Window turned the sound off. “I can tell you this part,” he said. “They were so excited that everyone tried fingering the symbols, of course. After several weeks it was apparent that the tablets were arranged in a certain order. In the first series, for example, simple pictures gave off an audible ‘word’ that described the object shown. Later ones added the symbol so that you had the written version…. Proteus, what’s wrong?”

Proteus stared, white-faced, at the silent screen. “Turn up the sound, hurry,” he said.

Window turned up the volume. The screen showed the following:

Bradwick was running his fingers over the symbols. “In sounds, these come out like this,” he said. “Sa or ne ba tu om.”

“It’s impossible,” Proteus cried.

“Proteus, what?”

Still watching the screen, Proteus said, “Don’t say anything. Just hear me out before I lose the thread of my thought, or think it over and decide that the whole thing is too ridiculous. Before you tell me any more about the training you undergo, let me tell you more about my dream—and your people. Then tell me if I’m right or not. Your people discovered verses, too, that were supposed to … carry truths from generation to generation. Some were for children, some for adults. And the cliff drawings are tied in here, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave off sounds in the same way—”

“Proteus, that’s all correct,” Window said, staring at him. “What else do you know?”

“That’s it, I don’t know. I didn’t know I knew that.” Proteus was dazed himself. “I thought it was just a dream. But those symbols looked so like the ones I saw last night, that startled me on the first tape you showed me. But in my dream, someone told me what I just told you—or I saw it, or something. But I definitely recognized the sounds just now, the words or language, or whatever it is.”

Proteus paused, trying to remember more of the dream. “There’s something else important, but I’m not sure what it was. Something about the sounds themselves having the power to … do things; that’s entirely apart from their meaning … I just can’t remember.”

“Give yourself the suggestion that you will, and you will,” Window said.