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The
priestess looked amused. "How do you know the words of the ancient
ones?"
    Sabre glanced
at Tassin. "Let her go outside, and I'll answer your
questions."
    "Oh, very
well." Jassine waved at Tassin, who hurried out, shooting him a
worried look. The priestess wandered over to the altar and stroked
the black glass.
    "The curse is
our protector. We alone are not harmed by it. Any who come here
soon die once they've stood before the altar, while others perish
before they reach the city. The curse is our friend."
    Sabre snorted.
"Some friend. Don't you know that that's why your people are
deformed? Even though you don't die from it, you condemn your
children to a life of suffering. As for scattering the black glass
all over the place; you've made the land sick, mutated the
creatures that live there, and spread the misery."
    Jassine's eyes
glinted with anger. "It protects us, as it did the ancient ones. No
one dares to attack us; they would die."
    "Who'd want to
attack you? You live in a ruined city, surrounded by a wasteland of
radioactivity and mutated flora and fauna. This evil didn't protect
the ancient ones; it destroyed them. All you're doing is killing
innocent wanderers and condemning your people to a life of mutated
misery."
    "Blasphemy!
You dare to speak so of the ancient wise ones, who built the great
cities and travelled in magical machines? You are nothing! Even the
monsters dare not set foot here. While others fight wars and
destroy each other, we alone will survive, for none dare attack
us."
    "Monsters from
the Death Zone?"
    The bald woman
gestured in the general direction of the desert. "Yes, the monsters
from out there. Fearsome creatures that our warriors have seen in
the desert; that have attacked the people who dared to leave the
sacred city. They paid the price for their deceit. None may leave
this haven created for us by the ancient ones. It's forbidden, and
they make sure the law is upheld. We see the creatures pass by,
going to ravage the lands of those who don't have our
protection."
    Sabre
considered the startling revelation that had led to this awful
situation. There was no radiation inside the Death Zone, but
apparently the creatures that came from there could detect it, and
had enough brains to avoid it. Those that did not soon perished.
The Death Zone spread its evil far and wide, and what came out of
it affected every tribe he had encountered in some way. In
addition, it was spreading, breeding more and more foulness to pour
out and ravage the land. As long as monsters prowled outside the
radioactive lands, these people would not change their ways,
fearing an influx of Death Zone creatures and attack by unknown
enemies. If the monsters stopped coming, they might leave this
terrible place and find somewhere better to live.
    It was
pointless to try to change the priestess' beliefs, however. She had
clearly been brought up steeped in the paranoia of the people who
had survived the war and crawled out of the bomb shelters to try to
rebuild their lives. They must have been convinced they would be
attacked again, and had passed this terrible legacy on to their
children. Now they worshipped radiation, an invisible god-like
force that killed all but them, and the sense of invulnerability it
imparted made up for the mutations. The people who had survived the
bombs had apparently not known the holocaust had all but wiped out
the rest of civilisation, and built a religion around the
radioactive protection. Perhaps they would have ventured out, if
not for the monsters that had appeared from the desert and
effectively trapped them here. He was wasting words on her, but he
had to try.
    "There are few
people left in the world, and those dwell in peace," he told her.
"The weapons of the past no longer exist, so you have nothing to
fear. At least move the radiation further from the city, so the
mutations will stop. It will still repel the monsters, and the
people outside won't attack you. Why should they?"
    Her