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When I had time, I visited the Bear Tower and struck up such friendships as I could with the beast handlers there They have their own guild, and though it is a lesser guild than ours, it has ree that astonished h I did not, of course, penetrate to their arcanum In the elevation of their rate trod by a bleeding bull; at some point in life each brother takes a lioness or bear-sow in e, after which he shuns human women All of which is only to say that there exists between the to the pits a bond much like that between our clients and ourselves Now I have traveled much farther frouild is repeated mindlessly (like the repetitions of Father Inire's mirrors in the House Absolute) in the societies of every trade, so that they are all of them torturers, just as we His quarry stands to the hunter as our clients to us; those who buy to the tradesoverned to the governors; men to women All love that which they destroy

A week after I had carried hi footprints in the one, but I set out after him, sure that one of the journeymen would have mentioned it to me if he had come up the ramp Soon the footprints led to a narrow door that opened on a welter of lightless corridors of whose existence I had been utterly unaware In the dark I could no longer track hiht catch my scent in the stale air and come to me Soon I was lost, and went forward only because I did not kno to go back

I have no way of knowing how old those tunnels are I suspect, though I can hardly say why, that they antedate the Citadel above theh it is

It coht, the outward urge that sought new suns not ours, re like dying fires Remote as that time is, from which hardly one name is recalled, we still remember it Before it there , of the creation of dark galleries, that is now utterly forgotten

However that htened there I ran - and sometiht and clah foronto the ice-covered pedestal of one of those old, faceted dials whose ive each a different ti the tunnel below had heaved its foundation, it had slipped sidewise until it stood at such an angle that itthe silent passage of the short winter day across the unarden in summer, but not such a one as our necropolis, with half-wild trees and rolling, meadowed lawns Roses had blossomed here in craters set upon a tessellated pavement Statues of beasts stood with their backs to the four walls of the court, eyes turned to watch the canted dial: hulking barylalyptodons; slaives All were dusted noith snow I looked for Triskele's tracks, but he had not coh, narros I could see no light through them, and no motion The spear-towers of the Citadel rose on every side, so that I knew I had not left it - instead, I seemed to be so with cold I crossed to the nearest door and pounded on it I had the feeling that Ianother way to the surface, and I was resolved to smash one of the s if need be rather than return that way There was no sound within, though I beat ain

There is really no describing the sensation of being watched I have heard it called a prickling at the back of the neck, and even a consciousness of eyes that seem to float in darkness, but it is neither - at least, not forakin to a sourceless e that I must not turn around, because to turn will be to appear a fool, answering the pros of baseless intuition Eventually, of course, one does I turned with the vague ih the hole at the base of the dial

Instead I saw a young wo before a door at the opposite side of the court I waved to her and began to walk toward her (hurriedly, because I was so cold) She advanced toward me then, and we met on the farther side of the dial She asked who I was and what I was doing there, and I told her as well as I could The face circled by her fur hood was exquisitely molded, and the hood itself, and her coat and fur-tri and rich, so that I was miserably conscious as I spoke to her of my own patched shirt and trousers and my muddy feet

Her na here," she said "You may search, if you do not believe o back where I belong, to the Matachin Toithout having to go down there again"

"You're very brave I have seen that hole since I was a little girl, but I never dared go in"

"I'd like to go in," I said "I h which she had come and led me into a tapestried room where stiff, ancient chairs seemed as fixed in their places as the statues in the frozen court A diainst one wall We went to it, and she took off her coat while I spread my hands to the warmth

"Wasn't it cold in the tunnels?"

"Not as cold as outside Besides, I was running and there was no wind"

"I see How strange that they should coer than I, but there was an antique quality about her metal-trimmed dress and the shadow of her dark hair that otten yesterdays

"Is that what you call it? The Atrium of Time? Because of the dials, I suppose"

"No, the dials were put there because we call it that Do you like the dead languages? They have mottoes 'Lux dei vitae viahts the way of life' 'Felicibus brevis,for happiness' 'Aspice ut aspiciar'"

I had to tell her with soue beyond the one we spoke, and little of that

Before I left we talked a sentry's watch or more Her family occupied these towers They had waited, at first, to leave Urth with the autarch of their era, then had waited because there was nothing left for theiven enerations ago; they were poor now, and their toere in ruins Valeria had never gone above the lower floors

"Soly than others," I said "The Witches' Keep is decayed inside too"

"Is there really such a place? My nurse told ht it was only a tale There was supposed to be a Tower of Torony"

I told her that, at least, was a fable

"The great days of these towers are more fabulous to ainst the enee for us at the Well of Orchids"

"Perhaps one of your sisters will be summoned soon," I said, for I did not want, for so herself