She said quickly, "You won't find one. Not here, in the temple."
"How can I get you out of there? And the others?"
"You're mad," the girl said. "What good would it do...." She shook her head. "Better to die at once."
Stuart narrowed his eyes at the dozen frozen figures. "I don't think so. Fourteen of us can put up a better fight than one. If your friends wake up—"
The girl said, "On your left, between the pillars, there's a tapestry showing Perseus and the Gorgon. Touch the helm of Perseus and the hand of Andromeda. Then go carefully—there may be traps."
"What is it?"
"It will lead you down here. You can free us. If you hurry—oh, but it's hopeless! The Aesir—"
"Damn the Aesir," Stuart snarled. "Wake up the others!" He whirled and ran toward the distant wall, where he could see the Perseus tapestry, brown and gold, a huge curtain between two columns.
If the Aesir saw, they made no move....
Stuart's lips twisted in a bitter smile. The crazy confidence had not left him, but he was conscious of a reassuring warmth; at least he was no longer completely alone. That would help. Between the worlds, and on the desolate planets that swing along the edge of the System, loneliness is the lurking terror, more horrible than the most exotic monster ever spawned by the radioactive Plutonian earth.