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“He?”
Snake did not answer. Stack slumped against the wall of the ledge. At the lower slopes of the
mountain they had encountered sluglike creatures that had tried to attach themselves to Stack’s
flesh, but when Snake had driven them off they had returned to sucking the rocks. They had not
come near the shadow creature. Farther up, Stack could see the lights that flickered at the summit;
he had felt fear that crawled up from his stomach. A short time before they had come to this ledge
they had stumbled past a cave in the mountain where the bat creatures slept. They had gone mad at
the presence of the man and the Snake, and the sounds they had made sent waves of nausea through
Stack. Snake had helped him and they had gotten past. Now they had stopped and Snake would not
answer Stack’s questions.
We must keep climbing.
“Because he knows we’re here.” There was a sarcastic rise in Stack’s voice.
Snake started moving. Stack closed his eyes. Snake stopped and came back to him. Stack
looked up at the one-eyed shadow.
“Not another step.”
There is no reason why you should not know.
“Except, friend, I have the feeling you aren’t going to tell me anything.”
It is not yet time for you to know.
“Look: just because I haven’t asked, doesn’t mean I don’t want to know. You’ve told me
things I shouldn’t be able to handle...all kinds of crazy things...I’m as old as, as...I don’t know how
old, but I get the feeling you’ve been trying to tell me I’m Adam....”
That is so.
“...uh.” He stopped rattling and stared back at the shadow creature. Then, very softly,
accepting even more than he had thought possible, he said, “Snake.” He was silent again. After a
time he asked, “Give me another dream and let me know the rest of it?”
You must be patient. The one who lives at the top knows we are coming but I have been able
to keep him from perceiving your danger to him only because you do not know yourself
“Tell me this, then: does he want us to come up...the one on the top?”
He allows it. Because he doesn’t know.
Stack nodded, resigned to following Snake’s lead. He got to his feet and performed an
elaborate butler’s motion: after you, Snake.
And Snake turned, his flat hands sticking to the wall of the ledge, and they climbed higher,
spiraling upward toward the summit.
The Deathbird swooped, then rose toward the Moon. There was still time.
17
Dira came to Nathan Stack near sunset, appearing in the board room of the industrial
consortium Stack had built from the empire left by his family.
Stack sat in the pneumatic chair that dominated the conversation pit where top-level
decisions were made. He was alone. The others had left hours before and the room was dim with
only the barest glow of light from hidden banks that shone through the soft walls.
The shadow creature passed through the walls--and at his passage they became rose quartz,
then returned to what they had been. He stood staring at Nathan Stack, and for long moments the
man was unaware of any other presence in the room.
You have to go now, Snake said.
Stack looked up, his eyes widened in horror, and through his mind flitted the unmistakable
image of Satan, fanged mouth smiling, horns gleaming with scintillas of light as though seen
through crosstar filters, rope tail with its spade-shaped appendage thrashing, cloven hoofs leaving
