The Priest shrugged. "Then why ask me if you don't intend to believe
the truth?"
"I'll hear it from her. We are leaving, friend, and she goes with us!"
Gorla shrugged again. "As you wish, Telis. There seems to be nothing I
can do to stop you."
"Then lead me to her quarters, and not a sound out of you, do you
understand?" Telis prodded the Priest gently with the short-sword.
"But command me, lord," muttered Gorla sarcastically. He picked himself
up off the floor. Telis snatched the cloak from his cassock and wrapped
it around the gleaming blade of the short-sword, still keeping the
point at the base of the Priest's spine.
"Don't force me to use this, Gorla," he hissed in the other's ear.
Gorla shook his head silently and led the way off down the corridor.
The early hour was well chosen, for the whole towering edifice seemed
to be deserted. Somehow, Telis felt, _too_ deserted. The whole
magnificent megalopolis that was Dorliss seemed to sleep serenely under
its mantle of invisibility.
In a tight silence, Gorla led Telis until they stood before a closed
door near the ground level.
"Open it," commanded Telis.
"I have no key," Gorla protested.
Cursing under his breath, Telis tried the doorlatch. To his surprise,
it gave easily and the door swung open. Telis lifted his sword,
half-expecting a trap, but no attack came from the darkness beyond the
portal. He shoved Gorla through and closed the door, the dark closing
in around them.
"A light," whispered Telis.
Gorla touched a switch on the wall and light flooded the room. On the
great bed near the far wall, the girl sat, bedclothes held to her
breast, staring at them curiously. It was strange, thought Telis, that
she showed no fear. And stranger still was the fact that her face was
encased now in a bag-like contraption made of the same unusual material
as the jumper he remembered seeing her wear. It was stretched tight by
internal pressure that apparently came from a small cylinder at her
bedside and connected to the mask by a flexible metal tube.
Some new and strange addiction, wondered Telis? It was not unknown
upon Laurr for some to succumb to the lure of narcotics, what with the
incessant warfare jangling the nerves and the ever-present spectre of
doom hanging over the whole planet. Telis himself had tasted gas from a
similar contraption on one of his hedonistic revels....
Whatever the drug was, he had seen her without the bag-like helmet in
the Central Temple. Addiction might account for her seeming illness
that he so well remembered from the previous day.
There was no sign of illness about her now! He stared at her, his
breath catching in his throat.
Exotic woman!
* * * * *
Near at hand, her beauty was almost a living, tangible thing. Her hair
gleamed, and her skin was palely translucent, like purest alabaster.
The refraction of the light through the transparent mask surrounded her
face with a glowing nimbus that made Telis think of the solideographic
icons of the Goddess. Her lips were full, almost sensuous, and her
great dark eyes looked at him quizzically but unafraid.
"There is no time to explain," he said rapidly. "We are leaving this
place. Now."
She nodded without surprise, as though she had known exactly what he
was going to say.
Telis motioned for her to get up. For a moment she waited, but when
Telis showed no sign of turning around, she slipped out of bed and
covered herself quickly with the blouse and harness that lay on a
chair nearby. As she did so, she slipped the transparent mask off and,
even as Telis watched her appreciatively, he could see the illusion of
health fade from her face. A pinched look appeared, and a thin line of
blue formed around her mouth. She seemed short of breath.
The girl adjusted her harness about her, making sure that the contents
of each pouch were there. Then she slipped herself into the transparent
jumper and reached for the mask.