The People of the Crater Read online

  _CHAPTER THREE_

  _Garin Hears of the Black Ones_

  Urg brought the flyer into one of the bubble-shaped rooms whichcontained a low, cushioned bench facing a metal screen--and here theyseated themselves.

  What followed was a language lesson. On the screen appeared objectswhich Urg would name, to have his sibilant uttering repeated by Garin.As the American later learned, the ray treatment he had undergone hadquickened his mental powers, and in an incredibly short time he had aworking vocabulary.

  Judging by the pictures the lizard folk were the rulers of the craterworld, although there were other forms of life there. The elephant-like_Tand_ was a beast of burden, the squirrel-like _Eron_ lived undergroundand carried on a crude agriculture in small clearings, coming shylytwice a year to exchange grain for a liquid rubber produced by the Folk.

  Then there was the _Gibi_, a monstrous bee, also friendly to the lizardpeople. It supplied the cavern dwellers with wax, and in return the Folkgave the Gibi colonies shelter during the unhealthful times of the GreatMists.

  Highly civilized were the Folk. They did no work by hand, except thefiner kinds of jewel setting and carving. Machines wove their metalcloth, machines prepared their food, harvested their fields, hollowedout new dwellings.

  Freed from manual labor they had turned to acquiring knowledge. Urgprojected on the screen pictures of vast laboratories and greatlibraries of scientific lore. But all they knew in the beginning, theyhad learned from the Ancient Ones, a race unlike themselves, which hadpreceded them in sovereignty over _Tav_. Even the Folk themselves werethe result of constant forced evolution and experimentation carried onby these Ancient Ones.

  All this wisdom was guarded most carefully, but against what or whom,Urg could not tell, although he insisted that the danger was very real.There was something within the blue wall of the crater which disputedthe Folk's rule.

  As Garin tried to probe further a gong sounded. Urg arose.

  "It is the hour of eating," he announced. "Let us go."

  They came to a large room where a heavy table of white stone stretchedalong three walls, benches before it. Urg seated himself and pressed aknob on the table, motioning Garin to do likewise. The wall facing themopened and two trays slid out. There was a platter of hot meat coveredwith rich sauce, a stone bowl of grain porridge and a cluster of fruit,still fastened to a leafy branch. This the Ana eyed so wistfully thatGarin gave it to the creature.

  The Folk ate silently and arose quietly when they had finished, theirtrays vanishing back through the wall. Garin noticed only males in theroom and recalled that he had, as yet, seen no females among the Folk.He ventured a question.

  Urg chuckled. "So, you think there are no women in the Caverns? Well, weshall go to the Hall of Women that you may see."

  To the Hall of Women they went. It was breath-taking in its richness,stones worth a nation's ransom sparkling from its domed roof and paintedwalls. Here were the matrons and maidens of the Folk, their black formsveiled in robes of silver net, each cross strand of which was set with atiny gem, so that they appeared to be wrapped in glittering scales.

  There were not many of them--a hundred perhaps. And a few led by thehand smaller editions of themselves, who stared at Garin with roundyellow eyes and chewed black fingertips shyly.

  The women were intrusted with the finest jewel work, and with pride theyshowed the stranger their handiwork. At the far end of the hall was awonderous thing in the making. One of the silver nets, which were thefoundations of their robes, was fastened there and three of the womenwere putting small rose jewels into each microscopic setting. Here andthere they had varied the pattern with tiny emeralds or flaming opals,so that the finished portion was a rainbow.

  One of the workers smoothed the robe and glanced up at Garin, a gentleteasing in her voice as she explained:

  "This is for the Daughter when she comes to her throne."

  The Daughter! What had the Lord of the Folk said? "This youth is fit tomate with the Daughter." But Urg had said that the Ancient Ones had gonefrom Tav.

  "Who is the Daughter?" he demanded.

  "Thrala of the Light."

  "Where is she?"

  The woman shivered and there was fear in her eyes. "Thrala lies in theCaves of Darkness."

  "The Caves of Darkness!" Did she mean Thrala was dead? Was he, GarinFeatherstone, to be the victim of some rite of sacrifice which wasdesigned to unite him with the dead?

  Urg touched his arm. "Not so. Thrala has not yet entered the Place ofAncestors."

  "You know my thoughts?"

  Urg laughed. "Thoughts are easy to read. Thrala lives. Sera served theDaughter as handmaiden while she was yet among us. Sera, do you show usThrala as she was."

  The woman crossed to a wall where there was a mirror such as Urg hadused for his language lesson. She gazed into it and then beckoned theflyer to stand beside her.

  The mirror misted and then he was looking, as if through a window, intoa room with walls and ceiling of rose quartz. On the floor were thickrugs of silver rose. And a great heap of cushions made a low couch inthe center.

  "The inner chamber of the Daughter," Sera announced.

  * * * * *

  A circular panel in the wall opened and a woman slipped through. She wasvery young, little more than a girl. There were happy curves in her fullcrimson lips, joyous lights in her violet eyes.

  She was human of shape, but her beauty was unearthly. Her skin was pearlwhite and other colors seemed to play faintly upon it, so that itreminded Garin of mother-of-pearl with its lights and shadows. The hair,which veiled her as a cloud, was blue-black and reached below her knees.She was robed in the silver net of the Folk and there was a heavy girdleof rose-shaded jewels about her slender waist.

  "That was Thrala before the Black Ones took her," said Sera.

  Garin uttered a cry of disappointment as the picture vanished. Urglaughed.

  "What care you for shadows when the Daughter herself waits for you? Youhave but to bring her from the Caves of Darkness--"

  "Where are these Caves--" Garin's question was interrupted by thepealing of the Cavern gong. Sera cried out:

  "The Black Ones!"

  Urg shrugged. "When they spared not the Ancient Ones how could we hopeto escape? Come, we must go to the Hall of Thrones."

  Before the jade throne of the Lord of the Folk stood a small group ofthe lizard-men beside two litters. As Garin entered the Lord spoke.

  "Let the outlander come hither that he may see the work of the BlackOnes."

  Garin advanced unwillingly, coming to stand by those struggling thingswhich gasped their message between moans and screams of agony. They weremen of the Folk but their black skins were green with rot.

  The Lord leaned forward on his throne. "It is well," he said. "You maydepart."

  As if obeying his command, the tortured things let go of the life towhich they had clung and were still.

  "Look upon the work of the Black Ones," the ruler said to Garin. "Jivand Betv were captured while on a mission to the Gibi of the Cliff. Itseems that the Black Ones needed material for their laboratories. Theyseek even to give the Daughter to their workers of horror!"

  A terrible cry of hatred arose from the hall, and Garin's jaw set. Togive that fair vision he had just seen to such a death as this--!

  "Jiv and Betv were imprisoned close to the Daughter and they heard thethreats of Kepta. Our brothers, stricken with foul disease, were sentforth to carry the plague to us, but they swam through the pool ofboiling mud. They have died, but the evil died with them. And I thinkthat while we breed such as they, the Black Ones shall not rest easy.Listen now, outlander, to the story of the Black Ones and the Caves ofDarkness, of how the Ancient Ones brought the Folk up from the slime ofa long dried sea and made them great, and of how the Ancient Ones atlast went down to their destruction."