Unwillingly Copper allowed herself to be led forward. “There’s something about this place that frightens me,” she said uncomfortably as the high black wails closed in, narrowing until only a slit of yellow sky was visible overhead. The path underfoot was surprisingly smooth and free from rocks, but the narrow corridor, steeped in shadows, was gloomy and depressingly silent. It even bothered Kennon, although he wouldn’t admit it. What forces had sliced this razor-thin cleft in the dense rock around them? Earthquake probably. And if it happened once it could happen again. He would hate to be trapped here entombed in shattered rock. Gradually the passage widened, then abruptly it ended. A bleak vista of volcanic ash dotted with sputter cones opened before them. It was a flat tableland, roughly circular, scarcely half a kilometer across, a desolation of black rock, stunted trees and underbrush, and gray volcanic ash. A crater, somewhat larger than the rest, lay with its nearest edge about two hundred meters away. The rock edges were fire polished, gleaming in the yellow sunshine, and the thin margin of trees and brush surrounding the depression were gnarled and shrunken, twisted into fantastic shapes. “Hey! what’s this?” Kennon asked curiously. “That crater looks peculiar, like a meteor had struck here--but those stunted plants--hmm--there must have been some radioactivity too.” He looked at the crater speculatively. “Now I wonder--” he began. Copper had turned a sickly white. “No!” she said in a half-strangled voice--“oh, no!” Kennon looked at her. “You know what this is?” he demanded. “No,” Copper said. But her voice was unsteady. “You’re lying.” “But I don’t know.” Copper wailed. “I’m only guessing. I’ve never seen this place before in my life! Please!--let’s get out of here!” “Then you know about this,” Kennon demanded. “I think it’s the Pit,” Copper said. “The redes don’t say where it is. But the description fits--the Circle of Death, the Twisted Land--it’s all like the redes say.” “Redes?--what are redes? And what is this business about circles of death? There’s something here that’s peculiar and I want to know what it is.” “It’s nothing. Truly. Just let’s go back. Let’s leave this place. It’s no good. It’s tabu.” “Tabu? You’ve never used that word before.” “Forbidden.” “Who forbids it?” “The Gods--the Old Ones. It is not for Lani. Nor for you.” Her voice was harsh. “Come away before it is too late. Before the Silent Death strikes you down.” “I’m going to have a look at this.” “You’ll be killed!” Copper said. “And if you die, I die too.” “Don’t be foolish. There’s nothing here that can hurt me. See those trees and plants growing right up to the crater’s edge. If they can take it permanently, I can stand it for a few moments. If there’s any radioactivity there, it’s not very much.” “But the redes say--”