jolting of their travois; but as the column neared the city so its structure began to stand out more clearly. And now they could see how Thalarion's legend had grown; at least the legends of its architecture and design.
Certainly from afar-from passing ships, perhaps-the shunned city would seem a place of towering spires and awesomely carved turrets; but in fact its spires were thin and unevenly built, and they only seemed of a great height by virtue of their slender construction. Close up they looked pitted and crumbly and not at all safe. The lower areas of the city were gray, sprawling, humped and oddly hybrid; so that the whole gave the impression of having been designed by men but built by-
'Termites!" said Eldin, and Hero managed to nod his agreement.
"Well," the older dreamer continued, "that may answer one question, but it most certainly leads to another."
"Oh' said Hero.
Eldin nodded in his turn. "What do they want with us?"
Hero fought against his bonds for a moment, uselessly, then did his best to shrug. "We'll soon find out, old lad," he said. 'Too damned soon, I fancy."
In a little while the column passed under a domed arch into Thalarion's musty maze of covered streets and passageways. The pony-like beasts with their loads of leaves were led away separately and the handmaidens disappeared along strangely sculpted tunnels toward unknown destinations. As for the dreamers: they were taken into the very heart of the hive, and as they went Hero commented on the city's inner illumination, a pale blue light which flickered from the domed, papery-looking ceilings.
"See," he said. "There are no real lights-no burning lights, that is. The place is lit by the luminous glow of fungi. It's quite obvious that the Lathi's brood don't much care for fire."
"They wouldn't," Eldin grunted. "Hell, the place is built of paper! Look mere-"
One of the walls of the tunnel had developed a crack from floor to ceiling. Specialized Ter-men were at work, exuding a paste from hugely enlarged fingertips, filling the crack with stuff which quickly hardened into a sort of papier-mache. "That explains their lack of good old asses," said Eldin. "No waste in Thalarion."
"Asses?" Hero looked blank.
"Eh? Didn't I tell your' Eldin asked. "They're not only short on marriage-tackle, they've also missed out in waste disposal. As we know it, anyway."
Hero grimaced. "You mean to tell me this place is built of-"
"Yes, of a sort," Eldin cut him off. "If you want to put it that way. And because this place is made of-er, paper-they can't use fire. They know fire, however, and fearing it mightily they use it as a threat against the Tree."
"We should burn this damned place down to the ground," Hero snarled, in answer to which Eldin gave a frustrated grunt.
"Oh, yes-and we'll snap the sparks from our fingers, shall we?"
Before Hero could answer, the older dreamer said: "Ah, now! We appear to have arrived at our destination, wherever that may be."
They were dragged from the travois and the beasts were led away. Now Ter-men came up and employed their fingertips in melting away the dreamers' cocoons. They were then given loincloths which they gratefully donned. Four more Ter-men, warriors by their looks, herded them through an archway into a large room which positively glowed with fungous light.
Just inside the archway, the Ter-men paused to hurl Hero and Eldin to the floor. Then they themselves fell to their knees, bowing their heads to the floor in seeming obeisance. From their kneeling positions the dreamers looked about the room, each of them risking a crack on the head from the scythes in the hands of the Ter-men. The place was thronging with handmaidens, and a wide flight of spongy steps led up to a dais against the far wall.
There, atop the dais and flanked by curtained passages, the eidolon Lathi gazed out across her royal chamber. And Lathi was no cold idol. Bathing in a warm glow which had its source at the top of her high throne's backrest, she looked at the dreamers-particularly at Hero-for long moments, then said: "Welcome, strangers, welcome to Thalarion. Now get up, up-and come to me. We so rarely have visitors ..."
Her voice, however alien, was full of strange promise and heavy with dreamland's accents. But her face, her body-or at least those parts the dreamers could see of it-was young and indescribably beautiful. As they climbed the wide flight of steps Hero was unable to take his eyes off her. At last