The Atomic Sea: Part Three by Jack Conner

Author:Jack Conner [Conner, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Epic Fantasy and Science Fiction Adventure Books
Published: 2015-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

They passed through a beautiful archway and down a long tunnel, the passage from the world of men to the world of the divine. Avery suddenly felt nauseous—fear, he knew, not sickness, though he still felt shaky.

To his disappointment, the hall did not spill out into some fantastic courtyard, moat or garden. The tunnel merged directly into the corridors of the Temple. The wall that was the innermost ring of separation on the island doubled as outermost wall of the Temple. In effect, the Sphere of Reflection served as the buffer between the Temple and the outer world.

The halls soared, high and colorful, some purplish, some scarlet, some mottled to resemble the scales of fabulous fish. And over it all sounded the trickling and gurgling of water. The very floors seemed composed of water, and they were in a sense. Channels of the river had been artfully sewn into the fabric of the Temple so that streams gushed under the feet of any who walked its halls; the floors were glass, or something like glass. Looking down, Avery could clearly see the bubbling, electric waters of the Curlusc—could even see the occasional fish or other denizen of the river shoot by. The sacrifices murmured appreciatively.

At times they crossed over bridges with no glass underfoot, and strange fish and other things leapt and swam below. Some looked quite unwholesome, with tentacles growing through blind eyes, or eyes sprouting from grayish gums. One spat something at Avery, and the balustrade smoked where the gob had landed.

Deeper and deeper the priests led their herd, and Avery heard weird, rhythmic chanting susurrating off the walls, blending in the unmistakable noise of water ahead—churning, bubbling water. The halls seemed to twist and wind randomly, yet organically, as if they mapped out some otherworldly, living labyrinth, and Avery wondered if the tunnels shifted in time to the movement of the stars or perhaps some horrible gastronomical event. Weird smells began to assail him, and equally weird feelings and thoughts. The very floor under his feet seemed to shift and slide, and the walls began to pulse, flexing in and out like the throbbing of veins. All in my head, he thought. Somehow the presence of the Elders affects humans. Either that, or their presence actually twisted reality around them. He didn’t know which he preferred.

Without warning, a tall, vaguely shrimp-like being emerged from a side-hall, and the priests paused to let it pass. Its cilia and antennae waved majestically. The Journeyers gasped in wonder, Avery along with them. The priests resumed herding their group down the passages when it had gone. Other creatures skittered along the walls, even slumped along the ceilings; one being that resembled something like a puffer-fish made of diamond and smoke, but ten feet in diameter, actually bobbed through the air. The Journeyers murmured appreciatively. Avery knew that some of these were of the pre-human intelligent races that served the R’loth; others were beings they had created for their own purposes or brought as familiars from their own realm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.