"Bram," Tremaine said. "What's this all about?"
"Watch the wall there. My sight grows dim. Tell me what you see."
"It looks like shadows: but what's casting them?"
"Can you discern details?"
"No. It's like somebody waggling their fingers in front of a slide projector."
"The radiation from the star is yet too harsh," Bram muttered. "But now the node draws close. May the High Gods guide my hand!"
A howl rang out, a raw blast of sound. Bram tensed. "What do you see?" he demanded.
"The outlines are sharper. There seem to be other shapes behind the moving ones. It's like looking through a steamy window...." Beyond the misty surface Tremaine seemed to see a high narrow chamber, bathed in white light. In the foreground creatures like shadowy caricatures of men paced to and fro. "They're like something stamped out of alligator hide," Tremaine whispered. "When they turn and I see them edge-on, they're thin...."
"An effect of dimensional attenuation. They strive now to match matrices with this plane. If they succeed, this earth you know will lie at their feet."
"What are they? Where are they? That's solid rock—"