.

work for Seekers. We have striven with strange things before and may pro­tect ourselves in ways unknown to you.”

      The powder added to her food had given Shallah more than usual endurance, and still she sat at the loom. They entered the chamber, and Lo-Shel took his place behind her. Then Si-Lun approached the loom, with Kla-Noh close beside him. And when Shallah sank in sleep before the stilled heckles, the two Seekers began pulling out the weft that she had woven. Tedious work it was, and difficult for their clumsy fingers, yet they persisted, and the patterns began to disappear.

      Then Shallah gave a great cry and sought to raise her­self, but Lo-Shel held her in his arms and would not let her go. Thread after thread was loosened. The light grew dim and Kla-Noh brought candles, yet still they worked, ripping from the loom the long belt of cloth woven by Shallah over weeks and months. At first she struggled wildly, but as the patterns melted away she grew quiet. And still they tugged and pulled and cut and ripped.

      At last Lo-Shel whispered, “Her eyes—her eyes are be­ginning to see.”

      And so it was. The blue eyes that had stared so blindly now began to shift their gaze away from that ill-omened cloth. A puzzled wrinkle crossed her forehead, and Shal­lah looked up at her husband, who held her closely.

      Into the night, long and long, the Seekers worked, and before day the weaving was reduced to a great mound of yarn that eddied about their feet and stuck upon their clothing. Then Shallah smiled at them, the smile of a weary child, and drooped in sleep upon Lo-Shel’s shoulder.

      Then they went away into their own chambers and closed the doors and slept, while the sun rejoiced the mountains, and the birds and the children greeted the renewal of the day.