Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

death it could be seen that his frame had in fact been perfectly normal for

his height and weight. He too looked quite dried out, so that it was

impossible to guess how long he had been dead; but appearance alone both of

them might have been lying there for months, though their “Cabin boy” had

spoken to one of them-he did not know which-through the door only two days

ago.

But all this was secondary to the central terror. In the middle of the deck

there lay coiled the serpentine shape of a familiar so huge that jorn did

not at first even recognize it for what it was. Its head was as big as a

large book … and as the invaders tried to press back against the inward

urging of the curious people outside, it raised that head from the floor.

“Rreh,” it said, in a hoarse feminine parody of Ertak’s voice. “Rk. Arr

hamds. Tsu arr hamds.”

At the very center of its coils, in the geometric center of the cabin,

there rested a smooth, dully shining sphere, about the size and shape, and

even almost the color, of an apple.

“Out,” jorn croaked. “Everybody out. Who’s Sergeant Strage’s successor?

Never mind yet-out, quickl”

The familiar watched them go, her head weaving back and forth slightly.

jorn was the last one; and with more courage than he had ever dreamed he

possessed, he stopped on the sill to look around the cabin for the Grand

Log.

If it was still there, it was nowhere in sight Then he found himself

looking first into the eyes of the

And all the Stars a Stage 175

mummified woman, and then into the eyes of the familiar.