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was
not here.
And there was no sign of the Face.
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Overcoming first his awe, then a growing distaste at this disturbance of the
dead, Alex began to search, first carefully, then more vigorously. But what
he
was looking for was not to be found.
The countenance of the corpse, eyeless and noseless now, was still utterly
and
routinely human. No more and no less horrible than that of any man long dead,
a
kind of placid and routine horror. Nothing that ought to frighten an
experienced
soldier, or raise his hopes. Yet a wild hope, that had in it a strong
component
of new fear, had been born in Alex now. He repeated his question, this time
as a
demand. "Where is the Face?"
We took it away. We wanted to make sure that it remained out of our enemies'
reach.
"You mean someone else has put it on?"
It would be a mistake to bring about our god's rebirth just now here on
Corycus.
When the Twice-Born lives again, he must be given time to grow, develop,
become
familiar with his powers before he needs to use them. Here and now, Shiva
would
allow him no such time.
"Then where is the Face?" Alex persisted. "You've hidden it somewhere?"
When you have arrived at a certain temple of Apollo, we will tell you more.
In
that place you may discover our god's Face, and put it on.
There was a silence that seemed long. Those last three words kept echoing in
the
young soldier's mind, while their meaning seemed to stay just out of reach.
"I?" Alex cried at last. Abruptly he was very conscious of the strangeness of
the Labyrinth around him. The passageway in which he crouched seemed to be
constricting around him. "I am to put it on?"
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On the night when our god last breathed, he spoke favorably of you.
Suddenly Alex could remember again the fallen avatar in the great hall,
looking
directly at him and saying, with something like envy, Once I was like you. It
seemed to the young man now that he could hear in the echo of that booming
voice
all the false heartiness and bravado that had concealed a great fear.
Aloud he asked, "And this my discovering the Face is to happen in some temple
of
Apollo? Not one of Dionysus?"
No response.
His mind was whirling. Sudden dreams of unbelievable glory alternated with
sharp
pangs of terror. "Anyway, I think there are no longer any temples of Apollo
on
this island. Shiva has ordered them all destroyed, or converted to base use."
The only answer was faint music, and fainter laughter. The man could hear
nothing of joy, but only a kind of madness in it.
"All right, so I must reach a certain temple of Apollo. Where does it stand,
if
not here on Corycus? And how am I to get there?"
We are weak. Without our god to give us strength, the long trip over the
water
may be too much for us.
The voices babbled all together suddenly, sounding confused, not to say mad.
But
what else to expect from the entourage of Dionysus, God of Frenzy? Alex
resisted
the urge to repeat his search of the immediate area, to make sure that
despite
their babble, the Face was not simply lying here unclaimed.
Struck by a sudden thought, Alex raised his head and whispered into the air,
"Does Shiva know that your god is dead?"
The God of Destruction does not care. He has not taken the trouble to search
for
Dionysus. Shiva is very much afraid of certain other deities. But not of our
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lord. Not yet.
There came an eerie sound, a kind of high-pitched rumbling, rolling down one
of
the twisting corridors Alex could not at first be sure which one. Soon the
chariot, pulled by the two ghostly panthers, pulled up in front of him and
stood
there, waiting, its car unoccupied. The whole equipage seemed much bigger
now,
too wide to have negotiated the narrow pathways of the Maze yet here it was.
Get in.
Drawing a deep breath, Alex put a hand on the low side rail of the vehicle,
just
in front of one of the two tall wheels. The sensation of solidity beneath his
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