'If it's a natural phenomenon, some freak warping of the continuum . . .'
'Then of course we are helpless. But I don't think it is.' Aarl rose. He seemed to have grown taller and his eyes were hypnotic in their intensity. 'You have no love for Earth because of what Earthmen did to your foster-tribe, yet I think you would not truly wish all those millions dead and the planet with them, long before its time. And what of Mars, which has been something of a home to you? She too has a while to go before the night overtakes her.'
The pulse hammered more strongly under Stark's jaw. 'I wouldn't even know where to start. It could take a lifetime.'
'We do not have a lifetime,' said Aarl, 'nor even half of one. The energy-drain is accelerating rapidly. And I can tell you where to begin. With a man named Shorr Kan , King of Aldeshar in the Marches . The most powerful of the petty kings, and wily enough for two. You will find him sympathetic.'
'How so?'
'Because this strange force is causing him immediate trouble. You must find a way to enlist his help.'
'You speak as though I've already made my decision.'
'You have.'
Stark turned and looked at the mist-curtain again. It was blank now, only mist and nothing more. Yet he could still see the ships of the Star Kings and the untamed jungle of the Marches . The future, undiscovered, unexplored. Could he have the chance to see it, and refuse?
He said, 'I suppose you're right.'
Aarl nodded. 'You had no choice, really. I was sure of that before I summoned you.'
Stark shrugged. Suppose he tried and failed; it was better than sitting helplessly. And he could make his own decision about coming back.
He followed Aarl out of the chamber.
They came at length into a long hall crowded with objects. Stark recognized several instruments of modern Earth science; there was a fine seismograph, spectroscopic equipment, an array of electronic items, the latest in lasers. There were other things that seemed to have survived out of ancient Mars, arrangements of crystalline shapes that had no meaning whatever for Stark. There were yet other objects that he surmised had been constructed by the Lord of the Third Bend himself.
One of these was a sort of helical cage of crystal ribbons whose upper part spiralled away toward the high- vaulted roof. It appeared to vanish up there. Stark attempted to follow its progressively blurring outlines and was forced to stop, overcome with vertigo.
Aarl took his place within the lower part of the cage. 'This helix amplifies my mental powers and enables me to manipulate the time-dimension. Stand anywhere. I shall be able to retain contact with your mind, since we are now attuned to communication, but I shall not waste precious energy on conversation. When you are ready to come back, tell me.'
He did something with his hands. The crystal ribbons began to run with subtle fires.
'When you awaken you will be in the future, and I shall have given you such knowledge of it as I possess.'
Before the darkness took him, Stark felt an incongruous pang of hunger. Aarl's promised hospitality had not been forthcoming.
He had a strange dream. He was infinite. He was transparent. The spaces between his atoms were large enough to let whole constellations through. He moved, but his motion was neither forward nor backward; it was a sly sneaky sidelong slither through . . . what?
In his dream the motion made him very sick. He felt like vomiting, but there was nothing inside him and so he could only retch.
Perhaps that was why Aarl had not bothered to feed him.
Retching, he awoke.
And saw that he had stopped moving. There was solid ground beneath his feet. His stomach received this information gratefully.
The light was peculiar. It was greenish. He looked up and saw a green sun blazing in a blue-green sky flecked with minty clouds.
He recognized the sun. It was Aldeshar, in the Marches of Outer Space.
The planet whose solidity was so welcome to him must be Altoh, the throne-world.
He had appeared, materialized, reassembled . . . whatever it was he had done . . . on a low ridge above an alien city. It was a pleasant city, low-roofed and rambling, with here and there a tall fluted tower for variety. The people had done without the ugly cubism of functional building. A network of canals glittered in the sunlight. There was a profusion of trees and flowering shrubs. The wandering streets were thronged with people and the canals were busy with boats. There seemed to be no motorized traffic on the surface, so the air was blessedly clean.
All the movement in the streets seemed to be converging toward a point in the southwestern sector of the city, where he could see a clump of more imposing buildings, with taller towers and an enormous square. The city was Donalyr, the capital, and the buildings would be Shorr Kan 's palace and the administrative center of the star- kingdom.
A vast deep-bass humming sound suddenly filled the heavens, drawing Stark's attention away from the city. Down across the sky, ablaze with light and roaring with the thunder of God, a colossal ship slanted into its landing pattern. Stark's gaze followed it down, to a starport far out beyond the northern boundaries of Donalyr. The ground trembled beneath him, and was still.
Stark went down to the city. In the time it took him to reach the outskirts, three more ships had landed.
He let himself be carried along with the flow of people toward the palace square. He found that Aarl had supplied him with a working knowledge of the language; he could understand the chatter around him. The folk of Altoh were tall and strong, with ruddy tan skins and sharp eyes and faces. They wore loose brightly-colored garments suitable to the mild climate. But there were many foreigners, in this place where the starships came and went, men and women and a sprinkling of non-humans, in all shapes and sizes and colors, wearing every sort of dress. Donalyr, apparently, was quite used to strangers.
Even so, the people he passed turned their heads to look at Stark. Perhaps it was his height and the way he moved, or perhaps it was something arresting about the harsh planes of his face and the peculiar lightness of his eyes, accentuated by a skin-color that spoke of long exposure to a savage sun. They sensed some difference in him. Stark ignored them, secure in the knowledge that they could not possibly guess the degree of his differentness.
Ships continued to drop in rolling thunder out of the sky. He had counted nine by the time he reached the edge of the great square. He looked upward to watch number ten come in, and he felt the tiniest movement close to him in the crowd, the lightest of touches as though a falling leaf had brushed him. He whipped his right hand round behind him, snapped it shut on something bony, and turned to see what he had caught.
A little old man stared up at him with the bright, unrepentant face of a squirrel caught stealing nuts from someone else's hoard.
'You're too fast,' he said. 'Even so, you'd never have had me if your clothing wasn't so unfamiliar. I thought I knew where every pocket and purse in the Marches is situated. You must come from way back in.'
'Far enough,' said Stark. The old man wore a baggy tunic of no particular color, neither light nor dark, brilliant nor dull. If you didn't look hard at him you wouldn't see him in the throng. Beneath the hem he showed knobby knees and pipestem shanks. 'Well,' said Stark, 'and what shall we do with you, Grandfather?'
'I took nothing,' said the old man. 'And it's my word against yours . . . you can't prove that I even tried.'
'Hm,' said Stark. 'How good is your word?'
'What a question to ask!' said the old man, drawing himself up.
'I'm asking it.'
The old man shot off on another tack. 'You're a stranger here. You'll need a guide. I know every stone of this city. I can show you all of its delights. I can keep you out of the hands of . . .'
' . . . of thieves and pickpockets. Yes.' Stark pulled his captive around to a more comfortable position. 'What's your name?'
'Song Durr.'
