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OUT OF THE DEPTHS of darkness caers were poised to rip out his eyes; Virga tried desperately to move his head but he couldn&039;t It seemed that he was pinned down, helpless to protect hi to avoid the awful claw that noered itself, twitching sporadically toward his open eyes He could see nothing but the hand as it gradually grew larger and larger, broader and h the tendons that foretold the coainst whatever was confining his

The hand suddenly burst into flame Within seconds it had burned itself out and fallen into ashen pieces He saw the outline of another hand pressing against his forehead Its touch soothed him; he felt mercifully released from the pain that tormented his every breath He tried to see who it was but the pal but the softness of rest

A a slipped away to drea of cinnahtly to his arain it seemed that he could still smell the warm timber of his sloop, the soft suppleness of the river But it was still dark and he thought at first he was still drea He lay, his eyes open, and listened

Insects huht of theentle crackling of wood and soatskin He could see a s just outside the tent entrance Night had fallen but he had no idea how long it had been since he found hile up he realized his hand had been splinted with sticks and wrapped in a cloth bandage

Virga quietly pushed back the blanket and got to his feet He staggered, drunk with the sudden rush of blood to his head, and waited until he could walk steadily to the tent entrance Outside there was a battered jeep, its windshield cobwebbed with cracks On the fire there was a spit i h the tent opening when a tall, slender man in a bush suit walked into his field of vision Theto it bits of brush and sticks he&039;d been carrying in his ar the spit to a watched, his eyes narrowed, as the s beneath hi fires that burned far away across the desert

TheHis expression, an intense co a to tell his exact age He had light hair and a fair complexion; he wasn&039;t Arabic, there was no doubt about that But for all this ely disturbing and Virga was uncertain if he could withstand his direct gaze They glistened in the firelight; they see darker, as if they were no fixed color at all He reached out to turn the spit again and at the same time his head caa as if he&039;d known all along the other aze

He rose up The man ell over six feet; his lean fraa&039;s apprehension his fierce eyes slowly gave way to a controlled concern He turned and without speaking sat before the fire again

Virga stood at thepainfully Theout, as he had before, at the s in Virga&039;s stoht pose After anotherto eat that or let it burn?"

The man&039;s eyes flickered toward the fire He took the spit off and, with a knife froy meat He said in a very distinct voice, "Be careful You&039;ve been throwing up everything I&039;ve fed you"

Virga took the reasy hands along the sides of his trousers He painfully sat down across fro his face from the flames because the heat

"Your hand was infected," said the h him "I cleaned the wound and bound it"

"Thank you"

"I found you a few a didn&039;t know if he could trust this man or not He averted his eyes from the man&039;s, but that had little effect He could feel thehim He said, "Someone left a, directing his attention toward the fires When Virga turned to look he saw a great orange tongue of flame leap up amid the smaller fires "Is that an explosion?" he asked

"They&039;re burning books," thethe libraries and then the private residences Soon they&039;ll turn to other things"

Virga gave a tired sigh of frustration He fearfully touched the healing blisters on his cheeks and forehead "They&039;ve gone too far There&039;s no stopping thea I&039;y"

The man raised a brow "Oh?"

"And you? I&039;d like to knoho saved my life"

"I didn&039;t save your life I only found you"

"Isn&039;t that the sa?"

The man paused and then said, "My name is Michael"

"You&039;re an Aa chewed at a bone The heat of the fire made him draay a few feet He threw aside the bone and said, "Why are you out here? Why aren&039;t you in the city?"

The o into the city," he said, "but I couldn&039;t get through the croithout injuring soht be best to make ca too rapidly"

"I never saw anything like it before Never"

"Then be prepared to see a look up froun"

Virga stared at him

"This place is not the worst, only the es and settleround by their own inhabitants After they&039;d turned on everything in sight they finally, ultimately, turned on themselves and destroyed each other Al Ahmadi, Al Jahra, Safwan, even Abadan and Basra Up into Iran and Iraq, crawling toward Turkey I know because I&039;ve seen"

"It&039;s all happened so suddenly," Virga said "No one had any idea this was going on"

"Suddenly?" Michael asked "No, not suddenly This has been building since the beginning of tiacy of destruction No, not suddenly"

"What about the Holy Land?"

Michael glanced over at hia said "If this insanity ever spread into A the last embers of a million ideas Then he said, "You&039;ve been in deliriu to die but you were gradually able to keep down small a on the edge of death Yesterday your fever broke and you regained consciousness for only a a repeated

"I&039;ve lers here and there," Michael said "Those who have soht and who are trying to leave the country But there are not very many The police force and the military have been severely weakened Four days can be a very long ti used all he could here, Baal will go elsewhere"

At the a shuddered He reure that sat in darkness on the other side of a chessboard "How do you know all this?" he asked

"I have my sources"

"What sources?"

The man said, "You ask too a said "I have to understand Dear God, I have to"

Michael had leaned forward slightly His eyes cut Virga to the bone "What you&039;ve seen here pains you," he stated ery I&039;ve met Baal and escaped with my life"

Michael seehtly "You&039;ve hton"

"As a disciple?"

"Hell, no!" cried Virga, realizing as soon as he said it that he didn&039;t know for certain "He&039;s probably a prisoner I don&039;t know But Baal told hton"

"If he&039;s not dead," Michael said, "he&039;s given his life to Baal Those were his two alternatives Hoas it that you et away?" There was a hint of caution, of distrust, in the man&039;s voice