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The vessel was folded up and tied onto Sloosh's back. They ate a little—no one felt hungry—and they started across the dark hushed valley. Phemropit's fanlight lit their way; the only sound was the striking of its treads against the loose rocks. The House loomed larger and larger, and after a while they had descended into the small valley and were beside it Phemropit stopped. Before them was a window three times as tall as Deyv and ten times as wide. The walls disappeared on both sides of the window into the darkness.
The Shemibob took a cylinder from her bag. Its end shot out a bright light through the transparent material of the window. They pressed close to it to look within. But all they could see was a floor many inches thick with dust.
The window was smooth and cool, and so was The House around it. The material of which both were made was very hard. After some discussion they agreed that they might as well test the material. If they made so much noise that they attracted the tenant of The House—if there was one—they were not necessarily making a mistake. He or she or it—Deyv hated the ominous sound of that it—probably knew they were here. If it didn't, it would find out sooner or later, so why not sooner?
Deyv thought of several reasons why, but he knew they wouldn't dissuade The Shemibob and Sloosh.
Sloosh hammered on the window and the wall with the great metal axe. He made neither dent nor scratch.
The Shemibob said, "We can look for a door or we can try Phemropit's cutting ray. It might be more polite, and politic, if we try a door."
They agreed that that would be best. First, though, Vana insisted that the vessel be expanded and attached to Phemropit's back. She would put the baby in it and thus be unhampered by him if fast action was needed. The baby would be safer there, too.
They did that, and then they started around The House. This took a very long time, during which they counted one thousand and fifty windows before they got to the one from which they'd started. Sloosh had made a small cairn of rocks to mark this.
"The same number of windows as the number of strokes," Deyv said.
Sloosh's reply to this was inevitable. "Must you always point out the obvious?"
Deyv forbore to mention that they'd found no doors. Or, at least, anything that looked like one.
None of the windows showed anything but darkness and dust. If there were walls beyond, they were too far for The Shemibob's or Phemropit's lights to penetrate.
They went into the vessel to eat. It seemed very cozy there, warm and well lighted, a place to stay for a long time. The baby had awakened and was making small whimperings. Vana nursed him while they talked about what to do next The Yawtl and the humans, except for Feersh, were all for giving up and getting out of this dreary spooky land at once. The witch was logical about the situation, saying that there was no sense in coming this far just to give up.
The three dissenters looked at each other, their thoughts evident. Logic might get them killed; emotion was rational in this situation.
"This House has been here for a long time," The Shemibob said. "It was here when I came to Earth.
Sloosh, do you know when it was built?"
"No. But I do know when it emerged from the ground. At least, I presume it did. That would be when
The Dead Place first came into existence."
"Why didn't you say something about this before?"
"You didn't ask me, and I never-thought the time was relevant for bringing the subject up. Now it is."
The Shemibob was more than irritated. Deyv had to grin. So, it wasn't only lowly humans who found the
Archkerri maddening.
"Well, when was it?" The Shemibob asked. Under her silvery skin was a bright pink glow.
"You understand that the plants from which I get my data have no sense of time," he said complacently.
"It's up to the operator of the prism to work out the chronology from the nature of the data and from various referents and comparisons. Also, for the plants to record something, they have to be where they can see and hear it. In this case, they didn't record when The House was built. Therefore, they were not present when it was.
"They first recorded its existence at the begi
"Actually, the plants didn't directly record The House. They recorded the existence of The Dead Place.
They must also have recorded the speech of the civilized peoples when these spoke about The House and The Dead Place in the presence of plants. But that does us Archkerri no good, since we don't know how to interpret any of the languages used.
"The origin of The House and its purpose are mysteries. It's possible that the three civilizations managed to decode the flying figures. But I wouldn't know what they read—if anything. In any event, it's obvious that they never managed to get into The House."
"If the ancients, with all their wisdom and powers, couldn't read the message "of the flying figures, then we surely won't be able to," the Yawtl said. "And if they couldn't get into The House, how can we? Also,
O Shemibob, you surely have had a chance to study the figures during your long, long life? If you don't know what the figures mean after all that time, how—?"
"Little thief," she said, "there may be a key to the code in The House. If we can't get into The House, then perhaps we can see something through a window which will enlighten us. In any event, we will act as if we will be successful."
"What about you, Archkerri?" Deyv asked. "I know you take your time getting around to investigating certain things. But you've known for a long, long time about this place. Why—?"
"At least fifty expeditions came here. None ever returned."
The Yawtl cried, "Then what are we doing here? Let's get out! Now!"
"And you didn't tell us that either!" Vana said disgustedly.
"There's always a first time," Sloosh said.
The Shemibob told Phemropit to use,its cutting ray on the window. The tight beam lanced out and stayed on one spot for a minute. Phemropit turned it off then, saying that it didn't want to use any more energy when doing so was useless. It was right. The window was still whole and unmarred.
"I just had a strange thought," Vana said. She was shivering. "Think of when this building was on the bottom of the ocean, in the black and terrible cold of the waters. Did that great gong ever boom out then? Did its vibrations sound along the mud, disturbing only the weird forms that scuttled there? And how many times?"
"They knew just as much about it as we do," Deyv said. "But they probably had the good sense not to go near it."
The Yawtl urged that they leave immediately. It was obvious that they couldn't get inside, and he was happy about that. Perhaps whatever had eaten up the nosey Archkerri was sleeping now. But who knew when it might wake up? Especially now, when they were making such an uproar.
The Shemibob said, "Look!"
She pointed upward. They turned to see, against the light in the notch, the first of the flying figures in the sky. After it, in single file, came others, and then the leader was lost in the darkness. Phemropit, at
The Shemibob's request, backed up until it came to a slope. It went down this until it was at an angle from which its fan-light fell upon the top of the column. Dimly seen, the first of the figures, a giant #, dipped down, shrinking swiftly, and was swallowed. Those behind it also went into the opening. This couldn't be seen by the watchers, but the top of the black column had to be open.
"Unless," Sloosh said, "the figures just evaporate there."