The pony7 spread its legs, dropped its head; through the hurricane roaring its screaming pierced thinly, that agonizing8, terrible lamentation9 which is of the horse and the horse alone when the limit of its endurance is reached.
Ventnor crouched10 lower and lower, eyes shielded behind arms folded over his brows, straining for a glimpse of Ruth; Drake crouched beside him, bracing11 him, supporting him against the tempest.
Our line of flight became less abrupt12, but the speed increased, the wind-pressure became almost insupportable. I twisted, dropped upon my right arm, thrust my head against my shoulder, stared backward. When first I had looked upon the place I had sensed its immensity; now I began to realize how vast it must really be — for already the gateway13 through which we had come glimmered14 far away on high, shrunk to a hoop15 of incandescent16 brass17 and dwindling18 fast.
Nor was it a cavern19; I saw the stars, traced with deep relief the familiar Northern constellations20. Pit it might be, but whatever terror, whatever ordeals21 were before us, we would not have to face them buried deep within earth. There was a curious comfort to me in the thought.
Suddenly stars and sky were blotted22 out.
We had plunged23 beneath the surface of the radiant sea.
Lying in the position in which I was, I was sensible of a diminution24 of the cyclonic25 force; the blast streamed up and over the front of the cube. To me drifted only the wailings of our flight and the whimpering terror of the pony.
I turned my head cautiously. Upon the very edge of the flying blocks squatted26 Drake and Ventnor, grotesquely27 frog-like. I crawled toward them — crawled, literally28, like a caterpillar29; for wherever my body touched the surface of the cubes the attracting force held it, allowed a creeping movement only, surface sliding upon surface — and weirdly31 enough like a human measuring-worm I looped myself over to them,
As my bare palms clung to the Things I realized with finality that whatever their activation32, their life, they WERE metal.
There was no mistaking now the testimony33 of touch. Metal they were, with a hint upon contact of highly polished platinum34, or at the least of a metal as finely grained as it.
Also they had temperature, a curiously35 pleasant warmth — the surfaces were, I judged, around ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit36. I looked deep down into the little sparkling points that were, I knew, organs of sight; they were like the points of contact of innumerable intersecting crystal planes. They held strangest paradoxical suggestion of being close to the surface and still infinite distances away.
And they were like — what was it they were like? — it came to me with a distinct shock.
They were like the galaxies37 of little aureate and sapphire38 stars in the clear gray heavens of Norhala’s eyes.
I crept beside Drake, struck him with my head.
“Can’t move,” I shouted. “Can’t lift my hands. Stuck fast — like a fly — just as you said.”
“Drag ’em over your knees,” he cried, bending to me. “It slides ’em out of the attraction.”
Acting30 as he had suggested I found to my astonishment39 I could slip my hands free; I caught his belt, tried to lift myself by it.
“No use, Doc.” The old grin lightened for a moment his tense young face. “You’ll have to keep praying till the power’s turned off. Nothing here you can slide your knees on.”
I nodded, waddling40 close to his side; then sank back on my haunches to relieve the strain upon my aching leg-muscles.
“Can you see them ahead, Walter — Ruth and the woman?” Ventnor turned his anxious eyes toward me.
I peered into the glimmering41 murk; shook my head. I could see nothing. It was indeed, as though the clustered cubes sped within a bubble of the now wanly42 glistening43 vapors44; or rather as though in our passage — as a projectile45 does in air — we piled before us a thick wave of the mists which streaming along each side, closing in behind, obscured all that lay around.
Yet I had, persistently46, the feeling that beyond these shroudings was vast and ordered movement; marchings and counter-marchings of hosts greater even than those Golden Hordes47 of Genghis which ages agone had washed about the outer bases of the very peaks that hid this place. Came, too, flitting shadowings of huge shapes, unnameable, moving swiftly beside our way; gleamings that thrust themselves through the veils like wheeling javelins48 of flame.
And always, always, everywhere that constant movement, rhythmic49, terrifying — like myriads50 of feet of creatures of an unseen, stranger world marking time just outside the threshold of our own. Preparing, DRILLING there in some wide vestibule of space between the known and the unknown, alert and menacing — poised51 for the signal which would send them pouring over it.
Once again I seemed to stand upon the brink52 of an abyss of incredible revelation, striving helplessly, struggling for realization53 — and so struggling became aware that our speed was swiftly slackening, the roaring blast dying down, the veils before us thinning.
They cleared away. I saw Drake and Ventnor straighten up; raised myself to my own aching knees.
We were at one end of a vortex, a funneling54 within the radiant vapors; a funnel55 whose further end a mile ahead broadened out into a huge circle, its mistily56 outlined edges impinging upon the towering scarp of the — city. It was as though before us lay, upon its side, a cone57 of crystalline clear air against whose curved sides some radiant medium heavier than air, lighter58 than water, pressed.
The top arc of its prostrate59 base reached a thousand feet or more up the precipitous wall; above it all was hidden in sparkling nebulosities that were like still clouds of greenly glimmering fire-flies. Back from the curving sides of this cone, above it and below it, the pressing luminosities stretched into, it seemed, infinite distances.
Through them, suddenly, thousands of bright beams began to dart60, to dance, weaving and interweaving, shooting hither and yon — like myriads of great searchlights in a phosphorescent sea fog, like countless61 lances of the aurora62 thrusting through its own iridescent63 veils! And in the play of these beams was something appallingly64 ordered, appallingly rhythmic.
It was — how can I describe it? — PURPOSEFUL; purposeful as the geometric shiftings of the Little Things of the ruins, of the summoning song of Norhala, of the Protean65 changes of the Smiting66 Shape and the Following Thing; and like all of these it was as laden67 with that baffling certainty of hidden meanings, of messages that the brain recognized as such yet knew it never could read.
The rays seemed to spring upward from the earth. Now they were like countless lances of light borne by marching armies of Titans; now they crossed and angled and flew as though they were clouds of javelins hurled68 by battling swarms69 of the Genii of Light. And now they stood upright while through them, thrusting them aside, bending them, passed vast, vague shapes like mountains forming and dissolving; like darkening monsters of some world of light pushing through thick forests of slender, high-reaching trees of cold flame; shifting shadows of monstrous70 chimerae slipping through jungles of bamboo with trunks of diamond fire; phantasmal leviathans swimming through brakes of giant reeds of radiance rising from the sparking ooze71 of a sea of star shine.
Whence came the force, the mechanism72 that produced this cone of clarity, this NOT searchlight, but unlight in the midst of light? Not from behind, that was certain — for turning I saw that behind us the mist was as thick. I turned again — it came to me, why I knew not, yet with an absolute certainty, that the energy, the force emanated73 from the distant wall itself.
The funnel, the cone, did not expand from where we were standing74, now motionless.
It began at the wall and focused upon us.
Within the great circle the surface of the wall was smooth, utterly75 blank; upon it was no trace of those flitting lights we had seen before we had plunged down toward the radiant sea. It shone with a pale blue phosphorescence. It was featureless, smooth, a blind cliff of polished, blue metal — and that was all.
“Ruth!” groaned76 Ventnor. “Where is she?”
Aghast at my mental withdrawal77 from him, angry at myself for my callousness78, awkwardly I tried to crawl over to him, to touch him, comfort him as well as I might.
And then, as though his cry had been a signal, the great cone began to move. Slowly the circled base slipped down the shimmering79 facades80; down, steadily81 down; I realized that we had paused at the edge of some steep declivity82, for the bottom of the cone was now at a decided83 angle while the upper edge of the circle had dropped a full two hundred feet below the place where it had rested — and still it fell.
There came a gasp84 of relief from Ventnor, a sigh from Drake while, from my own heart, a weight rolled. Not ten yards ahead of us and still deep within the luminosity had appeared the regal head of Norhala, the lovely head of Ruth. The two rose out of the glow like swimmers floating from the depths. Now they were clear before us, and now we could see the surface of the cube on which they rode.
But neither turned to us; each stared straightly, motionless along the axis85 of the sinking cone, the woman’s left arm holding Ruth close to her side.
Drake’s hand caught my shoulder in a grip that hurt — nor did he need to point toward that which had wrung86 the exclamation87 from him. The funnel had broken from its slow falling; it had made one swift, startling drop and had come to rest. Its recumbent side was now flattened88 into a triangular89 plane, widening from the narrow tip in which we stood to all of five hundred feet where its base rested against the blue wall, and falling at a full thirty-degree pitch.
The misty-edged circle had become an oval, a flattened ellipse another five hundred feet high and three times that in length. And in its exact center, shining forth90 as though it opened into a place of pale azure91 incandescence92 was another rectangular Cyclopean portal.
On each side of it, in the apparently93 solid face of the gleaming, metallic94 cliffs, a slit95 was opening.
They began as thin lines a hundred yards in height through which the intense light seemed to hiss96; quickly they opened — widening like monstrous cat pupils until at last, their widening ceasing, they glared forth, the blue incandescence gushing97 from them like molten steel from an opened sluice98.
Deep within them I sensed a movement. Scores of towering shapes swam within and glided99 out of them, each reflecting the vivid light as though they themselves were incandescent. Around their crests100 spun101 wide and flaming coronets.
They rushed forth, wheeling, whirling, driven like leaves in a whirlwind. Out they swirled102 from the cat’s eyes of the glimmering wall, these dervish obelisks103 crowded with spinning fires. They vanished in the mists. Instantly with their going, the eyes contracted; were but slits104; were gone. And before us within the oval was only the waiting portal.
The leading block leaped forward. As abruptly105, those that bore us followed. Again under that strain of projectile flight we clutched each other; the pony screamed in terror. The metal cliff rushed to meet us like a thunder cloud of steel; the portal raced upon us — a square mouth of cold blue flame.
And into it we swept; were devoured106 by it.
Light in blinding, intolerable flood beat about us, blackening the sight with agony. We pressed, the three of us, against the side of the pony, burying our faces in its shaggy coat, striving to hide our eyes from the radiance which, strain closely as we might, seemed to pierce through the body of the little beast, through our own heads, searing the sight.
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1
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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shrilled
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| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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agonizing
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| adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式) | |
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lamentation
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| n.悲叹，哀悼 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
hoop
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| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
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incandescent
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| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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18
dwindling
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| adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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19
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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20
constellations
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| n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人） | |
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ordeals
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| n.严峻的考验，苦难的经历( ordeal的名词复数 ) | |
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blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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23
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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24
diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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cyclonic
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| adj.气旋的，飓风的 | |
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26
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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grotesquely
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| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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caterpillar
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| n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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weirdly
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| 古怪地 | |
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activation
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| n. 激活，催化作用 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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platinum
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| n.白金 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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Fahrenheit
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| n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的) | |
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galaxies
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| 星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物） | |
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38
sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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waddling
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| v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的现在分词 ) | |
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41
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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42
wanly
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| adv.虚弱地；苍白地，无血色地 | |
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43
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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44
vapors
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| n.水汽，水蒸气，无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 )；自夸者；幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁（症）v.自夸，（使）蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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45
projectile
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| n.投射物，发射体；adj.向前开进的；推进的；抛掷的 | |
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persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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javelins
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| n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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49
rhythmic
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| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
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50
myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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51
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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52
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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53
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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54
funneling
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| [医]成漏斗形：描述膀胱底及膀胱尿道交接区 | |
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funnel
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| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
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56
mistily
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| adv.有雾地，朦胧地，不清楚地 | |
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cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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58
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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59
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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60
dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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61
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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aurora
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| n.极光 | |
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iridescent
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| adj.彩虹色的，闪色的 | |
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64
appallingly
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| 毛骨悚然地 | |
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protean
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| adj.反复无常的；变化自如的 | |
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66
smiting
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的现在分词 ) | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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68
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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70
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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71
ooze
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| n.软泥，渗出物；vi.渗出，泄漏；vt.慢慢渗出，流露 | |
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72
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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73
emanated
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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74
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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76
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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77
withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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78
callousness
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79
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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80
facades
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| n.（房屋的）正面( facade的名词复数 )；假象，外观 | |
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81
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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82
declivity
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| n.下坡，倾斜面 | |
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83
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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84
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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85
axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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86
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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87
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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88
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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triangular
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| adj.三角（形）的，三者间的 | |
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90
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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92
incandescence
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| n.白热，炽热；白炽 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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94
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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95
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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96
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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97
gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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98
sluice
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| n.水闸 | |
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99
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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100
crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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101
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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102
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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103
obelisks
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| n.方尖石塔，短剑号，疑问记号( obelisk的名词复数 ) | |
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104
slits
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| n.狭长的口子，裂缝( slit的名词复数 )v.切开，撕开( slit的第三人称单数 )；在…上开狭长口子 | |
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105
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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106
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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