from the creature throbbed. “Every Proto has heard it, and
agrees with it. We have been afraid of this metal plate for a
long time, afraid that men would learn to understand it and
follow what it says to some secret place, leaving the Protos
behind. Now we are not afraid.”
“There wasn’t anything to be afraid of,” Lavon said indul-
gently.
“No Lavon before you, Lavon, had ever said so,” the Para
said. “We are glad. We will throw the plate away, as Lavon
orders.”
With that, the shining creature swooped toward the em-
brasure. With it, it bore away the remaining plate, which had
been resting under it on the tabletop, suspended delicately in
the curved tips of its supple ventral cilia. Inside its pellucid
body, vacuoles swelled to increase its buoyancy and enable
it to carry the heavy weight.
With a cry, Shar plunged through the water toward the
window.
“Stop, Para!” i
But Para was already gone, so swiftly that it had pot even
beard the call. Shar twisted his body and brought up one
shoulder against the tower wall. He said nothing. His face
was enough. Lavon could not look into it for more than an
instant.
The shadows of the two men began to move slowly along
the uneven cobbled floor. The Noc descended toward them
from the vault, its tentacle stirring the water, its internal light
flaring and fading irregularly. It, too, drifted through the
window after its cousin, and sank: slowly away toward the
Bottom. Gently its living glow dimmed, flickered in the depths,
and winked out.
For many days, Lavon was able to avoid thinking much about