He said as much to Shan Kar. "We'll try it. Lefty, you can wait here if you want to."
"I'm goin'," whispered the Cockney hoarsely.
"We will swing around to enter Vruun from the north side," Tark said, "Few of the Brotherhood ever go out that way from the city."
"Why not?" Nelson demanded suspiciously.
Shan Kar answered, pointing. "The Cavern of Creation, the forbidden place, lies up there."
Nelson stared with swift interest. He saw that, north of Vruun, the level forests that encompassed the city marched up to grassy hills that were the foothills of the great northern mountains. In the face of those dark hills he glimpsed a great cavernous opening. He could see it in the dark because light came from it-a vague, unreal, quivering white glow.
The light danced and wavered, throbbing like a heart. Witch-light, ghost-light, pulsing mysteriously from that great opening!
"Yes, that is the Cavern," Shan Kar answered his thought. "The glow is of the cold fire that forbids entrance to all except the few who know the secret way."
Cold fire? Nelson felt a sharp wonder. There must be something deadly there to have inspired such awe and fear. But what?
Shan Kar said savagely, "The Cavern is a curse to L'Lan! That unholy place started the Brotherhood's lying myth that our human and beast races were there created equal."