low like moonfire.

Again, as it had been with that oval door in Monta Park, there was
baffling suggestion of unmechanical movement.

The stone block did not slide, roll, or swing open. It gave a slight
quiver and dissolved.

Songeen stepped through its aperture and the inner darkness of the
building claimed her. Reluctantly, Newlin followed--caught as much by
curiosity as driven by the yelping spectres of pursuit.

No light entered the building from any source. It was dark as the pits
of Ganymede or the under-surface laboratories of Pluto. It was dense and
tangible as a block of black crystal. Newlin could see nothing, not even
Songeen. And there was an alien _feel_ to the interior.

He was aware that Songeen operated some hidden mechanism, and that the
door, though he could not see it, was replaced.

"Now, for the moment, we are safe," she said slowly. "They cannot enter
here."

Newlin shrugged bitterly. "It's all one. They can't enter and we don't
dare go out. So we stay here and die of thirst. If you were really a
top-rung witch, you'd think of details like air, food and water."

Songeen's laugh was a ripple of eery crystal in the darkness.

"How did you guess I was a witch?" she asked whimsically. "But we need
not die here. Not unless you prefer to die among surroundings familiar
to you. There is another way out. If we dare take it. For me, it will be
simple. For you--"

"Not so simple, eh? You paint an interesting picture. Like one I once
saw on Mars, in the Gneiss Gallery. 'Nocturne--Venusport,' it was
titled. Beautiful. Dark purple background, the city seemed like
fountains of flowering stars. It's not like that, not from the places
I've seen it. Filth and dirt, people dying from poverty, disease or
violence. Just a comparison. How close does your picture match the
reality?"

"Close enough. You're a strange man, full of contradictions. I think
you're only slightly mad. But for anyone, the way I could take you would
be difficult. The pathway leads to my own world. To you--or anyone, not
native--it will seem madness. Something of it you saw in the tower."

Around him in the darkness, he was conscious of her swift movements. She
seemed untroubled by the lack of light. Neither by vision or hearing
could he distinguish anything, but he sensed activity.

Then, suddenly, as if she had uncovered a cache of implements and struck
a fire, radiance spread around her. Its source was not definite, and it
sprea