d here," Dalgard protested, not against Sssuri's judgment but
against the whole idea.

The merman got to his feet, sweeping his arm to indicate not only the
cove where they now sheltered but the continent behind it.

"Once they held all this. Then they warred and killed, until but a
handful lay in cover to lick their wounds and wait. It has been many
threes of seasons since they left that cover. But now they come
again--to loot their place of secrets--Perhaps in the time past they
have forgotten much so that now they must renew their knowledge."

Dalgard stowed the bow in the bottom of the outrigger. "I think we had
better go and see," he commented, "so that we may report true tidings
to our Elders--something more than rumors learned from night runners."

"That is so."

They paddled out to sea and turned the prow of the light craft north.
The character of the land did not change. Cliffs still walled the
coast, in some places rising sheer from the water, in others broken by
a footing of coarse beach. Only flying things were to be sighted over
their rocky crowns.

But by midday there was an abrupt alteration in the scene. A wide
river cut through the heights and gave birth to a fan-shaped delta
thickly covered with vegetation. Half hidden by the riot of growing
things was a building of the dome shape Dalgard knew so well. Its
windowless, doorless surface reflected the sunlight with a glassy
sheen, and to casual inspection it was as untouched as it had been on
the day its masters had either died within it or left it for the last
time, perhaps centuries before.

"This is one way into the forbidden city," Sssuri announced. "Once
they stationed guards here."

Dalgard had been about to suggest a closer inspection of the dome but
that remark made him hesitate. If it had been one of the
fortifications rimming in a forbidden ground, there was more than an
even chance that unwary invaders, even this long after, might stumble
into some trap still working automatically.

"Do we go upriver?" He left it to Sssuri, who had the traditions of
his people to guide him, to make the decision.

The merman looked at the dome; it was evident from his attitude that
he had no wish to examine it more closely. "They had machines which
fought for them, and sometimes those machines still fight. This river
is the natural entrance for an enemy. Therefore it would have been
well defended."

Under the sun the green reach of the delta had a