"Treon," he said.
"Yes?"
"That prophecy you spoke when I came to the castle—I will bear it out."
Treon nodded. "That is the way of prophecies."
He did not return toward the temple, but led the way deeper into the heart of the catacombs. A great excitement burned within him, a bright and terrible thing that communicated itself to Stark. Treon had suddenly taken on the stature of a figure of destiny, and the Earthman had the feeling that he was in the grip of some current that would plunge on irresistibly until everything in its path was swept away. Stark's flesh quivered.
They reached the end of the corridor at last. And there, in the red gloom, a shape sat waiting before a black, barred door. A shape grotesque and incredibly misshapen, so horribly malformed that by it Treon's crippled body appeared almost beautiful. Yet its face was as the faces of the images and the old kings, and its sunken eyes had once held wisdom, and one of its seven-fingered hands were still slim and sensitive.
Stark recoiled. The thing made him physically sick, and he would have turned away, but Treon urged him on.
"Go closer. It is dead, embalmed, but it has a message for you. It has waited all this time to give that message."
Reluctantly, Stark went forward.