"How can I get you out of there? And the others?"
"You're mad," the girl said. "What good would it do...." She shook her
head. "Better to die at once."
Stuart narrowed his eyes at the dozen frozen figures. "I don't think
so. Fourteen of us can put up a better fight than one. If your friends
wake up--"
The girl said, "On your left, between the pillars, there's a tapestry
showing Perseus and the Gorgon. Touch the helm of Perseus and the hand
of Andromeda. Then go carefully--there may be traps."
"What is it?"
"It will lead you down here. You can free us. If you hurry--oh, but
it's hopeless! The Aesir--"
"Damn the Aesir," Stuart snarled. "Wake up the others!" He whirled and
ran toward the distant wall, where he could see the Perseus tapestry,
brown and gold, a huge curtain between two columns.
If the Aesir saw, they made no move....
Stuart's lips twisted in a bitter smile. The crazy confidence had not
left him, but he was conscious of a reassuring warmth; at least he
was no longer completely alone. That would help. Between the worlds,
and on the desolate planets that swing along the edge of the System,
loneliness is the lurking terror, more horrible than the most exotic
monster ever spawned by the radioactive Plutonian earth.
He touched the tapestry twice; it swept away from him, and a staircase
was visible, leading down through stone or metal--he could not tell
which. Stuart fought back the impulse that urged him to race down those
curving spiral steps. The girl had spoken of traps.
He went warily, testing each tread before he put his weight upon it.
Though he did not think that the snares of the Aesir would be so simple.
At the bottom, he emerged into a vaulted chamber, tiny by comparison
with the one he had left. It was oval, domed ceiling and walls and
floor shining with a milky radiance--except at one spot.
There he saw a door--transparent. Through it he looked into the pit.
He was on a level with the floor of that shaft now; he could see the
dozen figures still standing motionless in a huddled group, and a few
feet beyond the glassy pane was the Earthgirl. She was looking directly
at him, but her dark eyes had a blind seeking, as though the door was
opaque from her side.
Stuart paused, his hand on the complicated mechanism that, he guessed,
would open the portal. His hard, dark face was impassive, but he was
conscious of an unfamiliar stirring deep within him. From above, he had
not seen the girl's beauty.
He saw it now.
* * * * *
She couldn't be an Earthgirl--entirely. She must be one of those
disturbingly lovely interplanetary halfbreeds. Earth-blood she had,
of course, and predominantly, but there was something more, the pure
essence of beauty that blazed through her like a flame kindled in a
lamp of crystal. In all his wanderings between the worlds, Stuart had
never seen a girl as breathtakingly lovely as this one.
His hand moved on the controls: the door slid silently open. The girl's
eyes brightened. She gave a little gasp and ran toward him. Without
question she sought refuge in his arms, and for a moment Stuart held
her--not unwillingly.
He thrust her away gently.
"The others."