They climbed on. Once Urson looked back and saw Geo had stopped some twenty feet behind them at a niche in the ledge. He turned around and dropped back himself. There was sweat on the boy's up-turned face as the big man came toward him. He could see it in the red haze from the rim. "Here," Urson said. "Give me a hand." "I can't," Geo said softly, "or I'll fall." Urson reached down, now, caught the boy around the chest, and hoisted him over the cropping of rock. "Take it easy," Urson instructed. "You don't have to race with anybody." Together they made their way after the others. Iimmi and Snake cleared the crater rim first; then Urson and Geo joined them on the pitted ledge. Together they looked into the volcano as red and yellow light fell over their chests and faces. Gold dribbled the internal slope. Tongues of red rock lapped the sides, and the swirling white basin belched brown blobs of smoke which rose up the far rocks and spilled over the brim a radion away. Light leapt in wavering pylons of blue flame, then sank back into the pit. Winding trails of light webbed the crater's walls, and at places ebon cavities jeweled among the light. Wind fingered the watchers' hair. * * * * * Iimmi saw her first, two hundred feet along the rim. Her drapes, died red and orange in the flame, blew about her as she walked toward them. Iimmi pointed to her, and the others looked up. As she neared, Geo saw that though she stood very straight, she was old. Her short white hair snapped at the side of her head in the warm breeze. Firelight and shadow fell deeply into the wrinkles of her face. As she approached them, light running like liquid down the side of her winded robe, she smiled and held out her hand. "Who are you?" Geo suddenly asked. "_Shadows melt in light of sacred laughter, Hands and houses shall be one hereafter._" recited the woman in a calm, low voice. She paused. "I am Argo Incarnate, of Leptar." "But I thought ..." Iimmi started. "What did you think?" inquired the elderly woman, gently. "Nothing," said Iimmi. "He thought you were a lot younger," Urson said. "We're supposed to take you home." Suddenly he pointed in to the volcano. "Say, this isn't any of that funny light like back in the city that burned our hands, only this time it made you old?" She glanced at the pool of light. "This is natural fire," she assured them, "a severed artery of the earth's burning blood. But wounds are natural enough." Geo shifted his feet and rubbed his stump. "We were supposed to take the younger sister of the present Argo Incarnate and return with her to Leptar," Iimmi explained. "There are many Argos," smiled the woman. "The Goddess has many faces. You have seen quite a few since you arrived in this land." "I guess we have," Urson said. "Are you a prisoner of Hama?" asked Iimmi. "I am with Hama," said the woman.