The curtains parted, admitting Many, one of the new Survivors.
“For a P.S. of only a few heartbeats’ experience,” he chided, “you’ve sure carved out a chunk of trouble for yourself — popping off before the Elders about chasing after the monster.”
Jared laughed. “Guess I should have kept my mouth shut.”
Many perched on the slab beside him and sneezed. “The Guardian hit the dome when he heard about it. He says now he’s sure Romel would make a better P.S.”
“After I hear my way clear with this hot-springs emergency, I’ll straighten him out.”
“He’s saying the way you acted at the hearing proves you haven’t atoned. And he’s predicting more misfortune for the world.”
As though Many’s words had also been a cue for fulfillment of Guardian Philar’s prophesy, distressed voices began ifitering through the curtain.
Plunging outside, Jared snagged one of the men who were racing by. “What’s all the commotion?”
“The river! It’s running dry!”
Even before he reached the bank, the central caster’s clacks fetched a composite of the situation. The river had fallen so alarmingly below its normal level that the liquid softness of its reflected sound was completely hidden in the echo void of the bank. And there came only the enfeebled gurgling of water around rocks that had never before been exposed.
A terrified scream shrilled from the direction of the main entrance and, without breaking stride, Jared altered course.
With the central caster behind him, he began getting a better impression of what lay ahead. The Protectors stationed at the mouth of the passageway were in a state of agitated disorder.
“Monster! Monster!” someone over there was shouting.
Then Jared checked his charge as the entire tunnel abruptly began roaring with the soundless noise of the monsters. The sensations he received were like Effective Excitation amplified a thousandfold. But now there were no fuzzy half rings of inaudible sound touching his eyeballs, as in the Optic Nerve Ceremony. Instead, the screaming silence was like a detached, impersonal thing — something associated not with any part of himself, but rather with the mouth of the tunnel!
It was more than that, however. The noiselessness leaked off, much like valid sound, and touched many things — the dome, the wall on his right, the banging stones beside the entrance.
Starting forward again, he threw his hands in front of his face. The distant, whispering roar of Effective Excitation left him immediately. Then that proved it — the uncanny stuff that came from the monsters did inflict its weird pressure on his eyes!
Spared the confusing sensations, he concentrated now on the echoes coming from ahead. There was no monster in the entrance. That one had been there only a few beats earlier was borne out by the loitering scent. And his ears picked out the tubular object that lay on the floor of the tunnel. Even from this distance he could hear it was like the One Della had found in the Upper Level.
Just as he reached the entrance, one of the Protectors raised a rock over his head and raced toward the tube.
“No! Don’t!” Jared shouted.
The guard hurled the rock.
Eyes exposed again, Jared reached down for the remains of the object. It was warm and it rattled and tinkled when he shook it.
He noticed, too, that there were no more traces of the screaming silence.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Living alone and served his necessities by the widowed women of the Lower Level, Cyrus spent his time immersed in himself. When the opportunity to speak materialized, however, his tongue diligently set about the task of making up for long stretches of idleness.
Now, for instance, the Thinker was holding forth on many subjects, seemingly all at the same time:
“Jared Fenton. Prime Survivor Jared Fenton, mind you! Back for another session — just like we used to have gestations ago.”
Jared shifted impatiently on the bench beside him. “I wanted to ask about—”
“But I’m afraid you’ve got your work cut out for you — what with the hot springs trickling out and those monsters running around the passages. Have you decided what’s to be done about the river going dry? And that thing the monster left behind yesterperiod — what do you suppose it was?”
“It seems to me that—”
“Hold it! I’d like to think this thing out a bit.”
Jared was more than grateful for the few moments’ silence. It brought relief to his pounding head, which threatened to split like a manna shell each time he coughed. He’d had fever before — when he was bitten by a spider, for instance. But it was never like this.
Cyrus’ grotto was shielded from most of the world’s sounds by the thick drapery that hung in its entrance. But the recess was so small that Jared had no trouble concentraiting on the echoes from his words to hear how much the Thinker had changed.
How fortunate it was the old man had never developed a preference for protecting his face with a curtain of hair. For now he was completely bald. And the wrinkles, deposited by a lifetime of muscular tension to insure closed eyes, were etched even more deeply.
“I was just considering,” Cyrus said, explaining his silence, “whether the monster could have purposely left that thing in the entrance. And I’m convinced it did. What do you think?”
“It sounded that way to me.”
“What do you suppose its purpose was?”
Jared listened to the fervent supplications of the Litany of Light from the Revitalization Ceremony across the world. Audible, too, was the conversation of his Official Escort, waiting outside to take him to the Upper Level.
“That’s one of the things I wanted to talk about,” he said finally. “Tell me about — Darkness.”
“Darkness?” There was the sound of Cyrus’ chin wedging itself between thumb and forefinger. “We used to talk a lot about that, didn’t we? What is it you’d like to know?”
“Is it possible Darkness can be connected with” — Jared hesitated — “the eyes?”
After a few beats the other said, “Not that I can hear — not any more than with the knee or little finger. Why do you ask?”
“I figure it might be close to Light in some way or other.”
Cyrus weighed the proposition. “Light Almighty — infinite goodness. Darkness — infinite evil, according to the beliefs. The principle of relative opposites. You can’t have one without the other. If there were no Darkness, then Light would be everywhere. Yes, I suppose you could say there is a negative relationship. But I don’t hear where the eyes would fit into the composite.”
Coughing, Jared rose and swayed against the dizzying effects of his fever. “Have you ever felt Effective Excitation?”
“In the Optic Nerve Ceremony? Yes. Many gestations ago.”
“Well, in Effective Excitation you’re supposed to be feeling Light. And if the existence of Light depends in a negative way on the existence of Darkness, then the eyes must also be designed to feel Darkness.”
Jared listened to the other rub his face in deep thought. “Sounds logical,” the Thinker conceded.
“If one found Darkness, do you suppose he might also find—”
But Cyrus wouldn’t let his running thoughts be repressed. “If we’re going to talk about Darkness as a material concept, let’s ask ourselves: What is Darkness? We find it could — now mind you, I say could, because it’s just an idea — could be a universal medium. That means it exists everywhere — in the air about us, in the passageways, in the infinite rocks and mud.”