Read Online The Chalice of Death by Robert Silverberg - Free Book Online

arbor of colorful birds sang, and the forest looked fertile and young.
    â€œThis is a pleasant world,” Helna said.
    â€œYes. Life here has none of the strain and stress of our system. Perhaps,” Navarre suggested, “it’s best to live on a forgotten planet.”
    â€œLook,” Carso said. “Someone important is coming.”
    A procession advanced toward them, led by the little group who had found them in the forest. A wrinkled gray-beard, more twisted and bent than the rest, strode gravely toward them.
    â€œYou be the men from the stars?”
    â€œI am Hallam Navarre, and these are Helna Winstin and Domrik Carso. We trace our ancestry from this world, many thousands of years ago.”
    â€œHmm. Could be. I be Gluihn, leader of this tribe.” Gluihn stepped back and scrutinized the trio. “It might well be,” he said, studying them. “Yes, it could indeed. You say your remote fathers lived here?”
    â€œWhen the planet was called Earth, and ruled all the worlds of the skies.”
    â€œI know nothing of that. But you look much like the Sleepers, and perhaps you be of that breed. They have lain here many a year themselves.”
    â€œWhat Sleepers?” Navarre asked.
    â€œAll in good time,” said Gluihn. He squinted at the sky. “It was a nice day for your coming here. The sky is good.”
    â€œWhat of these Sleepers?” Navarre demanded again.
    The old man shrugged. “They look to be of your size, though they lie down and are not easy to see behind their cloudy fluid. But they have slept for ages untold, and perhaps …”
    Gluihn’s voice trailed off. Navarre exchanged a sharp glance with his companions.
    â€œTell us about these Sleepers,” Carso growled threateningly.
    Now the old man seemed frightened. “I know nothing more. Boys, playing, stumbled over them not long ago, buried in their place of rest. We think they be alive.”
    â€œCan you take us there?”
    â€œI suppose so,” Gluihn sighed. He gestured to the flaxen-haired one. “Llean, take these three to look at the Sleepers.”
    â€œHere we are,” the dwarf said.
    A stubby hill jutted up from the green-carpeted plain before them, and Navarre saw that a great rock had been rolled to one side, baring a cave-mouth.
    â€œWill we need lights?”
    â€œNo,” said Llean. “It is lit inside. Go ahead in; I’ll wait here. I care little to have a second look to see what lies in there.”
    Helna touched Navarre’s arm. “Should we trust him?”
    â€œNot completely. Domrik, stay here with this Llean and keep an eye on him. In case you hear us cry out, come running, and bring him with you.”
    Carso grinned. “Right.”
    Navarre took Helna’s hand and hesitantly they stepped within the cave-mouth. It was like entering the gateway to some other world.
    The cave’s walls were bright with some form of electroluminescence, glowing lambently despite the fact that there was no visible light-source. The path of the light continued straight for some twenty yards, then snaked away at a sharp angle beyond which nothing could be seen.
    Navarre and Helna reached the bend in the corridor and turned. A metal plaque of some sort was the first object their eyes met.
    â€œCan you read it?” she asked.
    â€œIt’s in an ancient language—no, it isn’t at all. It’s Galactic, but a terribly archaic form.” He blew away the dust and rapidly scanned the inscription. He whistled.
    â€œWhat does it say?”
    â€œListen:
    â€œâ€˜Within this crypt lie ten thousand men and women, placed here to sleep in the two thousandth year of Earth’s galactic supremacy and the last year of that supremacy.
    â€œâ€˜Each of the ten thousand is a volunteer. Each has been chosen from the group of more than ten million volunteers for this project on a basis of physical condition, genetic