hundred feet high, roaring like a billion pans of frying
bacon. Jon-Tom wanted to reach back and put his hand on
the guard, to ask what was going to happen next. Since
none of the other onlookers did so, he held his peace and
like them, simply stood and gaped.
The massive wave did not fall forward to smash against
the puny city walls. It began to slide into the dark moat,
pouring in a seemingly endless waterfall into the unbelievable
THE DAY OF THE DISSONANCE
217
excavation. The wave was endless, too. As they watched
it seemed to grow even higher, climbing toward the clouds
as its base disappeared into the moat.
The thunder was all around him, and he could feel the
sandstone blocks quivering underfoot. Jon-Tom turned.
Across the roofs of the city, in all directions, he could see
the wave. The city was surrounded by rushing sand hun-
dreds of feet high and inestimable in volume, all of it
cascading down into the depths which surrounded Redrock.
Thirty minutes passed. The wave began to shrink. Un-
countable tons of sand continued to pour into the moat,
which still showed no sign of filling up. Another thirty
minutes and the torrent had slowed to a trickle. A few
minutes more and the last grains tumbled into the abyss.
Beyond, the moon illuminated the skeleton of the de-
sert. Bare rock stood revealed, as naked as the surface of
the moon. Between the city and the mountains, nothing
lived, nothing moved. A few hollows showed darkly
in the rock, ancient depressions now emptied of sand and
gravel.
A soft murmur rose from the onlookers as they turned