looked up as if suddenly remembering that the others were there with him.
'There was little damage.'
'Why was your father so interested in it?' Karyn asked.
'The building was not a dome. It had a square shape, like that of the temple. And it had a spire. Part of one, anyway—most of it had fallen into the river.'
'A spire?' Karyn repeated. 'Like the one above the temple?'
Dorland nodded. 'Vines had nearly covered the building, but we searched until we found a way inside. That's where I saw the pedestals. Father went inside, but I was afraid. I only looked through the doorway. When my father came out, he was even more excited. I'm sure he intended to go back, but he was killed not long after.'
A brief silence was broken by Karyn. 'Do you think it was another temple building?'
'I don't know,' Dorland said. 'If so, it had not been used in a long time.'
'Even if we can find the building,' Selmer said,
'how could it help us?'
'I didn't go inside,' Dorland said, 'and my father did not say what he saw in there. But I know he was very excited. I think he may have seen another chauka.'
'A chaukaF
'Possibly.'
'Well . . .' Selmer fell silent.
'Could you find the building again?' Karyn asked.
Dorland hesitated. 'It happened a long time ago. I remember only that it was close to the river.' Paul's mind had gone to something Selmer
Ogram had said the day before as they sat watching the sun set over the valley. The Tal Tahir used the spire in a lot of their architecture. And: The Holy Order had the others torn down. He thought about the symmetry of design that had been preferred by the Tal Tahir, and remembered his confusion about the position of the temple and the lack of similar buildings in the same area of other quadrants.
'There were hundreds of them,' he said. 118 William Greenleaf CLARION 119
The others looked at him, and he realized they were waiting for him to go on. He licked his lips, thinking it through.
'The tubeways may have been the main source of transportation for the Tal Tahir,' he said. 'But they served another purpose. They effectively broke the city up into small sections. I noticed the pattern yesterday.'
'Pattern?' Karyn asked.
'The city's divided into squares by the tubeways. Each square also has a pattern, and I'm willing to bet that each square was a functioning unit on its own. In each section the domes are arranged in concentric circles that radiate out from an open area in the middle.'
'The Tal Tahir lived in the domes,' Karyn said. She still didn't see what he was getting at. 'Maybe they left the open areas as parks, or communal meeting places.'
'Think about the temple's location. It's set back about two hundred meters from the intersection of two of the tubes.'
'David's Tube and Tube Four,' Selmer said.
'Right. The Holy Order has cleared the area around it. But there are enough roadways and domes left so that the temple's location would put it just about in the same position as the open areas in the other sections.'
Karyn thought about that. 'You're right.'
'Have you seen any of the original arkie photos of the city?'
