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all around. It was easy enough to imagine this main room as the family gathering place, and the other rooms as the Tal Tahir equivalent of bedrooms. He had no doubt that each dome was designed exactly the same way. There was something oddly familiar about the design—and in a moment Paul realized what it was. The floor plan of the dome was a miniature replica of each of the city's quadrants he'd seen the day before. The realization supported his conclusion that the Tal Tahir had been fanatics for symmetry: each quadrant had a central area surrounded by circular rows of domes, and each dome had a central room surrounded by a circular row of smaller rooms.

He returned to the main room feeling somewhat depressed. There was no way of knowing what furniture the Tal Tahir had, what they used for books, for entertainment. So much of their lives had been wiped clean from this place.

The others had already taken off their packs and found places to squat or sit on the floor.

"Let's go over the plan again," Karyn said. "We don't want any problems." She got down on her knees so she could use her finger to draw a rough sketch in the thick dust. "This is the wall around the temple, and the temple building itself." She glanced up to make sure she had Dorland's attention. "The sacred chamber is just through the entrance, here." Her finger traced a line. "Remember, you're only going in to look around. After you've finished in the chamber, come back out through the front. We'll be watching for the sentries from across the road. Jacque will make his pigrim call—" She looked up at Dorland. "You remember what that's like?"

He nodded.

"Good. Jacque will make the call after the sentries have passed by out of sight. Wait until you hear it, then come right over the wall." She paused, 96 William Greenleaf CLARION 97

watching him. "If you can't come through the front for any reason—"

"Why wouldn't he be able to come through the front?" Paul asked sharply.

"He will," Karyn answered. "But if somebody spots him going in, or if the sentries come back earlier than we expect, there's another way out." She turned back to Dorland. "If you have to, you can take the stairway to the roof. It's here on the right." Her finger sketched a series of horizontal lines to represent stairsteps. "There's a door leading out onto the roof. You can go along the roof to the back wall, then down over the wall in this corner." She jabbed a finger. "If you don't come through the front, we'll wait for you around there, then go back to the intersection of David and Fourth. Either way, we should be able to get back to camp before dawn." She looked up at him. "Can you do that?"

He nodded.

Karyn studied his face a moment longer, then turned to look through the tangled vines at the dome's entrance. "It's getting dark. Let's go." Outside, they walked carefully in single file to-ward the spire, which gleamed dully in the moonlight. Paul noticed that Karyn and Jacque had their knives unsheathed and within easy reach.

The sky was a deep cobalt blue by the time they stepped between the crumbled ruins of two domes and saw the temple less than a hundred meters away.

"We'll wait here for the sentries to go past," Karyn whispered.

They huddled against a rounded pink wall for several minutes. Then Paul heard low voices and saw two dark shapes pass by along the wall. Paul's heart began to thump uneasily inside his chest.

"Okay," Kapyn whispered after the sentries were out of sight. "We have only a few minutes." Keeping low, Karyn and Jacque moved across

the roadway, then Dorland. Paul hung back, reluctant to leave the shelter of the wall. Vegetation would give them at least a thin cover once they'd reached the wall. Paul started to cross the roadway when a low hooting sound from the darkness made him jump. Behind him, Selmer laughed quietly.

"That's a rea/pigrim. Bird about the size of your finger. Not dangerous." He laughed again and touched Paul's shoulder. "Better get moving." When they were all together at the wall, Karyn spoke in a low voice to Dorland.

"Once you're over, go directly across the courtyard and through the archway. Then you'll be inside the temple."

Dorland nodded.

"The sentries will be back in a few minutes," Karyn said, her eyes on Dorland. Paul was suddenly struck by the realization that she wasn't happy with this plan either. "You can still change your mind. Nobody would blame you."

Dorland didn't say anything. Karyn's eyes remained on him a moment longer; then she signaled to the others, crossed the roadway at a crouching run and melted into the shadows. Paul hesitated as Selmer and Jacque followed her. He peered over the wall at the temple. Then he heard nearby voices, and his heart began to hammer inside his chest. The voices were those of young men, but Paul knew they couldn't be the sentries back this early. From their direction, it was clear that the boys were coming down the other side of the wall toward the corner. When they reached the cover, the boys would surely see him and Dorland

crouched there against the wall.

For a frozen moment they hesitated; then

Dorland grasped the wall and pulled himself over. Paul turned for a quick, panicky glance toward the black shadows across the roadway "where he knew r

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Karyn and the others waited. Then the voices came closer and he knew he didn't have a choice. He followed Dorland over the wall, landed off balance on a hard surface and nearly fell. Dorland's hands were on his arm, steadying him. They waited, panting, staring at each other.

A voice came from just on the other side of the wall: "We can't go in through the gate. They'll know we didn't get here in time. We were supposed to be here a half hour before the ceremony. Let's go over here."