This impression lasted only as long as it took his eyes to refocus. Then, with a shock that made him feel breathless, he found himself standing on a beach. For a moment, he felt he was dreaming. But there could be no doubting the reality of the waves breaking a few yards from his feet, or of the slimy, weed-covered rocks that stretched into the sea.
Niall had no doubt what had happened. His grandfather had told him too many tales of magic for him not to recognise an example of the enchanter’s art. He stared up at the pale blue sky overhead, at the immense line of cliffs that extended into the distance, and sought some clue to his present situation. The coolness of the breeze, and the presence of drifting white clouds in the sky, argued that he was far from the desert. The trees on the clifftop were unlike any he had ever seen; they were taller, and of a darker green. The sea itself looked more grey and cold than the sea he had crossed two days ago.
It was when he was looking along the beach for the second time that he saw the old man sitting on a rock. The sight made him start; he was certain the beach had been empty a few moments ago. Now he had no doubt that he was in the presence of the magician.
When the old man raised his head, Niall received another shock; it was his grandfather Jomar. It was only as he approached closer that he began to experience doubts. This man was taller, and there was a completely different quality about his gaze. Yet the resemblance was remarkable; he might have been Jomar’s brother.
As Niall came closer, the man stood up. His garments struck Niall as completely outlandish. They were of a uniform shade of pale grey, and covered his entire body from his neck to his feet. The trouserlegs terminated in polished black shoes.
Niall raised his hand, palm outward, in the desert salute. Because the man was older, it would have been impolite to speak first.
The old man smiled; his eyes were of a pale blue. “Your name is Niall.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, sire.”
“You needn’t call me sire. My name is Steeg. At least, that’s what you’d better call me. How do you do?” But when Niall reached out to clasp arms, he drew back. “I don’t think you’d better try to touch me.” His smile made it plain this was not a rebuke. He pointed to a rock. “Would you like to sit down?”
Niall sat on the weed-covered boulder; the old man reseated himself on his rock. He looked at Niall for several moments without speaking, then asked:
“Do you know where you are?”
“Inside. . . I was inside the white tower.”
“You are inside the white tower. Close your eyes.” Niall obeyed. “Now feel the rock you are sitting on.” Niall did so, and was astonished to realise that it had a smooth, flat surface. He opened his eyes and looked down at the green weed and the sea-worn granite. When he touched it, he could see that it was an illusion; his fingertips encountered something more like smooth wood.
The old man said: “Take off your shoes and feel the sand.” Niall did so, and found that his feet were now resting on a hard, flat surface. When walking across it, it had never occurred to him to doubt that it was sand because it looked like sand.
Niall said: “You must be a great magician.”
The man shook his head. “I am not any kind of a magician.” He pointed to the beach. “And this is not a magical illusion. It is what used to be called a panoramic hologram. When men were still on earth, they used to be the main attraction of children’s amusement parks.”
Niall asked eagerly: “Do you know about the time when men were lords of the earth?”
“I know everything about it.”
“And are you one of those ancient men?”
The old man shook his head. “No. In fact, I am not really here at all, as you’ll see if you try to touch me.” He held out his hand; when Niall tried to touch it, his fingers passed through it. He felt totally unalarmed. The old man’s smile was so pleasant, and his manner so casual and intimate, that it was obvious there was no cause for fear.
“But you must be very old.”
“No. I am far younger than you. In fact, I am only a few minutes old.” He smiled at Niall’s bewilderment. “Don’t worry. Everything will be explained in due course. But before we begin, I think we’d better move upstairs.”
Niall glanced in bewilderment at the sky. As he did so, it vanished, and he found himself looking at a white, luminous ceiling. In place of the cliffs and the distant horizons there were the curved white walls of the tower. He was not seated on a weed-covered rock, but on a kind of solid stool made of pale wood; the old man sat on an identical stool. This circular room otherwise seemed to be empty, except for a central column stretching from floor to ceiling. But its surface seemed somehow unstable, as if it were in continuous slow motion, like smoke.
The old man stood up. “Would you like to follow me?” He walked towards the column and vanished into it, disappearing completely. But his voice issued from the smoky white surface. “Step into it, as I did.”
When Niall obeyed, he found himself surrounded by a kind of white fog. Then he was floating upwards. A moment later, he stopped with a slight jerk.
“Step forward again,” the old man said.
For a moment, Niall thought he was under the night sky. He could see the moon and stars overhead; the spider city lay around them. A few hundred yards away, he could see the black-fronted building of the Spider Lord. He could even see the wolf spiders standing on guard before its door. But when he stepped forward, his outstretched hand encountered glass. It was so transparent that it reflected none of the light that filled the room.
He pointed to the spider guards. “But can’t they see us?”
“No. The light can enter the walls but cannot leave again.”
This room was comfortably furnished with furniture not unlike that of Kazak’s palace. The chairs and the couch were covered with a black substance like leather. There was a soft black carpet on the floor. The only unusual item was a device like a tall black box which stood against the glass wall; on its sloping upper surface was a panel of opaque white glass. A row of control buttons underneath it reminded Niall of the strange machine in the desert.
“What is that?” he asked.
“That is the most valuable object in this place. It cost more than this whole city to make.”
“But what does it do?”
“To begin with, it creates me.”
Niall recalled the creation myths his mother had told him as a child. “Is it a god?” he asked with awe.
“Oh no, just a machine.”
“But I thought only a god could create.”
“That is untrue. You see, you are also creating me.”
That sounded so absurd that Niall could only stare. The old man said:
“I am reacting to your questions and your responses. Even my appearance is borrowed from your memory.”
It took Niall some time to absorb this.
“And this tower?”
“This tower was created by men before they left the earth. It was intended to be a museum — a place in which the history of the earth would be stored. When it was almost completed, men realised that the earth would pass through the tail of an immense radioactive comet.”
“What is a comet?”
“I will show you. Look.”
As he spoke, the sky overhead changed. The full moon became a crescent, hanging above the rooftops. The buildings of the city were suddenly transformed; their windows filled with lights, and searchlight beams illuminated the facades of the buildings in the square. And in the southern sky, directly above the great avenue, there hung a dazzling trail of white vapour, terminating at its lower end in a mass of blue-green light. It looked like a giant version of the falling stars Niall had seen so often in the desert, except that instead of moving, it hung motionless.
“This is the comet Opik,” the old man said. “Its head is twelve thousand miles in diameter, and the coma — the shell surrounding the nucleus — is fifty thousand miles across. The tail is more than seven million miles long.
“It is not as frightening as it looks. This head is full of tiny particles, most of them not much bigger than a grain of sand. Even if it had struck the earth directly, it would not have destroyed it. But Opik came from somewhere beyond the solar system, and was powerfully radioactive — that means it contained substances that would destroy most animals. Men had less than a year to prepare to evacuate the earth. More than a hundred million people — most of the earth’s population — escaped in giant space transporters. But before leaving, they completed this tower, for the days when men would return.”