"Well, Narka is--"
* * * * *
He stopped talking. Something fell to the floor at George's feet,
and he stopped to pick it up. He held it in his palm--a necklace of
flawless pearls, worth a small fortune. He held it in his hand, not
knowing what to do with it.
"That's what I mean," Arl said.
"Oh, it's beautiful," Myra cooed. "Is it for me, George? Where did you
get it?" Then she pouted. "It's not for--that Narka, is it? It's for
me, isn't it, George?"
"That's what I mean," Arl said again. "Narka cannot resist the impulse
to steal everything she likes in this dimension. She simply takes
what she likes, and I know several cases in which one of your three
dimensional men went to jail for a series of robberies committed by the
Queen."
"That's ridiculous," George said. "How can she steal so many things?"
Arl shook his head. "You're forgetting the relationship between the
three and four dimensional worlds again. Remember, it's like you and
that square on the table. How would you get a necklace out of that
square without crossing any of its lines?"
"Why--why, I'd simply lift the necklace up and then put it down on the
other side of one of the lines."
"Exactly. That's what Narka's doing. She sees what she likes, lifts
it up out of your three-dimensional existence, momentarily carries it
through the fourth dimension, and puts it down here. When she has all
she wants, she'll come for her booty, then I'm afraid she'll take me
home with her. Only she'll be very mad. She won't speak to me for a
week--she'll do other things, bad things. I wish you had never called
me, George."
Something went _plop_, and George saw a small velvet cushion on the
floor. Like a pin cushion. And pinned to it were a number of jeweled
brooches. George did not know too much about jewelry, but he didn't
have to be an expert to know that these were valuable pieces. Even if
he didn't know it himself, he could tell by the way Myra sighed. Myra
would not sigh at imitations.
* * * * *
George laughed. "Now I know how Ali Baba must have felt after he said
'Open, Sesamee.'"
Myra nodded, but she hardly heard him. She walked from one treasure to
the next, as each new one plunked down on the floor or the chairs or
the tables. She was running, soon, with excited little gasps, feeling
the jewels with her hands, caressing them, holding them to her throat
and letting them caress her, raising them to the window so she could
see the sun shine on them.
Arl said wearily, "I have seen this many times before. It's always
the same the first time. Narka collects the treasure and someone here
in this three-dimensional world sees the treasure come in. The result
is always the same. It's quite a sight the first time. Narka has
sufficient jewelry here to buy this city."
"Well, it doesn't affect me that way," said George. But he only said
it--he didn't feel it at all. This interdimensional travel was the
answer to all his dreams. You saw something you wanted, you lifted it
out into the fourth dimension, you came back with it to the world of
three dimensions--and that's all there was to it.
"Don't tell me you're not thinking the same thing they all have thought
in the past," Arl said. "I know you are. Everyone does. But I warn you,
George: that way lies madness."
He could be a king, George thought. Not a titular king like Arl, but
the real thing--a king in the true sense of the word, the old sense of
the word. He'd want something--anything--and it would be his. Just like
that.
"No more treasure," Myra said. "It isn't raining anymore."
George looked. The room was abrim with precious stones, and apparently
Narka had enough for this trip. She had stolen a king's ransom--more
than that. And there was that word again: with this power, George could
be a king.
"No," he said.
"What's that?"
"Um, nothing, Arl. Nothing. Just thinking out loud." He did not want to
be a king, not that way. Human values were too high, and he had moved
on the straight and narrow path too long. Not that there was anything
wrong with the straight and narrow path. Suddenly he liked it--it was
very important to him, and although he remembered Narka as he had seen
her, naked and beautiful, he thought of her now only as a cheap thief.
The wild urge had gone--this was not the way to kinghood.
* * * * *
Abruptly, Narka was there. One moment there were only the three of them
and the treasure. The next, she stood next to George, and when she
materialized, she was leaning on George's arm.
"I'm back," she said.
She wore a tunic, only it was more translucent than a tunic had a
right to be. But George didn't mind. He didn't mind in the least. It
was unfortunate, though, that he was so interested in the effects
Narka's arrival would have on Arl. He looked at the woman only for a
moment, and then he turned his eyes to her husband.
Arl was trembling. He looked ordinary compared with Narka. He wore what
could have passed for a white linen suit, and it fit well. With that
enigmatic smile, he could have been a good looking man, but right now
he was trembling, and his mouth hung open.
"Narka--" he said.
"Don't you 'Narka' me. You know I didn't want you to come, but you came
anyway. Just wait till I can get you home alone. Wait till I get you--"
"Wait is right," said George. He gestured to the jewelry about the
room. "Right now there's another matter, a more important matter. What
about your, ah, trophies?"
"What about them?" She gave George's arm a little squeeze, and George
liked the feeling. But he saw Myra wince. "What about them? Why,
nothing. I'll just take them home with me, that's all. I have a whole
section of the palace filled with them."
"No you won't," George said.
"Don't be silly. Who's going to stop me?"
"I am."
She leaned more heavily on George's arm, and she looked up at him with
her big round eyes. "No you're not."
"No? How are you going to get back unless I help you?"
"You'll help me. I'll leave some of these jewels here with you. Name
any three items and they're yours."