“Why did you come, then?” Cidra asked.
“I don’t know. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Severance…”
He turned to her, anger and growing concern in his face. “I said it seemed like a good idea at the time. But it wasn’t my idea.”
She put out her hand, touching him lightly. Cidra smiled wistfully. “Calm down, Severance. This place is good. It’s safe. It’s in control of the jungle, can’t you tell? The Ghosts could deal with the jungle. And that feeling of having something or someone communicate with you mentally?”
“What about it?”
“That must be what it’s like to be a true Harmonic, Severance. It may be as close as I’ll ever come to knowing that feeling.”
He shook his head. “That wasn’t communication, Cidra. That was an act of control. We didn’t consciously decide to come here. We were pulled here. We could have been killed at any point along the way by anything from a green slicer to a lockmouth.”
“No. I think that whatever led us to this place of safety had the strength to make the path here safe too.”
“I wonder if it will bother to make the path back safe or if it only works one way.” Severance took a few more paces into the dimly lit room. “All right. We’re here. Now what?”
“This may be all that’s left.” Cidra began moving along the wall, following the curving surface to the far end of the room.
As she walked she trailed a hand along the warm stone surface. It was pleasant to the touch. “But once there was something more here.”
“How do you know so much about this safehold?” he demanded. He was moving behind her, unwilling to let her get too far out of reach, even though he could see nothing that looked dangerous.
“I’m learning about it because I’m willing to listen. I’m open to it. You must be able to listen, too, Severance. After all, you were able to follow the call. Stop being so wary of it. Be still a moment and let yourself absorb it. Do you really feel anything wrong here?”
“Yes and no.”
She swung around, her eyes full of amusement. “Yes and no? Come now, Severance, you’re not usually so ambivalent.”
He shrugged, scowling. His hand was resting on the butt of the pulser. “I can’t explain it. I didn’t feel anything wrong on the way here, although I should have, and part of what I feel now is acceptable, I guess you’d say. Strange but not dangerous. But there’s something else that I don’t like. It’s just a feeling.”
“Perhaps just a sensation of alienness. After all, this is the first complete Ghost structure ever found as far as I know. There are records of hundreds of fragments of their buildings but nothing complete and in good condition like this.”
“Have any of those records of the fragments mentioned this kind of building material?” Severance eyed the gently glowing stone.
“None that I’ve come across,” Cidra admitted. “This is truly unique. Perhaps it’s newer than the others. If so, then it might help us date the Ghost civilization. Severance, this is such an important find. We’re so lucky to have discovered it.”
“We didn’t discover it,” he said flatly. “It discovered us. There’s a difference, Cidra.”
She decided to ignore him. He was obviously going to be difficult. Cidra started walking again, curious to see the far end of the hall that lay in shadow. She was aware of Severance reluctantly following. “I think there’s something back mere.” Excited by the possibility, Cidra hurried forward.
“Cidra, wait. Hell, the floor is changing color!” Severance stared down as the white stone began to shade into a pearlescent pink. “We’re getting out of here.” He grabbed Cidra’s arm, jerking her to halt.
“I want to see what’s at the back of the room.” She tried to pull free, but his hand was clamped around her arm like a manacle. “Severance, please. This is what I’ve been looking for. Don’t you understand? What’s here could be the source of the legends I’m following. This place might hold the key I need to go home.”
“I don’t care if this place holds a lifetime supply of Rose ale. We’re not hanging around any longer.” Roughly he hauled her toward the entrance.
But the floor was changing color quickly now, shimmering from pink to red and then to violet. Other colors were filtering to the surface, and even as Severance watched, the shifting colors bled upward into the walls and ceiling. Then, without any warning, there was something more than colors. There were shapes. Shapes that weren’t restricted to the two-dimensional surface of the walls. They seemed to be stepping out into the room.
“The Laughing Gods, Severance. Look at them. They were real. Just look at them.”
Stunned, Severance came to a halt in the middle of the room, still holding Cidra with one hand. His other hand hovered above the holstered pulser. He heard the wonder and excitement in Cidra’s voice and knew that he felt the same sense of awed anticipation. The feeling of alienness was gone. What filled him now was a magnificently amplified version of the serenity and quiet pleasure he got when he handled his collection of stone carvings. The Laughing Gods were everywhere in the safehold. They surrounded Cidra and Severance, but it was clear that they had no substance. They were an illusion, something like a holotape projection but far more perfectly reproduced. It was like being in the midst of Ghosts.
Mesmerized by the reality of what he was seeing, Severance continued to stand still. Cidra didn’t move beside him. There was no sound, only the shifting images on the ceiling and walls and in midair.
“It’s a record,” Cidra whispered. “I was right. This place is an Archive. These are the Ghosts.”
“They look different than they do in the carvings.”
“I don’t think so. It’s only their clothing that’s different. That would make sense if these are images of them at a later period in their development.”
The drive to get out of the safehold was gone. Severance felt relaxed again. Cidra stopped struggling to free herself when she realized that she wasn’t going to be hauled forcibly out of the room. They stood quietly, watching the shifting images that filled the room. The Ghosts had been a handsome people. The vaguely feline features expressed a deep intelligence and an awareness that was obvious even to people whose ancestors had come from another solar system. They moved with a lithe grace, walking on two legs. Their clothing was more simply styled in these images than the clothing worn by the statues. The portions of the body not shielded by the simple robes were furred.