_The Place of the Blue Light_
So the Gnomes were Moon-people, masters of the Moon cubes! And people
and cubes were ruled by a woman who resembled a woman of Earth!
The Gnomes took them back the way they had come.
Where, Sarka wondered, were the people of the Gens of Dalis? And where
was Dalis himself! Sarka was sure that, in those first discords which
had come out of the crater, he had heard at least a hint of the
laughter of Dalis.
And this woman clothed in radiance--who was she? And what? That she
was a creature of the Moon, and yet resembled in all ways a woman of
Earth, save that she was more beautiful than any woman Sarka had ever
seen, seemed almost impossible to believe. Yet he had seen her. So had
Jaska, and as Sarka and Jaska, with the capering Gnomes still about
them, were led away to a fate at which they could only guess, Sarka
wondered at Jaska's silence and at the strange lack of expression on
her face.
He pressed her hand, but somehow she failed to return the pressure,
mystifying more than ever. This sudden coldness was not like Jaska.
Back they went through the vast cavern where the cone of the bluish
column still moaned and murmured. Sarka moved as close to the cone as
the Gnomes would permit, and peered up along the mighty length of the
column. At its tip was still the Earth, like a star viewed from the
bottom of a deep well.
Smaller, too, it seemed, which proved that Sarka's breaking of the
blue column had been but momentary, that the column had almost
instantly regained its contact with the Earth. What was its source,
what the composition of the column?
* * * * *
At the moment there could be no answer to the question. Now the Gnomes
were escorting them into another tunnel, whose glow was even bluer
than that which the two had experienced in the other tunnels. And the
deeper they penetrated, the more distant from the cavern of the Cone,
the deeper in color became that light.
Finally the Gnome who had mentally asked permission of the Radiant
Woman to show her Jaska and Sarka passed before another expanse of
wall, identical in appearance with that of the wall of the triangle
from which the Radiant Woman had appeared.
This time the Gnome managed ingress by a strange clucking sound, with
his triangular lips held close to the base-line of the triangle.
Now the door swung open; but the radiance which now came out was not
clear white, as in the case of the outer door, but deeply, coldly
blue. For the first time the Gnomes used force with their prisoners,
thus proving to them that they were indeed prisoners. Their tiny feet
caught at Sarka and at Jaska, and forced them through the door, which
swung shut behind them.
Sarka looked at Jaska who, in this strange new light, had taken on the
color of indigo, and smiled at her. She did not return his smile, but
her eyes looked deeply, somewhat sorrowfully, into his. As though she
asked him a question he could not understand, to which he could
therefore give no answer.
* * * * *
Sarka was now conscious of the fact that the heat of their
prison-house--whose character they did not as yet know--was becoming
almost unbearable. They were alone, too, for the Gnomes had not
entered the door of triangle. Sarka partially removed his life mask,
and testing the atmosphere of the place, found it capable of being
breathed without the mask. He signalled mentally to Jaska to remove
her mask, and when the girl had done so he took her in his arms and
kissed her on the lips.
She accepted his caress, but did not return it, and her eyes still
peered deeply into his.
"Well, beloved," he said. "I am terribly sorry. But I did not want you
to come because I was afraid that something of this sort would
happen."
She did not answer.
"What is it, Jaska?" he said at last.
"What did you think of that woman?" she asked softly.
"Beautiful!" he said enthusiastically. "Fearfully beautiful! But did
you see her eyes? She had no more mercy in her heart than if she were
made of stone! And she hated us both the moment she saw us!"
"And you, Sarka--did you hate her, too?"
Sarka stared at her, not comprehending.
"I feel," he said, "that if we are ever to escape her, we must kill
her, or render her incapable of retaining us!"
Then, of her own accord, Jaska placed her arms around Sarka, and gave
him her lips. Her new behavior was as incomprehensible to Sarka as her
former enigmatic expression had been. Wise in the ways of science was
Sarka, but he knew nothing of women!
* * * * *
Now hand in hand again, they began a survey of their prison house. The
bluish glow was unbearable to the eyes, and tears came unbidden and
ran down the cheeks of the prisoners. In a minute or two, perspiration
was literally bathing the bodies of the two. After a questioning
exchange of glances, Sarka swiftly divested himself of his costume,
stripping down to the gray toga of Earth's manhood. With a shrug,
Jaska removed her clothing to her own toga, and the two suits Sarka
carried under his arm.
They started ahead, exploring, then sprang back with a cry of fright.
Sarka did not know whether it was Jaska or himself who had cried out;
for just as they moved forward, a rent opened in the floor at their
feet, and their eyes for a moment--they could stand no longer--peered
into a bluely flaming abyss which, save for the color, reminded Sarka
of the word pictures of Hell he had read in Earth's books of
antiquity!
As the two stepped back, the rent in the floor closed instantly. Sarka
had noted where the end of it had been, and started to detour, his
eyes on the floor.
Over to his left the bluely glowing wall reached up to invisible
immensity. But as he would have passed along the wall, the rent opened
again, effectually barring his way.
Beyond the rent he could see a vast continuation of the cavern, and he
felt that, could they only pass the rent, they might reach a place
where the heat was not so unbearable, and they could stay and talk in
comfort.
* * * * *
Releasing Jaska, he stepped back and prepared to leap the spot where
the rent had been. High he jumped, and far, surprised at the length of
his own leap. He landed lightly, far beyond the area where the rent
had been, and even as he landed, a rent opened again at his feet, thus
effectually barring further progress!
"It could just as easily," he told himself, "have opened under my
feet, and dropped me into the abyss!"
From behind him came the sudden sound of screaming. He whirled to look
back, to see Jaska standing there, arms outstretched toward him, her
eyes wide with fear and horror, and as he stood watching, she raced to
him, unmindful of abysses that might open under her feet, and flung
herself into his arms.
"Come back!" she moaned. "Come back! Don't you see? _They_ don't wish
you to explore further! We are in their power, and must simply await
their pleasure, whoever or whatever they are! They see all we do!"
So they turned back, and stood against the door which held them
prisoners; and the heat of the place seemed to enter into them, to
gnaw at their very vitals. After a time Sarka found himself almost
tearing at his throat, fighting for breath.
* * * * *
Gasping, the tears bathing their cheeks until even their tears and
their perspiration would flow no more, they huddled now just inside
the massive stone door, arms about each other, and almost prayed for
death. Sarka at least prayed for death for both of them; but Jaska
prayed for a way of deliverance, prayed that herself and Sarka might
somehow win free, and be together again.
Sarka, who knew little of women, marveled at the grandeur of her
courage, and wondered that he really knew this radiant woman so
little. He compared her in his mind with the unclothed woman who had
ordered them here as prisoners, and it came to him that Jaska was all
perfection, all tender womanhood, while the Radiant Woman was a
monster, without soul or compassion--a creature of horror who mocked
God with her outward seeming of perfection.
Jaska read his thoughts, and smiled wanly to herself, and Sarka
wondered how, suffering as he knew she must be suffering, she could
find the courage to smile.
Then, for a time, the two became comatose, mastered by the blue heat,
and in dreamlike imaginings wandered in strange fields which could
only, to these two, have been racial memories, since neither had ever
seen such fields. There were cool streams, all a-murmur, and breezes
which cooled their sun-tanned cheeks. Water touched their tongues, and
cooled their whole bodies as they gratefully imbibed it.
* * * * *
In their wanderings, in which Sarka was a faun and Jaska a nymph, they
talked together in a language which only these two comprehended--a
language which dealt in figures of speech, a language which depended
upon handclasps for periods, glances of the eyes for commas, and the
singing of their hearts for complete understanding.
Then a cool breeze, cool by comparison, caressed their pain-distorted
cheeks, and the Gnomes came in, found them lying there, and clucked
endlessly as though wondering what to do with them.
From hand to tiny hand, their feet serving as hands, the Gnomes passed
garments--garments of the Gens of Dalis, and clothed again the two
whom the Place of the Blue Light had all but slain. Of that ghastly
experiment Sarka retained but one real memory....
That bluish light, in the midst of the abyss, shifting and swaying
like blue serpents swimming in Hades ... that bluish light of the
Cone, which he had broken up for a brief moment by the use of his ray
director. Was this bluish light in the abyss the source of the light
in the Cone? If one were to destroy it at its source....
The two regained consciousness completely as the triangular door
closed behind Sarka and Jaska and the Gnomes, and they were taken into
the refreshing coolness of the tunnel, led back again in the direction
of the room where they had seen the Radiant Woman. Both Jaska and
Sarka noticed that they were clothed in new clothing, and a shy blush
tinged the cheeks of Jaska as her eyes met those of Sarka.
* * * * *
This time they entered the vast chamber of radiance behind the first
triangular door, and were forced to their knees to do obeisance to the
Radiant Woman, who sat on a gleaming yellow stone for dais! The guards
who forced Sarka and Jaska to their knees, were clothed in the green
of the Gens of Dalis, and Dalis himself, his face stern, but bearing
no sign of recognition of these two, stood at the right hand of the
Radiant Woman!
"You come to us as spies," the thought of the Radiant Woman impinged
upon the brains of Sarka and of Jaska, "and as spies you should be
given to the Cone. But if you swear eternal allegiance to me, to obey
me in all things, to forego your allegiance to Earth, your lives will
be spared! What say you?"
Boldly Sarka stared into the almost opaque eyes of the woman. Then his
glance went to the face of Dalis.
"What," he asked boldly, in the language of Earth, "does the traitor
Dalis say?"
"I have sworn allegiance to Luar, who addresses you, and am her ally
in all things! I have but one addition to make to what she says: Jaska
belongs to me!"
The sudden leering grin of Dalis was hideous.
Sarka peered at Jaska, framing his answer. But Jaska spoke first.
"For myself, O Dalis," she said swiftly, "I can answer in but one way.
Return me to the Place of the Blue Light, and forget me there!"
Sarka smiled, while his heart leaped with joy.
"And I, O Luar," he said mentally to the Radiant Woman, "prefer death
with Jaska, at the Place of the Blue Light, than life as a traitor to
the world of my nativity!"
Instantly Luar began the clucking sound which was the language of the
Gnomes, at the same time allowing her thoughts as she spoke to impress
themselves upon the brains of the prisoners.
"Take them away! Take them to the Cavern of the Cone, and when they
have suffered as much as such inferior beings are capable of
suffering, thrust them into the base of the Cone!"