The guard at the gate eyed the ring and Nuala. He licked his lips at her words and let them through. They faded into the crowds, Nuala walking swiftly, not giving Travis a chance to stare at the straight, many-windowed buildings, the ornate balconies, the several roads that were like lattices linking the city together.
"We must get into one of those towers!" Nuala hissed. "They are Rudra's laboratories. There he houses his discoveries, the rarest weapons, the finest engines."
"Maybe the ring—?"
"Not for the towers. I know this world, from the crypt. I have spent too many years spying on Rudra."
Travis rubbed his knuckles thoughtfully. He murmured, "I wanted something to come to grips with. Maybe I can get you into the tower."
The tower entrance was like a halved egg, bulging out from the straight wall of the black-and-white structure. There was no visible means of entry. It seemed a sheer rounded oval of stone. Travis stared at it uncertainly, walking past.
"Are you sure?" he asked Nuala. "That doesn't look like a door to me!"
"What do you know of doors?" she snapped. "It opens to vibratory impulses. Walk close enough and it will open—and a blast of power will turn you into smoke."
Travis fingered his jaw. "If I walk toward it and just as the thing opens I dart aside ... it might miss me."
"A crude approach," observed Nuala, but her eyes were thoughtful.