or not."

Rynason turned at the door and regarded the man coldly. "She's not
interested in you, Manning," he said. He went out and shut the door
calmly behind him.

Manning could be irritating with his conceited posing, but his veiled
threats didn't bother Rynason. In any case, he had something else on his
mind just now. He had finally remembered what it had been about the
carvings over the Hirlaji building in the photo that had touched a
memory within him: there was a strong similarity to the carvings that he
had seen, through Tebron's eyes, outside the Temple of Kor. The symbols
of Kor, Tebron had called them ... copied from the works of the Old
Ones.

The Outsiders?




FIVE


They had some trouble getting cooperation from Horng on any further
mind-probing. The Hirlaji lived among some of the ruins out on the Flat,
where the winds threw dust and sand against the weathered stone walls,
leaving them worn smooth and rounded. The aliens kept these buildings in
some state of repair, and there was a communal garden of the planet's
dark, fungoid plant life. As Rynason and Mara strode between the massive
buildings they passed several of the huge creatures; one or two of them