumably occupying all +his powers with the direction of his mechanical +warrior as it broke down the walls of the +Power chamber and seized at last the thing +he had sought so long.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Now the two watchers—three, for Llesi +waited in Miller’s brain—saw the lazily +turning halo of pointed lights which was the +Power glowing through the cloudiness of +the machine that carried it. Faintly the +soundless music of its turning floated to their +ears.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“We’ll have no time to waste,” Llesi +warned them. “Brann’s wanted the Power +for a purpose, you know. Once he learns how +to use it there’ll be no hope of controlling +him. Whatever we do we must do fast.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Can he learn quickly how to operate it?” +Miller asked.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You’re thinking of yourself.” Llesi +sounded amused. “Yes, it can be mastered +without too much difficulty. But don’t think +about it now, Miller. You have our promise. +Be content with that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller stirred restlessly. “You’re hiding +something. I’ve opened my mind to you, +Orelle. If I deserve any reward for what +I’m helping you do I deserve the truth from +you. What is it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle shook her head. “Don’t ask us now. +I’ll tell you if we come out of this alive. +But it will only distract you now. I promise +you it’s nothing that will affect our plans to +conquer Brann. You need all your thoughts +to do that. Afterward there’ll be time to talk +of other things. Look—it’s nearly here. I +wonder where Brann means to let it into the +castle.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The music of the turning stars was clearer +now. Miller could feel remotely that extraordinary +attraction-repulsion action which +the Power constantly exerted—it was so near +to them as they crouched in hiding. The +machine rolled its cloudy bulk past them, +almost brushing their faces with the periphery +of its mist, and moved up over the +jumble of rocks that bordered Brann’s castle.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It pressed close against the surface of the +wall. Light glowing down from that extraordinary +barrier which ran like water and +shone like fire cast colored shadows upon the +mist, so that it was like a cumulus of sunset-lighted +cloud as it flattened itself against +the wall.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller could see Orelle’s anxious face +lighted with strange hues from the water-wall +as she watched. He held his breath.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Within the sunset cloud patterns of latticed +diamond moved and shifted. The wall surface +dimmed as if a breath had blown upon it. +Darkness grew where the dimness was—and +suddenly a door had opened in the +streaming water-light of the barrier.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Now!” Llesi breathed. “Now—follow it +in!” She rushed forward.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was one breathless, heart-stopping +moment when the rocks turned beneath their +feel and Orelle, stumbling, nearly fell. The +darkness of the opened door was already +beginning to mist over with solidity when +they reached it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Dangerous.” Llesi’s thought flashed +through Miller’s brain, lightning-like, far +faster than it takes to express in words. “If +we miss the turn of the wall-substance we’ll +be caught in the solid mass. Hurry! Never +mind making a noise. Hurry!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was like pushing through a thin jelly +of darkness that gave way readily enough +but thickened perceptibly even as they +moved. “Don’t breathe!” Llesi warned them. +“Hold your breath if you can—I think you’ll +be through in a moment.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The substance of the wall was a stiff, +scarcely yielding stuff by the time they +pushed free into clear air. They had made it +with nothing to spare. Orelle reached back +to touch the surface with a wondering hand +as soon as she caught her breath, and the +way they had come was already a solid +resilient surface that lost its resilience as +she pressed it and became hard unyielding +wall again.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They stood in a steeply sloping corridor +that echoed with the thin voiceless music of +the Power. Ahead of them the slowly spinning +stars were visible through cloudy grey +moving rapidly up the ramp away from +them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Silently they followed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They were far down under the main floors +of the castle. On their left, as they climbed +the steep ramp, the wall of flowing light +moved ceaselessly, tracing their shadows in +the inner wall of the corridor.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Somewhere there must be guards,” +Orelle said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I’d feel better if we’d seen some before +now,” Llesi told them uneasily. “I have a +feeling Brann may be more omniscient than +we know.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The ramp came to a steep end and turned +back upon itself in a second long zig-zag +rise. They toiled up in the wake of the +cloudy robot that carried the Power. Still +no guards.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The ramp zig-zagged twice more and then +there was a great open area, like a spacious +chimney, rising overhead. The ramp had +ended. Lightly, like the cloud it was, the +robot left the ground. Teleportation carried +it out of sight with startling swiftness. From +high above the sound of voices drifted down +the well, laughter, music.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Without a word Orelle put out her arm +and clasped Miller’s hand. A moment later +the ground no longer pressed his feet. The +light-wall slid down past them like a Niagara +of colored water.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>The hall in which Brann held court was +a vast domed circle. In the center of it +rose a dais—and over the dais a curtain of +darkness hung in straight columnar folds +from the great height of the ceiling, veiling +the platform. On its steps a woman was sitting, +a stringed instrument on her knee. +Rainbow hair swung forward about her +shoulders as she bent her head and swept +a hand across the strings. Wild, high music +rang through the room.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Someone called, “Brann! Where is Brann?” +and the woman looked up, smiling. It was +Tsi.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’ll be here. He’s coming. He expects +guests,” she said and looked straight across +the room toward the far wall where, in an +alcove, the robot stood motionless, enshrouding +the Power in a misty cloud.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Behind the robot, huddled against the alcove +wall, Miller felt Orelle’s fingers tighten +upon his. So long as the robot stood quiet, +they were hidden behind its foggy outlines. +When it moved—</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“She means us,” Orelle whispered. “I +know Tsi. What shall we do?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Wait,” Llesi counseled. “Listen.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>In the great room beyond, where Brann’s +court of brilliantly robed men and women +lounged on divans that seemed cushioned +with substance as immaterial as mist, a discontented +cry was beginning to rise. Many +mental voices blended in the clamor now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Brann! Call him up, Tsi, call him up! +Tell him the robot’s here. We want Brann +again!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi swept the strings musically. “He’s still +asleep, down below,” she said. “I’m not sure +if I dare wake him yet. Shall I try?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Go down and call him,” someone urged, +petulance in the voice that spoke. “We’ve +waited too long already. Call him, Tsi!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi smiled. “His visitors must be here by +now,” she said maliciously. “Yes, I’ll go down +and waken Brann.” She laid the harp on the +steps and rose.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>At the same moment Miller felt a surge +of force suddenly burst into blinding violence +in the center of his brain. For an instant he +was stunned by the power that seemed to +pour tangibly forth from him and through +him. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The robot that had screened them from +view rose from the floor, lightly as a cloud, +drifted forward over the heads of the gaping +audience and turned suddenly incandescent +just above the dais where Tsi stood.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller knew it was Llesi’s doing, even +before the quiet voice in his brain said, “This +is the best way, after all. Attack. You were +right, Miller. Now watch.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The robot was pure flame now. With a +detached part of his mind Miller understood +that it must have been deactivated once its +mission was completed, so that any mind +which teleported it now could do with it as +it would. Llesi chose to destroy it in as +spectacular a manner as he could contrive.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Out of the blinding cloud of its dissolution +the cube of the Power fell, the singing halo +in it turning with slow, indifferent steadiness. +The transparent block struck the steps a yard +from where Tsi stood. It struck—and crashed +through, splitting the white marble from top +to floor. Tsi staggered.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The crash rang from the high vaults above, +rebounding from arch to arch in distant, +diminishing echoes that came slowly back to +the watcher below, long after the dais had +ceased to vibrate.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi recovered her balance, turned on the +shattered steps, looked straight across the +hall to the alcove where Miller and Orelle +stood.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She was shaken but she had not lost her +poise.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Sister!” she said, “Welcome to Brann’s +castle. Shall I call him to greet you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>From Orelle a strong steady thought went +out, compelling and quiet.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Tsi, sister, you must do as you think best. +Is it best for us that Brann be called?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The woman on the dais hesitated. Miller +could see that the quiet confidence in Orelle’s +mental voice has shaken her a little. He +knew now what Orelle had meant when she +said she could control Tsi.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was a simple matter of sister speaking +to sister with the voice of authority, calling +back to mind the precepts of conscience and +childhood training. Tsi was not, he thought, +evil as Brann was evil. She was weak, certainly—and +perhaps the weakness would +stand them in good stead.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>She said uncertainly, “Orelle, I think perhaps—” +But the voices from the audience +around her, rising with sudden violence, +drowned out whatever it was she meant to +say. Miller was reminded of Roman audiences +clamoring for blood in the arena.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Brann, <span class='it'>Brann</span>!” the voices howled. +“Waken Brann! Go call him up to meet his +guests! <span class='it'>Brann</span>, waken from your sleep! +Brann, <span class='it'>Brann</span>, do you hear us?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi hesitated a moment longer. Miller was +aware of a desperate stream of thought-waves +pouring out from Orelle beside him +but the noise of the assembled people was +too strong for her. She could not get through +to her sister. Tsi turned suddenly, putting +both hands to her face, and stumbled up the +broken steps toward the dais.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The long curtains that hung a hundred +feet or more from the height of the ceiling +trembled down all their dark length as she +put them aside and vanished into the big +tent they made, hiding the platform.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a moment’s profound silence.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then Miller said quietly to Orelle, “Come +on,” and, seizing her hand, strode forward +across the floor. He had no idea what he +meant to do but if he had come to attack +then attack he must—not stand waiting for +Brann to make an entrance on his throne.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Heads turned avidly to watch their +progress across the great room. No +one made a move to block their way, but +eager eyes watched every motion they made +and searched their faces for expression. This +was the audience, Miller thought grimly, that +would have watched Brann’s terrible “experiments” +upon him if he had not escaped from +the castle—with Tsi’s help. It was the audience, +he realized, that might yet watch, if he +failed.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Llesi was silent in his brain, waiting.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>They were almost at the steps when the +curtains stirred as if a breath of wind had +blown through the hall. Tsi’s voice came +weakly from the hidden place, “Wait, Brann—you +mustn’t—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But drowning out the feeble protest another +voice sounded clear. Miller, hearing +that thin, sweet, sneering pattern which was +the mental voice he had heard before, the +voice of Brann, felt a chill sliding down his +spine and a tightening of all his muscles. It +was a hateful, a frightening voice, evoking +a picture of a hateful man.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Come out, Brann!” Miller said strongly. +“Unless you’re afraid of us—come out!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Behind him in the hall two or three intrepid +voices echoed the invitation. “Come +out Brann! Let us see you. You aren’t +afraid, Brann—come out!” He knew from +that how high curiosity must run even in +Brann’s stronghold and he realized that not +even here, then, had Brann ever yet showed +his face. It made him a little more confident. +If Brann had so much to hide, then, there +must be weaknesses behind that curtain +upon which he could play.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He said, “Here’s the Power you wanted, +Brann. We broke your platform but here it +is waiting. Do you dare come out and look +at it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann said nothing. But his thin, sardonic +laughter rang silently through the hall.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller felt it rasping his nerves like something +tangible. He said roughly, “All right +then—I’ll come and bring you out!” And he +set his foot firmly on the lowest step.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A breath of excitement and anticipation +ran rippling through the hall. Llesi was still +silent. Orelle’s hand in Miller’s squeezed his +fingers reassuringly. He mounted the second +step, reached out his free hand for the curtain. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a deep, wrenching sound of +stone against stone, and under his feet the +steps lurched sickeningly. And then he was +falling.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The walls spun. The floor tilted up to +strike him a solid blow—that did not touch +him. For some firm, supporting mind closed +its protection around his body and he floated +gently a dozen feet and came to solid footing +again, dazed but unhurt.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The marble block of steps lay upturned +upon the floor. Teleportation again, he realized. +Brann had uprooted the steps he had +climbed to prevent him from reaching the +curtain. And someone—Llesi or Orelle—had +reached out a mental beam to teleport him to +safety.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann’s cold clear laughter rang silently +through the hall. He had not yet spoken. He +did not speak now but his derision was like +vitriol to the ears and the mind. Brann was +waiting. . . . Somehow Miller could sense +that, as he waited, an eagerness and impatience +went out from him toward that block +of transparence on the broken steps, where +the halo of the Power revolved on its singing +axis.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Llesi realized it in the same instant and +Miller felt in his brain the beginnings of +some plan take shape—too late. For now +there was a strange heaviness in the very air +about him—a familiar heaviness. . . . This +was the weapon Brann had used on him once +before, turning the air itself to a crushing +weight that had all but smashed his ribs in +upon the laboring lungs.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He felt his knees buckle under that sudden, +overwhelming pressure. The air screamed +around him and the vast hanging curtains of +the dais billowed with a serpentine motion +as displaced air moved with hurricane suddenness +through the great room. Miller’s +breath was stopped in his chest by that unbearable +pressure. His ears sang and the +room swam redly before him. Brann’s careless +laughter was a distant ripple of sound.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Power from outside himself gathered in +Miller’s brain, gathered and spilled over in a +wave like molten flame. He felt it gush out +toward the platform where Brann sat hidden. +But he was blind and deaf with the +crushing weight of that suddenly ponderable +air.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Even above his own deafness and the +shriek of the unnatural wind in the room he +heard the scream of riven marble. And the +weight upon him lessened a little. He could +see again. He could see the great block of +stone uprooted with jagged edges from the +broken floor at the foot of Brann’s dais.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It seemed to tear itself free, to leap into the +air of its own volition—to hurtle toward +Brann’s curtains as if Brann’s castle itself +had suddenly turned upon him with great +jagged stone fangs. In his brain Miller could +feel the tremendous, concentrated effort of +Llesi’s teleportation, balancing the marble +weapon and guiding it on its course.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The weight upon him ceased abruptly. The +release was so sudden that the congested +blood drained from Miller’s brain and for an +instant the great room swam before him. In +that moment of faltering the hurtling marble +fragment faltered too and Llesi and Miller +together struggled with the faintness of +Miller’s overtaxed brain.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann seized the opening that brief +hesitation gave him. He could not stop +the flying weapon but he could block it. . . . +A broken segment of the marble steps flew +up in the path of the oncoming boulder, +grated against it, deflected its course.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The two struck together upon the dais +steps and thundered down them with a +ponderous sort of deliberation, bounding +from step to step, their echoes rolling from +the high ceiling. They went crashing across +the floor, ploughing into the divans where +Brann’s court had lain watching this unexpected +sight.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The screams of the watchers as the great +marble blocks rolled down upon them added +a frenzied accompaniment to the echoes of +thunder wakened by the stone itself. The +room was a tumult of sound re-echoing upon +sound.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller felt a renewed outpouring of Llesi’s +power move in his brain. He saw a gigantic +marble pillar across the room stagger suddenly +on its base, crack across, lean majestically +outward and fall. But it did not +strike the floor. Instead it hurtled headlong, +jagged end first, toward the dais.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Above it the ceiling buckled. There was a +terrible shriek of metal upon stone as the +vaulted roof gave way. But the falling debris, +in turn, did not strike the floor. Deflected in +a rain of shattered marble, it moved to intercept +the flying pillar. Column and broken +stone together crashed to the ground at the +very foot of Brann’s dais.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The great hall was full of the shrieks of +the scattering court, the cries of men caught +beneath the falling ceiling, the uproar of echo +upon echo as Brann’s throne room collapsed +in thunderous noise upon its own floor.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>When the thunder ceased all who could +flee had vanished. Half the ceiling lay in +fragments upon the floor and Miller stood +dizzily looking up at the dais whose long +curtains still billowed in the wind. Brann was +silent for a moment as if gathering his resources +for another try. And Llesi was +whispering,</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“My strength is failing, Miller. I can’t keep +it up much longer. I’m going to try one last +thing. I’ve got to know what it is Brann’s hiding. +Help me if you can—and watch!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>For an instant there was silence. Then, +from far overhead, a long shudder began and +rippled down the length of those vast hanging +curtains which shrouded Brann’s dais. +Stone groaned deeply upon stone in the +ceiling.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>From the hidden platform Brann shrieked +a soundless, “<span class='it'>No!</span>” as the block from which +the curtains hung tore itself free of the vault +above and came crashing down to rebound +from the shattering pavement.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The curtains themselves fell far more +slowly. Like smoke they wavered in the air, +collapsing softly, deliberately, parting to one +side and the other. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller could see Brann trying to stop that +fall. Invisibly the forces of his mind seemed +to claw at their drifting lengths. But there +was something wrong now in Brann’s mind. +Even Miller could sense it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A dissolution was taking place that the +mind felt and shrank from. Something worse +than hysteria, more frightening than fear itself. +Llesi was suddenly intent and Orelle +caught her breath.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Like smoke the last fragments of the curtains +parted, lying to left and right along the +broken floor, far out, in long swaths of +shadow.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>On the platform stood Brann. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The figure that had terrorized such a +multitude for so long stood swaying, clutching +a black cloak about it as if to hide the +shape of the body beneath. The face was +contorted into a terrible grimace of anger +and cold grinning hate. But the face itself +was one they had all seen before.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>It was the face of Tsi.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Her eyes were closed. She did not look at +them nor speak nor move. And, Miller +thought to himself, as Brann perhaps she +had never opened her eyes. As Brann perhaps +that grimace of chill hate always distorted +her features. For it was clear to them +all now that Tsi was mad.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Schizophrenia,” Miller thought automatically. +“Split personality.” But there was +no answering thought from Llesi or from +Orelle. Stunned amazement held them both +frozen.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi turned her unseeing eyes to Orelle. In +Brann’s thin, cold, high-pitched voice-pattern +she said, “Now you know. Now +you’ve seen Brann. But before I kill you +both, tell me—Orelle, <span class='it'>where is Tsi?</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller felt a cold shudder ripple over him.</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER VIII<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>The Consuming Fire</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>At the same moment he realized that +Orelle and Llesi could not help him +against—Brann. Their thoughts came into +his mind with a stunned, incredulous tinge +of astonishment, a blank bafflement that, +strangely, seemed to leave them helpless. +And Miller thought he knew why.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle and Llesi and all their race had +been conditioned to mental perfection. Never +before in their history, he sensed, had there +been any case of mental aberration. The +race had been too perfect for that. And now, +faced with the pattern of schizophrenic split-personality, +they were utterly unable to comprehend +its meaning. It was too alien to +them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Insanity had never before existed in +Orelle’s race.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller sent a frantic message to Llesi—inchoate +confused memory-pictures from his +scant knowledge of psycho-therapy. But +Llesi did not understand. Instead he suddenly +closed his mind. And, beside Miller, +Orelle, too, closed her mind against a concept +so shocking to this race that worshiped +mental perfection that they could not consciously +face it.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The blind figure on the dais bent forward. +“Orelle. . . .” it said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>So Brann did not know that the other half +of his mind belonged to Tsi. Naturally! +Brann would not know that he was a half, +an incomplete split personality. Nor would +Tsi know that Brann was part of herself. +What curious warp in the inherited genes +had brought about this cleavage Miller never +knew, but he did not think about that now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He stepped forward.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Brann!” he called.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“So you are back.” The thought came +coldly into his mind. “Well, the machine I +tricked you into carrying failed to kill Llesi +but I’ll remedy that soon enough. As for +you. . . .” Thin mental laughter mocked +Miller.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He felt sweat crawling down his forehead. +“Wait,” he thought urgently. “I can tell you +where Tsi is.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He sensed a hesitancy and then an urgent, +straining question.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Where? <span class='it'>Where is she?</span>”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You are—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller felt the mind on the dais close swiftly +against the thought. Brann would not let +himself listen to the truth. He could not.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann thought. “Well? Answer me?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Troubled, uncomprehending, Orelle and +Llesi waited and listened. And suddenly +Miller knew the answer. He unbuckled the +wrist-watch from his arm. Orelle had returned +it to him, the deadly lightning machine +removed. As a timepiece it was +useless but habit had made Miller keep the +watch.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Take this,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann—Tsi—waited.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller held it up. “It’s not dangerous any +more. Can’t you tell that?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“A trick. You know nothing of what I wish +to know. Why should I waste time on any +of you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If you want to find Tsi,” Miller thought, +“you must take this thing. Unless you’re +afraid to find her.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The watch spun from his hand and shot +glittering across the room. It was in Brann’s +hand.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller drew a long breath. “Turn it over. +That’s it. Hold it up before your face. Yes. +Now . . . open your eyes.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“My eyes will not open.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Open them!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“They have never opened.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tension sang through the still air. Miller +felt Orelle’s sudden movement toward him.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“If you open your eyes you will find Tsi.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>That was the gap in the armor. That was +the one thing that could pierce Brann’s insane +half-mind. The blind white eyelids +quivered . . . the long lashes lifted, slowly, +slowly. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann’s eyes looked into the polished steel +back of the watch. In that tiny mirror +Brann’s eyes looked into—Tsi’s!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi’s eyes—wide, horrified—stared into +Brann’s!</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was no protection against the mental +avalanche that roared out from that rocking, +screaming mind—the two minds—in the single +body of Tsi. For the first time Brann saw +the girl he had searched for since his strange +birth. And for the first time Tsi saw her own +face twisted, distorted, into the grimace of +chilly hatred that was irrevocably stamped +on Brann’s features.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But what Miller felt was—pity. It was the +basic principle of mental therapy—making +the patient face his problem squarely. But +no ordinary human schizophrenic had ever +thus had the curtains of his brain ripped +away with such sudden violence. The normal +human brain has automatic safeguards +against such intrusion.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Tsi was of another race—a race mentally +developed to a tremendously high standard. +She had been warped before birth though +the madness had remained latent for a long +time—but her mind was nevertheless powerful +enough to be able to face the shocking +incredible truth.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>She had never been evil, as was Brann—weak, +yes, but incapable of that cold +cruelty her alter ego loved.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Face to face, for a thunderous, eternity-long +instant, the two stood—good and evil +mated, monstrously wedded in one body and +one brain. The silence roared.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then the hand that held the mirror +dropped. The face of Tsi swung round so +that her mad, wild, terrified eyes met Miller’s—and +he read destruction there. The double +mind looked out of those eyes into his and +for an instant it was as if both Tsi and Brann +spoke to him—as he had first heard them +speaking when he woke in this incredible +world.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>But then they had not known the truth. +It had been a split mind talking to itself, +good and evil debating together and not +guessing they were housed in a single brain. +Now they knew. At some point in the past +the evil inherent in Tsi had lost its battle +with the good in her—and pulled free of the +control of her conscious mind. It had called +itself by a new name, given itself a masculine +identity to disguise its origin still further, +grown so strong that not even Tsi could +control it any longer.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Brann was abhorrent to Tsi. And to Brann +the knowledge that Tsi was himself was a +thing he could not face. The split mind, +rocking on its foundation, reached out into +Miller’s mind with a mad destructive violence.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You brought ruin on me!” cried the double +voice. “You wrecked my castle and my +life! You must die and all your kind with +you!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The eyes caught Miller’s in a drowning +stare. He could not look away, and the eyes +were growing larger and larger, engulfing +him in darkness and in the darkness the +madness of two minds swirled terribly, carrying +away his own sanity on those dreadful, +reasonless vortices. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller could no longer see Orelle but he +heard her moan, a soft whimper of helpless +terror. “I can’t—help you,” she was saying +from far away. “I can’t fight the two of +them. Llesi—<span class='it'>Llesi</span>—where are you?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>For a moment there was no answer. The +mad twin-mind buffeted at Miller’s from +both sides at once, pulling it asunder, spinning +in two opposite directions and straining +him apart between them. No single mind +could withstand the doubled strength of that +split brain dragging him down to madness. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And then, suddenly, he was not fighting +alone. Out of the darkness Llesi’s mind came +swiftly, intangibly, yet with a strength as if +the man himself had set his shoulder against +Miller’s, bracing him against the whirlpool +whose vortex led down to insanity.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Perhaps no other mind in existence could +have stood against the riven mind of Brann-Tsi. +But in Miller’s brain too a double mind +had been housed—his own and Llesi’s. They +had learned to work together. And now they +could fight. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a voiceless scream of fury—Brann’s +thin, high, sweet-toned rage. And +the buffeting redoubled from two sides at +once. But now there were two minds to meet +the attack. Miller drew a deep breath and +set himself stubbornly against the whirling +drag that was pulling him down to darkness. +He could feel the strong resistance of Llesi’s +mind, fighting beside his own, struggling +hard against the double pull.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>For a timeless moment the vortex held +them both. In that roaring silence, while +madness raved about them, neither side +seemed able to shake the others. Attacker +and attacked stood matched so perfectly that +the balance might have held forever with +the fury of the split mind screaming its +soundless cry in infinity.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Then the scream shivered up to a peak of +madness that no sane mind could sustain. +And while the vortex still rang with it . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The robed figure on the dais moved suddenly. +Miller’s blindness lifted again. He +could see the dark robe stream back from +Tsi’s rainbow garments as she plunged down +the steps toward the crystal block, where the +halo of the Power turned in its singing silence.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>A bolt of the mind reached out before her +toward the halo—a summoning bolt. One +quivering thought shook the air of the room. +Death was the thought. Tsi and Brann could +not live together in the same brain and face +the knowledge of their oneness. There was +no choice but death for them now.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The bolt of white lightning blazed up to +meet that plunging figure in answer to its +summons. Blazed up and swallowed Tsi—and +Brann.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There was a shimmer in the air where the +body and the twin mind had hovered. And +then—nothing. . . .</p> + +<div><h1>CHAPTER IX<br/> <span class='sub-head'><span class='it'>Fairy Gold</span></span></h1></div> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller found himself sitting on the +broken marble steps with his head in +his hands. How long a time had passed he +had no idea. Orelle’s touch on his shoulder +made him look up at last. She was smiling a +little but her eyes were grave.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Are you all right now?” she asked. +“You’re safe. We’re all safe, thanks to you. +I’m glad I’ve never known your world if you +could understand a thing like that—that +madness. But I’m glad you did understand it—for +our sakes. You saved us, Miller. You +can ask your own reward.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He looked at her groggily, thinking with +incongruous steadiness that he was probably +suffering from shock now and not really responsible. +But he glanced involuntarily +toward the crystal block of the Power.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle’s smile was sad. “Yes,” she said, +“we can make you a duplicate if you ask us. +But it would be effort wasted in the end.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He stared at her, not understanding. Then +his eyes went beyond her to the shattered +wall and the beautiful shining day outside. +New senses were burgeoning in him and he +could sense in that glittering sunlight colors +and sounds and glories beyond anything +words could tell.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The air was a tangible thing against his +cheek, velvet soft, sweeter than perfume. +He was beginning to perceive new shapes +moving dimly on the edge of vision, as if +there were a whole unknown world just now +slowly unveiling before his freshly opened +eyes.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller laughed suddenly. “I know what +you mean,” he said. “I must be stupid, not to +have seen it until now. Of course I won’t +want a duplicate of the Power. Why should +I? I’m not going back to Slade. I’d be crazy +if I left a paradise like this. What good +would a duplicate do me when I’m staying on +here—forever!”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Orelle shook her shining head. Her eyes +were very sad. In a gentle voice she began to +speak. And Llesi’s voice, gentle too in the +dimness of his mind, spoke with her.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Very quietly they told him the truth.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>“So you know now it was fairy gold,” the +Belgian said, sliding the bottle across the +table. “Well, I could not have made you believe. +You had to experience it yourself.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller looked at nothing.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Van Hornung glanced toward the fire, +shivered and reached out a stubby finger +toward the dull cube on the table between +them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Drink,” he said.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Slowly Miller obeyed. There was a long +silence.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Finally Van Hornung said, “It is—still the +same up there? The castles and the wonderful +people and the—colors? But it would be. +The colors—I was an artist once. I think +the colors meant most to me. There were so +many we do not know.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Orelle told me,” Miller said dully. “I +wouldn’t believe her. I didn’t want to believe +her.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“There are the legends, Miller,” Van +Hornung said. “You and I aren’t the first. +We won’t be the last. There have always been +stories of humans who visit Paradise for a +little while—and leave again. I’m no scientist. +I never knew why—”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller glanced up. His eyes brightened a +little.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“It was an unstable compound,” he said. +“There was an atomic change, you see. The +Path does that. Your atomic structure shifts +to something quite different. When you’re +like that you can talk with your mind, without +words.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I know,” the Belgian said. “I do not talk +much any more. It is never the same, after +that.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Will it ever. . . ?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Van Hornung said quietly, “We were like +gods for a little while. We ate the food of the +gods. Can we expect mortal food to please us +after that?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller nodded in silence. To go back to +his old world, to live his old life would be +meaningless now—like going back to blindness +after knowing sight in a brighter world +than this. He had had a taste of this once, in +Orelle’s castle, while they searched him with +piercing electronic eyes for the weapon he +did not know he carried. That had been an +illusion and a foretaste of this death-in-life +which he must live now until he died—as the +Belgian had been living.</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>He remembered how the mountain-top +world had begun to fade around +him, Orelle’s pitying face growing ghostlike, +the glass walls of her castle turning to mist +and the wonderful nameless colors of her +gardens thinning away to nothingness while +the snow-covered peaks took shape solidly +behind them.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>There had been a little time longer, after +Brann’s defeat, for him to enjoy the last days +of Paradise. He had refused to believe it +could end at all. He had shut his mind to the +instability of his change, to the fact that he +had been himself an isotope created by a +temporary radioactive atomic shift so that, +when the quantum energy was released, the +atomic pattern must revert to its former +state. And in one terrible, fading instant the +familiar prison of his own senses closed +around him once more as the lovely world +of Peak Seven Hundred went volatile and +vanished.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The last thing to go was the little cube +Llesi had made for him with the singing halo +of the Power turning in miniature within it. +When the waste of glacial ice was all that +remained of the invisible castle he went slowly +down the mountain again, walking, he +knew, through fields of glowing flowers he +could never see again. And now it was the +ice and snow that seemed illusion—the vanished +summer world the only real thing in +life.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He kept taking the cube out and looking +at it as he descended the lower slopes. After +awhile it seemed dimmer than he remembered, +the singing fainter. When he reached +the valley the glow was gone entirely. The +cube was non-radioactive lead, inert and +useless. Fairy gold, the legends said, was +glittering in your hands when the immortals +put it there—but when you looked again it +had always turned to leaves and pebbles.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Van Hornung said, “What will you do +now?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller shrugged. “Is anything worth doing?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Not for me, any longer. After you have +seen the colors and used your mind to its +fullest, there is nothing worth the effort of +doing in this world below. Stay with me if +you like. It does not matter.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Behind Miller the door opened quietly. +Slade walked into the room. When he saw +Miller his jaw dropped slightly.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Miller!</span> What’s the matter with you? +When did you get in?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Just now.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Did you get it?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“Get what?” Miller said dully.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“The energy-source!” Slade thrust his face +down to Miller’s, the feral eyes narrowing, +the thin lips tight. Seeing him, Miller +thought suddenly of Brann. The same irresponsible +power, dangerous, hungry, admitting +no discipline but its own desires.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He was glad, in a casual way, that Slade +could never use the Power. Slade could do +harm enough, had done more than harm +enough, with only his own driving unscrupulous +brain to guide him. Once armed with a +thing like the Power. . . .</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I left it where I found it,” Miller said indifferently. +“Up on the Peak.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“How can we get it?” Slade demanded +urgently. “An expedition?”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“You can have it for the asking—up there.” +A slow idea took shape in Miller’s mind. +Sardonically he said, “Look for the red path +at the foot of the cliff. Follow it. Go on up +and you’ll have no trouble finding your energy-source. +That’s all I’m going to say. +We’re through, Slade. Get out.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>And he would say no more though it was +ten minutes before Slade exhausted his +threats and arguments and left. Miller +smiled wryly at the Belgian.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“He’ll go. You couldn’t keep him away. +And you know what will happen.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“What happened to us. But—why did you +send him?”</p> + +<hr class='tbk'/> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller stared out the window at the +snowy cone of Peak Seven Hundred, +white and empty against the sky.</p> + +<p class='pindent'>“I hated Slade once,” he said. “That +doesn’t matter how. But where men like +Slade go there’s cruelty and misery and suffering. +I can at least spare a few other men +what I’ve gone through from him. He’ll come +back—as we are. As for the Power—yes, +it’s fairy gold.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>The Belgian said softly, “. . .’amid such +greater glories that we are worse than +blind.’ ”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>Miller nodded. “The Power and the Glory. +Some day our race may achieve it. But it has +to be earned.”</p> + +<p class='pindent'>He reached for the bottle.</p> + + + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POWER AND THE GLORY ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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