d us. Then suddenly I felt myself lifted once more, was tossed to the surface of the nearest block. Upon it I spun while the tiny eyes searched me. Then like a human ball it tossed me to another. I caught a glimpse of Drake’s tall figure drifting through the air.
The play became more rapid, breathtaking. It was play; I recognized that. But it was perilous play for us. I felt myself as fragile as a doll of glass in the hands of careless children.
I was tossed to a waiting cube. On the ground, not ten Dame feet from me, was Drake, swaying dizzily. Suddenly the cube that held me tightened its grip; tightened it so that it drew me irresistibly flat down upon its surface. Before I dropped, Drake’s body leaped toward me as though drawn by a lasso. He fell at my side.
Then pursued Vans Low sneakers Women by scores of the Things and like some mischievous boy bearing off the spoils, the block that held us raced away, straight for an open portal. A blaze of incandescent blue flame blinded me; again as the dazzlement faded I saw Men Sport Jackets & Wind Breakers Drake beside me — a Męskie Vans Canvas Chukka Boot skeleton form. Swiftly flesh melted back upon him, clothed him.
The cube stopped, abruptly; the hosts of little unseen hands raised us, slid us gently over its edge, set us upright beside it. And it sped away.
All about us stretched Women Vests & Tank Tops another of those vast halls in which on high burned the pale-gilt suns. Between its colossal columns streamed thousands of the Metal Folk; no longer hurriedly, but quietly, deliberately, sedately.
We were within the City — even as Ventnor had commanded.
Chapter XIX The City that was Alive
Close beside us Adidas ZX700 was one of the cyclopean columns. We crept to Women Bootcut Jeans it; crouched at its base opposite the drift of the Metal People; strove, huddled there, Dame to regain our shaken poise. Like bagatelles we felt in that tremendous place, the weird luminaries gleaming above like garlands of frozen suns, the enigmatic hosts of animate cubes and spheres and pyramids trooping past.
They ranged in size from shapes yard-high to giants of thirty feet or more. They paid no heed to us, did not stop; streaming on, engrossed in whatever mysterious business was summoning them. And after a time their numbers lessened; thinned down to widely separate groups, to stragglers; then ceased. The hall was empty of them.
As far as the eye could reach the columned spaces stretched. I was conscious once more of that unusual flow of energy through every vein and nerve.
“Follow the crowd!” said Drake. “Do you feel just full of pep and ginger, by the way?”
“I am aware of the most extraordinary vigor,” I answered.
“Some weird joint,” Men Vests & Tanks he mused, looking about him. “Wonder if they have any windows? This whole place looked solid to me — what I Vans Accessories Women could see of it. Wonder if we’ll get up against it for air? These Things don’t need it, that’s sure. Wonder —”
He broke off staring Vans Unisex fascinatedly at Barn the pillar behind us.
“Look here, Goodwin!” There was a tremor in his voice. “What do you make of THIS?”
I followed his pointing finger; looked at him inquiringly.
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