Stasor was silent a long time. He said, finally, "The Book must be
found. In it are the secrets of the Elder Race. Go to the City of the
Ancients. There you will find the Book."
"No one today knows where the City is, either. It is lost, with all the
secrets of the Elder Race."
"The City lies across the Car Carolan Sea, through the Land of Living
Flame. Go there."
The lips closed. The eyelids shut. Swiftly the old face faded into
nothingness. The blackness came and pressed around them.
Angus turned slowly, as in a dream. Still in that dreamlike trance
he found himself staring at three tall, cowled forms that stood like
sentinels.
Moana screamed.
One of the cowled figures lifted an arm and gestured assurance. "There
is no cause for fear. The Hierarch sent us to bring you before him."
Moana shuddered. Angus felt her cold hand seeking his, trying to hide
itself in his palm. Hand in hand they willed themselves after the
cowled forms. They swam bodily through the blackness, moving eerily,
without muscular movement.
A round curtain of shimmering bluish motes ahead of them was like a
glowing patch in the darkness. One of the cowled forms turned and
waited. He said, "Another pool, Moana. The pool of the Hierarchy. We,
too, know the way into this world."
"What is the blackness?" wondered Angus.
"What man knows? It was formed and built by the Elder Ones before they
went on."
They were in the pool, passing upward through its queer surface. It
sizzled and bubbled all around them, tingling on the skin.
They passed the pool and stood in a low-ceilinged, bare room.
A cowled man opened a door for them and stood aside.
The Hierarch sat in a curved chair ornate with gold edgings. His pale,
ascetic face gloomed from the shadow of his big cowl. He stared at
them, a thin smile touching his lips. He stared so long that Angus
asked impatiently, "What do you want with us? Tandor, is he free?"
Moana gasped, sudden understanding waking her mind. The Hierarch
brushed her with his eyes and sighed.
"Tandor is free. I fulfill my promises. You tried and failed, yet you
tried. Now--"
He paused, fingertips pressed together, brooding down at Angus.
"Many thousands of eons ago, before our race came into existence, all
Karr belonged to the Elder Race. It lived a long time on this world,
before it went on."