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Back upon the waterworld, Luvah went off to accomplish his mis-sion. Wolff watched him go. Perhaps
he had been wrong in suspect-ing Vala of alliance with her father. But she had been too lucky in getting
to a safe place whenever danger threatened. She had acted too quickly. Moreover, when they were in
the river of the icerock planet, she had been too buoyant and just a little too assured. He suspected that
the girdle around her waist contained devices to ena-ble her to float. And there was the choosing of the
gates by her. Every tune, these had led to a secondary. They should have gone through one of Urizen's
gates at least once. She had been too self-as-sured, even for her. It was as if she were playing a game.
Although she hated her father, she could have joined him to bring her brothers and cousins to death. She
hated them as much as she hated her father. She could have transceivers implanted in her body. Thus,
Urizen would be able to hear, and probably to see, all that she did. She would enjoy the game as a
participant, perversely enjoy it even more if she were in some danger herself.
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Urizen could take pleasure in the deadly games as if he were watching a TV set. It would be a genuine
spectator sport for him.
Wolff returned to the hill to start the next-to-last phase. The na-tives were just about finished loading the
ship with black powder, ammonium nitrate, and mercury fulminate. The half-built craft con-sisted of two
skeletons of hollow bamboo in which the gas cells had been installed. One was the lower decks of the
planned ship; the upper part was supposed to be attached at a later date.
From the beginning, he had known that using the ship as a space traveler was impossible. He doubted
very much that it would work, or, if it would, that the voyage between this world and Appirmatzum could
be made. The odds were far too high against success.
But he had pretended confidence in it, and so the work had gone on. Moreover, any spy among the
Lords, or any other monitor for Urizen, would have been fooled.
Perhaps Urizen was watching him now and wondering what he meant to do. If so, by the time he found
out, it would be too late.
The natives released the two halves of the ship from its moorings. They rose several feet and then
stopped, weighed down by the sev-eral tons of explosives. This altitude was all that Wolff desired. He
gave the signal and the natives pushed the crafts up the hill until their prows were almost inside the frame.
There was just enough room for the ship to slide through the frames. Wolff had ordered it built in two
sections because the fully built ship could not have nego-tiated the space. Even the partial frames had
only an inch on either side on top and bottom to spare.
Wolff lit the fuses on each side of the two floating frameworks and signaled his men. Chanting, they
pushed the crafts on in. Wolff, standing to one side, could see the landscape of the island on the other
side of the gate. The first ship seemed to be chewed up, or lopped off, as it floated through the
gate-frame. Presently, all but the aft of the second was gone, and then that, too, had disappeared.
Luvah appeared from the jungle with Vala's unconscious body over his shoulder. Behind him were the
other Lords, alarmed, puz-zled, and angry or frightened. Wolff explained to them what he meant to do.
He said, "I could tell no one except Luvah because I could trust no one else. I suspect Vala of spying for
our father, but she may be innocent. However, I could not take a chance on her. So I had Luvah knock
her out while she slept. We'll take her along in case she is not guilty. By the time she wakes up, she'll be
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in the midst of it. Too late for her to do anything then.
"Now, get into the suits. As I've explained, they'll operate under water as well as in space. Better, since
they were designed for diving."
Luvah looked at the gate. "Do you think the explosives went off?
Wolff shrugged and said, "There's no way of telling. It's a one-way gate, of course, so there'll be no
indication from the other side. But I hope that by now Urizen's initial traps have been destroyed. And I
hope he's very upset, wondering what we've done."
Luvah put a suit on Vala and then donned one himself. Wolff su-pervised the touching off of the fuses to
the explosives planted at the bottom of the ditch around the hill. The fuses led through hollow bamboo
pipes to the gunpowder, ammonium nitrate, and fulminate of mercury.
XV
There was a rumble and a shaking of the earth. up rose the decayed vegetation and the roots in a great
cloud of black smoke. When the debris had settled and the smoke had blown away, Wolff led the Lords
towards the hill. It was sinking swiftly; its anchorage to the rest of the island severed and the lower part
ripped apart. Under the weight of the heavy golden hexagons, it went down.
Wolff threw several fuse-lit bombs at the base of the gates to has-ten the descent to the sea. The gates
began to topple. Wolff held his men steady until the upper part struck the sides of the pit formed by the
explosion. As the gates slid into the water below, he gave the order to jump. His mask over his face, the
air tanks turned on, a flint-tipped spear in one hand, and a flint knife and flint axe in his belt, he leaped
into the water.
The top of the gates disappeared just as he came up to the surface for a better look. The water was so
foul with bits of roots and humus that he could not see anything. He grabbed the top of the frame and let
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