Once Urson looked back and saw Geo had stopped some twenty feet behind them at a niche in the ledge. Urson turned around and scrambled back. There was sweat on the boy’s upturned face as the big sailor came toward him, gleaming in the red flicker.
“Here,” Urson said. “Give me a hand.”
“I can’t,” Geo whispered. “I’ll fall.”
Urson reached down, caught Geo around the chest, and hoisted him over the rock. “Take it easy. You don’t have to race with anybody.” Together they made their way after the others.
Iimmi and Snake cleared the crater rim first; Urson and Geo joined them on the pitted ledge. Together they looked into the volcano as red and yellow light splashed their bellies and faces.
Gold dribbled the internal slope. Tongues of red rock lapped the sides, and the swirling basin belched brown blobs of smoke that rose up the far rocks to spill the brim a radian away.
White explosions in the white rock roared below them. Pylons of blue flame leaped, then sank back. Trails of light webbed the crater’s walls. At places ebon cavities jeweled the rock.
Wind fingered the watchers’ hair.
Geo saw her first, two hundred feet along the rim. Her veils, bloodied by the flame, blew about her as she approached. Geo pointed to her. The others looked up.
She stood very straight. White hair snapped at the side of her head in the warm wind. Firelight and shadow fell deeply in the wrinkles of her face. As she neared them, light ran like liquid down the side of her winded robe. She smiled and held out her hand.
“Who are you?” Geo suddenly asked.
“Shadows melt in light of sacred laughter,”
recited the woman in a sure, low voice.
“Hands and houses shall be one hereafter.”
She paused. “I am Argo Incarnate.”
“But I thought…” Iimmi started.
“What did you think?” inquired the elderly woman gently.
“Nothing,” said Iimmi.
“He thought you were a lot younger,” Urson said. “We’re supposed to take you home.” Suddenly he pointed into the volcano. “Say, this isn’t any of that funny light like back in the city that burned our hands, only this time it made you old?”
She glanced down the crater wall. “This is natural fire,” she assured them, “a severed artery of the earth’s burning blood. But wounds are natural enough.”
Geo shifted his feet and rubbed his stump. “We were supposed to take the daughter of the present Argo Incarnate and return with her to Leptar,” he explained.
“There are many Argos.” The woman smiled. “The Goddess has many faces. You have seen quite a few since you arrived in this land.”
“I guess we have,” Urson said.
“Are you a prisoner of Hama?” asked Iimmi.
“I am with Hama.”
“We are supposed to secure the third jewel and bring it back to the ship. We don’t have much time….”
“Yes,” said Argo.
“Hey, what about that nest of vampires down there?” Urson said, thumbing toward the black behind them. “They said they worshiped Argo. What have you got to do with them? I don’t trust anything on this place very much.”
“The nature of the Goddess is change.” She looked sadly down the slope. “From birth, through life, to death”—she looked back up at them — “to birth again. As I said, Argo has many faces. You must be very tired.”
“Yes,” said Geo.
“Then come with me. Please.” She turned and began to walk back along the rim. Snake and Iimmi started after her, followed by Geo and Urson.
“I don’t like any of this,” the big sailor whispered to Geo as they followed. “Argo doesn’t mean the same thing in this land as she does in Leptar. There’s nothing but more trouble to come out of this. She’s leading us into a trap, I tell you. I say the best thing to do is take the jewels we have, turn around, and get the hell out of here. I tell you, Geo — ”
“Urson.”
“Huh?”
“Urson, I’m very tired.”
They walked silently for a few steps more. Then Urson heaved up a disgusted breath and put his arm around Geo’s shoulder. “Come on,” he grunted, supporting Geo against his side as they progressed along the rocky ledge, following Argo.
She turned down a trail that dropped into the crater. “Walk carefully here,” she said as they turned into the huge pit.
“Something’s not right,” Urson said softly. “It’s a trap, I tell you. How does that thing go? I could use it now: Calmly, brother bear…”
continued Geo:
“Says who,” mumbled Urson, glancing into the bowl of flame.
Geo went on:
“Like I once said before,” muttered Urson: “In a — ”
“In here,” announced Argo. They turned into one of the caves that pocked the inner wall. “No,” she said to Snake, who was about to use the jewels for illumination. “They have been used too much already.”
With a small stick from a pocket in her robe, she struck a flame against the rock, then raised it to an ornate, branching petrolabra that hung from the stone ceiling by brass chains. Flame leaped from oil cup to oil cup, from the hand of a demon to a monkey’s mouth, from a nymph’s belly to a satyr’s head. Chemicals in the cups caused each flame to burn a different color: green, red, blue, and orange light filled the small chapel and played on the polished benches. On the altar were two statues of equal height: a man sitting and a woman kneeling. Geo and Urson stared at the petrolabra.
“What is it?” Iimmi asked when he saw where their eyes were fixed.
“There’s one of those things in Argo’s cabin onboard the ship,” Geo said. “And look over there. Where did we see one of those before?” The opaque glass screen was identical to the one in the convent.
“Sit down,” Argo said. “Please sit down.”
They sank to the benches. The climb, once halted, knotted their calves and the muscles low in their backs.
“Hama has allowed you the privilege of a chapel even in captivity,” commented Geo, “but I see you have to share your altar with him.”
“But I am Hama’s mother.” Argo smiled.
Geo and Urson frowned.
“You yourselves know that Argo is the mother of all things, the begetter and bearer of all life. I am the mother of all gods as well.”
“Those blind women,” said Urson. “They aren’t really your priestesses, are they? They wanted to kill us. I bet they were really dupes of Hama.”
“It isn’t so simple,” replied Argo. “They are really worshipers of Argo, but as I said, I have many faces. Death as well as life is my province. The dwellers in that convent from which you escaped are a — how shall I say it? — degenerate branch of the religion. They were truly blinded by the fall of the City of New Hope. To them, Argo is only death, the dominator of men. Not only is Argo the mother of Hama, she is his wife and daughter.”
“Then it’s like we figured,” said Geo. “Jordde isn’t a spy for Hama. He’s working for the renegade priestesses of Argo.”
“Yes,” returned Argo, “except that word ‘renegade’ is perhaps the wrong choice. They believe that their way is correct.”
“Then they must be responsible for all that was going on in Leptar, only somehow blaming it on Hama,” said Geo. “They were probably just after the jewels too. You don’t look like a prisoner. You’re here in league with Hama to prevent the priestesses of Argo from taking over Leptar.”