"Looks like it," said the guard who was escorting Alter and the Prince. "I'm taking them to be photographed." "Sure," answered the guard, and saluted. The two children were marched down the street toward the guard house. Before they got there, they were turned off into a side street. Then suddenly the guard was gone. A black-haired boy with green eyes was coming toward them. "Is this the Prince?" Tel asked. "Un-huh," said Alter. "Who are you?" Let asked. "Where are you taking me?" "My name is Tel. I'm a fisherman's son." "My name is Alter," Alter introduced herself. "She's an acrobat," Tel added. "I'm the Prince," Let said. "Really. I'm Prince Let." The two others looked at the blond boy who stood in front of them in rags like their own. Suddenly they laughed. The Prince frowned. "Where are you taking me?" he asked again. "We're taking you to get something to eat and where you can get a good night's sleep," Alter answered. "Come on." "If you hurt me, my mother will put you in jail." "Nobody's going to hurt you, silly," Tel said. "Come on." CHAPTER VI The Duchess of Petra said, "Now, your first direct assignment will be ..." * * * * * Then, the sudden green of beetles' wings; the red of polished carbuncle; a web of silver fire; lightning and blue smoke. Columns of jade caught red light through the great crack in the roof. The light across the floor was red. Jon felt that there were others with him, but he could not be sure. Before him, on a stone platform, three marble crescents were filled with pulsating shadows. Jon Koshar looked at them, and then away. There were many more columns, most broken. He saw a huge break in the sanctuary wall. Outside he could look down on an immense red plain. At a scribed line, the plain changed color to an even more luminous red. Near the temple a few geometrical buildings cast maroon pinions of shadow over the russet expanse. Suddenly he realized that the further half of the plain was an immense red sea, yet with a perfectly straight shore line. Calmly it rippled toward the bright horizon. At the horizon, filling up nearly a quarter of the sky, was what seemed to be a completely rounded mountain of dull red. No, it was a segment of a huge red disk, a great dull sun lipping the horizon of the planet. Yet it was dim enough so that he could stare directly at it without blinking. Above it, the atmosphere was a rich purple. Then there was a voice from behind him, and he turned to the triple throne once more. "Hail, hosts of Earth," the voice began. The very shadows of the room were like red bruises on the stone. "You are in the halls of an extinct city on Creton III. Twelve million years ago this planet housed a civilization higher than yours today. Now it is dead, and only we are left, sitting on their thrones in the twilight of their dying, ruddy sun."