Anana was startled and then scornful. “Human female! Doesn’t this stinking bird know a Lord when she sees one?”
“Evidently riot,” he replied. “After all, you look exactly like a human. In fact, you can breed with humans, so I would say that you are human, even if you do have a different origin. Or do you? Wolff has some interesting theories about that.”
She muttered some invective or pejorative in Lord-speech. Kickaha sent the craft up and followed Thyweste to the entrance of the cave, where Podarge had kept house and court for five hundred years or so. She had chosen the site well. The cliff above the entrance slanted gently outward for several thousand feet and was almost as smooth as a mirror. There was a broad ledge in front of the cave, and the cave could be approached on the ledge from only one side. But this path was always guarded by forty giant eagles. Below the ledge, the cliff slanted inward. No creature could climb up to or down from the cave. An
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army of determined men could have dropped ropes from above to let themselves down to the cave, but they would have been open to attack.
The entrance was a round hole about ten feet in diameter. It opened to a long curving corridor of rock polished from five centuries of rubbing’by feathered bodies.
The craft had to be driven through the tunnel with much grating and squealing. After fifty yards of such progress, it came out into an immense cavern. This was lit by torches and by huge plants resembling feathers, which glowed whitely. There were thousands of them hanging down from the ceiling and sticking out from the walls, their roots driven into the rock.
From somewhere, air brushed Kickaha’s cheek softly.
The great chamber was much as he remembered it except that there was more order. Apparently, Podarge had done some house clean ing. The garbage on the floor had been removed, and the hundreds of large chests and caskets containing jewels, objets d’art, and gold and silver coins and other treasures had been stacked alongside the walls or carried elsewhere.
Two columns of eagles formed an aisle for the craft, the aisle crossed fifty yards of smooth granite floor to end at a platform of stone. This was ten feet high and attained by a flight of steps made from blocks of quartz. The old rock-carved chair was gone. In its place was a great chair of gold set with diamonds, formed in the shape of a phoenix with outstretched wings that was placed in the middle of the platform. The chair had been that of the Rhadamanthus of Atlantis, ruler of the next-to-highest level of this planet. Podarge had taken the
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chair in a raid on the capital city some four hundred years ago. Now there was no Rhadaman-thus, almost no Atlanteans left alive, and the great city was shattered. And the plans of Wolff for recolonizing the land were interrupted by the appearance of the Black Bellers and by his disappearance.
Podarge sat upon the edge of the throne. Her body was that of a Harpy’s as conceived by Wolff-as-Jadawin 3,200 years ago. The legs were long and avian, thicker than an ostrich’s, so they could bear the weight of her body. The lower part of the body was also avian, green-feathered and long-tailed. The upper part was that of a woman with magnificent white breasts, long white neck, and the archingly beautiful face. Her hair was long and black; her eyes were mad. She had no arms—she had wings, very long and broad wings with green and crimson feathers.
Podarge called to Kickaha in a rich husky voice, “Stop your aerial car there! It may approach no closer!”
Kickaha asked for permission to get out of the machine and come to the foot of the steps. She said that would be granted. He told Anana to follow him and then walked with just a hint of a swagger to the steps. Podarge’s eyes were wide on seeing Anana’s face. She said, “Two-legged female, are you a creation of Jadawin’s? He has given you a face that is modeled on mine!”