away, perhaps broken. When I choose, I shall brush Chronos into nothingness. Think not to appeal to. Chronos-”
It was Uranos’s turn to laugh. “And again I say,’ Magos, Chronos might not agree with your words. I think, were they to be reported to him, there might be .u a visitor to your sleeping chamber with the night, one
carrying steel and knowing how to use it silently-”
But Magos continued to smile. “That is of no importance, certainly no concern of yours.”
“Then why have you sent for us, son of the pit?”
“Like other men, Uranos, at times I wish amusement. And games of chance interest me. My friend, Conth”-he nodded to the priest who had been whispering to him-“has wagered me a curious ring out of Uighur, a ring that is said to give its holder some odd powers, that I cannot keep a man alive for seven days in the laboratories while he undergoes some changes. Now I am proud of the skill of my workmen, and I desire that ring with its attractive history. So I thought of all the prisoners within these walls who could be spared, and I summoned you-”
Uranos might not be broken, but he had been shaken enough to say, “Devil!”
“So have others called me before they passed through that door.” The high priest pointed to an opening at the far end of the room. “And yet later they blessed me when I granted them death-much, much later. You are strong, Uranos; so does this other one look also. I think I shall win my wager.”
He arose, and the icy claws of the priest behind Ray fastened on the American’s shoulders, propelling him forward. Magos had taken two steps before lie turned and came back.
“Now I am a true son of the Shadow. It has come to me that perhaps Ba-Al should have a voice in this. Therefore, you twain shall choose between black and white stones. He to whom my lord sends the black shall save my wager, and he who gains the white shall wait for a while. Yes, that is fit and proper.”
The other priests echoed his laughter. Ray watched Conth bring a bowl and ostentatiously drop two stones, one white, one black, into it. Then once more Magos held up a hand.
“Put in two of the white. If both draw, then I know that Ba-Al wishes them for himself: The will of the Shadow is our full desire. Conth shall draw for Uranos, and Path-tan for this stranger. Draw, Conth-”
Magos took the bowl and held it well above the eye level of the lesser priest. Conth’s hand moved and opened to show a white stone on his palm.
Path-tan came forward and dipped his fingers in turn. Then he tossed his prize to the floor, where it rolled to touch Ray’s foot. It was also white.
“Our lord has spoken.” Magos broke the silence. “By his will be it so.”
The other priests echoed his words. But Ray wondered-had it been only a trick? Why did Magos want to threaten and then reprieve? Or indeed had chance selected the stones and Magos been superstitious enough to allow himself to be balked, believing Ba-A1 had guided the priest’s groping fingers?
“Uranos.” The high priest came a step closer. “What do you expect-the altar and the knife-or”-he paused-“the embrace of the Loving One?”
“What matters it how a Sunborn warrior faces death as long as he does so under the Flame? The body dies,-. but not that which is the true man. And in death do I.. conquer, as well you know, who have chosen to turn down the path of the Shadow. The altar of this devil you speak of-the Loving One-”
“The devil I speak of?” Magos replied. “You should not utter words about things you do not know so lightly, Uranos. The Loving One it shall be, and you will call upon your Flame in that hour, and it will not leap to your calling. Then you will beg for death-but it shall come in its own time and by its own desire. And; for you-likewise!” For the first time since they had: entered that room the high priest looked straight at Ray. “Take them to the temple so that they may be: ready at hand when the hour strikes-”
Once more they traveled through dark passages, some of them so dusky that they might be moving through an endless night. Once Ray saw trickles of oily moisture on the walls and slimy tracks left by nameless dwellers in these underground ways.
They came to steps climbing up and up, passing ate least two other levels of floors, then out into a red-walled’ corridor with rods of light set at regular intervals P along it, and finally into the hall of murals, which Ray
had seen during that dream journey.
“We are in the temple of Ba-Al.” Uranos spoke for’ the first time since they had left Magos. “See you,: brother, how the Lord of the Shadow would keep hi.,
foul amusements ever before his worshipers’ eyes?” Ray gave those obscene pictures but a glance and then averted his gaze.
“Be silent!” One of their escort slapped Uranos across
-the mouth viciously. “Time for speech, yes, and for wailing and calling upon a long-quenched Flame will come. They say that the Sunborn do not know how to beg for mercy. But then the Sunborn have not yet met the Loving One. I warrant you will squeal as loudly at the last as did the last Murian who went into the embrace of That Which Crawls!”
They were put in a small side chamber, their chains again snapped to rings in the walls, and then the priests left them. “What was Magos’s purpose?” Ray asked when they were alone. “Did he play a game with those stones? Or did he really believe Ba-Al made the choice?”
“Who knows?” the other returned. “If he played a game, it was not wholly aimed at us, I think. This Loving One-I wish I knew more.”
He did not agree, Ray decided. He leaned his head against the wall as his older problem came back full force. Why had the will kept him here in the heart of the enemy’s country? What had been the task he had not completed? Since he had been summoned by the Red Robe on the quay, that void which the will had filled had been empty in him. Had it fled or been driven out by the power of the Atlantean priest?
Why was he here?
The stones at his back were chill and cold; he was lost. Not this time in a forest of giant trees but in a place he could not describe, where not his body, but another part of him, drifted without purpose-beyond his control. Lost, yes, as he never thought anyone or anything could be lost
Then-that which he had become-that drifting wisp of near nothingness was caught-held—drawn in another direction-and by the will!
Ray was in his body, and there was a tingling in his flesh, a warmth under his skin, which had once come from the sparkling water in the Murian citadel. In him
again the will was firmly seated-waiting-though for what he did not know.
“Brother!”
Ray turned his head and looked to the other. Uranos had pulled to the end of his chains and was trying to touch Ray with one outstretched hand. His face mirrored amazement and concern.
“How is it with you?” he asked as Ray’s gaze met his.
“Well-now,” the American answered and knew that was the truth. With the will had come confidence. Yet do not depend upon it, caution urged.
“You-it was as if you went from your body-” half whispered Uranos.
“But I have returned,” Ray said. “And also-” He hesitated.
“Yes-?” Uranos asked.
“I think-listen!” His head still rested against the wall, and it seemed to him that through the stone came sound, very dim and far away.
The Atlantean turned his head and laid his right ear also to the wall.
“Like sea surf,” he said after a long moment.
“What is it?”
They were not given long to speculate. The priests returned to unhook their chains. As they came into the great hall of the temple, that sound was clearer, sharper, as if some acoustic property of the building picked up and amplified it. It was now indeed a roaring. Uranos kept turning his head.
“That-this is battle!” he cried out suddenly.
“Mu!” But how? Ray questioned his own answer. There surely had not been time enough for the motherland to gather an army, to strike thus at the very heartland of the enemy. But could he be sure of that. either?
It may well be.” Uranos looked to the priest holding his chains. “Look well to the wings of your Shadow now, brother of the pit. When the Flame dances, all darkness fails. And when the motherland comes to cleanse the land, naught will remain to give your Dark-god cover-”