What is it?” he whispered.
There was a pause so long that he repeated the question.
“I’m trying to remember,” said Theon, and was silent for a while. A little later he spoke again.
“That must be Shalmirane,” he said simply.
“Shalmirane! Does it still exist?”
“I’d almost forgotten,” replied Theon, “but it’s coming back now. Mother once told me that the fortress lies in those mountains. Of course, it’s been in ruins for ages, but someone is still supposed to live there.”
Shalmirane! To these children of two races, so widely differing in culture and history, this was indeed a name of magic. In all the long story of Earth there had been no greater epic than the defense of Shalmirane against an invader who had conquered all the Universe.
Presently Theon’s voice came again out of the darkness.
“The people of the south could tell us more. We will ask them on our way back.”
Alvin scarcely heard him: he was deep in his own thoughts, remembering stories that Rorden had told him long ago. The Battle of Shalmirane lay at the dawn of recorded history: it marked the end of the legendary ages of Man’s conquests, and the beginning of his long decline. In Shalmirane, if anywhere on Earth, lay the answers to the problems that had tormented him for so many years. But the southern mountains were very far away.