[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He says the Church has ruled with lies and cruelty for too long.He would like our help in bringing change to his world.”Kaluchek smiled.“How would we do that?”Carrelli shrugged.“Perhaps it’s not our place to get involved in the political struggle of other races.I don’t know.We’d have to discuss that when the colony is set up, the legislature functioning.”“Perhaps tell him that we are all for the dissemination of the truth, and against the rule of tyranny,” Hendry said, “and leave it at that.”Carrelli nodded.“I’ll give him hope,” she said, “without definite promises.”Hendry watched her relay the words to Ehrin, and wondered if the politicking had begun already, the mealy-mouthed compromises and half-truths that had been part of human interaction since time immemorial.“Am I imagining it,” Kaluchek said a short time later, “or are we losing height?”Hendry gazed down.The land was closer now.The grazing animals, spooked by the arrival of the sails, started nervously and set off across the plain, the herd moving as one with the gestalt empathy of a shoal of fish.Hendry turned and stared into the distance, and then saw it.It stood in the distance on a plateau of land in the shadow of the mountain range, a towering ziggurat of perhaps fifty levels, its baroque bronze surface refulgent in the morning sun.The sight of it filled his throat with an odd, choking emotion.There could be no mistaking that this was their destination: all around the massed sails were converging, the leading sails settling to earth before the edifice, the Ho-lah-lee dismounting and prostrating themselves in euphoria at the climax of their pilgrimage.Kaluchek gripped his arm.“Joe, Joe.isn’t it beautiful?”Hendry wondered why it was so affecting; it was simple, and vast, its rounded architecture was pleasing to the eye—and all this taken together, along with the knowledge of what it represented, made it a thing of wonder.Kaluchek whispered, “What kind of beings would have made the helix, Joe?”He shook his head.He could not imagine them physically—it was almost as if he dared not imagine the Builders incarnate for fear of being disappointed with the reality, if or when they revealed themselves.No creatures of flesh and blood, however impressive, could do justice to the immense achievement of the helix.Their sail swept low over the plain, slowing as it went.To either side, sails came down and their Ho-lah-lee passengers alighted on the grass, gazing in awe—at least, that was how Hendry interpreted their goggle-eyed stares—at the towering immensity of the ziggurat before them.Their sail slowed and came to a sedate halt.Hendry eased himself from the membrane’s embrace and shuffled down the curve, jumping the last two metres to the grass and turning to assist Kaluchek, Carrelli and Ehrin.Then the sail rose like a curtain to reveal the bronze magnificence of the ziggurat.For long minutes, all they could do was stand and stare in silence.The Ho-lah-lee, thousands of them, were filing towards the ziggurat in a slow procession, heading for an arched entrance in the base block of the edifice and then passing silently inside.Kaluchek took his hand and they began walking.They were a hundred metres from the great entrance when Carrelli said, “Do you feel it, or is it only me?”Kaluchek nodded.She put her fist to her lower chest.“Here.”Hendry felt it too.It was hard to describe—a kind of euphoria that filled his chest, a physical sensation like a wall of sound drumming against his diaphragm, only in silence.Power, he thought; some resonating power that communicated itself in some way from the Builders of the helix to its lowly inhabitants.He wondered if this was how believers might feel in the presence of their god.He was eager to see inside, over the heads of the massed Ho-lah-lee.The archway loomed, the interior shadowy.They came to the threshold, slowing as the press of aliens created a brief bottleneck, and then they were inside.Hendry opened his mouth as he stared.He had had no idea what to expect, and might have been disappointed if merely told what he would behold when inside the ziggurat.But the reality was different, and staggering.They were in a vast chamber, the greatest space he had ever experienced bounded by walls, and when he looked up, following the lead of the thousands of Ho-lah-lee before him, he saw that the rising levels of the ziggurat were hollow, creating a dizzying, diminishing perspective that seemed to rise to the stratosphere and beyond, to penetrate the very core of the universe.But perhaps more moving still was the great bronze oval that stood in the centre of the chamber.It was perhaps fifty metres high, a perfect ovoid that throbbed with silent power; it seemed to thrum and throw at him an ineffable force, almost forcing him backwards, and yet at the same time drawing him forward in awe.Before them, the Ho-lah-lee parted as if by some silent command, and the humans, accompanied by Ehrin, stepped towards the effulgent oval of bronze.Hendry glanced at Kaluchek, surprised by her expression of mixed wonder and fear, though realising that these emotions were what he felt, too.They came to the foot of the ovoid and paused, and in his heart Hendry knew that whatever happened now could only be an anticlimax.And then Carrelli reached out and touched the bronze of the great ovoid, and then passed through the surface.She turned, smiling, and beckoned them after her.They obeyed - stepping through the wall as if it were gossamer - and found themselves in a chamber filled with sourceless light.He was aware of Kaluchek by his side, clutching him as if in fear, and aware too of his racing pulse.Carrelli stood before them, and as they watched she transformed, became something other than what she had been, and seconds later they stared at a column of light that limned a vague humanoid form, the features of which were now indistinct.A voice, though not Carrelli’s, issued from the living light.“Welcome,” it said.“We have been awaiting your arrival for many millennia.”* * * *4After the excitement of the chase came the disappointment of losing the quarry.“I’m sorry, Elder,” the pilot said.“We have lost the ship’s signature.We traced it to the world below, and then it simply vanished.”“Then search the world!” Cannak thundered.“It’s vital that we locate and destroy the ship, do you understand that?”“Of course sir, but.”Cannak glared at the trembling pilot.“But? But what?”“The world, sir.It’s covered in.in vegetation a hundred yards high.The ship might be anywhere among it.A search would take weeks, and then might not be successful.”Cannak considered the options.“Proceed to the next world, the home of these illusory Builders.Ehrin and the interlopers will make their way there at some point.We will be waiting for them.”“Very good, sir.”That had been hours ago, and Elder Cannak had quelled his rage and retired to his cabin, where he had immersed himself in the Book of Books.The heretic Ehrin would not escape justice, he thought, thanks to Sereth.The irony of the betrayal was beautiful; it would be a shame that she could not reap the rewards of the righteous, but the fact was that he could not trust her silence when she returned to Agstarn.The crew of the deathship, on the other hand.they were trained priests, versed in the deceit of the anti-god, who knew what they were experiencing for the illusion it was
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]