The Jewels of Aptor Part 17

Thrust from the gates of the prison smear the yew tree with mud._"

"It's the other version of the poem I found in the pre-purge rituals of Argo. I wonder if there were any more poems in the old rituals of Leptar that parallel those of Aptor and Hama?"

"Probably," Iimmi said. "Especially if the first invasion from Aptor took place just before, and probably caused, the purges."

"What about food?" Urson suddenly asked from where he now sat on the altar steps. "You two scholars have the rest of time to argue. But we may starve before you can enjoy the leisure."

"He's right," said Iimmi. "Besides, we have to get going."

"Would you two consider it an imposition to set your minds to procuring us some food?" Urson asked.

"Wait a minute," Iimmi said. "Here's a section on the burial of the dead. Yes, I thought so." He read out loud now:

"_Sink the bright dead with misgiving from the half-light of the living ..._"

"What does that mean?" asked Urson.

"It means that the dead are buried with all the accoutrements of the living. That means that they put food in the graves."

"Over here," cried Iimmi. With Snake following, they came to the row of sealed doors behind the columns along the wall. Iimmi looked at the inscription. "Tombs," he reported. He turned the handles, a double set of rings, which he twisted in opposite directions. "In an old, uncared-for temple like this, the lock mechanisms must have rusted by now if they're at all like the ancient tombs of Leptar."

"Have you studied the ancient tombs?" asked Geo excitedly. "Professor Eadnu always considered them a waste of time."

"That's all Welis ever talked about," laughed Iimmi. "Here, Urson, you set your back to this a moment."

Grumbling, Urson came forward, took the rings, and twisted. One snapped off in his hand. The other gave, with a crumbling sound inside the door.

"I think that does it," Iimmi said.

They all helped pull now, and suddenly the door gave an inch, and then, on the next tug, swung free.

Snake proceeded them into the tiny stone cell.

On a rock table, lying on its side, was a bald, shriveled, s.e.xless body.

Around the floor were a few sealed jars, heaps of parchment, and a few piles of ornaments.

Iimmi moved among the jars. "This one has grain," he said. "Give me a hand." Geo helped him lug the big pottery vessel to the door.

Suddenly a thin shriek scarred the dusty air, and both boys stumbled.

The jar hit the ground, split, and grain heaped over the floor. The shriek came again.

Geo saw, there on the edge of the broken wall across the temple from them five of the ape-like figures crouched before the thickly s.h.i.+ngled leaves, just visible in the uneven light. One leapt from the wall now and ran wailing across the littered temple floor, straight for the door of the tomb. Two others followed, and then two others. More had mounted the broken ridge of stone.

Only a greenish rectangle of light fell through the tomb's door as the loping forms burst into the room, one, and then its two companions.

Claws and teeth closed on the shriveled skin. The body rolled beneath the ripping hands and mouths, for one arm swept into the air above their lowered heads and humped backs. It fell on the edge of the rock table, broke at the mid-forearm, and the skeletal hand fell to the floor, shattering like china, into a dozen pieces.

They backed to the temple door. Then they turned and ran down the temple steps. The sunlight on the broad rocks touched them; they became still, breathed deeply. They walked quietly. Hunger returned slowly after that, and occasionally one would look aside into the faces of the others in attempt to identify the horror that still pulsed behind their eyes.

CHAPTER VII

It was Urson who first pointed it out. "Look at the far bank," he said.

Across from them, they could make out an obviously man-made stone embankment.

A few hundred feet further on, Iimmi sighted the spires above the trees, still across the river from them. They could figure nothing for an explanation, till suddenly the trees ceased on the opposite bank and the buildings and towers of a great city broke the sky. Elevated highways looped tower after tower, many of them broken, their ends dangling colossaly to the streets. The docks of the city just across from them were completely deserted.

It was Geo who suggested, "Perhaps Hama's temple is in there. After all, Argo's largest temple is in Leptar's biggest city."

"And what city in Leptar is _that_ big?" breathed Urson, awfully.

"How do we get across?" asked Iimmi.

But Snake had already started down to the water.

"I guess we follow him," said Geo, climbing down over the rocks.

Snake dove into the water. Iimmi, Geo, and Urson followed. Before he had taken two strokes, Geo felt familiar hands suddenly grasp his body from below. This time he did not fight, and there was a sudden sense of speed, of sinking through consciousness.

Then he was bobbing up through chill water with the rising embankment of stones to one side and the broad river to the other. He switched from skulling into a crawl now, wondering how to scale the stones when he saw the rusted metal ladder leading into the water. He caught hold of the sides and pulled himself up.

Snake came up now, and then Urson. And, at last Iimmi joined them on the broad ridge of concrete that walled the flowing river. Together now on the wharf, they turned to the city.

Near them, piles of debris lay between two taller buildings. After a few minutes' walk the building walls had reached canyon size. "Now, how are you going to go about looking for the temple?" Urson asked.

"Maybe we can take a look from the top of one of these buildings," Geo suggested.

They turned toward a random building. A slab of metal had torn away from the wall, and stepping through, they found themselves in a huge hollow room. Dim light came from a number of white tubes set around the wall.

Only a quarter of them were lit, and one was flickering. Hung from the center of the room was a metal sign which read:

NEW EDISON ELECTRIC COMPANY

and beneath it, in smaller letters:

"LIGHT DOWN THE AGES"

One of the huge cylinders, across the floor, was buzzing.

As they mounted a spiral staircase to the next floor the great room turned about them, sinking. At last they stepped up into a dark corridor. A red light glowed at the end which said: EXIT.

Doors outlined themselves along the hall in a red haze. Geo moved to one at random and opened it. Natural light fell in on them as the others came to see. They entered a room whose outer wall was torn away. The floor broke off irregularly over thrusting girders.

"What could have happened to it?" Urson asked.

"See," Iimmi explained. "That roadway must have crashed into the wall and knocked it away."