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Exam Practice!
True/False Problems
1. T
2. F
3. T
4. T
5. F
6. T
7. T
Multiple Choice Problems
8. (b)
9. (a)
10. (d)
Program Analysis
11. 1
12. 0
13. 0
14. Results using negative integers may not be as expected.
Memory Snapshot Problems
15. v1-> [double x->1 double y->1 double orientation->3.1415]
v2-> [double x->1 double y->1 double orientation->3.1415]
16. v1-> [double x->0.0 double y->0.0 double orientation->0.0]
v2-> [double x->1 double y->1 double orientation->3.1415]
17. v1-> [double x->2.1 double y->3.0 double orientation->1.6]
v2-> [double x->2.1 double y->3.0 double orientation->1.6]
Programming Problems
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_18 */
/* */
/* This program calls a function that detects and prints the first */
/* n prime integers, where n is an integer input to the function. */

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void primeGen(int n);

int main()
{
/* Declare and initialize variables. */
int input;

/* Prompt user for number of prime numbers. */

cout << "\nEnter number of primes you would like: ";
cin >> input;

/* Call the function. */

primeGen(input);

return 0;

}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Function to calculate prime numbers. */
void primeGen(int n){

/* Declare variables. */

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 int i,j;
bool prime;

/* Print header information. */

cout << "Prime Numbers between 1 and " << n << endl;

for (i=1;i<=n;i++){
prime=true;
for (j=2;j<i;j++){
if (!(i%j)) {
prime=false;
}
}
/* Output number if it is prime. */
if (prime)
cout << i << endl;
}
return;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_19 */
/* */
/* This program calls a function that detects and prints the first */
/* n prime integers, where n is an integer input to the function. */
/* The values are printed to a designated output file. */

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

void primeGen(int n, ofstream& file);

int main()
{
/* Declare and initialize variables */
int input;
ofstream outfile;
string filename;

/* Prompt user for number of prime numbers. */

cout << "\nEnter number of primes you would like: ";
cin >> input;

/* Prompt user for the name of the output file. */

cout << "\nEnter output file name: ";
cin >> filename;

outfile.open(filename.c_str());
if (outfile.fail()) {
cerr << "The output file " << filename << " failed to open.\n";
exit(1);
}

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 /* Call the function. */
primeGen(input, outfile);

outfile.close();

return 0;

}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Function to calculate prime numbers. */
void primeGen(int n, ofstream& out){

/* Declare variables. */
int i,j;
bool prime;

/* Print header information. */

out << "Prime Numbers between 1 and " << n << endl;

for (i=1;i<=n;i++){
prime=true;
for (j=2;j<i;j++){
if (!(i%j)) {
prime=false;
}
}
/* Output number if it is prime. */
if (prime)
out << i << endl;
}
return;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_20 */
/* */
/* This program calls a function that counts the integers in a file */
/* until a non-integer value is found. An error message is printed */
/* if non-integer values are found. */

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int countInts(ifstream& file);

int main()
{
/* Declare and initialize variables */
ifstream infile;
string filename;
int numInts;

/* Prompt user for the name of the input file. */

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 cout << "\nEnter input file name: ";
cin >> filename;

infile.open(filename.c_str());
if (infile.fail()) {
cerr << "The input file " << filename << " failed to open.\n";
exit(1);
}

/* Call the function. */

numInts = countInts(infile);

/* Print the number of integers. */

cout << numInts << " integers are in the file " << filename << endl;

infile.close();

return 0;

}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Function to count integers. */
int countInts(ifstream& in){

/* Declare and initialize variables. */

int count(0), num;

in >> num;
while (!in.eof()) {
if (!in) {
cerr << "Encountered a non-integer value." << endl;
break;
} else {
count++;
}
in >> num;
}

return count;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_21 */
/* */
/* This program calls a function that prints the values of the state */
/* flags of a file stream, which is passed to the function as an */
/* argument. */

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

void printFlags(ifstream& file);

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

int main()
{
/* Declare and initialize variables */
ifstream infile;
string filename;

/* Prompt user for the name of the input file. */

cout << "\nEnter input file name: ";
cin >> filename;

infile.open(filename.c_str());
if (infile.fail()) {
cerr << "The input file " << filename << " failed to open.\n";
exit(1);
}

/* Call the function. */

printFlags(infile);

infile.close();

return 0;

}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Function to count integers. */
void printFlags(ifstream& in){

cout << "Badbit: " << in.bad() << endl;

cout << "Failbit: " << in.fail() << endl;

cout << "Eofbit: " << in.eof() << endl;

cout << "Goodbit: " << in.good() << endl;

return;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
Simple Simulations
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_22 */
/* */
/* This program simulates tossing a "fair" coin. */
/* The user enters the number of tosses. */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int rand_int(int a, int b);

const int HEADS = 1;

const int TAILS = 0;

int main()

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

{
/* Declare and initialize variables */
/* and declare function prototypes. */
int tosses=0, heads=0, required=0;

/* Prompt user for number of tosses. */

cout << "\n\nEnter number of fair coin tosses: ";
cin >> required;
while (required <= 0)
{
cout << "Tosses must be an integer number, greater than zero.\n\n";
cout << "Enter number of fair coin tosses: ";
cin >> required;
}

/* Toss coin the required number of times, and keep track of */

/* the number of heads. Use rand_int for the "toss" and */
/* and consider a positive number to be "heads." */
while (tosses < required)
{
tosses++;
if (rand_int(TAILS,HEADS) == HEADS)
heads++;
}

/* Print results. */
cout << "\n\nNumber of tosses: " << tosses << endl;
cout << "Number of heads: "<< heads << endl;
cout << "Number of tails: " << tosses-heads << endl;
cout << "Percentage of heads: " << 100.0 * heads/tosses << endl;
cout << "Percentage of tails: " << 100.0 * (tosses-heads)/tosses << endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_int function from page 257) */
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_23 */
/* */
/* This program simulates tossing an "unfair" coin. */
/* The user enters the number of tosses. */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

const int HEADS = 10;

const int TAILS = 1;
const int WEIGHT = 6;

int main()
{
/* Declare variables and function prototypes. */

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 int tosses=0, heads=0, required=0;
int rand_int(int a, int b);

/* Prompt user for number of tosses. */

cout << "\n\nEnter number of unfair coin tosses: ";
cin >> required;

/* Toss coin the required number of times, and */

/* keep track of the number of heads. */
while (tosses < required)
{
tosses++;
if (rand_int(TAILS,HEADS) <= WEIGHT)
heads++;
}

/* Print results. */
cout << "\n\nNumber of tosses: " << tosses << endl;
cout << "Number of heads: " << heads << endl;
cout << "Number of tails: " << tosses-heads << endl;
cout << "Percentage of heads: " << 100.0 * heads/tosses << endl;
cout << "Percentage of tails: " << 100.0 * (tosses-heads)/tosses <<
endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_int function from page 257) */
/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_24 */
/* */
/* This program simulates tossing a "fair" coin using Coin class. */
/* The user enters the number of tosses. */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include "Coin.h"
using namespace std;

int main()
{
/* Declare and initialize variables */
/* and declare function prototypes. */
int tosses=0, heads=0, required=0;
int seed;
/* Prompt user for number of tosses. */
cout << "\n\nEnter number of fair coin tosses: ";
cin >> required;
while (required <= 0)
{
cout << "Tosses must be an integer number, greater than zero.\n\n";
cout << "Enter number of fair coin tosses: ";
cin >> required;
}

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 /* Toss coin the required number of times, and keep track of */
/* the number of heads. Use rand_int for the "toss" and */
/* and consider a positive number to be "heads." */
cout << "enter a seed..";
cin >> seed;
srand(seed);
while (tosses < required)
{
tosses++;
Coin c1;
if (c1.getFaceValue() == Coin::HEADS)
heads++;
}

/* Print results. */
cout << "\n\nNumber of tosses: " << tosses << endl;
cout << "Number of heads: "<< heads << endl;
cout << "Number of tails: " << tosses-heads << endl;
cout << "Percentage of heads: " << 100.0 * heads/tosses << endl;
cout << "Percentage of tails: " << 100.0 * (tosses-heads)/tosses << endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*---------------------------------------------------*
/* Definition of a Coin class */
/* Coin.h
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib> //required for rand()
using namespace std;
int rand_int(int a, int b);
class Coin
{
private:
char faceValue;
public:
static const int HEADS = 'H';
static const int TAILS = 'T';

//Constructors
Coin() {int randomInt = rand_int(0,1);
if(randomInt == 1)
faceValue = HEADS;
else
faceValue = TAILS;}

//Accessors
char getFaceValue() const {return faceValue;}
//Mutators
//Coins are not mutable
};
/*----------------------------------------------------*/
/* This function generates a random integer */
/* between specified limits a and b (a<b). */
int rand_int(int a, int b)

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

{
return rand()%(b-a+1) + a;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------*/

/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_25 */
/* */
/* This program simulates rolling a six-sided "fair" die. */
/* The user enter the number of rolls. */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int rand_int(int a, int b);

const int MIN = 1;
const int MAX = 6;

int main()
{
/* Declare variables and function prototypes. */
int onedot=0, twodots=0, threedots=0, fourdots=0, fivedots=0,
sixdots=0, rolls=0, required=0;

/* Prompt user for number of rolls. */

cout << "\n\nEnter number of fair die rolls: ";
cin >> required;

/* Roll the die as many times as required */

while (rolls < required)
{
rolls++;
switch(rand_int(MIN,MAX))
{
case 1: onedot++;
break;
case 2: twodots++;
break;
case 3: threedots++;
break;
case 4: fourdots++;
break;
case 5: fivedots++;
break;
case 6: sixdots++;
break;
default:
cout << "\nDie roll result out of range!\n";
exit(1);
break;
}
}

/* Print the results. */

cout << "\nNumber of rolls: " << rolls << endl;

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 cout << "Number of ones: " << onedot << " percentage: "
<< 100.0*onedot/rolls << endl;
cout << "Number of twos: " << twodots << " percentage: "
<< 100.0*twodots/rolls << endl;
cout << "Number of threes: " << threedots << " percentage: "
<< 100.0*threedots/rolls << endl;
cout << "Number of fours: " << fourdots << " percentage: "
<< 100.0*fourdots/rolls << endl;
cout << "Number of fives: " << fivedots << " percentage: "
<< 100.0*fivedots/rolls << endl;
cout << "Number of sixes: " << sixdots << " percentage: "
<< 100.0*sixdots/rolls << endl;
/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_int function from page 257) */
/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_26 */
/* */
/* This program simulates an experiment rolling two six-sided */
/* "fair" dice. The user enters the number of rolls. */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

const int MAX = 6;

const int MIN = 1;
const int TOTAL = 8;

int rand_int(int a, int b);

int main()
{
/* Declare variables. */
int rolls=0, die1, die2, required=0, sum=0;

/* Prompt user for number of rolls. */

cout << "\n\nEnter number of fair dice rolls: ";
cin >> required;

/* Roll the die as many times as required. */

while (rolls < required)
{
rolls++;
die1=rand_int(MIN,MAX);
die2=rand_int(MIN,MAX);
if (die1+die2 == TOTAL)
sum++;
cout << "Results: " << die1 << " " << die2 << endl;
}

/* Print the results. */

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 cout << "\nNumber of rolls: " << rolls << endl;
cout << "Number of " << TOTAL << "s: " << sum << endl;
cout << "Percentage of " << TOTAL << "s: " << 100.0*sum/rolls << endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_int function from text) */
/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_27 */
/* */
/* This program simulates a lottery drawing that uses balls */
/* numbered from 1 to 10. */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

const int MIN = 1;

const int MAX = 10;
const int NUMBER = 7;
const int NUM_BALLS = 3;

int rand_int(int a, int b);

int main()
{
/* Define variables. */
unsigned int alleven = 0, num_in_sim = 0, onetwothree = 0, first,
second, third;
int lotteries = 0, required = 0;

/* Prompt user for the number of lotteries. */

cout << "\n\nEnter number of lotteries: ";
cin >> required;
while (required <= 0)
{
cout << "The number of lotteries must be an integer number, "
<< "greater than zero.\n\n";
cout << "Enter number of lotteries: ";
cin >> required;
}

/* Get three lottery balls, check for even or odd, and NUMBER. */
/* Also check for the 1-2-3 sequence and its permutations. */
while (lotteries < required)
{
lotteries++;

/* Draw three unique balls. */

first = rand_int(MIN,MAX);
do
second = rand_int(MIN,MAX);
while (second == first);

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 do
third = rand_int(MIN,MAX);
while ((second==third) || (first==third));

cout << "Lottery number is: " << first << "-" << second
<< "-" << third << endl;

/* Are they all even? */

if ((first % 2 == 0) && (second % 2 == 0) && (third %2 == 0))
alleven++;

/* Are any of them equal to NUMBER? */

if ((first == NUMBER) || (second==NUMBER) || (third == NUMBER))
num_in_sim++;

/* Are they 1-2-3 in any order? */

if ((first <= 3) && (second <= 3) && (third <= 3))
if ((first != second) && (first != third) && (second != third))
onetwothree++;
}

/* Print results. */
cout << "\nPercentage of time the result contains three even numbers:"
<< 100.0*alleven/lotteries << endl;
cout << "Percentage of time the number " << NUMBER << " occurs in the"
" three numbers: " << 100.0*num_in_sim/lotteries << endl;
cout << "Percentage of time the numbers 1,2,3 occur (not necessarily"
" in order): " << 100.0*onetwothree/lotteries << endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;

}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_int function from page 257) */
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
Component Reliability
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_28 */
/* */
/* This program simulates the design in Figure 6-17 using a */
/* component reliability of 0.8 for component 1, 0.85 for */
/* component 2 and 0.95 for component 3. The estimate of the */
/* reliability is computed using 5000 simulations. */
/* (The analytical reliability of this system is 0.794.) */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

const int SIMULATIONS = 5000;

const double REL1 = 0.8;
const double REL2 = 0.85;
const double REL3 = 0.95;
const int MIN_REL = 0;
const int MAX_REL = 1;

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

double rand_float(double a, double b);
int main()
{
/* Define variables. */
int num_sim=0, success=0;
double est1, est2, est3;

/* Run simulations. */
for (num_sim=0; num_sim<SIMULATIONS; num_sim++)
{
/* Get the random numbers */
est1 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est2 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est3 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);

/* Now test the configuration */

if ((est1<=REL1) && ((est2<=REL2) || (est3<=REL3)))
success++;
}

/* Print results. */
cout << "Simulation Reliability for " << num_sim << " trials: "
<< (double)success/num_sim << endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*-------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_float function from page 257) */
/*-------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_29 */
/* */
/* This program simulates the design in Figure 6.18 using a */
/* component reliability of 0.8 for components 1 and 2, */
/* and 0.95 for components 3 and 4. Print the estimate of the */
/* reliability using 5000 simulations. */
/* (The analytical reliability of this system is 0.9649.) */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
using namespace std;

const int SIMULATIONS = 5000;

const double REL12 = 0.8;
const double REL34 = 0.95;
const int MIN_REL = 0;
const int MAX_REL = 1;

double rand_float(double a, double b);

int main()
{
/* Define variables. */
int num_sim=0, success=0;

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 double est1, est2, est3, est4;

/* Run simulations. */
for (num_sim=0; num_sim<SIMULATIONS; num_sim++)
{
/* Get the random numbers. */
est1 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est2 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est3 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est4 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);

/* Now test the configuration. */

if (((est1<=REL12) && (est2<=REL12)) ||
((est3<=REL34) && (est4<=REL34)))
success++;
}

/* Print results. */
cout << "Simulation Reliability for " << num_sim << " trials: "
<< (double)success/num_sim << endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_float function from page 257) */
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_30 */
/* */
/* This program simulates the design in Figure 6.19 using a */
/* component reliability of 0.95 for all components. Print the */
/* estimate of the reliability using 5000 simulations. */
/* (The analytical reliability of this system is 0.99976.) */

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

const int SIMULATIONS = 5000;

const double REL = 0.95;
const int MIN_REL = 0;
const int MAX_REL = 1;

double rand_float(double a, double b);

int main()
{
/* Define variables. */
int num_sim=0, success=0;
double est1, est2, est3, est4;

/* Run simulations. */

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

 for (num_sim=0; num_sim<SIMULATIONS; num_sim++)
{
/* Get the random numbers. */
est1 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est2 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est3 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);
est4 = rand_float(MIN_REL,MAX_REL);

/* Now test the configuration. */

if (((est1<=REL) || (est2<=REL)) || ((est3<=REL) && (est4<=REL)))
success++;
}

/* Print results. */
cout << "Simulation Reliability for " << num_sim << " trials: "
<< (double)success/num_sim << endl;

/* Exit program. */
return 0;
}
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* (rand_float function from page 257) */
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* Problem chapter6_31 */
/* */
/* This program generates a data file named wind.dat that */
/* contains one hour of simulated wind speeds. */

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

const int DELTA_TIME = 10;

const int START_TIME = 0;
const int STOP_TIME = 3600;
const string FILENAME = "wind.dat";

double rand_float(double a, double b);

int main()
{
/* Define variables. */
int timer=START_TIME;
double ave_wind=0.0, gust_min=0.0, gust_max=0.0, windspeed=0.0;
ofstream wind_data;

/* Open output file. */

wind_data.open(FILENAME.c_str());

/* Prompt user for input and verify. */

cout << "Enter average wind speed: ";
cin >> ave_wind;

© 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Black
Priestess of Varda
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Black Priestess of Varda

Author: Erik Fennel

Illustrator: Al McWilliams

Release date: February 9, 2021 [eBook #64511]

Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACK

PRIESTESS OF VARDA ***
BLACK PRIESTESS OF VARDA
 By ERIK FENNEL

She was well-named—Sin, foul witch and raving

beauty, Beloved of Sasso, the Dark Power striving
to capture, with her help, a lovely little world.
Their only fear was a whispered legend—Elvedon,
the Savior.... But this crippled idiot blundering
through a shower of sparks into their time
and space—he could not be Elvedon!

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Planet Stories Winter 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The pen moved clumsily in Eldon Carmichael's right hand. He had
been left-handed, and the note itself was not easy to write.
Dear Margaret, he scratched. I understand ...
When after a while the proper words still would not come he crossed
the shadowed laboratory and took another long swig from the flat
bottle in his topcoat pocket. He understood—he remembered his
first one-eyed look in a mirror after the bandages were removed—
but still he felt resentful and deeply sorry for himself.
He went back and tried to continue the letter but his thoughts
veered erratically. The injury had been psychological as well as
physical, involving loss of ability to face up to unpleasant facts, but
still he could not force aside those memories.
There had been only a glimpse as the wrench slipped from Victor
Schenley's hand and fell between the sprocket and drive chain of the
big new compressor in the Institute's basement. He wondered. That
look on Schenley's darkly saturnine face could have been merely
imagination. Or horror. But there was something about the man....
Still Eldon discounted his suspicions as the unworthy inventions of a
disturbed mind.
Only the quick reflexes that had once made him a better than
average halfback had saved him from instant death as the jagged
end of the heavy sprocket chain lashed out with the speed of an
enraged cobra. And often during the pain-wracked weeks that
followed he had almost wished he had been a little slower.
The ring sparkled tauntingly under his desk lamp. Margaret had
returned it by mail, and though the wording of her note had been
restrained its tone had been final.
He picked up the pen again and moved the stub of his left arm,
amputated just above the elbow, to hold the paper in place. But he
had forgotten again how light and unmanageable the stump was.
The paper skidded and the pen left a long black streak and a blot.
Eldon made a choked sound that was partly a shout of anger and
partly a whimper of frustration. He crumpled the note, hurled the
pen clumsily toward the far wall, and buried his disfigured face in
the curve of his single arm. His body shook with sobs of self-pity.
There was only an inch or so left in the bottle. He finished it in a
single gulp and for a moment stood hesitantly. Then he switched on
the brilliant overhead lights. Liquor could not banish his tormenting
thoughts, but perhaps work might. His letter to Margaret would have
to wait.
His equipment was just as he had left it that night so many months
ago when Victor Schenley had called him to see the new compressor.
The setup was almost complete for another experiment with the
resonance of bound charges. Bound charges were queer things, he
reflected, a neglected field of investigation. They were classed as
electrical phenomena more for convenience than accuracy. Eldon's
completed experiments indicated they might be—something else.
They disobeyed too many of the generally accepted electrical and
physical laws. Occasionally individual charges behaved as though
they were actually alive and responding to external stimuli, but the
stimuli were non-existent or at least undetectable. And two or more
bound charges placed in even imperfect resonance produced strange
and inexplicable effects.
Working clumsily, he made the few remaining connections and set
the special charge concentrators whining. The vacuum pumps
clucked. A strain developed in the space around which the triplet
charges were forming, something he could sense without seeing or
hearing it. Now if only he could match the three charges for perfect
resonance....

The lacquer on Margaret Mason's fingernails was finally dry. She

slipped out of her robe and, without disturbing her carefully
arranged pale gold hair, dropped the white evening gown over her
shoulders and gently tugged it into place around slender hips. This
should be the evening when Victor stopped his sly suggestions and
made an outright proposal of marriage. Mrs. Victor Schenley.
Margaret savored the name. She knew what she wanted.
Eldon had seemed a good idea at the time, the best she could do.
Despite his youth he was already Associate Director of the Institute,
seemed headed for bigger things, and a couple of patents brought
him modest but steady royalties. And, best of all, his ridiculously
straightforward mind made him easy to handle.
It had seemed a good idea until the afternoon Victor Schenley had
sauntered into her office in the administrative wing of the Institute
and she had seen that look come into his eyes. She had recognized
him instantly from the pictures the newspapers had carried when he
inherited the great Schenley fortune, and had handled that first
meeting with subtle care.
After that he had begun to come around more and more frequently,
sitting on her desk and talking, turning on his charm. She had soon
seen where his questions about the Institute's affairs were leading.
He was determined to recover several million dollars which the elder
Schenley had intended for the research organization he had founded
and endowed, the Institute of which Victor had inherited titular
leadership. Victor did not need the money. He just could not bear to
see it escape his direct control. He still did not suspect how much
Margaret had guessed of his plans—she knew when to hide her
financial acumen behind her beauty—and she was holding that
information in reserve.
He had begun to take her out, at first only on the evenings Eldon
was busy, but then growing steadily bolder and more insistent. She
had been deliberately provocative and yet aloof, rejecting his
repeated propositions. She was playing for bigger stakes, the
Schenley fortune itself. But she had remained engaged to Eldon. She
disliked burning bridges behind herself unless absolutely necessary
and Eldon was still a sure thing.
Then one day had come Eldon's casual remark that as Associate
Director he was considering calling in the auditors for a routine
check of the books. That had started everything. Victor had
appeared startled, just as she expected, when she repeated Eldon's
statement, and the very next night Eldon had met with his
disfiguring "accident."

Victor parked his sleekly expensive car in front of the Institute's main
building. "You wait here, dearest," he said. "I'll only be a few
minutes."
He kissed her, but seemed preoccupied. She watched him, slender
and nattily dressed, as he crossed the empty lobby and pressed the
button for the automatic elevator. The cage came down, he closed
the door behind himself, and then Margaret was out of the car and
hurrying up the walk. It was the intelligent thing to know as much as
possible about Victor's movements.
The indicator stopped at three. Margaret lifted her evening gown
above her knees and took the stairway at a run.
From Eldon's laboratory, the only room on the floor to show a light,
she could hear voices.
"I don't like leaving loose ends, Carmichael. And it's your own gun."
"So it was deliberate. But why?" Eldon sounded incredulous.
Victor spoke again, his words indistinguishable but his tone assured
and boastful.
There was a muffled splatting sound, a grunt of pain.
"Why, damn your soul!" Victor's voice again, raised in angry surprise.
But no pistol shot.
Margaret peered around the door. Victor held the pistol, but Eldon
had his wrist in a firm grasp and was twisting. Victor's nose was
bleeding copiously and, although his free hand clawed at Eldon's one
good eye, the physicist was forcing him back. Margaret felt a stab of
fear. If anything happened to Victor it would cost her—millions.
She paused only to snatch up a heavy, foot-long bar of copper alloy
as she crossed the room. She raised it and crashed it against the
side of Eldon's skull. Sheer tenacity of purpose maintained his hold
on Victor's gun hand as he staggered back, dazed, and Margaret
could not step aside in time. The edge of an equipment-laden table
bit into her spine as Eldon's body collided with hers, and the bar was
knocked from her hand.
Eldon got one sidelong glimpse of the girl and felt a sudden thrill
that she had come to help him. He did not see what she had done.
And then hell broke loose. Leaping flames in his body. The
unmistakable spitting crackle of bound charges breaking loose. The
sensation of hurtling immeasurable distances through alternate
layers of darkness and blinding light. Grey cotton wool filling his
nose and mouth and ears. Blackness.

II

A shriveled blood-red moon cast slanting beams through gigantic,

weirdly distorted trees. The air was dead still where he lay, but
overhead a howling wind tossed the top branches into eerie life. He
was lying on moss. Moss that writhed resentfully under his weight.
His stomach was heaving queasily and his head was one throbbing
ache. His right leg refused to move. It seemed to be stuck in
something.
He was not alone. Something was prowling nearby among the
unbelievably tall trees. He sat up weakly, automatically, but
somehow he did not care very deeply what happened to him. Not at
first.
The prowling creature circled, trying to outline him against the
slanting shafts of crimson moonlight. He heard it move, then saw its
eyes blue-green and luminous in the shadows, only a foot or two
from the ground.
Then his scalp gave a sudden tingle, for the eyes rose upward.
Abruptly they were five feet above ground level. He held his breath,
but still more wondering than afraid. A vagrant gust brought a spicy
odor to his nostrils, something strongly reminiscent of sandalwood.
Not an animal smell.
He moved slightly. The moss beneath him squeaked a protest and
writhed unpleasantly.
The thing with the glowing eyes moved closer. Squeak-squeak,
squeak-squeak, the strange moss complained. And then a human
figure appeared momentarily in a slender shaft of red light.
Margaret! But even as it vanished again in the shadows he knew it
wasn't. A woman, yes, but not Margaret. Too short. Too fully curved
for Margaret's graceful slenderness. And the hair had glinted darkly
under the crimson moon while Margaret's was pale and golden. He
wanted to call out, but a sense of lurking danger restrained him.
Suddenly the stranger was at his side.
"Lackt," she whispered.
The palms of her hands glowed suddenly with a cold white fire as
she cupped them together to form a reflector. She bent over, leaving
herself in darkness and directing the light upon Eldon as he sat in
amazed disbelief.
Although the light from her hands dazzled his single eye he caught
an impression of youth, of well-tanned skin glittering with an oily
lotion that smelled of sandalwood, of scanty clothing—the night was
stiflingly hot—and of hair the same color as the unnatural moonlight,
clinging in ringlets around a piquant but troubled face.
"El-ve-don?" she asked softly. Her throaty voice betrayed passionate
excitement.
He wet his dry lips.
"Eldon," he said hoarsely, wondering how she knew his name and
why she had mispronounced it by inserting an extra syllable. "Eldon
Carmichael."
His answer seemed to puzzle her. Her strange eyes gleamed more
brightly.
"Who are you? And how in the name of sin do you do that trick with
your hands?" It was the first question to enter his confused mind.
"Sin?" She repeated the one word and drew back with a suddenly
hostile air. For a moment she seemed about to turn and run. But
then she looked once more at his mangled, disfigured face and gave
a soft exclamation of disappointment and pity.
Eldon became irrationally furious and reached his single arm to grab
her. She eluded him with a startled yet gracefully fluid motion and
spat some unintelligible words that were obviously heartfelt curses.
Her hand moved ominously to a pocket in her wide belt.
Then all at once she crouched again, moving her head from side to
side. He opened his mouth, but she clamped one glowing hand over
it while the other went up in a gesture commanding silence. Her
hand was soft and cool despite its glow.
For a full minute she listened, hearing something Eldon could not.
Then she placed her lips close to his ear and whispered. Her words
were utterly unintelligible but her urgency communicated itself to
him.
He tried to rise and discovered that his leg was deeply embedded in
the dirt and moss. He wondered how it had gotten that way. The girl
grasped his knee and pulled, and as soon as he saw what she
wanted he put his muscles to work too. With an agonized shriek
from the strange moss his leg came free and he tried to rise. The
sudden movement made him dizzy.
Unhesitatingly the girl threw herself upon him, bearing him down
while all the while she whispered admonitions he could not
understand. She was strong in a lithe, whipcord way, and neither
mentally nor physically was he in condition to resist. He allowed
himself to be pushed to a reclining position.
The light from her hands went out abruptly, leaving the forest floor
darker than ever. She reached into her belt, extracted a small object
he could not see, touched it to his head. Eldon went rigid.

One of her hands grasped his belt. She gave a slight tug. His body
rose easily into the air as though completely weightless, and when
she released him he floated.
Her fingers found a firm hold on his collar. She moved, broke into a
steady run, and his body, floating effortlessly at the height of her
waist, followed. She ran quietly, sure-footed in the darkness, with
only the sound of her breathing and the thin protests of the moss
under her feet. Sometimes his collar jerked as she changed course
to avoid some obstacle.
"I have no weight, but I still have mass and therefore inertia," he
found himself thinking, and knew he should be afraid instead of
indulging in such random observations.
He discovered he could turn his head, although the rest of his body
remained locked in weightless rigidity, and gradually he became
aware of something following them. From the glimpses he caught in
the slanting red moonbeams it resembled a lemur. He watched it
glide from tree to tree like a flying squirrel, catch the rough bark and
scramble upward, glide again.
A whistle, overhead, a sound entirely distinct from that of the wind-
whipped branches, brought the girl to a sudden stop. She jerked
Eldon to a halt in mid-air beside her and pulled him into the deeper
shadow beneath a gnarled tree just as a great torpedo-shaped thing
passed above the treetops, glistening like freshly spilled blood in the
moonglow. Some sort of wingless aircraft.
They waited, the girl fearful and alert. The red moon dropped below
the horizon and a few stars—they were of a normal color—did little
to relieve the blackness. The flying craft returned, invisible this time
but still making a devilish whistle that grated on Eldon's nerves like
fingernails scraped down a blackboard as it zigzagged slowly back
and forth. Then gradually the noise died away in the distance.
The girl sighed with relief, made a chirruping sound, and the lemur-
thing came skittering down the tree beneath which they were hiding.
She spoke to it, and it gave a sailing leap that ended on Eldon's
chest. Its handlike paws grasped the fabric of his shirt. He sank a
few inches toward the ground, but immediately floated upward again
with nightmarish buoyancy.
The girl reached to her belt again, and then she was floating in the
air beside him. She grasped his collar and they were slanting upward
among the branches. The lemur-thing rose confidently, perched on
his chest. They moved slowly up to treetop level, where the girl
paused for a searching look around. Then she rose above the trees,
put on speed, and the hot wind whistled around Eldon's face as she
towed him along.
It was a dream-scene where time had no meaning. It might have
been minutes or hours. The throbbing of his headache diminished,
leaving him drowsy.
The lemur-thing broke the spell by chattering excitedly. In the very
dim starlight he could just discern that it was pointing upward with
one paw, an uncannily human gesture.
The girl uttered a sharp word and dove toward the treetops, and
Eldon looked up in time to see a huge leathery-winged shape
swooping silently upon them. He felt the foetid breath and glimpsed
hooked talons and a beak armed with incurving teeth as the thing
swept by and flapped heavily upward again.
The girl released him abruptly, leaving his heart pounding in sudden
terrible awareness of his utter helplessness. He felt himself brush
against a branch that stood out above the others and start to drift
away. But the lemur hooked its hind claws into his shirt and grasped
the branch with its forepaws, anchoring him against the wind.
A long knife flashed in the girl's hand and she was shooting upward
to meet the monster. She had not deserted him after all. She closed
in, tiny beside the huge shape, as the monster beat its batlike wings
in a furious attempt to turn and rend her. There was a brief flurry, a
high-pitched cry of agony, and the ungainly body crashed downward
through a nearby treetop, threshing in its death agonies.
Eldon felt the trembling reaction of relief as the girl glided
downward, still breathing hard from her exertion, and it left him
feeling even more helpless and useless than ever. Once more she
took him in tow and the nightmare flight continued.
Over one area a ring of faintly luminous fog was rolling, spreading
among the trees, contracting like a gaseous noose.
"Kauva ne Sin," the girl spat, bitter anger in her voice, and fear and
unhappiness too. She made a long high detour around the fog ring
and looked back uneasily even after they were past.

All at once they were diving again, down below the treetops that to
Eldon looked no different from any of the others. But to the girl it
was journey's end. She twisted upright and her feet touched gently
as she reached to her belt and regained normal weight. Eldon still
floated.
The girl pushed him through the air and into a black hole between
the spreading roots of a huge tree. The hole slanted downward,
twisting and turning, and became a tunnel. The lemur-thing jumped
down and scampered ahead.
It was utterly dark until she made her hands glow again, after they
had passed a bend. Finally the tunnel widened into a room.
She left him floating, touched one wall, and it glowed with a soft,
silvery light that showed him he was in living quarters of some kind.
The walls were transparent plastic, and through their glow he could
see the dirt and stones and tangled tree roots behind them. Water
trickled in through a hole in one wall, passed through an oval pool of
brightly colored tiles recessed into the floor, and vanished through a
channel in the opposite wall. There were furnishings of strange
design, simple yet adequate, and archways that seemed to lead to
other rooms.
The girl returned to him, pushed him over to a broad, low couch,
shoving him downward. She touched him with an egg-shaped object
from her belt and he sank into the soft cushions as abruptly his body
went limp and recovered its normal heaviness. He stared up at her.
She was beautiful in a vital, different way. Natural and healthily
normal looking, but with an indescribable trace of the exotic. Her
hair, he saw—now that the light was no longer morbidly ruddy—was
a lovely dark red with glints of fire. She was young and self-assured,
yet oddly thoughtful, and there was about her an aura of vibrant
attraction that seemed to call to all his forgotten dreams of
loveliness. But Eldon Carmichael was very sick and very tired.
She looked at him speculatively, a troubled frown narrowing her
strangely luminous grey-green eyes, and asked a question. He shook
his head to show lack of understanding, wondering who she was and
where he was.
She turned away, her shoulders sagging with disappointment. Then
she noticed that she was smeared with a gooey reddish-black
substance, evidently from the huge bat-thing she had fought and
killed. She gave a shiver of truly feminine repugnance.
Quickly she discarded her close fitting jacket, brief skirt and the wide
belt from which her sheathed dagger hung, displaying no trace of
embarrassment at Eldon's presence even when she stood completely
nude.
Her body was fully curved but smoothly muscular, an active body. It
was a symphony of perfection—except that across the curve of one
high, firm breast ran a narrow crescent-shaped scar, red as though
from a wound not completely healed. Once she glanced down at it
and her face took on a hunted, fearful look.
She tested the temperature of the pool with one outstretched bare
toe and then plunged in, and as she bathed herself she hummed a
strangely haunting tune that was full of minor harmonies and
unfamiliar melodic progressions. Yet it was not entirely a sad tune,
and she seemed to be enjoying her bath. Occasionally she glanced
over at him, questioning and thoughtful.
Eldon tried to stay awake, but before she left the pool his one eye
had closed.

Pain in the stump of his arm brought a vague remembrance of

having used it to strike at someone or something. For a while he lay
half awake, trying to recall that dream about a girl flying with him
through a forest that certainly existed nowhere on Earth. But the
sound of trickling water kept intruding.
He opened his eye and came face to face with the lemur-thing from
his nightmare. Its big round eyes assumed an astounded, quizzical
expression as he blinked, and then it was gone. He heard it scuttling
across the floor.
He sat up and made a quick survey of his surroundings. Then the
girl of the—no, it hadn't been a dream—emerged from an archway
with the lemur on her shoulder. It made him think of stories he had
read about witches of unearthly beauty and the uncannily intelligent
animals, familiars, that served them.
"Hey, where am I?" he demanded.
She said something in her unfamiliar language.
"Who are you?" he asked, this time with gestures.
She pointed to herself. "Krasna," she said.
He pointed to himself. "Eldon. Eldon Carmichael."
"El-ve-don?" she asked just as eagerly as when she had found him,
half as though correcting him.
He shook his head. "Just Eldon." Her eyes clouded and she frowned.
After a moment she spoke again, and again he shook his head.
"Sorry, no savvy," he declared.
She snapped her fingers as though remembering something and
hurried from the room, returning with a small globe of cloudy
crystal. She motioned him to lie back, and for a minute or two
rubbed the ball vigorously against the soft, smooth skin of her
forearm. Then she held it a few inches above his eye and gestured
that he was to look at it.
The crystal glowed, but not homogeneously. Some parts became
brighter than others, and of different colors. Patterns formed and
changed, and watching them made him feel drawn out of himself,
into the crystal.
The strange girl started talking—talking—talking in an unhurried
monotone. Gradually scattered words began to form images in his
mind. Pictures, some of them crystal clear but with their significance
still obscure, others foggy and amorphous. There were people and—
things—and something so completely and utterly vile that even the
thought made his brain cells cringe in fear of uncleansable
defilement.
It must have been hours she talked to him, for when he came out of
the globe and back into himself her voice was tired and there were
wrinkles of strain across her forehead. She was watching him
intently and he suspected he had been subjected to some form of
hypnosis.
"Where am I? How did I get here?" he asked, and realized only
when the words were out that he was speaking something other
than English.
Krasna did not answer at once. Instead a look of unutterable
sadness stole over her face. And then she was weeping bitterly and
uncontrollably.
Eldon was startled and embarrassed, not understanding but wishing
he could do something, anything, to help her. Crying females had
always disturbed him, and she looked so completely sad and—and
defeated. The lemur-thing glowered at him resentfully.
"What is it?" he asked.
"You are not El-ve-don," she sobbed.
With his new command of her language, perhaps aided by some
measure of telepathy, he received an impression of El-ve-don as a
shining, unconquerable champion of unspecified powers, one who
was fated to bring about the downfall of—of something obscenely
evil and imminently threatening. He could not recall what it was, and
Krasna's wracking sobs did not help him think clearly.
"Of course I'm not El-ve-don," he declared, and felt deeply sorry for
himself that he was not. "I'm just plain Eldon Carmichael, and I am
—or was—a biophysicist." Once, before Victor Schenley had tried to
kill him, he had been a competent and reasonably happy
biophysicist.
At last she wiped her eyes.
"Well, if you don't remember, you just don't, I guess," she sighed.
"You are in the world of Varda. Somehow you must have formed a
Gateway and come through. I found you just by chance and thought
—hoped—that you were El-ve-don."
She went on with a long explanation, only parts of which Eldon
understood.

He was quite familiar with the theory of alternate worlds—his work

with bound charges had given him an inkling of the actuality of other
dimensions, and the fantastic idea that bound charges existed
simultaneously in two or more "worlds" at once, carrying their
characteristic reactions across a dimensional gap had occurred to
him frequently as his experiments had progressed. He had even
entertained the notion that bound charges were the basic secret of
life itself—but the proof still seemed unbelievable. Varda was a world
adjoining his own, separated from it by some vagary of space or
time-spiral warping or some obscure phase of the Law of Alternate
Probabilities. But here he was, in Varda.
He distinctly remembered hearing one of the resonant system
components in his laboratory let go, not flow but break, and guessed
that the sudden strain might have been sufficient to warp the very
nature of matter in its vicinity.
"Your world is one of the Closed Worlds," Krasna explained. "Things
from it do not come through easily. Unfortunately the one from
which the Luvans came is open much of the time."
Eldon tried to think what a Luvan was, but recalled only a vaguely
disquieting impression of something disgusting—and deadly.
"I hoped so much." Tears gathered in Krasna's strange eyes. "I
thought perhaps when I found you that the old prophecy—the one
to defeat Sasso—but perhaps I have been a fool to believe in the old
prophecy at all. And Sasso—" Her expressive mouth contorted with
loathing.
"How do I get back to my own world?" Eldon demanded.
Krasna stared at him until he began to fidget.
"There is but one Gateway in all Varda, the Gateway of Sasso," she
declared in the tone of a person stating an obvious if unpleasant
fact. "And only El-ve-don can defeat the Faith."
"Oh!" He laughed in mirthless near-hysteria at the thought of himself
as the unconquerable El-ve-don. Her words left him bleakly
despondent.
"What happened to the others who were near me when—this—
happened?" he asked. "The man and the woman?"
Krasna straightened in surprise. "There were others? Oh! Perhaps
one of them is El-ve-don!"
"I doubt it," Eldon said wryly.

But Krasna's excitement was not to be quelled. She spoke to the

lemur-thing as if to another human, and the creature scuttled up the
tunnel leading to the surface. Eldon thought once more of the witch-
familiars of Earth legends. If he had come through to Varda, perhaps
Vardans had visited Earth.
"We shall find out about them soon," she said.
"What happens to me?" Eldon wanted to know.
He had to repeat his question, for Krasna had suddenly become
deeply preoccupied. At last she looked at him. There was pity in her
glance, not pity for his situation but pity for a disfigured, frightened
and querulous cripple. She did not understand the overwhelming
longing for Earth which was mounting within him every second. Her
pity grated upon his nerves. He could pity himself all he chose—and
he had reason enough—but he rejected the pity of others.
"Well?" he demanded.
"Oh, you can stay with me, I guess. That is, if you dare associate
with me." There was bitterness in her voice.
None of it made sense. She had saved him from the forest, brought
him to her home. Why should he be afraid to associate with her? But
all he wanted was to find Margaret, if she were in this strange world,
and escape back to Earth. There, though he was a cripple, he was
not so abysmally ignorant. He knew he should feel grateful to this
red-haired girl, but deep in his brain an irrational resentment
gnawed. He tried to fight it down, knowing he had to learn much
more about his new environment before he could survive alone. The
last shreds of his crumbling self-confidence had been stripped away.
Suddenly he realized he was ravenously hungry.
"All right," the girl said. "We will eat now."
He stared at her in discomfiture. He had not mentioned food. She
laughed.
"Really," she said, "you seem to know nothing about closing your
mind."
Resentment flared higher. She was a telepath, and he was not proud
of his thoughts.
The passageway into which he followed her was dark, but after a
few steps her hands began to light the way as they had in the
forest.
"How do you do it?" he asked. To him the production of cold light in
living tissues was even more astounding than her control of gravity.
That still seemed too much like a familiar dream he had had many
times on Earth, and it probably had some mechanical basis.
She smiled at him as though at a curious child. "That is old
knowledge in the Open Worlds. Your Closed Worlds must be very
strange."
"But how do you control it?"
She shrugged her lovely shoulders. "You may be fit to learn—later."
But she spoke doubtfully.
The food was unfamiliar but satisfying, warmed in a matter of
seconds in an oven-like box to which he could see no power
connections or controls. In reply to his questions she pointed to a
hexagonal red crystal set in the back of the box and looked at him
as though he should understand.
One of the foods was a sort of meat, and with only one arm Eldon
found himself in difficulty. Krasna noticed, took his eating utensils
and cut it into bite-sized bits. She said nothing, but he finished the
meal in sullen silence, resentful that he needed a woman's help even
to eat.
Afterwards Krasna buckled on her heavy belt with the dagger
swinging at her hip.
"I must go out now," she said. "The not-quite-men of the Faith are
prowling tonight, and Luvans are with them."
"But—?"
"You could not help."
The reminder of his uselessness rankled, but still he felt a pang at
the thought of a girl like her going into danger.
"But you?" he asked.
"I can take care of myself. And if not, what matter? I am Krasna."
Once more she read his thoughts.
"No. Stay here." It was not a request but an order. "If you were to
fall into the hands of—her—it would add to my troubles. And my
own people would kill you on sight, because you have been with
me."

III
After she left he prowled restlessly around the underground rooms,
looking, touching, exploring. He tried to find the controls for the
illuminated walls, and there were none. Every square inch of the
smooth plastic seemed exactly like every other. The other devices—
even the uses of some he could not determine—were the same.
There were no switches or other controls. It was all very puzzling.
He spent most of his time in the main room where Krasna had left
the walls lighted, for the unfamiliar darkness of the others gave him
the eerie feeling that something was watching him from behind.
Some of the fittings seemed unaccountably familiar, although
operating on principles he was unable to understand. The sense of
familiarity amid strangeness gave him a schizophrenic sensation, as
though two personalities struggled for control, two personalities with
different life-patterns and experiences. A most unsettling feeling.
He thought of Margaret, longingly, and then of Victor. His fist
clenched and his lips tightened. If Schenley were still alive, some
day there would be a reckoning. Schenley had been sure of himself
and had boasted. And now, he was sure, Margaret knew just what
sort of rat Victor really was.
His thoughts turned to his anomalous position with the red-haired
girl. Krasna had brought him out of the perilous forest purely
because she thought he was this wonderful El-ve-don. And now he
was living in her home, entirely dependent upon her sense of pity. It
was galling.
He found a large rack containing scrolls mounted on cleverly
designed double rollers, and after the first few minutes of puzzling
out the writing letter by letter he found himself reading with growing
fluency. Part of the same hypnotic and telepathic process, he
reflected, through which Krasna had taught him her spoken
language. At first he read mainly to escape his own unpleasant
thoughts and keep occupied, but then he grew interested. Brief,
undetailed references began to make pictures—the Gateway—the
Fortress of Sin—the Forest People, evidently the clan to which
Krasna belonged—the Luvans—Sasso. His mind squirmed away from
that last impression. Gradually the disconnected pictures began to
form a sequence.
He was still reading hours later when Krasna emerged from the
tunnel. She gave a little sigh of fatigue, dropped her heavy weapon
belt, and started to undress. But the lemur-thing interrupted. It
raced down the tunnel, a furry streak that chattered for attention.
"Later, Tikta," Krasna told it, continuing to disrobe. "I'm too tired to
understand."
The sight of her loveliness as she stepped into the warm pool gave
Eldon no pleasure. If everything had been different.... Instead it
brought rankling resentment, of her, of his condition, of everything.
She looked at him just as impersonally as she did at her lemur. It
was evident she did not consider him a man, a person. He was just
something she had picked up by mistake and was too kind-hearted
to dispose of. Under the circumstances it would have been ridiculous
for him to turn away.
"Now, Tikta," she said after her bath, sinking down on one of the
couches.
The little creature ran to her, leaped to her shoulder and placed its
tiny handlike front paws on opposite sides of her head. Krasna
closed her eyes.
To Eldon, observing closely, it was like watching someone who was
seeing an emotional movie. Hate, anger, hope, surprise, puzzlement,
all followed each other across her mobile, expressive features,
ending in disappointment and disgust. At last Tikta removed its paws
and Krasna opened her eyes.
"Your—friends—" she hesitated over the word. "They are in Varda.
Both."
"Is the girl all right? Where are they? How do you know? Did you
see them?" The questions tumbled from Eldon's lips.
Krasna smiled faintly. "No, I have not seen them. But Tikta can catch
the thoughts of all wild things that can not guard their minds, and
tell me. The wild things saw your—friends." Again she hesitated, and
this time made a grimace of angry distaste.
"Where is the girl? Can you take me to her?" he demanded excitedly.
"No. They are both beyond the Mountains that Move."
"So?"
"In the land of the Faith," she snapped.
"But couldn't you—?"
Pity was almost smothered in stern contempt as she looked at him.
"We do not go among the Faith except for a purpose. And that
purpose is not returning you to your—friends."
"But your people?"
"They would not help you if they could. For I am Krasna."
He did not grasp the significance of her words but the firmness of
her tone indicated there was no use arguing with this self-willed,
red-haired person. Nevertheless he resolved to try to find Margaret,
and as soon as possible.
Krasna's eyes widened with apprehension at his thought.
"You are a fool. And if you must try you had better read all the
scrolls first. Only El-ve-don could survive, and the death of the Faith
is not easy."
Eldon cursed silently. This damnable girl, although beautiful in her
own odd way, not only insulted him with her pity but invaded his
mind.
"Well, shut your mind if you don't like it," she snapped angrily.
"You're odd, too, and far from beautiful."
Margaret Matson opened her eyes. A strange man stood over her,
and what a man! He was huge and hard looking, with dark, wind-
toughened skin. He was dressed in some sort of barbaric military
uniform, colorful and heavily decorated. And he was playing with a
needle pointed dagger.
Her mouth opened. "Victor!" she screamed.
Her voice reverberated hollowly from the curved walls and roof of a
small metal room. The big man screwed up his face at the shrill
noise.
"Victor! Help me!" she shouted again.
Victor failed to answer.
"Eldon!" she yelled.
The big warrior spun his dagger casually, the way a boy would play
with a stick. His lips curled back in a wolfish grin, emphasizing two
of his strong white teeth that projected beyond the others like fangs.
His whole appearance was brutal.
"Where am I? What do you want with me?" she gasped. Then her
glance followed the man's eyes. Her form-fitting evening gown was
torn and disarrayed. She snatched it down with a show of indignant
modesty, and the man grinned widely. One corner of his mouth
twitched.
Margaret would have been even more frightened except that the big
soldier's reaction struck a familiar note that lent her confidence. He
spoke, but his words were gibberish.
Then from a wall locker he produced two helmet-like devices, metal
frames with pieces of some translucent material set to touch the
wearer's temples.
She started to draw away as he stooped to push one over her hair,
but submitted when he frowned and fingered the point of his knife.
He donned the other helmet.
"My name is Wor, merta of the Forces and torna to Great Sasso
Himself." She understood him now.
"You and I might be good friends—if Sin allows," he continued. "You
bear a great resemblance to Highness Sin, even though your color is
faded."
Despite her position Margaret bridled angrily. Wor laughed
uproariously. "Your temper is like Highness Sin's too," he declared
appreciatively.
"Who—who is this Sin?"
"You will find out," Wor replied evenly. Then his face sobered and
softened. "If you want a chance to be with me, take my advice and
be careful what you say and even what you think. Sin is all-powerful
—and jealous. She knew when you appeared in our world."
"Where is Victor?" Margaret asked. "Is he—?"
"The one-armed one, or the other?"
Margaret's face showed scorn. "Would I be interested in cripples?"
"Oh, the slender one. He too will be taken before Highness Sin."
"And Eldon?"
Wor looked annoyed. "Gone. Came through on the seaward side of
the Mountains."
"But why didn't you get him, too?"
Wor was distinctly irked. "We looked. Either he came through below
ground level, in which case he is dead, or the Rebels found him, in
which case he is dead, too. Write him off."
Margaret let a couple of tears roll down her cheeks, but not from
grief over Eldon. She knew that in this strange situation into which
she had been flung she would need a friend and protector.
"What is going to happen to poor helpless me? Oh, won't you help
me?" she asked plaintively. Her eyes expressed open admiration for
the corded muscles rippling beneath Wor's military tunic.
It was an ancient appeal and Margaret realized it had been most
obviously applied. But it worked. Men were so easily handled, even
this Wor. Carefully she hid her satisfaction as he sat down beside
her.
She moved a little closer to him as he talked, telling her about his
land and what she could expect. After a while he sheathed his
dagger.
Someone tapped on the bulkhead. Wor bellowed and the door
opened. The man who entered raised his hand in a respectful salute,
and Margaret would have given much to understand what he said.
But Wor stretched out one enormous hand and snatched the helmet
from her head. The words became meaningless but she could still
see the deference with which Wor was treated.
After the man had gone and Wor had crammed the helmet back on
her head she was careful by word and look to let him see she
understood his importance. She could almost see his great chest
swell. Men were so simple, when handled properly.
A whistle emitted a warning screech.
"We land in a few minutes," Wor told her. "Do nothing that might
anger Highness Sin. Your life depends upon it."
He rose, snatched her to him in an embrace that was without
tenderness and left her lips bruised. Before she could decide
whether to resist or respond he was gone. A few minutes later the
flying machine struck with a cushioned thump and the sibilant hiss of
its engines died.

The two soldiers who escorted her out looked suspiciously at the
helmet Wor had allowed her to retain, but made no attempt to
remove it. The ship had landed in the courtyard of a tremendous
castle. Massive, weather-streaked grey walls soared upward to end
high above in incongruously stream-lined turrets from which
projected the ribbed and finned snouts of strange weapons.
Windows were few and small, and the whole structure looked
incredibly ancient.
The two guards hustled her through a circular doorway into a large
hall that formed a startling contrast to the bleak exterior. It was
richly appointed, and the walls were hung with heavy tapestries that
glowed softly in patterns that changed and shifted even as she
watched them.
There were many people in the room, soldiers and richly gowned
women with olive skins and dark hair. But again there was contrast,
for standing stiffly against one wall was a rank of perhaps thirty men
and women, all stark naked and all staring straight ahead with blank
unseeing eyes. They did not move a muscle as Margaret was led in,
though other heads turned and the low hum of conversation ceased
abruptly.
Margaret's attention centered almost instantly on the woman
occupying a dais at the far end of the hall, and after that she could
not tear her eyes away. This was Highness Sin, of whom even Wor
stood in awe. Margaret stared and Sin stared back. Except for the
difference in coloring this woman could have been Margaret's twin.
She was beautiful, the white skin of her face and shoulders setting
off her revealingly cut jet gown and ebony hair, and her haughty
face wore an expression of ruthless power. Margaret knew that
under similar circumstances she would have worn the same
expression.
The woman raised one exquisitely groomed hand and the guards
pushed Margaret forward, her feet sinking deep into springy
carpeting at each step. Every eye except those of the stiff, unseeing
people against the wall turned to follow her, and Margaret was
uncomfortably aware of her torn and soiled gown and her tangled,
uncombed hair.
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