The Gifts of Asti Page 4

ended--even as it did for the turbi flowers.See--now he awakens."

  The eyelids rose slowly, as if the man hated to see what he must lookupon. Then, as he sighted Varta and Lur, his eyes went wide. He pulledhimself up and looked dazedly around, striking out wildly with hisfists. Catching sight of the clumsy suit Lur had taken from him hepulled at it, looking at the two before him as if he feared some attack.

  Varta turned to Lur for help. She might read minds and use the wordlessspeech of Lur. But his people knew the art of such communication longbefore the first priest of Asti had stumbled upon their secret. Let Lurnow quiet this outlander.

  Delicately Lur sought a way into the other's mind, twisting down pathsof thought strange to him. Even Varta could not follow the subtile wavessent forth in the quick examination and reconnoitering, nor could sheunderstand all of the conversation which resulted. For the man from theancient ship answered in speech aloud, sharp harsh sounds of no meaning.It was only after repeated instruction from Lur that he began to framehis messages in his mind, clumsily and disconnectedly.

  Pictures of another world, another solar system, began to grow moreclear as the space man became more at home in the new way ofcommunication. He was one of a race who had come to Erb from beyond thestars and discovered it a world without human life: So they hadestablished colonies and built great cities--far different fromMemphir--and had lived in peace for centuries of their own time.

  Then on the faraway planet of their birth there had begun a great war, awar which brought flaming death to all that world. The survivors of alast battle in outer space had fled to the colonies on Erb. But amongthis handful were men driven mad by the death of their world, and thesehad blasted the cities of Erb, saying that their kind must be wiped out.

  The man they had rescued had turned against one such maddened leader andhad been imprisoned just before an attack upon the largest of thecolony's cities. After that he remembered nothing.

  Varta stopped trying to follow the conversation--Lur was only explainingnow how they had found the space man and brought him out of the wreckedship. No human on Erb, this one had said, and yet were there not her ownpeople, the ones who had built Memphir? And what of the barbarians, who,ruthless and cruel as they seemed by the standards of Memphir, wereindeed men? Whence had they come then, the men of Memphir and theancestors of the barbarian hordes? Her hands touched the scaled skin ofthe suit she still wore and then rubbed across her own smooth flesh.Could one have come from the other, was she of the blood and heritage ofLur?

  "Not so!" Lur's mind, as quick as his flickering tongue, had caught thatpanic-born thought. "You are of the blood of this space wanderer. Menfrom the riven colonies must have escaped to safety. Look at this man,is he not like the men of Memphir--as they were in the olden days of thecity's greatness?"

  The stranger was tall, taller than the men of Memphir and there was acertain hardness about him which those city dwellers in ease had neverdisplayed. But Lur must be right, this was a man of her race. She smiledin sudden relief and he answered that smile. Lur's soft laughter rang inboth their heads.

  "Asti in His Infinite Wisdom can see through Centuries. Memphir hasfallen because of its softness and the evildoing of its people and thebarbarians will now have their way with the lands of the north. But tome it appears that Asti is not yet done with the pattern He was weavingthere. To each of you He granted a second life. Do not disdain the Giftsof Asti, Daughter of Erb!"

  Again Varta felt the warm tide of blood rise in her cheeks. But she nolonger smiled. Instead she regarded the outlander speculatively.

  Not even a Maiden of the Temple could withstand the commands of the AllHighest. Gifts from the Hand of Asti dared not be thrown away.

  Above the puzzlement of the stranger she heard the chuckling of Lur.

  The End.

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  TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS CORRECTED

  The following typographical errors in the text were corrected asdetailed here.

  In the text: "Then she arose and, with the confidence of a child inits father, she laid her hand palm upward upon the outstretched handof Asti...." the word "outstreched" was corrected to "outstretched."

  In the text: "Varta touched her tongue without fear to a powderedrestorative," the word "restoritive" was corrected to "restorative."

  In the text: "Varta threw back her hood and breathed deeply of theair which was not manufactured by the wizardry of the lizard skin ..."the word "manufacured" was corrected to "manufactured"; and the word"wizardy" was corrected to "wizardry."

  In the text: "A thin line of red crept across the smooth hoop, crept andwidened...." the word "widdened" was corrected to "widened."

  In the text: "Then time, or Lur's strength, broke the ancient lockingmechanism...." the word "machanism" was corrected to "mechanism."

  In the text: "... so different in shade to her own pallid coloring...."the word "palid" was corrected to "pallid."

  In the text: "One of the small, jewel bright flying lizard creatures ofthe deep jungle poised and dipped to investigate more closely the worldsof Asti...." the word "closly" was corrected to "closely."

  In the text: "... his long neck outstretched, he was swinging hishead back and forth across the limpid shallows...."the word "outstreched" was corrected to "outstretched."

  In the text: "What goes into it remains as it was just at the moment ofentrance...." the word "at" was corrected to "as."

  In the text: "the flowers which the turbi had born naturally seven monthsbefore," the word "born" was corrected to "borne."

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