Ray thought of Captain Taut’s boast that with the right sort of followers, he could give the city dwellers something to think about. To Ray these defenses .appeared too formidable, if the enemy came armed only with such weapons as he had already seen in use.
Two more walls had to be passed after the last canal before they were in the city. The buildings were of three colors, red, black, and gray-white. Those, too, looked as if they had been erected with an eye to their possible future use as fortifications.
There was a different race walking the streets. They. did not have the fair skins or the height of the Murians, and there were many more armed men among them. They spoke their guttural tongue as if they did not o want to be overheard, even by their close neighbors. The city of Chronos had a smell to it, one that had nothing to do with the normal odors born of many people living close together. No, this was the smell of fear. Ray wondered how he knew that, but he was sure it was true.
His guide brought him to a large square. Directly facing them was what had once been a majestic temple of white marble. But now it looked ,as if it had been deliberately defaced and despoiled. Ray noted that the ,- Atlanteans made a business of avoiding any close approach to it. Before the wide steps leading to what had been the temple platform were two pillars draped in dull crimson cloth, now tattered and dusty.
The soldier laughed and pointed. “See the temple of the Flame, built by those from Mu? Our fathers of Ba-A1 handled it somewhat roughly on the day when our Dark One came into his own.”
“Why are the pillars veiled?” Ray asked.
“It is forbidden to speak of those.” The soldier glanced sharply from left to right. “Come-” He quickened his pace across the square. But still they must pass close to the defaced temple, and as they did so, the Atlantean again pointed-to a chipped and broken line running along one wall, about the height of a man’s breast. Rusty brown stains were in the stone there.
“That was where we stood the Sunborn, and those who served them, when we made a final end. They did not cry out, even when, death took them. They are stubborn, those Sunborn. Their children were given to Ba-Al, and it is said not even the youngest cried. They have courage-but that is all. And courage will not cloak or shield them against the will of Ba-Al. Now they have gone, save for a few in the slime pits and those given to the priests for experiments-”
“What will happen to those in the slime pits?” Ray did not look again at that wall. He fought against the picture that his imagination, aroused by the guide’s words, had painted for him.
“They are brought forth sometimes and questioned. The Poseidon keeps them for some purpose. Come, it grows late.”
“Tell me,” he said a moment later. “You have seen Mu, man from Uighur. Is the motherland as rich as stories say?”
“It seemed so to me.”
“And the Sunborn, there are many of them?”
Ray thought he saw a chance to plant a small seed of
doubt. “Very many-and they have strong powers there. It is their ancient homeland.”
“Chronos has promised us their women when the men are sent to the altars of Ba-Al. We shall fall upon Mu, and their powers will not aid them. Then all the riches shall also be ours, and those not of the Sunborn will be our slaves. So does Ba-Al promise!” There was complete confidence in the Atlantean’s voice.
Ray’s fingers curled, as if about to reach for the soldier: Memory was not too dim any more. Things were breaking through the overlaid crust of Sydyk since he walked this city. To think of the Lady Aiee-the Lady Ayna so used
“It may not be so easy. I have seen the Murians. They are good warriors-not just children to be swept easily from one’s path.”
“Ah-but they have no Loving One,” observed the other. “Now, down there is the temple of Ba-Al.”
A huge building of red stone squatted at the end of a wide avenue. But Ray caught no more than a hasty glimpse of it before they turned into another street and so came to the Poseidon’s palace. Here the Atlantean left him with an officer of the guard.
Through long dark corridors, for any windows were set far apart and high, hardly more than slits in the thick stone, up narrow and winding stairs, they went. There was a damp chill, in this place of many shadows, to set one shivering. It was far more a sullen fortress than a palace, bearing no resemblance to that of the Re Mu. At last they came to a small archway that gave on a court lying open under the sky.
The officer announced Ray. “The man from Uighur.”
He advanced a step or two, very much aware that this was the real test of the part he played and that the least fraction of a mistake, such as the one he had made before Taut, would mean his death. He was Sydyk, and must be only Sydyk. There was no other safety for him.
“Well, where is he, where is he?” someone demanded querulously. “Bid him step out to be seen, Magos.” “Come hither, man out of Uighur,” was the order. Ray came into the light, which was that of sunset.
“You are late,” complained the first voice.
“There were delays, Dread Lord,” replied Ray with caution.
“Come! Come here!”
Ray approached a gold couch and went quickly to his knees, his head bowed, hoping he looked the perfect humbled and awed servant.
“Look up, look up! Let me see what manner of man you are, Sydyk of Uighur!”
This was Chronos, Poseidon of Atlantis-as he had seen him once in a dream. No, it was danger to remember that, now and here, in this company.
Small eyes in a bloated, fat cheeked face under a fringe of perfumed and elaborately curled hair; fat hands postured back and forth in studied gestures, now and then lifting to the pouting lips some dainty from a heaped plate standing on a small side table at the ruler’s elbow. Beside him, but standing, was a redrobed priest, shaven of skull, very bright of eyes. Ray thought that he was more to be feared than the Poseidon he professed to serve.
“Will the Dread One be pleased to hear the words of this his slave?” Ray followed the formula that had been drilled into him.
“Shall he speak fully now, Magos?” Chronos asked the priest.
“Perhaps it would be well, saving time, Dread One. Then, if you believe it necessary, he may repeat his report before the council later.”
“Speak then, man from Uighur.”
“Following the orders given your slave, I journeyed to Mu,” began Ray. The words came so easily that they must have been planted in his mind to be released by the asking of just such a question.
The Poseidon squirmed about among his cushions. “Yes, yes!” He was impatient. “But what of their defenses?”
Again the words came to Ray. “All the coastal forts
have been reinforced, with the reserves called up. And the fleet has been recalled to receive further men and new ships, and to cruise in the western seas-”
“All that is already known to us, you fool! Have you nothing of greater importance for our ears? What of the matters you were told especially to ferret out?”
“Your slave bribed a young novice of the temple-he knew of something-”
“And that-that? Know they of the Loving One?”
“Yes. The Naacals pierced the curtain of darkness and saw the Loving One-” Still the words spilled out of Ray, and he knew that they were not of his thinking but had been set in him for the answering of just such questions-though the purpose of his revelations he did not know.
Chronos balled a flat fist and dug it deeply into one of the cushions that supported his weight. “So-” He looked petulantly at the priest. “You told me that the curtain could not be penetrated, and it has been. Are the Naacals then so much more powerful than-”
“Dread One!” The Red Robe’s hand made a warning gesture, indicating Ray. But if the priest did not wish such matters discussed here and now, his royal master was in no mood to be silenced.
“Do these Naacals have greater powers then?” he repeated, his voice rising shrill and sharp.
“As I have told you, Dread One”-in return the priest’s tone was even and reasonable-“no mind born of Mu could have reached us. But we sensed something. If they did penetrate the temple-”
“If?” Chronos interrupted him. “They must have done so. You-do they plan any defense against the Loving One? What said this cub priest of that?”