September 24, 2025 • 48 mins
In Jewels of Aptor, Samuel R. Delanys debut novel from 1962, we are transported to a world centuries after a devastating nuclear holocaust known as the Great Fire. Here, a young woman embarks on a quest for her destiny, aided by a mysterious four-armed youth. This captivating tale serves as a prologue to Delanys subsequent work, Captives of the Flame. (Summary by BellonaTimes)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter ten of the Jewels of Abdur by Samuel R. Delany.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Reading by
Matt Perrard. Chapter ten. Dawn light lay aslant the crater's ridge.
Argo pointed down the opposite slope. A black temple was
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visible at the bottom among trees and lawns. There is
Hama's temple. Argo said, you have your task. Good luck.
This started down the incline of cinders. It took them
an hour to reach the first trees that surrounded the
dark buildings and the great gardens. Entering on the first
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lip of grass, they heard a sudden cluster of notes
from one of the trees. A bad yet, me said,
I haven't had one of those since I've left left off. Suddenly,
bright blue and the length of a man's forefinger, a
lizard ran half way down the trunk of the tree.
Its sapphire belly heaved in the early light with indrawn breath.
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Then it opened its red mouth, Its throat warbled, and
there was another burst of music. Oh well, said Jemmy,
I was close. They walked further until Jimmy mused, I
wonder why you always think things are going to turn
out lucky. Expect because when something sounds like that, declared Urson,
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it usually is a bird. Suddenly he gave a little shiver.
Oo lizards, he said, it was a pretty lizard, said Jimmy.
Going around expecting things to be what they seem can
get you in trouble, especially on this island. Geo commented.
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The angle at which they walked made one of the
clumps of tree before them seemed to fall apart. A
man standing in the center raised his hand and said,
briskly stop. They stopped. He wore dark robes, and his
short white hair made a close helmet above his brown face.
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Erson's hand was on his sword. Snake stood with his
feet wide, his hands out from his sides. Who are you?
The dark man declared, who are you? Erson parried, I
am Hama incarnate. They were silent. Finally, Geo said, we
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are travelers in aptor. We don't mean any harm. As
the man moved forward, splotches of light from the trees
slipped across his robe. Come with me, Hama said. He
turned and proceeded among the trees. They followed. They passed
into the temple garden. It was early enough in the
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morning so that the sunlight lapped pink tongues over the
giant black urns that sat along the edges of the path.
Now they passed into the temple. As they passed, Hama turned,
looked at the jewels on Jimmy's and Jia's necks, and
then looked up at the gazing eye of the statue
at the end of the altar. He made no other sign,
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but turned again and continued. The morning rights have not
yet started, he said, They will begin in a half
an hour. By then, I hope to have divined your
purpose in coming here. At the other side of the stairway,
they mounted a stairway and then entered a door above
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which was a black circle dotted with three eyes. Just
as they were about to go in, Jeo looked around,
frowned and caught Yemmy's eye. Snay, he mouthed. Jimmy looked
around and shrugged. The man turned and faced them, apparently
unaware of Snake's departure. As he closed the door. Now,
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he said, you have come to oppose the forces of aptor.
Am I right? You come to steal the jewel of Hama.
You have come to kidnap the incarnate argo. Is that
not your purpose? Keep your hand off your sword, Arson,
I can kill you in a moment. You are defenseless. Damn,
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I'm sleepy. She rolled over and cuddled the pillow. Then
she opened her eyes one at a time and lay
watching the nearly completed motor of metal bars and copper
wire that sat on the table beside her bed. She
stood up, then she collapsed on the bed and jammed
her feet under the covers again with thirty feet of
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one and a half inch brass pipe, she mused sleepily,
I could carry heat from the main hot water line
under the floor, which I would estimate to be about
the proper surface area to keep these stones warm. Let
me see thirty feet of one and a half inch
pipe half a surface area of twenty two seventh times
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three second times thirty, which is nine hundred and ninety
divided by seven, which is then she caught herself, Damn,
you're thinking about this. To avoid thinking about getting up,
she opened her eyes once more, put feet on the stone,
and held them there while she stretched vigorously at her
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uneven mop of red hair. She looked at the clock. Yikes,
she said softly, and ran out the door and slammed
it behind her almost she whirled around, caught it on
her palms before it banged shut, and then closed it
with gingerly care the final centimeter and a half of
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the arc. Are you trying to get caught? She asked herself,
as she tiptoed to the next door. She opened it
and looked in. Dunderhead looks cute when he's asleep, she thought.
There was a cord on the floor that ran from
under the table by the priest's bed, over the stones,
carefully following the zigzag of the crevices between them, and
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at last the end lay in the corner of the door. Still,
you really couldn't see it if you weren't looking for it,
which had more or less been the idea when she
had put it there last night, before the priest had
come back from vespers. The far end was tied in
a knot of her own invention to the electric plug
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of his alarm clock dunder had. Dunderhead had an annoying
habit of resetting his clock every evening, making sure that
the red second hand was still sweeping away the minutes.
In her plans for this morning, she had cataloged is
every habitual action, and had observed this one for three nights,
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running hanging upside down from the bulky stone porcullus above
and outside his window. Tugging on the string, she sought
leap from the crevices into a straight line, and then
lifted from the floor as she drew it tauter and
then go slack as the plug blipped quietly onto the floor. Next,
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she pulled the string again until the slack left, and
raised her end a few inches from the floor with
her free hand. Now she gave the string a small
twit and watched the vibration run up and down the
string twice. The knot's invention was an ingenious one. At
the vibration, two opposed loops shook away from a third
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and a four millimeter length, and rubber band that had
been sewn in tautened and released a fourth loop from
around a small lane the number four gage wire, with
a holding tonsure of three quarters of a gram, and
the opposing vibration returning up the thread loosed a similar
apparatus on the other side of the plug. The knot
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fell away, and she wound it quickly around her hand.
She stood up, closed the door and the oil block
was perfectly silent. The doorknob was just the slightest bit greasy,
she noted careless. Back in her room, it was standing
on the table. Sunlight from the high window fell red
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across the board. It was very early in the morning.
She took the parts of the motor up in her hands.
I guess we try you out today, No, she answered herself, yes. Finally,
she put the parts in the paper bag, strode out
of the room and slammed the whirled around and caught
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it once more. All she said, do you want to
get caught for the second time? She answered herself yes,
and remember that too, or you'll never get through it.
As she walked down the hall, she heard through one
of the windows the chirp of a blue lizard from
the garden. The sound I wanted to hear, she smiled
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to herself, A good sign. Turning into the temple, she
started down the side aisle. The great black columns passed
before her. Something moved between the columns along the other side,
swift and indistinct as a bird shadow. At least she
thought she saw something. Remember, she reminded herself, you have
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guilt feelings about this whole thing, and you could very
easily be manufacturing delusions to scare yourself out of going
through with it. She went on, passed two more columns,
and saw it again. Or she went on with her
monolog you could be purposefully ignoring the very obvious fact
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that there is somebody over there who is going to
see you, so watch it. There were mirrors somewhere in
the temple, but they weren't on the opposite wall, so
she couldn't be seeing herself. In fact, the mirrors were
out in the vestibule through which she had come, and
maybe this other person had come, so maybe it was
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seeing her. As a reflection of unscramble that syntax, she
told herself, you think like that, and you'll never make it.
But there was somebody with no clothes on for all
practical purposes, sneaking between the pillars, and he had four arms.
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That made her start to think of something else. But
the thought, as it arrowed into the past, suddenly got deflected,
turned completely about, and jammed into her brain again because
he was staring directly at her. If he starts walking
toward me, she thought, I'm going to be scared out
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of my ears, so i'd better start walking toward him. Besides,
I want to see what he looks like. She started
out from the columns. Glancing quickly both ways. She saw
that the tumble was deserted save for them. He's a kid,
she thought, three quarters of the way across my age,
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she added, And again a foreign thought attempted to intrude
itself on her, but never made it because he was
coming toward her. Now. At last he stopped before her,
silent muscles like tight wire under the brown skin, black
hair massing low on his forehead, his eyes deep beneath
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the black shrub of brows. She gulped and asked him,
what are you doing here? Do you know somebody could
catch you here and get mad as hell? I know
I couldn't possibly have, but I think I've seen you
before some place. If somebody comes along, they might even
think you were trying to steal Hama's eye. I shouldn't
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have said that, she thought, because he moved funny, You'd
better get out of here, because everybody will be up
here in a half an hour for morning services. At
that news, he suddenly darted forward, passed her, and sprinted
down toward the altar. Hey, she called, and ran after him.
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Snake vaulted over the brass altar rail. Wait a minute,
she called, catching up. Wait will you? Snake turned as
she slung her leg across the brass bar. Look, I
realize I gave away my hand. But that was only
guilt feelings. You gave yours away too, though. And if
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you don't think you've got guilt feelings, boy, you're crazy.
Snake frowned, tilted his head, and then grinned. So we'll
help each other. See, she said, you want it too,
don't you. She pointed up to the head of the
statue towering above them. So let's cooperate. I'll get it
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for a little while, then you can have it. He
was listening, she saw, so she guessed her strategy was working.
Play it by ear Now, she thought, we'll help each
other shake on it. Huh. She stuck out her hand.
All four hands reached forward. Whoops, she thought, I hope
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he's not offended. But the four hands grasped hers and
she added her second to the juncture. All right, she said,
come on, now, I had all this figured out last night,
and we don't have much time. Let's go around. But
he walked over to where the stalks of wheat spired
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from the altar base up through Hama's fist, and grabbed
a stalk with the three hands, and hand over hand
overhand began to hoist himself up to where the first
broad sheets of metal leaves leaned out to form a
small platform. At first his dirty feet swung out frog like,
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but then he caught the stem with his toes, and
at last hoisted himself to the front and looked down
at her. I can't climb up there, she said, I
don't have your elevation power. Snake looked down and shrugged.
Oh damn, She said, I'll do it my way. She
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ran across the altar to the great foot of the statue,
sitting cross legged. Hama's foot was on his side. Using
the ridges made by the toes as stepp she clambered
up to the dark bulge of the deities godlike bunion.
She made her way across the ankle, up the slanting
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shen back down the black thigh until she stood at
the crevice with a leg and torso meet out beyond
the great knee. Snake regarded her from his perch in
the groin of yellow leaf. They were about equal height you,
who she waved, meet you at the clapcle. Then she
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stuck her tongue out the bulges in the belly of
the god, made a treacherous ledge along which she entered
until she arrived at the cavernous navel, leaving wet handprints
on the black stone the God's belly button. From this
intimate distance revealed itself as a circular door, about five
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feet in diameter and controlled by a combination lock. She
missed the first number twice, dried her hands off, and
began again according to the plans in the main save
of the temple on which she had first practiced combination breaking.
There was a ladder behind this door which led up
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into the statue. She remembered it clearly and saved her
life by doing so, because when she caught the second number,
reversed the direction and felt the telltale click of the third.
She pulled on the handle and was almost pushed from
the ledge by the swinging circular door. She grabbed at
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a handle that she hardly saw on the doors inside,
just as the stone slipped from beneath her feet. Then
she was hanging five feet out in the air over
the sacred groin. Some fifty feet below. The first thing
she tried, after closing her eyes and mumbling a few
laws of motion, was to swing the door too. When
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she swung out, however, the door swung close, and when
she swung in, the door swung opened. After a while,
she just hung. She gave small thanks that she had
dried her hands. When her arms began to ache, she
wished that she hadn't, because then it would be over
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by now. She went over what she knew about taking
judo falls. Then the door swung closed and some one
grabbed her around the waist. She didn't open her eyes,
but she felt her body pressed against the tilting stone.
Her arms fell, tingling to her sides. The ligaments flamed
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with pain. Then the pain dulled to throbbing, and she
opened her eyes. How the hell did you get down here,
she asked Snag. With his help, she staggered through the
open door and stopped to rub her arms. How did
you know about the ladder? They were standing in the
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shaft now, with the ladder beside them, running up into
the darkness. He looked at her with a puzzled expression.
What is it? She asked, Oh, I'll be able to
climb up there never you worry. Hey, can you speak?
Snake shook his head. Oh, she said. Something started at
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the edge of her mind again a picture of something unpleasant.
Snake had started up the ladder which he had come
down so quickly a minute ago. She glanced out the door, stopped,
saw that the temple was empty, pulled the door to
and followed. They ascended into complete darkness. Her arms were
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beginning to ache again, just slightly. She reached up for
the next run and found it in his proper place.
Then the next, and then again the next. She started
counting steps now, and when seventy four, seventy five, and
seventy six dropped below her, there was a missing wrung.
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She reached above it, but there was none. She ran
her hand up the edge of the ladder and found
that it suddenly curved into the wall. Hey, you, she said.
In the darkness, something touched her waist. She said, don't
do that. It touched her on the leg, took hold
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of her ankle and pulled watch out, she said. It
pulled again. She raised her foot and it was tugged
sideways a good foot and a half and sat on
solid flooring. Then a hand her foot was not released,
took her arm, and another held her waist and tugged.
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She stiffened for one instant before she remembered the number
of limbs her companion had. Then she came off the
ladder sideways into the dark, afraid to put her other
foot down lest she stepped headlong into the seventy five
foot plus shaft. But he tugged again, and and losing
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her balance, her foot came down on cool, solid stone.
Holding her arm now he led her along the tunnel.
They passed into a steep incline. Now down the upper arm,
she recalled, I feel like you ridticy, She said aloud,
you funny. An echoing voice sounded in her skull. Hey,
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she said, what was that? But the voice was silent.
The wall turned abruptly, and the floor leveled out. They
were in a section of the passage now that corresponded
roughly to the statue's radial artery. At the wrist, there
was a light. They mounted a stairway, came out a
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trap door, and found themselves standing high in the temple.
Below them, the great room spread vastly deep and still empty.
Beside them, the stems of the bronze wheat stalks rose
up through the fist and spired another fifty feet before
breaking into clusters of golden grain and leaves across from
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them over the dark curve of gargantuan chest. In the
statue's other hand, the shaft of the scythe leaned away
into shadow. Look, she said, you follow me now. She
started back along the top of the forearm, and then
began the tedious climb over the rippling biceps, till at
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last they reached the broad shoulder. They walked across the
hollow above the collar bone until they stood just below
the great scooping shell of the air. She took the
paper bag she had stuffed into her belt, one end
of the string around the neck, and then holding the other,
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she heaved the bag up and over the ear. She
got the other end of the string, knotted it as
high as she could reach, and gave it a tug.
I hope this works, she said, I had it all
figured out yesterday. The tensile strength of this stuff is
about two hundred and fifty pounds, which ought to do
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for you and me. She planted her foot on the
swell of the neck tendon, and in seven leaps she
made it to the lobe of the ear. She swung
around into the hollow, using the front of a wing
as a pivot. Crouching in the hollow trumpet, she looked
down at Snake. Come up, she said, hurry up. Snake
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joined her. A moment later. The ear was hollow too.
It led back into a cylindrical chamber which went up
through the head of the god. The architect who had
designed the statue had conveniently left the god's lid flipped.
They climbed the ladder and emerged amid the tangle of
pipes which represented the hair of the God. They made
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their way forward through the mass of pipes to where
the forehead sloped dangerously forward. They could see the foreshortened
nose and the rim of the statue's mettle eye. Above that.
There wasn't much of anything after that for the next
thousand feet until the base of the altar. Now you
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can really be some help, she told him. Hold on
to my wrist and let me down. I'll get the jewel.
They grabbed wrists and Snake's three other hands, as well
as the joints of his knees, locked around the base
of five pipes that sprouted around them Slowly, she slided
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forward until her free hands slipped on the stone, and
she dropped the length of their two arms and swung
just above the statue's nose. The eye opened in front
of her. The lid arked above her, and the white
of either side of the ebony iris shone faintly in
the half darkness. At the center of the iris, in
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a small hollow, sitting on the top of a metal support,
was the jewel. She reached her free hand toward it
as she swung. From somewhere a gong suddenly sounded, light
flooded over her. Looking up, she saw white sockets of
light shining down into her own eyes. Panicking, she almost
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released Snake's wrist, but a voice in her head hers
or some one else's she couldn't tell, rang out hold on,
damn it. Then she grabbed the jewel. The metal shaft
in which the jewel had stood was not steady and
tilted as her hand came away from it. The tilting
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must have set off some clockward mechanism, because the great
eyelid was slowly lowering over the ivory and ebony eye.
She swung again at the end of the rope of
bone and flesh. Half blinded by the lights above her,
she looked over her shoulder into the temple below. There
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was singing the beginning of a processional hymn. The morning
rights had started. Light glinted on the stone. Limbs of
the god. Figures were pouring into the temple. They must
have seen her, but the hem sonoris and gigantic rose
like flood water, and she suddenly thought that if she fell,
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she would drown. In the sound of it. Snake was
pulling her up stone against her arm, against her cheek,
she clinched her other fist tightly at her side. Another
hand came down and helped pull her, then another. Then
she was lying among the metal pipes, and he was
loosening her fingers from his wrist. He tugged her to
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her feet, and for a moment she was looking out
over the now filled temple. Nervous energy contracted coldly along
her body, and the sudden sight of the great drop
filled her eyes and her head, and she staggered. Snake
caught her and at last helped her back to the ladder.
We've got it, she said to him, before they started down.
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She breathed deeply, Then she checked in her palm to
see if it was still there. It was, and again
she looked out over the people below. Light on the
upturned faces made them look like scattered pearls on the
dark floor. An exultation suddenly burst in her shoulders, fluttered
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her legs and arms, and for a moment washed the
pain away. Snake with one hand on her shoulder was grunning. Also,
we've got it, she said again. They went down the
ladder into the statue's skull. Snake preceded her out the
hollow ear. He reached around, caught the cord, and let
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himself down to the shoulder. She hesitated for a moment,
then put the jewel in her mouth and followed him.
Standing beside him once more, she removed it and then
rubbed her shoulders. Boy, am I going to have some
charley horse by tomorrow? She said? Do me a favor,
and on tie my bag for me. Snake untied the
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parcel from the end of the court, and together now
they climbed down the bicep and back over the forearm
to the trap door in the wrist. She glanced down
at the faces of the worshippers just before they disappeared
into the tunnel. Snake was taking the jewel from her hand.
She let him have it and watched him raise it
up above his head. Immediately when he raised the jewel,
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the pearls of faces went out like extinguished flames as
heads bent all through the temple. That's the ticket, grinned, Argo,
come on, But Snake did not go into the tunnel. Instead,
he walked around the fist, took hold of one of
the bronze wheat stems, and slid down through an opening
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between the thumb and forefinger that way, asked Argo, Oh, well,
I guess so you know I'm going to write an
epic about this. But Snake had already gone. She followed him,
clutching her feet around a great bunch of stems. He
was waiting for her at the plateau of leaves, and
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nestled There they gazed out once more at the fascinated congregation. Again,
Snake held aloft the jewel, and again heads bowed. The
hem began to repeat itself, the individual words lost in
the sonority of the hall. They started down the last
length of stems, now coming quickly. When they stood at
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last on the base, she put her hand on his
shoulder and looked across the brass altar rail. The congregation
pressed close. Although she did not recognize an individual face,
yet a mass of people stood there, enormous and familiar.
As Snake started forward holding up the jewel, the people
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fell back from the rail. Snake climbed over the altar
rail and then helped her over. Her shoulders were beginning
to hurt now, and the enormity of the theft ran
chills up and down, up and down her spine. The
black marble altered step as she put her foot down
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was awfully cold. They started forward again, and the last
note of the hemp echoed to silence, filling the hall
with the roaring quiet of the hushed breathing of hundreds. Simultaneously,
both she and Snake got the urge to look back
at the great, diminishing height of Hama behind them. All
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three eyes were shut firmly. Now, a quiet composed of
the rustling of a hundred dark robes upon another hundred
hissed about them. As they started forward again, there was
a spotlight on them. She suddenly realized that was why
the people hovering back from the circular effulgence over the
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floor around them seemed so dim her heart had become
a pulse at the bottom of her tongue. They kept
on going forward into the shadowed faces, into the parting
sea of dark cloaks and hoods. Then the last of
the figures stepped aside from the temple door, and she
could see the sunlight out in the garden. They stood
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still for a moment, Snake holding high the jewel. Then
they burst forward out through the door and down over
the bright steps. Instantly, the hem began again behind them,
as if their departure had been a signal. The music
flooded after them, and when they reached the bottom step,
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they both whirled, crouching like animals, expecting the congregation to
come welling darkly out after them. But there was only
the music flowing into the light, washing around them, a
transparent river, a sea. Freeze the drop in the hand,
and break the earth with singing hail. The height of
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a man and also the height of a woman. Over
the music came a brittle chirping from the trees. Fixed
with fear, they watched the temple door as the hemp progressed.
Then Snake suddenly stood up straight and grinned. She scratched
her red hair, shifted her weight and looked at snake.
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I guess they're not coming, she said, sounding almost disappointed.
Then she giggled, well, I guess we got it. Don't move,
repeated Hama incarnate. Now look, began Urson. You are perfectly safe,
the god continued, unless you do anything foolish. You have
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shown great wisdom. Continue to show it. I have a
lot to explain to you, Like what, asked Geo, I'll
start with the lizards, smiled the God. Thou what asked Jemmy?
The singing lizards said hammah. You walk through a grove
of trees. Just a few minutes ago, you had just
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been through a series of happenings that was probably the
most frightening in your life. Suddenly you heard a singing
in the trees. What was it? I thought it was
a bad Jemmy said. But why a bird, asked the god.
Because that's what a bird sounds like, stated Urson, impatiently.
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Who needs an old lizard singing to them on a
morning like this? Your second point is much better than
your first, said the God. You do not need a lizard,
but you did need a bird. A bird means spring life,
good luck, cheerfulness. You think of a bird's singing, and
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you think of thoughts that men have been thinking for
thousands upon thousands of years. Poets have written of it
in every language. Catalusts in Latin, Keats in English, Lispot
in Chinese, Darnel x twenty four in New English. You
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expected a bird, because after what you had been through,
you needed to hear a bird. Lizards run from under
wet rocks, scurry over gravestones. A lizard is not what
you needed. So what do lizards have to do with
why we're here? Demanded Urson? Why are you here? Repeated
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the God, subtly changing Erson's question. There are many reasons,
I am sure you tell me some of them. You
have done wrongs to Argo, at least to Argo of Leptar.
Geo explained, we have come to undo them. You have
kidnapped the young Argo as well as her mother. Apparently
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we have come to take her back. You have misused
the jewels. We have come to take the last one
from you, Hamma smiled. Only a poet could see the
wisdom in such an honesty. I thought I might have
to wheedle to get that much out of you. I
guess it was pretty certain that you knew that much already.
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Geo said, true, answered Hama. Then his tone changed. Do
you know how the jewels work? They shook their heads.
They are basically very simple mechanical contrivances which are difficult
in execution but simple in concept. I will explain human thoughts.
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It was discovered after the Great Fire during the first
glorious years of the City of New Hope, did not
produce waves similar to radio waves, but the electrical synapse
pattern it was found can be read by radio waves
in the same way a mind detector reads the existence
of metal radio Geo said, that's right. Hama said, oh,
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I forgot. You don't know anything about that at all. Well,
I can't go through the whole thing now. Suffice it
to say that each of the jewels contains a carefully
honed crystal which is constantly sending out beams which can
read these thought patterns. Also, the crystal acts like a
(36:08):
magnifying glass or a mirror and reflects and magnifies the
energy from the brain into heat or light or any
other kind of electromagnetic radiation. There I go again, so
that you can send great bolts of heat with them
as you have seen done. But the actual workings of
(36:31):
them are not important, and their ability to send heat
out is only their secondary power. Their primary importance is
that they can be used to penetrate the mind. Now
we come to the lizards. Wait a minute, Geo said,
before we get to the lizards, do you mean go
(36:52):
into minds like snake does. Suddenly he remembered that the
boy was not there, But the god went on like snake,
he said, but different. Snake was born with the ability
to transmute the brain patterns of his thoughts to others.
In that he has a power of something like the jewels.
(37:14):
But nowhere is strong. But with the jewels, you can
jam a person's thoughts. Just go into his mind and
stop him from thinking, asked Jemmy. No, said the god
conscious thought is too powerful, otherwise you would stop thinking
every time Snake spoke to you. It works another way.
(37:39):
How many reasons does a man have for any single action?
They looked at him uncomprehendingly. Why, for example, does a
man pull his hand from a fire because it hurts,
said Urson? Why else? Yes? Why else? Hama, I think
(38:02):
I us see what you mean, said Emmy. He also
pulls it out because he knows that outside the fire,
his hand isn't going to hurt like the bird, I
mean the lizard. One reason we reacted like we did
was because it sounded like a bird. The other reason
was because we wanted to hear a bird. Just then,
(38:26):
the man pulls his hand out because the fire hurts,
and because he wants it not to hurt. In other words, geosummarized,
there are at least two reasons for everything, exactly explained
Hamah and noticed that one of these reasons is unconscious.
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But with the jewel you can jam the unconscious reason,
so that if a man has his hand in a fire,
you can jam his unconscious reason of wanting it to
stop hurting. Completely bewildered and in no less pain, he
will stand there until his wrist is a smoking nub.
(39:09):
Geo reached over and felt his severed arm. Dictators during
the entire history of this planet have used similar techniques.
By not letting the people of their country know what
conditions existed outside their boundaries, they could get the people
to fight to stay in those conditions. It was the
(39:30):
old adage, convince a slave that he's free, and he
will fight to maintain his slavery. Why does a poet
say because he likes music because silence frightens him. Why
is a thief steel to get the goods from his victim,
also to prove that his victim cannot get him. That's
(39:54):
how Argo got snake back, Geo said to Urson. I
see now, he was just thinking of running away, and
she jammed his desire not to get caught, so he
had nothing to direct him in which direction to run,
so he ran where she told him straight back to her.
(40:14):
That's right, Hama said. But something else was learned when
these jewels were invented, or rather a lesson which history
should have taught us thousands of years ago, was finally
driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other
men and still retain his own mind, for no matter
(40:37):
how good his intentions are, when he takes up the power,
his alternate reason is that freedom, the freedom of the people,
and ultimately his own, terrifies him. Only a man afraid
of freedom would want this power, would conceive of wielding it,
and that fear of freedom will turn him into a
(40:59):
slave of this power. For this reason, the jewels are evil.
That is why we have summoned you distilled them from us.
Distill them from you, asked Geo. Why couldn't you have
simply destroyed them when you had them? We have already
(41:20):
been infected, smiled the God. We are a small band
here on Apdor. To reach the state of organization to
collect the scattered scientific knowledge of the times before the
Great Fire was not easy. Too often the jewels have
been used and abuse, and now we cannot destroy it.
(41:42):
We would have to destroy ourselves. First. We kidnapped Argo
and left you the second jewel, hoping that you would
come after the third and last one. Now you have come,
and now the jewel is being stolen. Snake asked Geo.
That's right, replied Hammah. But I thought he was your spy.
(42:05):
Geo said that he is our spy. Is his unconscious
reason for his actions, explained Hammah. He is aware only
that he is working against the evil he had seen,
and Jordy spy is too harsh a word for him,
say rather little thief. He became a spy for us
(42:27):
quite unwittingly when he was on the island as a
child with Geordie. I have explained something to you of
how the mind works. We have machines that can duplicate
what Snake does in a similar way that the jewels work.
This is how the blind priestesses contacted Geordie and made
(42:48):
him their spy. This is how we reached Snake. But
he never saw us, never even really talked to us.
It was mainly because of something he saw, something he
saw when he first got here. Wait a minute, Jimmy said,
Jodie wanted to kill me and did kill Whitey because
(43:11):
it's something we might have seen. I bet this was
the same thing. Now, what was it? Hamma smiled, my
telling you would do no good. Perhaps you can find
out from Snake or my daughter Argo incarnate. But what
do we do now, Geo interrupted, Take the jewels back
(43:34):
to Argo. I mean Argo on the ship. She's already
used the jewels to control mines Edle's snakes, so that
means she's infected too. Once you guess the reason for
her infection, said Hama, We have been watching you on
our screens since you landed. Do you remember what the
reason was? Do you mean her being jealous of her sister?
(43:59):
Geo asked yes. On one side, her motives were truly
patriotic for Leptar. On the other they were selfish ones
of power seeking. But without the selfish ones she would
have never gotten so far as she did. You must
bring young Argo back and give the infection a chance
(44:20):
to work itself out. But what about the jewels, asked Geo.
All three of them will be together. Isn't that a
huge temptation. Some one must meet this temptation and overcome it,
said Hama. You do not know how much danger they
are in while they are here on Aptor. Even if
(44:42):
the final danger is only delayed, that delay will make
it safer to bring them to Leptar. Suddenly, Hama turned
to the screens and pushed the switch to on position.
The opeque glass was filled with a picture of the
interior of the temple. On the huge st A spotlight
was following two microscopic figures over the statue's shoulder. They
(45:06):
were climbing over the statue's elbow. Hama increased the size.
It was two people, not bugs, climbing down the gigantic
sculptured figure. They made their way along the statue's forearm,
now to the golden stalks of wheat in the god's
black fist. One and then the other began to shimmy
(45:27):
down the stems. They arrived at the base and climbed
over the rail. The screen enlarged again. It's Snake, said Geo,
and he's got the jewel. Person added, that's Auga with him.
Jimmy put in, I mean one of the ogoes. They
(45:48):
clustered around the screen, watching the congregation give way before
the two fearful children, the red haired girl and the
short white tunic was holding onto Snake's shoulder. Suddenly, Hamah
turned the picture off and they looked away from the screen,
now puzzled. So you see, said the god. The jewel
(46:09):
has already been stolen. For the sake of Argo and
of Hama. Carry the jewels back to Leptar. Young Argo
will help you, though her mother and I are pained
to see her go. She is as prepared for the
journey as you are. If not more, will you do it?
(46:29):
I will, Jimmy said me too, said Geo. I guess so,
person said good, smiled Hamah. Then come with me. He
turned from the screen and walked through the door. They
followed him down the long stairway, past the stone walls,
into the hall, and along the back of the church.
(46:52):
He walked slowly and smiled like a man who had
waited long for something finally arrived. They turned out of
the temple and ascended the bright steps. I wonder where
the kids are, person asked, but Hama led them on
across the broad garden to where the great black urns
sat in a row close to a wall of shrubbery.
(47:15):
A woman, old Argo, suddenly joined them. She had apparently
been waiting for them. She gave them a silent smile
of recognition, and they continued across the garden path. Light
fell through the shrubbery across her white tunic, and snakes
bare back As they crouched over the entraption of coils
and metal. She twisted two pages of wire together and
(47:38):
a final connection as Snake placed the jewel on an
improvised thermo couple. Then they bent over it and both
concentrated their thoughts on the bead. The thermo couple glowed
red and electricity jumped in the copper veins, turning the
metal bone into a magnet. The armature tugged once around
its pivot, and then tugged around once more. Finally it
(48:03):
was whipping around steadily. The brushes on its shaft, reversing
the magnetic poles. With each half circle of the arc,
it gained speed until it whirred into an invisible copper
haze between them. Hey, she breathed, look at it go.
Will you just look at it go? And the young
(48:24):
thieves crouched over the humming motor, oblivious to the eyes
of the elder gods that smiled at them from the
edge of the green shift of shadow and sunlight by
the side of the marble urn. End of chapter ten.
Chapter ten of the Jewels of Abdur by Samuel R. Delany.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Reading by
Matt Perrard. Chapter ten. Dawn light lay aslant the crater's ridge.
Argo pointed down the opposite slope. A black temple was
(00:22):
visible at the bottom among trees and lawns. There is
Hama's temple. Argo said, you have your task. Good luck.
This started down the incline of cinders. It took them
an hour to reach the first trees that surrounded the
dark buildings and the great gardens. Entering on the first
(00:44):
lip of grass, they heard a sudden cluster of notes
from one of the trees. A bad yet, me said,
I haven't had one of those since I've left left off. Suddenly,
bright blue and the length of a man's forefinger, a
lizard ran half way down the trunk of the tree.
Its sapphire belly heaved in the early light with indrawn breath.
(01:09):
Then it opened its red mouth, Its throat warbled, and
there was another burst of music. Oh well, said Jemmy,
I was close. They walked further until Jimmy mused, I
wonder why you always think things are going to turn
out lucky. Expect because when something sounds like that, declared Urson,
(01:32):
it usually is a bird. Suddenly he gave a little shiver.
Oo lizards, he said, it was a pretty lizard, said Jimmy.
Going around expecting things to be what they seem can
get you in trouble, especially on this island. Geo commented.
(01:54):
The angle at which they walked made one of the
clumps of tree before them seemed to fall apart. A
man standing in the center raised his hand and said,
briskly stop. They stopped. He wore dark robes, and his
short white hair made a close helmet above his brown face.
(02:15):
Erson's hand was on his sword. Snake stood with his
feet wide, his hands out from his sides. Who are you?
The dark man declared, who are you? Erson parried, I
am Hama incarnate. They were silent. Finally, Geo said, we
(02:36):
are travelers in aptor. We don't mean any harm. As
the man moved forward, splotches of light from the trees
slipped across his robe. Come with me, Hama said. He
turned and proceeded among the trees. They followed. They passed
into the temple garden. It was early enough in the
(02:57):
morning so that the sunlight lapped pink tongues over the
giant black urns that sat along the edges of the path.
Now they passed into the temple. As they passed, Hama turned,
looked at the jewels on Jimmy's and Jia's necks, and
then looked up at the gazing eye of the statue
at the end of the altar. He made no other sign,
(03:20):
but turned again and continued. The morning rights have not
yet started, he said, They will begin in a half
an hour. By then, I hope to have divined your
purpose in coming here. At the other side of the stairway,
they mounted a stairway and then entered a door above
(03:40):
which was a black circle dotted with three eyes. Just
as they were about to go in, Jeo looked around,
frowned and caught Yemmy's eye. Snay, he mouthed. Jimmy looked
around and shrugged. The man turned and faced them, apparently
unaware of Snake's departure. As he closed the door. Now,
(04:05):
he said, you have come to oppose the forces of aptor.
Am I right? You come to steal the jewel of Hama.
You have come to kidnap the incarnate argo. Is that
not your purpose? Keep your hand off your sword, Arson,
I can kill you in a moment. You are defenseless. Damn,
(04:27):
I'm sleepy. She rolled over and cuddled the pillow. Then
she opened her eyes one at a time and lay
watching the nearly completed motor of metal bars and copper
wire that sat on the table beside her bed. She
stood up, then she collapsed on the bed and jammed
her feet under the covers again with thirty feet of
(04:50):
one and a half inch brass pipe, she mused sleepily,
I could carry heat from the main hot water line
under the floor, which I would estimate to be about
the proper surface area to keep these stones warm. Let
me see thirty feet of one and a half inch
pipe half a surface area of twenty two seventh times
(05:16):
three second times thirty, which is nine hundred and ninety
divided by seven, which is then she caught herself, Damn,
you're thinking about this. To avoid thinking about getting up,
she opened her eyes once more, put feet on the stone,
and held them there while she stretched vigorously at her
(05:36):
uneven mop of red hair. She looked at the clock. Yikes,
she said softly, and ran out the door and slammed
it behind her almost she whirled around, caught it on
her palms before it banged shut, and then closed it
with gingerly care the final centimeter and a half of
(05:57):
the arc. Are you trying to get caught? She asked herself,
as she tiptoed to the next door. She opened it
and looked in. Dunderhead looks cute when he's asleep, she thought.
There was a cord on the floor that ran from
under the table by the priest's bed, over the stones,
carefully following the zigzag of the crevices between them, and
(06:20):
at last the end lay in the corner of the door. Still,
you really couldn't see it if you weren't looking for it,
which had more or less been the idea when she
had put it there last night, before the priest had
come back from vespers. The far end was tied in
a knot of her own invention to the electric plug
(06:42):
of his alarm clock dunder had. Dunderhead had an annoying
habit of resetting his clock every evening, making sure that
the red second hand was still sweeping away the minutes.
In her plans for this morning, she had cataloged is
every habitual action, and had observed this one for three nights,
(07:04):
running hanging upside down from the bulky stone porcullus above
and outside his window. Tugging on the string, she sought
leap from the crevices into a straight line, and then
lifted from the floor as she drew it tauter and
then go slack as the plug blipped quietly onto the floor. Next,
(07:28):
she pulled the string again until the slack left, and
raised her end a few inches from the floor with
her free hand. Now she gave the string a small
twit and watched the vibration run up and down the
string twice. The knot's invention was an ingenious one. At
the vibration, two opposed loops shook away from a third
(07:51):
and a four millimeter length, and rubber band that had
been sewn in tautened and released a fourth loop from
around a small lane the number four gage wire, with
a holding tonsure of three quarters of a gram, and
the opposing vibration returning up the thread loosed a similar
apparatus on the other side of the plug. The knot
(08:14):
fell away, and she wound it quickly around her hand.
She stood up, closed the door and the oil block
was perfectly silent. The doorknob was just the slightest bit greasy,
she noted careless. Back in her room, it was standing
on the table. Sunlight from the high window fell red
(08:34):
across the board. It was very early in the morning.
She took the parts of the motor up in her hands.
I guess we try you out today, No, she answered herself, yes. Finally,
she put the parts in the paper bag, strode out
of the room and slammed the whirled around and caught
(08:56):
it once more. All she said, do you want to
get caught for the second time? She answered herself yes,
and remember that too, or you'll never get through it.
As she walked down the hall, she heard through one
of the windows the chirp of a blue lizard from
the garden. The sound I wanted to hear, she smiled
(09:19):
to herself, A good sign. Turning into the temple, she
started down the side aisle. The great black columns passed
before her. Something moved between the columns along the other side,
swift and indistinct as a bird shadow. At least she
thought she saw something. Remember, she reminded herself, you have
(09:43):
guilt feelings about this whole thing, and you could very
easily be manufacturing delusions to scare yourself out of going
through with it. She went on, passed two more columns,
and saw it again. Or she went on with her
monolog you could be purposefully ignoring the very obvious fact
(10:05):
that there is somebody over there who is going to
see you, so watch it. There were mirrors somewhere in
the temple, but they weren't on the opposite wall, so
she couldn't be seeing herself. In fact, the mirrors were
out in the vestibule through which she had come, and
maybe this other person had come, so maybe it was
(10:27):
seeing her. As a reflection of unscramble that syntax, she
told herself, you think like that, and you'll never make it.
But there was somebody with no clothes on for all
practical purposes, sneaking between the pillars, and he had four arms.
(10:48):
That made her start to think of something else. But
the thought, as it arrowed into the past, suddenly got deflected,
turned completely about, and jammed into her brain again because
he was staring directly at her. If he starts walking
toward me, she thought, I'm going to be scared out
(11:10):
of my ears, so i'd better start walking toward him. Besides,
I want to see what he looks like. She started
out from the columns. Glancing quickly both ways. She saw
that the tumble was deserted save for them. He's a kid,
she thought, three quarters of the way across my age,
(11:31):
she added, And again a foreign thought attempted to intrude
itself on her, but never made it because he was
coming toward her. Now. At last he stopped before her,
silent muscles like tight wire under the brown skin, black
hair massing low on his forehead, his eyes deep beneath
(11:55):
the black shrub of brows. She gulped and asked him,
what are you doing here? Do you know somebody could
catch you here and get mad as hell? I know
I couldn't possibly have, but I think I've seen you
before some place. If somebody comes along, they might even
think you were trying to steal Hama's eye. I shouldn't
(12:18):
have said that, she thought, because he moved funny, You'd
better get out of here, because everybody will be up
here in a half an hour for morning services. At
that news, he suddenly darted forward, passed her, and sprinted
down toward the altar. Hey, she called, and ran after him.
(12:39):
Snake vaulted over the brass altar rail. Wait a minute,
she called, catching up. Wait will you? Snake turned as
she slung her leg across the brass bar. Look, I
realize I gave away my hand. But that was only
guilt feelings. You gave yours away too, though. And if
(13:01):
you don't think you've got guilt feelings, boy, you're crazy.
Snake frowned, tilted his head, and then grinned. So we'll
help each other. See, she said, you want it too,
don't you. She pointed up to the head of the
statue towering above them. So let's cooperate. I'll get it
(13:23):
for a little while, then you can have it. He
was listening, she saw, so she guessed her strategy was working.
Play it by ear Now, she thought, we'll help each
other shake on it. Huh. She stuck out her hand.
All four hands reached forward. Whoops, she thought, I hope
(13:44):
he's not offended. But the four hands grasped hers and
she added her second to the juncture. All right, she said,
come on, now, I had all this figured out last night,
and we don't have much time. Let's go around. But
he walked over to where the stalks of wheat spired
(14:06):
from the altar base up through Hama's fist, and grabbed
a stalk with the three hands, and hand over hand
overhand began to hoist himself up to where the first
broad sheets of metal leaves leaned out to form a
small platform. At first his dirty feet swung out frog like,
(14:28):
but then he caught the stem with his toes, and
at last hoisted himself to the front and looked down
at her. I can't climb up there, she said, I
don't have your elevation power. Snake looked down and shrugged.
Oh damn, She said, I'll do it my way. She
(14:49):
ran across the altar to the great foot of the statue,
sitting cross legged. Hama's foot was on his side. Using
the ridges made by the toes as stepp she clambered
up to the dark bulge of the deities godlike bunion.
She made her way across the ankle, up the slanting
(15:09):
shen back down the black thigh until she stood at
the crevice with a leg and torso meet out beyond
the great knee. Snake regarded her from his perch in
the groin of yellow leaf. They were about equal height you,
who she waved, meet you at the clapcle. Then she
(15:32):
stuck her tongue out the bulges in the belly of
the god, made a treacherous ledge along which she entered
until she arrived at the cavernous navel, leaving wet handprints
on the black stone the God's belly button. From this
intimate distance revealed itself as a circular door, about five
(15:53):
feet in diameter and controlled by a combination lock. She
missed the first number twice, dried her hands off, and
began again according to the plans in the main save
of the temple on which she had first practiced combination breaking.
There was a ladder behind this door which led up
(16:15):
into the statue. She remembered it clearly and saved her
life by doing so, because when she caught the second number,
reversed the direction and felt the telltale click of the third.
She pulled on the handle and was almost pushed from
the ledge by the swinging circular door. She grabbed at
(16:35):
a handle that she hardly saw on the doors inside,
just as the stone slipped from beneath her feet. Then
she was hanging five feet out in the air over
the sacred groin. Some fifty feet below. The first thing
she tried, after closing her eyes and mumbling a few
laws of motion, was to swing the door too. When
(16:59):
she swung out, however, the door swung close, and when
she swung in, the door swung opened. After a while,
she just hung. She gave small thanks that she had
dried her hands. When her arms began to ache, she
wished that she hadn't, because then it would be over
(17:20):
by now. She went over what she knew about taking
judo falls. Then the door swung closed and some one
grabbed her around the waist. She didn't open her eyes,
but she felt her body pressed against the tilting stone.
Her arms fell, tingling to her sides. The ligaments flamed
(17:41):
with pain. Then the pain dulled to throbbing, and she
opened her eyes. How the hell did you get down here,
she asked Snag. With his help, she staggered through the
open door and stopped to rub her arms. How did
you know about the ladder? They were standing in the
(18:02):
shaft now, with the ladder beside them, running up into
the darkness. He looked at her with a puzzled expression.
What is it? She asked, Oh, I'll be able to
climb up there never you worry. Hey, can you speak?
Snake shook his head. Oh, she said. Something started at
(18:23):
the edge of her mind again a picture of something unpleasant.
Snake had started up the ladder which he had come
down so quickly a minute ago. She glanced out the door, stopped,
saw that the temple was empty, pulled the door to
and followed. They ascended into complete darkness. Her arms were
(18:46):
beginning to ache again, just slightly. She reached up for
the next run and found it in his proper place.
Then the next, and then again the next. She started
counting steps now, and when seventy four, seventy five, and
seventy six dropped below her, there was a missing wrung.
(19:08):
She reached above it, but there was none. She ran
her hand up the edge of the ladder and found
that it suddenly curved into the wall. Hey, you, she said.
In the darkness, something touched her waist. She said, don't
do that. It touched her on the leg, took hold
(19:30):
of her ankle and pulled watch out, she said. It
pulled again. She raised her foot and it was tugged
sideways a good foot and a half and sat on
solid flooring. Then a hand her foot was not released,
took her arm, and another held her waist and tugged.
(19:51):
She stiffened for one instant before she remembered the number
of limbs her companion had. Then she came off the
ladder sideways into the dark, afraid to put her other
foot down lest she stepped headlong into the seventy five
foot plus shaft. But he tugged again, and and losing
(20:12):
her balance, her foot came down on cool, solid stone.
Holding her arm now he led her along the tunnel.
They passed into a steep incline. Now down the upper arm,
she recalled, I feel like you ridticy, She said aloud,
you funny. An echoing voice sounded in her skull. Hey,
(20:37):
she said, what was that? But the voice was silent.
The wall turned abruptly, and the floor leveled out. They
were in a section of the passage now that corresponded
roughly to the statue's radial artery. At the wrist, there
was a light. They mounted a stairway, came out a
(20:59):
trap door, and found themselves standing high in the temple.
Below them, the great room spread vastly deep and still empty.
Beside them, the stems of the bronze wheat stalks rose
up through the fist and spired another fifty feet before
breaking into clusters of golden grain and leaves across from
(21:21):
them over the dark curve of gargantuan chest. In the
statue's other hand, the shaft of the scythe leaned away
into shadow. Look, she said, you follow me now. She
started back along the top of the forearm, and then
began the tedious climb over the rippling biceps, till at
(21:44):
last they reached the broad shoulder. They walked across the
hollow above the collar bone until they stood just below
the great scooping shell of the air. She took the
paper bag she had stuffed into her belt, one end
of the string around the neck, and then holding the other,
(22:04):
she heaved the bag up and over the ear. She
got the other end of the string, knotted it as
high as she could reach, and gave it a tug.
I hope this works, she said, I had it all
figured out yesterday. The tensile strength of this stuff is
about two hundred and fifty pounds, which ought to do
(22:25):
for you and me. She planted her foot on the
swell of the neck tendon, and in seven leaps she
made it to the lobe of the ear. She swung
around into the hollow, using the front of a wing
as a pivot. Crouching in the hollow trumpet, she looked
down at Snake. Come up, she said, hurry up. Snake
(22:48):
joined her. A moment later. The ear was hollow too.
It led back into a cylindrical chamber which went up
through the head of the god. The architect who had
designed the statue had conveniently left the god's lid flipped.
They climbed the ladder and emerged amid the tangle of
pipes which represented the hair of the God. They made
(23:12):
their way forward through the mass of pipes to where
the forehead sloped dangerously forward. They could see the foreshortened
nose and the rim of the statue's mettle eye. Above that.
There wasn't much of anything after that for the next
thousand feet until the base of the altar. Now you
(23:33):
can really be some help, she told him. Hold on
to my wrist and let me down. I'll get the jewel.
They grabbed wrists and Snake's three other hands, as well
as the joints of his knees, locked around the base
of five pipes that sprouted around them Slowly, she slided
(23:53):
forward until her free hands slipped on the stone, and
she dropped the length of their two arms and swung
just above the statue's nose. The eye opened in front
of her. The lid arked above her, and the white
of either side of the ebony iris shone faintly in
the half darkness. At the center of the iris, in
(24:16):
a small hollow, sitting on the top of a metal support,
was the jewel. She reached her free hand toward it
as she swung. From somewhere a gong suddenly sounded, light
flooded over her. Looking up, she saw white sockets of
light shining down into her own eyes. Panicking, she almost
(24:38):
released Snake's wrist, but a voice in her head hers
or some one else's she couldn't tell, rang out hold on,
damn it. Then she grabbed the jewel. The metal shaft
in which the jewel had stood was not steady and
tilted as her hand came away from it. The tilting
(25:00):
must have set off some clockward mechanism, because the great
eyelid was slowly lowering over the ivory and ebony eye.
She swung again at the end of the rope of
bone and flesh. Half blinded by the lights above her,
she looked over her shoulder into the temple below. There
(25:22):
was singing the beginning of a processional hymn. The morning
rights had started. Light glinted on the stone. Limbs of
the god. Figures were pouring into the temple. They must
have seen her, but the hem sonoris and gigantic rose
like flood water, and she suddenly thought that if she fell,
(25:43):
she would drown. In the sound of it. Snake was
pulling her up stone against her arm, against her cheek,
she clinched her other fist tightly at her side. Another
hand came down and helped pull her, then another. Then
she was lying among the metal pipes, and he was
loosening her fingers from his wrist. He tugged her to
(26:05):
her feet, and for a moment she was looking out
over the now filled temple. Nervous energy contracted coldly along
her body, and the sudden sight of the great drop
filled her eyes and her head, and she staggered. Snake
caught her and at last helped her back to the ladder.
We've got it, she said to him, before they started down.
(26:29):
She breathed deeply, Then she checked in her palm to
see if it was still there. It was, and again
she looked out over the people below. Light on the
upturned faces made them look like scattered pearls on the
dark floor. An exultation suddenly burst in her shoulders, fluttered
(26:49):
her legs and arms, and for a moment washed the
pain away. Snake with one hand on her shoulder was grunning. Also,
we've got it, she said again. They went down the
ladder into the statue's skull. Snake preceded her out the
hollow ear. He reached around, caught the cord, and let
(27:11):
himself down to the shoulder. She hesitated for a moment,
then put the jewel in her mouth and followed him.
Standing beside him once more, she removed it and then
rubbed her shoulders. Boy, am I going to have some
charley horse by tomorrow? She said? Do me a favor,
and on tie my bag for me. Snake untied the
(27:34):
parcel from the end of the court, and together now
they climbed down the bicep and back over the forearm
to the trap door in the wrist. She glanced down
at the faces of the worshippers just before they disappeared
into the tunnel. Snake was taking the jewel from her hand.
She let him have it and watched him raise it
up above his head. Immediately when he raised the jewel,
(27:57):
the pearls of faces went out like extinguished flames as
heads bent all through the temple. That's the ticket, grinned, Argo,
come on, But Snake did not go into the tunnel. Instead,
he walked around the fist, took hold of one of
the bronze wheat stems, and slid down through an opening
(28:20):
between the thumb and forefinger that way, asked Argo, Oh, well,
I guess so you know I'm going to write an
epic about this. But Snake had already gone. She followed him,
clutching her feet around a great bunch of stems. He
was waiting for her at the plateau of leaves, and
(28:40):
nestled There they gazed out once more at the fascinated congregation. Again,
Snake held aloft the jewel, and again heads bowed. The
hem began to repeat itself, the individual words lost in
the sonority of the hall. They started down the last
length of stems, now coming quickly. When they stood at
(29:04):
last on the base, she put her hand on his
shoulder and looked across the brass altar rail. The congregation
pressed close. Although she did not recognize an individual face,
yet a mass of people stood there, enormous and familiar.
As Snake started forward holding up the jewel, the people
(29:25):
fell back from the rail. Snake climbed over the altar
rail and then helped her over. Her shoulders were beginning
to hurt now, and the enormity of the theft ran
chills up and down, up and down her spine. The
black marble altered step as she put her foot down
(29:46):
was awfully cold. They started forward again, and the last
note of the hemp echoed to silence, filling the hall
with the roaring quiet of the hushed breathing of hundreds. Simultaneously,
both she and Snake got the urge to look back
at the great, diminishing height of Hama behind them. All
(30:08):
three eyes were shut firmly. Now, a quiet composed of
the rustling of a hundred dark robes upon another hundred
hissed about them. As they started forward again, there was
a spotlight on them. She suddenly realized that was why
the people hovering back from the circular effulgence over the
(30:31):
floor around them seemed so dim her heart had become
a pulse at the bottom of her tongue. They kept
on going forward into the shadowed faces, into the parting
sea of dark cloaks and hoods. Then the last of
the figures stepped aside from the temple door, and she
could see the sunlight out in the garden. They stood
(30:54):
still for a moment, Snake holding high the jewel. Then
they burst forward out through the door and down over
the bright steps. Instantly, the hem began again behind them,
as if their departure had been a signal. The music
flooded after them, and when they reached the bottom step,
(31:14):
they both whirled, crouching like animals, expecting the congregation to
come welling darkly out after them. But there was only
the music flowing into the light, washing around them, a
transparent river, a sea. Freeze the drop in the hand,
and break the earth with singing hail. The height of
(31:36):
a man and also the height of a woman. Over
the music came a brittle chirping from the trees. Fixed
with fear, they watched the temple door as the hemp progressed.
Then Snake suddenly stood up straight and grinned. She scratched
her red hair, shifted her weight and looked at snake.
(31:58):
I guess they're not coming, she said, sounding almost disappointed.
Then she giggled, well, I guess we got it. Don't move,
repeated Hama incarnate. Now look, began Urson. You are perfectly safe,
the god continued, unless you do anything foolish. You have
(32:21):
shown great wisdom. Continue to show it. I have a
lot to explain to you, Like what, asked Geo, I'll
start with the lizards, smiled the God. Thou what asked Jemmy?
The singing lizards said hammah. You walk through a grove
of trees. Just a few minutes ago, you had just
(32:44):
been through a series of happenings that was probably the
most frightening in your life. Suddenly you heard a singing
in the trees. What was it? I thought it was
a bad Jemmy said. But why a bird, asked the god.
Because that's what a bird sounds like, stated Urson, impatiently.
(33:07):
Who needs an old lizard singing to them on a
morning like this? Your second point is much better than
your first, said the God. You do not need a lizard,
but you did need a bird. A bird means spring life,
good luck, cheerfulness. You think of a bird's singing, and
(33:29):
you think of thoughts that men have been thinking for
thousands upon thousands of years. Poets have written of it
in every language. Catalusts in Latin, Keats in English, Lispot
in Chinese, Darnel x twenty four in New English. You
(33:49):
expected a bird, because after what you had been through,
you needed to hear a bird. Lizards run from under
wet rocks, scurry over gravestones. A lizard is not what
you needed. So what do lizards have to do with
why we're here? Demanded Urson? Why are you here? Repeated
(34:14):
the God, subtly changing Erson's question. There are many reasons,
I am sure you tell me some of them. You
have done wrongs to Argo, at least to Argo of Leptar.
Geo explained, we have come to undo them. You have
kidnapped the young Argo as well as her mother. Apparently
(34:37):
we have come to take her back. You have misused
the jewels. We have come to take the last one
from you, Hamma smiled. Only a poet could see the
wisdom in such an honesty. I thought I might have
to wheedle to get that much out of you. I
guess it was pretty certain that you knew that much already.
(34:59):
Geo said, true, answered Hama. Then his tone changed. Do
you know how the jewels work? They shook their heads.
They are basically very simple mechanical contrivances which are difficult
in execution but simple in concept. I will explain human thoughts.
(35:21):
It was discovered after the Great Fire during the first
glorious years of the City of New Hope, did not
produce waves similar to radio waves, but the electrical synapse
pattern it was found can be read by radio waves
in the same way a mind detector reads the existence
of metal radio Geo said, that's right. Hama said, oh,
(35:47):
I forgot. You don't know anything about that at all. Well,
I can't go through the whole thing now. Suffice it
to say that each of the jewels contains a carefully
honed crystal which is constantly sending out beams which can
read these thought patterns. Also, the crystal acts like a
(36:08):
magnifying glass or a mirror and reflects and magnifies the
energy from the brain into heat or light or any
other kind of electromagnetic radiation. There I go again, so
that you can send great bolts of heat with them
as you have seen done. But the actual workings of
(36:31):
them are not important, and their ability to send heat
out is only their secondary power. Their primary importance is
that they can be used to penetrate the mind. Now
we come to the lizards. Wait a minute, Geo said,
before we get to the lizards, do you mean go
(36:52):
into minds like snake does. Suddenly he remembered that the
boy was not there, But the god went on like snake,
he said, but different. Snake was born with the ability
to transmute the brain patterns of his thoughts to others.
In that he has a power of something like the jewels.
(37:14):
But nowhere is strong. But with the jewels, you can
jam a person's thoughts. Just go into his mind and
stop him from thinking, asked Jemmy. No, said the god
conscious thought is too powerful, otherwise you would stop thinking
every time Snake spoke to you. It works another way.
(37:39):
How many reasons does a man have for any single action?
They looked at him uncomprehendingly. Why, for example, does a
man pull his hand from a fire because it hurts,
said Urson? Why else? Yes? Why else? Hama, I think
(38:02):
I us see what you mean, said Emmy. He also
pulls it out because he knows that outside the fire,
his hand isn't going to hurt like the bird, I
mean the lizard. One reason we reacted like we did
was because it sounded like a bird. The other reason
was because we wanted to hear a bird. Just then,
(38:26):
the man pulls his hand out because the fire hurts,
and because he wants it not to hurt. In other words, geosummarized,
there are at least two reasons for everything, exactly explained
Hamah and noticed that one of these reasons is unconscious.
(38:48):
But with the jewel you can jam the unconscious reason,
so that if a man has his hand in a fire,
you can jam his unconscious reason of wanting it to
stop hurting. Completely bewildered and in no less pain, he
will stand there until his wrist is a smoking nub.
(39:09):
Geo reached over and felt his severed arm. Dictators during
the entire history of this planet have used similar techniques.
By not letting the people of their country know what
conditions existed outside their boundaries, they could get the people
to fight to stay in those conditions. It was the
(39:30):
old adage, convince a slave that he's free, and he
will fight to maintain his slavery. Why does a poet
say because he likes music because silence frightens him. Why
is a thief steel to get the goods from his victim,
also to prove that his victim cannot get him. That's
(39:54):
how Argo got snake back, Geo said to Urson. I
see now, he was just thinking of running away, and
she jammed his desire not to get caught, so he
had nothing to direct him in which direction to run,
so he ran where she told him straight back to her.
(40:14):
That's right, Hama said. But something else was learned when
these jewels were invented, or rather a lesson which history
should have taught us thousands of years ago, was finally
driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other
men and still retain his own mind, for no matter
(40:37):
how good his intentions are, when he takes up the power,
his alternate reason is that freedom, the freedom of the people,
and ultimately his own, terrifies him. Only a man afraid
of freedom would want this power, would conceive of wielding it,
and that fear of freedom will turn him into a
(40:59):
slave of this power. For this reason, the jewels are evil.
That is why we have summoned you distilled them from us.
Distill them from you, asked Geo. Why couldn't you have
simply destroyed them when you had them? We have already
(41:20):
been infected, smiled the God. We are a small band
here on Apdor. To reach the state of organization to
collect the scattered scientific knowledge of the times before the
Great Fire was not easy. Too often the jewels have
been used and abuse, and now we cannot destroy it.
(41:42):
We would have to destroy ourselves. First. We kidnapped Argo
and left you the second jewel, hoping that you would
come after the third and last one. Now you have come,
and now the jewel is being stolen. Snake asked Geo.
That's right, replied Hammah. But I thought he was your spy.
(42:05):
Geo said that he is our spy. Is his unconscious
reason for his actions, explained Hammah. He is aware only
that he is working against the evil he had seen,
and Jordy spy is too harsh a word for him,
say rather little thief. He became a spy for us
(42:27):
quite unwittingly when he was on the island as a
child with Geordie. I have explained something to you of
how the mind works. We have machines that can duplicate
what Snake does in a similar way that the jewels work.
This is how the blind priestesses contacted Geordie and made
(42:48):
him their spy. This is how we reached Snake. But
he never saw us, never even really talked to us.
It was mainly because of something he saw, something he
saw when he first got here. Wait a minute, Jimmy said,
Jodie wanted to kill me and did kill Whitey because
(43:11):
it's something we might have seen. I bet this was
the same thing. Now, what was it? Hamma smiled, my
telling you would do no good. Perhaps you can find
out from Snake or my daughter Argo incarnate. But what
do we do now, Geo interrupted, Take the jewels back
(43:34):
to Argo. I mean Argo on the ship. She's already
used the jewels to control mines Edle's snakes, so that
means she's infected too. Once you guess the reason for
her infection, said Hama, We have been watching you on
our screens since you landed. Do you remember what the
reason was? Do you mean her being jealous of her sister?
(43:59):
Geo asked yes. On one side, her motives were truly
patriotic for Leptar. On the other they were selfish ones
of power seeking. But without the selfish ones she would
have never gotten so far as she did. You must
bring young Argo back and give the infection a chance
(44:20):
to work itself out. But what about the jewels, asked Geo.
All three of them will be together. Isn't that a
huge temptation. Some one must meet this temptation and overcome it,
said Hama. You do not know how much danger they
are in while they are here on Aptor. Even if
(44:42):
the final danger is only delayed, that delay will make
it safer to bring them to Leptar. Suddenly, Hama turned
to the screens and pushed the switch to on position.
The opeque glass was filled with a picture of the
interior of the temple. On the huge st A spotlight
was following two microscopic figures over the statue's shoulder. They
(45:06):
were climbing over the statue's elbow. Hama increased the size.
It was two people, not bugs, climbing down the gigantic
sculptured figure. They made their way along the statue's forearm,
now to the golden stalks of wheat in the god's
black fist. One and then the other began to shimmy
(45:27):
down the stems. They arrived at the base and climbed
over the rail. The screen enlarged again. It's Snake, said Geo,
and he's got the jewel. Person added, that's Auga with him.
Jimmy put in, I mean one of the ogoes. They
(45:48):
clustered around the screen, watching the congregation give way before
the two fearful children, the red haired girl and the
short white tunic was holding onto Snake's shoulder. Suddenly, Hamah
turned the picture off and they looked away from the screen,
now puzzled. So you see, said the god. The jewel
(46:09):
has already been stolen. For the sake of Argo and
of Hama. Carry the jewels back to Leptar. Young Argo
will help you, though her mother and I are pained
to see her go. She is as prepared for the
journey as you are. If not more, will you do it?
(46:29):
I will, Jimmy said me too, said Geo. I guess so,
person said good, smiled Hamah. Then come with me. He
turned from the screen and walked through the door. They
followed him down the long stairway, past the stone walls,
into the hall, and along the back of the church.
(46:52):
He walked slowly and smiled like a man who had
waited long for something finally arrived. They turned out of
the temple and ascended the bright steps. I wonder where
the kids are, person asked, but Hama led them on
across the broad garden to where the great black urns
sat in a row close to a wall of shrubbery.
(47:15):
A woman, old Argo, suddenly joined them. She had apparently
been waiting for them. She gave them a silent smile
of recognition, and they continued across the garden path. Light
fell through the shrubbery across her white tunic, and snakes
bare back As they crouched over the entraption of coils
and metal. She twisted two pages of wire together and
(47:38):
a final connection as Snake placed the jewel on an
improvised thermo couple. Then they bent over it and both
concentrated their thoughts on the bead. The thermo couple glowed
red and electricity jumped in the copper veins, turning the
metal bone into a magnet. The armature tugged once around
its pivot, and then tugged around once more. Finally it
(48:03):
was whipping around steadily. The brushes on its shaft, reversing
the magnetic poles. With each half circle of the arc,
it gained speed until it whirred into an invisible copper
haze between them. Hey, she breathed, look at it go.
Will you just look at it go? And the young
(48:24):
thieves crouched over the humming motor, oblivious to the eyes
of the elder gods that smiled at them from the
edge of the green shift of shadow and sunlight by
the side of the marble urn. End of chapter ten.
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