Yet just as there are men in the churches whose minds have not become religiously fossilized, so there are men in the laboratories whose minds have not become scientifically fossilized…Einstein, who dared challenge all conceptions of space and time with his four dimensional space in which time itself was a dimension, and who followed that with proof of five dimensional space instead of the four which are all our senses can apprehend, and which apprehends one of them wrongly…the possibility of a dozen worlds spinning interlocked with this one…in the same space…the energy which we call matter of each of them keyed to the different vibration, and each utterly unaware of the other…and utterly overturning the old axiom that two bodies cannot occupy the same place at the same time.
And I thought—what if far and far back in time, a scientist of that day, one of the Ayjir people, had discovered all that! Had discovered the fifth dimension beyond length, breadth, thickness and time. Or had discovered one of those interlocking worlds whose matter streams through the interstices of the matter of ours. And discovering dimension or world, had found the way to make dwellers in that dimension or that other world both aware of and manifest to those of this. By sound and gesture, by ring and screen, had made a gateway through which such dwellers could come—or at least, appear! And then what a weapon this discoverer had—what a weapon the inevitable priests of that Thing would have! And did have ages gone, just as they had here in Karak.
If so, was it one dweller or many who lurked in those gateways for its drink of life? The memories bequeathed me by Dwayanu told me there had been other temples in Ayjirland besides that one of the oasis. Was it the same Being that appeared in each? Was the Shape that came from the shattered stone of the oasis the same that had fed in the temple of the mirage? Or were there many of them—dwellers in other dimension or other world—avidly answering the summons? Nor was it necessarily true that in their own place these Things had the form of the Kraken. That might be the shape, through purely natural laws, which entrance into this world forced upon them.
I thought over that for quite awhile. It seemed to me the best explanation of Khalk'ru. And if it was, then the way to be rid of Khalk'ru was to destroy his means of entrance. And that, I reflected, was precisely how the ancient Ayjirs had argued.
But it did not explain why only those of the old blood could summon—
I heard a low voice at the door. I walked softly over to it, listened. I opened the door and there was Lur, talking to the guards.
"What is it you are seeking, Lur?"
"To speak with you. I will keep you only a little time, Dwayanu."
I studied the Witch–woman. She stood, very quietly, in her eyes nothing of defiance nor resentment nor subtle calculation—only appeal. Her red braids fell over her white shoulders; she was without weapon or ornament. She looked younger than ever I had seen her, and somewhat forlorn. I felt no desire to mock her nor to deny her. I felt instead the stirrings of a deep pity.
"Enter, Lur—and say all that is in your mind."
I closed the door behind her. She walked over to the window, looked out into the dim greenly glimmering night. I went to her.
"Speak softly, Lur. The girl is asleep there in the next chamber. Let her rest."
She said, tonelessly:
"I wish you had never come here, Yellow–hair." I thought of Jim, and I answered:
"I wish that too, Witch–woman. But here I am." She leaned towards me, put her hand over my heart. "Why do you hate me so greatly?"
"I do not hate you, Lur. I have no hate left in me—except for one thing."
"And that—?"
Involuntarily I looked at the table. One candle shone there and its light fell on the locket that held the ring. Her glance followed mine. She said:
"What do you mean to do? Throw Karak open to the dwarfs? Mend Nansur? Rule here over Karak and the Rrrllya with their dark girl at your side? Is it that…and if it is that—what is to become of Lur? Answer me. I have the right to know. There is a bond between us…I loved you when you were Dwayanu…you know how well…"
"And would have killed me while I was still Dwayanu," I said, sombrely.
"Because I saw Dwayanu dying as you looked into the eyes of the stranger," she answered. "You whom Dwayanu had mastered was killing Dwayanu. I loved Dwayanu. Why should I not avenge him?"
"If you believe I am no longer Dwayanu, then I am the man whose friend you trapped and murdered—the man whose love you trapped and would have destroyed. And if that be so—what claim have you upon me, Lur?"
She did not answer for moments; then she said:
"I have some justice on my side. I tell you I loved Dwayanu. Something I knew of your case from the first, Yellow–hair. But I saw Dwayanu awaken within you. And I knew it was truly he! I knew, too, that as long as that friend of yours and the dark girl lived there was danger for Dwayanu. That was why I plotted to bring them into Sirk. I threw the dice upon the chance of killing them before you had seen them. Then, I thought, all would be well. There would be none left to rouse that in you which Dwayanu had mastered. I lost. I knew I had lost when by whim of Luka she threw you three together. And rage and sorrow caught me—and I did…what I did."
"Lur," I said, "answer me truly. That day you returned to the Lake of the Ghosts after pursuit of the two women—were they not your spies who bore that lying message into Sirk? And did you not wait until you learned my friend and Evalie were in the trap before you gave me word to march? And was it not in your thought that you would then—if I opened the way into Sirk—rid yourself not only of those two but of Dwayanu? For remember—you may have loved Dwayanu, but as he told you, you loved power better than he. And Dwayanu threatened your power. Answer me truly."
For the second time I saw tears in the eyes of the Witch–woman. She said, brokenly:
"I sent the spies, yes. I waited until the two were in the trap. But I never meant harm to Dwayanu!"
I did not believe her. But still I felt no anger, no hate. The pity grew.
"Lur, now I will tell you truth. It is not in my mind to rule with Evalie over Karak and the Rrrllya. I have no more desire for power. That went with Dwayanu. In the peace I make with the dwarfs, you shall rule over Karak—if that be your desire. The dark girl shall go back with them. She will not desire to remain in Karak. Nor do I…"
"You cannot go with her," she interrupted me. "Never would the yellow dogs trust you. Their arrows would be ever pointed at you."
I nodded—that thought had occurred to me long before.
"All that must adjust itself," I said. "But there shall be no more sacrifices. The gate of Khalk'ru shall be closed against him for ever. And I will close it."
Her eyes dilated.
"You mean—"
"I mean that I will shut Khalk'ru for ever from Karak—unless Khalk'ru proves stronger than I."
She wrung her hands, helplessly.
"What use rule over Karak to me then…how could I hold the people?"
"Nevertheless—I will destroy the gate of Khalk'ru."
She whispered:
"Gods—if I had Yodin's ring…"
I smiled at that.
"Witch–woman, you know as well as I that Khalk'ru comes to no woman's call."
The witch–lights flickered in her eyes; a flash of green shone through them.
"There is an ancient prophecy, Yellow–hair, that Dwayanu did not know—or had forgotten. It says that when Khalk'ru comes to a woman's call, he—stays! That was the reason no woman in ancient Ayjilrand might be priestess at the sacrifice."