Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke Read Free Book Online Page A

Gerane had already vanished. Then Seranis smiled, and his nervousness left him.
    “Welcome to Lys,” she said. “I am Seranis, and this is my son Theon, who will one day take my place. You are the youngest who has ever come to us from Diaspar: tell me how you found the way.”
    Haltingly at first, and then with increasing confidence, Alvin began his story. Theon followed his words eagerly, for Diaspar must have been as strange to him as Lys had been to Alvin. But Seranis, Alvin could see, knew all that he was telling her, and once or twice she asked questions which showed that in some things at least her knowledge went beyond his own. When he had finished there was silence for a while. Then Seranis looked at him and said quietly:
    “Why did you come to Lys?”
    “I wanted to explore the world,” he replied. “Everyone told me that there was only desert beyond the city, but I wanted to make sure for myself.”
    The eyes of Seranis were full of sympathy and even sadness when she spoke again:
    “And was that the only reason?”
    Alvin hesitated. When he answered, it was not the explorer who spoke, but the boy not long removed from childhood.
    “No,” he said slowly, “it wasn’t the only reason, though I did not know until now. I was lonely.”
    “Lonely? In Diaspar?”
    “Yes,” said Alvin. “I am the only child to be born there for seven thousand years.”
    Those wonderful eyes were still upon him and, looking into their depths, Alvin had the sudden conviction that Seranis could read his mind. Even as the thought came, he saw an expression of amused surprise pass across her face—and knew that his guess had been correct. Once both men and machines had possessed this power, and the unchanging machines could still read their master’s orders. But in Diaspar, Man himself had lost the gift he had given to his slaves.
    Rather quickly, Seranis broke into his thoughts.
    “If you are looking for life,” she said, “your search has ended. Apart from Diaspar, there is only desert beyond our mountains.”
    It was strange that Alvin, who had questioned accepted beliefs so often before, did not doubt the words of Seranis. His only reaction was one of sadness that all his teaching had been so nearly true.
    “Tell me something about Lys,” he asked. “Why have you been cut off from Diaspar for so long, when you know all about us?”
    Seranis smiled at his question.
    “It’s not easy to answer that in a few words, but I’ll do my best.
    “Because you have lived in Diaspar all your life, you have come to think of Man as a city-dweller. That isn’t true, Alvin. Since the machines gave us freedom, there has always been a rivalry between two different types of civilization. In the Dawn Ages there were thousands of cities, but a large part of mankind lived in communities like this village of ours.
    “We have no records of the founding of Lys, but we know that our remote ancestors disliked city life intensely and would have nothing to do with it. In spite of swift and universal transport, they kept themselves largely apart from the rest of the world and developed an independent culture which was one of the highest the race had ever known.
    “Through the ages, as we advanced along our different roads, the gulf between Lys and the cities widened. It was bridged only in times of great crisis: we know that when the Moon was falling, its destruction was planned and carried out by the scientists of Lys. So too was the defense of Earth against the Invaders, whom we held at the Battle of Shalmirane.
    “That great ordeal exhausted mankind: one by one the cities died and the desert rolled over them. As the population fell, humanity began the migration which was to make Diaspar the last and greatest of all cities.
    “Most of these changes passed us by, but we had our own battle to fight—the battle against the desert. The natural barrier of the mountains was not enough, and many thousands of years passed before we had made our