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Leadem, Christopher

"The Mantooth"


As the woman watched, he tapped first along the rock immediately
surrounding the glass, then above, and around the altar. There could be
no doubt: the sounds were hollow. Some hidden chamber lay beyond. He
turned to his companion.
'Shall I break the glass?'
Again she felt an inner turmoil. But her need to know was so great.....
'Yes.'
He shielded his eyes with his arm, much as he had on the night when
together they heard the Voice. . .and hurled his stone into the heart of
it.
With a crash the mirror burst. And when she dared to open her eyes
again, her first reaction was disappointment. Only a hole remained,
lined about the edges with jagged bits of glass. But forbidding and
tooth-like as these appeared, they could with care be removed, and the
passage rendered safe. This Kalus set out to do, protecting his hand
with a small skin and pulling out the pieces one by one, unable yet to
penetrate the gloom of what lay beyond.
'Bring me the torch,' he said to her.
But now the girl became suddenly timid. Seeing the result of her
handiwork, she wondered if in her restless curiosity she had not tempted
the undoing of all Faith.
'It's all right,' he said, somehow knowing her thoughts.
'If a belief can be so easily destroyed, by the least physical
reality, it is not worthy of the hope we place in it.


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