Where the World is Quiet Read online

Then, the veil of terrorseemed to leave her, like a cloak falling away. Abruptly she was justan Indio girl, empty and drained as the others, mindless andmotionless.

  The girl beside her rose suddenly with a slow, fluid motion. And thecrawling horror hit me again.... The Alien Power had not left! It hadmerely transferred itself to another body!

  And this second body was as dreadful to my senses as the first hadbeen. In some subtly monstrous way its terror impressed itself on mybrain, though all the while there was nothing overt, nothing _visibly_wrong. The strange landscape, bounded by fog, was not actuallyabnormal, considering its location, high in the Andes. The blue moss,the weird trees; they were strange, but possible. Even the sevennative girls were a normal part of the scene. It was the sense of analien presence that caused my terror--a fear of the unknown....

  As the newly "possessed" girl rose, I turned and fled, deathly sick,feeling caught in the grip of nightmare. Once I stumbled and fell. AsI scrambled wildly to my feet I looked back.

  The girl was watching me, her face tiny and far away. Then, suddenly,abruptly it was close. She stood within a few feet of me! I had notmoved nor seen her move, but we were all close together again--theseven girls and I....

  Hypnosis? Something of that sort. She had drawn me back to her, mymind blacked out and unresisting. I could not move. I could only standmotionless while that Alien being dwelling within human flesh reachedout and thrust frigid fingers into my soul. I could feel my mind laidopen, spread out like a map before the inhuman gaze that scanned it.It was blasphemous and shameful, and I could not move or resist!

  I was flung aside as the psychic grip that held me relaxed. I couldnot think clearly. That remote delving into my brain had made meblind, sick, frantic. I remember running....

  But I remember very little of what followed. There are vague picturesof blue moss and twisted trees, of coiling fog that wrapped itselfabout me, trying futilely to hold me back. And always there was thesense of a dark and nameless horror just beyond vision, hidden fromme--though I was not hidden from its eyeless gaze!

  I remember reaching the wall of fog, saw it loomed before me, plungedinto it, raced through cold grayness, snow crunching beneath my boots.I recall emerging again into that misty valley of Abaddon....

  When I regained complete consciousness I was with Lhar.

  A coolness as of limpid water moved through my mind, cleansing it,washing away the horror, soothing and comforting me. I was lying on myback looking up at an arabesque pattern of blue and saffron;gray-silver light filtered through a lacy, filigree. I was still weakbut the blind terror no longer gripped me.

  I was inside a hut formed by the trunks of one of the banyan-liketrees. Slowly, weakly I rose on one elbow. The room was empty exceptfor a curious flower that grew from the dirt floor beside me. I lookedat it dazedly.

  And so I met Lhar.... She was of purest white, the white of alabaster,but with a texture and warmth that stone does not have. Inshape--well, she seemed to be a great flower, an unopened tulip-likeblossom five feet or so tall. The petals were closely enfolded,concealing whatever sort of body lay hidden beneath, and at the basewas a convoluted pedestal that gave the odd impression of a ruffled,tiny skirt. Even now I cannot describe Lhar coherently. A flower,yes--but very much more than that. Even in that first glimpse I knewthat Lhar was more than just a flower....

  I was not afraid of her. She had saved me, I knew, and I felt completetrust in her. I lay back as she spoke to me telepathically, her wordsand thoughts forming within my brain....

  "You are well now, though still weak. But it is useless for you to tryto escape from this valley. No one can escape. The Other has powers Ido not know, and those powers will keep you here."

  I said, "You are--?"

  A name formed within my mind. "Lhar. I am not of your world."

  A shudder shook her. And her distress forced itself on me. I stood up,swaying with weakness. Lhar drew back, moving with a swaying, bobbinggait oddly like a curtsey.

  Behind me a clicking sounded. I turned, saw the many-colored sphereforce itself through the banyan-trunks. Instinctively my hand went tomy gun. But a thought from Lhar halted me.

  "It will not harm you. It is my servant." She hesitated, groping for aword. "A machine. A robot. It will not harm you."

  I said, "Is it intelligent?"

  "Yes. But it is not alive. Our people made it. We have many suchmachines."

  The robot swayed toward me, the rim of cilia flashing and twisting.Lhar said, "It speaks thus, without words or thought...." She paused,watching the sphere, and I sensed dejection in her manner.

  The robot turned to me. The cilia twisted lightly about my arm,tugging me toward Lhar. I said, "What does it want?"

  "It knows that I am dying," Lhar said.

  That shocked me. "Dying? No!"

  "It is true. Here in this alien world I do not have my usual food. SoI will die. To survive I need the blood of mammals. But there are nonehere save those seven the Other has taken. And I cannot use them forthey are now spoiled."

  I didn't ask Lhar what sort of mammals she had in her own world."That's what the robot wanted when it tried to stop me before, isn'tit?"

  "He wanted you to help me, yes. But you are weak from the shock youhave had. I cannot ask you--"

  I said, "How much blood do you need?"

  At her answer, I said, "All right. You saved my life; I must do thesame for you. I can spare that much blood easily. Go ahead."

  She bowed toward me, a fluttering white flame in the dimness of thetree-room. A tendril flicked out from among her petals, wrapped itselfabout my arm. It felt cool, gentle as a woman's hand. I felt no pain.

  "You must rest now," Lhar said. "I will go away but I shall not belong."

  The robot clicked and chattered, shifting on its tentacle legs. Iwatched it, saying, "Lhar, this can't be true. Why am I--believingimpossible things?"

  "I have given you peace," she told me. "Your mind was dangerouslyclose to madness. I have drugged you a little, physically; so youremotions will not be strong for a while. It was necessary to save yoursanity."

  It was true that my mind felt--was drugged the word? My thoughts wereclear enough, but I felt as if I were submerged in transparent butdark water. There was an odd sense of existing in a dream. Iremembered Swinburne's lines:

  _Here, where the world is quiet, Here, where all trouble seems Dead winds' and spent waves' riot In doubtful dreams of dreams...._

  "What is this place?" I asked.

  Lhar bent toward me. "I do not know if I can explain. It is not quiteclear to me. The robot knows. He is a reasoning machine. Wait...."She turned to the sphere. Its cilia fluttered in quick, complicatedsignals.

  Lhar turned back to me. "Do you know much of the nature of Time? Thatit is curved, moves in a spiral...."

  She went on to explain, but much of her explanation I did notunderstand. Yet I gathered enough to realize that this valley was notof Earth. Or, rather, it was not of the earth I knew.

  "You have geological disturbances, I know. The strata are tumbledabout, mixed one with another--"

  I remembered what Fra Rafael had said about an earthquake, threemonths before. Lhar nodded toward me.

  "But this was a time-slip. The space-time continuum is also subject togreat strains and stresses. It buckled, and strata--Time-sectors--werethrust up to mingle with others. This valley belongs to another age,as do I and the machine, and also--the Other."

  She told me what had happened.... There had been no warning. Onemoment she had been in her own World, her own Time. The next, she washere, with her robot. And with the Other....

  "I do not know the origin of the Other. I may have lived in eitheryour future or your past. This valley, with its ruined stonestructures, is probably part of your future. I had never heard of sucha place before. The Other may be of the future also. Its shape I donot know...."

  * * * * *

  She told me more, much more. The Othe
r, as she called it--giving theentity a thought-form that implied complete alienage--had a strangelychameleon-like method of feeding. It lived on life-force, as well as Icould understand, draining the vital powers of a mammal vampirically.And it assumed the shape of its prey as it fed. It was not possession,in the strict sense of the word. It was a sort of merging....

  Humanity is inclined to invest all things with its own attributes,forgetting that outside the limitations of time and space and size,familiar laws of nature do not apply.

  So, even now I do not know all that lay behind the terror in thatPeruvian valley. This much I learned: the Other, like Lhar and herrobot, had been cast adrift by a time-slip, and thus marooned here.There was no way for it to return to its normal Time-sector. It hadcreated the fog-wall to protect itself from the direct rays of thesun, which threatened its existence.

  Sitting there