Turning from the mess of heads, coils and wings strewn down the great
stairway, Toka led the way on up.
"Hey!" Rok urged sardonically. "Listen to what those palace girls up
yonder are yodeling!"
"'Ascend, ascend, ascend!'" Roya mimicked sarcastically. "'Ascend, O
Great Prince Toka! Ascend to your divine abode!'" Roya's last remark
was not in mimicry. "Blah, blah, blah!"
"Watch yourselves," Toka warned quietly as they neared the terrace.
The princesses formed a cortege about Toka and party. In the concave
entry of the palace, a princess with a black wand waited alone.
An odd exaltation was in her voice. "O Great Prince Toka. Welcome to
your divine palace. I am Princess Alota." With a bow, she turned and
led them down an immense hall. "Great Prince Toka's Hall Of Life,"
Alota intoned.
* * * * *
Beginning on the inner sides of the great entry portals, art work
progressively lined the walls and the many sets of huge doors. In
exquisite execution it portrayed Toka's eventful life from birth
in distant Sandcliff to his latest victory--exactly as it had all
occurred! But ahead for fully a hundred paces the Hall stretched green
and bare, except for a huge bas-relief of Toka on the set of doors at
the far end.
"How can they know all this?" Elees puzzled softly.
"And why," Roya worried quietly, "don't they show the rest of the
future?"
Toka was gentle but royally commanding. "Princess Alota, why has this
not been finished?"
Alota answered humbly. "As Great Prince Toka knows all, so he knows his
Hall Of Life cannot be extended until the divinely ordained times."
Leading them to the pair of doors at which the Hall ended, Alota
touched her wand to each, then stood obsequiously aside as the portals
began swinging away. "O Great Prince Toka. Your personal rooms."
Old Ledo strolled in last and the great doors began swinging to.
"O Great Prince Toka," Alota bid. "When you have refreshed yourself,
we shall return to escort you to your banquet."
As the doors snugged together, Toka was to them, ear to the crevice
where they joined.
"Well?" Rok urged impatiently.
"Gone back up the Hall." Toka pressed this side of the doors. No action.
"We could tune up our little axes on them," Rok suggested laconically.
Toka hesitated.
Old Ledo was dry. "Perhaps we'll meet the so-called brains of this mad
society at that banquet."
"Likely." Toka joined in cataloguing the room.
Windowless, and illumined by the softly glowing ceiling, it was a
restful lounge room. Roya pushed open the plain green door at the
rear. Battle-axes idling, Toka and the others followed. A short
cross-corridor led into luxurious bedrooms. The left one had three
large beds, the right two huge ones.
"Everything for every one of us," Roya mused.
"But no bath!" Elees complained.
"I've found it!" Rok shouted.
All followed him through the door opposite the lounge room. The newest
room was all green. Around the pool ran a generous width of stone floor.
Dropping her ax, Elees ran for the white diving board. Her voice rang
in merry challenge. "Last one in is a glue-foot!"