He went warily, testing each tread before he put his weight upon it. Though he did not think that the snares of the Aesir would be so simple.
At the bottom, he emerged into a vaulted chamber, tiny by comparison with the one he had left. It was oval, domed ceiling and walls and floor shining with a milky radiance—except at one spot.
There he saw a door—transparent. Through it he looked into the pit. He was on a level with the floor of that shaft now; he could see the dozen figures still standing motionless in a huddled group, and a few feet beyond the glassy pane was the Earthgirl. She was looking directly at him, but her dark eyes had a blind seeking, as though the door was opaque from her side.
Stuart paused, his hand on the complicated mechanism that, he guessed, would open the portal. His hard, dark face was impassive, but he was conscious of an unfamiliar stirring deep within him. From above, he had not seen the girl’s beauty.
He saw it now.
She couldn’t be an Earthgirl—entirely. She must be one of those disturbingly lovely interplanetary halfbreeds. Earth-blood she had, of course, and predominantly, but there was something more, the pure essence of beauty that blazed through her like a flame kindled in a lamp of crystal. In all his wanderings between the worlds, Stuart had never seen a girl as breathtakingly lovely as this one.
His hand moved on the controls: the door slid silently open. The girl’s eyes brightened. She gave a little gasp and ran toward him. Without question she sought refuge in his arms, and for a moment Stuart held her—not unwillingly.
He thrust her away gently.
“The others.”
She said, “It’s useless. The paralysis—”
Stuart scowled and stepped across the threshold into the pit. Uneasiness crawled along his spine as he did so. The Aesir might be watching from above, or—or—
There was nothing. Only dead silence, and the uneven breathing of the girl as she stood in the doorway watching. Stuart stopped before the leather-clad Earthman and tested a burly arm. The man stood frozen, his flesh cold and hard as stone, his eyes staring glassily. He was not even breathing.
So with the others. Stuart grimaced and shrugged. He turned back toward the girl, and felt a pulse of relief as he stepped into the shining chamber. He might be no safer here, but at least he wasn’t so conscious of inhuman eyes that might be watching from above. Not that solid stone might be any barrier to the Aesir’s probing gaze. …
The girl touched the mechanism; the door slid silently shut. “It’s no use,” she said. “The paralysis holds all the others. Only I could battle it—a little. And that was because—”
“Save it,” Stuart said. He turned toward the door by which he had entered, but an urgent hand gripped his wrist.
“Let me talk,” the quiet voice said. “We’re as safe here as anywhere. And there may be a way—now that I can think clearly again.”
“A way out? A safe way?”
There was a haunted look in her dark eyes. “I don’t know. I’ve lived here for a long time. The others—” she pointed toward the door of the pit. “The sacrifices were brought to Asgard only yesterday. But I’ve been here many moons. The Aesir kept me alive for a bit, to amuse them. Then they tired, and I was thrown in with the others. But I learned a little. I—I—no one can dwell here in the Aesir stronghold without—changing a little. That’s why the paralysis didn’t hold me as long as it holds the others.”
“Can we save them?”
“I don’t know,” she said, with a small, helpless shrug. “I don’t even know if we can save ourselves. It’s been so long since I was brought to Asgard that I—I scarcely remember my life before that. But I have learned a little of the Aesir—and that may help us now.”
Stuart watched her. She tried to smile, but not successfully.
She said, “I’m Kari. The rest—I’ve forgotten. You’re—”
“Derek Stuart.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“We haven’t time,” Stuart said impatiently, but Kari shook her head.
“We’ll need weapons, and I must know—first—if you can use them. Tell me!”
Well, she was right. She had knowledge that Stuart needed. So he told her, very briefly, what he remembered.
She stared at him. “Voices—in your mind?”
“Something like that. I don’t know—”
“No. No. Or—wait—” He tried to focus his thoughts upon a far, faint calling that came from infinite distances. His name. An urgent summons—
It faded and was gone.
“There’s nothing,” Stuart said finally, and Kari moved her shoulders uneasily.
“No help there, then.”
“Tell me one thing. What’s the Aesir’s power? Hypnotism?”
“No,” Kari said, “or not entirely. They can make thoughts into real things. They are—what the race of man will evolve into in a million years. And they have changed, into beings utterly alien to humans.”
“They looked human—giants, though.”
“They can assume any shape,” Kari told him. “Their real form is unimaginable. Being of pure energy … mental force … matrixes of electronic power. They were striking at you through your mind.”
Stuart said, “I wondered why they didn’t set some of their Watchers on me.”
“I don’t know why they didn’t,” Kari frowned. “Instead, they hammered at your weaknesses—old fears that hung on to you for years. Experiences that frightened you in the past. They sent your mind back into that past—but you were too strong for them.”
“Too strong—?”
“Then. They have other powers, Stuart—incredible powers. You can’t fight them alone. And you must fight them. In a thousand years no one has dared—”
Stuart remembered something. “Two dared—once.”
Kari nodded. “I know. I know the legends, anyway. About John Starr and Lorna. The great rebels who first defied the Aesir when the tyranny began. But they may have been only legendary figures. Even if they were real—they failed.”
“Yes, they failed. And they’re a thousand years dead. But it shows something—to me at least.
