His eyes were wide, startled. Yet there was no sentry
hom sounding, or if there was, only his ears caught it. His
hand moved from his beard to the emblem embroidered
on the breast of his robe, the spiral of gold, as if he hardly
knew what he did or why his fingers traced the lines of
12
Andre Norton
that spiral from outer edge to inner heart. He might have
been half-consciously seeking some answer of vast impor-
tance.
Now his eyes lifted to the balcony on which the women
sat, and he deliberately looked from face to half-seen face
until he came to a gap in their number. Sighting that, he
gave a small gasp. Then he glanced hastily right and left.
He might have feared that his involuntary sound had be-
trayed him in some manner, but the rest of the company
was intent on Nyren and the uninvited guest. Lugaid drew
back a little, his eyes closed, a look of deep concentration
on his bearded face.
Planet time meant nothing to the installations. The
flying things reported, memory banks sorted, classified,
worked to feed information to the more sophisticated final
judge of the project. A decision was made, twice tested.
Then the most delicate and complicated portion of the
space-carried equipment was prepared.
Once more one of the fliers spiraled out. It made a
wider swing, its distort on full. The farthest reach of that
swing carried it across another spur of rock reaching sky-
ward. The beacon which had summoned the installation
out of space and time had died. Only now, deep within
other rocks beneath, another signal woke to life. Undetect-
ed by the flier, it began to pulsate, its wavelength sweep-
ing higher and higher as its energy built and roared to
full power.
Outward into the high heavens sped a new beam., climb-
ing starward. It would take a long time, perhaps years
for that warning to be caught by those who patrolled
there. But it could not be quenched. Ancient battles might
begin, lesser in force now than of old, because both ad-
versaries were depleted to a thousandth, a millionth of
the power they once possessed. Time and exhaustion had
not, however, wearied their resolve. They were as implac-
