"You'll learn during the trip back to Earth."
Isabel May said: "Lanarck, you are persuasive. If the truth be known, I'm homesick." She turned away and stood looking over the ocean. Lanarck stood watching her. She was undeniably attractive and he found it difficult to take his eyes from her. But as he settled on the bench beside Jiro, he felt a surge of a different, stronger, feeling. It irritated him, and he tried to put it aside.
Wallowing in the swells, the spaceboat lay dead ahead. The galley scudded through the water at a great rate, and the oarsmen did not slacken speed as they approached. Lanarck's eyes narrowed; he jumped upright shouting orders. The galley, unswerving, plowed into the spaceboat, grinding it under the metal-shod keel. Water gushed in through the open port the spaceboat shuddered and sank, a dark shadow plummeting into green depths.
"Too bad," remarked Isabel. "On the other hand, this puts us more on an equal footing. You have a needle-beam, I have a spaceboat."
Lanarck silently seated himself. After a moment he spoke, "Where is your own needle-beam?"
"I blew it up trying to recharge it from the spaceboat generators."
"And where is your spaceboat?"
Isabel laughed at this. "Do you expect me to tell you?"
"Why not? I wouldn't maroon you here."
"Nevertheless, I don't think I'll tell you."
Lanarck turned to Jiro. "Where is Isabel May's space boat?"
Isabel spoke in a haughty voice: "As High Priestess to A mighty Laoome, I command you to be silent!"
Jiro looked from one to the other. She made up her mind "It is on the plaza of the Malachite Temple in Gahadion."
Isabel was silent "Laoome plays tricks," she said at las
"Jiro has taken a fancy to you. You're obviously interested in her."
"Laoome will not interfere," said Lanarck.
She laughed bitterly. "That's what he told me-and look I'm High Priestess. He also told me he wouldn't let anyone come to Markawel from the outside to molest me. But you are here!"
"My intention is not to molest you," said Lanarck curtly. "We can as easily be friends as enemies."
"I don't care to be a friend of yours. And as an enemy, you are no serious problem. Now!" Isabel called, as the tall boatswain came near.
The boatswain whirled on Lanarck. Lanarck twisted, squirmed, heaved, and the golden-haired boatswain sprawled back into the bilge, where he lay dazed.
A soft hand brushed Lanarck's thigh. He looked around, smoothing his lank black hair, and found Isabel May smiling into his face. His needle-beam dangled from her fingers.
Jiro arose from the bench. Before Isabel could react Jiro had pushed a hand into her face, and with the other seized the needle-beam. She pointed the weapon at Isabel.
"Sit down," said Jiro.
Weeping with rage, Isabel fell back upon the bench.
Jiro, her young face flushed and happy, backed over to the thwart, needle-beam leveled.
Lanarck stood still.
"I will take charge now," said Jiro. "You-Isabel! Tell your men to row toward Gahadion!"
Sullenly Isabel gave the order. The long black galley turned its bow toward the city.
"This may be sacrilege," Jiro observed to Lanarck. "But then I was already in trouble for escaping from Drefteli."
"What do you plan in this new capacity of yours?" Lanarck inquired, moving closer.
"First, to try this weapon on whomever thinks he can take it away from me." Lanarck eased back. "Secondly-but you'll see soon enough."
White-tiered Gahadion rapidly drew closer across the water.
Isabel sulked on the bench. Lanarck had little choice but to let matters move on their own momentum. He relaxed against a thwart, watching Jiro from the corner of his eye. She stood erect behind the bench where Isabel sat, her clear eyes looking over the leaping sparkles of the ocean. Breeze whipped her hair behind and pressed the tunic against her slim body. Lanarck heaved a deep sad sigh. This girl with the wheat-colored hair was unreal. She would vanish into oblivion as soon as Laoome lost interest in the world Markawel. She was less than a shadow, less than a mirage, less than a dream. Lanarck looked over at Isabel, the Earth girl, who glared at him with sullen eyes. She was real enough.
They moved up the river and toward the white docks of Gahadion. Lanarck rose to his feet. He looked over the city, surveyed the folk on the dock who were clad in white, red and blue tunics, then turned to Jiro. "I'll have to take the weapon now."
"Stand back or I'll-" Lanarck took the weapon from her limp grasp. Isabel watched in sour amusement.
A dull throbbing sound, like the pulse of a tremendous heart, came down from the heavens. Lanarck cocked his head, listening. He scanned the sky. At the horizon appeared a strange cloud, like a band of white-gleaming metal, swelling in rhythm to the celestial throbbing. It lengthened with miraculous speed, until in all directions the horizon was encircled. The throb became a vast booming. The air itself seemed heavy, ominous. A terrible idea struck Lanarck. He turned and yelled to the awestruck oarsmen who were trailing their oars in the river.
"Quickly-get to the docks!"
They jerked at their oars, frantic, yet the galley moved no faster. The water of the river had become oily smooth, almost syrupy. The boat inched close to the dock. Lanarck was grimly aware of the terrified Isabel on one side of him, Jiro on the other.
"What is happening?" whispered Isabel. Lanarck watched the sky. The cloud-band of bright metal quivered and split into another which wobbled, bouncing just above.
"I hope I'm wrong," said Lanarck, "but I suspect that Laoome is going mad. Look at our shadows!" He turned to look at the sun, which jerked like a dying insect, vibrating through aimless arcs. His worst fears were realized.
"It can't be!" cried Isabel. "What will happen?"
"Nothing good."
The galley lurched against a pier. Lanarck helped Isabel and Jiro up to the dock, then followed.
Masses of tall golden-haired people milled in panic along the avenue.
"Lead me to the spaceboat!" Lanarck had to shout to make himself heard over the tumult of the city. His mind froze at a shocking thought: what would happen to Jiro?
He pushed the thought down. Isabel pulled at him urgently. "Come, hurry!"
Taking Jiro's hand, he ran off after Isabel toward the black-porticoed temple at the far end of the avenue.
A constriction twisted the air; down came a rain of warm red globules: small crimson jellyfish which stung naked flesh like nettles. The din from the city reached hysterical pitch. The red plasms increased to become a cloud of pink slime, now oozing ankle-deep on the ground.
Isabel tripped and fell headlong in the perilous mess. She struggled until Lanarck helped her to her feet.
They continued toward the temple, Lanarck supporting both girls and keeping an uneasy eye on the structures to either side.
The rain of red things ceased, but the streets flowed with ooze.
The sky shifted color-but what color? It had no place in any spectrum. The color only a mad god could conceive.
The red slime curdled and fell apart like quicksilver, to jell in an instant to millions upon millions of bright blue manikins three inches high. They ran, hopped, scuttled; the streets were a quaking blue carpet of blank-faced little homunculi. They clung to Lanarck's garments, they ran up his legs like mice. He trod them under, heedless of their squeals.
The sun, jerking in small spasmodic motions, slowed, lost its glare, became oblate. It developed striations and, as the stricken population of Gahadion quieted in awe, the sun changed to a segmented white slug, as long as five suns, as wide as one. It writhed its head about and stared down through the strange-colored sky at Markawel.
In a delirium, the Gahadionites careened along the wide avenues. Lanarck and the two girls almost were trod under as they fought past a cross street
In a small square, beside a marble fountain, the three found refuge. Lanarck had reached a state of detachment: a conviction that this experience was a nightmare.