"What is it?" Iimmi asked.
"The lines," Geo said. "The ones Argo recited." He read out loud:
"Forked in the heart of the dark oakthe circlet of his sashrimmed where the eye of Hama brokewith fire, smoke, and ash.Freeze the drop in the handand break the earth with singing.Hail the height of a manand also the height of a woman.The eyes have imprisoned a vision.The ash tree dribbles with blood.Thrust from the gates of the prisonsmear the yew tree with mud."
"Forked in the heart of the dark oakthe circlet of his sashrimmed where the eye of Hama brokewith fire, smoke, and ash.
Freeze the drop in the handand break the earth with singing.Hail the height of a manand also the height of a woman.
The eyes have imprisoned a vision.The ash tree dribbles with blood.Thrust from the gates of the prisonsmear the yew tree with mud."
"It's the other version of the poem I found in the pre-purge rituals of Argo. I wonder if there were any more poems in the old rituals of Leptar that parallel those of Aptor and Hama?"
"Probably," Iimmi said. "Especially if the first invasion from Aptor took place just before, and probably caused, the purges."
"What about food?" Urson suddenly asked from where he now sat on the altar steps. "You two scholars have the rest of time to argue. But we may starve before you can enjoy the leisure."
"He's right," said Iimmi. "Besides, we have to get going."
"Would you two consider it an imposition to set your minds to procuring us some food?" Urson asked.
"Wait a minute," Iimmi said. "Here's a section on the burial of the dead. Yes, I thought so." He read out loud now:
"Sink the bright dead with misgivingfrom the half-light of the living ..."
"Sink the bright dead with misgivingfrom the half-light of the living ..."
"What does that mean?" asked Urson.
"It means that the dead are buried with all the accoutrements of the living. That means that they put food in the graves."
"Over here," cried Iimmi. With Snake following, they came to the row of sealed doors behind the columns along the wall. Iimmi looked at the inscription. "Tombs," he reported. He turned the handles, a double set of rings, which he twisted in opposite directions. "In an old, uncared-for temple like this, the lock mechanisms must have rusted by now if they're at all like the ancient tombs of Leptar."
"Have you studied the ancient tombs?" asked Geo excitedly. "Professor Eadnu always considered them a waste of time."
"That's all Welis ever talked about," laughed Iimmi. "Here, Urson, you set your back to this a moment."
Grumbling, Urson came forward, took the rings, and twisted. One snapped off in his hand. The other gave, with a crumbling sound inside the door.
"I think that does it," Iimmi said.
They all helped pull now, and suddenly the door gave an inch, and then, on the next tug, swung free.
Snake proceeded them into the tiny stone cell.
On a rock table, lying on its side, was a bald, shriveled, sexless body. Around the floor were a few sealed jars, heaps of parchment, and a few piles of ornaments.
Iimmi moved among the jars. "This one has grain," he said. "Give me a hand." Geo helped him lug the big pottery vessel to the door.
Suddenly a thin shriek scarred the dusty air, and both boys stumbled. The jar hit the ground, split, and grain heaped over the floor. The shriek came again.
Geo saw, there on the edge of the broken wall across the temple from them five of the ape-like figures crouched before the thickly shingled leaves, just visible in the uneven light. One leapt from the wall now and ran wailing across the littered temple floor, straight for the door of the tomb. Two others followed, and then two others. More had mounted the broken ridge of stone.
Only a greenish rectangle of light fell through the tomb's door as the loping forms burst into the room, one, and then its two companions. Claws and teeth closed on the shriveled skin. The body rolled beneath the ripping hands and mouths, for one arm swept into the air above their lowered heads and humped backs. It fell on the edge of the rock table, broke at the mid-forearm, and the skeletal hand fell to the floor, shattering like china, into a dozen pieces.
They backed to the temple door. Then they turned and ran down the temple steps. The sunlight on the broad rocks touched them; they became still, breathed deeply. They walked quietly. Hunger returned slowly after that, and occasionally one would look aside into the faces of the others in attempt to identify the horror that still pulsed behind their eyes.
It was Urson who first pointed it out. "Look at the far bank," he said.
Across from them, they could make out an obviously man-made stone embankment.
A few hundred feet further on, Iimmi sighted the spires above the trees, still across the river from them. They could figure nothing for an explanation, till suddenly the trees ceased on the opposite bank and the buildings and towers of a great city broke the sky. Elevated highways looped tower after tower, many of them broken, their ends dangling colossaly to the streets. The docks of the city just across from them were completely deserted.
It was Geo who suggested, "Perhaps Hama's temple is in there. After all, Argo's largest temple is in Leptar's biggest city."
"And what city in Leptar isthatbig?" breathed Urson, awfully.
"How do we get across?" asked Iimmi.
But Snake had already started down to the water.
"I guess we follow him," said Geo, climbing down over the rocks.
Snake dove into the water. Iimmi, Geo, and Urson followed. Before he had taken two strokes, Geo felt familiar hands suddenly grasp his body from below. This time he did not fight, and there was a sudden sense of speed, of sinking through consciousness.
Then he was bobbing up through chill water with the rising embankment of stones to one side and the broad river to the other. He switched from skulling into a crawl now, wondering how to scale the stones when he saw the rusted metal ladder leading into the water. He caught hold of the sides and pulled himself up.
Snake came up now, and then Urson. And, at last Iimmi joined them on the broad ridge of concrete that walled the flowing river. Together now on the wharf, they turned to the city.
Near them, piles of debris lay between two taller buildings. After a few minutes' walk the building walls had reached canyon size. "Now, how are you going to go about looking for the temple?" Urson asked.
"Maybe we can take a look from the top of one of these buildings," Geo suggested.
They turned toward a random building. A slab of metal had torn away from the wall, and stepping through, they found themselves in a huge hollow room. Dim light came from a number of white tubes set around the wall. Only a quarter of them were lit, and one was flickering. Hung from the center of the room was a metal sign which read:
NEW EDISON ELECTRIC COMPANY
and beneath it, in smaller letters:
"Light Down The Ages"
One of the huge cylinders, across the floor, was buzzing.
As they mounted a spiral staircase to the next floor the great room turned about them, sinking. At last they stepped up into a dark corridor. A red light glowed at the end which said: EXIT.
Doors outlined themselves along the hall in a red haze. Geo moved to one at random and opened it. Natural light fell in on them as the others came to see. They entered a room whose outer wall was torn away. The floor broke off irregularly over thrusting girders.
"What could have happened to it?" Urson asked.
"See," Iimmi explained. "That roadway must have crashed into the wall and knocked it away."
A twenty-foot ribbon of road veered into the room at an insane angle. The railing was twisted, but there were the stalks of street lights still intact along the edges.
"Do you think we could climb that?" asked Geo. "It doesn't look too steep."
"For what?" Urson wanted to know.
"To get some place high enough to see if there's anything that looks like a temple."
"Oh," said Urson in a reconciled voice.
In general the walk was in good shape. Occasional sections of railing had twisted away, but the road itself mounted surely between the sheering faces of the buildings on either side of them through advancing sunset.
It branched before them and they went left. It branched again and again they avoided the right-handed road. A sign, half the length of a three masted ship, hung lopsidedly above them on a building to one side.
WMTH
The Hub Of World News, Communication, & Entertainment
As they rounded the corner of the building, Snake suddenly stopped and put his hand to his head.
"What is it?" asked Geo.
Snake took a step backward. Then he pointed to WMTH.It ... hurts.
"What hurts?" asked Iimmi.
Snake pointed to the building again.
"Is there someone in there thinking too loud?"
Thinking ... machine, Snake said.Radio ...
"A radio is a thinking machine and there's one in there that's hurting your head?" interpreted Iimmi, tentatively, and with a question mark.
Snake nodded.
"How come the one he showed us before didn't hurt him?" Urson wanted to know.
Iimmi looked up at the imposing housing of WMTH. "Maybe this one's a lot bigger."
"Look," Geo said to Snake, "you stay here, and if we see anything, we'll come back and report, all right?"
"Maybe it stops later on," Urson said, "and if he ran forward, he could get out the other side. It may just stop after a hundred feet or so."
"Why so anxious?" asked Iimmi.
"The jewels," said Urson. "Who's going to get us out of trouble if we should meet up with anything else?"
They were silent then. Their shadows faded over the pavement as the yellow tinge in the sky turned blue. "I guess it's up to Snake," Geo said. "Do you think you can make it?"
Snake paused for a moment, then shook his head.
"Well," Geo said to the others, "come on then."
Around them was a sudden click, and lights flickered all along the edges of the road.
"Come on," Geo said again, and once more they started, passing the lights which wheeled double and triple shadows about them over the road and the opposite railing. When they reached the next turn off that led to a still higher ramp, Geo looked back. Snake's miniature figure sat on the edge of the road's railing, his feet on the lower rung, one pair of arms folded, one pair of elbows on his knees. The light above him.
"Keep track of the turns," said Geo.
"I'm keeping," Iimmi assured him.
"By the time we get to the top of whatever we're trying to get to the top of," rumbled Urson, "we won't be able to see anything. It'll be too dark."
"Then let's hurry," Geo admonished.
Sunset stained one side of the towers copper while blue shadows hugged the other. By way of a plastic-domed stairway, they mounted another eighty feet to a broader highway where they could look down on the band of lights which was the one they had just left. They were beginning to clear the roofs of the lower buildings now.
On this road fewer lights were working. They were just about to enter a dark section when a figure appeared in silhouette at the other end.
They stopped, but the figure was suddenly gone. A little farther, Geo suddenly halted and said, "There!"
Two hundred feet ahead of them, what may have been a naked woman rose from the ground, and began to walk backwards until she disappeared into the next dark length of road.
"Do you think she was running away from us?" Iimmi asked.
Urson reached out and touched Iimmi's jewel. "I wish we have some more light around here."
"Yeah," Iimmi agreed. They continued.
The skeleton lay at the twilight edge of the next stretch of functioning lights. The rib cage marked sharp lines on the pavement with shadow from the lamps' glare.
"Do we turn back now?" Urson asked.
"A skeleton can't hurt you," Iimmi said.
"But what about the live one we saw?" countered Urson.
"... and here she comes now," Geo whispered in a cynical stage voice.
In fact two figures approached them through the shadow. As Urson, Geo and Iimmi moved closer, one stopped, and then the other a few steps before the first. Then they dropped. Geo couldn't tell if they fell, or lay down quickly on the roadway. But they seemed to have disappeared.
"Go on?" asked Urson.
"Go on," said Geo.
Pause. "Go on," from Geo.
Two more skeletons lay on the road where the figures had disappeared a minute before. "They don't seem dangerous," Geo said. "But what do they do? Die every time they see us?"
"Hey," Iimmi said. "What's that? Listen."
It was a sickly liquid sound, like mud dropping into itself. Something was falling from the sky. No, not the sky, but from the roadway that crossed fifty feet above them. Looking down again, they saw that a blob of something was growing on the pavement ten feet from them.
"Come on," Geo said, and they skirted the mess dripping from above them, and continued up the road, passing four more skeletons. The sound behind them turned into a wet sloshing. Turning, they saw it emerge into the light—shapeless and jelly-green under the white flare. Impaling its membrane on the skeletons, the mass flowed around them, faster, covering them, molding to them. There was a final surge, a shrinking, and its shapelessness contracted into limbs, a head, feet. The naked man-thing pushed itself to its knees and then stood straight, the flesh by now opaque. Eye sockets caved into the face. A mouth ripped apart on the skull, and the chest began to move with a wet steamy sound in irregular gasps.
It began to walk toward them, raising its hands from its sides. Then, behind it in the darkness, they saw more coming.
"Damn," said Urson. "What do they...?"
"One, or both, of two things," Iimmi answered, backing away. "More meat, or more bones."
"Whoops," Geo said. "Look back there!"
They whirled and saw seven more figures standing quietly behind them, while the ones in front advanced.
A covered flight of stairs had its entrance nearby, leading to the next level of highway. They ducked into it and fled up the steps. Geo glanced back once; one of the forms had reached the entrance and had started to climb. He was also, he realized, high enough to get some idea of the city, which stretched, beyond the transparent covering of the steps, away in a web of lighted roadways, rising, looping, descending. Two glows caught him: one, beyond the river, a red haze that flickered behind the trees and was reflected on the water itself. The other was within the city itself, orange white, nested among the buildings.
He turned back up the steps. A gurgling sound neared them as they reached the top entrance. Geo had only gotten half clear of the entrance when he yelled, "Yikes," and then, "Duck!"
They slipped from the doorway and nearly fell, avoiding a mass of jelly the size of a two-story house which flopped against the entrance. They edged by its pulsing, transparent sides. The lamp light pierced into it a yard, and once a skull swirled toward the surface and then sank again.
Suddenly it sucked away from the entrance and shivered ponderously toward them. Something was happening at the front. Figures, three or four of them, were detaching themselves from the mother mass and preceding it.
They turned and ran along the road, plunging suddenly into an extended darkened section. A moment later there was a glow in front of them and suddenly Urson yelled, "Watch it!"
Abruptly the road sheered off in front of them; they halted, and then approached the edge slowly. The surface of the road tore away and the girders descended, webbing toward the ruined stump of a building from which the orange-white glow rose. The glow came from the heart of the edifice. "What do you think it is?" asked Geo.
"I don't know," said Iimmi.
They looked, and in the shadow, numberless figures were marching after them. Suddenly the figures fell to the ground, and flesh rolled forward from bone, congealed, and rose quiveringly into the edge of the light.
Iimmi started out first on the skeletal, twisted structure that descended to the glowing pit. "You're crazy," Geo said. The thing flopped forward another yard with a sick sound. "Hurry up," Geo added. With Urson in the middle, they started out along the twenty-inch wide girder. Lit from beneath, their bodies were in the shadow of the girder. Only their outstretched arms burned in the pale orange light as they balanced themselves.
Before them, faintly legible on the broken building into which they were descending was the sign: ATOMIC ENERGY FOR THE BETTERMENT OF MAN
It was flanked by two purple trefoils. The beam twisted sideways, and then dropped. Iimmi made the turn, dropped to his knees and hands, and then started to let himself down the four feet to the next small section of concrete. Once he saw something, let out a low whistle, but continued to lower himself to the straightened girder. Urson made the turn next, while Geo knelt in front of him. When Urson saw what Iimmi had seen, his hand shot to Geo's chest and grabbed the jewel. Geo took his wrist. "That won't help us now," he said.
Urson expelled a breath, and then continued down, slowly. Quickly Geo turned to drop now.
The entire beam structure over which they had just come was coated with a trembling thickness of the stuff. Globs dripped from the steel shafts, glowing in the light from below, quivering, smoking, splashing off into the darkness. Here and there something half human would rise either to look around or to pull the collective mass further on, but then it would fall back and dissolve. It bulged forward, smoking now, bits of it shriveling off and falling away. Geo was about to descend, but suddenly he called, "Wait a minute." The others stayed still.
It wasn't making progress. It rolled to a certain point in the pale, sherbert-colored light, globbed up, smoked, and fell away. And smoked. And dripped.
"Can't it get any farther?" Urson asked.
"It doesn't look it," said Geo.
A skeleton stood up, flesh-covered in the orange light. It tottered, its surface steaming, and then fell with a sucking noise, down into the hundreds of feet of shadow. Geo was holding tight onto the girder in front of him.
The pale light fell cleanly over his hand, wrist, and midway up his forearm.
What happened now made him squeeze until sweat came: the entire Gargantuan mass, which had only extended tentacles till now, pulsed to the edge of the jagged road, draped itself over the web of girders, and flung itself forward on the spindly metal threads. It careened toward them, and the three jerked themselves back.
Then it stopped, quivering. It boiled, it burned, it writhed, sinking, smoking through the spaces in the naked girder work. It tried to crawl backwards. Human figures leaped from its mass toward the edge of the road, missed, and plummetted like smoking bullets. It hurled a great pseudopod back toward the safety of the road; it fell short, flopped downward, and the whole mass shook beneath the smoke that rose from it. It pulled free of the support, tentacles sliding across steel, whipping into the air. Then it dropped into the shadows, breaking into a half dozen pieces before they lost sight of it below.
Geo released his hand. "My arm hurts," he said, shaking it.
They climbed up to the road again, carefully. "Any ideas what happened?" asked Iimmi.
"What ever it was, I'm glad it did," said Urson.
Something clattered before them in the darkness.
"What was that?" asked Urson, stopping.
"My foot hit something," Geo said.
"What was it?" asked Urson.
"Never mind," said Geo. "Come on."
Fifteen minutes brought them to the stairway that went to the lower highway. Iimmi's memory proved good, and for an hour they went quickly, Iimmi making no hesitation it turnings.
"God," Geo said, rubbing his forearm with his other hand. "I must have pulled hell out of it back there. It hurts like the devil."
Urson looked at his hand and rubbed them together.
"My hands feel sort of funny too," Iimmi said. "Like they've been wind-burned."
"Wind-burned nothing," said Geo. "This hurts."
Twenty minutes later, Iimmi said, "Well, this should be about it."
"Hey," said Urson. "There's Snake." As they ran forward, now, the boy jumped off the rail, grabbed their shoulders, and grinned. Then he began to tug them forward.
"You lucky little so and so," said Urson. "I wish you'd been with us."
"He probably was, in spirit, if not in body," Geo laughed.
Snake nodded.
"What are you pulling for?" Urson asked. "Say, if you're going to get headaches like that, you'd better teach us what to do with them beads there." He pointed to the jewel at Iimmi's and Geo's necks.
Snake nodded and tugged forward again.
"He wants us to hurry," Geo said. "We better get going."
The road finally tore completely away, and four feet below them, over the twisted rail, was the mouth of a street that led into the waterfront. Snake, Iimmi and then Urson vaulted over. Urson shook his hands painfully when he landed.
"Give me a hand, will you?" Geo asked. "My arm is really shot." Urson helped his friend over.
Almost as though it had been in wait, thick liquid gurgling sounded behind them. Like a wounded thing it emerged from behind the broken highway, bulging up into the light which shone on the ripples in its shriveled membrane.
"Run it!" bawled Urson, and they took off down the street. In the moonlight, the ruined piers spread along the waterfront to either side of them, some even slanting into the silvered water.
Turning once, they saw it bloat the entrance of the street, fill it, and then pour across the broken stones, slipping across the rubble of the smashed wharf.
When Geo hit water, he was aware of two things immediately as the hands reached for his body. First, the thong was yanked from around his neck. Second, pain seared his arm as if the bones and ligaments were suddenly replaced by white-hot cords of steel, and every vein and capillary had become part of a webbing of red fire.
It was a long time before consciousness. Once he was lifted. And when he opened his eyes, the white moon was moving incredibly fast above him toward the dark shapes of leaves. Was he being carried? And his arm hurt. There was more drowsy half consciousness, and once a great deal of pain. When he opened his mouth to scream, however, darkness flowed in, swathed his tongue, and he swallowed the darkness down into his body and into his head, and called it sleep—
A spool of copper wire unrolled over the black tile floor. Scoop it up quick. Damn, let me get out of here. I run past the black columns, glimpsing the cavernous room, and the black statue at the other end, huge, and rising into shadows. Men in dark robes are walking around. (Not only could they see, this time; they could hear the thinking.) Just don't feel up to praying this afternoon. I am before the door, and above it, a black disk with three white eyes on it. Through the door, up black stone steps. Wonder if anyone will be up there now. Just my luck I'll find the Old Man himself. Another door with a black circle above it. Push it open slowly, cool on my hands. A man is standing inside, looking into a large screen of glass. Figures moving on it. Can't make them out, he's in the way. Oh, there's another one.
"I don't know whether to call it success or failure," one says.
"The jewels are ... safe or lost?"
"What do you call it?" the first one asks. "I don't know any more." He sighs. "I don't think I've taken my eyes off this thing for more than two hours since they got to the beach. Every mile they've come closer has made my blood run colder."
"What do we report to Hama Incarnate?"
"It would be silly to say anything now. We just don't know."
"Well," says the other, "at least we can do something with the City of New Hope since they got rid of that super-amoeba."
"Are you sure they really got it?"
"After the burning it received over that naked atom pile? It was all it could do to get to the waterfront. It's just about fried up and blown away already."
"And how safe would you call them?" the other asks.
"Right now? I wouldn't call them anything."
Something glitters on the table by the door. Yes, there it is. In the pile of strange equipment is a U-shaped scrap of metal. Just what I need. Hot damn, adhesive tape too. Quick, there, before they see. Fine. Now, let the door close, real slow. Ooops. It clicked. Now come on, look innocent, in case they come out. I hope the Old Man isn't watching. Guess they're not coming. And down the stairs again, the black stone walls moving past. Out another door, into the garden, dark flowers, purple, deep red, some with blue in them, and big stone urns. Some priests are coming down the path. Ooops again, there's old Dunderhead. He'll want me inside praying. Duck down behind that urn. Here we go. What'll I do if he catches me? Really sir, I have nothing under my choir robe. Peek out.
Very, very small sigh of relief, now. Can't afford to be too loud around here. They're gone. Let's examine the loot. The black stone urn has one handle above. It's about eight feet tall. One, two, three: jump, and ... hold ... on ... and ... pull. And try to get to the top. There we go. Cold stone between my toes. And over the edge, where it's filled with dirt. Pant. Pant. Pant.
Should be just over here, if I remember right. Dig, dig, dig. Damp earth feels good in your hands. Ow! my finger. There it is. A brown paper bag under granules of black earth. Lift it out. Is it all there? Open it up, peer in. Down at the bottom, beyond the folds of the edges where the top had been twisted tightly together, are the tiny scraps of copper, a few long pieces of dark metal, a piece of board, some brads. To this my grubby little hand adds the spool of copper wire and the U-shaped scrap of metal. Now, slip it into my robe and—once you get up here, how the hell do you get down? I always forget. Turn around, climb over the edge, like this, and let yourself down. Damn, my robe's caught on the handle.
And drop.
Skinned my shin again. Some day I'll learn.
Now let's see if we can figure this thing out. Gotta crouch down and get to work. Here we go. Open the bag, and turn the contents out in the lap of the dark-colored robe, grubby hands poking.
The U-shaped metal, the copper wire, fine. Hold the end of the wire to the metal, and maneuver the spool around the end of the wire to the metal, and maneuver the spool around the end of the rod. Around. And around. And around. Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush; I'll have me a coil by the morning.
Suddenly a harsh voice in the distance: "And what do you think you're doing?"
Dunderhead rides again. "Nothing, sir," as metal and scraps and wires fly frantically into the paper bag.
The voice: "All novices under twenty must report to afternoon services without fail!"
"Yes, sir. Coming right along, sir." Paper bag jammed equally frantically into the folds of my robe. Not a moment's peace. Not a moment's! Through the garden with lowered eyes, past a dour-looking priest with a small paunch. There are mirrors along the vestibule, huge slabs of glass that rise thirty feet, reflecting the blue and yellow light back and forth from the colored windows of the temple. In the mirror I see pass: a dour-looking priest, proceeded by a smaller figure with short red hair and a spray of freckles over a flattish nose. And as we pass into prayer, there is the maddening, almost inaudible jingling of metal scraps, muffled by the dark robe.
Geo woke up, and almost everything was white.
The pale woman with the tiny eyes rose from over him. Her hair dropped like white silk threads over her shoulders. "You are awake?" she asked. "Do you understand me?"
"Am I at—at Hama's temple?" he asked, the remnants of the dream still blowing in at the edges of his mind, like shredding cloth. "My friends, where are they?"
The woman laughed. "Your friends are all right. You came out the worst." Another laugh. "You ask if this is Hama's temple? But you can see, can you not? You have eyes. Don't you recognize the color of the White Goddess Argo?"
Geo looked around the room. It was white marble, and there was no direct source of light. The walls simply glowed.
"My friends...." Geo said again.
"They are fine. We were able to completely restore their flesh to health. They must have exposed their hands to the direct beam of the radiation for only a few seconds. But the whole first half of your arm had apparently lain in the deadly rays for some minutes. You were not as lucky as they."
Another thought rushed Geo's mind now. "The jewels ..." he started to say, but instead of sounding the words, he reached to his throat with both hands. One fell on his naked chest. And there was something very wrong with the other. He sat up in the bed quickly, and looked down. "My arm," he said.
Swathed in white bandages, the limb ended some foot and a half short of where it should have.
"My arm...?" he asked again, with a child's bewilderment. "What happened to my arm?"
"I tried to tell you," the woman said, softly. "We had to amputate half of your arm. If we had not, you would have died."
"My arm," Geo said again, and lay back in the bed.
"It is difficult," the woman said. "It is only a little consolation, I know, but we are blind here. What burned your arm away, took our sight from us when it was much stronger, generations ago. We learned how to battle many of its effects, and had we not rescued you from the river, all of you would have died. You are men who know the religion of Argo, and adhere to it. This another of your party has told us. Be thankful then that you have come under the wing of the Mother Goddess again, for this is a hostile country." She paused. "Do you wish to talk?"
Geo shook his head.
"I hear the sheets rustle," the woman said, smiling, "which means you either shook or nodded your head. I know from my study of the old customs that one means 'yes' and the other 'no.' But you must have patience with us who cannot see. We are not used to your people. Do you wish to talk?" she repeated.
"Oh," said Geo. "No. No, I don't."
"Very well," the woman said. She rose, still smiling. "I will return later." She walked to a wall in which a door slipped open, and then it closed again, behind her.
He lay still on the bed for a long time. Then he turned over on his stomach. Once he brought the stump under his chest and held the clean bandages in his other hand. Very quickly he let go, and stretched the limb sideways, as far as possible away from him. That didn't work either, so he moved it back down to his side, and let it lay by him under the white sheet.
After a long while, he got up, sat on the edge of the bed, and looked around the room. It was completely bare, with neither windows nor visible doors. He went to the spot through which she had exited, but could find not seam or crack. His tunic, he saw, had been washed, pressed, and laid on the foot of the bed. He slipped it over his head, fumbling with only one arm. Getting the belt together started out to be a problem, but he hooked the buckle around one finger and maneuvered the strap through with the other. He adjusted his leather purse, now empty, on his side. Then he saw that the sword was gone.
An unreal feeling, white like the walls of the room, was beginning to fill him up like a pale mixture of milk and water. He walked around the edge of the room once more, looking for some break.
There was a sound behind him and the tiny-eyed woman in her white robe stood in a triangular doorway. "You're dressed," she smiled. "Good. Are you too tired to come with me? You will eat and see your friends if you feel well enough. Or, I can have the food brought."
"I'll come," Geo said.
She turned, and he followed her into a hall of the same luminous substance. Her heels touched the back of her white robe with each step, but she was silent. His own bare feet on the cool stones seemed louder than those of the blind woman before him. Suddenly he was in a larger room, with benches. It was a chapel, obviously of Argo because of the altar at the far end, but its detail was strange. Everything was arranged with the white simplicity that one would expect of a people to whom visual adornment meant nothing. He sat down on a bench as the woman said, "Wait here." She disappeared down another hall.
Suddenly the woman returned from the other hallway, followed by Snake. Geo and the four-armed boy looked at each other, silently, as the woman disappeared again. A wish, like a living thing, suddenly writhed into a knot in Geo's stomach, that the boy would say something. He himself could not.
Again she returned, this time with Urson. The big man stepped into the chapel, saw Geo, and exclaimed, "Friend, what happened?" He came to him quickly and placed his warm hands on Geo's shoulders. "What ..." he began, and shook his head.
Geo grinned suddenly, and patted his stump with his good hand. "I guess jelly-belly got something from me after all."
Urson held his own forearm next to Geo's and compared them. There was paleness in both. "I guess none of us got out completely all right. I woke up once while they were taking the scabs off. It was pretty bad, and I went to sleep again fast."
Iimmi came in now. "Well, I was wondering ..." He stopped, and let out a low whistle. "I guess it really got you, brother." His own arms looked as though they had been dipped in bleach up to the mid forearms.
"How did this happen?" Urson asked.
"When we were back doing our tightrope act on those damn girders," explained Iimmi, "our bodies were in the shadow of the girders and the rays only got to our arms. I've got something you'll be interested in too, Geo."
"Just tell me where the hell we are," Urson said.
"We're in a monastery sacred to Argo," Iimmi told him. "It's across the river from the City of New Hope, which is where we were."
"That name sounds familiar; in the ..." began Urson. Snake gave him a quick glance, and he stopped, and then frowned.
"We knew of your presence in the City of New Hope," explained the blind Priestess, "and we found you by the riverside after you swam across. You managed to cling to life long enough for us to get you back to the monastery and apply what art we could to sooth the burns from the deadly fire."
Geo suddenly saw that there was no jewel around Iimmi's neck either. He could almost feel the hands ripping it from his neck in the water. Iimmi must have made the same discovery, because his pale hand raised to his own chest.
The Priestess beckoned and started down another hall, and again they followed. They arrived at an even larger room, this one set with white marble benches and long white tables. "This is the main dining room of the monastery," their guide explained. "One table has been set up for you. You will not eat with the other priestesses, of course."
"Why not?" asked Iimmi.
Surprise flowed across the blind face. "You are men," she told them, matter of factly. Then she led them to a table where wine, meat, and bowls piled with strange fruit were placed. As they sat down, she disappeared once more.
Geo reached for a knife. For a moment there was silence at the table as the nub of the arm jutted over food. "I guess I just have to learn," he said after the pause.
Halfway through the meal, Urson said, "What about the jewels? Did the Priestess take them from you?"
"They came off in the water," said Iimmi.
Geo nodded corroboration.
"Well, now we really have a problem," said Urson. "Here we are, at a temple of Argo's where we could return the jewels and maybe even get back to the Priestess on the ship, and out of the silly mess, and the jewels are gone."
"I guess that also means our river friends are working for Hama," said Geo.
"Well," Iimmi said, "Hama's got his jewel then, and we're out of the way. Perhaps he delivered us into Argo's hands as a reward for bringing them this far?"
"Since we would have died anyway," said Geo, "I guess he was doing us a favor."
"And you know what that means," Iimmi said, looking at Snake now.
"Huh?" asked Urson. Then he said, "Oh, let the boy speak for himself. All right, Four Arms, are you or are you not a spy for Hama?"
A pained expression came over Snake's face, and he shook his head not in denial but bewilderment. Suddenly he got up from the table, and ran from the room. Urson looked at the others. "Now don't tell me I hurt his feelings by asking."
"You didn't," said Iimmi, "but I may have. I keep on forgetting that he can read minds."
"What do you mean?" Urson asked.
"Just when you asked him that, a lot of things came together in my mind that would be pretty vicious for him if any of it were true."
"Huh?" asked Urson.
"I think I know what you mean," said Geo.
"I still—"
"It means that he is a spy," explained Iimmi, "and among other things, he was probably lying about the radio back at the city. And that cost Geo his arm."
"Why the—" began Urson, and then looked down the hall where Snake had disappeared.
They didn't eat much more. When they got up, Urson felt sleepy and was shown back to his room.
"May I show my friend what you showed me?" Iimmi asked the Priestess when she returned. "He is also a student of rituals."
"Of course you may," smiled the Priestess.
A door opened and they entered another room similar to the one in which Geo had awakened. As she was about to leave, Iimmi asked, "Wait. Can you tell us how to leave the room ourselves?"
"Why would you want to leave?" she asked.
"For exercise," offered Geo, "and to observe the working of the monastery. Believe us, we are true students of Argo's religion."
"Simply press the wall with your hand, level at your waist, and the door will open. But you must not wander about the monastery. Rites which are not for your eyes are being carried out. Not for your eyes," she repeated. "Strange, this is a phrase that has never left our language. Suddenly, confronted by people who can see, it makes me feel somehow ..." she paused. "Well, that is how to leave the room."
She stepped out, and the door closed behind her.
"Here," said Iimmi, "this is what I wanted to show you." On his bed were a pile of books, old, but legible. Geo flipped through a few pages. Suddenly he looked up at Iimmi.
"Hey, what are they doing withprintedbooks?"
"Question number one," said Iimmi. "Now, for question number two. Look here." He reached over Geo's shoulder and hastened him to one page.
"Why it's the ..." began Geo.
"You're darn right it is," said Iimmi.
HYMN TO THE GODDESS ARGOForked in the eye of the bright ashthere the heart of Argo brokeand the hand of the goddess would dashthrough the head of flame, and the smoke.Burn the grain speck in the handand batter the stars with singing.Hail the height of a man,and also the height of a woman.The eyes have imprisoned a vision,the ash-tree dribbles with blood.Thrust from the gates of the prison,smear the yew-tree with mud.
HYMN TO THE GODDESS ARGO
Forked in the eye of the bright ashthere the heart of Argo brokeand the hand of the goddess would dashthrough the head of flame, and the smoke.
Burn the grain speck in the handand batter the stars with singing.Hail the height of a man,and also the height of a woman.
The eyes have imprisoned a vision,the ash-tree dribbles with blood.Thrust from the gates of the prison,smear the yew-tree with mud.
"That must be the full version of the poem I found the missing stanza to back in the library at Leptar."
"As I was saying," said Iimmi, "Question number two: what is the relation between the rituals of Hama and the old rituals of Argo. Apparently this particular branch of the religion of the Goddess underwent no purge. And no one at Olcse Olwnh was supposed to know about them."
"I wonder why?" Geo asked.
"That is question number three."
"How did you get a hold of them?"
"Well," said Iimmi, "I sort of suspected they might be here. So I just asked for them. And I think I've got some answers to those questions."
"Fine. Go ahead."
"We'll start from three, go back to one, and then on to two. Nice and orderly," said Iimmi. "Why wasn't anybody supposed to know about the rituals? Simply because they were so similar to the rituals of Hama. You remember some of the others we found in the abandoned temple? If you don't, you can refresh your memory right here. The two sets of rituals run almost parallel, except for a name changed here, a color switched from black to white, a switch in the vegetative symbolism. I guess what happened was that when Hama's forces invaded Leptar five hundred years ago, it didn't take Leptar long to find out the similarity. From the looks of the City of New Hope, I think it's safe to assume that at one time or another, say five hundred years ago, Aptor's civilization was far higher than Leptar's, and probably wouldn't have had too hard a time beating her in an invasion. So when Leptar captured the first jewel, and somehow did manage to repel Aptor, the priests of Leptar assumed that the safest way to avoid infiltration by Hama and Aptor again would be to make the rituals of the two as different as possible from the ones of their enemy, Hama.
"The ghouls, the bats, they parallel the stories I've heard other sailors tell too closely to be accidents. How many people do you think have been shipwrecked on Aptor and gotten far enough into the place to see what we've seen, and then gotten off again to tell about it?"
"I can think of two," said Geo.
"Huh?" said Iimmi.
"Snake and Jordde," answered Geo. "Remember that Argo said there had been spies from Aptor before. And Jordde is definitely one, and I guess so is Snake."
"True enough," said Iimmi. "I guess that fits into Rule Number One." He got up from the bed. "Come on. Let's take a walk. I want to see some sunlight." They went to the wall. Geo pressed it and a triangular panel slipped back.
When they had rounded four or five turns of hallway, Geo said, "I hope you can remember where we've been."
"I've got a more or less perfect memory for directions," Iimmi said.
Suddenly the passage opened onto steps, and they were looking out upon a huge, unrelieved white chamber. Down a set of thirty marble steps priestesses filed below them in rows, their heads fixed blindly forward.
At the far end was a raised dais with a mammoth statue of a kneeling woman, sculptured of the same effulgent, agate material. "Where do these women come from?" whispered Geo. "And where do they keep the men?"
Iimmi shrugged.
Suddenly, the figure of the blind Priestess was beside them.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Iimmi said, sensing her disapproval of their presence, "we didn't mean to be disrespectful, but we are creatures who are used to natural day and night. We are used to fresh air, green things. This underground whiteness is oppressive to us and makes us restless. Is there any way that you could show us a way into the open?"
"There is not," returned the blind Priestess quietly and motioned them to follow her from the chamber. "Besides, night is coming on and you are not creatures who relish darkness."
"The night air and the quiet of evening is refreshing to us," countered Iimmi.
"What do you know of the night," answered the priestess with faint cynicism in her low voice. Now they reached the chapel where the friends had first met after their rescue.
"What can you tell us about the Dark God Hama?" Geo asked.
The blind Priestess shrugged, and sat down on one of the benches. "There is little to say. Today he is a fiction, he does not exist. There is only Argo, the One White Goddess."
"But we've heard—" Geo began.
"You were at his abandoned temple," said the Priestess. "You saw yourselves. That is all that is left of Hama. Ghouls prey on the dust of his dead saints. Perhaps, somewhere behind the burning mountain a few of his disciples are left. But Hama is dead in Aptor. You have seen the remains of his city, the City of New Hope. You have also been the first ones to go in and return in nearly five hundred years."
"Is that how long the city has been in ruin?" asked Geo.
"It is."
"What can you tell us about the city?" Iimmi said.
The Priestess sighed again. "There was a time," she began, "generations ago, when Hama was a high God in Aptor. He had many temples, monasteries, and convents devoted to him. We had few. Except for these religious sanctuaries, the land was barbaric, wild, uninhabitable for the most part. There had once been cities in Aptor, but these had been destroyed even earlier by the Great Fire. All that we had was a fantastic record of an unbelievable time before the rain of flame of tremendous power, vast science, and a towering, though degenerate, civilization. These records were extensive, and entirely housed within the monasteries. Outside the monasteries, there was only chaos, where half the children were born dead, and the other half deformed. And with the monstrous races that sprang up over the island now as a reminder to us, we declared that the magic contained in these chronicles was evil, and must never be released to the world again. But the priests of Hama, decided to use the information in these chronicles, spread it to the people, and declared they would not commit the same mistakes that had brought the Great Fire. They opened the books, and the City of New Hope grew on the far shore of the river. They made giant machines that flew through the air. They constructed immense boats which could sink into the sea and emerge hundreds of miles away in another harbor in another land. They even harnessed for beneficial use the fire metal, uranium, which had brought such terror to the world before and had brought down the flames."
"But they made the same mistake as the people before the Great Fire made?" suggested Iimmi.
"Not exactly," said the Priestess. "That is, they were not so stupid as to misuse the fire metal which ravaged the world so harshly before. History is cyclic, not repetitive. A new power was discovered that dwarfed the significance of the fire metal. It could do all that the fire metal could do, and more efficiently: destroy cities, or warm chilly huts in winter; but, it could also work on men's minds. They say, that before the Great Fire, men wandered the streets of the cities terrified that flames would descend on them any moment and destroy them. They panicked, bought flimsy useless contraptions to guard themselves from the fire. Geo, Iimmi, have you any idea how terrifying it would be to know that while walking the streets, at any moment, your mind might be snatched from you, raped, violated, and left broken in your own skull?
"Only three of these instruments were constructed. But the moment their existence was made known by a few fantastic demonstrations, the City of New Hope began the swerve down the arc of its own self-destruction. It lasted for a year, and ended with the broken wreck you escaped from last night. During that year invasions were launched on the backward nations across the sea with whom months before there had been friendly trade. Civil wars broke out and internal struggles caused the invasions to fall back to the homeland. The instruments were hopelessly lost, but not before the bird machines had even dropped bombs on the City of New Hope itself. The house of the fire metal was broken open to release its death once more. For a hundred years after the end, say our records, the city flamed with light from the destroyed power house. During the first hundred years more and more of our number were born blind because of the sinking fire in the city. At last we moved underground, but it was too late." She rose from her seat. "And so you see, Hama destroyed himself. Today, loyal to Argo, are all the beasts of the air, of the land ... and of the water."
"What about the—the three instruments?" Geo asked. "What happened to them?"
The blind Priestess turned to him. "Your guess," she said, smiling, "is as good as mine." She turned again and glided softly from the room.
When she left, Iimmi said, "Something is fishy."
"But what is it?" said Geo.
"Well, for one thing," said Iimmi, "we know there is a Hama. From the dream I would say that it's just about the size and organization of this place."
"Just how big is this place anyway?" Geo asked.
"Want to do some more exploring?"
"Sure," he answered. "Do you think she does know about Hama but was just pretending?"
"Could be," said Iimmi. They started off down another corridor. "That bit about going into men's minds with the jewels," Iimmi went on. "It gives me the creeps."
"It's a creepy thing to watch," said Geo. "Argo used it on Snake the first time we saw her. It just turns you into an automaton."
"Then it really is our jewels she was talking about."
Stairs cut a white tunnel into the wall before them, and they mounted upward, coming finally to another corridor. They turned down it and for the first time saw recognizable doors in the wall. "Hey," said Iimmi, "maybe one of these goes outside."
"Fine," said Geo. "This place is beginning to get me." He pushed open a door and stepped in. Except for the flowing white walls, it duplicated in miniature the basement of the New Edison building. Twin dynamos whirred and the walls were laced with pipes.
"Nothing in here," said Iimmi.
They tried a door across the hall now. In this one sat a white porcelain table and floor to ceiling cases of glittering instruments. "I bet this is the room your arm came off in," Iimmi said.
"Probably," replied Geo.
They came out and continued even farther. In the next room the glow was dimmer, and there was dust on the walls. Iimmi ran his finger over it and looked at the gray crescent left on the bleached flesh.
Two huge screens leaned out from the face of a metal machine. A few dials and a glass meter hung beneath each two yard rounded-rectangle of opaque glass. In front of each was a stand which held something like a set of binoculars and what looked like a pair of ear muffs.
"I bet this place hasn't been used since before these girls went blind," said Geo.
"It looks it," Iimmi said. He stepped up to one of the screens, the one with the fewer dials on it, and turned a switch.
"What did you do that for?" Geo asked.
"Why not?" said Iimmi. Suddenly a flickering of colored lights ran over the screen, swellings of blue, green, shiny scarlets. They blinked. "That's the first color I've seen since I've been here," Iimmi said. The colors grayed, dimmed, congealed into forms, and in a moment they were looking at a bare white room in which stood two barefoot young men. One was a dark Negro with pale hands. The other had an unruly shock of black hair and only one arm.
"Hey," gestured Iimmi, and the figure on the screen gestured too. "That's us." He walked forward and the corresponding figure advanced on the screen. He flicked a dial and the figures exploded into colors and then focused again. "What's that?" asked Iimmi.
In a room stood three of the blind women. On one wall was a smaller screen similar to the one in their own room. The women, of course, were oblivious to the picture on it, but it was the picture on the screen that had stopped Geo. It was a face. A man's face.
One of the women had on an ear muff apparatus and was talking into a small metal rod which she carried with her as she paced.
"But the picture! Don't you recognize him?" demanded Geo.
"It's Jordde!" exclaimed Iimmi. "They must have gotten in contact with our ship and are arranging to send us back."
"I wish I could hear what they're saying," said Geo.
Iimmi looked around and then picked up the metal ear muffs from the stand in front of the screen. "That's what she seems to be listening through," said Iimmi, referring to the Priestess in the picture. "Try them. Go on." He helped Geo fit them over his ears. "Hear anything?"
Geo listened.
"Yes, of course," the Priestess was saying.
"She is set upon staying in the harbor for three more days, to wait out the week," reported Jordde. "I am sure she will not remain any longer. She is still bewildered by me, and the men have become uneasy and may well mutiny if she stays longer."
"We will dispose of the prisoners this evening. There is no chance of their returning," stated the Priestess.
"Detain them for three days, and I do not care what you do with them," said Jordde. "She does not have the jewels, she does not know my—our power; she will be sure to leave at the end of the week."
"It's a pity we have no jewels for all our trouble," said the Priestess. "But at least all three are back in Aptor, and potentially within our grasp."
Jordde laughed. "And Hama never seems to be able to keep hold of them for more then ten minutes before they slip from him again."
"Yours is not to judge either Hama or Argo," stated the Priestess. "You are kept on by us only to do your job. Do it, report, and do not trouble either us or yourself with opinions. They are not appreciated."
"Yes, mistress," returned Jordde.
"Then farewell until next report." She flipped a switch and the picture on the little screen went gray.
Geo turned from the big screen now, and was just about to remove the hearing apparatus when he heard the Priestess say, "Go, prepare the prisoners for the sacrifice of the rising moon. They have seen enough." The woman left the room, Geo finished removing the phones, and Iimmi looked at him.
"What's the matter?"
Geo turned the switch that darkened the screen.
"When are they coming to get us?" Iimmi asked excitedly.
"Right now, probably," Geo said. Then, as best he could, he repeated the conversation he had overheard to Iimmi, whose expression grew more and more bewildered as Geo went on.
At the end the bewilderment suddenly flared into frayed indignation. "Why?" demanded Iimmi. "Why should we be sacrificed? What is it we've seen too much of, what is it we know? This is the second time it's come close to getting me killed, and I wish to hell I knew what I was supposed to know?"
"We've got to find Urson and get out of here," said Geo. "Hey, what's wrong?"
The indignation had turned into something else. Now Iimmi stood with his eyes shut tight and his face screwed up. Suddenly he relaxed. "I just thought out a message as loud as I could for Snake to get up here and to bring Urson if he's anywhere around."
"But Snake's a spy for ..."
"... for Hama," said Iimmi. "And you know something? I don't care." He closed his eyes again. After a few moments, he opened them. "Well, if he's coming, he's coming. Let's get going."
"But why...?" began Geo, following Iimmi out the door.
"Because I have a poet's feeling that some fancy mind reading may come in handy."
They hurried down the hall, found the stairs, ducked down, and ran along the lower hall. Rounding a second corner, they emerged into the little chapel simultaneously with Urson and Snake.
"I guess I got through," said Iimmi. "Which way do we go?"
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," came a voice from behind them.
Snake took off down one of the passages, and they followed, Urson looking particularly bewildered.
The Priestess glided behind them, calling softly, "Please, my friends, come back. Return with me."
"Find out from her how the hell to get out of this place!" Iimmi bawled up to Snake. The four-armed boy suddenly darted up a flight of stairs, turned a corner, and darted up another. They came out on a hall and followed Snake to the end.
All four of the boy's hands flew at the door handle, turning it carefully, this way, and back.
Two, three seconds.
Geo glanced back and saw the Priestess mount the top of the stairs and begin to come toward them. She seemed to float, her white robes flaring out from her, brushing at the walls.
The door came open, they broke through leaves, and were momentarily standing in a huge field of grass, surrounded by woods. The night was fully lit by the moon.
As they ran through the silver-washed grass, Geo turned to look behind him. The blind Priestess had slowed, her white face turned to the moon. Her hands went to her throat, she unclasped her robe, and the first layer fell away behind her. As she came on, the second layer began to unfold, wet, deathly white, spreading, growing to her arms, articulating itself along the white spines; then, with a horribly familiar shriek, she leapt from the ground and soared upward, her white wings hammering the air.
They fled.
And other dark forms were shadowing the moon. The priestesses across the field joined her aloft in the moon-bleached sky. She overtook the running figures, turned above them, and swooped. The moon lanced white along bared fangs. The night breeze touched pale furry breasts, filled the bellying wings. Only the tiny, darting, blind eyes were red, rubied in a whirl of white.
They crashed into the protective bushes where the winged things could not follow. Branches raked his face as he ran behind the sound the others made. Once he thought he had lost them, but a second later he bumped against Iimmi, who had stopped behind Snake and Urson, in the darkness. Above the trees was a sound like beaten cloth, diminishing, growing, but constant as once more they began to trod through the tangled darkness.
"What the hell ..." Iimmi finally breathed softly, after a minute of walking.
"You know it's beginning to make sense," Geo said, his hand on Iimmi's shoulder. "Remember that man-wolf we met, and that blob in the city? The only thing we've met on this place that can't change shape is the ghouls. I think most animals on this island undergo some sort of metamorphosis."
"What about those first flying things we met?" whispered Urson. "They didn't change into anything."
"We have probably just been guests of the female of the species," said Geo.
"You mean those others could have changed into men too if they wanted?" Urson asked.
"If they wanted," answered Geo.
In front of them now appeared faint shiftings of silver light. Five minutes later, they were crouching at the edge of the forest, looking down over the rocks at the white shimmerings over the river.
"Into the water?" Geo asked.
Snake shook his head.Wait... came the familiar sound in their heads.
Suddenly a hand raised from the water. Wet and green, it stood a foot or so from the shore in the silver ripples. The chain and the leather thong dangled down the wrist, and swaying there were two bright beads of light.
Iimmi and Geo froze. Urson said, "The jewels...."
Suddenly, crouched low like an animal, the big man sprang onto the rocks and ran toward the river's edge.
Three shadows, one white, two dark, converged above him, cutting the moonlight away from him. If he saw them, he did not stop.
Iimmi and Geo stood up from their crouched positions.
Urson reached the shore, threw himself along the rock, and swiped at the hand. Instantly he was covered by flailing wings. The membranous sails splashed in the water. Two seconds later, Urson rolled from beneath the layers of membrane that still struggled half on land and half in the water. He started forward up the rocks. He slipped, regained his footing, and then came on, nearly falling into Geo's and Iimmi's waiting arms.
"The jewels," Urson breathed.
The struggle continued a minute longer on the water. Something was holding them down, twisting at them. Then suddenly, the creatures stilled, and like great leaves, the three forms drifted apart, caught quietly in the current, and floated away from the rocks.
Then two more forms bobbed to the surface, faces down, rocking gently, backs slicked wet and green, shiny under the moonlight.
"But those were the ones who—" Geo began. "Are they dead?" His face suddenly hurt a little, with something like the pain of verging tears.
Snake nodded.
"Are you sure?" asked Iimmi. His voice came slowly.
Their ... thoughts ... have ... stopped, Snake said.
Crouched down in front of them, Urson opened his great hands. The globes blazed even in the dim light through the leaves, and the chain and the wet thong hung over his palm to the ground. "I have them," he said, "... the jewels!"