Chapter V: Astran, the Crystal City

The sun dropped beneath the rim, and the purple dusk began to thicken and to creep over the valley floor. I took up my precious equipment, and Melvar and I walked off through the red brush in the direction of the mountain. The vast strange buildings of the city of gems were still glowing with soft color, and the cold, bright surface of the Silver Lake flashed often into sight beyond the rolling eminences. Presently we came to a well-worn path through the crimson scrub, but I saw nothing to indicate that anyone had thought of paving or improving it. But the Astranians did not seem to have much energy for any kind of public work. Their material civilization appeared to be on a rather low scale. In fact they supplied their wants in the way of food entirely with the abundant fruit of the red bushes. As I had guessed from the girl's remarks, they did not even have the use of fire. Indeed the great physical and mental development of the race and the splendid city in which it lived was strangely contrasted with their absolute lack of scientific knowledge.

Our pace was hastened by thoughts of the terrors that night would bring, and perhaps because of them, we walked nearer one another, and presently we were hurrying along, hand in hand. About us the purple night deepened and, beyond the argent brilliance of the Silver Sea, the strange evil of the night gathered itself for the attack.

At last we came to the narrow path that wound up the side of the mountain to the splendid palaces that crowned it. We hurried; came to a great arched gate in the emerald wall, and entered. The huge, incredibly magnificent buildings were scattered irregularly about the summit, with broad spaces between them. Here and there were paved courts of the silvery metal, which must have been an aluminum bronze, but the open ground was for the most part grown up in rank thickets of the red brush. The great building showed the wear and breakage of ages. Here and there were great heaps of gleaming crystal, where wonderful edifices had fallen, with the brush grown up around them. Incredible as it may seem, I think the old civilization of Astran had possessed a science that was able to synthetize diamonds and other precious stones, in quantities sufficient even for use as building stone. Later I had an opportunity to examine bits of the fallen masonry.

Towering above all, on the very peak of the mountain, was a great ruby dome, vast as the dome of St. Peter's, and mounted upon the center of the top was a huge machine that resembled nothing so much as a great naval gun, though it was made of crystal and white metal. A little group of men were gathered about it, and as I watched they swung the great tube about, and a narrow ray of pale blue light poured out of it. And down on the plain below, where the practise beam had struck, a great boulder flashed into sudden incandescence. In their exploration of the ultraviolet spectrum, our own scientists have found rays that are strangely destructive to life, and considerable progress has been made in the development of a destructive beam of wireless energy. But later I was to meet a far more terrible ray weapon than that slender blue beam.

"With that," said Melvar, "our people fight off the Krimlu at night. But the Krimlu are so many that sometimes they are able to land and take our people. If only we had more of the beams! But there is no man in all Astran who knows how the light is made, or anything save that the blue light shines out to destroy when rock of a certain kind is put into the tube. Austen wished to examine it, and spoke of something he called 'radium ore' but the priests forbade. Indeed, his curiosity is one of the reasons Jorak had for driving him away."

Standing about the ill-kept streets were a few of the people of the crystal city. All were of magnificent physique, and intelligent looking, white-skinned, and fair haired. All wore garments that seemed of spun metal, and gleaming crystal weapons. Most of them were hurrying along, intent on affairs of their own, but a few gathered around us almost as soon as we stepped in the gate. I felt that they were hostile to me. They questioned Melvar in a tongue that was strange to my ears; then became engaged in a noisy debate among themselves. Their glances toward me were furtive and sullen, and their eyes had the lock of men crazed by fear.

* * * * *

Safe!

Melvar was saying something in a conciliatory tone, and I was swinging my rifle into position for use, when there was a sudden shout from the gate of the city, and the clashing of crystal weapons. The interruption was most welcome to me. The crowd turned eagerly to the new arrivals. I saw that they were a band of soldiers, possibly the same that had passed me in the morning. Slung to a pole carried between the foremost two, was a strange thing. Weirdly colored and fearfully mutilated as it was, I saw that it was the naked body of a human being. The head was cut half off, and dangling at a grotesque angle. The hair was very long and very white, flying in loose disorder. The features were withered and wrinkled, indeed the whole form was incredibly emaciated. It was the corpse of a woman. The flesh was deep purple!

As I stood staring at the thing in horror, there was laughter and cheering in the crowd, and a little child ran up to stab at the thing with a miniature diamond sword. Melvar touched my arm.

"Come," she whispered. "Quickly. The people do not like your coming. They did not like the things Austen told of the world outside, for the priests teach that there is no such world. It is well that the hunters came when they did with the Purple One. And let us hope that the priests of the Purple Sun do not hear of you."

As she spoke she led me rapidly away through a tangle of the red brush, and through a colonnade of polished sapphire. Then she quickly led the way down a deserted alley, across another patch of the red shrubbery, and down a short flight of steps into a chamber that was dark.

"Wait here," she commanded. "I must leave you. I think that Jorak has had spies upon me, and if I were too long absent he might grow suspicious. He was the enemy of my father, and some day my brother will slay him. But sometimes I am afraid of the way he looks at me. However there is no danger now. If the priests hear, I will somehow get you out of Astran. I think they will not seek you here, whatever may happen. My brother will bring the message from Austen, and food and drink. May you rest well, and have faith in me!"

She ran up the steps, and left me standing in the darkness, in a state of uncomfortable indecision. I did not like the turn that affairs had taken. It is never pleasant to be alone in the dark in a strange and dangerous place. I would have much preferred to take my chances out on the open plain, with nothing but the moving lights to fear, terrible as they were, than here in this strange city, full of ill-disposed savages. A diamond knife will kill a man just as effectively and completely as the weirdest death that ever roamed the night.

For a time I stood waiting tensely, with my rifle in my hand, but I was very tired and weak. Presently I got out my flashlight and examined the place. It was a little cell, apparently hewn in the living rock of the mountain. There was nothing in the way of furniture except a sort of padded shelf, or bed, at the back. I sat down upon it, and presently went to sleep there, though I had no intention of doing so.

* * * * *

Austen's Letter

The next I knew, someone was shaking my arm, and shouting strange words in my ear. I opened my eyes. Standing before me was a young man. In one hand he held a crystal globe filled with a glowing, phosphorescent stuff, faintly lighting the little apartment. I sat up slowly, for my limbs were stiff. The gun was still in my hand. Without saying anything more, the young fellow pointed to a tray that he had set by me on the shelf. It contained a crystal pitcher of aromatic liquid, and a dash of the yellow fruit. I gulped down some of the drink, and ate a few of the fruits, feeling refreshed almost immediately. Then the boy--he was not more than sixteen years of age--thrust into my hand an envelope addressed in the familiar handwriting of Austen. He handed me the light and walked up the stone stairs.

With feeling that well may be imagined, I tore open the envelope and read, in the faint light of the glowing bulb, the words of my old friend.

"Astran, in the Mountain of the Moon,
June 16, 1927.

"To whomsoever of my own race this may be delivered:

"Since you must so far have traveled the mysterious dangers of this
strange world, it is needless for me to dwell upon them. I write
this brief missive for the information of anyone who shall happen
to find the way in here in the future, and in order that the riddle
of my own disappearance may some time be cleared up, if I fail to
return. For I intend to explore the region beyond this lake--I call
it the Silver Lake--or to lose my life in the attempt.

"My name is Horace Austen. I came to the Great Victoria Desert to
investigate the sculptured columns reported by Hamilton, far to the
west of here. I found the ruins and incredibly ancient they are.
They must date from fifty thousand years ago, at the latest. Among
them was an amazing pictographical record of a race of men driven
by the drying up of their country to emigrate to the crater of a
great mountain nearby. There was no mistaking the meaning. I was,
of course, intensely interested, for nothing of the kind had ever
been reported in Australia, and certainly the people depicted were
not Bushmen.

"It happened that I remembered Wellington's account of the Mountain
of the Moon, whose northern cliff was followed for a few miles by
his route of 1887. That appeared to be the best chance for the
great crater described on the columns. It was but natural for me
to decide to investigate it. There is no use for me to dwell upon
my hardships, but the last of my water was drunk when I found the
ladder, which was located just as the inscriptions indicated.

"I reached the red plain without accident, and found the fruit of
the strange vegetation a palatable and nourishing food. So far I
have escaped the red lights that haunt the night, and it is their
mystery that I am determined to solve. I went down to the metallic
lake, and investigated it. I confess myself quite unable to account
either for the nature or for the incredible origin of the fluid.
With proper precaution it can be studied without great difficulty,
but since I am almost entirely without apparatus, I have learned
little enough about it.

"I had been in the crater a week when I decided to approach the
city of jewels on the mountain. I have been in Astran over a month,
but on account of the savagery and ignorance of the people, and the
oppressive rule of the priesthood, I have not been on very friendly
relations with them--with the exception of the girl, Melvar, who
seems far above the others of her race, and who has been my friend
from the first. I have been able to learn but little from them,
although I have acquired a fair knowledge of the language. My
instructor in it, the beautiful Melvar, is showing a keen desire to
learn English, of which she is gaining a command with remarkable
speed, and is developing, as well, an insatiable curiosity about
the outer world.

"The sentiment against me has been ever running higher, and
tomorrow I shall leave the crystal city, and endeavor to round the
sea in the north and to reach the mist-veiled land beyond. My only
regret in leaving is that I shall see Melvar no more. I wish there
were some way to secure her the advantages of a civilized education.

"These may be my last words to the world, if, indeed, they ever
come into the hands of a civilized man. And I know that sooner
or later the crater will be discovered and entered. My chief
purpose in writing this, aside from the satisfaction of leaving an
account of my own doings is to state my firm belief, I may say, my
certain knowledge, that the strange things that may be observed
here, supernatural or incredible as they may appear, result from
perfectly natural forces in the control of a civilized power that
may not be much above our own advancements.

Horace Austen."