Then he came to the topmost section. Awaiting him,there were not only the Re Mu but also two of the Naacals. Behind them the circular expanse of the wall was broken at intervals by opaque ovals, certainly not meant as windows, for, though it was bright sunlight’ without, no light entered through them but came from globes resting on tripods near the three seats. The rest of the room was as bare as those below.
Ray knelt, feeling awkward and foolish, but following the ritual of the court. However, none of them; made him greeting. Instead, he found himself the center of their probing gaze, and his distrust grew. This had the feeling of an inquisition, save that he had no crime to answer for “That is the truth. We do not summon you to any accounting.”
It was the Re Mu who spoke.’ No, not for anything in the past are you summoned here, but rather for an act to come-”
Ray was bewildered. “You believe that I mean you harm in some way?” Here it was, Lady Aiee’s suspicion. So he did have a right. to feel apprehensive.
“No-you may be able to work us well, not ill! Tell . him, U-Cha.”
” It is thus,” one of the Naacals said. “Those of Atlantis have now truly closed the lanes of thought, an act never before committed since land and living things rose from the slime of the sea bottom after Hyperborea was dashed to the depths.
“Always have certain minds in the motherland been trained to communicate with like in the colonies. Thus does the Re Mu give his commands to the viceroys of the outer lands. Now we can so speak only to the frontier posts of Mayax, no farther. Those who have chosen of their will to march into the Shadow have set up a barrier none of us can pierce. And what foulness they plot behind that cloud-that we must learn for the sake of the motherland.”
“It is thus.” The Re Mu leaned forward a little, and again that overwhelming aura, which seemed as much a part of him as his cloak, engulfed Ray, whether by the Emperor’s deliberate will or not, the American did not know. “We cannot break this barrier. But there is a small chance that you might be able to do so. You come from a time when different thoughts and powers are a part of its people. What bars us may be no hindrance to you. Would you be willing to aid us in trying to see what our enemies would do?”
“Do you mean-send me to Atlantis?” Ray asked slowly.
“Not in body, no, but in mind,” replied the Naacal U-Cha.
“For such voyaging,” the Re Mu added, “we have many safeguards. Ali-” He broke off, his eves holding
Ray’s. “I see that you know little of the mind and its _ powers. Your strength in your time is founded on other
means. So, to you, this is a fearsome thing, for you . would not loose what you neither understand nor can . control. But do not suspect this so much. Have you not’ already talked mind to mind? Once you are taught, you will have use of the inner power as have all the Sunborn. But I respect your hesitation, since to you. this is an unwalked wilderness over which no trails’ run, an uncharted sea.”
He was useful to them, Ray thought. They would be’ careful of a tool they needed. And it was true that he had communicated with Cho and the others, and no harm had come from it. Still-the Lady Aiee had warned him-he might already have been tested as a tool-by the other side.
“Not so!” Again the Re Mu read his thought. “Think you we would dare to use what we doubted? You shall see the proof of that here and now.”
The second of the Naacals drew forth from beneath his cloak a crystal such as Ray had seen in the Lady Aiee’s hand on the night he had walked in his sleep.
“Hold this within your two hands, touching first your heart and then your forehead.”
The priest did not hand it over but tossed the crystal through the air, and Ray caught it. Obediently he closed his hands upon it, palm to palm. It was not cool as he had expected, but faintly warm. He brought his hands to his chest for a long moment, and then, at the Naacal’s gesture, raised them to his forehead.
“Return it now-“The Naacal held out his hand, and Ray tossed the small sphere back even as it had come to him. It glowed faintly, but otherwise it was as it had been before. The three, looking upon it, nodded as one.
“None tainted with the Shadow could have done this,” the Re Mu said. “Now, what is your choice? It must be freely made.”
“How will I know what to look for-if I go?” Ray asked. “You will be sent to the proper places,” replied the Emperor.
“When?”
“Now. Delay is dangerous.”
-,ay ran his tongue over his lips. Yes or no? He did not doubt that they believed firmly in what they would do. But to him it was questionable. Still-let them try, if it meant so much.
“All right,” he answered quickly, suddenly afraid his reluctance would win.
The Naacals took over. A stone in the wall turned at a touch, opening upon a basin of water that held in its depths a sparkling life. They stripped him and bathed him in that water, which left his flesh tingling. Then they wrapped him in a robe as white as theirs and set him down in the chair that had been the Re Mu’s. The Emperor now stood behind Ray and cupped his hands in a blindfold over the American’s eyes.
“See a dark curtain hanging before you,” ordered the Murian ruler. r
Suddenly it was there, black, thick, tangible, falling in heavy folds.
“Go through-forward!” rang the command in his ears.
Ray obeyed. Between his fingers he felt the smooth fabric of that curtain, its weight across his hand as he pushed at it to open a slit. Then he clung to it in agony, for flame washed about him, searing.
“Back!” Somewhere a voice shouted that, but very faintly.
Ray stumbled ahead. The slit was open and promised an escape from the fire he could not see. He plunged through it and was out, in the midst of light.
He stood at one end of along, columned hall, the red walls of which were swallowed by shadows. On those walls in mute colors, but missing no details, were murals such as fiends out of hell might have devised and executed. Ray tried to turn his head, his eyes away, sickened. But the will he sensed in control of his
actions made him stare at each horror as he went, as if assessing all their obscenity and cruelty.
As he came along the dusky side of those pillars, Ray discovered he was not alone in the hall, for beyond was. a black stone altar and, about it, a group very intent on’ some action. There was a chant he did not understand, but he paused behind a pillar, knowing that this, too,; was something that must be witnessed.
On the surface of the altar crouched a statue of gold.. The thing had a bull head with wide stretching horns, incongruous when coupled to a human body. And around its gleaming yellow hovered a murky black cloud. This Ray recognized, without surprise, as evil, the evil inherent in the thoughts of which this beast-thing was the symbol.
Those by the altar numbered five. Two wore red robes, had shaven skulls, like the Atlantean priest he had seen on board the ship, and were servants of this foul god. A third had warrior’s armor, and the fourth a rich robe and many jewels.
The latter had a small round mouth with pale lips, rather like the sucker of a devilfish. His small eyes were set deep in rolls of greasy skin. Ray knew instant hate, revulsion, as if all his emotions had been so heightened that response came quickly and in top degree.
On the lower step of the altar lay the fifth man. He had been stripped and bound, a helpless prisoner. But from him there came a kind of light that Ray read as a reflection of desperate courage. By his skin and hair, Ray guessed the captive to be Murian.
The chanting stopped, and one of the priests moved, the murky light glinting on a blade in his hand.
“Fish one!” The captive spat at the Red Robe. “Mu stands against all of you and your devil god!”
As the blade slashed down, his body arched under the blow, and then he gasped. The other priest was ready to catch the gushing blood in a waiting bowl. Hand to hand that bowl passed, and men drank from it Ray, sick, struggled against the will that held him there until he was released and the hall of horrors was gone. Now he stood high on a wall above a harbor choked with ships. And there he remained for some time, as if through his eyes all below was being carefully examined, though to him it meant no more than many vessels of different shapes and sizes closely crowded together.