Free Lin Carter - Down to a Sunless Sea by Lin Carter, Ken W. Kelly - Cover Page B

metal. ..."
    Brant considered. "Hmmm . . . hadn't thought of that. You may be right. You're a good man to have along, Doc, on a risky ride like this one."
    Harbin smiled and said nothing.

    Just past midday, they reached the site marked on the golden map. Or so, at least, Harbin was convinced.
    "The weather on Mars is of little consequence," he said. "It takes many millions of years to sufficiently deface a shoreline like the one we are following. The site marked on the map is—there!"
    He pointed to a narrow cleft in the wall. It looked so unimportant that Brant would easily have ridden past it without even noticing it. His expression was dubious.
    "You sure, Doc?" Harbin nodded.
    "Sure as I can be."
    They rode closer. Harbin gave voice to an exclamation, and pointed with a trembling hand. Brant peered and saw ancient characters cut in the stone above the cleft, almost worn to the point of being indistinguishable.
    "Can you read 'em?" Brant demanded gruffly.
    The expression on Doc's homely face became somber, almost reverential. "No, but I can almost guess," he breathed.
    13
    The Safe Place
    Dismounting, and leading their riding beasts by the bridles, they entered the narrow cleft in single file, with Brant leading the way. Harbin studied the rock formations of the walls, and remarked that all of this was exceptionally ancient.
    "But it's obviously been improved upon by man," he muttered, pointing. "See? There and there? Chisel-work: someone has widened this passage where it narrowed, and the ceiling overhead has been groined where necessary, but a more stable roofing."
    Brant nodded curtly. "Wonder how far back this cleft goes?" he mused aloud.
    "Let's find out," suggested Harbin.
    They went deeper and deeper into the solid bedrock of the ancient continent. The women seemed uncertain and nervous. Finally, Zuarra stepped to where Brant walked in the lead.
    "What is it, woman?"
    "Should not we have posted a guard at the entrance?" Zuarra asked. Brant looked at her, then grinned.
    "We're looking for 'a safe place,' " he said shortly. "If we find it, we won't need a guard. If we don't, then we'll go back and post one." He chuckled and she gazed at him inquiringly.
    "Probably Agila," Brant grinned. "He's the one we can most comfortably do without!"
    At that remark, she, too, smiled, rather vindictively. He gathered that she would have been all too pleased if they had abandoned the lean wolf at any point of this journey.
    They went on, exploring the narrow-walled cavern.
    Harbin examined the walls as they went past, pointing out where hands—presumably human—had widened and smoothed out the narrower or rougher portion places.
    "Notice the chisel-work?" he asked, pointing.
    "Yeah," Brant grunted. "Also, see how the floor is pretty smooth underfoot?"
    "I've noticed," said the older man.
    "Wonder why anybody'd take the trouble to do this," mused Brant curiously. "Suppose people lived in here once?"
    Will Harbin shrugged. "Hard to tell . . . but if they did, it was ages ago and whatever signs of their residence they left—smoke from cookfires, for instance, gnawed bones, refuse, broken crockery—have long since been obliterated by the passage of time."
    Brant privately guessed that the long, narrow cavern had been the tomb of a clan prince, or the hiding place for a treasure trove. Or, just possibly both. There had to be something about the cave that made it a place of very special importance —or why else would its precise location be so carefully engraved into the ancient dish of pallid Martian gold?
    He mentioned these notions in low tones to Harbin, not wishing the others to overhear. The People had certain scruples about plundering the burial-places of their kingly dead, and, while Agila was not likely to object to picking up some ancient loot—thief that he already admittedly was—the women might not have been of the same mind.
    "Those possibilities also occurred to me," nodded the old scientist. "But this does not