{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_31207/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_31207","id":"gutenberg_31207","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31207","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Category: Short Stories","Peru -- Fiction","Science Fiction","Science fiction","Short stories"],"text":"Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                         Transcriber's Note:\n\n    This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe May 1954. Extensive\n    research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this\n    publication was renewed.\n\n\n     _The life of an anthropologist is no doubt filled much of\n      the time with the monotonous routine of carefully assembling\n      powdery relics of ancient races and civilizations. But\n      White's lone Peruvian odyssey was most unusual. A story\n      pseudonymously penned by one of the greats in the genre._\n\n\n\n                       where the world is quiet\n\n                        _by ... C. H. Liddell_\n\n\n     Fra Rafael saw strange things, impossible things. Then there\n     was the mystery of the seven young virginal girls of\n     Huascan.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nFra Rafael drew the llama-wool blanket closer about his narrow\nshoulders, shivering in the cold wind that screamed down from Huascan.\nHis face held great pain. I rose, walked to the door of the hut and\npeered through fog at the shadowy haunted lands that lifted toward the\nsky--the Cordilleras that make a rampart along Peru's eastern border.\n\n\"There's nothing,\" I said. \"Only the fog, Fra Rafael.\"\n\nHe made the sign of the cross on his breast. \"It is the fog that\nbrings the--the terror,\" he said. \"I tell you, _Senor_ White, I have\nseen strange things these last few months--impossible things. You are\na scientist. Though we are not of the same religion, you also know\nthat there are powers not of this earth.\"\n\nI didn't answer, so he went on: \"Three months ago it began, after the\nearthquake. A native girl disappeared. She was seen going into the\nmountains, toward Huascan along the Pass, and she did not come back. I\nsent men out to find her. They went up the Pass, found the fog grew\nthicker and thicker until they were blind and could see nothing. Fear\ncame to them and they fled back down the mountain. A week later\nanother girl vanished. We found her footprints.\"\n\n\"The same canyon?\"\n\n\"_Si_, and the same result. Now seven girls have gone, one after the\nother, all in the same way. And I, _Senor_ White--\" Fra Rafael's pale,\ntired face was sad as he glanced down at the stumps of his legs--\"I\ncould not follow, as you see. Four years ago an avalanche crippled me.\nMy bishop told me to return to Lima, but I prevailed on him to let me\nremain here for these natives are my people, _Senor_. They know and\ntrust me. The loss of my legs has not altered that.\"\n\nI nodded. \"I can see the difficulty now, though.\"\n\n\"Exactly. I cannot go to Huascan and find out what has happened to the\ngirls. The natives--well, I chose four of the strongest and bravest\nand asked them to take me up the Pass. I thought that I could overcome\ntheir superstitions. But I was not successful.\"\n\n\"How far did you go?\" I asked.\n\n\"A few miles, not more than that. The fog grew thicker, until we were\nblinded by it, and the way was dangerous. I could not make the men go\non.\" Fra Rafael closed his eyes wearily. \"They talked of old Inca gods\nand devils--Manco Capac and Oello Huaco, the Children of the Sun. They\nare very much afraid, _Senor_ White. They huddle together like sheep\nand believe that an ancient god has returned and is taking them away\none by one. And--one by one they _are_ taken.\"\n\n\"Only young girls,\" I mused. \"And no coercion is used, apparently.\nWhat's up toward Huascan?\"\n\n\"Nothing but wild llamas and the condors. And snow, cold, desolation.\nThese are the Andes, my friend.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" I said. \"It sounds interesting. As an anthropologist I owe it\nto the Foundation to investigate. Besides, I'm curious. Superficially,\nthere is nothing very strange about the affair. Seven girls have\ndisappeared in the unusually heavy fogs we've had ever since the\nearthquake. Nothing more.\"\n\nI smiled at him. \"However, I think I'll take a look around and see\nwhat's so attractive about Huascan.\"\n\n\"I shall pray for you,\" he said. \"Perhaps--well, _Senor_, for all the\nloss of my legs, I am not a weak man. I can stand much hardship. I can\nride a burro.\"\n\n\"I don't doubt your willingness, Fra Rafael,\" I said. \"But it's\nnecessary to be practical. It's dangerous and it's cold up there. Your\npresence would only handicap me. Alone, I can go faster--remember, I\ndon't know how far I'll have to travel.\"\n\nThe priest sighed. \"I suppose you are right. When--\"\n\n\"Now. My burro's packed.\"\n\n\"Your porters?\"\n\n\"They won't go,\" I said wryly. \"They've been talking to your\nvillagers. It doesn't matter. I'll go it alone.\" I put out my hand,\nand Fra Rafael gripped it strongly.\n\n\"_Vaya con Dios_,\" he said.\n\nI went out into the bright Peruvian sunlight. The Indios were standing\nin straggling knots, pretending not to watch me. My porters were\nnowhere in evidence. I grinned, yelled a sardonic goodbye, and started\nto lead the burro toward the Pass.\n\nThe fog vanished as the sun rose, but it still lay in the mountain\ncanyons toward the west. A condor circled against the sky. In the\nthin, sharp air the sound of a distant rock-fall was distinctly\naudible.\n\nWhite Huascan towered far away. A shadow fell on me as I entered the\nPass. The burro plodded on, patient and obedient. I felt a little\nchill; the fog began to thicken.\n\nYes, the Indios had talked to me. I knew their language, their old\nreligion. Bastard descendants of the Incas, they still preserved a\ndeep-rooted belief in the ancient gods of their ancient race, who had\nfallen with Huayna Capac, the Great Inca, a year before Pizarro came\nraging into Peru. I knew the Quichua--the old tongue of the mother\nrace--and so I learned more than I might have otherwise.\n\nYet I had not learned much. The Indios said that _something_ had come\ninto the mountains near Huascan. They were willing to talk about it,\nbut they knew little. They shrugged with apathetic fatalism. _It_\ncalled the young virgins, no doubt for a sacrifice. _Quien sabe?_\nCertainly the strange, thickening fog was not of this earth. Never\nbefore in the history of mankind had there been such a fog. It was, of\ncourse, the earthquake that had brought the--the Visitant. And it was\nfolly to seek it out.\n\nWell, I was an anthropologist and knew the value of even such slight\nclues as this. Moreover, my job for the Foundation was done. My\nspecimens had been sent through to Callao by pack-train, and my notes\nwere safe with Fra Rafael. Also, I was young and the lure of far\nplaces and their mysteries was hot in my blood. I hoped I'd find\nsomething odd--even dangerous--at Huascan.\n\nI was young. Therefore, somewhat of a fool....\n\nThe first night I camped in a little cave, sheltered from the wind and\nsnug enough in my fleece-lined sleeping-bag. There were no insects at\nthis height. It was impossible to make a fire for there was no wood. I\nworried a bit about the burro freezing in the night.\n\nBut he survived, and I repacked him the next morning with rather\nabsurd cheerfulness. The fog was thick, yes, but not impenetrable.\n\nThere were tracks in the snow where the wind had not covered them. A\ngirl had left the village the day before my arrival, which made my\ntask all the easier. So I went up into that vast, desolate silence,\nthe fog closing in steadily, getting thicker and thicker, the trail\ngetting narrower until at last it was a mere track.\n\nAnd then I was moving blind. I had to feel my way, step by step,\nleading the burro. Occasional tracks showed through the mist, showed\nthat the native girl had walked swiftly--had run in places--so I\nassumed that the fog was less dense when she had come by this way. As\nit happened, I was quite wrong about that....\n\nWe were on a narrow path above a gorge when I lost the burro. I heard\na scrambling and clashing of hoofs on rock behind me. The rope jerked\nout of my hand and the animal cried out almost articulately as it went\nover. I stood frozen, pressing against the stone, listening to the\nsound of the burro's fall. Finally the distant noise died in a faint\ntrickling of snow and gravel that faded into utter silence. So thick\nwas the fog that I had seen nothing.\n\nI felt my way back to where the path had crumbled and rotten rock had\ngiven way under the burro's weight. It was possible for me to retrace\nmy steps, but I did not. I was sure that my destination could not be\nmuch further. A lightly clad native girl could not have gone so far as\nHuascan itself. No, probably that day I would reach my goal.\n\nSo I went on, feeling my way through the thick silent fog. I was able\nto see only a few inches ahead of me for hours. Then, abruptly the\ntrail grew clearer. Until, at last I was moving in the shadowless,\nunearthly mist over hard-packed snow, following the clearly marked\nfootprints of a girl's sandals.\n\nThen they vanished without warning, those prints, and I stood\nhesitant, staring around. I could see nothing, but a brighter glow in\nthe misty canopy overhead marked the sun's position.\n\nI knelt and brushed away the snow with my hands, hoping to undo the\nwind's concealing work. But I found no more footprints. Finally I took\nmy bearings as well as I could and ploughed ahead in the general\ndirection the girl had been traveling.\n\nMy compass told me I was heading due north.\n\nThe fog was a living, sentient thing now, secretive, shrouding the\nsecret that lay beyond its gray wall.\n\nSuddenly I was conscious of a change. An electric tingle coursed\nthrough my body. Abruptly the fog-wall brightened. Dimly, as through a\ntranslucent pane, I could make out vague images ahead of me.\n\nI began to move toward the images--and suddenly the fog was gone!\n\nBefore me lay a valley. Blue-white moss carpeted it except where\nreddish boulders broke the blueness. Here and there were trees--at\nleast I assumed they were trees, despite their unfamiliar outline.\nThey were like banyans, having dozens of trunks narrow as bamboo.\nBlue-leafed, they stood like immense bird-cages on the pallid moss.\nThe fog closed in behind the valley and above it. It was like being in\na huge sun-lit cavern.\n\nI turned my head, saw a gray wall behind me. Beneath my feet the snow\nwas melting and running in tiny, trickling rivulets among the moss.\nThe air was warm and stimulating as wine.\n\nA strange and abrupt change. Impossibly strange! I walked toward one\nof the trees, stopped at a reddish boulder to examine it. And surprise\ncaught at my throat. It was an artifact--a crumbling ruin, the remnant\nof an ancient structure whose original appearance I could not fathom.\nThe stone seemed iron-hard. There were traces of inscription on it,\nbut eroded to illegibility. And I never did learn the history of those\nenigmatic ruins.... They did not originate on Earth.\n\nThere was no sign of the native girl, and the resilient moss retained\nno tracks. I stood there, staring around, wondering what to do now. I\nwas tense with excitement. But there was little to see. Just that\nvalley covering perhaps a half-mile before the fog closed in around\nit.\n\nBeyond that--I did not know what lay beyond that.\n\nI went on, into the valley, eyeing my surroundings curiously in the\nshadowless light that filtered through the shifting roof of fog.\nFoolishly, I expected to discover Incan artifacts. The crumbled red\nstones should have warned me. They were, I think, harder than metal,\nyet they had been here long enough for the elements to erode them into\nfeatureless shards. Had they been of earthly origin they would have\nantedated Mankind--antedated even the Neanderthaler man.\n\nCurious how our minds are conditioned to run in anthropomorphic lines.\nI was, though I did not know it, walking through a land that had its\nbeginnings outside the known universe. The blue trees hinted at that.\nThe crimson ruins told me that clearly. The atmospheric\nconditions--the fog, the warmth high up in the Cordilleras--were\ncertainly not natural. Yet I thought the explanation lay in some\ngeological warp, volcanic activity, subterranean gas-vents....\n\nMy vision reached a half-mile, no farther. As I went on, the misty\nhorizon receded. The valley was larger than I had imagined. It was\nlike Elysium, where the shades of dead men stroll in the Garden of\nProserpine. Streamlets ran through the blue moss at intervals, chill\nas death from the snowy plains hidden in the fog. \"A sleepy world of\nstreams....\"\n\nThe ruins altered in appearance as I went on. The red blocks were\nstill present, but there were now also remnants of other structures,\nmade by a different culture, I thought.\n\nThe blue trees grew more numerous. Leafy vines covered most of them\nnow, saffron-tinted, making each strange tree a little room, screened\nby the lattice of the vines. As I passed close to one a faint clicking\nsounded, incongruously like the tapping of typewriter keys, but\nmuffled. I saw movement and turned, my hand going to the pistol in my\nbelt.\n\nThe Thing came out of a tree-hut and halted, watching me. I _felt_ it\nwatching me--though _it had no eyes_!\n\nIt was a sphere of what seemed to be translucent plastic, glowing with\nshifting rainbow colors. And I sensed sentience--intelligence--in its\nhorribly human attitude of watchful hesitation. Four feet in diameter\nit was, and featureless save for three ivory elastic tentacles that\nsupported it and a fringe of long, whip-like cilia about its\ndiameter--its waist, I thought.\n\nIt looked at me, eyeless and cryptic. The shifting colors crawled over\nthe plastic globe. Then it began to roll forward on the three\nsupporting tentacles with a queer, swift gliding motion. I stepped\nback, jerking out my gun and leveling it.\n\n\"Stop,\" I said, my voice shrill. \"Stop!\"\n\nIt stopped, quite as though it understood my words or the gesture of\nmenace. The cilia fluttered about its spherical body. Bands of lambent\ncolor flashed. I could not rid myself of the curious certainty, that\nit was trying to communicate with me.\n\nAbruptly it came forward again purposefully. I tensed and stepped\nback, holding the gun aimed. My finger was tightening on the trigger\nwhen the Thing stopped.\n\nI backed off, nervously tense, but the creature did not follow. After\nI had got about fifty yards away it turned back and retreated into the\nhut-like structure in the banyan tree. After that I watched the trees\nwarily as I passed them, but there were no other visitations of that\nnature.\n\nScientists are reluctant to relinquish their so-called logic. As I\nwalked I tried to rationalize the creature, to explain it in the light\nof current knowledge. That it had been alive was certain. Yet it was\nnot protoplasmic in nature. A plant, developed by mutation? Perhaps.\nBut that theory did not satisfy me for the Thing had possessed\nintelligence, though of what order I did not know.\n\nBut there were the seven native girls, I reminded myself. My job was\nto find them, and quickly, too.\n\nI did, at last, find them. Six of them, anyway. They were sitting in a\nrow on the blue moss, facing one of the red blocks of stone, their\nbacks toward me. As I mounted a little rise I saw them, motionless as\nbronze statues, and as rigid.\n\nI went down toward them, tense with excitement, expectancy. Odd that\nsix native girls, sitting in a row, should fill me with such feeling.\nThey were so motionless that I wondered as I approached them, if they\nwere dead....\n\nBut they were not. Nor were they--in the true sense of the\nword--alive.\n\nI gripped one by the bare shoulder, found the flesh surprisingly cold\nand the girl seemed not to feel my touch. I swung her around to face\nme, and her black, empty eyes looked off into the far distance. Her\nlips were tightly compressed, slightly cyanosed. The pupils of her\neyes were inordinately dilated, as if she was drugged.\n\nIndian style, she squatted cross-legged, like the others. As I pulled\nher around, she toppled down on the moss, making no effort to stop\nherself. For a moment she lay there. Then with slow, puppet-like\nmotions, she returned to her former position and resumed that blank\nstaring into space.\n\nI looked at the others. They were alike in their sleep-like\nwithdrawal. It seemed as if their minds had been sucked out of them,\nthat their very selves were elsewhere. It was a fantastic diagnosis,\nof course. But the trouble with those girls was nothing a physician\ncould understand. It was psychic in nature, obviously.\n\nI turned to the first one and slapped her cheeks. \"Wake up!\" I\ncommanded. \"You must obey me! Waken--\"\n\nBut she gave no sign of feeling, of seeing. I lit a match, and her eyes\nfocused on the flame. But the size of her pupils did not alter....\n\nA shudder racked me. Then, abruptly I sensed movement behind me. I\nturned....\n\nOver the blue moss the seventh Indio girl was coming toward us.\n\"Miranda!\" I said. \"Can you hear me?\" Fra Rafael had told me her name.\nHer feet, I saw, were bare and white frost-bite blotches marked them.\nBut she did not seem to feel any pain as she walked.\n\nThen I became aware that this was not a simple Indio girl. Something\ndeep within my soul suddenly shrank back with instinctive revulsion.\nMy skin seemed to crawl with a sort of terror. I began to shake so\nthat it was difficult to draw my gun from its holster.\n\nThere was just this young native girl walking slowly toward me, her\nface quite expressionless, her black eyes fixed on emptiness. Yet she\nwas not like other Indios, not like the six other girls sitting behind\nme. I can only liken her to a lamp in which a hot flame burned. The\nothers were lamps that were dead, unlit.\n\nThe flame in her was not one that had been kindled on this earth, or\nin this universe, or in this space-time continuum, either. There was\nlife in the girl who had been Miranda Valle--but it was not _human_\nlife!\n\nSome distant, skeptical corner of my brain told me that this was pure\ninsanity, that I was deluded, hallucinated. Yes, I knew that. But it\ndid not seem to matter. The girl who was walking so quietly across the\nblue yielding moss had wrapped about her, like an invisible,\nintangible veil, something of the alienage that men, through the eons,\nhave called divinity. No mere human, I thought, could touch her.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut I felt fear, loathing--emotions not associated with divinity. I\nwatched, knowing that presently she would look at me, would realize my\npresence. Then--well, my mind would not go beyond that point....\n\nShe came forward and quietly seated herself with the others, at the\nend of the line. Her body stiffened rigidly. Then, the veil of terror\nseemed to leave her, like a cloak falling away. Abruptly she was just\nan Indio girl, empty and drained as the others, mindless and\nmotionless.\n\nThe girl beside her rose suddenly with a slow, fluid motion. And the\ncrawling horror hit me again.... The Alien Power had not left! It had\nmerely transferred itself to another body!\n\nAnd this second body was as dreadful to my senses as the first had\nbeen. In some subtly monstrous way its terror impressed itself on my\nbrain, though all the while there was nothing overt, nothing _visibly_\nwrong. The strange landscape, bounded by fog, was not actually\nabnormal, considering its location, high in the Andes. The blue moss,\nthe weird trees; they were strange, but possible. Even the seven\nnative girls were a normal part of the scene. It was the sense of an\nalien presence that caused my terror--a fear of the unknown....\n\nAs the newly \"possessed\" girl rose, I turned and fled, deathly sick,\nfeeling caught in the grip of nightmare. Once I stumbled and fell. As\nI scrambled wildly to my feet I looked back.\n\nThe girl was watching me, her face tiny and far away. Then, suddenly,\nabruptly it was close. She stood within a few feet of me! I had not\nmoved nor seen her move, but we were all close together again--the\nseven girls and I....\n\nHypnosis? Something of that sort. She had drawn me back to her, my\nmind blacked out and unresisting. I could not move. I could only stand\nmotionless while that Alien being dwelling within human flesh reached\nout and thrust frigid fingers into my soul. I could feel my mind laid\nopen, spread out like a map before the inhuman gaze that scanned it.\nIt was blasphemous and shameful, and I could not move or resist!\n\nI was flung aside as the psychic grip that held me relaxed. I could\nnot think clearly. That remote delving into my brain had made me\nblind, sick, frantic. I remember running....\n\nBut I remember very little of what followed. There are vague pictures\nof blue moss and twisted trees, of coiling fog that wrapped itself\nabout me, trying futilely to hold me back. And always there was the\nsense of a dark and nameless horror just beyond vision, hidden from\nme--though I was not hidden from its eyeless gaze!\n\nI remember reaching the wall of fog, saw it loomed before me, plunged\ninto it, raced through cold grayness, snow crunching beneath my boots.\nI recall emerging again into that misty valley of Abaddon....\n\nWhen I regained complete consciousness I was with Lhar.\n\nA coolness as of limpid water moved through my mind, cleansing it,\nwashing away the horror, soothing and comforting me. I was lying on my\nback looking up at an arabesque pattern of blue and saffron;\ngray-silver light filtered through a lacy, filigree. I was still weak\nbut the blind terror no longer gripped me.\n\nI was inside a hut formed by the trunks of one of the banyan-like\ntrees. Slowly, weakly I rose on one elbow. The room was empty except\nfor a curious flower that grew from the dirt floor beside me. I looked\nat it dazedly.\n\nAnd so I met Lhar.... She was of purest white, the white of alabaster,\nbut with a texture and warmth that stone does not have. In\nshape--well, she seemed to be a great flower, an unopened tulip-like\nblossom five feet or so tall. The petals were closely enfolded,\nconcealing whatever sort of body lay hidden beneath, and at the base\nwas a convoluted pedestal that gave the odd impression of a ruffled,\ntiny skirt. Even now I cannot describe Lhar coherently. A flower,\nyes--but very much more than that. Even in that first glimpse I knew\nthat Lhar was more than just a flower....\n\nI was not afraid of her. She had saved me, I knew, and I felt complete\ntrust in her. I lay back as she spoke to me telepathically, her words\nand thoughts forming within my brain....\n\n\"You are well now, though still weak. But it is useless for you to try\nto escape from this valley. No one can escape. The Other has powers I\ndo not know, and those powers will keep you here.\"\n\nI said, \"You are--?\"\n\nA name formed within my mind. \"Lhar. I am not of your world.\"\n\nA shudder shook her. And her distress forced itself on me. I stood up,\nswaying with weakness. Lhar drew back, moving with a swaying, bobbing\ngait oddly like a curtsey.\n\nBehind me a clicking sounded. I turned, saw the many-colored sphere\nforce itself through the banyan-trunks. Instinctively my hand went to\nmy gun. But a thought from Lhar halted me.\n\n\"It will not harm you. It is my servant.\" She hesitated, groping for a\nword. \"A machine. A robot. It will not harm you.\"\n\nI said, \"Is it intelligent?\"\n\n\"Yes. But it is not alive. Our people made it. We have many such\nmachines.\"\n\nThe robot swayed toward me, the rim of cilia flashing and twisting.\nLhar said, \"It speaks thus, without words or thought....\" She paused,\nwatching the sphere, and I sensed dejection in her manner.\n\nThe robot turned to me. The cilia twisted lightly about my arm,\ntugging me toward Lhar. I said, \"What does it want?\"\n\n\"It knows that I am dying,\" Lhar said.\n\nThat shocked me. \"Dying? No!\"\n\n\"It is true. Here in this alien world I do not have my usual food. So\nI will die. To survive I need the blood of mammals. But there are none\nhere save those seven the Other has taken. And I cannot use them for\nthey are now spoiled.\"\n\nI didn't ask Lhar what sort of mammals she had in her own world.\n\"That's what the robot wanted when it tried to stop me before, isn't\nit?\"\n\n\"He wanted you to help me, yes. But you are weak from the shock you\nhave had. I cannot ask you--\"\n\nI said, \"How much blood do you need?\"\n\nAt her answer, I said, \"All right. You saved my life; I must do the\nsame for you. I can spare that much blood easily. Go ahead.\"\n\nShe bowed toward me, a fluttering white flame in the dimness of the\ntree-room. A tendril flicked out from among her petals, wrapped itself\nabout my arm. It felt cool, gentle as a woman's hand. I felt no pain.\n\n\"You must rest now,\" Lhar said. \"I will go away but I shall not be\nlong.\"\n\nThe robot clicked and chattered, shifting on its tentacle legs. I\nwatched it, saying, \"Lhar, this can't be true. Why am I--believing\nimpossible things?\"\n\n\"I have given you peace,\" she told me. \"Your mind was dangerously\nclose to madness. I have drugged you a little, physically; so your\nemotions will not be strong for a while. It was necessary to save your\nsanity.\"\n\nIt was true that my mind felt--was drugged the word? My thoughts were\nclear enough, but I felt as if I were submerged in transparent but\ndark water. There was an odd sense of existing in a dream. I\nremembered Swinburne's lines:\n\n    _Here, where the world is quiet,\n       Here, where all trouble seems\n     Dead winds' and spent waves' riot\n       In doubtful dreams of dreams...._\n\n\"What is this place?\" I asked.\n\nLhar bent toward me. \"I do not know if I can explain. It is not quite\nclear to me. The robot knows. He is a reasoning machine. Wait....\"\nShe turned to the sphere. Its cilia fluttered in quick, complicated\nsignals.\n\nLhar turned back to me. \"Do you know much of the nature of Time? That\nit is curved, moves in a spiral....\"\n\nShe went on to explain, but much of her explanation I did not\nunderstand. Yet I gathered enough to realize that this valley was not\nof Earth. Or, rather, it was not of the earth I knew.\n\n\"You have geological disturbances, I know. The strata are tumbled\nabout, mixed one with another--\"\n\nI remembered what Fra Rafael had said about an earthquake, three\nmonths before. Lhar nodded toward me.\n\n\"But this was a time-slip. The space-time continuum is also subject to\ngreat strains and stresses. It buckled, and strata--Time-sectors--were\nthrust up to mingle with others. This valley belongs to another age,\nas do I and the machine, and also--the Other.\"\n\nShe told me what had happened.... There had been no warning. One\nmoment she had been in her own World, her own Time. The next, she was\nhere, with her robot. And with the Other....\n\n\"I do not know the origin of the Other. I may have lived in either\nyour future or your past. This valley, with its ruined stone\nstructures, is probably part of your future. I had never heard of such\na place before. The Other may be of the future also. Its shape I do\nnot know....\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nShe told me more, much more. The Other, as she called it--giving the\nentity a thought-form that implied complete alienage--had a strangely\nchameleon-like method of feeding. It lived on life-force, as well as I\ncould understand, draining the vital powers of a mammal vampirically.\nAnd it assumed the shape of its prey as it fed. It was not possession,\nin the strict sense of the word. It was a sort of merging....\n\nHumanity is inclined to invest all things with its own attributes,\nforgetting that outside the limitations of time and space and size,\nfamiliar laws of nature do not apply.\n\nSo, even now I do not know all that lay behind the terror in that\nPeruvian valley. This much I learned: the Other, like Lhar and her\nrobot, had been cast adrift by a time-slip, and thus marooned here.\nThere was no way for it to return to its normal Time-sector. It had\ncreated the fog-wall to protect itself from the direct rays of the\nsun, which threatened its existence.\n\nSitting there in the filigreed, silver twilight beside Lhar, I had a\nconcept of teeming universes of space-time, of an immense spiral of\nlives and civilizations, races and cultures, covering an infinite\ncosmos. And yet--what had happened? Very little, in that inconceivable\ninfinity. A rift in time, a dimensional slip--and a sector of land and\nthree beings on it had been wrenched from their place in time and\ntransported to _our_ time-stratum.\n\nA robot, a flower that was alive and intelligent--and feminine--and\nthe Other....\n\n\"The native girls,\" I said. \"What will happen to them?\"\n\n\"They are no longer alive,\" Lhar told me. \"They still move and\nbreathe, but they are dead, sustained only by the life-force of the\nOther. I do not think it will harm me. Apparently it prefers other\nfood.\"\n\n\"That's why you've stayed here?\" I asked.\n\nThe shining velvety calyx swayed. \"I shall die soon. For a little\nwhile I thought that I might manage to survive in this alien world,\nthis alien time. Your blood has helped.\" The cool tentacle withdrew\nfrom my arm. \"But I lived in a younger time, where space was filled\nwith--with certain energizing vibratory principles.\n\n\"They have faded now almost to nothing, to what you call cosmic rays.\nAnd these are too weak to maintain my life. No, I must die. And then\nmy poor robot will be alone.\" I sensed elfin amusement in that last\nthought. \"It seems absurd to you that I should think affectionately of\na machine. But in our world there is a rapport--a mental\nsymbiosis--between robot and living beings.\"\n\nThere was a silence. After a while I said, \"I'd better get out of\nhere. Get help--to end the menace of the other....\" What sort of help\nI did not know. Was the Other vulnerable?\n\nLhar caught my thought. \"In its own shape it is vulnerable, but what\nthat shape is I do not know. As for your escaping from this\nvalley--you cannot. The fog will bring you back.\"\n\n\"I've got my compass.\" I glanced at it, saw that the needle was\nspinning at random.\n\nLhar said: \"The Other has many powers. Whenever you go into the fog,\nyou will always return here.\"\n\n\"How do you know all this?\" I asked.\n\n\"My robot tells me. A machine can reason logically, better than a\ncolloid brain.\"\n\nI closed my eyes, trying to think. Surely it should not be difficult\nfor me to retrace my steps, to find a path out of this valley. Yet I\nhesitated, feeling a strange impotence.\n\n\"Can't your robot guide me?\" I persisted.\n\n\"He will not leave my side. Perhaps--\" Lhar turned to the sphere, and\nthe cilia fluttered excitedly. \"No,\" she said, turning back to me.\n\"Built into his mind is one rule--never to leave me. He cannot disobey\nthat.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI couldn't ask Lhar to go with me. Somehow I sensed that the frigid\ncold of the surrounding mountains would destroy her swiftly. I said,\n\"It must be possible for me to get out of here. I'm going to try,\nanyway.\"\n\n\"I will be waiting,\" she said, and did not move as I slipped out\nbetween two trunks of the banyan-like tree.\n\nIt was daylight and the silvery grayness overhead was palely luminous.\nI headed for the nearest rampart of fog.\n\nLhar was right. Each time I went into that cloudy fog barrier I was\nblinded. I crept forward step by step, glancing behind me at my\nfootprints in the snow, trying to keep in a straight line. And\npresently I would find myself back in the valley....\n\nI must have tried a dozen times before giving up. There were no\nlandmarks in that all-concealing grayness, and only by sheerest chance\nwould anyone blunder into this valley--unless hypnotically summoned,\nlike the Indio girls.\n\nI realized that I was trapped. Finally I went back to Lhar. She hadn't\nmoved an inch since I had left, nor had the robot, apparently.\n\n\"Lhar,\" I said. \"Lhar, can't you help me?\"\n\nThe white flame of the flower was motionless, but the robot's cilia\nmoved in quick signals. Lhar moved at last.\n\n\"Perhaps,\" her thought came. \"Unless both induction and deduction\nfail, my robot has discovered a chance for you. The Other can control\nyour mind through emotions. But I, too, have some power over your\nmind. If I give you strength, wall you with a psychic shield against\nintrusion, you may be able to face the Other. But you cannot destroy\nit unless it is in its normal shape. The Indio girls must be killed\nfirst....\"\n\n\"Killed?\" I felt a sense of horror at the thought of killing those\npoor simple native girls.\n\n\"They are not actually alive now. They are now a part of the Other.\nThey can never be restored to their former life.\"\n\n\"How will--destroying them--help me?\" I asked.\n\nAgain Lhar consulted the robot. \"The Other will be driven from their\nbodies. It will then have no hiding-place and must resume its own\nform. Then it can be slain.\"\n\nLhar swayed and curtseyed away. \"Come,\" she said. \"It is in my mind\nthat the Other must die. It is evil, ruthlessly selfish, which is the\nsame thing. Until now I have not realized the solution to this evil\nbeing. But seeing into your thoughts has clarified my own. And my\nrobot tells me that unless I aid you, the Other will continue ravening\ninto your world. If that happens, the time-pattern will be broken....\nI do not quite understand, but my robot makes no mistakes. The Other\nmust die....\"\n\nShe was outside of the banyan now, the sphere gliding after her. I\nfollowed. The three of us moved swiftly across the blue moss, guided\nby the robot.\n\nIn a little while we came to where the six Indio girls were squatting.\nThey had apparently not moved since I had left them.\n\n\"The Other is not here,\" Lhar said.\n\nThe robot held me back as Lhar advanced toward the girls, the\nskirt-like frill at her base convoluting as she moved. She paused\nbeside them and her petals trembled and began to unfold.\n\nFrom the tip of that great blossom a fountain of white dust spurted\nup. Spores or pollen, it seemed to be. The air was cloudy with the\nwhiteness.\n\nThe robot drew me back, back again. I sensed danger....\n\nThe pollen seemed to be drawn toward the Indios, spun toward them in\ndancing mist-motes. It settled on their bronzed bodies, their limbs\nand faces. It covered them like a veil until they appeared to be six\nstatues, white as cold marble, there on the blue moss.\n\nLhar's petals lifted and closed again. She swayed toward me, her mind\nsending a message into mine.\n\n\"The Other has no refuge now,\" she told me. \"I have slain the--the\ngirls.\"\n\n\"They're dead?\" My lips were dry.\n\n\"What semblance of life they had left is now gone. The Other cannot\nuse them again.\"\n\nLhar swayed toward me. A cool tentacle swept out, pressing lightly on\nmy forehead. Another touched my breast, above the heart.\n\n\"I give you of my strength,\" Lhar said. \"It will be as shield and\nbuckler to you. The rest of the way you must go alone....\"\n\nInto me tide of power flowed. I sank into cool depths, passionless and\ncalm. Something was entering my body, my mind and soul, drowning my\nfears, stiffening my resolve.\n\nStrength of Lhar was now my strength!\n\nThe tentacles dropped away, their work done. The robot's cilia\nsignalled and Lhar said, \"Your way lies there. That temple--do you see\nit?\"\n\nI saw it. Far in the distance, half shrouded by the fog, a scarlet\nstructure, not ruined like the others, was visible.\n\n\"You will find the Other there. Slay the last Indio, then destroy the\nOther.\"\n\nI had no doubt now of my ability to do that. A new power seemed to\nlift me from my feet, send me running across the moss. Once I glanced\nback, to see Lhar and her robot standing motionless, watching me.\n\nThe temple enlarged as I came nearer. It was built of the same reddish\nstone as the other ruined blocks I had seen. But erosion had weathered\nits harsh angles till nothing now remained but a rounded, smoothly\nsculptured monolith, twenty feet tall, shaped like a rifle shell.\n\nA doorway gaped in the crimson wall. I paused for a moment on the\nthreshold. In the dimness within a shadow stirred. I stepped forward,\nfinding myself in a room that was tall and narrow, the ceiling hidden\nin gloom. Along the walls were carvings I could not clearly see. They\ngave a suggestion of inhuman beings that watched.\n\nIt was dark but I could see the Indio girl who had been Miranda Valle.\nHer eyes were on me, and, even through the protecting armor of Lhar\nstrength; I could feel their terrible power.\n\nThe life in the girl was certainly not human!\n\n\"Destroy her!\" my mind warned. \"Destroy her! Quickly!\"\n\nBut as I hesitated a veil of darkness seemed to fall upon me. Utter cold,\na frigidity as of outer space, lanced into my brain. My senses reeled\nunder the assault. Desperately, blind and sick and giddy, I called on the\nreserve strength Lhar had given me. Then I blacked out....\n\nWhen I awoke I saw smoke coiling up from the muzzle of the pistol in\nmy hand. At my feet lay the Indio girl, dead. My bullet had crashed\ninto her brain, driving out the terrible dweller there.\n\nMy eyes were drawn to the farther wall. An archway gaped there. I\nwalked across the room, passed under the archway. Instantly I was in\ncomplete, stygian darkness. But I was not alone!\n\nThe power of the Other struck me like a tangible blow. I have no words\nto tell of an experience so completely disassociated from human\nmemories. I remember only this: my mind and soul were sucked down into\na black abyss where I had no volition or consciousness. It was another\ndimension of the mind where my senses were altered....\n\nNothing existed there but the intense blackness beyond time and\nspace. I could not see the Other nor conceive of it. It was pure\nintelligence, stripped of flesh. It was alive and it had power--power\nthat was god-like.\n\nThere in the great darkness I stood alone, unaided, sensing the\napproach of an entity from some horribly remote place where all values\nwere altered.\n\nI sensed Lhar's nearness. \"Hurry!\" her thought came to me. \"Before it\nwakens!\"\n\nWarmth flowed into me. The blackness receded....\n\nAgainst the farther wall something lay, a thing bafflingly human.... a\ngreat-headed thing with a tiny pallid body coiled beneath it. It was\nsquirming toward me....\n\n\"Destroy it!\" Lhar communicated.\n\nThe pistol in my hand thundered, bucking against my palm. Echoes\nroared against the walls. I fired and fired again until the gun was\nempty....\n\n\"It is dead,\" Lhar's thought entered my mind.\n\nI stumbled, dropped the pistol.\n\n\"It was the child of an old super-race--a child not yet born.\"\n\nCan you conceive of such a race? Where even the unborn had power\nbeyond human understanding? My mind wondered what the adult Alien must\nbe.\n\nI shivered, suddenly cold. An icy wind gusted through the temple.\nLhar's thought was clear in my mind.\n\n\"Now the valley is no longer a barrier to the elements. The Other\ncreated fog and warmth to protect itself. Now it is dead and your\nworld reclaims its own.\"\n\nFrom the outer door of the temple I could see the fog being driven\naway by a swift wind. Snow was falling slowly, great white flakes that\nblanketed the blue moss and lay like caps on the red shards that\ndotted the valley.\n\n\"I shall die swiftly and easily now, instead of slowly, by\nstarvation,\" Lhar said.\n\nA moment later a thought crossed my mind, faint and intangible as a\nsnowflake and I knew Lhar was saying goodbye.\n\nI left the valley. Once I looked back, but there was only a veil of\nsnow behind me.\n\nAnd out of the greatest adventure the cosmic gods ever conceived--only\nthis: For a little while the eternal veil of time was ripped away and\nthe door to the unknown was held ajar.\n\nBut now the door is closed once more. Below Huascan a robot guards a\ntomb, that is all.\n\nThe snow fell faster. Shivering, I ploughed through the deepening\ndrifts. My compass needle pointed north. The spell that had enthralled\nthe valley was gone.\n\nHalf an hour later I found the trail, and the road to safety lay open\nbefore me. Fra Rafael would be waiting to hear my story.\n\nBut I did not think that he would believe it....\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"Where the World is Quiet","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":7022}