bodies, their limbs
and faces. It covered them like a veil until they appeared to be six
statues, white as cold marble, there on the blue moss.

Lhar's petals lifted and closed again. She swayed toward me, her mind
sending a message into mine.

"The Other has no refuge now," she told me. "I have slain the--the
girls."

"They're dead?" My lips were dry.

"What semblance of life they had left is now gone. The Other cannot
use them again."

Lhar swayed toward me. A cool tentacle swept out, pressing lightly on
my forehead. Another touched my breast, above the heart.

"I give you of my strength," Lhar said. "It will be as shield and
buckler to you. The rest of the way you must go alone...."

Into me tide of power flowed. I sank into cool depths, passionless and
calm. Something was entering my body, my mind and soul, drowning my
fears, stiffening my resolve.

Strength of Lhar was now my strength!

The tentacles dropped away, their work done. The robot's cilia
signalled and Lhar said, "Your way lies there. That temple--do you see
it?"

I saw it. Far in the distance, half shrouded by the fog, a scarlet
structure, not ruined like the others, was visible.

"You will find the Other there. Slay the last Indio, then destroy the
Other."

I had no doubt now of my ability to do that. A new power seemed to
lift me from my feet, send me running across the moss. Once I glanced
back, to see Lhar and her robot standing motionless, watching me.

The temple enlarged as I came nearer. It was built of the same reddish
stone as the other ruined blocks I had seen. But erosion had weathered
its harsh angles till nothing now remained but a rounded, smoothly
sculptured monolith, twenty feet tall, shaped like a rifle shell.

A doorway gaped in the crimson wall. I paused for a moment on the
threshold. In the dimness within a shadow stirred. I stepped forward,
finding myself in a room that was tall and narrow, the ceiling hidden
in gloom. Along the walls were carvings I could not clearly see. They
gave a suggestion of inhuman beings that watched.

It was dark but I could see the Indio girl who had been Miranda Valle.
Her eyes were on me, and, even through the protecting armor of Lhar
strength; I could feel their terrible power.

The life in the girl was certainly not human!

"Destroy her!" my mind warned. "Destroy her! Quickly!"

But as I hesitated a veil of darkness seemed to fall upon me. Utter cold,
a frigidity as of outer s