"Yes, little man. They'll be waiting."
They went down the long tunnel and stepped out on the floor of the pit.
* * * * *
It was curiously silent. The fires had died in the forges. There was
no sound of hammering, no motion. Only blazing lights and a great
stillness, like someone holding his breath. There was no one in sight.
The metal monster climbed up the pit. It was finished now. The
intricate maze of grids and balances in its belly murmured with the
strength that spun up through it from the core of the planet. It was
like a vast spider, making an invisible thread of power to wrap around
the world and hold it, to be sucked dry.
An army of Kalds began to move on silent feet, out from the screening
tangle of sheds and machinery.
The androids weren't serious about that. It was just a skirmish, a test
to see whether Bas had been weakened by his age-long sleep. He hadn't
been. The Kalds looked at the Stone of Destiny and from there to Bas'
grey eyes, cringed, whimpered, and lay flat.
Bas whispered, "Their minds are closed to me, but I can feel--the
androids are working, preparing some trap...."
His eyes were closed now, his young face set with concentration. "They
don't want me to see, but my mind is older than theirs, and better
trained, and I have the power of the Stone. I can see a control panel.
It directs the force of their machine...."
He began to move, then, rapidly, out across the floor. His eyes were
still closed. It seemed he didn't need them for seeing.
People began to come out from behind the sheds and the cooling forges.
Blank-faced people with empty eyes. Many of them, making a wall of
themselves against Bas.