The central tower was a sheer cone of stone in front of them, the space around it mercifully free of any obstacles. Up close, it looked more artificial than natural. People were leaning against it, eating and drinking or simply asleep. Three or four people ambled around with wide brooms in their hands, sweeping the dust on the ground into smoothness where people had walked. They didn't appear to mind when someone trod more footprints into the sand where they'd just brushed, or when a gaggle of children racketed through and disturbed everything.
Selene peered upwards at the top of the tower. There were marks there, very faint, blasted by the wind and bleached by the sun so that they were almost undetectable. She zoomed in with her left eye, sifting through the electromagnetic spectrum to get the clearest view.
The images sprang out in infra-red. She relayed what she'd found immediately to Hessia and Eb. There was no mistaking the familiar motif. Three circles, shining out across the planet.
“The Tok,” said Hessia. “They were here.”
4. Labyrinthine
Selene pushed with all her augmented strength against the weathered wooden door at the base of the tower, but it refused to budge. Her feet slipped in the sand, her body twisting as she boosted the power output of her enhanced half. It made no difference.
“This door is not as innocent as it looks. I should be able to reduce it to splinters.”
Hessia was looking the other way, scanning the milling crowds around them. “This has to be some kind of forbidden sanctum. It's odd that no one is even bothering to challenge us.”
Selene picked out one of the crowd, a smiling man who looked to be about Ondo's age. His head was bald, apart from tufts of grey around his ears, but he also possessed an impressively bushy beard. He wore flowing, sand-coloured gowns that doubtless helped keep him cool in the midday heat. A simple rope dyed bright purple was tied about his waist.
“Please,” she said, stepping towards him. “This door. Can we open it?”
The man stopped and scratched the side of his face. He glanced at Hessia and Eb, both far taller than anyone else in the crowd. There was a clear flicker of concern on the man's face at her words, although he replied readily enough. “The Gatekeeper can open it. He's up there now.” The man indicated the top of the tower with an upwards nod of his head.
“How does this Gatekeeper open the door?”
“The door opens for whoever is the Gatekeeper. That's how it works.”
“What do you mean, whoever is the Gatekeeper?”
“We take turns. We find that's best.”
“Has it ever been you?”
“Oh yes, many of us do it for a year or two.”
“What did you do up there?”
There was an amused twinkle in the man's eye as he replied. “In truth, nothing. You sit and wait and watch in case anyone comes, but no one ever does. It's good to keep these old traditions going, don't you think? And now, of course, here you are.”
“He is troubled,” said Hessia in her head. “He, too, is worried about what our appearance might mean, despite his words.”
Selene nodded, to both Hessia and the stranger she was talking to. Out loud, she said, “We need to go up. Tell us what to do.”
“I'm truly not sure. When I was the Gatekeeper, the door opened for me when I needed to ascend.”
“Did you have a key?”
“There is no keyhole.”
“Do people ever come here but fail to get up the tower?”
“Oh, yes, I'm sure that must have happened.”
“Well, thanks,” said Selene. “You've been such a great help.”
Behind her, Hessia was trying to open the door, also to no avail. Selene considered whether she could climb the outside of the tower. Its walls were worn smooth by countless years of wind and dust, but there were tiny fissures here and there. The fingertips of her artificial hand would be strong enough to hold her, but she doubted whether those on her right hand would be.
In her frustration, she pounded on the door, the sound booming. They'd come too far to be thwarted by something so ridiculous. They could return with some heavy weaponry from one of the ships, a blaster capable of annihilating the entranceway in an instant. Then they'd see what lay inside.
Eb had been silent for a long time, taking everything in. But now he stepped forwards to the door.
He lifted the hood of his cloak back over his head. “I believe I should try.”
Selene was about to make some cutting remark about him still being weak, when Eb placed a hand on the door, pushed, and it creaked open, hinging inwards to reveal darkness within.
“Did you know that was going to happen?” Selene asked.
“It felt like the right thing to do.”
“You could have done that five minutes ago and saved us a lot of effort.”
“My apologies,” he said, but he looked amused as he led the way inside.
The ground floor of the tower was a plain, dusty space, a faint light filtering down from above. A spiral staircase wound up the inside of the tower, and, by adjusting the sensitivity of her left eye, Selene could see that the edges of the steps were worn smooth by the passage of many feet.
They clung to the wall as they ascended; there was no barrier to stop them pitching over the side to plummet to the ground. The scuffing sound of their footsteps echoed from the hard walls. No one spoke. The light from above grew stronger, golden light slanting down in bright beams, illuminating a swarm of countless motes of dust. Selene wondered how long they'd been drifting there. Whether any were, in fact, intelligent micro-scale devices watching her.
At the top of the tower, the stairs opened out onto a wide, circular space, a ring of ovoid windows around the walls through which it seemed the whole
