Across from them, they could make out an obviously man-made stone
embankment.
A few hundred feet further on, Iimmi sighted the spires above the trees,
still across the river from them. They could figure nothing for an
explanation, till suddenly the trees ceased on the opposite bank and the
buildings and towers of a great city broke the sky. Elevated highways
looped tower after tower, many of them broken, their ends dangling
colossaly to the streets. The docks of the city just across from them
were completely deserted.
It was Geo who suggested, "Perhaps Hama's temple is in there. After all,
Argo's largest temple is in Leptar's biggest city."
"And what city in Leptar is _that_ big?" breathed Urson, awfully.
"How do we get across?" asked Iimmi.
But Snake had already started down to the water.
"I guess we follow him," said Geo, climbing down over the rocks.
Snake dove into the water. Iimmi, Geo, and Urson followed. Before he had
taken two strokes, Geo felt familiar hands suddenly grasp his body from
below. This time he did not fight, and there was a sudden sense of
speed, of sinking through consciousness.
Then he was bobbing up through chill water with the rising embankment of
stones to one side and the broad river to the other. He switched from
skulling into a crawl now, wondering how to scale the stones when he saw
the rusted metal ladder leading into the water. He caught hold of the
sides and pulled himself up.
Snake came up now, and then Urson. And, at last Iimmi joined them on the
broad ridge of concrete that walled the flowing river. Together now on
the wharf, they turned to the city.
Near them, piles of debris lay between two taller buildings. After a few
minutes' walk the building walls had reached canyon size. "Now, how are
you going to go about looking for the temple?" Urson asked.
"Maybe we can take a look from the top of one of these buildings," Geo
suggested.
They turned toward a random building. A slab of metal had torn away from
the wall, and stepping through, they found themselves in a huge hollow
room. Dim light came from a number of white tubes set around the wall.
Only a quarter of them were lit, and one was flickering. Hung from the
center of the room was a metal sign which read:
NEW EDISON ELECTRIC COMPANY
and beneath it, in smaller letters:
"LIGHT DOWN THE AGES"
One of the huge cylinders, across the floor, was buzzing.
As they mounted a spiral staircase to the next floor the great room
turned about them, sinking. At last they stepped up into a dark
corridor. A red light glowed at the end which said: EXIT.
Doors outlined themselves along the hall in a red haze. Geo moved to one
at random and opened it. Natural light fell in on them as the others
came to see. They entered a room whose outer wall was torn away. The
floor broke off irregularly over thrusting girders.
"What could have happened to it?" Urson asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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