He felt Marva's hand tremble on his, like a frightened butterfly. He caught that hand, pressed it convulsively to his lips, and then they were directly over the radiance.
The gyro bucked, and plunged. As a moth it fell toward the light. The shock flung them forward. He sensed Marva's fall, but had no time for thought, other than an involuntary reaching for the controls. He strained to right the possessed ship, working against the siren radiations that pulled it down.
Brightness was about them. Skins shown golden, eyes were dazzled.
The gyro resisted Allyn's manual commands. Fingers numb with the pull, he fought. Slowly the nose eased up, giving them a precious moment's gain. The gyro shuddered—a doomed thing. He coaxed it further, but again the nose dipped. And again he brought it up! And then—abruptly—the pull was gone. The brilliance faded.
They were past the Barrier!
Astounded they looked at one another. Bereft of speech or comprehension they could only stare. Save for the swiftly fading light they were as before—unchanged, unscathed. And behind them the Barrier pulsed, with no sign of transgression.
"Am I different?" Marva whispered.
He shook his head mutely.
A hoarse exclamation turned them to the others in the cabin. They too were fully conscious and aware of the unbelievable thing that had happened. They too stared at themselves and at each other, and then they rose, the Numen unsteady in their chains, and scrambled for a look at what lay below.
The land was devastated. A twin to the Forbidden Area! Allyn thought he must be mad. Surely they had gone through! And there at the boundary mark was a rotted fence to mark off the Area before the waste land became mutilated forestry.