Choking darkness filled the ship. Blackness that was absolute! It pressed upon me, so that I could move no limb. All my senses were smothered. I could hear no voice. Even the racing thrum of the engines was stilled.
I knew only that we were being sucked resistlessly downward—
Into the abyss of Malgarth!
XIII
The Mirror of Darkness
That smothering blackness was abruptly gone. Sensation came back, and I could move again. A faint crimson light filtered through the ports. But the silence remained. The engines were stopped. I knew that the Barihorn was motionless.
"Where—" Kel Aran was groping through the scarlet gloom. "What—"
Verel was a white wraith beside him.
"We're in the temple," came her hopeless whisper. "In the power of Malgarth!"
I stumbled toward the nearest port. Outside, in the dim red distance, I could make out great square black columns soaring upward—columns vast as mountains. Beyond them was a wall. Mile upon mile above was a domed black roof, pierced with a vast round orifice through which the dusky sky was visible like a dull-red, malignant sun.