“These are Dhuvian weapons that only they know how to use,” Boghaz had declared. “Now we know why Ywain had no escort ship. She needed none with a Dhuvian and his weapons aboard her galley.”
Jaxart looked at the things with loathing and fear. “Science of the accursed Serpent! We should throw them after his body.”
“No,” Carse said, examining the things. “If it were possible to discover the way in which these devices operate—”
He had soon found that it would not be possible without prolonged study. He knew science fairly well, yes. But it was the science of his own different world.
These instruments had been built out of a scientific knowledge alien in nearly every way to his own. The science of Rhiannon, of which these Dhuvian weapons represented but a small part!
Carse should recognize the little hypnosis machine that the Dhuvian had used upon him in the dark. A little metal wheel set with crystal stars, that revolved by a slight pressure of the fingers. And when he set it turning it whispered a singing note that so chilled his blood with memory that he hastily set the thing down.
The other Dhuvian instruments were even more incomprehensible. One consisted of a large lens surrounded by oddly asymmetrical crystal prisms. Another had a heavy metal base in which flat metal vibrations were mounted. He could only guess that these weapons exploited the laws of alien and subtle optical and sonic sciences.
“No man can understand the Dhuvian science,” muttered Jaxart. “Not even the Sarks, who have alliance with the Serpent.”
He stared at the instruments with the half-superstitious hatred of a nonscientific folk for mechanical purposes.
“But perhaps Ywain, who is daughter of Sark’s king, might know,” Carse speculated. “It’s worth trying.”