in the filigreed, silver twilight beside Lhar, I had aconcept of teeming universes of space-time, of an immense spiral oflives and civilizations, races and cultures, covering an infinitecosmos. And yet--what had happened? Very little, in that inconceivableinfinity. A rift in time, a dimensional slip--and a sector of land andthree beings on it had been wrenched from their place in time andtransported to _our_ time-stratum.
A robot, a flower that was alive and intelligent--and feminine--andthe Other....
"The native girls," I said. "What will happen to them?"
"They are no longer alive," Lhar told me. "They still move andbreathe, but they are dead, sustained only by the life-force of theOther. I do not think it will harm me. Apparently it prefers otherfood."
"That's why you've stayed here?" I asked.
The shining velvety calyx swayed. "I shall die soon. For a littlewhile I thought that I might manage to survive in this alien world,this alien time. Your blood has helped." The cool tentacle withdrewfrom my arm. "But I lived in a younger time, where space was filledwith--with certain energizing vibratory principles.
"They have faded now almost to nothing, to what you call cosmic rays.And these are too weak to maintain my life. No, I must die. And thenmy poor robot will be alone." I sensed elfin amusement in that lastthought. "It seems absurd to you that I should think affectionately ofa machine. But in our world there is a rapport--a mentalsymbiosis--between robot and living beings."
There was a silence. After a while I said, "I'd better get out ofhere. Get help--to end the menace of the other...." What sort of helpI did not know. Was the Other vulnerable?
Lhar caught my thought. "In its own shape it is vulnerable, but whatthat shape is I do not know. As for your escaping from thisvalley--you cannot. The fog will bring you back."
"I've got my compass." I glanced at it, saw that the needle wasspinning at random.
Lhar said: "The Other has many powers. Whenever you go into the fog,you will always return here."
"How do you know all this?" I asked.
"My robot tells me. A machine can reason logically, better than acolloid brain."
I closed my eyes, trying to think. Surely it should not be difficultfor me to retrace my steps, to find a path out of this valley. Yet Ihesitated, feeling a strange impotence.
"Can't your robot guide me?" I persisted.
"He will not leave my side. Perhaps--" Lhar turned to the sphere, andthe cilia fluttered excitedly. "No," she said, turning back to me."Built into his mind is one rule--never to leave me. He cannot disobeythat."
* * * * *
I couldn't ask Lhar to go with me. Somehow I sensed that the frigidcold of the surrounding mountains would destroy her swiftly. I said,"It must be possible for me to get out of here. I'm going to try,anyway."
"I will be waiting," she said, and did not move as I slipped outbetween two trunks of the banyan-like tree.
It was daylight and the silvery grayness overhead was palely luminous.I headed for the nearest rampart of fog.
Lhar was right. Each time I went into that cloudy fog barrier I wasblinded. I crept forward step by step, glancing behind me at myfootprints in the snow, trying to keep in a straight line. Andpresently I would find myself back in the valley....
I must have tried a dozen times before giving up. There were nolandmarks in that all-concealing grayness, and only by sheerest chancewould anyone blunder into this valley--unless hypnotically summoned,like the Indio girls.
I realized that I was trapped. Finally I went back to Lhar. She hadn'tmoved an inch since I had left, nor had the robot, apparently.
"Lhar," I said. "Lhar, can't you help me?"
The white flame of the flower was motionless, but the robot's ciliamoved in quick signals. Lhar moved at last.
"Perhaps," her thought came. "Unless both induction and deductionfail, my robot has discovered a chance for you. The Other can controlyour mind through emotions. But I, too, have some power over yourmind. If I give you strength, wall you with a psychic shield againstintrusion, you may be able to face the Other. But you cannot destroyit unless it is in its normal shape. The Indio girls must be killedfirst...."
"Killed?" I felt a sense of horror at the thought of killing thosepoor simple native girls.
"They are not actually alive now. They are now a part of the Other.They can never be restored to their former life."
"How will--destroying them--help me?" I asked.
Again Lhar consulted the robot. "The Other will be driven from theirbodies. It will then have no hiding-place and must resume its ownform. Then it can be slain."
Lhar swayed and curtseyed away. "Come," she said. "It is in my mindthat the Other must die. It is evil, ruthlessly selfish, which is thesame thing. Until now I have not realized the solution to this evilbeing. But seeing into your thoughts has clarified my own. And myrobot tells me that unless I aid you, the Other will continue raveninginto your world. If that happens, the time-pattern will be broken....I do not quite understand, but my robot makes no mistakes. The Othermust die...."
She was outside of the banyan now, the sphere gliding after her. Ifollowed. The three of us moved swiftly across the blue moss, guidedby the robot.
In a little while we came to where the six Indio girls were squatting.They had apparently not moved since I had left them.
"The Other is not here," Lhar said.
The robot held me back as Lhar advanced toward the girls, theskirt-like frill at her base convoluting as she moved. She pausedbeside them and her petals trembled and began to unfold.
From the tip of that great blossom a fountain of white dust spurtedup. Spores or pollen, it seemed to be. The air was cloudy with thewhiteness.
The robot drew me back, back again. I sensed danger....
The pollen seemed to be drawn toward the Indios, spun toward them indancing mist-motes. It settled on their bronzed bodies, their limbsand faces. It covered them like a veil until they appeared to be sixstatues, white as cold marble, there on the blue moss.
Lhar's petals lifted and closed again. She swayed toward me, her mindsending a message into mine.
"The Other has no refuge now," she told me. "I have slain the--thegirls."
"They're dead?" My lips were dry.
"What semblance of life they had left is now gone. The Other cannotuse them again."
Lhar swayed toward me. A cool tentacle swept out, pressing lightly onmy forehead. Another touched my breast, above the heart.
"I give you of my strength," Lhar said. "It will be as shield andbuckler to you. The rest of the way you must go alone...."
Into me tide of power flowed. I sank into cool depths, passionless andcalm. Something was entering my body, my mind and soul, drowning myfears, stiffening my resolve.
Strength of Lhar was now my strength!
The tentacles dropped away, their work done. The robot's ciliasignalled and Lhar said, "Your way lies there. That temple--do you seeit?"
I saw it. Far in the distance, half shrouded by the fog, a scarletstructure, not ruined like the others, was visible.
"You will find the Other there. Slay the last Indio, then destroy theOther."
I had no doubt now of my ability to do that. A new power seemed tolift me from my feet, send me running across the moss. Once I glancedback, to see Lhar and her robot standing motionless, watching me.
The temple enlarged as I came nearer. It was built of the same reddishstone as the other ruined blocks I had seen. But erosion had weatheredits harsh angles till nothing now remained but a rounded, smoothlysculptured monolith, twenty feet tall, shaped like a rifle shell.
A doorway gaped in the crimson wall. I paused for a moment on thethreshold. In the dimness within a shadow stirred. I stepped forward,finding myself in a room that was tall and narrow, the ceiling hiddenin gloom. Along the walls were carvings I could not clearly see. Theygave a suggestion of inhuman beings that watched.
It was dark but I could see the Indio girl who had been Miranda Va
lle.Her eyes were on me, and, even through the protecting armor of Lharstrength; I could feel their terrible power.
The life in the girl was certainly not human!
"Destroy her!" my mind warned. "Destroy her! Quickly!"
But as I hesitated a veil of darkness seemed to fall upon me. Utter cold,a frigidity as of outer space, lanced into my brain. My senses reeledunder the assault. Desperately, blind and sick and giddy, I called on thereserve strength Lhar had given me. Then I blacked out....
When I awoke I saw smoke coiling up from the muzzle of the pistol inmy hand. At my feet lay the Indio girl, dead. My bullet had crashedinto her brain, driving out the terrible dweller there.
My eyes were drawn to the farther wall. An archway gaped there. Iwalked across the