"Little thief," she said, "there may be a key to the code in The House. If we can't get into The House, then perhaps we can see something through a window which will enlighten us. In any event, we will act as if we will be successful."
"What about you, Archkerri?" Deyv asked. "I know you take your time getting around to investigating certain things. But you've known for a long, long time about this place. Why—?"
"At least fifty expeditions came here. None ever returned."
The Yawtl cried, "Then what are we doing here? Let's get out! Now!"
"And you didn't tell us that either!" Vana said disgustedly.
"There's always a first time," Sloosh said.
The Shemibob told Phemropit to use,its cutting ray on the window. The tight beam lanced out and stayed on one spot for a minute. Phemropit turned it off then, saying that it didn't want to use any more energy when doing so was useless. It was right. The window was still whole and unmarred.
"I just had a strange thought," Vana said. She was shivering. "Think of when this building was on the bottom of the ocean, in the black and terrible cold of the waters. Did that great gong ever boom out then? Did its vibrations sound along the mud, disturbing only the weird forms that scuttled there? And how many times?"
"They knew just as much about it as we do," Deyv said. "But they probably had the good sense not to go near it."
The Yawtl urged that they leave immediately. It was obvious that they couldn't get inside, and he was happy about that. Perhaps whatever had eaten up the nosey Archkerri was sleeping now. But who knew when it might wake up? Especially now, when they were making such an uproar.
The Shemibob said, "Look!"
She pointed upward. They turned to see, against the light in the notch, the first of the flying figures in the sky. After it, in single file, came others, and then the leader was lost in the darkness. Phemropit, at
The Shemibob's request, backed up until it came to a slope. It went down this until it was at an angle from which its fan-light fell upon the top of the column. Dimly seen, the first of the figures, a giant #, dipped down, shrinking swiftly, and was swallowed. Those behind it also went into the opening. This couldn't be seen by the watchers, but the top of the black column had to be open.
"Unless," Sloosh said, "the figures just evaporate there."
"Hardly likely," The Shemibob said. "But then this is not a likely phenomenon."
"If they can get in, we can," the plant-man said.
"When did we start to grow wings?" the Yawtl growled.
His comment was not far off the mark The walls went straight up for two hundred feet and then curved out to make a wide overhang. The roof was a squat pyramid, an estimated one hundred feet high. From its tip the column rose for perhaps four hundred feet. It seemed to be about fifty feet in diameter.
"There wouldn't be an opening in it, anyway," Sloosh said. "The rain and dust would get in."
They talked for a long time but could think of no way to enter. Nevertheless, the Archkerri and The
Shemibob did not want to give up. Not yet. After checking the supplies, they estimated that there was enough for the return journey plus seven more sleep-times.
The others didn't like the idea of staying in the dismal and frightening place a second longer than necessary. Phemropit's opinion wasn't asked for. It would go along with the majority; one place was as good as another. But then it hadn't heard the mighty clanging.
Thunder growled from the direction in which The Dark Beast came. After a while a strong wind arose, and lightning flashed. The wind became a hurricane. Rain, half-frozen, struck them. They went around
The House to the side where the wind would be weaker. They huddled inside the vessel and waited for the storm to pass. Finally, they went to sleep, and when they awoke and opened the door, they found that the elements were still raging.
Moreover, the small valley in which The House stood was in three feet of water. Heavy cataracts were pouring over the edge of the large valley.
The Shemibob got out and struggled against the wind to the front of Phemropit. There she signaled that it should take them out of the small valley. If the water there was getting deeper, Phemropit should go up onto the mountain slope. She came back dripping wet, her porcupinelike hair bending like riverbank reeds after a flood had subsided. She stationed herself by the door, opening it now and then to check on
Phemropit's progress. It took a long time to get out of the small valley; the water rose almost as fast as
Phemropit did up the slope.
The floor of the big valley was by then three feet under the surface of the boiling flood. Before
Phemropit reached the foot of the nearest mountain, it and the vessel it bore were underwater. It slogged on ahead, and presently the tilt of the floor showed that it was on a steep incline. After waiting to make sure they were high enough, The Shemibob opened the door. Phemropit's fan-light revealed a broad and wide ledge of rock a few feet ahead. She got out and directed the creature to go under the ledge. Here they were safe from the direct blast of the howling wind, but the rain pouring down the mountainside curtained the ledge. They were under a waterfall which made invisible anything beyond it.
Another sleep-time came. They ate sparingly, since they couldn't know how long they'd be stuck there.
Suddenly, the wind began to die, and the rain stopped. When the cataract had finally thinned to a number of trickles, they looked down the mountain. The clouds were losing their grim blackness, and some of the bright sky behind The Beast was silhouetting the peaks to the left. They still couldn't see well, so they went back into the vessel. In another sleep-time, though, the clouds were gone, and enough of The
Beast had passed for them to see the situation.
Far off, the upper part of the roof of The House reared out of the water.
"There's no place for the water to drain out," Sloosh said. "It'll have to evaporate. Meanwhile—"
"We can go in the vessel to The House and get on the roof," The Shemibob said. "Maybe there are windows on it."
The Yawtl and the humans sighed, but they made no useless protests. The Shemibob unglued the vessel from Phemropit's back after it had gone down to the waterline. She took out ten more coils of the very thin and light but very strong rope and glued their ends together. After connecting one end to Phemropit and one to the nose of the vessel, she gave the creature detailed instructions. The door was closed, and the passengers settled down for a long ride.
Now and then the door was opened so they could be sure they were going in the right direction. It was also necessary to make sure that there was enough rope to keep them on the surface. When Phemropit got to the floor of the small valley, there was only about a foot extra. But that was enough.
The creature, following its instructions correctly, stopped when it was alongside The House. Leaving
Feersh with the baby and the animals, they climbed up the steeply sloping roof. Halfway between the edge of the roof and the column were windows as large as those at ground level.
They braced themselves around one and looked within it Below, illuminated dimly by The Shemibob's device, was a gigantic room. The walls were bare. The floor was covered with dust, and here and there, on pedestals, were what they at first thought were rough columns of rock.
The Shemibob said, "No. They were once statues of granite."
Nobody said anything.
She said, "Don't you realize what that means? Look at them. You can still make out the general shapes.