Страница 71 из 96
"Very strange," Sloosh said. "But facts are facts, even if we don't know what or why they are. What's kept you from going through yourself?"
"I've used longer poles. The tu
Is it near the surface of that other Earth or is it deep? What is the temperature in the tu
The Archkerri closed his eyes a moment. When he opened them, he said, "Do you have some system of communication at a distance? If you do, someone could go through, and he could tell you what it's like there."
"Yes, I have means for talking at a distance. And I've put a machine through which could report to me.
But as I said, neither light nor vibration nor a flow of shenrem comes through."
"Ah, yes," Sloosh said. "Stupid of me to ask that. But I had to."
"Probing with a pole works because I can estimate how far the obstructions are that stop the pole."
"What's a shenrem?" Deyv asked.
"Invisible-to-the-naked-eye energy particles that can be made to flow in different directions along a conductor. They can be modulated to indicate certain things, such as degree of temperature, or to show pictures. I'll explain it to you some time."
Sloosh said, "The focus is big enough to allow Phemropit to enter. And it could cut away the narrow part of the tu
"Ask it."
The plant-man did so. He then said, "Phemropit doesn't see any reason why it should. I don't blame it.
What good would it do, anyway, unless we followed it in?"
"I have to make up my mind sometime," The Shemibob said. "When the air gives out, I can either be asphyxiated here or enter the gateway. There is no choice, of course, not to an intelligent person."
They returned to the first floor. Deyv felt depressed, and from the expressions and the silence of the others, they did, too. Despite what The Shemibob had said, he felt that he would rather choke to death than go through that abomination.
Six sleep-times passed. During this time, Deyv learned more of the owner's past life. She had come from a world which revolved around a star so far away that his mind could not imagine the distance. Her star was about to go nova, and her people, though they had great powers, could not move their planet far enough away to escape the all-ravening fury of the exploding star. So she had left with many of her kind in a spaceship. By the time she had come to Earth, only she was alive. The others had died while looking for a habitable world—from accidents, hostile beasts, and sentients; from suicide; from radiation.
Deyv felt even gloomier. Life was so fragile. Even the great Shemibobs were vulnerable. And when she finally died, though she'd lived out many, many generations of humans, she would be just as dead as they. That didn't console him any.
He was lying on a bed and thinking these dark thoughts when Vana came through the doorway. He sat up.
"What's wrong?"
She lay down by him.
"Our time is limited," she said softly. "Well soon be dead. We've wasted too much time because we couldn't stand the idea of making love to an eggless. But that doesn't mean anything now. I've been waiting for you to come to me and tell me what I just told you. You didn't, so I killed my pride, and I've come to you."
Deyv took her in his arms, saying, "I've thought of this. But I was afraid you'd reject me."
"Is this rejection?" she said, and she began kissing him.
A moment later, they rolled apart, their hearts beating hard, staring at each other, gray beneath their pigment.
"What in Thriknil is that?" Deyv asked.
That was a loud rumbling noise, a crashing of many heavy objects, a shaking of the bed, and screams from down the hall.
Jum and Aejip bounded into the room, the dog howling, the cat screeching.
"It's an earthquakel" Vana cried.
"It can't be," Deyv shouted. "Things outside the barrier can't affect the castle!"
The Yawtl, his eyes wide, ran into the room.
"Come with me!" he screamed. "The Shemibob says we have to go through the gatewayl"
Deyv shot out of bed.
"Why?"
"She says the barrier is contracting! It'll crush the castle and everybody in it!"
36
THOUGH frightened, Deyv stayed cool enough to put on his breechclout, fasten his sword belt, and grab his tomahawk. Vana ran out of the room, presumably to get her kilt and weapons. Deyv went out into the corridor and almost collided with the Yawtl, who had dashed out of his room. His eyes were wild, and he was naked. But he wore the Emerald, and he clutched his spear, sword, and tomahawk.
He shouted something to Deyv. His voice was overridden, however, by the rumbling, groaning, and crashing. Down the hall a cloud of dust spewed around the comer as a wall gave way. A gigantic block of stone toppled and blocked the corridor halfway.
Sloosh, the witch, and her daughter came ru
"Down to the gateway!" Sloosh buzzed loudly in Deyv's ear.
Deyv didn't need the order, but he was reluctant to go. It seemed—almost—better to stay and be smashed under the ceiling than to face that horror.
Sloosh, who was holding the cube under one arm, and the axe in one hand, buzzed something else. It was drowned out as the wall at the far end of the corridor roared downward and inward.
They all ran then. When they got to the elevator, they found The Shemibob, carrying a large leather bag, and Phemropit waiting .for them inside it.
"Hurryl Hurry!" she screamed. "If the shaft falls in, we're trapped!"
They needed no urging. The moment the last one came in, The Shemibob said the code word. The lift dropped, much faster than the last time. It stopped with such force that it brought most of them to their knees. They tumbled out without climbing over anybody—the doorway was very large—and they raced down the hall. Phemropit was going its full speed, which still left it fifty feet behind the others.
When they got to the burning wavering expanding-contracting gateway, The Shemibob hesitated only a second. With a scream that was intended to help her overcome her fear, she disappeared through the brightness.
Sloosh, his leaves shaking, followed her.
The humans and the Yawtl were frozen. While they were trying to pump up their courage, and not sure they could do it, the stone-metal creature rolled on through. It had never said anything about the effect of the gateway on it. Perhaps it did not share its companions' terror and nausea. Whatever its reaction, it went on as if it lacked any emotion whatsoever.
Down the hall behind them something crashed. Ahead and underfoot was a quaking. It was then that
Deyv realized that the entire castle might be squeezed, ground into powder, and sucked through the gateway. If they were to keep ahead of the many tons of ground material, they had to get through at once. He also noticed that the air was getting very hot. The machine that sent excess heat through the gateway could no longer cope with the burden. The friction of compression would soon make the air so hot that they'd bum up in it. And the great heat would undoubtedly fry them.
Vana shouted, "Deyvl Hoozisst! Help me get Aejip through! She won't go by herself!"
That was far easier ordered than carried out. The cat was crouched, teeth bared, claws out, snarling, almost out of her mind with fear. When Vana approached her, holding her hand out, trying to speak soothingly, she had to leap back to avoid the cat's fangs.