lue, now faded,
pearled, thinned, until each of the three still gliding before him were
opalescent columns without definite form.

Ashe's grasp fell on Ross's arm once more, and his whisper reached the
younger man thinly. "They are mistresses of illusion. Be prepared not to
believe all that you see."

Mistresses--Ross caught that first. Women, or at least female then.
Illusion, yes, already he was convinced that here his eyes could play
tricks on him. He could hardly determine what was robe, what was wall,
or if more than shades of shades swept before him.

Another blank wall, then an opening, and flowing through it to touch him
such a wave of alienness that Ross felt he was buffeted by a storm wind.
Yet as he hesitated before it, reluctant in spite of Ashe's hold to go
ahead, he also knew that this did not carry with it the cold hostility
he had known while facing the Baldies. Alien--yes. Inimical to his
kind--no.

"You are right, younger brother."

Spoken those words--or forming in his mind?

Ross was in a place which was sheer wonder. Under his feet dark
blue--the blue of a Terran sky at dusk--caught up in it twinkling points
of light as if he strode, not equal with stars, but above them!
Walls--were there any walls here? Or shifting, swaying blue curtains on
which silvery lines ran to form symbols and words which some bemused
part of his brain almost understood, but not quite.

Constant motion, no quiet, until he came to a place where those swaying
curtains were stilled, where he no longer strode above the sky but on
soft surface, a mat of gray living sod where his steps released a spicy
fragrance. And there he really saw the Foanna for the first time.

Where had their cloaks gone? Had they tossed them away during that walk
or drift across this amazing room, or had the substance which had formed
those coverings flowed away by itself? As Ross looked at the three in
wonder he knew that he was seeing them as not even their servants and
guards ever viewed them. And yet was he seeing them as they really were
or as they wished him to see them?

"As we are, younger brother, as we are!" Again an answer which Ross was
not sure was thought or speech.

In form they were humanoid, and they were undoubtedly women. The
muffling cloaks gone, they wore sleeveless garments of silver which were
girded at the waist with belts of blue gems. Only in their hair and
their eyes did they betray alien blood. For the hair which fl