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🟡 Jewel of Bas (Full Audiobook) | Leigh Douglass Brackett · Classic Science Fiction Audiobooks: Free Public Domain Sci-Fi Stories

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Part one of The Jewel of Boss by Lee Douglas Brackett.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. This is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit librevox dot org.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Recording by Phil Shinevert Betton Rouge, Louisiana. This story was
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: first published in Planet Stories Spring nineteen forty four. The
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Jewel of Boss by Lee Douglas Brackett, Part one. Mouse
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: stirred the stew in the small iron pot. There wasn't
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: much of it. She sniffed and said, you could have
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: stolen the bicker joint. We'll go hungry before the next town, hm.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Siaron grunted lazily. Anger began to curl in Mouse's eyes.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I suppose it's all right with you if we run
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: out of food, she said, sullenly. Sieron leaned back comfortably
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: against a moss grown boulder and watched her with lazy
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: gray eyes. He liked watching Mouse. She was a head
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: shorter than he, which made her very short indeed, and
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: as thin as a young girl. Her hair was black
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and wild, as though only wind ever combed it. Her
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: eyes were black too, and very bright. There was a
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: small red thief's brand between them. She wore a ragged
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: crimson tunic, and her bare arms and legs were as
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: brown as his own. Seeron grinned. His lip was scored,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and there was a tooth missing behind it. He said,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: it's just as well. I don't want you getting fat
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and lazy. Mouse, who was sensitive about her thinness, says
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: something pungent and threw the wooden plate at him. Seheron
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: drew his shag he had aside enough to let it by,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and then relaxed, stroking the harp on his bare brown knees.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It began to purr softly. Sieron felt good. The heat
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of the sun balls that floated all ways lazy in
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a reddish sky made him pleasantly sleeping, and after the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: clamoring crush of the market squares in the border towns,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the huge, high silence of the place was wonderful. He
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and Mouse were camped on a tongue of land that
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: licked out from the Phrygian hills down into the coastal
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: plains of Atlantia, a sharp cut, but only gypsies like
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: themselves ever took it. To Sihuron's left, far below the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: sea spread sullen and burning, cloaked in a reddish fog.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: To his right, also far below, worthy forbidden plains, flat,
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  Speaker 1: desolate and barren, reaching away and away to the upcurving
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: rim of the world, where Ceeron's sharp eyes could just
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: make out a glint of gold, a mammoth peak, reaching
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: for the sky. Mouse said, suddenly, is that it Kiri?
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: beIN Biatha, the Mountain of life? Seeron struck a shivering
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: cord from the harp. That's it, let's eat, said Mouse, scared.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe you want me to go back, Maybe you think
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a branded thief. Is it good enough for you? Well,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I can't help where I was born or what my
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: parents were, and you'd have a brand on your ugly
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: face too if you hadn't just been lucky. She threw
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the ladle. This time Araim was better, and Cieron didn't
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: duck quite in time. It clipped his ear. He sprang up,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: looking murderous, and started to heave it back at her.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And then suddenly Mouse was crying, stamping up and down
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and blinking tears out of her eyes. All right, I'm scared.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I've never been out of a city before. And besides,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: she looked out over the silent plain to the distant
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: glint of ben Biatha. Besides, she whispered, I keep thinking
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: of the stories they used to tell about Boss the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Immortal and his androids, and the gray beasts that served them,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and about the Stone of Destiny. Sieron made a contemptuous mouth, legends,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: old wives, tales, songs to give babies a pleasant shiver.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: A small glint of avarice came into his gray eyes.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: But the Stone of Destiny, it's a nice story, that one.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: A jewel of such power that owning it gives a
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: man rule o the whole world. He squinted out across
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the barren plain. Some day, he said, softly, maybe I'll
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: see if that one's true. Oh, Kirie Mouth came and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: caught his wrists in her small, strong hands. You wouldn't.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: It's forbidden, and no one that's gone into the forbidden
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: plains has ever come back. There's always the first time,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: he grinned. But I'm not going now, Mousey, I'm too hungry.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: She picked up the plate silently and laytle stew into
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: it and set it down. Ceiron laid his harp down
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and stretched a tough, wiry little man with legs slightly
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: bandy and a good natured hard face. He wore a
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: yellow tunic even more ragged than mouse's. They sat down,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Cieron ate noisily with his fingers. Mouse fished out a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: hunk of meat and nibbled it moodily. A breeze came up,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: pushing the sunballs around a little and bringing tatters of
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: red fog in off the sea. After a while, Mouse said,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: did you hear any of the talk in the market
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: squares Kiri? He shrugged, Hey, gabble, I don't waste my
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: time with it. All along the border countries they are
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: saying the same thing. People who live or work along
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the edge of the forbidden planes have disappeared, whole towns
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of them. Sometimes one man falls into a beast pit,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: said Sieron impatiently, and in two weeks of gossip, the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: whole country has vanished. Forget it, but it's happened before, Kiri.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: A long time ago, A long time ago, some wild
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: tribe living on the planes came in and got tough,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: And that's that. Siheron wiped his hands on the grass
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and said angrily if you're going to nag all the
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: time about being scared. He caught the plate out of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: her hands just in time. She was breathing hard, glaring
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: at him. She looked like her name and cute as hell.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Sieheron laughed, Come here, you, She came sulkily. He pulled
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: her down beside him and kissed her and took the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: harp on his knees. Mouse put her head on his shoulder.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Sieron was suddenly very happy. He began to draw music
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: out of the harp. There was a lot of distance
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: around him, and he tried to fill it up with music,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: a fine, free spade of it out of the thrumbing strings.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Then he sang. He had a beautiful voice, clear and
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: true as a new blade, but soft. It was a
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: simple tune about two people in love. Sieron liked it.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: After a while, Mouse reached up and drew his head around,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: stroking the scar on his lip, so he had to
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: stop singing. She wasn't glaring any longer. Sierman bent his head.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: His eyes were closed, but he felt her body stiffen
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: against him, and her lips broke away from his with
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: a little gasping cry. Kiri Kiri look. He jerked his
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: head back, angry and startled. Then the anger faded. There
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: was a different quality to the light, the warm, friendly,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: reddish sunlight that never dimmed or faded. There was a
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: shadow spreading out in the sky over ben Biafa. It
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: grew and widened, and the sunballs went out one by one,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and darkness came toward them over the forbidden planes. They crouched,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: clinging together, not speaking, not breathing, and uneasy breeze sighed
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: over them, moving out. Then after a long time, the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: sunball sparked, been burned again, and the shadow was gone.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Seharon dragged down an unsteady breath. He was sweating, but
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: where his hands and mouses touched locked together, they were
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: cold as death. What is it, Kiri, I don't know.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: He got up, slinging the harp across his back without
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: thinking about it. He felt naked suddenly up there on
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the high ridge, stripped and unsafe. He pulled Mouse to
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: her feet. Neither of them spoke again. Their eyes had
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: a queer, stunned look. This time it was Seheron that
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: stopped with the stepot in his hands, looking at something
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: behind Mouse. He dropped it and jumped in front of her,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: pulling the wicked knife he carried from his girdle. The
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: last thing he heard was her wild scream, but he
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: had enough time to see to see the creatures climbing
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: up over the crest of the ridge beside them, fast
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and silent and grinning to ring them in with wands
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: tipped at the points with opals like tiny sunballs. They
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: were no taller than mouse, but thick and muscular, built
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like men. Gray animal fur grew on them like the
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: body hair of a hairy man, lengthening into a coarse
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  Speaker 1: mane over the skull where the skin showed it was
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: gray and wrinkled and tough. Their faces were flat with
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: black animal nose buttons. They had sharp teeth, gray with
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: a bright, healthy grayness. Their eyes were blood pink, without
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: whites or visible pupils. The eyes were the worst. Seern
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: yelled and slashed out with his knife. One of the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: gray brutes danced in on lithe quick feet, and touched
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: him on the neck with its jeweled wand fire exploded
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: in Sierroon's head. And then there was darkness, pierced by
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Mouse's scream. As he slid down into it, he thought
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: there calls the beasts of legend that served Bass the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Immortal and his androids, calls that God of the Forbidden
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Planes from man. Seharon came to on his feet in
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: walking from the way. He felt he'd been walking a
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: long time, but his memory was vague and confused. He
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: had been relieved of his knife, but his harp was
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: still with him. Mouse walked beside him. Her black hair
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: hung over her face and her eyes looked out from
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: behind it, sullen and defiant. The gray beasts walked in
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: a rough circle around them, holding their wands ready. From
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the way they grinned. Seharon had an idea. They hoped
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: they'd have an excuse for using them. With a definite,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: uneasy shock, Ciaron realized that they were far out in
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the barren waste of the Forbidden Planes. He got a
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: little closer to Mouse. Hello. She looked at him. You
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and your shortcuts. So all that talk in the border
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: towns was just gabble hunt, So it's my fault if
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that isn't just like a woman. Seheron made an impatient gesture,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: all right, all right, that doesn't matter. Now. What doesn't
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: matter is where are we going? And why how should
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I wait a minute? We're stopping. The calls warned them
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: with their wands to stand. One of the gray brutes
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: seemed to be listening to something that Seheron couldn't hear. Presently,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it gestured, and the party started off again in a
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: slightly different direction. After a minute or two, a gully
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: appeared out of nowhere at their feet. From up on
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the ridge, the forbidden planes had looked perfectly flat, but
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the gully was fairly wide and cut in clean like
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a sword game, hidden by a slight roll of the land.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: They scrambled down the steep bank and went along the
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: bottom again. With an uneasy qualm, Seheron realized they were
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: headed in the general direction of ben Biatha. The old
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: legends had been gradually lost in the stream of time,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: except people who care for such things or made a
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: living from singing about them, like Cehiron. But in spite
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of that, ben Biatha was taboo. The chief reason was physical.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: The plains still called forbidden ringed the mountains like a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: protective wall, and it was an indisputable fact, whether you
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: like it or not, that people who went out onto
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: them didn't come back. Hunger, thirst, wild, beasts or devils.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: They didn't come back. That discouraged a lot of traveling. Besides,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the only reason for attempting to reach bin Biatha was
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the legend of the Stone of Destiny, and people had
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: long ago lost faith in that. Nobody had seen it.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Nobody had seen Boss the Immortal, who was its god
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: and guardian, nor the androids that were his servants, nor
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the calls that were slaves to both of them. Long
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: long ago people were supposed to have seen them. In
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the beginning. According to the legends, Boss the Immortal had
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: lived in a distant place, a green world where there
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: was only one huge sunball that rose and set regularly,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: where the sky was sometimes blue and sometimes black and silver,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and where the horizons curved down. The manifest idiocy of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: all that still tickled people, so they liked to hear
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: songs about it. Somewhere on that green world, somehow Boss
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: had acquired the flaming Stone that gave him the power
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: of life and death and destiny. There were a of
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: conflicting and confused stories about trouble between Boss and the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: inhabitants of the funny world with the sky that changed
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: like a woman's fancy Eventually he was supposed to have
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: gathered up a lot of these inhabitants through the power
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: of the Stone and transported them somehow across a great
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: distance to the world where they now lived. Siheron had
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: found that children loved these yarns, particularly their imaginations were
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: still elastic enough not to see the ridiculous side. He
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: always gave the distance cycle a lot of schmaltz. So
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: after Boss the Immortal and his Stone of Destiny had
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: got all these people settled in a new world, Boss
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: created his androids Khafre, and stewed and brought the Calls
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: from somewhere out in that vague distance, another world perhaps,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: And there were wars and revolts and raiding parties and
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: bitter struggles between Boss and the androids and the humans
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: for power, with Boss always winning. Because of the Stone,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: there was a bottomless well of material there for ballads.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Seheron used it frequently. But one legend that had always
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: maintained its original shape under the battering of generations was
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the one about ben Biatha, the Mountain of Life, being
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the dwelling place of Boss the Immortal and his androids
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: and the Calls, and somewhere under bin Biatha was the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: stone whose possession could give a man life eternal and
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the powers of whatever God you chose to believe in.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Siheron had toyed with that one in spite of his skepticism.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Now it looked as though he was going to see
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: for himself. He looked at the calls, the creatures who
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: didn't exist, and found his skepticism shaken, shaken so hard
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: he felt sick with it, like a man waking up
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: to find a nightmare beside him in the flesh, booting
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: his guts in if the calls were real, the androids
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: were real. From the androids, you went to Boss, and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: from Boss to the Stone of destiny. Siiron began to
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: sweat with sheer excitement. Mouse jerked her head up. Suddenly,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Kiri listen. From somewhere up ahead and to the right,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: there began to come a rhythmic swinging clank of metal.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Underneath it, Siiron made out the shuffle of bear or
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: sandal feet. The calls urged them on faster with the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: jewel tipped wands. The hot opalescence of the tips struck
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Ciiron all at once, a jewel fire that could shock
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: a man to unconsciousness, like the blow of a fist,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: just by touching the power of the stone, perhaps the
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: stone of destiny sleeping under ben Biatha. The shuffle and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: clank got louder quite suddenly they came to a place
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: where the gully met another one almost at right angles,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and stopped. The ears of the calls twitched nervously. MOUs
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: shrank in closer against Ceharon. She was looking off down
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the new cut Ceiron looked too. There were calls coming
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: toward them, about forty of them with wands, walking between
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: their watchful lines, where some ninety or one hundred humans,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: men and women, shackled together by chains, run through loops
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: in iron collars. They were so close together they had
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to lockstep, and any a tip at attacking their guards
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: would admit the whole column falling flat. Mouse said with
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: vicious clarity, one man falls into a beast pit, and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: in three weeks of gossip, a whole town is gone.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Ha Ciaran scored mouths. Keep going, Mousey, just keep it up.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: He scowled at the slave gang, and added, but what
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the hell is it all about? What do they want
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: us for? You'll find out, said Mouse, You and your
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: sharp cuts. Ceiron raised his hand, Mouse ducked and started
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: to swing on him. A couple of calls moved in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and touched them apart very delicately with the wands. They
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: didn't want knockouts this time, just local numbness. Ceiron was
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: feeling murderous enough to start something anyway, but a second
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: flick of the wand on the back of his neck
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: took the starch out of him. By that time, the
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: slave party had come up and stopped. Seerons stumbled over
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: into the line and let the calls lock the collar
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: around his neck. The man in front of him was huge,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: with a mane of red hair and chords of muscle
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: on his back the size of Ceiron's arm. He didn't
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: have a stitch on but a leather ge string. His freckled,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: red haired skin was slippery with sweat. Seeron pressed up
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: against him, shut his mouth tight and began to breathe
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: very hard, with his face turned as far away as
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: he could get it. They shackle Mouse right in back
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: of him. She put her arms around his waist tighter
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: than she really had to. Seiron squeezed her hands. End
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Part one, Part two of The Jewel of bas by
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Lee Douglas Brackett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Part two. The Calls started the line moving again, using
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the wands like ox codes. They shuffled off down the gully,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: going deeper and deeper into the forbidden plains, very softly,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: so that nobody but Seeron could hear her. Mouse whispered,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: these locks are nothing, I can pick them anytime. Sieron
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: squeezed her hand again. It occurred to him that mouse
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: was a handy girl to have around. After a while,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: she said, Kiri, that shadow. We did see it, we did.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: He shivered in spite of himself. What was it? How
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: should I know? And you better save your breath. Looks
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: like a long walk ahead of us, it was. They
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: threaded their way through a growing maze of cracks in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the plain, cracks that got deeper and deeper, so you
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: had to look straight up to see the red sky
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and the little floating suns. Sieron found himself watching furtively
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: to make sure they were still shining. He wished Mousey
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: hadn't reminded him of the shadow. He'd never been closer
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: to cold clawing panic than in those moments on the ridge.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: The rest of the slave gang had obviously come a
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: long way already. They were tired, but the calls goaded
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: them on, and it wasn't until about a third of
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: the line was being held up bodily by those in
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: front or behind that a halt was called. They came
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: to a fairly wide place where three of the gullies
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: came together. The calls formed the line into a circle,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: squeezing in on itself, so they were practically sitting in
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: each other's laps, and then stood by watchfully, lolling pink
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: tongues over their bright gray teeth and letting the wands
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: flash in the dimmed light. Cieron let his head and
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: shoulders roll over onto Mousey. For some time, he had
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: felt her hands working around her own collar covered by
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: her hair, and the harp slung across his back. She
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: wore a rather remarkable metal pin that had other functions
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: that hold in hertunicon, and she knew how to use it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Her collar was still in place, but he knew she
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: could slide out of it now anytime she wanted. She
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: bent forward over him as though she was exhausted. Her
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: black hair fell over his face and neck under it,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: her small, quick hands got busy. The lock snapped quietly,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: and the huge, red haired man collapsed slowly on top
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of Ceiron. His voice whispered, but there was nothing weak
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: about it. He said, now me. Ceiron squirmed and cursed.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: The vast weight crushed him into silence. I'm a hunter.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I can hear a rabbit breathing, and its warren. I
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: heard the woman speak, Free me, or I'll make trouble.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Ceiron sighed resignedly, and mouse went to work. Ceiron looked
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: around the circle of exhausted humans, charcoal burners, trappers, hoop shavers,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: the lean, tough, hard bitten riff raff of the border wilderness.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Even the women were tough. Siiron began to get ideas
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: There was a man crushed up against them on the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: other side, the man who had hitherto been at the
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: head of the column. He was tall and stringy, like
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a hungry cat, and just as mean looking, hunched over
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: his knees, with his face buried in his forearms, and
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: a shag of iron gray hair falling over his shoulders.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Sieron nudged him, you don't make any sign game to
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: take a chance. The shaggy head turned slightly, just enough
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: to unveil an eye, Sieron wished. Suddenly he kept his
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: mouth shut. The eye was pale, almost white, with a queer,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: unhuman look, as though it saw only gods or devils
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and nothing in between. Sieron had met Hermits before in
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: his wonder he knew the signs. Normally he rather liked Hermits,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: but this one gave him unpleasant qualms in the stomach.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: The man dragged a rusty voice up from somewhere. We
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: are enslaved by devils. Only the pure can overcome devils,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: or you pure. Siron managed not to choke, as a
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: bird in its nest, he said, a newly fledged bird,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: in fact, a bird still in the shell. The cold,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: pale eye looked at him without blinking. Ciiron resisted an
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: impulse to punch it, and said, we have a means
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of freeing ourselves. If enough could be freed, when the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: time came, we might rush the calls. Only the pure
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: can prevail against devils. Seiron gave him a smile of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: beatific innocence. The scar in the missing tooth rather sparled
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the effect, but his eyes made up for it. In bland, sweetness,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: you shall lead us father, he could. With such purity
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: as yours, we can't fail. The hermit thought about that
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: for a moment, and then said, I will pass the word.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Give me the fake. Seiron's jaw dropped, his eyes got glassy.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: The fake, said the hermit patiently. The jiggler Siron closed
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: his eyes. Mouse, he said, weakly, give the gentleman the picklock.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Mouse sluted to him a distance of about two inches.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: The red haired giant took some of his weight off Seiron.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Mouse was looking slightly dazed herself. Hadn't I better do
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: it for you, she asked, rather pompously. The hermit gave
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: her a cold glance. He bent his head and brought
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: his hand up between his knees. His collar mate on
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the other side never noticed a thing, and the hermit
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: beat Mouse's time by a good third. Sieron laughed. He
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: lay in Mouse's lap and had mild hysterics. Mouse cuffed
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: him furiously across the back of his neck, and even
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: that didn't stop him. He pulled himself up, looked through
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: streaming eyes at Mouse's murderous small face, and bit his
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: knuckles to keep from screaming. The hermit was already quietly
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: at work on the man next him, Cieron unslung his harp.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: The gray Calls hadn't noticed anything yet. Both Mouse and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the hermit were very smooth workers. Siiron plucked out a
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: few sonorous minor chords, and the Calls flicked their blood
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: pink eyes at him, but didn't seem to think. The
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: harp called for any action. Siiron relaxed and played louder
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: under cover of the music. He explained his plan to
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the big red hunter, who nodded and began whispering to
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: his other color mate. Siron began to sing. He gave
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: them a lament, one of the wild dark things that
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the Samerians sang at the beer of a chief, and
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: very appropriate to the occasion. The Calls lounged, enjoying the rest.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: They weren't watching for it, so they didn't see as
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Seeron did the breathing of the word of hope around
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the circle. Civilized people would have given the show away,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: but these were bordermen, as wary and self contained as animals.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: It was only in their eyes that you could see anything.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: They got busy under cover of their huddled bodies and
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: long haired bowed overheads with every buckle and pin they
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: could muster mouse and the Hermit passed instructions along the line,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and since they were people who were used to using
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: their hands with skill, it seemed as though a fair
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: number of locks might get picked. The collars were left
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: carefully in place. Seeron finished his limit and was half
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: way through another when the Cowls decided it was time
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: to go. They moved in to go the line back
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: into position. Seheron's harp crashed out suddenly in angry challenge,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: and the close packed circles split into a furious confusion.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Seerons slung his harp over his shoulder and sprang up,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: shaking off the collar. All around him was the clash
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: of chain metal on rock, the scuffle of feet, the yewls,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and heavy breathing of angry men. The calls came leaping
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: in their wands, flashing. Somebody screamed. Seeron got a fist
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: full of mouses sunic in his left hand and started
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: to butt through the malay. He had lost track of
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the Hermit and the hunter. Then quite suddenly it was dark.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Silence closed down on the gully, a black, frozen silence,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: with not even a word of breathing in it. Ceiron
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: stood still, looking up at the dark sky. He didn't
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: even tremble. He was beyond that black darkness, in a
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: land of eternal light somewhere. Then a woman screamed with
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a terrible mad strength, and hell broke loose. Ceiron ran.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: He didn't think about where he was going, only that
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: he had to get away. He was still gripping mouse bodies,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: thrashed and blundered and shrieked in the darkness twice. He
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and Mouse were not kicking. It didn't stop them. They
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: broke through finally into a clear space. There began to
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: be light again, pale and feeble at first, but flickering
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: back toward normal. They were in a broad gully, kicked
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: smooth on the bottom by the passing of many feet.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: They ran down it. After a while, Mouse fell and
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Sieron dropped beside her. He lay there, fighting for breath,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: twitching and jerking like an animal with sheer panic. He
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: was crying a little because it was light again. Mouse
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: clung to him, pressing tight, as though she wanted to
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: merge her body with his and hide it. She had
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: begun to shake Kiri. She whispered over and over again, Kiri,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: what was it? Sieron held her head against his shoulder
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and stroked it. I don't know, honey, but it's all
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: right now. It's gone gone, but it could come back.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: It had once. Maybe next time it would stay darkness
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: and the sudden cold. The legends began crawling through Sieron's mind.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: If Boss the Immortal was true and the Stone of
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Destiny was true, and the stone gave Boss power over
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: life and death of a world, then maybe Boss was
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: getting tired of the world and wanted to throw it away.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: The rational stubbornness a man that says a thing is
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: not because it's never been before, helped Cieron steady down.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: But he couldn't kid himself that there hadn't been darkness
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: where no darkness had ever been dreamed of before. He
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: shook his head and started the pull mouse to her feet,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and then his quick ears caught the sound of someone
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: coming toward them, running several someones. There was no place
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: to hide. Siron got Mouse behind him and waited, half crouching.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: It was the hunter, with the hermit loping like a
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: stringy cat at his heels, and a third man behind them.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Both they all looked a little crazy, and they didn't
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: seem to be going to stop. Cieron said, hey. They
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: slowed down, looking at him with queer, blank eyes. Sieron
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: blew up because he had to relax somehow. It's all
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: over now, What are you scared of? It's gone, He
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: cursed them, with more feeling than fairness. What about the calls?
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: What happened back there? The hunter wiped a huge hand
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: across his red bearded face. Everybody went crazy, he said, thickly.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Some got killed or hurt, some got away like us.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: The rest were caught again. He jerked his head back.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: They're coming this way. They're hunting us. They hunt by scent.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: The gray beasts stew. Then we've got to get going.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Sieron turned around. Mouse, you, Mousey, snap out of it, honey,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: it's all right now. She shivered and choked over her breath,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and the hermit fixed them both with pale, mad eyes.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: It was a warning, he said, a portent of judgment
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: when only the pure shall be saved. He pointed a
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: bony finger at Seeron. I told you that evil could
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: not prevail against devils that got through to mouse. Since
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: came back into her black eyes. She took a step
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: toward the hermit and let go. Don't you call him
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: evil on me either. We've never hurt anybody yet, beyond
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: lifting a little food or a trinket. And besides, who
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the hell are you to talk anybody as handy with
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: a picklock as you are as at plenty of practice.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Mouse paused for breath, and Seeron got a look at
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the hermit's face. His stomach quivered. He tried to shut
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Mouse up, but she was feeling better and beginning to
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: enjoy herself. She plunged into a detailed analysis of the
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: hermit's physique and heredity. She had a vivid end inventive mind.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Sieron finally got his hand over her mouth, taking care
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: not to get bitten. Nice going, he said, but we've
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: got to get out of here. You can finish later.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: She started to heal his shins, and then quite suddenly
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: she stopped and stiffened up under his hands. She was
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: looking at the hermit. Sieron looked too. His insides nootted, froze,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: and began to do tricks. The hermit said quietly, you
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: are finished now. His pale eyes held them and there
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: was nothing human about his gaze or the cold calm
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: of his voice. You are evil, You are thieves, and
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: I know for I was a thief myself. You have
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the filth of the world on you and no wish
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: to clean it off. He moved toward them. It was
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: hardly a step, hardly more than an inclination of the body,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: but Siiron gave back before it. I killed a man.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: I took a life in sin and anger, and now
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: I have made my peace. You have not, you will not,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and if need comes, I can kill again without remorse.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: He could too. There was nothing ludicrous about him. Now
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: he was stating simple fact, and the dignity of him
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: was awesome. Sieron scowled down at the dust hell. He said,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: we're sorry. Father mouse has a quick tongue and we've
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: both had a bad scare. She didn't mean it. We
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: respect any man's conscience. There was a cold, hard silence,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: and then the third man cried out with a sort
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: of subdued fury. Let's go. Do you want to get
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: caught again? He was a gnarled, knotty, powerful little man,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: beginning to grizzle, but not to slow down. He wore
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: a kilt of skins. His hide was dark and tough
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: as leather, His hazel eyes set in nests of wrinkles.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: The hunter, who had been hearing nothing but noises going
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: back and forth over his head, turned and let off
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: down the gully. The others followed, still not speaking. Siheron
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: was thinking, he's crazy. He's clear off his head, and
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: of all the things, we didn't need a crazy hermit
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: heads the list. There was a cold spot between his
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: shoulders that wouldn't go away, even when he started sweating
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: with exertion. The gully was evidently a main trail to somewhere.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: There were many signs of recent passage by a lot
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: of people, including an occasional body kicked off to the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: side and left to dry. The little knotty man, who
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: was a trapper named Ram, examined the bodies with a terrible,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: stony look in his eyes. My wife and my first son,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: he said briefly. The gray beasts took them while I
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: was gone. He turned grimly away. Sieron was glad when
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the bodies proved to beat the wrong ones. Ram and
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the big red hunter took turns scaling the cleft walls
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: for a look. Mouse said something about taking to the
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: face of the plane where they wouldn't be hemmed in.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: They looked at her grimly. The gray beasts are up there,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: they said, flanking us. If we go up, they'll only
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: take us and chain us again. Sieron's heart took a big,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: staggering jump. In other words, they're hurting us. We're going
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: the way they want us to, so they don't bother
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: to round us up. The Hunter nodded professionally. Here's a
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: good plan. Oh fine, snarled Seeron. What I want to
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: know is is there any way out? The hunter shrugged.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going on anyway, said ram my, wife and son.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Sieron thought about the Stone of Destiny and was rather
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: glad there was no decision to make. They went on
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: at an easy jog trot. By bits and pieces, Sieron
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: built up the picture rading gangs of calls coming quietly
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: into isolated border villages, combing the brush and the forest
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: for stragglers. Where they took the humans or why, nobody
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: could guess. The red Hunter froze to a dead stop.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: The others crouched behind him, instinctively holding their breath. The
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: hunter whispered people, many of them his flat palm made
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: an emphatic for quiet. Small cold prickles flared across Siheron's skin.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: He found mouse's hand in his and squeezed it suddenly,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: with no more voice than the sigh of a breeze
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: through bracken. The hermit laughed judgment. He whispered, great things
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: moving his pale eyes were fay, doom and destruction, a
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: shadow across the world, a darkness and a dying. He
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: looked at them one by one and threw his head back,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: laughing without sound, the stringy chords working in his throat,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: And of all you, I alone have no fear. They
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: went on, slowly, moving without sound, in small, shapeless puddles
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: of shadow thrown by the floating sunballs, thought himself almost
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: in the lead. Beside the hunter. They edged around a
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: jog in the cleff wall. About ten feet ahead of them,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: the cleft floor plunged underground through a low opening shored
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: with heavy timbers. There were two calls lounging in front
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: of it, watching their wands flash in the light. The
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: five humans stopped. The calls came toward them, almost lazily,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: running rough gray tongues over their shiny teeth. Their blood
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: pink eyes were bright with pleasure. Sieron groaned, this is it.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Shall we be brave or just smart? The hunter cocked
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: his huge fists, and then Ram let go a queer
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: animal moan. He shoved past Seeron and went to his
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: knees beside something Sieron hadn't noticed before. A woman lay
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: awkwardly against the base of the cliff. She was brown
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: and stringy and not very young, with a plain good face.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: A squat, thick shouldered boy sprawled almost on top of her.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: There was a livid burn on the back of his neck.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: They were both dead. Seeron thought probably the woman had
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: dropped from exhaustion and the kid had died fighting to
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: save her. He felt sick. Ram put a hand on
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: each of their faces. His own was stony and quite blank.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: After the first cry, he didn't make a sound. He
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: got up and went for the called nearest to him.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: End of Part two, Part three of The Jewel of
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Boss by Lee Douglas Brackett. This livery vox recording is
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Part three. He did it like
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: an animal, quick and without thinking. The cold was quick too.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: It jabbed the wand at Ram, but the little brown
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: man was coming so fast that it didn't stop him.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: He must have died in mid leap, but his body
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: knocked the cold over and bore him down. Seiron followed
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: him in a swift cat leap. He heard the hunter
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: grunting and snarling somewhere behind him, and the thudding of
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: bare feet. Being very busy, he lost sight of the
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: other called. He lost sight of everything but a muscular
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: gray arm that was trying to pull a jeweled tipped
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: wand from under Ram's corpse. There was a terrible stink
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: of burning flesh. Seiron grabbed the gray wrist. He didn't
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: bother with it or the arm. He slid his grip
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: up to the fingers, got his other hand beside it,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: and started wrenching. Bone cracked and split. Seiron worked desperately
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: from the thumb and the little finger. Flesh tore, Splinters
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: of gray bone came through his hands, slipped in the blood.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: The gray beast opened his mouth, but no sound came.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Cieron decided that the things were dumb. It was human
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: enough to sweat. Sieron grabbed the wand a gray paw.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: The other one came, clawing for his throat around the
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: bulk of Ram's shoulders. He flicked it with the wand
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: it went away, and Sieron speared the jewel tip down
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: hard against the caul's throat. After a while, Mouse's voice
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: came to him from somewhere. It's done, Kirie, No use
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: over cooking it. It smelled done all right. Siron got up.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: He looked at the wand in his hand, holding it
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: away off he whistled. Mouse said, stop admiring yourself and
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: get going. The hunter says he can hear chains. Sieron
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: looked around. The other called lay on the ground. Its
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: neck seemed to be broken. The body of the squat
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: dark boy lay on top of it. The hunter said
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: he didn't feel the wand I think he'd be glad
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: to be a club for killing one of them if
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: he knew it. Sieron said, yeah. He looked at mouse.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: She seemed perfectly healthy. Aren't women supposed to fainted things
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: like this? She snorted. I was born in the thieves quarter.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: We used to roll skulls instead of pennies. They weren't
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: so scarce, I think, said Seeron. The Next time I
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: get married, I'll ask more questions. Let's go. They went
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: down the ramp leading under the forbidden planes. The hunter
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: led like a wary beast, Sieron brought up the rear.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: They both carried the stolen wands. The hermit hadn't spoke
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: a word or moved a hand to help. It was
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: fairly dark there on the ground, but not cold. In fact,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: it was hotter than outside and got worse as they
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: went down. Seeron could hear a noise like a hundred
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: armorers beating on shields, only louder. There was a feeling
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: of a lot of people moving around but not talking much,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: and an occasional crash or metallic screaming that Seeron didn't
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: have any explanation for him. He found himself not liking it.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: They went a fairish way on an easy down slope,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: and then the light got brighter. The hunter whispered careful
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: and slowed down. They drifted like four ghosts through an
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: archway into a glow of clear, bluish light. They stood
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: on a narrow ledge just here. It was hand smoothed,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: but on both sides it ran in nature, eroded roughness
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: into a jumble of slag tights and wind galleries. Above
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: the ledge. In their darkness was the high roof arch,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: and straight ahead there was just space. Eventually, a long
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: way off, Seiron made out a wall of rock. Below
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: there was a pit. It was roughly barrel shaped. It
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: was deep. It was so deep that Ciiron had to
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: crane over the edge to see bottom. Brilliant blue white
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: flares made it brighter than daylight. About two thirds of
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the way up the barrel, there were human beings laboring
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: in the glare. They were tiny things, no bigger than ants.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: From this height, they wore no chains, and Siiron couldn't
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: see any guards. But after the first look he quit
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: worrying about any of that. The thing growing up in
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: the pit took all his attention. It was built of metal.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: It rose and spread in intricate, swooping curves of shining whiteness,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: filling the whole lower part of the cavern. Ceiron stared
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: at it with a curious, numb feeling of awe. The
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: thing wasn't finished. He had not the fate, this idea
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: what it was for, but he was suddenly terrified of it.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: It was more than just the sheer, crushing size of it,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: or the unfamiliar metallic construction that was like nothing he
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: had seen or even dreamed of before. It was the
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: thing itself. It was power, it was strength. It was
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: a titan growing there in the belly of the world,
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: getting ready to reach out and grip it and play
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: with it. Like mouse gambling with an empty skull. He
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: knew looking at it that no human brain in his
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: own scale and time of existence had conceived that shining monster,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: nor shaped one smallest part of it. The Red Hunters said, simply,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: I'm scared, and this smells like a trap. Seeron swallowed
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: something that might have been his heart were it at
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: pal like it or don't, and we'd better get out
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: of sight before that chain game runs into us. Off
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: to the side, along the rough part of the ledge,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: where there were shadows and holes and pillows of rock,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: seemed the best bet. There was a way down to
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the cavern floor, a dizzy zig zag of ledges, ladders
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: and steps, but once on it you were stuck and
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: no cover. They edged off, going as fast as they dared.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Mouse was breathing rather heavily, and her face was white
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: enough to make the brand show like a blood drop
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: between her bows. The hermit seemed to be moving in
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: a private world of his own. The sight of the
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: shining giant had brought a queer blaze to his eyes,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: something Siuron couldn't read and didn't like. Otherwise he might
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: as well have been dead. He hadn't spoken since he
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: cursed them Back in the gully. They crouched down out
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: of sight among the forest of stalactites. Seiron watched the ledge.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: He whispered, they hunt by scent. The hunter nodded, I
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: think the other humans will cover us too many cents
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: in this place. But how did they have those two
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: waiting for us at the cave mouth? Sioron shrugged. Telepathy
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: saw a transference. Lots of backwater people have it. Why
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: not the calls? You don't, said the hunter, think of
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: them as having human minds? Don't kids yourself? They think,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: all right, they're not human, but they're not true animals either.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Did they think that? The Hunter pointed at the pit, No,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: said Cieron, slowly, They didn't. Then who? He broke off?
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: A quiet, Here they come. Sieron held his breath, peering
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: one eyed around a stalactite. The slave gang with the
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Gray Guards began to file out of the tunnel and
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: down the steep descent to the bottom, there was no
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: trouble left in any of those people. There were several
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: empty collars. There were also fewer calls. Some had stayed
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: outside to track down the four murderous fugitives, which meant
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: no escape at that end. Sieron got an idea. When
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: the last of the lion and the guards were safely
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: over the edge, he whispered, come on, we'll go down
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: right on their tails. Mouse gave him a startled look.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: He said, impatiently. They won't be looking back and up,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: I hope, and there won't be anybody else coming up
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: while they're going down. You've got a better idea about
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: getting down off this bloody perch. Spill it. She didn't have,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: and the hunter nodded, is good, let's go. They went
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: like the very devil. Since all were professionals in their
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: own line, they didn't make any more fuss than so
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: many leaves falling. The hermit followed silently, His pale eyes
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: went to the shining monster in the pit. At every
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: opportunity he was fermenting some idea in his shaggy head.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Sieron had a hunch the safest thing would be to
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: quietly trip him off into space. He resisted it, simply
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: because knifing a man in a brawl was one thing,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: and murdering an unsuspecting elderly man in cold blood was another.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Later he swore a solemn oath to drop humanitarianism, but
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: hard nobody saw them the calls and the people below
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: were all too busy not breaking their necks to have
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: eyes for anything else. Nobody came down behind them, a
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: risk they had had to run. They were careful to
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: keep a whole section of the descent between them and
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: the slave gang. It was a hall of a long
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: way down. The metal monster grew and grew and slid
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: up beside them, and then above them, towering against the vault.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: It was beautiful. Sieron loved its beauty, even while he
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: hated and feared its strength. Then he realized that there
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: were people working on it, clinging like flies to its
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: white beams and arches. Some worked with wands not very
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: different from the one he carried, fusing metal joints in
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: a sparkle of hot light. Others guided the huge metal
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: pieces into place, bringing them up from the floor of
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: the cavern and long ropes and fitting them delicately. With
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: a peculiar dizzy sensation, Sieron realized there was no more
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: weight to the metal than if it were feathers. He
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: prayed they could get past those workers without being seen,
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: or at least without having an alarm spread. The four
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: of them crawled down past two or three groups of
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: them safely, and then one man working fairly close to
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: the cliff, raised his head and stared straight at them.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Siheron began to make frantic signs. The man paid no
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: attentions to them. Seron got a good look at his eyes.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: He let his hands strop. He doesn't see us, whispered mouse, slowly.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: Is he blind? The man turned back to his work.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: It was an intricate fitting of small parts into a
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: pierced frame, work that in all his wonderings, Seron had
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: never seen done anywhere in any fashion. He shivered. No,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: he just doesn't see us. The big hunter licked his
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: lips nervously, like a beast in a dead fall. His
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: eyes glittered. The hermit laughed without any sound. They went on.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: It was the same all the way down. Men and
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: women looked at them but didn't see. In one place
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: they paused to let the slave gang get farther ahead,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: there was a woman working not far out. She looked
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: like a star of cat, gaunt ribs showing through torn rags.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: Her face was twisted with the sheer effort of breathing,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: but there was no expression in her eyes. Quite suddenly,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: in the middle of an unfinished gesture, she collapsed like
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: wet leather and fell. Sieron knew she was dead before
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: her feet cleared the beams she was sitting on. That
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: happened twice more on the way down. Nobody paid any attention.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Mouse wiped moisture off her forehead and glared at Seeron,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: A fine place to spend a honeymoon, you in your
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: lousy shortcuts. For once, Cieron had no impulse to cover her.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: The last portion of the descent was covered by the
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: backs of metal lean tubes full of heat and clamor.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: The four slipped away into dense shadow. Between two of them,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: crouched behind a mound of scrap, they had a good
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: view of what happened to the slave gang. The calls
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: guided it out between massive pillars of white metal that
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: held up the gaunt web overhead. Fires flared around the
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: cliff foot a hot, blue white glare, beat down, partly
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: from some unfamiliar light sources fastened to the girders, partly
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: from the mouths of furnaces, hot beyond any heat. Seirron
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: had ever dreamed of men and women toiled, sweating in
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: the smoke and glare, and never looked at the newcomers
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: in their chains. There were no guards. The calls stopped
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: the line in a clear space beyond the shacks and waited.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: They were all facing the same way, expectant, showing their
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: bright gray teeth and rolling their blood pink eyes. Seiron's
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: gaze followed theirs. He got rigid suddenly, and the sweat
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: on him turned cold as dew on a toad's back.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: He thought at first it was a man walking down
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: between the pillars. It was man and shaped, tall and
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: slender and strong, and sheathed from crown to heels in
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: white mesh metal that shimmered like bright water. But when
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: it came closer, he knew he was wrong. Some animal
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: instinct in him knew even before his mind did. He
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: wanted to snarl and put up his hackles and tuck
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: his tail and run. The creature was sexless, the flesh
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: of its hands and face had a strange, unreal texture
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: and a dusky yellow tinge that never came in living flesh.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: His face was human enough in shape, thin with light
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: angular bones. Only it was regular and perfect, like something
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: done carefully in marble, with no human softness or irregularity.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: The lips were bloodless. There was no hair, not even
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: any eyelashes. The eyes in that face were what set
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Siron's guts to noughting, like a nest of coal snakes.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: They were not even remotely human. They were like pools
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: of oil under the lashless lids, black deep, impenetrable, without
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: heart or soul or warmth. But wise, why s would
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: the knowledge beyond humanity and strong, with a cold, terrible
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: strength and old. There were none of the usual signs
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: of age. It was more than that. It was a psychic,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: unhuman feel of antiquity, a time that ran back and
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: back and still back to an origin as unnatural as
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: the body it spawned. Ceiron knew what it was. He
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: had made songs about the creature and sung them in
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: crowded marketplaces and smoky wine shops. He'd scared children with
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: it and made grown people shiver while they laugh. He
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't singing. Now, he wasn't laughing. He was looking at
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: one of the androids of Boss the Immortal, a creature
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: born of the mysterious power of the Stone, with no
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: faintest link to humanity in its body or its brain.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Siron knew then whose mind had created the shiny monster
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: towering above them, and he knew more than ever that
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: it was evil. The android walked out onto a platform
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: facing the slave gang, so that it was above them,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: where they could all see. In his right hand, it
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: carried a staff of white metal with a round ball
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: on top. The staff and the mesh metal sheath it
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: wore blazed bright silver in the glare. The chained humans
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: raised their heads. Siirons saw the white, scarred glint of
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: their eyeballs, heard the hard suck of breath and the
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: unease easy clashing of link metal. The calls made warning
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: gestures with their wands, but they were watching the Android.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: It raised the staff suddenly high over its head. The
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: gesture put the ball top out of seir on sight
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: behind a girder, and then the lights dimmed and went out.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: For a moment, there was total darkness except for the dull,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: marginal glow of the forges and furnaces. Then, from behind
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: the girder that hid the top of the staff, a
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: glorious opaline light burst out, filling the space between the
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: giant pillars, reaching out and up into the dim air
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: with banners of shimmering flame. The calls crouched down in
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: attitudes of worship, their blood pink eyes like sincient coals.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: A trembling ran through the line of slaves, as though
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: a wind had passed across them and shaken them like wheat.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Cried out, but the sounds were muffled quickly to silence.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: They stood still, staring up at the light. The android
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: neither moved nor spoke, standing like a silver lance. Seiran
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: got up. He didn't know that he did it. He
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: was distinctly aware of mouse beside him, breathing hard through
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: an open mouth and catching opalne sparks in her black eyes.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: There was other movement, but he paid no attention. He
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: wanted to get closer to the light. He wanted to
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: see what made it. He wanted to bathe in it.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: He could feel it pulsing in him, sparkling in his blood.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: He also wanted to run away, but the desire was
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: stronger than the fear. It even made the fear rather pleasurable.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: He was starting to climb over the pile of scrap
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: when the Android spoke. Its voice was light, clear and carrying.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: There was nothing menacing about it. But it stopped siheron
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: like a blow in the face, penetrating even through his
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: semi drugged yearning for the light. He knew sound, he
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: knew mood. He was sensitive to them as his own
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: harp in the way he made his living. He felt
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: what was in that voice, or rather what wasn't in it,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: and he stopped dead still. It was a voice speaking
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: out of a place where no emotion, as humanity knew
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: the word, had ever existed. It came from a brain
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: as alien and incomprehensible as darkness in a world of
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: eternal light, a brain no human could ever touch or understand,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: except to feel the cold weight of its strength and
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: cower as a beast cowers before the terrible mystery of fire. Sleep,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: said the android. Sleep and listen to my voice. Open
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: your minds and listen. Into Part three, Part four of
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: the Jewel of Baz by Lee Douglas Sprackett. This LibriVox
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Part four. Through a
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: swimming rainbow haze, Siheron saw the relaxed, dull faces of
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: the slaves. You are nothing, You are no one. You
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: exist only to serve, to work, to obey. Do you
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: hear and understand? The line of humans swayed and made
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: a small, moaning sigh. It held nothing but amazement and desire.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: They repeated the litany through thick animal mouths. Your minds
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: are open to mine. You will hear my thoughts once told.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: You will not forget. You will feel hunger and thirst,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: but not weariness. You will have no need to stop
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: and rest or sleep again the litany Eron passed a
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: hand over his face. He was sweating in spite of himself.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: The light and the sulleness mesmeric voice were getting him.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: He hid his own jaw with his knuckles, thinking, whatever
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: gods there were, that the source of the light had
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: been hidden from him. He knew he could never have
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: bucked it more, perhaps of the power of the stone
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: of destiny. A sudden, sharp rattle of fragments brought his
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: attention to the scrap heap. The hermit was already half
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: way over it, and mouse was right at his heels.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: Ceiron went after her. The rubble slipped and slid, and
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: she was already out of reach. He called her name
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: in desperation. She didn't hear him. She was hungry for
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: the light. Ceiron flung himself bodily over the rubbish out
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: on the floor. The nearest calls were shaking off their
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: days of worship. The hermit was scrambling on all fours
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: like a huge gray cat. Mouse's crimson tunic stayed just
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: out of reach. Seiron threw a handful of metal fragments
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: at her back. She turned her head and snarled at him.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: She didn't see him. Almost in an automatic reflex, she
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: hurled some stuff at his face, but she didn't even
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: slow down. The hermit cried out a high, eerie scream.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: A huge hand closed on Seeron's ankle and hauled him back.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: He fought it, jabbing with the wand he still carried
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: a second, remorseless hand prisoned his wrist. The red hunter
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: said dispassionately, they come, we go, mouse, Let me go.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: Damn you mouse, you can't help her. We go quick.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: Ceiron went on kicking and thrashing. The hunter banged him
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: over the ear. With an exquisite judgment, took the wand
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: out of his limp hand and tossed him over one
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: vast shoulder. The light hadn't affected the hunter much. He'd
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: been in deeper shadow than the others, and his half
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: animal nerves had warned him quicker even than Seeron's. Being
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: a wise wild thing, he had shut his eyes at once.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: He doubled behind the metal sheds and began to run
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: in dense shadow. Ceiron heard and felt things from a
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: great misty distance. He heard the hermit yell again, a
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: crazy votive cry of worship. He felt the painful jaring
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: of his body, and smell the animal rankness of the hunter.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: He heard mouse scream. Just once he tried to move,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: to get up and do something, the hunter slammed him
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: hard across the kidneys. Ceiron was aware briefly that the
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: lights were coming on again. After that, it got very
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: dark and very quiet. The hunter breathed in his ear, quiet,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: don't move. There wasn't much chance of Ceiron doing anything.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: The hunter lay on top of him, with one freckled
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: paw covering most of his face. Ceiron gasped and rolled
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: his eyes. They lay in a trothed niche of rough stone.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: There was black shapat on them from an overhang, but
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: the blue glare burned beyond it. Even as he watched,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: it dimmed and flickered, and then steadied again. High up
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: over his head, the shining metal monster reached for the
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: roof of the cavern. It had grown. It had grown enormously,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: and a mechanism was taking shape inside it, a maze
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: of delicate rods and crystal prisms, of wheels and balances
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: in things Cieerroon hadn't any name for. Then he remembered
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: about mouse, and nothing else mattered. The hunter lay on him,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: crushing him to silence. Seeron's blue eyes blazed. He'd have
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: killed the hunter then, if there had been any way
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: to do it. There wasn't. Presently he stopped fighting again.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: The red giant breathed in his ear. Look over the edge.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: He took his hand away, very very quietly. Seoron raised
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: his head a few inches and looked over their Niche
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: was some fifteen feet above the floor of the pit below,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: and to the right was the mouth of a square tunnel.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: The crowded, sweating confusion of the forges and workshops spread
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: out before them, with people swarming like ants after a rain.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: Standing at the tunnel mouths were two creatures in shining
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: metal sheaths, the Androids of Bass the Immortal. Their clear
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: light voices rose up to where Seeron and the Hunter lay.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: Did you find out failing as we judged? Otherwise? No change?
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: No change. One of the slim unhumans turned and looked
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: with its depthless black eyes at the soaring metal giant.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: If we can only finish it in time, the other said,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: we can, Cahoffrey, we must. Cahoffrey made a quick, impatient gesture.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: We need more slaves. These human cattle are frail. You
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: drive them and they die. The Calls are doing what
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: they can. Two more chains have just come, but it's
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: still not enough to be safe. I told the beasts
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: strayed further in, even to the border cities if they
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: have to. It won't help if the humans attack us
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: before we're done. Cahoffrey laughed. There was nothing pleasant or
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: remotely humorous about it. If they could track the Calls
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: this for, we could handle them easily after we're finished.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: Of course, they'll be subjugated anyway. The other nodded. Faintly uneasy,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: it said, if we finish in time, if we don't,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: if we don't, said Cahaffrey, none of it matters to
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: them or at us. Are the immortal baws. Something that
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: might have been a shudder passed over its shining body.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: Then it threw back its head and laughed again, high
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: and clear. But we will finish it, Stewd. We're unique
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: in the universe, and nothing can stop us. This means
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: the end of boredom, of servitude and imprisonment. With this
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: world in our hands, nothing can stop us. Stude whispered nothing.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Then they moved away, disappearing into the seething clamor of
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: the floor. The Red Hunter said, what were they talking about?
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: Celon shook his head. His eyes were hard and curiously remote.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't like the smell of it,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: little man. It's bad. Yeah, Seheron's voice was very steady.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: What happened to Mouse? She was taken with the others.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Believe me, little man, I had to do what I did,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: or they'd have taken you too. There was nothing you
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: could do to help her. She followed the light. I
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: think so, but I had to run fast. There was
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: a mist over Seeron's sight. His heart was slugging him,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: not because he particularly cared. He asked, how did we
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: get away? I thought I saw the big lights come on.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: They did, and then they went off again, all of
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: a sudden. They weren't expecting it. I had a head start.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: The gray beasts hunt by scent, but in that stupot
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: there are too many cents. They lost us, And when
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: the lights came on again, I saw this niche and
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: managed to climb to it without being seen. He looked
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: out over the floor, scratching his red beard. I think
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: they're too busy to bother about two people, no three,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: he chuckled. The hermit got away too. He ran past
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: me in the dark, screaming like an ape about revelations
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: and the light. Maybe they've got him again. By now,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: Sieron wasn't worried about the hermit subjugation, He said, slowly,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: with this world in their hands, nothing can stop them.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: He looked out across the floor of the pit. No guards.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: You didn't need any guards when you had a weapon
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: like that light. Frail human cattle driven till they died,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: and not knowing about it, nor caring the world in
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: their hands, an empty shell for them to play with,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: to use as they wanted. No more market places, no
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: more taverns, no more songs, no more little people living
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: their little lives the way they wanted to, Just slaves
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: with blank faces, herded by gray beasts with shining wands
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: and held by the android's light. He didn't know why
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: the androids wanted the world or what they were going
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: to do with it. He only knew that the whole
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: thing made him sick, sick all through in a way
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: he'd never felt before. The fact that what he was
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: going to do was hopeless and crazy never occurred to him.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: Nothing occurred to him except that somewhere in that seething
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: slave pin Mouse was laboring with eyes that didn't see,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: in a brain that was only an open channel for orders.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: Pretty soon the woman up on the girder she was
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: going to hit her limit and die. Seheron said abruptly,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: if you wanted to kill a snake, what would you do?
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: Cut off his head? Of course, Seiron got his feet
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: under him. Be stone of destiny, he whispered, the power
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: of life and death? Do you believe in legends? The
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: hunter shrugged, I believe in my hands. They're all I know.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to need your hands to help me break
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: one legend and build another. They're yours, little man. Where
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: do we go down that tunnel? Because if I'm not
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: clear off that leads to bend Biatha and Boss the
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: Immortal and the Stone. Almost as though it were a signal,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: the blue glare dimmed and flickered in the semi darkness.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: Siron and the Hunter dropped down from the niche and
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: went into the tunnel. It was dark, with only a
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: tiny spot of blue radiance at wide intervals along the walls.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: They had gone quite a distance before they streathened to
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: their normal brightness, and even then it was fairly dark.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: It seemed to be deserted. The hunter stopped to listen
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: when Cieron asked irritably what was wrong. He said, I
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: think there's someone behind us. I'm not sure. Well, give
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: him a jab with the wand if he gets too close,
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: hurry up. The tunnel led straight toward Ben Biatha. Judging
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: from his position in the pit, Ceheron was almost running
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: when the Hunter caught his shoulder. Urgently, wait, there's movement
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: up ahead, He motioned to Seiron down on their hands
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: and knees. They crawled forward, holding their wands ready. A
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: slight bend in the tunnel revealed a fork. One arm
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: ran straight ahead, the other been sharply upward toward the surface.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: There were four Calls crouched on the rock between them,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: playing some obscure game with human finger bones. Teheran got
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: his weight over his toes and moved fast. The hunter
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: went beside him. Neither of them made a sound. The
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: Calls were intent on their game and not expecting trouble.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: The two men might have got away with it, only
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: that suddenly, from behind them, someone screamed like an angry cat.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: Cieron's had jerked around just long enough to let him
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: see the hermit standing in the tunnel, with his stringy
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: arms lifted and his gray hair flying, and the light
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: of pure insanity blazing in his pale eyes. Evil, he shrieked,
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: you are evil to defy the light and the servants
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: of the light. He seemed to have forgotten all about
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: calling the Call's demons. A little while before, the gray
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: beasts leaped up, moving quickly with their wands ready. Seeron
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: yelled with sheer fury. He went for them. The rags
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: of his yellow tunic streaming. He wasn't quite clear about
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: what happened after that. Bear was a lot of motion,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: gray bodies leaping and twisting, and jewel tips flashing. Something
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: flicked him stunningly across the temple. He fought in a
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: sort of detached fog where everything was blurred and distant.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: The hermit went on screaming about evil and the light.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: The hunter bellowed a couple of times. Things thudded and crashed,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: and once Sieron poked his wand straight into a blood
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: pink eye. Sometime right after that, there was a confused
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: rush of running feet back in the tunnel. The hunter
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: was down, and Sieron found himself running up the incline
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: because they the way was suddenly choked with calls. He
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: got away, He was never sure how, possibly instinct warned
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: him to go in time, so that in the confusion
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: he was out of sight before the reinforcement saw him.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: Three of the original calls were down, and the fourth
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: was busy with the hermit anyway, for the moment he
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: made it. When he staggered finally from the mouth of
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: the ramp, drenched with sweat and gasping, he was back
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: on the forbidden plane, and bid Biafa towered above him,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: a great golden titan reaching for the red sky. The
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: tumbled yellow rock on its steep slopes was barren of
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: any growing thing. There were no signs of buildings or
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: anything built by hands, human or otherwise. High up, almost
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: in the apex of the triangular peak, was a square
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: balcony opening that might have been only a wind eroded
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: niche in the cliff face. Sieron stood up on widespread legs,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: studying the mountain with sullen, stubborn eyes. He believed in legend.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: Now it was all he believed in. Somewhere under the
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: golden peak was the stone of destiny and the demi
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: god who was its master. Behind him were the creatures
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: of that demi god and the monster they were building,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: and a little black haired mouse who was going to
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: die unless something was done about it. A lot of
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: other people too, a whole, sane, comfortable world, but mouse
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: was about all he could handle. Just then. He wasn't
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: sea around the board any longer. He wasn't a human
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: attached to a normal human world. He moved in a
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: strange land of gods and demons, where everything was as
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: mad as a drunkard's nightmare, and mouse was the only
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: thing that held him at all, to the Miya of
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: a life wherein men and women fought and laughed and loved.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: His scarred mouth twitched and tightened. He started off across
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: the rolling barren rise to ben Biafa, a tough, bandy
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: legged little man in yellow rags with a brown expressionless
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: face and a forgotten harp slung between his shoulders, moving
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: at a steady gypsy lope. A wind sighed over the
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: forbidden Plane, rolling the sunballs in the red sky, and
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: then from the crest of bin Biafa, the darkness came.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: This time, Siheron didn't stop to be afraid. There was
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: nothing left inside him to be afraid with. He remembered
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: the hermit's words judgment, great things, moving, doom and destruction,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: a shadow across the world, a darkness and a dying.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: Something of the same feeling came to him. But he
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't human any longer. He was beyond fear. Fate moved
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: and he was part of it. Stones and shell tricked
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: his feet in the darkness. All across the Forbidden Plane
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: there was night and a wailing wind, and a sharp
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: chill of cold, far far away, there was a faint
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: red glow in the sky, where the sea burned with
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: its own fire. Seiron went on overhead. Then the sunballs
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: began to flicker. Little striving ripples of light went out
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: across them, lighting the barrens with an eerie witchclow. The
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: flickering was worse than the darkness. It was like the
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: last struggling pulse of a dying man's heart. Siron was
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: aware of a coldness in him, beyond the chill of
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: the wind, a shadow across the world, a darkness, and
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: a dying He began to climb Bin Baatha end of
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: part four, Part five of The Jewel of Boss by
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: Lee Douglas Brackett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: Part five The stone was rough and fairly broken, and
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: Seheron had climbed mountains before. He crawled upward through the
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: sick light and the cold wind that screamed and fought
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: him harder the higher he got. He retained no very
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: clear memory of the climb. Only after a long long
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: time he fell inward over the wall of a balcony
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: and lay still. He was bleeding from rock tears, and
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: his heart kicked him like the heel of a vicious horse,
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: but he didn't care. The balcony was man and made
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: the passage back of it led somewhere, and the light
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: had come back in the sky. It wasn't quite the same, though,
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: it was weaker and less warm. When he could stand up,
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: he went in along the passage square hewn in the
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: living rock of Ben Bayotha, the Mountain of Life. It
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: led straight in, lighted by a soft opaline glow from
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: hidden light sources. Presently it turned at right angles and
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: became a spiral ramp leading down. Corridors led back from
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: it at various levels, but Seeron didn't bother about them.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: They were dark, and the dust of ages lay unmarked
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: on their floors, down and down a long, long way silence,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: the deep, uncarrying silence of death, and the eternal rock
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: dark titans who watched the small, furious ants scurryings of man,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: and never, never for one moment gave a damn, and
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: then the ramp flattened into a broad eye passage cut
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: deep in the belly of the mountain, and the passage
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: led to a door of gold twelve feet high and
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: intricately graved and pierced, set with symbols that Ceiron had
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: heard of only in legend, the Hun Lahun Mehun, the snake,
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: the circle, and the cross blazing in hot jewel fires.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: But above them, crushing and dominant on both valves of
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: the great door, was the crooks on Sata, the symbol
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: of eternal life, cut from some lustreless stone, so black
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: it was like a pattern of blindness on the eyeball.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: Seiron shivered and drew a deep, unsteady breath. One brief
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: moment of human terror came to him. Then he set
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: his two hands on the door and pushed it open.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: He came into a small room, hung with tapestries and
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: lighted dimly by the same opaline glow as the hallway.
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: The half seen pictures showed men and beasts and battles
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: against the background, at once tantalizingly familiar and frighteningly alien.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: There was a rug on the floor. It was made
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: from the head and hide of a creature Ceiron had
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: never even dreamed of before, a thing like a huge,
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: tawny cat with a dark mane and great shining fangs.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: Ceiron patted softly across it and pushed aside the heavy
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: curtains at the other end. At first there was only darkness.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: It seemed to fill a large space. Ceiron had an
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: instinctive feeling of size. He went out into it very cautiously,
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: and then his eyes found a pale glow ahead in
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: the blackness, as though someone had crushed a pearl with
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: his thumb and smeared it across the dark. He was
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: a thief and a gypsy. He made no more sound
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: than a wisp of cloud. Drifting toward it. His feet
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: touched a broad, shallow step, and then another. He climbed,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: and the pearly glow grew stronger and became a curving
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: wall of radiance. He stopped just short of touching it.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: On a level platform high above the floor, he squinted
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: against its curdled, milky thickness, trying to see through. Wrapped
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: in the light, cradled and protected by it, like a
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: bird in the heart of a shining cloud. A boy
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: slept on a couch made soft with furs and colored silks.
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: He was quite naked, his limbs flung out carelessly, with
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: a slim, angular grace of his youth. His skin was
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: white as milk, catching a pale warmth from the light.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: He slept deeply. He might almost have been dead, except
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: for the slight rise and fall of his breathing. His
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: head was rolled over so that he faced Seerron, his
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: cheek pillowed on his upflung arm. His hair, thick, curly
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: and black almost to blueness, had grown out long across
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: his forearm, across the white fur beneath it, and down
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: onto his wide, slim shoulders. The nails of his lax
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: hand palm up above his head, stood up through the hair.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: They were inches long. His face was just the boy's face,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: a good face, even rather handsome, with strong bone just
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: beginning to show under the roundness. His cheek was still
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: soft as a girl's, the lashes of his clothes lids
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: dark and heavy. He looked peaceful, even happy. His mouth
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: was curved in a vague smile, as though his dreams
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: were pleasant. And yet there was something there, a shadow,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: something unseen and untouchable, something as fragile as the note
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: of a shepherd's pipe brought from far off on a
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: vagrant breeze, something as indescribable as death, and as bruningly powerful.
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: Sierran sensed it, and his nerves throbbed suddenly, like the
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: strings of his own harp. He saw that the couch
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: the boy slept on was a huge crooks on sata
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: cut from the dead black stone, with the arms stretching
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: from under his shoulders, and the loop like a monstrous
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: halo above his head. The legend whispered through Seheron's head,
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: the songs, the tales, the folk, the symbolism, and the
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: image patterns bass. The immortal was always described as a giant,
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: like the mountain he lived in, and old, because immortal
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: suggests age, ah fear, and unbelief spoke through those legends,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: and the child desired to build tall. But there was
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: an older legend, Seron, because he was a gypsy and
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: a thief, and had music in him like a drunkard
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: has wine. Had heard it deep in the black forests
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: of Hiboia, where even gypsy seldom go. The oldest legend
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: of all, the tale of the shining youth from beyond,
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: who walked in beauty and power, who never grew old,
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: and who carried in his heart a bitter darkness that
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: no man could understand. The shining youth from Beyond a
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: boy sleeping with a smile on his face. Walled and
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: living light, Sieron stood still, staring. His face was loose
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: and quite blank. His heart beats shook him slightly, and
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: his breath had a rusty sound in his open mouth.
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: After a long time, he started forward into the light.
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: It struck him, hurled him back, numbed and dazed, thinking
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: of mouse. He tried twice more before he was convinced.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Then he tried yelling. His voice crashed back at him
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: from the unseen walls, but the sleeping boy never stirred,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: never altered even the rhythm of his breathing. After that,
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: Seharon crouched in the awful laxness of impotency and thought
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: about mouse and cried. Then, quite suddenly, without any warning
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: at all, of light vanished. He didn't believe it, but
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: he put his hand out again and nothing stopped it.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: So he rushed forward in the pitch blackness until he
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: hit the stone arm of the cross, and behind him
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: and all around him, the light began to glow again,
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: only now it was different. It flickered and dimmed and struggled,
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: like something fighting not to die, like something else, like
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: the sunballs, like the light in the sky that meant
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: life to a world flickering and feeble like an old
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: man's heart. The last frightened wing beats of a dying bird.
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: A terror took Seiron by the throat and stopped the
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: breath in it, and turned his body colder than a corpse.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: He watched the light glowed and pulsed and grew stronger.
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: Presently he was walled in by it, but it seemed
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: fainter than before. A terrible feeling of urgency came over Sieron,
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: a need for haste. The words of the androids came
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: back to him, failing as we judged. If we finish
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: in time, if we don't, none of it matters. A
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: shadow across the world, a darkness, and a dying mouse
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: slaving with empty eyes to build a shining monster that
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: would harness the world through the wills of none human brains.
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: It didn't make sense, but it meant something, something deadly important,
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: and the key to the whole mad jumble was here,
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: a dark haired boy dreaming on a stone cross. Seron
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: moved closer. He saw then that the boy had stirred
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: very slightly, and that his face was troubled. It was
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: as though the dimming of the light had to disturbed him.
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: Then he sighed and smiled again, nestling his head deeper
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: into the bend of his arm. Boss said, Ceeron, Lord Boss.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: His voice sounded hoarse and queer. The boy didn't hear him.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: He called again, louder. Then he put his hand on
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: one slim, white shoulder and shook it hesitantly at first,
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: and then hard and harder. The boy Boss didn't even
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: flicker his eyelids. Seeron beat his fists against the empty
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: air and cursed without any voice. Then then, almost instinctively,
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: he crouched on the stone platform and took his harp
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: in his hands. It wasn't because he expected to do
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: anything with it. It was simply that harping was as
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: natural to him as breathing, and what was inside him
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: had to come out some way. He wasn't thinking about music,
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: he was thinking about mouse, and it just added up
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: to the same thing. Random chords, at first rippling up
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: against the wall of milky light. Then the agony in
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: him began to run out through his fingertips onto the strings,
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: and he sent it thrumming strong across the still air.
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: It sang wild and savage, but underneath it there was
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: the sound of his own heart breaking and the fall
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: of tears. There was no time, There wasn't even any seern.
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: There was only the harp crying a dirge for a
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: black haired mouse and the world she lived in. Nothing mattered,
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: but that nothing would ever matter. Then finally there wasn't
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: anything left for the harp to cry about, the last
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: quiver of the strings went throbbing off into a dull emptiness,
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: and there was only an ugly little man in yellow ray,
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: crouched silent by a stone cross, hiding his face in
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: his hands, then faint and distant, like the echo of
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: words spoken in another world, another time. Don't draw the veil,
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: mor Sali, don't sierarm looked up, stiffening the boy's lips,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: smooved his face. His eyes, still closed, was twisted in
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: an agony of pleading. His hands were raised, reaching, trying
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: to hold something that slipped through his fingers, like mist,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: dark mist, the mist of dreams. It was still in
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: his eyes when he opened them, gray eyes clouded and veiled,
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: and then with the dream missed, thickening into tears, he
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: cried out, Marsali, as though his heart was ripped out
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: of him with the breath that said it. Then he
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: lay still on the couch, his eyes staring unfocused at
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: the milky light, with the tears running out of them.
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: Cerons said softly, Lord Boss, awake, whispered the boy. I'm
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: awake again. Music a harp, crying out. I didn't want
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: to wake, Oh God, I didn't want to. He sat
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: up Suddenly. The rage, the sheer, blind fury in his
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: young face rocked Seeron like the blow of a fist.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: Oo Wake me, who dared to wake me? There was
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: no place to run. The light held him, and there
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: was mouse. Ceron said, I did, Lord Boss, there was
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: need to. The boy's gray eyes came slowly to focus
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: on his face. Seeron's heart kicked once and stopped beating.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: A great cold stillness breathed from somewhere beyond the world
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: and walled him in, closer and tighter than the milky light,
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: close and tight, like the packed earth of a grave.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: A boy's face round and smooth and soft, no shadow
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: even of down on the cheeks, the lips still pink
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: and girlish, long dark lashes, and under them gray eyes,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: old with suffering, old with pain, old with an age
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: beyond human understanding, eyes that had seen birth and life
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: and death in an endless stream flowing by, just out
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: of reach, just beyond hearing, eyes looking out between the
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: bars of a private hell that was never built for
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: any man before one strong young hand reached down among
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: the furs and silks and felt for something, and Ceiron
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: knew the thing was death. Ceiron suddenly was furious himself.
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: He struck a harsh, snarling chord on the harpstrings, thinking
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: of mouse. He poured his fury out in bitter, pungent
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: words the gipsy argot of the quarters, and all the
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: time Boss fumbled to get the hidden weapon in his hands.
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: It was the long nails that saved Siheron's life. They
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: kept Boss from closing his fingers, and in the meantime
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: some of Ceiron's vibrant rage had penetrated. Boss whispered. You
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: love a woman, yeah, says Ceheron. Yeah, so do I
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: A woman I created and made to live in my dreams.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: Do you know what you did when you waked me?
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe I save the world. If the legends are right,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: you built it, you haven't any right to let it die.
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: So you can sleep. I built another world, little man,
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: Marsali's world. I don't want to leave it. He bent
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: forward towards Ceiron. I was happy in that world. I
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: built it to suit me. I belong in it. Do
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: you know why? Because it's made from my own dreams
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: as I want it. Even the people, even more Solly,
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: even myself. They drove me away from one world. I
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: built another, but it was no different. I'm not human.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: I don't belong with humans, not in any world they
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: live in. So I learned to sleep and dream. He
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: lay back on the couch. He looked pitifully young, with
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: the long lashes hiding his eyes. Go away, Let your
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: little world crumble. It's doomed anyway. What difference do a
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: few lifespans make an eternity? Let me sleep. Cerroon struck
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: the Harpic. No listen. He told Boz about the slave gangs,
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: the androids, the shining monster in the pit, and the
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: darkness that swept over the world. It was the last
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: that caught the boy's attention. He sat up slowly. Darkness,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: you how did you get to me? Past the light?
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: Serran told him. The stone of destiny, whispered the immortal
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: suddenly he laughed. He laughed to fill the whole dark
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: space beyond the light, terrible laughter, full of hate and
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: a queer, perverted triumph. He stopped as suddenly as he
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: had begun, and spread his hands flat on the colored silks,
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: the long nails gleaming like knives. His eyes widened gray
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: windows into a deep hell, and his voice was no
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: more than a breath. Could that mean that I will
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: die too? Sihiron scorn mouth twitched the stone of destiny.
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: The boy leaped from his couch. His hand swept over
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: some hidden control in the arm of the stone cross,
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: and the milky light died out. At the same time,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: an opalne glow suffused the darkness beyond. Boss the Immortal
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: ran down the steps, a dark haired, graceful boy running
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: naked in the heart of an opal Seiron followed. They
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: came to the hollow core of ben Biatha, a vast
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: pyramidal space cut in the yellow rock. Boss stopped and
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: Seiron stopped behind him. The whole space was laced and
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: twined and webbed with crystal rods of it, screens of it,
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: meshes of it. A shining helix ran straight up overhead
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: into a shaft that seemed to go clear through to
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: open air in the crystal, pulsing along it like the
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: life blood in a man's veins. There was light. It
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: was like no light Ceiron had ever seen before. It
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: was no color, and every color. It seared the eye
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: with heat, and yet it was cold and pure, like
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: still water. It throbbed and beat. It was alive. Seeron
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: followed the crystal maze down and down to the base
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: of it. There, in the very heart of it, lying
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: at the hub of a shining web, lay something like
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: a black hand slammed across the eyeballs. Darkness fell for
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: a moment. He was blind, and through the blindness came
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: a soft whisper of movement. Then there was light again,
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: a vague smear spot of it on the pitch black.
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: It glowed and faded and glowed again. The rusty gleams
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: slid across the half crouched body of Boss. The immortal,
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: pressed close against the crystal web. It caught in his eyes,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: turning them hot and lambent, like beast eyes in the
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: dark of a cave mouth, like sparks of hell fire
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: in a boy's face, Staring at the stone of destiny,
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: a stone no bigger than a man's heart, with power
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: in it, even dying, It had power, power to build
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: a world or smash it. Power never born of Seerron's
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: planet or any planet, but something naked and perfect, an
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: egg from the womb of space itself. It fought to live,
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: lying in its crystal web. It was like watching somebody's heart,
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: stripped clean and struggling to beat. The fire in it
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: flickered and flared, sending pale witchlights dead seeing up along
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: the crystal maze outside. Sieron knew all across the world
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: the sun balls were pulsing and flickering to the dying
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: beat of the stone. Boss whispered, it's over, over and done.
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: Without knowing it, Siiron touched the harp springs and made
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: them shudder. The legends were right. Then. The Stone of
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: Destiny kept the world alive, alive. It gave light and warmth,
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: and before that, it powered the ship that brought me
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: here across space, from the third planet of our Sun
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: to the tenth. It sealed the gaps in the planet's
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: crust and drove the machinery that filled the hollow core
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: inside with air. It was my strength. It built my world,
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: my world where I would be loved and respected, all right,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: and worshiped. He laughed, a small, bitter sob A child
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: I was, after all these centuries, still a child playing
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: with a toy. His voice rang out louder across the
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: flickering dimness, a boy's voice, clear and sweet. He wasn't
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: talking to Siheron. He wasn't even talking to himself. He
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: was talking to fate and cursing it. I took a
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: long walk one morning. That was all I did. I
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: was just a fisherman's son, walking on the green hills
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: of Atlantis, above the sea. That was all I wanted.
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: To be a fisherman's son someday, to be a fisherman myself,
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: with sons of my own. And then from nowhere, out
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: of the sky, the meteorite fell. There was thunder and
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: a great light, and then darkness. And when I woke again,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: I was a god. I took the stone of Destiny
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: out of its broken shell. The light from it burned me,
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: and I was a god, and I was happy. I
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: didn't know I was too young to be a god.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: A boy who never grows older, a boy who wanted
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: to play with other boys and couldn't a boy who
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: wanted to age, to grow a beard in a man's voice,
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: and find a woman to love. It was hell after
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: the thrill wore off. It was worse when my mind
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: and heart grew up and my body didn't, and they
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: said I was no God but a blasphemy, a freak.
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: The priest of Dagon, of all the temples of Atlantis,
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: spoke against me. I had to run away. I roamed
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: the whole earth before the flood, carrying the stone. Sometimes
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: I rule for centuries, say God King, But always the
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: people tired of me and rose against me. They hated
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: me because I live forever and never grew old. A
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: man they might have accepted, but a boy, a brain
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: with all the wisdom it could borrow from time, grown
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: so far from theirs that it was hard to talk
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: to them, and a body too young even for games
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: of manhood. Sieran stood frozen, shrinking from the hell in
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: the boy God's agonized voice. So I grew to hate them,
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: and when they drove me out, I turned on them
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: and used the power of the stone to destroy I
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: know what happened to the cities of the Gobi, to
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: Angkor and the temples of Mayapan. So the people hated
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: me more because they feared me more, and I was alone.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: No one has ever been alone as I was. So
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: I built my own world here in the heart of
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: a dead planet, and in the end it was the
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: same because the people were and I was not. I
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: created the androids, freaks like myself, to stand between me
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: and my people, my own creatures that I could trust.
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: And I built a third world in my dreams. And
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: now the Stone of Destiny has come to the end
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: of its strength. Its atoms are eaten away by its
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: own fire. The world had powered will die, and what
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: will happen to me? I will go on living, even
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: after my body is frozen in the cold, dark silence.
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: Then the pulsing beat of light in the crystal rods
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: the heart of a world on its deathbed. Sieron's harp
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: crashed out. It made the crystal sing. His voice came
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: with it. Boss, the monster in the pit that the
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: androids are building, I know now what it is. They
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: knew the Stone was dying. They're going to have power
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: of their own and take the world. You can't let them, Boss.
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: You brought us here. We're your people. You can't let
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: the androids have us. The boar laughed, a low, bitter sound.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: What do I care for your world or your people?
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: I only want to sleep. He caught his breath in
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: and turned around as though he was going back to
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: the place of the stone. Cross into part five, Parts
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: six and seven of The Jewel of Boss by Lee
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: Douglas Brackett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: Part six Sieron stroked the harp strings. Wait, it was
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: all humanity crying out of the harp, little people, lost
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: and frightened and pleading for help. No voice could have
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: said what it said. It was Sieron himself, a channel
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: for the unthinking pain inside him. Wait, you were human
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: once you were young. You laughed and quarreled and ate
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: and slept, and you were free. That's all we ask,
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: Just those things, Remember Boss, the Fisherman's son, and help us.
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: Gray eyes looking at him, gray eyes looking from a
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: boy's face. How could I help you even if I
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: wanted to. There's some power left in the stone, and
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: the androids are your creatures. You made them. You can
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: destroy them if you could do it before they finished
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: this thing. From the way they spoke they mean to
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: destroy you with it, Boss laughed. Siheron's hand struck a
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: terrible chord from the harp and fell away. Boss said heavily.
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: They'll draw power from the graffitic force of the planet
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: and broadcast it the same way. It will never stop
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: as long as the planet spends. If they finish it
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: in time, the world will live. If they don't, he shrugged.
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: What difference does it make, so, whispered Seharon. We have
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: a choice of a quick death or a lingering one.
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: We can die free on our feet, or we can
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: die slaves. His voice rose to a full throated shout. God,
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: you're no God, You're a selfish brat sulking in a corner.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: All right, go back to your more sally, and I'll
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: play god for a minute. He raised the harp. I'll
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: play God and give him the clean way out. He
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: drew his arm back to throw to smash the crystal web,
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: and then, with blinding suddenness, there was light again. They
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: stood frozen, the two of them blinking in the hot opalescence.
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: Then their eyes were drawn to the crystal web. The
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: stone of Destiny still fluttered like a dying heart, and
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: the crystal rods were dim. Sieron whispered, it's too late,
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: They're finished. Silence again. They stood, almost as though they
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: were waiting for something, hardly breathing, with Ceheron still holding
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: the silent harp in his hand, very very faintly under
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: his fingers, the strings began to thrum vibration in a minute.
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: Siheron could hear it in the crystal. It was like
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: the buzz and strom of insects just out of earshot.
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: He said, what's that? The boy's ears were duller than his.
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: But presently he smiled and said, so that's how they're
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: going to do it. Vibration that will shake bend Biyafa
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: into a cloud of dust and me with it. They
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: must believe I'm still asleep, He shrugged, What matter? It's death.
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: Sieron slung the harp across his back. There was a
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: curious finality in the action. There's a way from here
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: into the pit. Where is it? Boss pointed across the
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: open space. Sieron started walking. He didn't say anything, bas said,
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: where are you going? Back to mouse, said Sieron, simply
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: to die with her. The crystal maze hummed eerily. I
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: wish I could see Marselli again. Sioron stopped. He spoke
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: over his shoulder without expression. The death of the stone
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean your death, does it. No. The first exposure
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: to his light when it landed, blazing with the heat
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: of friction, made permanent changes in the cell structure of
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: my body. I'm independent of it, as the androids are
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: of the culture of Vats. They grew in. And the
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: new power source will take up where the stone left off. Yes,
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: even the wall of rays that protected me and fed
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 1: my body while I slept will go on. The power
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: of the stone was broadcast to it and to the sunballs.
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: There were no mechanical leads, Sieron said softly. And you
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: love this more, Sully, You're happy in this dream world
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: you created. You could go back there, Yes, whispered Boss. Yes, yes,
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: Sieron turned. Then help us destroy the androids, give us
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: our world, and we'll give you yours. If we fail, well,
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: we have nothing to lose. Silence. The crystal web hummed
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: and sang. Death whispered across the world. The Stone of
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: Destiny throbbed like the breast of a dying bird. The
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: boy's gray eyes were veiled and remote. It seemed almost
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: that he was asleep. Then he smiled the drowsy smile
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: of pleasure he had worn when Seeron found him dreaming
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: on the stone cross Marsilli, he whispered, Marsilli. He moved forward, then,
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: reaching out across the crystal web, the long nails on
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: his fingers, scooped up the stone of Destiny, cradled it,
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: caged it in. Boss, the immortal said, let's go, little man.
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: Siiron didn't say anything. He looked at Boss. His eyes
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: were wet. Then he got the harp in his hands
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: again and struck it, and the thundering chords shook the
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: crystal maze to answer music. It drowned the faint death whisper,
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: and then caught between two vibrations, the shining rods split
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: and fell with a shiver of sound like the ringing
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: of distant bells. Seiron turned and went down the passage
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: to the pit. Behind him came the dark haired boy
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: with the Stone of Destiny in his hands. They came
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: along the lower arm of the fork where Ceiron and
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: the Hunter had fought the calls. There were four of
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: the gray beasts still on guard. Ceiron had pulled the
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: wand from his girdle. The calls started up, and Seuron
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: got ready to fight them, but Bass said wait. He
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: stepped forward. The calls watched him with their blood pink eyes,
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: yawning and whimpering with animal nervousness. The boy's dark gaze burned.
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: The gray brutes cringed and shivered, and then dropped flat,
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: hiding their faces against the stone. Telepaths said Boss to Siron,
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: are obedient to the strongest mind. The androids know that
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: the calls weren't put there to stop me physically, but
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: to send the android's warning if I came, Siron shivered.
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: So they'll be waiting, Yes, little man, they'll be waiting.
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: They went down the long tunnel and stepped out on
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: the floor of the pit. It was curiously silent. The
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: fires had died in the forges. There was no sound
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: of hammering, no motion, only blazing lights and a great stillness,
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: like some one holding his breath. There was no one
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: in sight. The metal Monster climbed up the pit. It
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: was finished now. The intricate maze of grids and balances
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: in its belly murmured with a streath that spun up
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: through it from the core of the planet. It was
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: like a vast spider, making an invisible threat of power
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: to wrap around the world and hold it to be
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: sucked dry. An army of calls began to move on
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: silent feet out from the screening tangle of sheds and machinery.
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: The androids warn't serious about that. It was just a skirmish,
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: a testasy whether Boss had been weakened by his age
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: long sleep. He hadn't been. The calls looked at the
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: Stone of Destiny, and from there to Boss's gray eyes, cringed, whimpered,
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: and lay flat. Boss whispered. Their minds are closed to me,
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: but I can feel the androids are working, preparing some trap.
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: His eyes were closed now, his young face set with concentration.
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: They don't want me to see. But my mind is
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: older than theirs and better trained, and I have the
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: power of the stone. I can see a control panel.
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: It directs the force of their machine. He began to move,
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: then rapidly out across the floor. His eyes were still closed.
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: It seemed he didn't need them for seeing. People began
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: to come out from behind the shed and the cooling forges,
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: blank faced people with empty eyes, many of them making
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: a wall of themselves against Boss. Sieron cried out, Mouse.
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: She was there. Her body was there, thin and erect
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: in the Crimson tunic. Her black hair was still wild
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: around her small brown face. But Mouse, the mouse that
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: Sieron knew, was dead behind her dull black eyes. Sieron
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: whispered Mouse. The slaves flowed in and held the two
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: of them clog in a mass of unresponsive bodies. Can't
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: you free them, Boss? Not yet? Not now? There isn't time.
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: Can't you do with them what you did with the calls.
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: The androids control their minds through hypnosis. If I fought
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: that control, the struggle would blast their minds to death
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: or idiocy. And there isn't time. There was sweat on
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: his smooth, young forehead. I've got to get through. I
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: don't want to kill them. Seron looked at Mouse. No,
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: he said hoarsely, But I may have to unless wait,
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: I can channel the power of the stone through my
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: own brain, because there's an affinity between us vibrations Sell
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: to sell. The androids won't have made a definite command
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: against music. Perhaps I can jar their minds open just
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: enough so that you can call them with your harp
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: as you called me. A tremor almost of pain ran
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: through the boy's body. Lead them away, Seeron, Lead them
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: as far as you can, otherwise many of them will die.
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: And hurry. Boss raised the stone of destiny in his
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: clasped hands and pressed it to his forehead, and Siheron
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: took his harp. He was looking at Mouse when he
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: set the strains to singing. That was why it wasn't
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: hard to play as he did. It was something from
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: him to Mouse, a prayer, a promise, his heart held
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: out on a song. The music rippled out across the
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: packed mass of humanity. At first they didn't hear it.
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: Then there was a stirring and a sigh, a dumb
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: blind reaching somewhere. The message was getting through the darkness
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: clouding their minds, a message of hope, a memory of
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: red sunlight on green hills, of laughter and home and love.
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: Sieron let the music die to a whisper under his fingers,
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: and the people moved forward toward him, wanting to hear.
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: He began to walk away, slowly, trilling the harp song
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: over his shoulder, and they followed, haltingly, in twos and threes,
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: until the whole mass broke and flowed like water in
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: his wake. Bass was gone, his slim, young body slipping
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: fast through the broken ranks of the crowd. Siheron caught
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: one more glimpse of Mouse before he lost her among
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: the others. She was crying, without knowing or remembering why.
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: If Boss died, if Bas was defeated, she would never
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: know nor remember. Sieron led them as far as he
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: could clear to the wall of the pit. He stopped playing.
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: They stopped too, standing like cattle, looking at nothing, with
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: eyes turned inward to their clouded dreams. Sieron left them there,
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: running out alone across the empty floor. He followed the
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: direction Boss had taken. He ran fast, but it was
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: like a nightmare where you run and run and never
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: get anywhere. The lights glared down, and the metal monster
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: sighed and churned high up over his head, and there
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: was no other sound, no other movement but his own.
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: Then abruptly the lights went out. He stumbled on, hitting
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: brutally against unseen pillars, falling and scrambling in scrap heaps,
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: And after an eternity he saw light again up ahead,
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: the light he had seen before here in the pit,
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: the glorious opalescent light that drew a man's mind and
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: held it fast to be chained. Seiron crept closer. There
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: was a control panel on a stone Dais, a meaningless,
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: jumbled mass of dials and wires. The android stood before it.
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: One of them was bent over, its yellowish hands, working
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: delicately with the controls. The others stood erect beside it,
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: holding a staff. The metal ball at the top was opened,
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: spilling the apalescent blaze into the darkness. Seiron crouched in
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: the shelter of a pillar, shielding his eyes. Even now
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: he wanted to walk into that light and be its slave.
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: The android with the staff said harshly, can't you find
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: the wavelength? He should have been dead by now. The
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: bending one tensed and then straightened. The burning lights sparkled
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: across its metal sheath. Its eyes were black and limitless,
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: like evil itself, and no more human. Yes, it said,
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: I have it. The light began to burst stronger from
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: the staff, a swirling, dangerous fury of it. Seiron was
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: hardly breathing. The light source, whatever it was, was part
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: of the power of the Stone of Destiny. Wave length
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: meant nothing to him, but it seemed The danger was
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: to the stone, and Boss carried it. The Android touched
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: the staff. The light died, clipped off as the metal
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: ball closed. If there's any power left in the stone,
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: it whispered, our power wave will blast its sub atomic reserve,
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: and Boss the Immortal with it. Silence, And then in
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: the pitch darkness, a coal began to glow. It came closer,
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: It grew brighter, and a smudged reflection behind and above
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: it became the head and shoulders of Boss the Immortal.
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: The Android whispered stronger, hurry. A yellowish hand made a
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: quick adjustment. The Stone of Destiny burned brighter. It burst
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: with light. It was like a sunball, stabbing its hot
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: fury into the darkness. The Android whispered poor. The stone
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: filled all the pit with a deadly blaze of glory.
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: Boss stopped, looked up at the dais. He grinned a
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: naked boy, beautiful with youth, his gray eyes veiled in
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: sleepy under dark glasses. He threw the Stone of Destiny
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: up on the dais, an idle boy tossing stones at
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: a tree top light an explosion of it, without sound,
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: without physical force. Seheron dropped flat, on his face behind
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: the pillar. After a long time, he raised his head again.
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: The overhead lights were on, and Boss stood on the
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: dais beside two twisted, shiny lumps of man made, soullless men.
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: The android flesh had taken the radiation as leather takes heat, warping, twisting,
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: turning black. Poor freaks, said Boss softly. They were like me,
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: with no place in the universe that belonged to them,
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: so they dreamed too, Only their dreams were evil. He
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: stooped and picked up something, a dull, dark stone, a
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: thing with no more life nor light than a water
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: worn pebble. He sighed and rolled it once between his
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: palms and let it drop. If they had had time
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: to learn their new machine a little better, I would
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: never have lived to reach them in time. He glanced
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: down at Siheron, standing uncertainly below. Thanks to you, little man,
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: they didn't have quite time enough. He gestured to a staff,
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: Bring it, and I'll free your mouse port seven. A
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: long time afterward, Mouse and Sierron embossed. The Immortal stood
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: in the opal tinted glow of the Great Room of
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: the crooks on Sata Outside the world was normal again,
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: and safe. Boss had left full instructions about controlling and
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: tending the centrifugal power plant. The slaves were freed, going
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: home across the forbidden plains, forbidden no longer. The Calls
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: were sleeping mercifully, the big sleep from which they would
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: never wake. The world was free for humanity to make
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: or more on its own responsibility. Mouse stood very close
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: to see Eran, her arm around his waist, his around
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: her shoulders. Crimson rags mingled with yellow, fair shaggy hair
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: mixing with black vas smiled at them now, he said,
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: I can be happy until the planet itself is dead.
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: You won't stay with us, Our gratitude, our love, will
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: be gone with the coming generations. No, little man, I
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: built myself world where I belong, the only world where
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: I can ever belong, and I'll be happier in it
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: than any of you, because it is my world, free
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: of strife and ugliness and suffering, A beautiful world for
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: me and more. Sully, there was a radiance about him
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: that Siron would put into a song some day, only
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: half understanding. I don't envy you, whispered Boss, and smiled
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: youth smiling in a spring gown, think of us sometimes
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: and be jealous. He turned and walked away, going lightly
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: over the wide stone floor and up the steps to
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: the Dais. Sieron struck the harp strings. He sent the
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: music flooding up against the high vault, filling all the
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: rocky space with a thrumming melody. He sang the tune
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: he had sung for Mouse on the ridge above the
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: burning sea, a simple tune about two people in love.
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: Boss lay down on the couch of furs and colored
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: silks soft on the shaft of the stone cross. He
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: looked back at them once, smiling. One slim white arm
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: raised in a brief salute, and swept down across the blackstone.
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: The milky light rose on the platform. It wavered, curdled,
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: and thickened to a wall of warm pearl through it.
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: For a moment they could see him, his dark head
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: pillowed on his forearm, his body sprawled in careless angular grace.
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: Then there was only the warm, soft shell of light.
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: Sieron's harp whispered to silence. The tunnel into the pit
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: was sealed. Mouse and Seurroon went out through the golden
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: doors and closed them very quietly, doors that would never
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: be opened again. As long as the word old lived.
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: Then they came into each other's arms and kissed, rough,
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: tight arms on living flesh, lips that bruised, and breaths
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: that mingled hot with life, temper and passion. Empty bellies,
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: a harp that sang in crowded market squares, and no
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: roof to fight under, But the open sky and Sieron
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: didn't envy the dark haired boy dreaming on the stone cross.
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: End of Part seven, end of The Jewel of Boss
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: by Lee Brackett. This story performed by Phil Shinevert September
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: of two thy twenty