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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34eba6b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65885 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65885) diff --git a/old/65885-0.txt b/old/65885-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0474583..0000000 --- a/old/65885-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4300 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dark Destiny, by Dwight V. Swain - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Dark Destiny - -Author: Dwight V. Swain - -Release Date: July 20, 2021 [eBook #65885] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DARK DESTINY *** - - - - - DARK DESTINY - - By DWIGHT V. SWAIN - - The Blue Warrior had journeyed far across - the void in his search for power; but he found - death along with it--in the eyes of a goddess! - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy - March 1952 - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -_Naked, still as death, the veiled woman-goddess men called Xaymar -rested on a gold-draped dais within the great, glowing, crystal globe._ - -_Xaymar, queen of storms. Ruler of rain and wind and lightning, -empress of all the surging forces that spread their tumult across the -sky. Sainted monster, evil savior. Old as time, and young as folly. -Born of woman, damned of men, wise with dark wisdom gone astray._ - -_Xaymar, passionate goddess. A word, a myth, a fading picture in -forgotten books. A phantasm rising out of these ghostly, gutted cities, -these ruins dead a thousand years._ - -_Yet here she lay in this deep-sunk vault, nude save for the short, -jeweled veil that masked the top half of her face. Her body still -gleamed like a supple ivory statue, a vision of sleek, ripe-curved -perfection. Rippling waves of jet-black hair framed the pale, veiled -oval of her face in a darkly radiant nimbus. A faint rose glow touched -lips and breasts. It seemed almost as if she could have been sleeping -here mere hours only, instead of eons; as if she were still alive and -vibrant ... all woman; all terrible, voluptuous promise...._ - - * * * * * - -The _Shamon_ priest was bent with age, his face a deep-seamed net -of wrinkles. The short cloak of his order, vivid with a hundred -contrasting shades of blue, covered his thin shoulders, and a _toloid_ -tablet emblazoned with a stylized representation of a lightning bolt, -Xaymar's emblem, hung suspended over his bony chest. - -He said: "I want you to kill a woman." - -Across the table, the blue warrior called Haral sat very still. He did -not speak. - -The old _Shamon_ hurried on: "They say the same, all those to whom I've -spoken--that you alone, of all the warriors here on Ulna, would dare -to go against the raider Sark. The rest are brave until they hear his -name; then, quickly, they sing another song. But you--" He hesitated, -fumbling, and peered uncertainly at Haral out of rheumy, fading eyes. -"Tell me, blue one, is it true that you went alone to Eros and slew the -tyrant lord Querroon because he'd dared to put a price upon your head? -And that then you defied the Federation to try to hang you, and slashed -your way through the whole Federation fleet with your single ship?" - -"It's true." - -"You see--?" the oldster cried in quavering triumph. "You see it, -_Sha_ Haral? You are a warrior worthy of the name! In you there's iron -instead of meal. That is why I come to you to kill this woman--" - -"A woman--?" Haral repeated dully. He swirled the fiery _kabat_ in his -glass. "Why should I kill a woman?" - -"Because I'll pay you well," the _Shamon_ priest croaked eagerly. Coins -clinked onto the table. "Here, look! Two hundred _samori_, _Sha_ Haral! -So much for such a simple task--enough to send you out again from Ulna, -to put you once more on the road to wealth and power, ambition...." - - * * * * * - -Broodingly, Haral stared down into the _kabat's_ green, too-potent -depths. Of a sudden he was acutely conscious of the smoke and stench -and jarring sound that eddied through the shadows of this filthy, -frowsy deadfall that passed as a cafe. '_Wealth and power, ambition?_' -He laughed aloud, knowing as he did it that his tongue had grown too -thick with _kabat_. This was the road down which ambition led--the road -to stinking drinking dives, and dreary nights and drearier days on an -outlaw world called Ulna. The road to blood and valor, a warrior's -name--and proposals of woman-murder. - -Ambition? Two hundred _samori_-worth of ambition! Bitterly, he laughed -again, deep in his throat. There were other, better things to call it: -greed; thirst for blood; a cursed, insatiate lust for power. - -The old priest gripped his arm. "Three hundred, then! Three hundred -_samori_, _Sha_ Haral!" - -Somberly, the blue man stared off into the crowd and smoke and shadows. -It dawned on him that already new faces had sifted in; new forms, all -arrogance and swagger. - -The forms and faces of _Gar_ Sark's raiders. - -"Three hundred _samori_? Three hundred--to challenge _Gar_ Sark and all -his crew, as well as murder?" He smiled a thin, bleak, mirthless smile -and shook his head. "No, old man. What you want is a madman, not a -warrior." - -"Four hundred--four hundred _samori_ for a single blow!" In his -eagerness the priest was slavering. "No? Five, then, _Sha_ Haral! Five -hundred, all for you. I have no more." - -For the first time, Haral looked full at the _Shamon_. "Why do you want -her dead?" he challenged. He brought his fist down with a heavy thud -upon the table. "Why? That's what I want to know! Who is she? What has -she done that calls for killing?" - -"Why--?" Sweat came to the ancient's face. Uneasily, he shifted. -"She--she--Sark is a monster, and his men have seized her for -tomorrow's games in the arena. She'll die in agony at their hands. I--I -cannot bring myself to let her suffer--" - -"So you'd hire me to kill her instead?" Haral laughed harshly. "I hear -your words, old man--" - -"My name is Namboina." - -"--Namboina, I hear your words. But I'll rot on your _vidal_ planetoid -before I believe them. Too many other _Shamon_ have died on Ulna for -you to worry about one more." He drained his glass and slammed it down. -"No. Find someone else to do your killing. I like to know the facts -before I murder." - - * * * * * - -The sweat stood out on the priest's forehead in great beads now. With -shaking fingers, he wiped it away. "I--I see I must tell you all, -_Sha_ Haral. The--the woman is Kyla, a virgin priestess to our goddess -Xaymar. Her life, her body, are consecrated to the goddess. She is not -for mortal men. But Sark and his raiders care nothing for our Xaymar. -In their blood-lust and madness they would defile even her priestess, -Kyla. But it cannot be! Better that Kyla die--" He broke off, stared at -Haral. "I, Namboina, am high priest to Xaymar. It is my duty to save -Kyla from shame, our goddess from defilement--" - -Haral said: "You lie in your teeth, Namboina! I've heard enough of -your thrice-plagued Xaymar to know that she's called the passionate -goddess--and her priestesses pattern themselves upon her! If there's a -virgin still among them, it's news to the raider fleets that comb these -warrens in search of women." - -"No, no--! Not Kyla!" The _Shamon's_ loose mouth worked. His face was a -mask of desperation. "She is a votary, consecrated. She is not as the -others--" - -Haral shoved back his chair; surged to his feet. "I've had enough -of your lies, old man!" he slashed. "Sing someone else your song of -murder!" - -Namboina's quavering voice rose, thin with fury: "A curse on you, -alien! A curse on all your outland breed that have made a cesspool out -of Ulna--" - -But now a new voice cut him short, thundering through the shadows: -"This is the one we want! The old one, the priest they call Namboina!" - -Haral spun about. - -A dozen fighting men from Sark's raider crews were coming towards him -and Namboina. Spread in a menacing arc, weapons out and ready, they -closed in like cold-eyed, deadly shadows. - -Haral fell back a step, till he stood with his back against the wall. -Big-eyed with fear, Namboina slumped in his seat, as if trying to hide -behind the table. - -It came to Haral that a hush had fallen over the _kabat_ dive. The -raucous voices had faded into silence. The rattle of glasses was -suddenly stilled. - -Then a glowering Martian who seemed to be in charge of the raider gang -snapped orders: "Yes. This is the one. Bring him along!" - -A Thorian's tentacle lashed out to grip Namboina and drag him bodily -from his chair. - -Now a _Pervod_ jerked his scaly head towards Haral. "What of this one -here? They were together." - -The Martian pivoted for a brief, disdainful glance at the blue man. -"That _kabat_-soaked scum?" And then: "But bring him, too. We'll take -no chances." - -Almost as if in intentional added insult, he turned away and sheathed -his ray-gun. - - * * * * * - -A hot, tempestuous tide of anger swirled up within the warrior. But he -did not move; he did not speak. - -A second Martian caught his arm. "Come along, you _zanat_, before we -stave in your ugly head!" - -For an instant, in spite of himself, Haral's arm went rigid. Then, -thin-lipped, he sucked in air, and fell in beside the quaking, shaking -priest. - -One of the raiders laughed contemptuously and shoved the pair of them -ahead still faster. - -They reached the narrow doorway that led out to the street. Then, while -their prisoners paused, two of the raiders stepped outside. - -A knot of tension drew tight in the pit of Haral's stomach. He let his -shoulders slump, and slouched, half-turning. - -Namboina stumbled on through the door. - -A _Pervod_ pushed the blue man forward. - -With studied care, Haral, too, stumbled. He caught the handle of the -open door as if to keep himself from falling. - -Then, like lightning, he was turning, kicking. The _Pervod_ crashed -backward with a howl of anguish. - -Haral leaped through the doorway, out into the street, slamming the -heavy portal shut behind him. He caught a glimpse of the two crewmen -there--startled, whirling. - -But Namboina was between Haral and the raiders. Savagely, the blue man -threw himself against the priest and sent him crashing into the nearest -crewman. - -The second of the raiders was a one-eyed, barrel-chested _Malya_. He -leaped back, cat-fast, whipping up his ray-gun. - -But Haral dived in beneath its shaft. His shoulder drove deep into the -_Malya's_ midriff, hammering the dark raider down. Clutching for the -ray-gun, he tore it out of the other's hand. - -In the same instant, he heard Namboina cry out in panic. - -By instinct, pure and simple, he dropped flat on his belly. By -instinct, too, he fired the ray-gun--straight into the face of the -second raider, free now and charging down upon him. - -The raider dropped dead in his tracks. - -Haral pivoted, just as the door to the _kabat_-dive jerked open. Again -he triggered the weapon. - -The charge caught the Martian in charge of the party square in the -belly. The others, behind him, sprang back inside, out of the way. - - * * * * * - -The narrow street echoed with Haral's wild, reckless laughter. Lurching -to his feet, he stood there swaying for a moment, looking this way and -that for old Namboina. - -But the _Shamon_ had disappeared as if by magic, and from within the -_kabat-dive_ came sounds that spoke of preparations for another sally. - -Whirling. Haral raced full-tilt for the nearest alley. - -When he stopped again, he was half a mile and a hundred worlds -away, lost in the tangled maze of passageways that wound through the -crumbling heart of the native town. His legs were shaking, his lungs -afire, and the _kabat_-sickness swirled through him in agonizing, -nauseous waves. Choking and retching, he slumped exhausted in a murky -entryway. - -Then that, too, passed, and he lay silent and unmoving in the darkness. -But now another sickness was upon him, the sickness that led him to -seek surcease in _kabat_; the sickness that came with the thoughts he -could not push out of his brain. - -Where would it end, this madness that ever drove him on? What prize -lay in power, that he must waste his life away searching, groping, -striving for it? Why could he not live and love and die like other men, -unplagued by the fierce surge of insane ambition that still pursued -him--even here, even now? - -_Even here, even now._ That was the acid that gnawed his vitals. What -had it brought him, all his striving? He'd carved a crimson course -across half a solar system, till that very system itself disowned him. -He'd drenched the warrior worlds in blood to no avail. - -And the road ended here. - -Was this, then, his destiny--to hide here, rotting, beyond the reach of -the Federation, till at last the _kabat_ took its toll? Must he sink -lower and then still lower into the slime of this ugly outlaw world of -Ulna, harassed at will by such scum as Sark? - -But at least, there'd be no woman-murder. Not yet; not for a while. -Even five hundred _samori_ could not drag him down that far. - -A new spasm of fury shook him, and he cursed Namboina aloud with the -vilest epithets a dozen tongues could offer. - -But the inner sickness still lingered with him. Bitterly, he stumbled -to his feet, wondering in the same instant what had led the _Shamon_ -priest to lie--why he had really sought to have the woman called Kyla -killed. - -It was then he felt the weight in his side pocket. - -Dully, he fumbled to find what it might be; then, puzzled, pulled it -out into the open. - -But it was only a bag ... a worn, somehow familiar bag. - -A bag heavy with five hundred glittering _samori_.... - - - - - CHAPTER II - - -He rode out at high noon astride the great, blue-scaled Mercurian -_hwalon_ dragon that in itself struck terror into lesser men. The -wars of the void had burned his own skin blue with searing krypton -radiation, and long years of battle service had dulled the polish of -the heavy copronium armor that he wore. - -Few knew his name, nor whence he came. He'd buried himself too deep for -that. But then, they did not need to know, for those were unimportant -things in this brutal, brawling world of Ulna, where death walked so -close on every hand. - -It was a world of dangerous men, this Ulna; an outlaw world, tumultuous -haven for the hunter and the hunted. The scum of the spaceways had -gathered here, dregs of the void--rabble quick to anger, quick to kill. -_Pervods_ of Venus brushed shoulders with Earthmen. _Chonyas_ and -_Malyas_ stalked among strange mutants, weird life-forms drawn from a -dozen far-flung planets. - -Yet none came forth to challenge Haral. For those who eyed and measured -him gave special attention to the slender, deadly, light-lance that was -his weapon. Then, wordless, almost too quickly, they turned away. - -So now he rode the filth-choked streets of this slattern town that -served as Ulna's spaceport. And as he rode, beneath the blazing yellow -sky, he smiled his thin, bleak, mirthless smile, and wondered how the -motley mob that thronged these warrens would look if they realized his -real mission. - -Then, at last, he came to the plaza and _Gar_ Sark. - -Sark, the renegade; Sark, the raider. Sark, who had looted Bandjaran. -Sark, the butcher, with the blood of all Horla on his hands. Sark. A -sinister figure, at best. At worst, a monster to strike terror across -the void. - -Ulna was his today, for no creature dared to stand against him. His -ships had blazoned the purple night with streaks of scarlet flame as -they ramped; and his crews too had turned the town scarlet with their -violence, till even the other lawless ones gathered here were cowed to -sullen silence. - -This morning, the raiders had seized this ragged, unkempt tract that -passed as a central park--that they might enjoy their own savage brand -of sport, the rumor went. - -'Sport?' Haral smiled his mirthless smile again. It was a good excuse, -and Sark's own crews might even believe it. But for Sark himself, -unless the day had come when tigers changed their stripes, grim -business was mixed in with the pleasure. That was Sark's way; he made -no move that did not offer possibilities of profit. - -But how? The blue man frowned; then shrugged and urged the _hwalon_ on. -It was enough that Sark was here; that the _Shamon_ priest, Namboina, -had made his murderous proposal. Something was in the wind. He'd have -to bide his time and trust to luck for further details. - - * * * * * - -A shout went up, even as Haral reached the outskirts of the milling -crowd that had gathered in the plaza--a shout and, through it, the -scream of a soul gone mad with pain. - -The blue man pressed the _hwalon_ forward, trusting to the difference -the armor made in his appearance to protect him from recognition by -the members of last night's searching party. - -The crowd of town rabble and raider crewmen gave way before him, -parting under the menace of the _hwalon's_ claws and collar and horrid, -hook-beaked head. - -Sark's crews had set up an arena of sorts, with seats for their chiefs -along one side. In front of the seats a crude ring was fenced in with -posts and thin, resilient duraloid cable. - -Within the ring, they had an Ulno--one of the grotesque, two-headed -primitives that were this planetoid's dull-witted subject people. - -And there, too, stood one of the scarlet coleoptera, the giant thinking -beetles that were Ulna's plague. - -Now, as Haral reached the front of the crowd, the coleopteron stalked -forward, towards the Ulno. Hideous and deadly, it stood nearly three -feet tall at the thorax. Its protuberant multi-faceted eyes glittered -evilly. Mandibles clacking, the misshapen head moved from side to side -in short, menacing arcs. - -The crowd roared its blood-lust, its tension. - -Revulsion touched Haral. But he gave the sadistic show no heed beyond -it. Bleakly, he looked across the ring, to Sark himself. - -Sark: a smirking, bulbous, obscene thing; half humanoid, half -reptilian. _Gar_ of the space-raiders, king of killers. He sat in his -famed Uranian riding-chair like some mad, monstrous potentate upon a -throne. Eyes murder-bright beneath their reptilian lids, gross rolls -of fat aquiver, he leaned far forward, watching the bloody battle -unfold before him. - -Here, looking at the raider chief for the first time, a wave of -incredulous loathing, disillusion, rose up within Haral. Was this gross -slug the best the warrior worlds could offer? Could a creature as soft -and slack as this wield the power that had shaken half the void? - -The bitter ashes of his own thwarted drive for empire ate at the blue -man. The world swam with a crimson haze of hate and fury. - -Then that mood passed, and Haral noticed other things. - -For the raider's fat-rimmed eyes were never still, and the lights -that gleamed deep in them told of craft and savage cunning. There was -a brain behind those eyes--a brain so lightning-fast and wary that -against it mere physical strength alone meant nothing. That was how he -ruled this pack; that was why none lived to challenge. - -And now, as he watched, Haral observed another thing: though the -webbed fingers of Sark's left hand splayed out along one tree-like -leg, kneading and clenching as if he were at one with the coleopteron, -thirsting for the Ulno's very life, his right hand never moved from a -switch set in the chair-arm. - - * * * * * - -Narrow-eyed, the blue man shifted for a better view. As best he could -see, a cable led from the switch down to what appeared to be a bulky, -black, cymosynthesizer box slung beneath the seat. - -Frowning, Haral pondered. Almost unconsciously, he caressed his -light-lance. - -Then a new shout from the crowd drew his attention back to the arena. - -In the ring, the wild-eyed, shaking Ulno was retreating before the -giant beetle. One of his four hands already was shredded beyond all -recognition. Blood gushed from a wound in another arm, slashed open to -the bone. His two heads turned jerkily this way and that, desperately -seeking some avenue of escape, some sign of mercy. - -But no sign came. No path appeared. - -The beetle poised. The point of its dagger-like antenna dropped a -fraction lower. - -With a shrill cry, the Ulno darted along the interlinked cables that -bounded the arena in a last frantic effort to escape. - -The coleopteron lunged. Beetle and primitive crashed together in wild, -paroxysmic conflict. - -Then, suddenly, the Ulno was reeling, falling. Again, his awful scream -of pain and terror rent the air. - -Like great, saw-toothed pincers, the coleopteron's mandibles stabbed -in. The Ulno's cry cut off in bubbling death. - -The crowd shrieked savage exaltation. - -Once more, contempt, revulsion, gripped Haral. Thin-lipped, he worked -his way around the ring towards Sark. - -Laughter--ghoulish, obscene--rocked the raider chief. His rolls of fat -shook. Tears of sheer sadistic glee spilled down his puffy cheeks. - -But he still kept his hand on the switch set in the arm of the -riding-chair. - -Bleak, watchful, Haral brought the _hwalon_ to a halt in the lee of the -wall nearest the arena. With the casualness of long habit, he surveyed -the crowd, the ground, the disposition of Sark's forces. - -In the same instant, he caught himself wondering whether Sark would -laugh as loud by the time this day was done. - -Or whether either he or Sark would live to laugh. - -He smiled wryly. - -But now, for the time, the raider's mirth had passed. A sudden air of -suppressed tension came into his manner. His fleshy hand came up in a -curt, peremptory gesture. - -Instantly, two leering reptilian _Pervods_ from his crews dragged -forward another victim. - -But this time their prey was no quaking Ulno. - -Instead, they held a woman. - -A taut, furious excitement surged up within Haral. He sucked in air; -leaned forward, gripping the _hwalon's_ saddle hard between his knees. - -Sark gestured. The _Pervods_ dragged their prisoner to him. - - * * * * * - -She was young. Haral saw now; young, and slim, and incredibly lovely. -Hair like spun gold hung to her waist--the silken blonde hair of the -_Shamon_, the race that had ruled Ulna in the days before the renegades -of a dozen worlds poured in from across the void to make the planetoid -a blood-drenched, anarchistic madhouse. - -But more than her face or body, it was her garb that held the blue man. - -For she wore the blue cloak of Xaymar's order, and against her high, -proud breasts hung the shining _toloid_ metal tablet that signified her -consecration. - -Once more, the gross monster that was _Gar_ Sark leaned forward. He -spoke to the girl in a gentle, beguiling voice that struck a clashing -paradox with the fiend's own soul that dwelt within him: "They call you -Kyla, do they not?" He touched the tablet that rested upon her breasts. -A webbed finger traced the lightning-bolt symbol emblazoned on it. -"Kyla, virgin priestess to the veiled woman-goddess Xaymar, the one -your people call the queen of storms...." - -The blue man could see the tremor that rippled through the girl at -Sark's grisly touch. But she did not quail. When she spoke, her voice -was steady. - -"That is true." - -"Xaymar, queen of storms...." the raider chief repeated softly. He -leaned back in the riding-chair, eyes sleepy and low-lidded. "She once -lived, did she not, in mortal form? Here, on your planetoid of Ulna?" - -"Yes. That is what the stories say." - -"At her command, the storm-clouds gathered? She hurled the lightning -bolts against her enemies?" - -"So it is written in our sacred books." - -"But then she went away," Sark murmured. "She left all you who were her -people." - -The girl called Kyla did not answer. - -"Or did she?" Of a sudden the raider's lidded eyes were not so sleepy. -His bulbous head came forward just a fraction. "There is another story, -priestess ... a story that says the goddess Xaymar was truly woman--the -most beautiful woman your world had ever seen. And because she was -woman, human, she could not bear the thought that she must age and -wither. So she commanded that she be placed, still young and in the -full bloom of her beauty, within a secret crypt in frozen sleep, so -that she might live forever as she had been." - - * * * * * - -For an instant Haral thought he could see a new tremor touch the -priestess Kyla's slim young body. But only for an instant. Then her -shoulders straightened. Her tone was cool, disdainful: "These are old -wives' tales our stupid Ulnos tell--empty, without meaning. Xaymar was -not even of my people, if indeed she ever lived. The old books say she -came from a forgotten alien race, long vanished." - -Haral felt a sudden rush of admiration--a kinship, almost, born of the -girl's poise and unbending courage. - -What path had she traveled to this final meeting? What forces had -driven her to do whatever she had done to catch Sark's notice? Why was -she playing for such stakes in a mad world filled with monsters? - -What forces? His jaw tightened. Why had he, himself, come? Why was he -throwing his own life into the balance? There could be no answer; not -really. Not even five hundred _samori_ were enough to account for it. -A man did the things that he must do--played the crazy game as he saw -it and made up the reasons later; that was all. Raider, priestess, -adventurer--each carved his own destiny. - -Even Sark.... - -The raider chief was smiling now--a slow, smirking, secretive smile -that was somehow horrible and loathsome. "But the other part, -priestess? Is it true? Was your Xaymar really sealed in frozen sleep in -a hidden vault here on your pygmy world of Ulna?" - -The girl's slim shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Who knows? We _Shamon_ -only let the tales go on to satisfy the Ulnos." - -"What? You do not know?" Sark's fat-rimmed eyes now were bright and -mocking; and, watching him, Haral gave new weight to the raider's craft -and menace. "But I had heard a different story, Priestess Kyla! They -told me you _did_ know--that you knew more of it than any other." - -It was coming now, the moment of crisis. Haral could see it in their -faces. - -Grimly, he gripped his light-lance. - -But Kyla still faced the raider chieftain boldly. "I cannot help what -others say. I do not know." - -The squat monster in the riding-chair leaned back once more, still -smiling his secretive, sinister smile. A strange horror clung to his -very calm, the deadly benignity of his soft-spoken words. It was as if -he were some great toad, toying tenderly with a lovely, captive moth -that its agony might last the longer. - -"They say your whole life is given to a search for Xaymar, priestess. -That you dream of the days when the _Shamon_ still ruled Ulna, and so -you seek your goddess's hidden crypt, in order to rouse her from her -sleep and turn her powers against all those whom you call alien." He -licked his lips, and his head seemed to sink between his shoulders. -"Some claim you even know where the crypt is hidden, and could go there -now, were it not for fear of the thinking beetles, the coleoptera." - - * * * * * - -Slowly, the color drained from Kyla's face. A spark close akin to -panic lighted in her eyes. She did not speak. - -"Why do you blanch so, priestess?" Sark prodded. "I only seek to help -you. Tell me where your goddess lies and I'll find her for you, in -spite of the coleoptera. I'll bring her here, revive her, let her reign -again among you--" - -"You talk nonsense!" the girl cried. But her voice broke. Her whole -body trembled. - -Now, suddenly, Sark seemed to grow within the riding-chair, till -he loomed like some gross giant. His lips drew back from his -stained reptilian fangs. His eyes gleamed like burning coals. The -mock-benignity, the gentleness, fell from him like a mask. His words -slashed, low and savage: "Tell me where your bitch-goddess lies, you -she-_sabar_! Tell me now, while you still have a voice to speak!" - -"No, no--" - -"So, virgin priestess--?" Sark's laugh rang like the mirth of hell. -And then, with furious, fiendish passion: "You'll tell, or you'll not -stay virgin long! There are mutants among my crews who have strange -lusts. Press me too far, and you'll be the one to sate them! I'll turn -them loose with you here in this arena as a show for the rest of us to -see! What's left of your tender flesh when they are through will make a -tasty morsel for the coleoptera!" - -Sheer horror flooded Kyla's pale, lovely face. Convulsively, she tried -to tear free from the grip of the two _Pervods_ who held her. - -But they laughed aloud and jerked her back; lifted her upright before -their chief, panting and struggling. - -Haral sucked in air. In spite of himself, he dug his knees hard into -the _hwalon's_ horny flanks. It took all his effort to hold himself -otherwise immobile and fight down the fury that surged within him. - -"Which shall it be, Priestess Kyla?" Sark now mocked with savage -malice. "Do you talk and live, or meet my men? The choice is yours!" - - * * * * * - -For a moment the girl's eyes closed. Then, slowly, they opened once -more, and she stood erect in the _Pervods'_ grasp. Her breath came -faster. "Do you think me so weak that I'd betray my goddess and my -people to save myself?" she cried passionately. A wave of wild, -half-hysterical laughter shook her. "I know what you want! You seek -not Xaymar, but Xaymar's secret--the way she harnessed the power that -lies within the lightning, a power so great that with it you might -rule the universe! But you will not have it! Bring on your crew, your -coleoptera--" - -Haral went rigid in the _hwalon's_ saddle. The girl's words rang in his -ears, his brain. - -There it was! There lay the secret, the prize that had lured Sark here -to Ulna! - -A prize of power. - -The search for it had led this slim girl-priestess here, to death, -dishonor. - -The fear that such a secret might go to Sark, be lost to Ulna, had -spurred the old high priest, Namboina, to dark plots and plans for -murder. - -Power! Haral's fist clenched. The lust for it had driven him on bloody -courses that stretched across half this solar system. It had earned him -a name, that lust; and then it had put a price on his head to match it, -till at last he'd had no choice but to flee out here, beyond all law, -to this mad, twisted world of Ulna. - -And now--? - -Within him his heart was pounding, pounding, like the beat of one of -Titan's great _corba dia_; and of a sudden he knew it was destiny that -had brought him to the blood and dirt and heat of this foul arena. - -His own dark destiny that had marked him out from day of birth to carve -an empire.... - -As from afar, he heard Sark's furious voice lashing out at Kyla: "Defy -me, will you? Then so be it!" The raider surged up, half out of the -riding-chair. Savagely, he slapped the slim girl-priestess across the -face, so hard that his webbed fingers left great welts of white and -scarlet. "To the ring with her! To the ring!" - -The _Pervods_ jerked Kyla back. Roughly, they dragged her to the fenced -ring that served as pit for the arena and threw her in. - -In his turn, the blue man shifted. The tension was running high within -him now, locked in the icy bands of iron-nerved control. Once more, -he surveyed the howling crowd and Sark's mongrel raider crewmen, then -smiled to himself with dark, reckless mirth. - -Fat face still livid, Sark sank back into the depths of his -riding-chair. "Who's first?" he cried. "Who wants to test the brave -priestess?" - - * * * * * - -A shout burst forth from a hundred savage throats. A churning mass of -nightmare forms of life thrust forward. - -But before the raider chief could even make a choice, a huge, hairy, -heavy-thewed Uranian _dau_ was charging to the fence. Full seven -feet tall he stood, and he bowled the others from his path like -_byul_-balls, a living avalanche of lust. Leaping high in the air, he -caught the top strand of the cable and swung up and over, dropping into -the arena like some monstrous, many-armed Earth gorilla. - -The girl called Kyla stared at the creature as if paralyzed with -horror. She did not even raise her hands. - -"I give you your last thought as a chaste priestess!" Sark cried, -taunting. "You shared your secret with another--the high priest, him -they call Namboina! He, too, knows where Xaymar's crypt lies hidden! So -all your stubbornness has gained you nothing, for I'll tear the truth -from him even though you die here!" - -Kyla's tragic eyes went wide--shocked, half-disbelieving. - -Haral breathed deep. The tension was a tight knot in his stomach now. -His hand grew sweaty against the light-lance. - -Slavering, the Uranian shambled towards Kyla. The mad din of the crowd -grew deafening. - -A churning excitement boiled within the blue warrior. This was the -moment for which he'd come; this was the final peak of crisis. - -The _dau_ lunged. - -In one smooth flow of motion, Haral whipped up the light-lance. Its -beam speared out, stabbing at the _dau_. - -The lumbering creature stumbled and swerved, twisting in a sudden, -agonized frenzy. Smoke curled from the matted hair of its massive -torso. It tottered--fell back a step--another--another. Then, arms and -legs jerking spasmodically, head out of control, it crumpled into the -gory dirt of the arena and lay twitching. - -A thunderous, stupefied silence fell upon the crowd. Creatures from the -far-flung planets of the whole solar system stared in blank disbelief. - -Then, suddenly, the shocked spell broke; and Sark was on his feet and -shrieking, "Seize him! Kill him! Blast him down!" - -The mob surged forward. - -But now Haral was moving too, booting his great blue _hwalon_ dragon -into the screaming throng, clawing and slashing and trampling. A -force ray struck him a hammer blow between the shoulders, but its -impact broke on the heavy copronium armor and he paid it no heed. His -light-lance blazed--again; again. A _Pervod_ fell. A _Malya_ writhed -back in his death throes. - -Then the _hwalon_ was surging against the fence that bounded the arena. -The blue man roared, "Kyla--!" And, to the crowd: "Back! Back--! Stand -back or die!" - -The wave of bodies broke. The milling mass gave way. - -Savagely, Haral slashed at the cables with his lance-beam. - - * * * * * - -Snapping like tight-drawn strings, they parted. Already, beyond, the -girl-priestess Kyla was running up beside him. Sweeping low in the -saddle, he caught her arm and lifted her bodily to a place in front of -him astride the _hwalon_. - -But if the crowd, the rabble, was falling back, Sark's raiders now were -forming. - -Again Haral spurred the _hwalon_--driving it forward, straight at the -mutant chieftain. - -"You--Sark! Call off your pack if you want to live!" he cried. - -He leveled the light-lance, like a helium hammer to drive home his -words. - -Sark's face took on the color of the molten purple mud in Mercury's -_sotol_ swamps. Spasmodically, he clutched the switch set in his -chair-arm. His voice, his body, shook with seething fury. "Who are you, -_chitza_, that you should come so long a way to die?" - -Haral brought the _hwalon_ to a halt, so close to the raider chief that -the lance's ray-head gouged Sark's gross midriff. - -"They call me Haral," he slashed back fiercely. "Perhaps you've heard -the name--if they ever let you pause to listen where warriors spoke. As -for dying, I'll meet that when it comes. But not from you, Sark. Not -here; not now." - -The raider's webbed fingers flexed and clenched. His fat-rimmed eyes -glinted like murderous Titanian diamonds set in flesh. - -"Haral--?" A sneer contorted his fat face. "A raider without a ship. -A space tramp soaked in _kabat_." He bared his teeth. "You fool! What -chance do you think you have? My men surround you, ready to blast you!" - -Haral laughed aloud. "And what happens to the woman--Xaymar's -priestess, Kyla?" he challenged harshly. "Her body's pressed next to -mine. Can your blasters kill me, and let her live? Can they burn my -armor through, yet leave her still unharmed?" Again he laughed, and -the fierce recklessness he felt poured out in hot, slashing words. -"No, Sark! You can't afford to have her die, no matter how you'd shame -her or abuse her to break her spirit and make her speak. For though -you talk of the old high priest, Namboina, you can't know for sure how -much she told him. Your crew hasn't even managed to catch him. So if -this woman dies, it may well be that your only chance for the goddess -Xaymar's secret will die with her!" - -In the same instant, he wondered bleakly what would happen if he'd -guessed Sark and the situation wrong. - - * * * * * - -A veil seemed to fall across the raider's eyes. When he spoke, his -voice had lost its fury. Now it was gentle again, almost--low-pitched, -persuasive, as it had been when he first talked to Kyla. - -"I've heard the tales they tell of you, Haral, and they all say that -you're mad--mad with ambition, mad with daring. You want the whole -universe for your own, they say, and you'll throw your own life on the -block to claim it. But even ambition and daring can go too far." - -He paused and eyed Haral. Then, when the blue man made no answer, he -went on again. The persuasive note in his voice grew stronger. - -"Can't you see what you're doing, warrior? I'm _gar_ of the raiders. If -I let you carry off this woman, it means the end of me. Every _stabat_ -on the spaceways will say, 'Sark has lost his strength. Sark has let -Haral take a woman from him.' Even my own crews would mutiny against -me." - -"And so--?" - -"So I cannot let you go, Haral. No matter what the cost, I must kill -you. If not now, then later. If you take the woman, you must die!" - -Haral could feel his stomach muscles quiver. The menace that radiated -out from Sark hung over him like some deadly cloud. - -Baring his own teeth in a death's-head grin, he dug the light-lance -deeper into Sark's rolls of flesh. - -He said: "If the things you say are true, _Gar_ Sark, then I must kill -you now, before you have the chance to slay me." He allowed himself the -luxury of a thin, wry smile. "In fact, perhaps it would be best that -way. With you dead, your men might pick me as their leader...." - -Silence echoed for a moment long as eternity, while their eyes locked -in a fierce, interminable battle. - -Then, slowly, Sark smiled and shook his head. His webbed fingers -caressed the switch set in his chair-arm. - -"You'll never kill me, warrior," he answered Haral. "I have a reason -for this riding-chair, a reason beyond mere comfort." - -Haral said nothing. - -"This switch"--the raider closed his hand about it--"connects with the -box that hangs beneath me. A cymosynthesizer box, you may have guessed." - -"A cymosynthesizer--?" - -"A very special kind of cymosynthesizer, warrior." Sark chuckled -grimly. "The multiplying waves of energy it radiates are synthesized -and focused on the core of this pygmy planetoid of Ulna. When they -strike it, they'll disrupt its whole atomic structure and set up a -disintegrative chain reaction." - -Haral stared at him, unbelieving. "You mean--?" - -"I mean that I hold the power to destroy this whole world within my -hand!" Sark cried in sudden, explosive anger. "This is my protection -against you and all others! I have but to throw this switch, and Ulna -itself will be torn asunder--and you and the woman and all else with -it! If I die, you die, also! That is my answer to you, _chitza_!" - - * * * * * - -Haral said tightly: "You lie! No cymosynthesizer can set up an -initiating wave strong enough to tear apart a whole planet!" - -"Then try me! Make me prove it!" the raider chieftain spat. "It's -simple, warrior! Just trigger a beam from your light-lance through me! -As I die, I'll still throw the switch, and there will be your answer!" - -Haral sat very still. He was gripping his lance's shaft so hard that -the very bones of his fingers ached. A thin rill of sweat ran down his -spine. Yet he could not fight off the spell of shock that gripped him. - -As if sensing it, Sark spoke once more in coaxing tones: "You make your -task hard, warrior. There is an easier way. Give up this madness, this -trying to beat me and destroy me. Daring is a virtue I, too, admire. -Stay with me and I'll make you a captain in my fleet, give you a ship -so you can raid again. Then, when I've won this thrice-cursed Xaymar's -secret, together we'll reach out across the universe to bring all -planets into our power. Or, if it's the woman you want,"--he laughed -his smirking, obscene laugh--"why, as soon as she's told me the things -I want to know, I'll let you have her--" - -Haral felt Kyla's slim body stiffen against him. A tremor ran through -her. - -His answer to Sark came almost without volition. "No." - -"What--?" - -The spell was broken, now. The recklessness was back, and the fierce -surge of ambition. - -That, and something more ... a something Haral could not quite touch. - -He laughed aloud. "I'm leaving now, Sark!" he cried. "I'm leaving, and -I'm taking the woman with me. Blast us if you will!" - -The blandness fell from Sark. He half rose from his seat, his face -contorted. "You _chitza_--!" - -Haral laughed again. "Blast, Sark!" he mocked. "But if you do, -remember--your chance for the girl dies with me!" - -"_Stabat! Zanat! Starbo_--" - -"Go ahead, great _gar_! Blast us! Take your chances on what you can -learn from old Namboina!" - -Slowly, then, Sark sank back into his chair. His eyes were like live -coals, incredibly baleful. - -"Go!" he choked thickly. "Go, for now, you _chitza_! Take your woman -and your _hwalon_ and your light-lance! My day will come, and when -it does, you'll pray for a death that will not answer! You and the -woman--you'll share your agony together, and in the end I'll still -claim Xaymar's secret--" - -Haral said: "Perhaps. Or perhaps it will be you who rots in hell -instead." - -Bleakly, he wheeled the _hwalon_; and to the crowd he shouted, "There's -death in my lance for the man that follows!" Then, weapon ready, the -girl close against him, heedless of the steaming hate and curses of the -mob that parted before him, he rode away. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - -They rode fast and in silence--first skirting the outskirts of the -town; then plunging full-tilt into the tangled maze that was the native -quarter. - -The Ulno Haral had hired on the chance he'd need someone to hide the -_hwalon_ was already waiting at the appointed place. - -But the blue man rode on past the primitive with no sign of -recognition, pausing instead around the next corner, by the entrance to -a blackly burrow-like dead-end alley. - -There he let the girl called Kyla down. For the first time since their -escape, he spoke to her: "We'll take cover now, for a little while, -priestess. Wait here in the shadows for me till I can hide my dragon. -It won't take long--ten _samori_, maybe." - -Wordless, eyes inscrutable, the lovely _Shamon_ nodded. - -Haral flashed her a tense smile. Then, wheeling the _hwalon_, he rode -back in the direction from which they'd come. - -But the instant he was out of sight around the corner, he dropped from -the saddle and waved up the Ulno to take the nightmare steed. - -Another moment, and he was peering warily towards the spot where he'd -left Kyla. - -But already the slim young priestess had abandoned her post. She was -hurrying away, instead--running off down the narrow, crooked street, -just as he'd gambled that she would. - -It was ever dusk in these cramped warrens, where the yellow sky showed -only straight up. Now, too, the purple Ulnese night drew near at hand. -Black rivers of shadow were taking form at the bases of the buildings. - -Taking advantage of every unevenness and entryway and patch of murk, -Haral followed Kyla. - -The girl led him a dizzy chase through jumbled streets and alleys, -a world of strange smells and sounds and dull-witted, blank-eyed, -two-headed Ulnos. Twice, only the glint of her long, blonde, _Shamon_ -hair kept him from losing her. - -Then, abruptly, she halted. - -Giving no attention to the vaguely-curious glances of nearby Ulnos, -Haral drew back into the angle where two buildings came together. -Pressed flat to the wall, he watched while Kyla peered this way and -that, as if searching for some sign of pursuit. - -A moment later she disappeared into the shadow-shrouded entrance of a -shabby building. - -Swiftly, Haral ran after her. But instead of approaching the door, he -slipped down a narrow cleft between the place she'd entered and the one -next to it. - - * * * * * - -A slot of window showed above him. Bracing his back against one wall, -his feet against the other, he levered himself swiftly upward till he -could peer through the casement. - -It opened into an empty room. - -A kick from one mailed foot burst it open. Another moment, and Haral -himself stood inside. - -Across the room was a door. Moving silently to it, he opened it a crack -and listened. - -From down the hall that ran outside came faint sounds of movement. -Peering through the gloom, Haral caught a glint of light. Then a door -opened. More light flooded out. He glimpsed Kyla in silhouette as she -left the one room and went into another. - -Now light blazed from the second room. Then that door closed, and there -were sounds of running water. - -Haral smiled thinly and loosened his ray-gun in its holster. Quickly, -quietly, he walked down the hall to the room from which the girl had -come. - -Bleak and bare and windowless, it was sparsely furnished with a cot, -table and two chairs. The clothes Kyla had worn--the cloak, the -tablet, all her priestess' habit--were strewn across the cot. One of -the self-sealing plastic boxes such as was used on Ulna for packing -garments lay open on the table. - -Across the hall, the sounds of running water ceased. - -Silently, Haral stepped on into the room and behind the door. He caught -the click of a latch: then the firm rhythm of Kyla's footsteps as she -came towards this chamber where he stood in hiding. - -She was humming softly as she entered--a weirdly lilting tune Haral had -never heard before. Now, too, she wore the scant, filmy garments so -favored by _Shamon_ women. No indication that she was one of Xaymar's -priestesses remained. While Haral watched in silence, she picked up a -comb and began to smooth her shimmering, waist-long wealth of silken -hair. - -Haral said: "You're very lovely, Kyla--you treacherous little _slazot_!" - -The girl whirled, her eyes suddenly big with terror. Her hand clutched -her throat. Her breasts rose and fell too fast. - -Her lips moved: "You--You...." - -Haral poured acid into his voice: "My name's Haral, Kyla. Remember? -I'm the man who saved your pretty carcass from Sark's arena not so very -long ago." - -The priestess sank into a chair. Her eyes closed, as if she were -praying, or perhaps trying to blot out the very sight of the blue man -from her brain. - -Tight-lipped, Haral strode to her. He caught her chin and tilted back -her head. - -"Did you think I risked my life for you for nothing, priestess?" he -clipped grimly. "Some say I'm worthless. But in my way, I still value -my head." - - * * * * * - -Kyla's eyes opened. They were very large and innocent. "Truly, I am -grateful, blue warrior...." - -"Grateful--?" Haral brought up the crooked forefinger that held her -chin so savagely her head snapped back. "Yes, you're grateful! So -grateful you could hardly wait till my back was turned before you ran -away! So grateful you'd gladly leave me to face Sark's tender mercies -alone, so long as you got to cover!" - -"But, warrior--You do not understand. I have a mission--a duty bigger -than you or me, or the debt of gratitude I owe you--" - -"Duty--?" Haral smashed one mailed fist into the palm of the other. -"Will your duty save my neck? Will it halt Sark's crewmen as they haunt -me and harry me and hunt me down?" - -The girl's lips trembled. The violet eyes dodged his. "But--but--what -would you have me do--?" - -"You know what I want!" Haral gripped her shoulders. "My death -warrant's sealed. You heard Sark say it. I've got just one chance--one, -and one only. With your Xaymar's secret, it may be that I can smash -Sark before he smashes me--" - -"No--" - -"That's what I want! I want the secret--your goddess, your queen of -storms--" - -"But I cannot--" - -"You can! You will!" Fiercely, he shook her. "Where is she, Kyla? Where -does she lie, this woman-goddess, Xaymar?" - -The girl went limp in his grasp. Tears brimmed her eyes. - -Slowly, Haral straightened. He let go the priestess' slim shoulders. -"Can't you see?" he grated tightly. "Can't you understand? Now, -this very moment, Sark's hunting for your doddering high priest, -Namboina. When he catches him--and he will catch him, have no doubt of -that--he'll tear your goddess's hiding-place from him like a tooth from -the socket. Then where will you stand? What good will all your talk of -duty do you? Would it not be better--" - -"No." Even though Kyla's lips still trembled, there was no compromise -in her tone. She flicked away her tears, and her back drew very -straight. Her eyes met Haral's--defiant; proud and steady as his own. - -"No, blue man," she repeated. "If helping me costs you your life, I'm -sorry. But my duty lies with Ulna and with Xaymar. Do what you will; -I'll tell you nothing." - -"And Namboina? What of him? Will his loyalty match yours when Sark -stretches him out for a taste of torture?" - -"Sark has not yet caught Namboina." - - * * * * * - -As it had in the arena, admiration now touched Haral. Steel lay -sheathed in the velvet of this _Shamon_ girl's slim, soft body. He -could not but respect its temper. - -Yet he dared not let her know his thoughts. - -Instead, coldly, he drew his ray-gun from its holster. "Then I have no -choice...." - -"You'll kill me, you mean--?" There was contempt in the girl's voice, -the twist of her lips. "So in the end you're not so different from -_Gar_ Sark, after all." - -Haral smiled thinly. "Say rather that I know enough to bow to reality -when I face it. If I cannot win this battle, then I must come to terms -another way." He let his smile broaden, building up impact for the -climax. "But not by killing you, Priestess Kyla. That truly would get -me nothing." - -"Then what--?" - -Haral shrugged. With careful casualness he said, "Sark still might -strike a bargain for you." - -"_Sark--!_" - -The shock in the girl's voice stabbed at Haral. Fear was in her eyes -now--the bright, shiny fear of those nightmare eternities she stood -helpless in Sark's arena. - -But the blue man held his face immobile. "You leave me no choice," he -clipped. "I must either have the lightning-force, the secret of your -goddess Xaymar, or I must buy back my life from Sark. Since I lack the -stomach to force the secret from you, that leaves only Sark for me to -turn to. You surely understand." - -He watched the sickness come to Kyla's face, then. Her eyes closed. Her -tongue flicked at her lips. - -At long last she looked at him again. Dully, she said, "Put away your -weapon, warrior. I am vanquished." - -Wordless, Haral slipped the ray-gun back into its holster. - -Kyla said: "I'd hoped this might have another ending, blue man. When -you rode out in the face of _Gar_ Sark and all his might to save me, my -heart leaped, and strange feelings woke within me, here." She touched -her breast. "I saw you as a Galahad of the spaceways, a valiant who -fought for right and honor instead of booty. But now I see you true. -You're as the rest--greedy, blood-thirsty, driven by hate and a lust -for power." - -A knife seemed to twist deep in Haral's vitals. He did not speak. - - * * * * * - -The girl's great, tragic eyes stayed set upon him. "Yet, blue man, you -saved my life. There is indeed a debt of gratitude I owe you. I'll pay -it now...." - -She rose; came close to him. Her hand touched the heavy copronium -brassart that sheathed his upper arm. - -"There's a reason our living goddess Xaymar has lain sleeping through -all these years of Ulna's sorrow, blue man," she told him tensely. "Did -you think my people, my proud, unbending _Shamon_, would have suffered -all the insults and degradation you alien raiders brought here with you -had it not been so? Can you vision us submitting to your despoilment -while we held an invincible weapon in our hands, unless the dangers -that lay in unsheathing that weapon were even more dreadful than the -worst that you, in your crude butchery, could offer?" - -Haral shifted. Frowning, he studied the priestess' shadowed eyes and -strain-straught face. - -She breathed deep. Her words rushed forth in a flood, a frantic, -half-hysterical jumble: - -"I'll tell you the secret, warrior! I'll tell you why we left our -goddess sleeping through all our hour of need!" Her lips parted. Her -voice rose shrilly. "She's mad, that's the reason! Xaymar's mad! Mad -with lust and power, and passion! Her beauty was a thing of shining -splendor that no man could resist or deny. Each night she took a -different lover--and then, at the dawn, at her command, each one -was slain! She harnessed the lightning against our enemies--and when -our own greatest city refused to send more of its sons to her for -slaughter, she smashed it to rubble with her bolts! In her madness, it -was she who gave the power of thought to the coleoptera--" - -She broke off, laughing wildly. Her face came close to Haral's, her -body against his. - -"Would you waken her, warrior? Would you be the next to share her -couch--and her graveyard? Beside her, Sark ranks as a saint--" - -There was a prickling along Haral's spine as he pushed her back. But -she still clung to him. He could feel his tension climbing. It was as -if Kyla had hypnotized him with her rush of words, her fierce burst of -emotion. - -He said tightly: "You lie, Kyla! This is some kind of a trick--" - -Like magic, her hysteria vanished. - -"A trick? Of course! A good one--" - -She twisted, and he felt the wrench of his ray-gun being jerked from -its holster. - -Before he could move, she had its muzzle between his teeth. Her -triumphant voice echoed like the ring of steel on steel: - -"Your first move will be your last, blue man! You'll die if even a -finger twitches!" - -Haral stood very still. - -From somewhere below came the creak of a door opening, then the -muffled slam of its closing. - -Kyla laughed. Her eyes sparkled. "Did you speak of Namboina, warrior? -Of how Sark would catch him? Yet here he comes now!" - -Haral spoke carefully: "Wrong, priestess! Those steps are too quick for -old Namboina's!" - - * * * * * - -Watching her eyes, he could see the doubt flicker, then flare into -panic. Her lips parted as she strained to hear. She fell back a step. -The ray-gun in her hand was suddenly shaking. - -"If there's trouble," Haral observed, "that gun might prove surer in my -hand than yours." - -"No! Stand back!" the girl cried. "I'll shoot for your face! Your armor -won't save you!" - -The blue man halted. - -The approaching footsteps were closer now--coming lightly, swiftly, -towards this room. - -Kyla pushed the door half shut, then stepped to its hinge side, -gesturing Haral to a place before her. Her face was grey. - -Outside the room, the footsteps halted. The door pushed open. - -"Kyla--" - -It was the voice of a woman--a woman in the garb of Xaymar's order who -hurried into the room. - -"Lyess--" cried Kyla. The ray-gun sagged in her hand. - -The newcomer whirled in fright. Her eyes flicked from the priestess to -Haral. - -Kyla cried, "Why are you here, Lyess? Where is Namboina?" Her tone held -a note of desperation. - -"I came to tell you, Kyla--to warn you! Sark has found him! They say -the torture is already under way to make him tell where Xaymar lies--" - -Unspeaking, Haral looked to Kyla. - -Her mouth was working. New tears had come to her eyes. Now, of a -sudden, they overflowed and spilled down her cheeks. - -Harshly, Haral slashed: "What now, priestess? Do we wait here while -Sark tears out Namboina's heart, then goes and wakens your mad -woman-goddess Xaymar?" - -Slowly, the hand that held the ray-gun lowered, till the weapon -hung loose against Kyla's side. Her shoulders, too, slumped. In the -stillness, her falling tears made tiny splatting sounds as they hit the -floor. - -"Kyla, Kyla--!" the other priestess whispered. "You dare not linger! -Sark seeks you, too. That is why I came to warn you--" - - * * * * * - -Again the silence echoed. Then, wearily, Kyla straightened. She shook -away the tears. Her mouth stopped quivering. - -Never had she been more lovely. - -She turned to the blue man: "Haral...." - -It came to him, with a queer sort of shock, that it was the first time -she had ever called him by his name. - -"Yes, Kyla...?" - -"I've lost. I wanted Xaymar's secret for my people--this world of ours, -this Ulna. But now, that cannot be. The most I can hope is that Sark, -at least, shall never have it." - -"Yes, Kyla." - -"She--Xaymar--lies in the dead land--the land infested by the great -thinking beetles, the coleoptera. The road to her crypt is a dangerous -road." - -"I've traveled dangerous roads before." - -"Yes. Danger is in your blood, you aliens. And we of Ulna are weak, so -weak...." - -Gently, Haral said: "There's little time, Kyla. Namboina may be -babbling all he knows already." - -"Yes, and the way is long." Wearily, then, the girl held out the -ray-gun to him. "You'll need this more than I, along the road that we -must travel." She sighed. "You see, Haral? Destiny is on your side. In -the end, you are the winner." - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - -The coleoptera were drawing their noose ever tighter now. A killer -cordon, they ringed in Kyla and Haral. The rustle of their giant -wing-sheaths, borne on the night wind, whispered of death. The great, -flesh-rending mandibles clacked like the distant rattle of dry bones. - -Flat on his belly amid this rubble that once had been a mighty city, -the blue warrior let his head sink forward onto his arms. He closed his -eyes, and weariness welled up in him, a dull, relentlessly-rising tide. - -Pain throbbed along his whole left side, and blood still dripped -from his numb left hand. Silently--absently, almost--he touched the -shoulder-plate of his armor, probing the perforations and the wound. - -Then a sound of spilling gravel came through the darkness. He looked up -sharply. - -A dozen yards to one side, one of the great scarlet beetles was -clambering atop a heap of crumbling stone. Its wing-sheaths scraped -harshly--a rasping, off-key note. - -Kyla leaned close. Her words came, a fearful whisper, barely loud -enough to hear: "Lift your helmet, blue man! Listen to the things the -coleopteron tells--but carefully, lest its mind control should seize -you...." - -Cautiously, Haral tilted back his battered copronium headpiece. It -had rendered strange service in its day, that scarred old helm; but -none stranger than this. For by some weird clash between its metal -and certain electrocephalic wave-pulsations, it guarded his brain -from the probing beetle minds, just as Kyla's bucket-like Ulnese -heaume--designed for the purpose--guarded hers. - -Now, as Haral lifted the helmet, thought-vibrations washed in on him in -throbbing waves: "Man-things, man-things! Find the man-things! Kill -the man-things! Kill, kill, kill!" - -A new vibration slashed through, fiercely urgent: "Blood! Blood! Here! -They came this way!" - -"Kill! Kill! Kill!" - -Already the coleoptera were surging forward. Antennae outthrust like -lance-points, Q-rays probing, they combed the murky waste--each rise, -each hollow. Their feet slithered through the rubble with sounds like -the writhings of Venus' great snake-things in dry leaves. The acrid -stink of their hate crept on the breeze in biting tendrils. - - * * * * * - -Haral cast a longing glance back towards his _hwalon_, still standing -at bay amid the crags where they had lost it in their last swift, -clashing contact with the beetles. - -But darting Q-rays hemmed in the dragon. And here and there between, a -head, a leg, a thorax showed. - -Haral bit down hard. The coleoptera were hoping they could tempt him to -try to regain the _hwalon_. - -For if he tried, he'd die in seconds. - -Kyla crept close against him. Her voice shook: "I've lost my way, -Haral. Even if the beetles were to leave us, I'd not know how to go." - -For an aching moment Haral lay still. "I guessed as much," he said at -last. "This running and fighting has pulled us from our path." - -"If we could only find one of the pylons of which the old books spoke--" - -"Yes. If." Grimly, the blue man fumbled the ray-pistol from his holster -and shoved it into Kyla's hand. He gave no sign that he had even caught -the tears, the desperation, creeping into her voice. "Here. Take this." - -"What--?" - -Haral held his voice flat, without emotion. "You'll need some weapon. -The ray-gun will do as well as any." He settled the helmet more firmly -on his head and took a new grip on his light-lance. "Come on!" - -Twisting, dragging the light-lance beside him, he wormed his way -towards the nearest of the skeletal shafts that rose like gravestones -over this dead city, last monuments to a civilization fallen into dust. - -Perhaps the shaft had been part of a building, once--a wall, a -buttress, maybe. Now, pillar-like, it stood alone. Gaping holes showed -through its mass. Great chunks of rock had fallen, here and there -exposing the huge, corroding metal beams that were its core. - -They reached its base. Haral pulled himself erect amid the black -shadows cloaking the foundation. Wearily, he leaned against a fallen -column. - -The move brought fragments rattling down. - -At the sound, a coleopteron in a nearby hollow came to a sudden halt. -For a moment it hesitated, then began to work its way warily towards -the shaft. - -Kyla said, "Haral--!" in a voice choked with new panic. - -"Stay here. Don't move," Haral clipped tightly. "And don't shoot--not -unless you have to!" - -As he spoke, he levered himself up onto the lowest beam. - -More broken stone clattered to the ground below him. - -The beetle came forward faster. - - * * * * * - -Awkwardly, the blue man climbed upward. His left arm was almost -useless. The light-lance dragged and got in his way. - -Below, the great scarlet insect stopped short. Of a sudden its -mandibles clacked wildly. - -Haral lifted his helmet a fraction. Vibrations poured into his brain: -"Blood! Here, here, this way--!" - -Cursing, Haral whipped up the light-lance and triggered a beam at the -beetle's thorax. - -The coleopteron wallowed backward, great wings threshing. - -Clutching a vertical girder, again the warrior clambered upward. - -Above him, and to one side, a gap that might once have housed a window -loomed. Painfully, he worked towards it. His left arm dragged, less -help than hindrance. He couldn't seem to get in air. His body rebelled -at his brain's commands. - -Then, at last, he got a grip on a jagged fragment near the edge of the -slot-like opening. With a final, spasmodic effort, he dragged himself -up and sprawled on his belly across the masonry. - -On the other side of the wall, spread out before him in the shadowy -purple of the Ulnese night, lay the heart of the dead city. From this -height he could see its plan, its prospect. There, ragged strips that -once had been broad avenues radiated out from a central park. There, a -spider-web of cross streets showed, linking the great arteries together. - -And there, too, were the ruins Kyla called the Triad--the huge, -three-winged structure that rose in the park's heart. - -Somewhere beneath it lay the shrine of Xaymar, queen of storms, living -goddess of all Ulna. - -Awe gripped Haral. Silent, brooding, he stared across the fallen -splendor. - -Such splendor, so far fallen. - -These others, who once had walked this mighty city in its day of -greatness--they, too, had been strong. They, too, had felt the drive to -power. - -Now they lay in dust beneath his feet. - -And here he sprawled, beset and wounded, driven by a dream on a -madman's quest, mayhap to meet death himself in this silent city of the -dead. - -His weariness welled up once more; engulfed him. - -How had Sark put it--"Why have you come so long a way to die?" - -Sark, and a dream turned nightmare. - -Yet he'd ridden other nightmares in his time, with less to gain and -more to lose. That was the meaning of life; the challenge. - -There below lay a living goddess; and a priestess waited to guide him -to her. - - * * * * * - -A priestess.... He pondered. Already there was a bond between them, -for she had a courage to match her beauty, and courage was one trait -he gave full honor, no matter what the cause to which it rallied. And -it had taken courage to stand in the bloody mud of that arena, defying -Sark. - -Sark?... Haral smiled. Sark, too, would have a role to play before this -game was done. - -Sark had pledged him death. Sark would keep that pledge, unless he fell -before the might of Xaymar's vaunted secret. - -And as for himself, Haral--? - -The battle lines were drawn: On the one hand, power beyond his fondest -dreams ... a living goddess ... a lovely priestess. - -On the other, Sark and the coleoptera, defeat and death. - -What more was there for a fighting man to ask? What better prize for -a wanderer to strive for as he carved his way up from the asteroids' -bleak want and bondage? - -He laughed aloud. His weariness fell away. - -Sitting up, turning, he once more gave attention to the swarming -scarlet beetles far below him. - -Fear of his light-lance was upon them now, it seemed. They hung back, -spread out in a menacing arc that centered on his side of the pillar. - -Directly below him, Kyla crouched as if frozen, the ray-gun ready in -her hand. But as yet the beetles had not come close enough to find her. - -Haral shifted. - -Like lightning, a Q-ray speared up from an ebon crevice to one side of -the shaft. - -The range was too great. The beam burned out yards short of Haral. But -a flicker of movement betrayed that one of the monster insects now was -climbing along the other side. The next ray might strike home. - -Again, Haral sought out the Triad, and the great arterial avenue that -led to it. - -The nearest of the roadways lay within a hundred yards of this column -that was his vantage-point. A pylon still thrust its weathered peak -skyward on the far side of the thoroughfare. - -A pylon: the crumbling, truncated pyramid burned into Haral's brain -like a beacon. The very sight of it sent recklessness surging through -him. - -To Kyla, below, he cried, "Come round the wall, priestess! Come round! -Quick!" - -Then, cat-like, he twisted, swinging his legs up and through the gap -in the masonry. His body arched--catapulting out into space, hurtling -groundward along the towering shaft's other face. - -But as he plunged, he shifted the light-lance. Bracing it against his -body, he gripped its head between his feet and triggered it on, full -strength. Its broad force beam blazed forth, straight at the ground -below. - -Like a flexible, compressing shaft of radiant energy, it slowed his -plunge. Balancing skillfully, he rode the beam on down. - - * * * * * - -The force of the landing made him wince. But at least, for the moment, -he was free of the coleoptera, though even now he could hear the -scurrying of their hairy feet in the dirt as they raced to head him off. - -Whirling, he ran along the base of the shaft. - -As he reached the corner, Kyla came stumbling toward him from the other -side of the shaft, scrambling over the ruins, debris, in desperate -haste. Two huge beetles, hot for the kill, bore down upon her from -behind, closing the gap that separated them from her with every -slithering step. - -Haral drew back and whipped up the light-lance. - -Running full-tilt, the slim girl burst from the shadows, the coleoptera -close at her heels. - -Haral triggered the light-lance. Its beam slashed through the night. -The foremost beetle drew into a writhing ball under its impact, -rolling crazily through the rubble. The second fell back, its forelegs -half burned off. - -The blue man pivoted and ran after Kyla. Catching her by the arm, he -half-dragged her with him towards the avenue. - -Ahead, the ground leveled off. The broad expanse that had been the -roadway spread before them. - -Beyond it loomed the pylon. - -Behind, the rustle of coleopteron wing-sheaths, the furious fluttering -of the vestigial wings themselves, came loud as the rasp of branches in -a storm-tossed forest, closer and closer. - -Haral shoved the priestess on towards the roadway. Then, boldly, he -turned and brought up the light-lance. - -The coleoptera broke. Scrambling wildly, they rushed for cover. - -"What, you _sabars_? You fear to meet my lance?" Haral shouted the -words, even though he knew the beetles could not hear nor understand. -Laughter boiled up in him--the ringing, defiant laughter that was not -so much mirth as lust for battle. - -But already the insects' Q-ray tubes were blinking. He had no choice -but to wheel and again run after Kyla. - -And as he ran, a new sound slashed through to him: the familiar keening -blast of space-ship carrier craft lancing through the night. - -Haral shot one swift glance upward. He glimpsed slim, silvery -streaks ... streaks that were carriers in flight. - -Sark's carriers--? - -Haral cursed aloud. Panting, staggering with fatigue and the weight -of his heavy copronium armor, he stumbled through the avenue's broken -stone. Once he fell. But Kyla's ray-gun blazed above him, holding back -the beetles till he could lurch up and wallow onward. - -Then, at last, there was the pylon ... the yawning entrance at its base. - -"Hurry!" Kyla cried. "They gain upon us!" - -A Q-ray sang its shining song of death too near at hand. - - * * * * * - -The blue man threw all his strength into one last effort. Together, he -and the girl ran through the entry, into the blackness. - -Haral turned. He laced his back-track with the light-lance's searing -beam. - -The beetles halted. - -"This way," said Kyla. Her hand gripped Haral's. In silence, he -followed her further and further into the pylon's pitchy depths. - -Now they walked on a strange, entangling surface that crunched brittly -beneath their feet. - -Haral flicked on his lance's illumination cell just long enough to -glimpse the scene about them. - -A prickling ran up and down his spine. For they walked a corridor of -death, a passage carpeted with bones ... the bones of those who once -had ruled this mighty city. A thousand skulls stared up at them, a -hollow-eyed horror. Skeletons spread in heaps and tangles, rising on -all sides like some rank, evil fungus. - -Kyla's voice came through the darkness: "You wonder why we hate all -aliens, warrior? Once, a thousand years ago, this was our proudest -_Shamon_ city. Then the first ships came out of space to Ulna. They -hurled down bombs, and my people sought to hide here from them. But -gas came with the bombs--a heavy gas, and deadly. It seeped into these -ancient tunnels, and those who survived the blasts, the radiation, died -by thousands--yes, by millions...." - -The girl's voice broke. - -Her horror, her pain, pressed in on Haral. But he dared not let himself -think of them. - -He said sharply: "This is no time for talk! Any moment, the coleoptera -may be upon us. Those ships that passed above us, too--they may have -been Sark's. If Namboina's told where Xaymar lies, Sark's men may beat -us to her. If we're to find her first, we must go quickly--" - -"Yes, quickly!" Again Kyla's trembling hand seized his. She led the way -down a long, steep ramp, then on through what seemed endless blackness. -"The old books say these tunnels end beneath the Triad. And then, below -that--there lies our sleeping goddess, Xaymar!" - -On they toiled, and on. Twice, in the ebon murk, they heard the -muffled rattle of coleopteran mandibles. Once, the beetles' acrid -stench rose rank and close into their nostrils. - -"Pray to your gods, warrior, that they do not guess our goal in time to -head us off," Kyla whispered hoarsely. - -"Pray to your own, and my light-lance!" Haral answered harshly. He -shifted, striving to ease the pain that still throbbed out from his -wounded shoulder. Numbly, he wondered how much longer he could go on. - -They came out of the tunnel, then, into a vast, echoing subterranean -chamber. - -"Now we must have light to find our way," the priestess said. "Already -we are beneath the Triad." - -Haral flicked on his lance's illumination cell. - - * * * * * - -The room stretched as far as its beam would throw. Other tunnels -debouched from the walls on every side. - -"This way," said Kyla. "Xaymar's shrine lies beneath the central -staircase." - -Together, they picked a path through more jumbled bones to the middle -of the vast concourse, then descended down the stair they found there -in spiral after spiral. - -As they went down, the stink of the coleoptera grew steadily stronger. - -"If this should be a trap--" Haral began. - -"There is no other way," the priestess answered. - -The staircase ended in a circular room. High ledges lined its walls. -In the center stood a great bronze ball, high as a tall man's head and -set in a base of polished stone. Markings were etched upon it, markings -that matched the configurations of this wild outlaw world of Ulna. - -But slashing even deeper were other markings--the stylized images of -the lightning that were Xaymar's symbol. - -"A strong man can roll the globe within its base," Kyla told Haral. She -studied the markings, chose a spot. "Here is the place. Now spin it -upward." - -New uneasiness came upon Haral. The muscles along the back of his neck -felt stiff and drawn with tension. - -He wondered if it could be his weariness, his wound. - -But he could not shrug it off. - -He said tightly. "This smells of danger, Kyla. There's trouble here." - -Once more, he swept the lance's illumination beam across the room. - -A long smear on the floor shimmered. Haral dropped to one knee, touched -it. "Look! This is wet, and not with water! It's more like the blood of -the coleoptera!" - -A tremor ran through Kyla. "Then hurry! Quick! Spin the globe!" - -The blue man straightened. Narrow-eyed, uneasy, he laid the lance -aside. Then, bracing himself, he put his unwounded shoulder to the -globe and heaved at it with all his might. - -It moved a bare inch; then another. - -He strained again. - -Slowly, the great sphere turned. The edge of a slot cut in its under -side came into view--a crack that widened as the globe rolled within -the base, till an oblong orifice lay exposed like a tunnel mouth -leading down into the footing. - -Haral started to step back. - -But, of a sudden, a faint sound came--the muffled ring of metal against -stone. - -Haral lunged for the light-lance. - -But a harsh, unfamiliar voice slashed in upon him--a voice from atop -the high, flat ledge that lined the walls: "Drop it, _chitza_! Drop the -light-lance!" - -From a different angle, another voice rang: "Quick! Drop it!" - -A third: "Just one false move...." - -An icy knot gathered in the pit of Haral's stomach. He let the lance -fall. - - * * * * * - -To his right, a _Pervod_ rose into view upon the ledge, ray-gun -murderously ready. A squat, tentacled Thorian appeared to his left. -Sounds told him others were getting up behind him. - -Desperately, he looked to Kyla. - -But she stood rigid, fists clenched at her sides. The ray-pistol he'd -given her had disappeared. - -He turned back to the _Pervod_. "Well, finish it!" he cried. "You're -here to burn us down. Get it done and be on your way!" - -But the _Pervod_ didn't answer. - -Instead, there was laughter ... ghoulish, obscene laughter, laughter -Haral had heard before. - -A chill shook the blue man. - -He wished he could be sure it was only his wound. - -Again the laugh echoed; again. It came from the staircase, swelling -louder and louder with each passing second. - -And then, there were more _Pervods_, more Thorians, more _Malyas_ -and Martians and mutants. There, too, was _Gar_ Sark's famed Uranian -riding-chair sweeping into view on its anti-gravitational direction -beam. - -There was Sark. - -He leered at Haral. Never had the menace stood out in his fat face more -sharply. - -"Burn you down--?" He repeated the blue man's words as if he liked -their flavor. "No, no, you _starbo_. I'd not do that. Not now; not -ever. It's far too quick a way for you to die." - -"You'll do your worst, so do as you like." Haral forced himself to -shrug despite the pain. - -Sark smirked. "Of course. But first there's another task we must -attend." - -"Another task--?" - -"Yes, now that you two have opened up the way." Sark chuckled, deep in -his throat. His fat-rimmed eyes gleamed like tiny, vicious stars. "We -go now to waken the living goddess, Xaymar, queen of storms, so that -she can deliver her secret into my hands!" - - - - - CHAPTER V - - -There lay the woman! - -Xaymar. Woman and death, the end of a madman's quest. - -The great crystal globe that cased her rested atop a dais in the center -of an echoing, high-roofed chamber. Pulsing, aglow with strange life, -its radiance fought back the crypt's impinging gloom. - -Haral swayed for a moment under the impact of the sight, his wounds -forgotten. Excitement raced through him. - -But Sark's men held him by either arm, and others penned him in front -and behind, and Sark himself sat in the riding-chair mere feet away, -his hand never straying from the cymosynthesizer switch. - -And there was Kyla, pale and forlorn, in a Thorian's tentacled grasp. - -The end of a quest, indeed. The bitter end. - -Sickness came to Haral. - -Yet because he was the man he was, such a mood could not last long even -here, even now. Thoughtfully, he gazed about--taking in the vaulted -roof; the walls, honeycombed with coleopteran burrows; the expressions -with which Sark's mongrel crewmen tried to mask their awe. - -Above all, he looked upon the woman. - -Sark's eyes, too, were gleaming. Drawn as by some mighty lodestone, he -sent his riding-chair scudding forward to the dais on which the globe -encasing the sleeping goddess rested. His web-fingered hand reached out -to touch the crystal. - -Then, abruptly, he halted. Slowly, he withdrew his hand and wheeled the -chair about. His eyes sought Haral, and his lips parted in a leer. - -He said: "Ulna has little love for strangers, _chitza_." - -Haral said nothing. - -"Perhaps they thought to trap a few with this pretty bauble," the -raider chief remarked. His smile was sinister. "Perhaps Namboina told -the things he told too easily, in order that he might laugh in hell -because I, too, had died." - -Haral shrugged. "You talk in circles, _starbo_." - -"You came here seeking to waken Xaymar, did you not?" Sark smirked. "I -merely meant that you should have the chance to do it." - -His smile vanished. His words crackled: "Go to the dais, _chitza_! -Awaken Xaymar!" - -Haral's captors shoved him forward. Numbly, he clumped across the floor. - - * * * * * - -Sark and his men drew back to the protection of the archway. Kyla stood -in the shadows, pressed against a wall. - -For the fraction of a second, the blue man thought of calling out to -her to draw the ray-gun she'd hidden in her garments, and blast the -raiders with it. - -But the fascination that lay in the sleeping goddess pulled even -stronger. - -He ran his tongue along dry lips. It could be as Sark had guessed--that -this was a trap for the unwary; that the first time he touched the -bubble would also be the last. - -Yet still he stepped onto the dais. Then, breathing deep, he wiped a -window through the dust that shrouded the shining globe. - -Nothing happened. - -A mass of valves and tubes and coils of unfamiliar pattern were mounted -high inside the bubble. To one side, a cord like a bell-pull hung -nearly to the floor. - -But Haral gave the equipment scant heed. He had eyes only for the woman -known as Xaymar. - -Her body gleamed smooth and sleek in this eerie light--voluptuous, -lithe-limbed, perfect. Motionless, naked save for the short, jeweled -veil that masked the top half of her face against a nimbus of jet-black -hair, she lay like some lovely manikin, frozen in a sleep as deep as -death itself. Yet, somehow, there was a warmth and texture to her skin -that seemed to reach out even through the crystal; a melding of curves -and hollows that cried out that once she, too, had been alive. - -_And might still live!_ - -The blue man sucked in air. Pivoting, he studied the panel set in the -great globe's base. - -The switch was there, just as Kyla had described it. - -And the secret prayer, the call to waken--? - -Only the soul of dead Namboina could chant it now. - -Haral clutched the lever. Then, stiff with tension, he jammed it shut. - -Seconds crept by on leaden feet. He felt a lone drop of icy sweat slide -down his spine. - -Then, inside the bubble, greenish mist began to rise. It filled the -crystal casing. Eddying, swirling, it thickened till the woman's -recumbent form grew dim and blurred. - -In the vibrant stillness, Haral could hear his own heart beat. - -Slowly, the mist within the great globe thinned again. A tube set high -above the woman flashed on. Waves of pale violet light washed over her -smooth, nude, perfect body. - -In spite of himself, Haral's tension soared. - -Now--abruptly, without warning--a wild, shrill, keening sound rose -thinly. A new light blazed above the woman. Like lightning striking, a -shining, silvery beam lanced down out of a queerly-shaped projector. - - * * * * * - -A sheet of crackling silver flame encased the woman. Her body went -suddenly rigid. She jerked spasmodically, lifting half clear of her cot -in a writhing, twisting arch. - -Then, sharply, light and sound cut off again. - -The woman fell back limply and lay still. - -It dawned on Haral that his nails were rasping against the crystal. - -Through an interminable moment, the woman within sagged inert as any -corpse. Then, almost imperceptibly, her lips quivered. The bare breasts -stirred as she drew a shallow, sobbing breath. - -In the same instant, it seemed to Haral that he could see her lids open -beneath the veil. But he could not be sure. - -She tried to lift herself; fell back. - -Fiercely, Haral slashed at the crystal with his elbow. - -The heavy copronium elbow-piece of his armor tore through the -globe--puncturing, not shattering. Haral stabbed at the bubble again, -and it ripped, in the manner of some flexible, transparent plastic. -Forcing a hand into the gash, the blue man tore a great chunk loose, -clear to the floor: then another. - -Stepping inside, he bent over the woman--gripping her shoulders; -straining for her whisper. - -"Quick! The flagon--!" Her hand stretched out in a feeble gesture. - -Haral followed the movement to a holder beside the cot. It held a -flask. Snatching up the container, he tore away the seal, then lifted -and held the woman while she drank in great, greedy gulps. - -When at last the flask was empty, she sank back once more. But now -color was flowing to her face. Her breathing steadily grew deeper and -more regular. - -Haral let his weight rest on the edge of the cot. Very gently, he -reached to lift the goddess' veil. - -Spasmodically, her hands came up. "No--!" Nails dug into his wrist. - -He started at the tempestuous violence of her; the sudden strength. -Then, wearily, he drew back his hand. - -In the same instant Sark's voice lanced in: "Leave her alone, _chitza_!" - -Haral turned. - - * * * * * - -The raider chief and his men were back, now. They poured into the crypt -in a rush. Sark himself swept toward the dais in his riding-chair as -on the crest of a wave, ahead of all the others. His thick lips were -working, his eyes hot with excitement. - -But his fingers never left the cymosynthesizer switch. - -Haral clenched his fist in frustrated fury. Of a sudden his wounds, his -weariness, hung heavy on him. - -He glimpsed Kyla. Hesitantly, she, too, was coming towards the goddess. -Her lips were parted as if to cry out in protest against this whole -bizarre affair. Deep lines of strain marred the pale loveliness of her -face. - -Sark cried: "Back, _chitza_! Stand clear of Xaymar!" - -For an instant Haral stiffened. Then, painfully, he forced himself to -his feet. - -But now a new voice interrupted, imperious and vibrant: - -"Who are you to give commands, fat beast, here in the innermost -sanctuary of Xaymar, queen of storms?" - -Haral pivoted. - -The woman on the cot now sat erect, her very stance a mirror of -haughtiness and pride. - -Anger flamed in Sark's puffy cheeks. "Who dares to question? I am -Sark--" - -"Yes. He is Sark," Haral cut in. He poured savage irony into his words. -"They say you are a goddess, Xaymar. But he--he is Sark, _gar_ of the -space-raiders, a being so fierce and brave he does not even dare to -waken you himself!" - -"Silence, _chitza_!" shrieked the raider chief. - -Haral mocked him: "He seeks your secrets, Xaymar--if he can pay the -price with someone else's life, and not his own! As for commands--what -does he care that others call you goddess? He is the great _Gar_ Sark--" - -Sark cried: "Kill the _starbo_--!" - -Now, for the first time, the woman men knew as Xaymar gave the gross -raider heed. Twisting, she faced him. Her hand touched the cord that -hung down beside the cot on which she rested, and even that simple -gesture was somehow pregnant with a nameless menace that halted Sark -and his crewmen in their tracks. - -In a voice suddenly cold as Pluto's ice-things, she said, "If he dies, -creature, you die with him!" - - * * * * * - -For an instant there was a silence that echoed vibrant tension. Then, -calmly, Xaymar turned again to Haral. "And you, blue one--?" she -queried. "What of you? Why do you seek me?" - -Haral let her words hang for a moment. He looked out across the -crypt ... past Sark, the crewmen, Kyla.... - -Kyla. She, too, rode with destiny; but it was a different destiny than -his, a destiny that tolled her doom already. The lines that etched -her face seemed even deeper now, set off by the contrast with the -shimmering spun gold of her hair. There was more than beauty in her. -There was spirit, also, born of stark courage, and all at once the very -sight of her brought a poignancy that stabbed him like a knife. - -But he pushed it back, and let his laugh ring out. "I seek the only -thing in the void worth seeking!" he slashed recklessly. "I seek power, -Xaymar--the power to fulfill my destiny and carve an empire. But I -never thought to find the key to it locked in the brain of a woman as -beautiful as you, or I'd have sought it sooner!" - -Xaymar's ripe lips parted. "Your tongue is skilled, blue man! It alone -should carry you to your empire!" - -"But does that skilled tongue have truth, too, my goddess? Or is it so -practiced that now it lies by instinct?" It was Kyla who lashed out, -from a place close by the dais. Passion had brought hot color to her -cheeks. - -"They lie, my goddess! All these aliens lie!" she rushed on fiercely. -"Hate and greed are the only creed they know. Already Ulna lies -drenched in the blood they've shed--the blood of your followers, ground -down by these monsters to slaves or less. Now, still thirsting for more -wealth, more power, they seek you, too, my goddess! They would make you -their slave--tear your secrets from you, that they may use the power -that lies within the lightning to reach out across the void for yet -more worlds to conquer--" - -The woman who was the living goddess Xaymar, queen of storms, stared -coolly down at her slim young priestess, Kyla. - -"You are of the _Shamon_, are you not?" she interrupted, and open -condescension was in her tone. - -"Yes, my goddess--" - -"A race of stuffy fools, the _Shamon_." - -"My goddess--!" - -"You prove my point. Who but a race of stuffy fools would try to pass -off a sleeping woman as a goddess? That is, unless they were knaves, -instead, seeking some gain by their deception." - -"But these aliens would destroy us--" - -"And why not, if the best you can do is pray to me for succor? The -blue one spoke true. Power is the only thing in all the void worth -seeking--for without it, man and race alike are doomed!" - - * * * * * - -Kyla stood very still. But, watching her, Haral could see her lips -begin to tremble. The color was draining from her face again. Her -features had taken on a stiff, unnatural set. - -"Then ... Xaymar, queen of storms, deserts her faithful ones for -aliens? She casts off my _Shamon_ people ... me, her priestess--?" - -Xaymar tossed her head. "I tire of this dreary prattle!" she cried, and -gestured to a massive, tentacled Thorian at Sark's side. "You! Take -this _Shamon_ drab away!" - -For the fraction of a second the Thorian's great saucer eyes rolled -from Xaymar to Sark to Kyla. Then, wordless, he undulated towards the -shrinking girl. - -And Haral, too, stared, still not quite believing that this incredible -creature, be she woman or devil or goddess, could so take command even -of Sark's own men. - -Then, again, he glimpsed the stiffness in Kyla's face, and a strange -uneasiness gripped him. Perhaps it was the way she stood, almost as if -waiting for the Thorian, with no thought of retreating. - -The Thorian whipped a tentacle towards her. - -But in the same instant Kyla, too, was moving. Her hair shimmered like -quicksilver as she slid beneath the Thorian's snake-like member. Her -hand darted beneath her filmy outer garment, then out again, jerking -forth her ray-gun. Her body twisted as she stabbed the weapon close to -the Thorian's monstrous bulk. - -Then she was blasting, at so short a range that the raider's flesh -burst asunder under the impact of the beam. - -The Thorian's tentacles lashed out in frenzy. But already the girl was -leaping back beyond his grasp. - -Now, she was turning; springing up onto the dais. Her voice rang with a -fury born of outrage: - -"Die, traitor! Die for the _Shamon_ and for Ulna!" - -She blazed a ray straight for Xaymar's naked body. - -Haral threw himself forward, between the two women. Desperately, he -tried to knock Kyla's ray-gun up with one hand while he swept Xaymar -from her cot with the other. - -But his wound-stiffened shoulder caught. The ray-gun's energy bolt -burst on his own chest-plate. Its impact smashed him down. For a -split second he saw the crypt as a blazing kaleidoscope of action, a -maelstrom swirling in on a pain-wracked vortex that was his brain. He -caught the madness in Kyla's eyes; the sudden panic in the way that -Xaymar fell. Beyond them, the space-raiders' faces merged in a weird -blurred jumble. - -Then Sark was roaring, "Now! Now! Seize them--!" - -Frantically, Haral tried to tear clear of pain and shock and debris. - -But before he could move, Xaymar caught the cord that hung beside her. -Spasmodically, she jerked it down. - -He knew, somehow, that it was an alarm, even though the sound of its -signal was pitched too high and thin for human ears. - -The sight that followed was one of the strangest he had ever seen. - - * * * * * - -For out of the thousands of coleopteran burrows that pock-marked the -walls of this hidden crypt, a horde came leaping--a horde of great -scarlet beetles that hurtled down upon Sark and his raiders before they -could so much as turn. A living wave, they burst over the crewmen and -the dais--clutching the aliens, bearing them down; yet holding them, -not killing. - -Haral found himself flat on his back, pinned there by two monstrous -coleoptera. Kyla, too, lay prone, shaking under the touch of another of -the beetles. - -Haral twisted, looking for Xaymar. - -Alone out of all the throng, she stood erect, untouched. A horde of the -coleoptera had grouped themselves about her. Now they bent low in weird -attitudes of genuflection. - -The woman waved them back with a quick, impatient gesture. Swiftly, she -picked her way to Haral. - -The beetles that held him gave way before her. Gripping the blue man's -hand, she helped him to his feet. - -"You see, warrior--?" She lifted her hand in a sweeping, all-inclusive -gesture. "I know what power means--a power greater than any the void -has ever seen. I, too, have carved an empire: the empire of these -silent ones, the coleoptera. To them, I am truly goddess. They are mine -to command." - -Haral swayed a little. Tiny waves of nausea washed over him, rising -like vapors out of the pain flowing from his wound. With a sort of dull -detachment, he observed that blood had begun to drip from his left -hand's fingers once again. - -A trifle thickly, he said, "I hear your words. But what good is your -beetle empire? Where can it lead you? How far can you go?" - -The woman called Xaymar smiled a smile that was old when this outlaw -world was young. "Did you not say I held the key to your fate, blue -one? The coleoptera are my workers and my warriors. Because I saw the -role that they might play, I helped them gain the power of thought; so -now they help me turn my dreams to destiny." - -"Dreams?" Haral muttered. "Dreams indeed! They say you've lain here -sleeping a thousand years." - -Xaymar laughed softly, tauntingly. "And why do you suppose I slept so -long, blue warrior? Believe me, it was not out of boredom. No; I, too, -like you, reached out for power. But first I had to fill my legion's -ranks. I needed time for my coleoptera to breed and multiply, in -preparation for my day of conquest...." - -She paused, and the jewels with which her veil was set seemed to gleam -so bright that Haral closed his eyes against them. Once again the air -of nameless menace he'd felt before crept through the crypt. - -Xaymar's voice came as from afar: "We shall ride together, warrior, you -and I! You've saved my life, and you have a will that matches mine. -I've longed this thousand years and more for a man like you to share my -dreams...." - -The words went on and on, but Haral could no longer hear. The sickness -in him grew. He knew of a sudden that he was going to fall. - -Words and more words--an incoherent jumble. He was toppling now, yet -there was nothing he could do to stop it. In great, languorous spirals, -the floor of the dais was roaring up into his eyes. - -But as it approached, somehow, it grew dimmer ... dimmer ... dimmer.... - -Then new words came. Or, rather, old words, thundering out of the black -sack of his memory. - -Kyla's words: - -"_Each night she took a different lover--and then, at the dawn, at her -command, each one was slain!_" - -The blackness closed in.... - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - -Haral woke in the glow of a wondrous iridescent warmth that pulsed -through every nerve and fiber of his body. The pain and weariness were -gone. Surging strength, new vigor, flooded through him. - -Slowly, still not quite believing his own senses, he opened his eyes. - -He discovered that the iridescence was no mere metaphor, no figment of -his imagination. For he lay in what seemed a boundless sphere of light -that painted his naked body with an interweaving, continually changing -tapestry of glowing color. - -He would have reached up to touch the wound in his shoulder, then, but -when he tried, he found he could not move; that his whole body was -somehow gripped in invisible bonds of force that held and molded him at -will. They twisted him, turned him, flexed and stretched his muscles. -Apparently without support, he moved through space and time--now -flat on his back; now curled first on one side and then the other; -now upright, upside down, cramped or contorted into an infinity of -positions. - -When his head rotated as under the pressure of unseen fingers, he at -last glimpsed his shoulder. With a shock, he saw it had grown well and -whole. No wound was visible, no scar apparent. - -The blue man relaxed, content to bask unresisting in this wondrous -healing bath of radiant energy. - -Then, slowly, the radiance dimmed. Haral felt himself sinking gently. -His back brushed what might have been resilient fabric, and he came to -rest. The last of the light had faded. He lay in utter darkness. - -Xaymar's voice reached out of the blackness close at hand: "Is the pain -gone from your body, warrior?" - -"Yes. All gone." - -"Yet this unit that gives out life and strength is but one of the least -of all my secrets!" The voice of the woman-goddess took on a deeper, -more vibrant timbre. "There are so many things I know--so many secrets -of life and death--But come! You shall see them with me!" - - * * * * * - -A switch clicked as she spoke. Light came--a strange, halo-like glow -without visible source, utterly unlike the shimmering radiance that had -gone before. It formed a lambent wall against the blackness. - -Haral sat up. He found himself on a cot much like the one on which the -queen of storms herself had lain, back in the crypt. - -She was here beside him now, her lips curved in a smile of welcome -below the veil. She wore a close-fitting, high-necked garment of some -unique material that matched the glistening blue-black of her hair. -Yet, though the raiment masked her body's ripe curves with fabric, the -overall effect became one of accent rather than concealment. - -It made Haral suddenly conscious of his own nude frame. He shifted. - -Xaymar laughed. "There's a cloak on the rack beneath your cot, my blue -one." She turned. "Follow me." - -The note of mockery in her tone jabbed at Haral beyond all reason. But -he swept the cloak about him with one swift, incisive movement and fell -in beside the woman. - -He wondered where this road would take him. Whether it led to -destiny ... or death. - -Instinctively, at the thought, he shot a narrow-eyed glance at Xaymar, -and his blood quickened. The momentary irritation fell away. Perhaps -even death would not be too high a price to pay for a night as this -strange creature's lover. - -But why a single night? Why did she kill when the new day came? - -Above all, why did she wear that weird jeweled veil? - -For the moment, at least, he could not hope for answers. Shrugging, he -turned his attention elsewhere. - -The light was moving with them as they walked, like a torch afloat in -an encroaching sea of blackness. The echo of their footsteps told the -blue man that they must be in some vast, high-ceilinged chamber--a -cave, a hall. - -Yet they stood alone. There was no sign of life about them. - -Haral said: "What happened to the others?" - -"The ... others--?" Xaymar's voice held a curious note of hesitation. - -"Sark and his men. The priestess, Kyla." - -It was the woman's turn to shrug. "I let Sark go, on his promise that -he'd blast off within the hour he reached his ships." - -"You let him go--?" Haral stared. His tension and temper soared. "Are -you mad, woman? Sark's word's worth nothing. He'll blast off, yes--but -only to roar down on you here and smash you!" - - * * * * * - -Xaymar stopped short. Before Haral realized what she was doing, she -lashed a slap out at him. Fire flashed through his face beneath her -fingers. "Have a care who you call mad, blue warrior!" she cried in -fury. "Men have died for less--as you can die--" - -The sight of her anger lit a spark within Haral. Of a sudden he did not -care whether this was death or destiny. Before she could escape, he -caught the hand with which she'd slapped him and jerked her to him. - -"The blood runs hot in others' veins as well as yours," he rasped out -tightly. "You've gone too long with your arrogance unchallenged. But -I'm the man to break that habit." - -Her nails raked bloody paths along his sides. Her feet beat at his -shinbones. - -Haral cursed her--and then, bringing her face to his by sheer brute -strength, he kissed her. - -Her body went limp against him. Her bruised lips welcomed his. - -He breathed deep; straightened. "And now--we'll see what's hidden -beneath that veil!" - -Her body went rigid again. She twisted as he clutched for the jeweled -mask. "No, blue man--" - -He caught the veil and ripped it off. - -In the same instant, before he could see her face, the light snapped -out. - -They stood there in the darkness, then, adventurer and goddess, bodies -tight together, the silence broken only by the hoarse rasp of their -breathing. - -Then Haral said, "I can wait as long as you can, Xaymar." - -She laughed softly. "You leave no doubt about your daring, do you, -warrior? Nor am I even angry with you for it. I like a man with the -strength to take what he desires. But not quite yet. You'll have to -wait a little while." - -"Then you'll wait, too--till the light goes on again." - -"Must I?" The mocking note crept back into her tone. "Don't press the -gods of chance too far...." - -"You'll wait," Haral said. - -As he spoke, he felt something touch his backbone a little above his -waist. - -The next second two great claws clutched him just below the ribs. - -He stiffened. - -Xaymar laughed again. "We'll wait!" she mocked him. "We'll wait till -the light goes on--or a coleopteron rips out your backbone!" - -Haral stood motionless. His hands all at once were slick with sweat. - -Xaymar's ripe body came full against him. Her hands touched his face, -pulled his lips down to hers. Then--fiercely, brutally--as he had -kissed her, she kissed him. - -Her words came, a vibrant whisper: "You are the one who's mad, blue -man! But it is a madness that can lead you to your own dark destiny--if -you live!" - -She twisted free. - - * * * * * - -There was a moment of black silence. Then the light snapped on. Once -more the veil masked Xaymar's face as it had before. - -The mandibles let go of Haral. Stiffly, he looked around. - -Half a dozen of the great scarlet beetles stood within the lighted -circle, watching him with cold, multi-faceted insectile eyes. - -He shuddered. - -As if there had been no interruption, Xaymar said: "You wonder why -I let Sark go. But I had no choice. He told of a thing called a -cymosynthesizer with which he could destroy our planetoid of Ulna." - -"And if he lied--?" - -"He did not. I looked into his brain and saw he spoke the truth as best -he knew it." - -"You ... looked into his brain?" - -"I have that power." Xaymar's smile was cryptic, whether with dark -mirth or ancient wisdom Haral could not say. "Thoughts to me are things -to grasp like tools or weapons. When I focus my brain I can turn -another mind inside out and drain it dry." - -An uneasiness chilled Haral's spine. "You speak in jest...." - -"You mean--you wish I did?" The woman laughed aloud, and the light -glinted in her hair as on dark waters. "In jest, then--I looked into -Sark's brain, and when I saw the things I saw, I turned him and his -crewmen free." - -Haral grimaced. "And he'll come back." - -"Of course. I saw that, too. But I do not care." Again Xaymar smiled -her cryptic smile. "Now, come! You shall see why I await him without -fear!" - -They walked on again. Then, at last, there was a door ahead and, beyond -it, a long, dark passageway. - -Haral frowned as he strode through the murk beside the woman. Once -more, as he had a dozen times before, he thought of Kyla, with her -dreams and rippling golden hair and slim young body. She was so -different from this dark voluptuary who was a living goddess. Yet she, -too, had shared the dangers of this adventure with him. - -What had happened to her? He wondered. But something told him to make -no query. - -Another door loomed. Xaymar cried, "Behold my warriors!" - -She flung the portal wide. - -Haral stared. - -For here were no coleoptera. Here lay what appeared to be a mausoleum, -instead--another vast, echoing chamber, dim-lighted and stretching out -as far as the eye could see, with banked, sealed crypts rising row on -row from floor to ceiling, like some monstrous, many-celled honeycomb. - -Xaymar asked: "Now do you see why I slept so willingly for a thousand -years, my warrior? In each cell here is sealed an egg, preserved secure -from harm and the ravages of time. From each egg, when the time to -strike has come, will spring one of my fighting coleoptera--" - -She broke off; hurried the blue man up a ramp to another level. - -Here were stacked Q-ray tubes, light-guns, and blasters, piled high in -bins by millions upon millions. - -"Come! There is still more!" - -They climbed another ramp. - -At the top, before a heavy door, a huge coleopteron waited. - - * * * * * - -The woman who was the living goddess Xaymar paused, head tilted. It was -as if she were listening to some silent message. Then she turned, half -towards Haral, and her lips curved in a strange smile that was somehow -infinitely evil. She spoke no word, but even the blue man could feel -the hammering, affirmative impact of her thought-waves: "Yes ... -yes ... yes...." - -The great scarlet beetle moved swiftly off down another corridor. - -Xaymar moved close to the door. Like magic, it opened before her. - -She said: "Beyond this door, no being but me has ever gone, blue -warrior! But now you, too, shall enter!" - -Haral followed her across the threshold. - -The door swung shut behind them. - -The room in which they stood was cramped and box-like, with walls and -floor and ceiling of dully gleaming metal. As the portal closed, a -feeling of motion pulled at Haral's vitals. It dawned on him that they -had entered some sort of carrier that even now was hurtling them upward -with the speed of lightning. - -Then the feeling left him. The door opened once more, and they stepped -out into the hot yellow light of an Ulnese day. - -Shielding his eyes against the sudden glare, Haral looked about. - -Above them rose a gigantic crystal bubble, a dozen times as large -as the one beneath which Xaymar had lain sleeping. Set high amid -craggy grey and green and purple peaks, it thrust up like a beacon, a -watch-tower, into the yellow sky. Concentric circular tracks on which -were mounted banks of strange, snub-nosed projectors, each set at a -different angle, ran round the globe above his head. Control boards, a -mass of indicator dials and switches, were set at intervals along the -metal-walled, chest-high base. - -Xaymar touched his arm. "Your trappings, blue man...." - -He turned to her gesture. There, stacked in a niche beside the shaft -up which they'd come, lay his light-lance, his armor, the clothes he'd -worn. - -"Your steed, too...." The woman pointed through the crystal, down the -slope. - -Haral stared. His great blue Mercurian _hwalon_ dragon moved -restlessly to and fro in a narrow natural yard bounded on three sides -by steep rock walls less than half an Earth mile from them. Two -coleoptera stood guard along the open side. - -Narrow-eyed, Haral turned back to the woman. "But why? What made you -bring my gear here, and my _hwalon_?" - -"Is it not plain?" shrugged Xaymar. "You are a warrior, and I have need -of such to lead my beetle hordes to battle." - -"To battle--?" - -"My day has come. In a little while I shall reach out and seize all -Ulna. You know the ways of the aliens who now hold it, so you shall be -in the van of my advancing legions. You'll show them when and where to -strike; how best to meet the alien weapons." - - * * * * * - -Haral tried to probe the blankness that was her veil; to fathom the -mind of this strange woman who hid her beauty behind its jewel-sprayed -folds. - -At last he said: "You've picked the wrong man, Xaymar. I'm a warrior, -yes--but not such a fool that I'll try to lead your ground-bound hordes -out to battle against space ships. The wars of the void are fought in -the air, not down in the muck and mire of a pygmy planetoid. Sark would -butcher your beetles from above before they'd marched a mile." - -Xaymar's lips curved. The clash of cymbals, of swords and shields, was -in her laugh. - -"This one war will be different, blue man! We'll fight to seize and -hold the ground till Ulna's taken. Then will be time enough to talk of -ships that slash across the void, and battles for planets fought in -deep space." - -"But Sark's fleet--" - -"Sark will have no fleet!" the woman slashed back fiercely. Her whole -body swayed, and even here, in the full light of the blazing yellow -sky, her hair showed black as a Martian _koboc's_ sinister hood. "You -came here seeking my secret, warrior. I mean that you--" - -Close at hand, a bell rang shrilly. - -Xaymar halted in mid-sentence. Whirling, she flicked a switch on the -nearest of the control boards. - -A plate like that of a visiscreen flashed on. Swiftly, the woman -adjusted dials. - -Blurs on the plate resolved into a horde of rising silver ships. Like -screaming meteors, they lanced into the sky. - -"Sark's ships?" the woman who was a fleshly goddess asked Haral coolly. - -He nodded. "Yes. Carriers. Light craft, small and slow enough to fight -close-in on a world the size of Ulna." - -"But not all Sark's fleet?" - -"No. His great raiders would have no room here to maneuver." - -"Then Sark himself still lingers at the spaceport, waiting to see how -I'll meet this latest challenge." - -"What--?" - -Xaymar laughed. "He fears me, blue man. I read it in his brain as he -sat there in my crypt. And I learned more: this weapon of his you call -a cymosynthesizer is useless once he's in the air. So he'll leave it on -the ground and then stay with it for the sake of the protection that -it offers, instead of risking his own fat neck in one of the ships he -sends against me." - - * * * * * - -The ships on the screen were looming ever larger now. Streaks of silver -light set against dullness, they hurtled closer ... closer.... - -Forcing casualness into his voice, Haral gestured to them. "And what -will you do when at last they reach us?" He touched what appeared to be -some sort of triangulation finder. "At the rate they're moving, they -should be here within another minute." - -Turning, not answering, Xaymar stepped to a huge switch-box set in the -center of the bubble's floor and threw a lever. An eerie, whining sound -rose, and with it a faint smell of ozone. - -The woman threw a second lever. A third. A fourth. - -The whining grew louder, the odor stronger. - -Xaymar moved back to the control board. Almost idly, she said: "They -call me queen of storms." - -Haral stayed silent. But of a sudden his heart was pounding. - -"Do you know the power of the lightning, blue man? Can you vision the -force that lies locked within it?" - -The whining continued to rise. It was almost a thin scream now. - -Still Haral waited, wordless. - -Xaymar twisted dials again. The warrior saw that her knuckles showed -white through the skin. Her voice took on new intensity, new vibrance: - -"You dream of power, blue man--but never can you have imagined power -such as this!" She laughed, a little wildly. "I cannot pretend to -explain these things so you can understand them. But a thousand years -ago I learned how to create what I choose to call an ionic vacuum--an -electrolytic vortex that sucks in electrons from the atmosphere's -neutral atoms. The very process sets up a storm condition. Wind, rain, -turbulence--they all come with it." - -Like an echo to her words, a shadow fell across the inverted crystal -bowl in which they stood. - -Incredulously, Haral shot a fast glance skyward. An icy knot took form -deep in his midriff. - -Where mere seconds before he had gazed up into the bright, clear yellow -of the Ulnese day, now clouds were swirling! Before his very eyes, they -grew and darkened. - -Through his haze of shock, Xaymar's words came dimly: - -"A storm is a dynamo, blue one--a dynamo greater than it lies within -man's power even to conceive! It generates the lightning. Mighty bolts -crash from it down to earth--spent, wasted. But these projectors,"--she -gestured to the massed banks that lined the tracks overhead--"these -projectors can direct its fury! They focus its shafts, throw out -magnetic targets for it...." - - * * * * * - -Now the whole sky above them had grown dark. For as far as Haral could -see, the storm-clouds gathered. The roar of thunder drowned out the -shrilly keening whine that filled his tortured ears. Lightning leaped -in blinding sheets and chains and flashes. - -With an effort, the blue man tore his eyes from the violence overhead -and looked again to the viewer plate by the control board. - -It blazed with the glint of Sark's carrier ships. A rushing silver wall -of death, they hurtled ever nearer. - -"Twenty seconds more!" Xaymar cried into his ear. "Twenty seconds--and -they perish!" - -The hurtling ships overflowed the screen. Hulls blotted out the sky. - -"Ten seconds!" - -The plate blurred, out of focus. - -"Look! They come!" shrieked Xaymar, and there was a vindictive triumph -in her scream that whispered of something close to madness. - -Haral followed her sweeping gesture--up, to the sky itself, and the -rocket-borne death that dwelt there. - -There were Sark's ships--a fleet, a horde. Now they lanced downward -on their final strike. The roar of their rockets slashed through the -storm. - -In spite of himself, Haral felt the clutch of fear. - -Overhead, the projector banks were tracking. The lightning was a -blinding, continuous flash. - -"Is it power you want?" screamed Xaymar madly. "I'll show you power, -blue warrior!" - -Her hand darted out and pressed a button. - -The heavens exploded. - -Desperately, Haral kept his eyes on the raider fleet. Through the blaze -and glare, he saw great, jagged bolts spear down upon it. Some ships -were split, some torn asunder. A hundred smashed themselves to atoms on -the cruel crags of the mountains. - -Others simply disappeared in mid-air. - -In ten seconds not one was left still in the sky. - -Haral sagged limp against an upright. - -How many battles had he seen across the void? How many ships gone down -in blood and flame? - -But beside this, all the rest were nothing. Where they left off, this -cataclysmic holocaust began. - - * * * * * - -It was the answer to his dream of power, his pact with destiny. Given -this weapon--yes, this weapon only--the universe was his! - -He swayed in the grip of his mad ambition. His heart was a driving, -hammering piston. - -Xaymar said: "Throw the switches, blue one. Let the storm pass." - -Numbly, Haral stepped to the box and slammed down the four heavy levers. - -The whining died away. The smell of ozone faded. - -The woman came close to him. "We shall rule the universe together, -warrior...." - -He looked at her ... at raven hair and ripe, half-parted lips and -slender fingers ... the temptation, incarnate, that lay in her perfect -body. - -She whispered: "Kiss me, warrior!" - -A tremor ran through him. He pulled her to him. - -Her head went back. Her lips were trembling. - -Breathing deep, Haral kissed her. The softness of her mouth made him a -little giddy. Her lips clung to his. He could feel her arms about him, -the pressure of her breasts against him. - -But the jewels in her veil gouged his cheek. - -What did that bizarre mask hide? - -And there were Kyla's words again: - -"_Each night she took a different lover--and then, at the dawn, at her -command, each one was slain!_" - -He lifted his head, then, and the living goddess whom men called Xaymar -laughed softly, still in his arms. - -"How many men have sought my kisses, warrior? Yet I ask you to claim -them!" - -Haral did not speak. - -Her midnight hair brushed his face. "There will be nights without -number, blue one--nights when you'll forget even your ambition in my -arms!" - -"Yes." - -She drew back a fraction. "Why, then, are you so silent? Am I not -beautiful? Can you not feel the warm fire I promise you?" Her voice -took on a sudden edge. "Or--is it that you would rather hold that -blonde _Shamon tirot_ they call Kyla in your arms?" - -With an effort, Haral held his face immobile. "Now you speak as a -woman, not a goddess. Kyla was your priestess. I sought her only to -guide me to you." - -Xaymar pushed back from him. "Have a care how you lie to me, blue man! -I looked into your mind while you lay unconscious. She was there, that -Kyla! Your first thoughts were of her!" - - * * * * * - -Haral let his words go harsh and angry: "You still talk like a jealous -woman! She gave me only trouble. I care nothing for her." - -"Trouble? That was all she gave you?" Xaymar taunted. Her lips twisted. -"Then you'll be happy to hear what I've done with her, warrior!" - -"What you've done--?" Haral's words came blurted. In spite of himself, -tension rolled up within him. "What do you mean? Where is she?" - -"You'll laugh with me, blue man! She tried to kill me, yet I was -merciful, as a goddess should be. Instead of tearing her heart out, I -freed her, and found a mate to woo her." - -"A mate--?" - -"A mate fit for her kind of _tirot_." Xaymar laughed, and of a sudden -the spell of nameless menace and infinite evil Haral had caught before -rang in the sound. "I gave her to Sark." - -"Sark--!" Haral reeled. - -"Yes, Sark." The woman moved back one sinuous step, then another, like -a great cat toying with its prey. "He asked that I let him take her -away from Ulna with him. I said no. But then, later, it came to me that -I could devise no greater suffering for her, so I sent her to him." - -"You ... sent her to that creature?" - -"Yes. Already she's on her way there." A fiend would have envied -Xaymar's smile. "That was why the coleopteron was wailing for me at the -shaft below here. He sought my last decision--and I said, 'Yes. Good -riddance. Let Sark have her.'" - -Through a scarlet haze, Haral cried out, "Curse you, Xaymar!" - -He was moving forward in the same instant, lashing out at her, and he -saw her mouth go slack with shock at his sudden onslaught. - -Then his fist hammered home on her jaw: The force of it lifted her and -slammed her back across the bubble, to land in a heap on the floor, -crumpled and unconscious. - -Then the haze cleared. Numbly, Haral stared down at her. - -Why had he done it? What did he care whether Sark got Kyla? He'd meant -it when he said she'd given him naught but trouble. His destiny lay -here--here, with Xaymar, queen of storms; here, with the secrets that -would give him the power to carve out his dream empire. This other was -sheer madness--without sense or logic; without even volition. - -Yet he'd done it. - -And now--? - -Already, out there in the green-grey-purple Ulnese mountains, a slim -_Shamon_ girl was being dragged to a monster. - -Almost without thinking, he looked to his armor. - -He was half-way down the slope to his _hwalon_ before it dawned on him -that, with Xaymar unconscious and at his mercy, he'd still forgotten -even to look beneath her veil. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - -Bleakly, Haral looked down on the knot of coleoptera moving through the -valley below. - -There could be no mistake. This was the party. Even from here, sitting -his _hwalon_ high amid the barren crags above them, he could glimpse -the shimmering gold of the captive Kyla's hair. - -He pondered. Nearly a dozen of the giant beetles were in the party, -guarding the girl on all sides. - -Further, considering their mastery of mind-to-mind communication, it -seemed impossible that they had not heard by now of his escape and -mission. - -Almost affectionately, he touched his own worn helmet. With it to -insulate his brain, at least he had little to fear from the weird mind -control that was their deadliest weapon. - -As for the odds, what real difference did it make whether they were a -dozen to one against him, or a hundred? From any angle, his course was -madness, and no calculation could make it otherwise. He'd thrown out -logic when he struck Xaymar down and blasted the two beetles on guard -over his _hwalon_. Now his fate lay with the gods of the void and his -own right arm. - -Laughing harshly, he wheeled the dragon. Then, light-lance raised and -ready, he moved on down the rock-strewn defile for a closer survey of -the situation. - -When he came out of the gorge, he'd quartered the distance between him -and his quarry. Thoughtful, narrow-eyed, he studied the group in more -detail from the cover of a boulder. - -But the coleoptera were obviously on guard. Two ranged ahead as scouts. -Another pair closed up the rear, while one held to either side of the -procession's line of march as outriders. The rest of the party stayed -close-grouped about the girl. - -Again the blue man checked the rugged terrain, searching for some -accident of ground that would give him the chance he needed. - -Ahead, the valley narrowed sharply, then divided. One of the two spurs, -that on the left, was cramped and tortuous, a cleft-like gully. The -other, smoother and wider, had walls so steep that it could not but -force in the beetles covering the company's flanks. - -Haral breathed a fraction faster. Spurring the _hwalon_ forward, -following the high ground and taking advantage of every rise and rift -and clump of cover, he headed full-tilt for the narrow left spur of the -divided valley, racing to reach it ahead of the coleoptera. - - * * * * * - -His mount strained to the task. Clawing through broken stone, around -boulders, up a dozen near-sheer rock faces, it matched the pace of the -beetles as they hurried along the infinitely smoother road that was the -valley. Then, slowly, it began to pull ahead. Rear guard, main group, -scouts--one after another, they were lost to the blue man's view as the -great dragon surged to the fore. - -The last rise loomed. Haral pressed the _hwalon_ up it. - -A moment later, they were plunging perilously down the steep wall of -the left spur. - -At the bottom, Haral wheeled the dragon to the right, back towards the -spot where the two spurs came together. Riding swiftly to its mouth, -he took up a position in a side crevice where boulders permitted him a -view of the valley's main course, while at the same time screening him -from the view of the coleoptera. - -A rattle of stones, the rustle of wing-sheaths, warned him of the -beetles' approach. Seconds later, the two advance scouts came into view. - -Haral sat statue-still in the _hwalon's_ saddle. He shifted his grip -closer to his lance's trigger. - -The scouts came abreast his hiding-place, so close he could catch their -smell and see their ray-tubes' glitter. He held his breath. - -Then they passed on. Haral let out air. - -Mandibles clacking like deadly castinets, the outriders moved up. - -Again Haral froze. - -But they, too, passed, unheeding. - -Now louder sounds drifted to him. There was a whispering of hairy feet -on sand; a slither of insectile bodies. - -And, through it, a silvery voice rose, singing. - -The main body of the coleoptera appeared. Kyla pocketed among them. - -Her hair was mud-caked now, and streaked and straggling. Her garments, -too, were torn, and bruises and cuts showed through the rents. - -Yet still she sang her _Shamon_ song, head high and back unbending. -And if she reeled and stumbled as she walked, it was weariness and not -defeat that caused it. - -It came to Haral in that moment that even madness had its glory ... -that even death could be worthwhile. - -He leaned forward, lance poised and focused on the coleoptera that -shoved and buffeted her along. - -But the time was not yet. Savagely, he fought down the rage that -seethed within him, waiting while the beetles and their captive moved -on past the spur that hid him and the _hwalon_. - -Then, swiftly, before the rear guard could appear, he drove his great -blue dragon forward--out of the crevice, out from behind the screening -boulders, out of the spur canyon itself. - - * * * * * - -Like a thunderbolt, then, he charged, straight at the rear of the knot -of huge scarlet beetles. His shout rose, a battle-cry of fury. The -_hwalon's_ rush drummed a death-roll. - -A glad cry burst from Kyla's lips. She tried to dart to Haral. - -But fatigue slowed her. A coleopteron sprang upon her from behind, and -she crashed to the ground. Great mandibles reached out to crush her. - -Haral blazed with his light-lance. The beetle died. - -The girl lurched to her knees. But she could not rise. Another -coleopteron rushed in to seize her. - -Haral's _hwalon_ lunged to her. Catching her up in one mighty claw, it -dragged her close and stood above her, defying the beetles with all -the menace of its fangs and talons and horrid, hook-beaked head. - -Haral whipped round his light-lance just as the pursuing insect flicked -on its Q-ray. The savage jolt of the beam striking home rocked him -in the saddle. But the heavy copronium armor's breastplate held. He -triggered the lance. - -The beetle spun crazily, legs kicking, as the life seared out of it. - -The _hwalon_ lifted Kyla. Swinging forward, heedless of the other -Q-rays that now appeared close about him, the blue man caught her and -dragged her up beside him. - -Already, the _hwalon_ was backing and pivoting with the amazing agility -of its kind. - -Again and again, Haral triggered the light-lance, clearing a path for -them. They raced back up the valley in the same direction from which -they'd come. - -The two coleoptera of the rear guard, close in now, made one futile -effort to cut them down. But the furious rush of the blue man and his -dragon was too much for them. They broke, scrambling desperately for -safety. - -Then Haral, girl and _hwalon_ were out of the narrow part of the -valley. The broad expanse where travel was easier and faster lay before -them. - -But instead of taking it, the blue man turned the dragon back into the -bleak, craggy hills. Grimly, he urged his mount on deeper and deeper -into the wild mountains, all ups and downs and steep rock ledges. He -still had not spoken to the slim young _Shamon_ priestess. - -He wondered if it were because he was afraid to put into words the -thoughts that gnawed within him. - -But now she turned to him. "Where do we go, Haral?" - - * * * * * - -He shrugged and gave her a twisted smile. "Where is there to go, -Priestess Kyla? To the city, the spaceport. It's our only hope." - -"The spaceport--?" - -"If we stay on Ulna, sooner or later Sark or Xaymar or the coleoptera -will hunt us down. We've got to blast off, somehow, and that quickly." - -She looked at him for a long moment, and it suddenly came to him that -he had never realized before that her eyes were blue. - -Blue, and calm, and very steady. - -She said quietly, "I'll never leave Ulna, Haral." - -There were the words he'd feared, already spoken. They tied a knot of -tension in him. - -"Not even after all this? Not even with your life at stake?" - -"No, Haral. Not even if it means death in Sark's arena." - -He smiled again, wryly, because he knew that if he didn't smile, the -dark thoughts that came with his tension would boil over. "It's up to -you. But I've no taste for Sark's tender mercies, and even less for -Xaymar's." - -She said, "I'm sorry," and would have turned away. But now he would -not, could not, let her. He lashed out: - -"What do you mean, you're sorry? Sorry for what? That not everyone's -fool enough to want to die on your crazy rockpile planet?" - -Her eyes flashed. "Are you so afraid of death, then, blue man?" - -"You ask it?" His fury ate into his words like acid. "You _dare_ to ask -it, after the blood I've shed just to save your lovely neck?" - -The blue eyes lost their fire. "Haral, I'm sorry. Truly sorry--" - -But the rage that was in him now would not let him take up the peace he -knew she was trying to offer. - -"What do I care for dying? I've gambled my life a thousand times, -a thousand ways. But curse me for a _chitza_ if I want to die for -nothing! What would it gain me or anyone else if I stayed here and -drowned in my own blood in Sark's arena? If I perish, at least let it -be somewhere along the road to empire, not here in the backwash of this -pest-hole you call Ulna!" - -The words quenched his fire, and as it died a strange confusion churned -within him, a discomfiture that seemed to come only when he spoke with -this slim girl, Kyla. Furiously, he riveted his gaze straight to the -pathless wilderness ahead, trying to lose himself in scrutiny of the -rocky course the _hwalon_ followed. - -But Kyla asked, "Is that, then, your only dream, Haral? A dream of -empire? Is that the height of your ambition?" - -"What--?" He turned in the saddle to stare at her, as much for her tone -as for her words. He thought he almost caught a note of sadness. - -Or perhaps it was disillusion. - - * * * * * - -In spite of him, it brought back the old, hot-blooded, restless, -reckless fever: the fever that had carried him through all these years -of blood and battle. - -He threw out his challenge fiercely: - -"What better dream can a fighting man have than one of empire, -priestess? What higher ambition?" - -She bit her lip. Her eyes fell before his onslaught. - -"They spell out power, my priestess!" he cried in bitter triumph. -"Power, do you hear? Without it, a man's as nothing--sport for the -rabble, fair game for every passing knave. With it--" - -"With it, you can be a butcher and a tyrant!" the girl slashed in upon -him. He could see the lines of strain and inner tumult etch deeper into -her face. "You can carve your bloody way like Sark himself, till some -worse monster topples you from your throne!" - -Haral clenched his fist. He threw his words like thundering boulders. - -"Strength rules the void, woman! Give me the strength to carve my way -and I'll ask no more!" - -The girl's face whitened. Her lips trembled. Passion echoed in her -voice: "But ... is strength enough? Can you find the things you really -seek in strength alone?" - -"With power, I can do anything!" - -"No! Power is not enough--" - -"It is! It is!" He could not hold down his heat, his fervor. - -But how could he tell her? How could he make her understand? - -And why did he care? - -He clutched the saddle and stared bleakly off across the crags. A flood -of memories washed through him. And because their roots struck so very -deep, he knew before he spoke that in spite of all his efforts, his -words were going to come out as cold and hard as the stones of these -barren mountains. - -He said tightly: "I was born on Pallas. My ancestors came out to the -asteroid belt from Earth as colonists, in the days when Earth still was -mighty." - -He could see the girl's eyes widen. "Then ... you are of Earth--?" - -"Of Earth?" Haral laughed harshly. "Call it that if you will. But what -place is there for any colonist, anywhere, when the mother planet -falls? The first of my people came out three hundred years ago. But by -the time Earth at last was vanquished, no one cared from whence they -came, or what happened to them. They were left on their own, to stay -and face their troubles. The weak died; the strong survived." - -He broke off, and looked away. The memories were roaring now. Emotion -choked him. But it was as if he were a witness, speaking out in behalf -of all his hopeless, derelict kind. Coldly, brutally, he forced himself -to speak on: - -"I grew up watching the _Malyas_ come, and the _Chonyas_, and a hundred -mongrel raiders. When I was twelve, Ibarak's killers cut my father -down, so Ibarak could add my mother to his harem." - - * * * * * - -He heard Kyla's low gasp of horror, and the shock that was in the sound -stabbed him with a feeling that held both pain and, somehow, a fierce, -vindictive pleasure. - -He said harshly: "It was his mistake. She slit his throat, and then her -own." - -"Oh, no--!" - -"Yes!" He swung round, and looked squarely into the slim, lovely -_Shamon's_ eyes. "I swore an oath that day, my priestess--because that -day I saw that nothing mattered save the power to take and hold. Love, -honor, duty--what did they count? What had they done for my father, my -mother, a million others like them? So I swore I'd live to see the time -when no living creature in all the universe would dare to strike a blow -against me. I swore I'd have the might to smash them, one and all!" - -There was silence, then, for a vibrant moment, broken only by the -scraping of the _hwalon's_ claws as they moved over rock and slides of -gravel. - -At last Kyla said, "What can I say, Haral?" And now pain was in her -voice, too. - -Wordless, tight-drawn, Haral nodded and turned away. - -But then the girl spoke again: "I have long been Xaymar's priestess, -blue one, and a priestess learns many things. Namboina himself it was -who taught me to read men's hearts from the words they speak and the -things they do, no matter how confused and torn they themselves might -be." - -Haral shrugged, not turning. Dimly, the priestess' words drifted to him -through the haze of his own dark thoughts and feelings: - -"Your life has been bitter, warrior--as empty as the void itself. But -the thing you've sought, the thing you seek, is not an empire, no -matter what you think. Even if fate should give you the power of which -you dream, its savor would turn to ashes in your mouth." - - * * * * * - -A welling anger touched the blue man, and he twisted in its clutches. -He'd saved this slim _Shamon_ girl from the coleoptera; thrown away his -own chance at destiny for her. Why could she not now let him be? - -Yet still she spoke, almost as if she'd read his thoughts: - -"You care nothing for destiny; not really. For if you did, you'd not be -here with me now. What you truly seek is an excuse for living, a warmth -to fill the void inside you. There lies the root of your recklessness, -your mad ambition." - -The anger grew in Haral, and sweat drenched him inside his armor. The -very rocks through which they rode seemed out of shape, distorted. - -"Do you think me a fool or a child, then, not even able to see my own -self straight? Or perhaps you believe me mad. Is that it?" He spat. -"Why did you bother to come with me? Why didn't you stay with your -thrice-cursed beetles?" - -But Kyla's voice stayed calm ... so calm it sent new fury through him. - -She said: "I have no quarrel with you, warrior; and the thing you did -for me is worth more credit than your words would ever give it. That is -why I say that power will never fill the hunger in you. What you need -is a cause to fight for and to live for, not greed and blood and booty." - -"So you'd like to see me play the fool for Ulna! You want me, -single-handed, to take on Sark and Xaymar and the coleoptera!" - -As Haral lashed out, the _hwalon_ topped another ridge. - -In the distance loomed the squat buildings of the shabby spaceport town -that was their destination. - -Haral forgot his fury. Frowning, he headed the dragon down a steep -ravine. - -A gnawing doubt was growing in him. This was all so smooth, so easy.... - -Grimly, he debated the chance of ambush before they reached the town. - -Kyla said: "Truly, Ulna needs a champion--" - -Haral bared his teeth and cursed aloud. - -And as he cried out, the world exploded. - -He didn't even see the blaster that knocked him down. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - -They dragged Haral out of his cell just after noon. - -Wearily, he raised his eyes from his shackled wrists and, squinting at -the sudden glare, looked up into the yellow Ulnese sky. - -He wondered, bleakly, if he'd ever get another chance to taste its -freedom. - -Then a _Pervod_ took one arm, a _dau_ the other. Roughly, they hurried -him into the central park with shoves and buffets. - -A shout went up from the lusting crowd--a shout for blood, a shout for -slaughter. A Martian leaped forward to trip him. A Thorian slapped a -tentacle savagely across his face, and he knew from the blinding pain -that flesh had torn away under its suction. - -Then he was stumbling through the blood-soaked sand of the arena to the -bank of seats where the raider chieftains waited. - -And there was Sark, just as before, sprawled out like some great, slimy -slug in his ornate Uranian riding-chair. - -The raider's fat-rimmed eyes gleamed bright with murderous triumph now. -He bared his teeth in a sinister smirk, and his whole gross body shook -with a cruel laughter. - -But his hand never left the cymosynthesizer switch. - -There, too, sat Xaymar: living goddess, queen of storms, the prize that -had drawn Sark here to Ulna. - -Even now, standing there before her, Haral felt the spell of her -vibrant, voluptuous loveliness. With wrenching force, it came to him -what a fool he'd been to go against her; to toss away her favor and all -it stood for in order to take his own mad road. - -Her ripe lips curved into a smile. - -He wondered if she were laughing at him behind the jeweled veil that -masked her. - -But if she were, what did it matter? What difference could it make to -him, in this last hour of his bitter odyssey? - -Then, half-unconsciously, he straightened. His thoughts, at least, -were still his own. No one need know that regret, despair, welled high -within him. He could die as he'd lived, by the warrior's creed, head -high and neck unbending. - -It was as if the very gesture rekindled some near-dead spark within -him. A little of his feeling of hopelessness and black dejection seemed -to fall away. Coolly, almost, he gazed about him. - -It dawned on him, now, that the mob gathered here to watch his downfall -was not quite the same as the one he'd faced that other day when he'd -first blazed his path across Sark's devilish drive for conquest. - -For now coleoptera were massed along one side of the arena. A rustling, -eddying sea of vivid scarlet, they crowded close by the chieftains' -stand, as if drawn to the incredible woman who was their ruler by a -magnet. - -Then a new, wild shout roared up from the crowd. - -Haral shot a quick glance back across his shoulder. - -The yelling mob was parting. Two more crewmen drove through the throng, -dragging along another prisoner. - -A lovely prisoner. - -Kyla. - -Or did her beauty now lie only in his own eyes? - - * * * * * - -Blood ran down her face. Her features were drawn to a mask of anguish. -When she stumbled, one of the raiders caught her by the hair and jerked -her upright. - -In the stand, Sark rocked with laughter. - -Then she was standing, swaying, in the crewmen's grip, beside Haral. - -Sark's laughter died. He leaned forward, thick lips working. His fat -face was a study in sadistic fury. - -A hush fell over the crowd. - -He cried: "So, _chitzas_! Now you die!" - -The silence rolled like thunder. - -Haral stood wordless. He could barely see Kyla, out of the tail of his -eye. - -She did not move. She did not speak. Only the way her breasts rose and -fell too fast whispered of the conflict that churned within her. - -Or was it exertion, sheer weariness, that made her breathe so hard? - -Now, savagely, Sark turned on the blue man. - -"You, warrior!" He spat, and his face contorted. "Warrior? I'll teach -you to call yourself a warrior, _starbo_! You talked bold, you _zanat_, -when you rode in here with your _hwalon_ and your armor and your -light-lance. But there's _kabat_ in your veins instead of blood. Now -you'll learn to crawl, and beg for death!" - -Haral stood very still. A haze seemed to hang over the leering crowd, -the blood and dirt, the yellow sky. - -How had Sark said it, that other time? "_Why have you come so long a -way to die?_" - -Here it had begun. Here it was ending. - -This was his destiny. - -And here was Kyla. Here was Xaymar.... - -Xaymar, most beautiful of women, with a body to tempt a man to hell. -Paradise, and infinite evil. His chance for power and glory. - -Xaymar, in a clinging scarlet gown. - -The smile still lingered on her lips. - -How had Sark lured her here, after all his treachery? - -But then, hatred made strange partners. - -And they were waiting for him to crawl. - -Recklessly, then, he laughed aloud. With a twist and a jerk, he tore -free from the grasp of the raider crewmen and strode forward. - -He could see Sark's web-fingered hand knot convulsively on the -cymosynthesizer switch. - -He laughed again, and made his voice ring: "Bring on your torture, -_stabats_! I'll show you how a warrior dies!" - - * * * * * - -A spasm of rage shook Sark's gross body. His face grew purple as Ulna's -peaks. "You _chitza_--!" His voice rose crazily, shrilly. "Throw him in -the ring! Let the beetles tear his flesh from his bones! Stake him out -and let them feast upon him before he dies!" - -A clacking of mandibles rose, a hideous, castaneting rattle. A thousand -protuberant, multi-faceted insectile eyes drew into focus. - -In spite of himself, Haral felt the hair on his nape go stiff. - -The crewmen moved in to seize him. - -"Die with this thought, you fool!" Sark shouted. "Xaymar has pledged -herself to share her secret with me! I'll have the lightning for my -weapon! Die thinking of me with the universe in my power, Haral! Die! -Die--" - -And then, for the first time, Xaymar spoke: "No, Sark." Her tone was -flat, decisive, final. - -The raider chief went rigid in his riding-chair. His bulbous head -swiveled. "What--?" - -She smiled, a lazy, mocking smile. Her hand came up in an easy gesture. -"I said no, he does not die. Not till he's heard a thing I have to say. -That is the only reason that I've come here." Her voice dropped a note. -"Perhaps ... he need not die at all." - -"No!" Sark shouted, and even through the fat, muscles stood out along -his neck and jaws. "He dies, I tell you! Here, now, in this arena--" - -The woman's lithe body seemed to draw together like that of a tigress -crouching. "I say he lives!" she slashed back fiercely. And then, with -swift, deadly emphasis: "Or ... would _you_ rather die?" - -Grey came to Sark's puffed, blubbery face, washing out the purple. -Flecks of foam formed at the corners of his mouth, and his eyes were -suddenly diamond-bright with hate and fear. Snarling, incoherent sounds -bubbled in his throat. - -"You may make the choice," said Xaymar smoothly. "Which shall it be -_Gar_ Sark?" - -The harsh sounds ceased. The raider chief sank back into his chair. - -Still smiling, the woman men called Xaymar turned once more to Haral; -and of a sudden the strange, dark, nameless evil of her reached out to -him in throbbing, vibrant waves. - -"Would you live, blue warrior?" she asked softly. - - * * * * * - -Narrow-eyed, wary, he tried to read her face through the masking veil. -His nerves all at once were like groping tendrils, so sharply tuned his -whole body ached with tension. - -He said: "Let me hear the price before I answer." - -"It is not high...." - -"Let me hear it!" - -The ripe lips parted. Her sleek, voluptuous body seemed to reach out to -his till, eerily, it was almost as if he could feel it pressed against -him. - -She said: "Never before you have I met a man with fire to match my -own, blue warrior! Always, my lovers fawned and flattered, whimpering -phrases that were half fear, half weakness." - -"The price!" - -"But you--you waded through your own blood to find me! You would have -taken me by force! You dared to strike me down!" - -She came to her feet in one lithe movement. Her voice took on new -vibrance. - -"You still may have me, warrior--both me, and my secrets! I'll give -them gladly, if I can only share your destiny, travel with you...." - -She paused, and the feeling of dark sin and horror that radiated from -her wound round Haral--enveloping, all-pervasive. He swayed, caught up -in the surging power of it as by bonds of steel. - -Her words came, dim and distant: - -"Grant me only one favor, blue man ... only one, and all shall be -yours!" - -Haral did not speak. - -"Give me the woman, warrior! Give me the _Shamon_ priestess to do with -as I will, to prove that you are truly mine!" - -The horror was no longer nameless. The evil took form in words of fire. - -Haral choked. "No! Not Kyla--!" - -"Sit here beside me as my lover, while my children feast upon her -body--" Xaymar's gesture took in the whole blank-eyed, slithering, -lusting beetle horde. "Bind yourself to me with this one sacrifice of -passion--" - -"No!" screamed Haral. "No, no--!" - -The words came from his throat, but it was not his voice. The world -rocked. His body shook, and he could not stop it. - -Xaymar's hands, her voice, reached out to him, cajoling: "What can her -one life mean to you, who have carved your destiny in blood? What can -she matter, this _Shamon_ scum?" - -"No--!" - -"Look deep within you, warrior! Look to your dreams of empire, your -ambition! Look to me--" - - * * * * * - -As she spoke, with one tempestuous sweep, she flung wide her scarlet -gown and stood before him naked, as she had lain beneath the crystal -bubble in her deep-sunk vault. Her hand moved sensually over the sleek -curves of her perfect body. Her midnight hair rippled in the breeze. - -"Look at me, blue man! Look--and then tell me you can reject me -for another!" Her voice swelled with a richer timbre. "I am yours, -warrior--and I know you want me, for I have looked into your brain! -It was I who reached out across the miles and found you, through your -_Shamon_ girl's unguarded mind, so that Sark could seize you and bring -you here. I've been inside you all the time you've stood in this -arena--thinking your thoughts, feeling the things you felt. I know you -better than you know yourself. I know how many times you've cursed -yourself for giving me up to save this other creature. Now, at this -very moment, you waver. Why should you die with her, when you can live -and see your dreams of power come true and have me, Xaymar, queen of -storms, most beautiful of women?" - -Haral could not make the world stop rocking. His body was a numb, -unfeeling thing. His brain ... his brain--He clutched his head between -his shackled hands and tried to fight, to think, to slash the haze away. - -Xaymar cried: "Come to me, warrior!" - -Numbly, dumbly, he stared at her, swaying. - -She raised her hands. "Come...!" And as she spoke, it was as if her -fingers had reached into his mind--twisting it; pulling.... - -He stumbled towards her, a single step. - -"Come!" - -This time the word was in his brain itself, not in his ears. He took -another step. Another. - -"Come... come... come...." - -It was like that other night--was it a million years ago?--the night -he'd heard the coleoptera calling. - -But the thing the beetles called was "Kill! Kill! Kill!" - -Kill the man-things. - -He staggered forward. - -And there was Xaymar, ripe lips smiling. He felt her arms go tight -about him, the pressure of her naked body on him. - -He tried to think of Kyla. - -But what was Kyla? Why should he die for a girl called Kyla when he -could live and have his dreams and Xaymar? - -_Kill the man-things._ - -Blonde hair, and a slim young body. Courage, and a head held proudly. - -Xaymar. Power, and ripe lips, hot with passion. - -_Kill the man-things._ - -"Kiss me, warrior." A jeweled veil-mask. - -What did it hide? - -_Kill the man-things!_ - -But Kyla.... No--! Not even for power could he give up Kyla! Not send -her to her death, to the coleoptera--! - - * * * * * - -Something snapped inside Haral. The world went mad. His brain was -on fire, on fire, twisting and turning, turning and burning, pulled -through his skull by sensuous fingers. - -He couldn't think. His body was a bursting entity of anguish. - -_Kill the man-things!_ - -Jewels glinting in a filmy mask. - -Spasmodically, he jerked away. Convulsive, clutching, without volition, -his hands clawed up into Xaymar's face and snatched away the veil. - -The fire in his brain went out. The torment ended. Staggering, he saw -the world without the haze. - -Now Xaymar's hands were before her face; her fingers masking, shielding. - -Savagely, he caught her wrists and jerked them down ... stared into her -eyes. - -He almost screamed aloud. - -Because her eyes were not humanoid eyes. - -Faceted, fixed, protuberant, glassy, they were _insectile_! - -The eyes of a beetle, a coleopteron! - -A phrase she'd used came back: "... _while my children feast_...." - -Through the horror and shock that froze him, he heard Sark shouting: -"Seize him! Seize him--!" - -Hands clutched his arms. They jerked him back and pinned him down. - -Xaymar said; "So at last you know ..." and now her voice crawled with -hate and fury. - -Haral did not answer. - -She raved at him: "Yes! I am of the coleoptera--a mutant, and a hybrid! -Now you know how I gave them the power of thought! Those that think are -my own children, my descendants! And now you know, too, why I took a -thousand human lovers, and slew each one before the dawn. For I have -human passion hot within me, but no man could forbear to look beneath -my veil, and with my brain close-tuned to theirs, I felt the horror -well up in them--the same disgust and loathing that even you cannot -conceal. So I killed them, that they might never tell my secret--" - -She broke off. Her hands clenched till blood spurted where the nails -gouged through the palms. Her voice rose--hysterical, vindictive. -"Throw him alive into the arena! Yes, let my children feast upon him--!" - - * * * * * - -The crewmen jerked Haral to his feet again. The coleoptera surged -forward. He glimpsed slim Kyla, with horror written on her lovely -face.... Sark, doubled over, gloating and laughing ... the seething -fury that dwelt in Xaymar. - -But now his brain was clear again, the shadow of the nameless evil -gone. Fire surged in his veins, and wild, reckless daring. - -The _dau_ and the _Pervod_ dragged him towards the beetles. - -He cried, "I'll meet my fate standing, you _chitzas_!" and kicked with -all his might for the _Pervod's_ fragile reptilian ankle. - -He heard the bones snap over all the tumult. The _Pervod's_ shriek rang -like the scream of a sky-shell. - -He snatched for its ray-gun. - -The _dau's_ great arms caught him as the weapon tore loose from the -holster. He felt his ribs cracking as it lifted him--crushed him. - -Desperately, he triggered the beam square into its belly. - -The hairy arms dropped him. The _dau_ sprawled back, dying. - -Haral spun round, still firing. - -The beam caught the first of the onrushing beetles. It seared through a -second. A third reeled and stumbled. - -Haral lunged for the chiefs' stand. - -Sark stood there, stiff-frozen. Xaymar lurched back in terror. - -Haral cried: "Die, curse you!" - -He whipped up the ray-gun. But Sark shrieked, "Wait, blue man--! You -and all Ulna die here with me!" - -His gross body twisted, and Haral saw the fat fingers still locked on -the cymosynthesizer switch. - -In the same instant the raider chief's other hand darted beneath his -tent-like tunic, incredibly fast, snatching out a Venusian _xlan_-tube. - -Blue fire belched at Haral. - -He threw himself flat. But it was the end. It could be no other way. - -This was where destiny and the road to empire at last had led him. - -To failure. To death. To his blood in the dirt of Sark's arena. - -Why had he picked such a road to travel? What good did it do to die, -when even death was empty, without meaning? - -Unless, perhaps, he could save Ulna.... - -He triggered the ray-gun as the fire seared down his back. - -But not at Sark. His target was the cymosynthesizer switch; the cable. - -Through a haze of pain, he saw them fuse; saw Sark's hand, too, turn to -sifting ashes. - -The raider screamed and surged forward. - -Haral triggered a final beam. - -It tore Sark's bulbous head from his shoulders. - -The roar of the mob, lunging in for the kill, came dimly to the blue -man's ears. - -He was glad. They'd at least put an end to his agony. - -But the roar seemed to die again, and he wondered if perhaps some dark -corner of his brain still functioned in its way after consciousness had -left him. - -Then hands touched his face; soft hands, caressing. - - * * * * * - -With a tremendous, wrenching effort, he opened his eyes, and there was -Kyla, with tears on her cheeks and soft lips atremble. - -But where was the crowd, the beetles, the cutthroat crewmen? - -Another face came ... the face of Xaymar. - -As from afar, her words came fiercely: "I hate you, warrior, for you -spurn me for a stupid _Shamon_ child! But I am of Ulna, and again you -have saved my life and planet. So, now, my coleopteran legions shall -protect you till my science can give back your daring and make your -body whole once more. My projectors, too, my secrets of the wind and -rain, the lightning--I leave them in your hands to help you guard this -world of mine, till my own day to strike shall come. But for myself, I -must go back to frozen sleep again, for another thousand years, lest I -should rise and slay you in my fury!" - -Her face, her voice, faded into distance; and he wondered if it were -only in his mind that he seemed to hear a final, gentler whisper: -"... And I shall dream of you a thousand years, my warrior...." - -Then Kyla's tears were on his cheeks, too; her soft lips pressed -against his. And there was peace in him at last, and he was at one with -his dreams, his destiny. - - * * * * * - -_Naked, still as death, the veiled woman-goddess men called Xaymar -rested on a gold-draped dais within a great, glowing, crystal ball._ - -_Xaymar, passionate goddess, queen of storms. Ruler of rain and wind -and lightning, empress of all the surging forces that spread their -tumult across the sky. Sainted monster, evil savior. Old as time, and -young as folly. Born of woman, damned of men, wise with dark wisdom -gone astray...._ - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DARK DESTINY *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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Swain</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Dark Destiny</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Dwight V. Swain</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 20, 2021 [eBook #65885]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DARK DESTINY ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>DARK DESTINY</h1> - -<h2>By DWIGHT V. SWAIN</h2> - -<p>The Blue Warrior had journeyed far across<br /> -the void in his search for power; but he found<br /> -death along with it—in the eyes of a goddess!</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -March 1952<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><i>Naked, still as death, the veiled woman-goddess men called Xaymar -rested on a gold-draped dais within the great, glowing, crystal globe.</i></p> - -<p><i>Xaymar, queen of storms. Ruler of rain and wind and lightning, -empress of all the surging forces that spread their tumult across the -sky. Sainted monster, evil savior. Old as time, and young as folly. -Born of woman, damned of men, wise with dark wisdom gone astray.</i></p> - -<p><i>Xaymar, passionate goddess. A word, a myth, a fading picture in -forgotten books. A phantasm rising out of these ghostly, gutted cities, -these ruins dead a thousand years.</i></p> - -<p><i>Yet here she lay in this deep-sunk vault, nude save for the short, -jeweled veil that masked the top half of her face. Her body still -gleamed like a supple ivory statue, a vision of sleek, ripe-curved -perfection. Rippling waves of jet-black hair framed the pale, veiled -oval of her face in a darkly radiant nimbus. A faint rose glow touched -lips and breasts. It seemed almost as if she could have been sleeping -here mere hours only, instead of eons; as if she were still alive and -vibrant ... all woman; all terrible, voluptuous promise....</i></p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The <i>Shamon</i> priest was bent with age, his face a deep-seamed net -of wrinkles. The short cloak of his order, vivid with a hundred -contrasting shades of blue, covered his thin shoulders, and a <i>toloid</i> -tablet emblazoned with a stylized representation of a lightning bolt, -Xaymar's emblem, hung suspended over his bony chest.</p> - -<p>He said: "I want you to kill a woman."</p> - -<p>Across the table, the blue warrior called Haral sat very still. He did -not speak.</p> - -<p>The old <i>Shamon</i> hurried on: "They say the same, all those to whom I've -spoken—that you alone, of all the warriors here on Ulna, would dare -to go against the raider Sark. The rest are brave until they hear his -name; then, quickly, they sing another song. But you—" He hesitated, -fumbling, and peered uncertainly at Haral out of rheumy, fading eyes. -"Tell me, blue one, is it true that you went alone to Eros and slew the -tyrant lord Querroon because he'd dared to put a price upon your head? -And that then you defied the Federation to try to hang you, and slashed -your way through the whole Federation fleet with your single ship?"</p> - -<p>"It's true."</p> - -<p>"You see—?" the oldster cried in quavering triumph. "You see it, -<i>Sha</i> Haral? You are a warrior worthy of the name! In you there's iron -instead of meal. That is why I come to you to kill this woman—"</p> - -<p>"A woman—?" Haral repeated dully. He swirled the fiery <i>kabat</i> in his -glass. "Why should I kill a woman?"</p> - -<p>"Because I'll pay you well," the <i>Shamon</i> priest croaked eagerly. Coins -clinked onto the table. "Here, look! Two hundred <i>samori</i>, <i>Sha</i> Haral! -So much for such a simple task—enough to send you out again from Ulna, -to put you once more on the road to wealth and power, ambition...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Broodingly, Haral stared down into the <i>kabat's</i> green, too-potent -depths. Of a sudden he was acutely conscious of the smoke and stench -and jarring sound that eddied through the shadows of this filthy, -frowsy deadfall that passed as a cafe. '<i>Wealth and power, ambition?</i>' -He laughed aloud, knowing as he did it that his tongue had grown too -thick with <i>kabat</i>. This was the road down which ambition led—the road -to stinking drinking dives, and dreary nights and drearier days on an -outlaw world called Ulna. The road to blood and valor, a warrior's -name—and proposals of woman-murder.</p> - -<p>Ambition? Two hundred <i>samori</i>-worth of ambition! Bitterly, he laughed -again, deep in his throat. There were other, better things to call it: -greed; thirst for blood; a cursed, insatiate lust for power.</p> - -<p>The old priest gripped his arm. "Three hundred, then! Three hundred -<i>samori</i>, <i>Sha</i> Haral!"</p> - -<p>Somberly, the blue man stared off into the crowd and smoke and shadows. -It dawned on him that already new faces had sifted in; new forms, all -arrogance and swagger.</p> - -<p>The forms and faces of <i>Gar</i> Sark's raiders.</p> - -<p>"Three hundred <i>samori</i>? Three hundred—to challenge <i>Gar</i> Sark and all -his crew, as well as murder?" He smiled a thin, bleak, mirthless smile -and shook his head. "No, old man. What you want is a madman, not a -warrior."</p> - -<p>"Four hundred—four hundred <i>samori</i> for a single blow!" In his -eagerness the priest was slavering. "No? Five, then, <i>Sha</i> Haral! Five -hundred, all for you. I have no more."</p> - -<p>For the first time, Haral looked full at the <i>Shamon</i>. "Why do you want -her dead?" he challenged. He brought his fist down with a heavy thud -upon the table. "Why? That's what I want to know! Who is she? What has -she done that calls for killing?"</p> - -<p>"Why—?" Sweat came to the ancient's face. Uneasily, he shifted. -"She—she—Sark is a monster, and his men have seized her for -tomorrow's games in the arena. She'll die in agony at their hands. I—I -cannot bring myself to let her suffer—"</p> - -<p>"So you'd hire me to kill her instead?" Haral laughed harshly. "I hear -your words, old man—"</p> - -<p>"My name is Namboina."</p> - -<p>"—Namboina, I hear your words. But I'll rot on your <i>vidal</i> planetoid -before I believe them. Too many other <i>Shamon</i> have died on Ulna for -you to worry about one more." He drained his glass and slammed it down. -"No. Find someone else to do your killing. I like to know the facts -before I murder."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sweat stood out on the priest's forehead in great beads now. With -shaking fingers, he wiped it away. "I—I see I must tell you all, -<i>Sha</i> Haral. The—the woman is Kyla, a virgin priestess to our goddess -Xaymar. Her life, her body, are consecrated to the goddess. She is not -for mortal men. But Sark and his raiders care nothing for our Xaymar. -In their blood-lust and madness they would defile even her priestess, -Kyla. But it cannot be! Better that Kyla die—" He broke off, stared at -Haral. "I, Namboina, am high priest to Xaymar. It is my duty to save -Kyla from shame, our goddess from defilement—"</p> - -<p>Haral said: "You lie in your teeth, Namboina! I've heard enough of -your thrice-plagued Xaymar to know that she's called the passionate -goddess—and her priestesses pattern themselves upon her! If there's a -virgin still among them, it's news to the raider fleets that comb these -warrens in search of women."</p> - -<p>"No, no—! Not Kyla!" The <i>Shamon's</i> loose mouth worked. His face was a -mask of desperation. "She is a votary, consecrated. She is not as the -others—"</p> - -<p>Haral shoved back his chair; surged to his feet. "I've had enough -of your lies, old man!" he slashed. "Sing someone else your song of -murder!"</p> - -<p>Namboina's quavering voice rose, thin with fury: "A curse on you, -alien! A curse on all your outland breed that have made a cesspool out -of Ulna—"</p> - -<p>But now a new voice cut him short, thundering through the shadows: -"This is the one we want! The old one, the priest they call Namboina!"</p> - -<p>Haral spun about.</p> - -<p>A dozen fighting men from Sark's raider crews were coming towards him -and Namboina. Spread in a menacing arc, weapons out and ready, they -closed in like cold-eyed, deadly shadows.</p> - -<p>Haral fell back a step, till he stood with his back against the wall. -Big-eyed with fear, Namboina slumped in his seat, as if trying to hide -behind the table.</p> - -<p>It came to Haral that a hush had fallen over the <i>kabat</i> dive. The -raucous voices had faded into silence. The rattle of glasses was -suddenly stilled.</p> - -<p>Then a glowering Martian who seemed to be in charge of the raider gang -snapped orders: "Yes. This is the one. Bring him along!"</p> - -<p>A Thorian's tentacle lashed out to grip Namboina and drag him bodily -from his chair.</p> - -<p>Now a <i>Pervod</i> jerked his scaly head towards Haral. "What of this one -here? They were together."</p> - -<p>The Martian pivoted for a brief, disdainful glance at the blue man. -"That <i>kabat</i>-soaked scum?" And then: "But bring him, too. We'll take -no chances."</p> - -<p>Almost as if in intentional added insult, he turned away and sheathed -his ray-gun.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A hot, tempestuous tide of anger swirled up within the warrior. But he -did not move; he did not speak.</p> - -<p>A second Martian caught his arm. "Come along, you <i>zanat</i>, before we -stave in your ugly head!"</p> - -<p>For an instant, in spite of himself, Haral's arm went rigid. Then, -thin-lipped, he sucked in air, and fell in beside the quaking, shaking -priest.</p> - -<p>One of the raiders laughed contemptuously and shoved the pair of them -ahead still faster.</p> - -<p>They reached the narrow doorway that led out to the street. Then, while -their prisoners paused, two of the raiders stepped outside.</p> - -<p>A knot of tension drew tight in the pit of Haral's stomach. He let his -shoulders slump, and slouched, half-turning.</p> - -<p>Namboina stumbled on through the door.</p> - -<p>A <i>Pervod</i> pushed the blue man forward.</p> - -<p>With studied care, Haral, too, stumbled. He caught the handle of the -open door as if to keep himself from falling.</p> - -<p>Then, like lightning, he was turning, kicking. The <i>Pervod</i> crashed -backward with a howl of anguish.</p> - -<p>Haral leaped through the doorway, out into the street, slamming the -heavy portal shut behind him. He caught a glimpse of the two crewmen -there—startled, whirling.</p> - -<p>But Namboina was between Haral and the raiders. Savagely, the blue man -threw himself against the priest and sent him crashing into the nearest -crewman.</p> - -<p>The second of the raiders was a one-eyed, barrel-chested <i>Malya</i>. He -leaped back, cat-fast, whipping up his ray-gun.</p> - -<p>But Haral dived in beneath its shaft. His shoulder drove deep into the -<i>Malya's</i> midriff, hammering the dark raider down. Clutching for the -ray-gun, he tore it out of the other's hand.</p> - -<p>In the same instant, he heard Namboina cry out in panic.</p> - -<p>By instinct, pure and simple, he dropped flat on his belly. By -instinct, too, he fired the ray-gun—straight into the face of the -second raider, free now and charging down upon him.</p> - -<p>The raider dropped dead in his tracks.</p> - -<p>Haral pivoted, just as the door to the <i>kabat</i>-dive jerked open. Again -he triggered the weapon.</p> - -<p>The charge caught the Martian in charge of the party square in the -belly. The others, behind him, sprang back inside, out of the way.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The narrow street echoed with Haral's wild, reckless laughter. Lurching -to his feet, he stood there swaying for a moment, looking this way and -that for old Namboina.</p> - -<p>But the <i>Shamon</i> had disappeared as if by magic, and from within the -<i>kabat-dive</i> came sounds that spoke of preparations for another sally.</p> - -<p>Whirling. Haral raced full-tilt for the nearest alley.</p> - -<p>When he stopped again, he was half a mile and a hundred worlds -away, lost in the tangled maze of passageways that wound through the -crumbling heart of the native town. His legs were shaking, his lungs -afire, and the <i>kabat</i>-sickness swirled through him in agonizing, -nauseous waves. Choking and retching, he slumped exhausted in a murky -entryway.</p> - -<p>Then that, too, passed, and he lay silent and unmoving in the darkness. -But now another sickness was upon him, the sickness that led him to -seek surcease in <i>kabat</i>; the sickness that came with the thoughts he -could not push out of his brain.</p> - -<p>Where would it end, this madness that ever drove him on? What prize -lay in power, that he must waste his life away searching, groping, -striving for it? Why could he not live and love and die like other men, -unplagued by the fierce surge of insane ambition that still pursued -him—even here, even now?</p> - -<p><i>Even here, even now.</i> That was the acid that gnawed his vitals. What -had it brought him, all his striving? He'd carved a crimson course -across half a solar system, till that very system itself disowned him. -He'd drenched the warrior worlds in blood to no avail.</p> - -<p>And the road ended here.</p> - -<p>Was this, then, his destiny—to hide here, rotting, beyond the reach of -the Federation, till at last the <i>kabat</i> took its toll? Must he sink -lower and then still lower into the slime of this ugly outlaw world of -Ulna, harassed at will by such scum as Sark?</p> - -<p>But at least, there'd be no woman-murder. Not yet; not for a while. -Even five hundred <i>samori</i> could not drag him down that far.</p> - -<p>A new spasm of fury shook him, and he cursed Namboina aloud with the -vilest epithets a dozen tongues could offer.</p> - -<p>But the inner sickness still lingered with him. Bitterly, he stumbled -to his feet, wondering in the same instant what had led the <i>Shamon</i> -priest to lie—why he had really sought to have the woman called Kyla -killed.</p> - -<p>It was then he felt the weight in his side pocket.</p> - -<p>Dully, he fumbled to find what it might be; then, puzzled, pulled it -out into the open.</p> - -<p>But it was only a bag ... a worn, somehow familiar bag.</p> - -<p>A bag heavy with five hundred glittering <i>samori</i>....</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER II</p> - - -<p>He rode out at high noon astride the great, blue-scaled Mercurian -<i>hwalon</i> dragon that in itself struck terror into lesser men. The -wars of the void had burned his own skin blue with searing krypton -radiation, and long years of battle service had dulled the polish of -the heavy copronium armor that he wore.</p> - -<p>Few knew his name, nor whence he came. He'd buried himself too deep for -that. But then, they did not need to know, for those were unimportant -things in this brutal, brawling world of Ulna, where death walked so -close on every hand.</p> - -<p>It was a world of dangerous men, this Ulna; an outlaw world, tumultuous -haven for the hunter and the hunted. The scum of the spaceways had -gathered here, dregs of the void—rabble quick to anger, quick to kill. -<i>Pervods</i> of Venus brushed shoulders with Earthmen. <i>Chonyas</i> and -<i>Malyas</i> stalked among strange mutants, weird life-forms drawn from a -dozen far-flung planets.</p> - -<p>Yet none came forth to challenge Haral. For those who eyed and measured -him gave special attention to the slender, deadly, light-lance that was -his weapon. Then, wordless, almost too quickly, they turned away.</p> - -<p>So now he rode the filth-choked streets of this slattern town that -served as Ulna's spaceport. And as he rode, beneath the blazing yellow -sky, he smiled his thin, bleak, mirthless smile, and wondered how the -motley mob that thronged these warrens would look if they realized his -real mission.</p> - -<p>Then, at last, he came to the plaza and <i>Gar</i> Sark.</p> - -<p>Sark, the renegade; Sark, the raider. Sark, who had looted Bandjaran. -Sark, the butcher, with the blood of all Horla on his hands. Sark. A -sinister figure, at best. At worst, a monster to strike terror across -the void.</p> - -<p>Ulna was his today, for no creature dared to stand against him. His -ships had blazoned the purple night with streaks of scarlet flame as -they ramped; and his crews too had turned the town scarlet with their -violence, till even the other lawless ones gathered here were cowed to -sullen silence.</p> - -<p>This morning, the raiders had seized this ragged, unkempt tract that -passed as a central park—that they might enjoy their own savage brand -of sport, the rumor went.</p> - -<p>'Sport?' Haral smiled his mirthless smile again. It was a good excuse, -and Sark's own crews might even believe it. But for Sark himself, -unless the day had come when tigers changed their stripes, grim -business was mixed in with the pleasure. That was Sark's way; he made -no move that did not offer possibilities of profit.</p> - -<p>But how? The blue man frowned; then shrugged and urged the <i>hwalon</i> on. -It was enough that Sark was here; that the <i>Shamon</i> priest, Namboina, -had made his murderous proposal. Something was in the wind. He'd have -to bide his time and trust to luck for further details.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A shout went up, even as Haral reached the outskirts of the milling -crowd that had gathered in the plaza—a shout and, through it, the -scream of a soul gone mad with pain.</p> - -<p>The blue man pressed the <i>hwalon</i> forward, trusting to the difference -the armor made in his appearance to protect him from recognition by -the members of last night's searching party.</p> - -<p>The crowd of town rabble and raider crewmen gave way before him, -parting under the menace of the <i>hwalon's</i> claws and collar and horrid, -hook-beaked head.</p> - -<p>Sark's crews had set up an arena of sorts, with seats for their chiefs -along one side. In front of the seats a crude ring was fenced in with -posts and thin, resilient duraloid cable.</p> - -<p>Within the ring, they had an Ulno—one of the grotesque, two-headed -primitives that were this planetoid's dull-witted subject people.</p> - -<p>And there, too, stood one of the scarlet coleoptera, the giant thinking -beetles that were Ulna's plague.</p> - -<p>Now, as Haral reached the front of the crowd, the coleopteron stalked -forward, towards the Ulno. Hideous and deadly, it stood nearly three -feet tall at the thorax. Its protuberant multi-faceted eyes glittered -evilly. Mandibles clacking, the misshapen head moved from side to side -in short, menacing arcs.</p> - -<p>The crowd roared its blood-lust, its tension.</p> - -<p>Revulsion touched Haral. But he gave the sadistic show no heed beyond -it. Bleakly, he looked across the ring, to Sark himself.</p> - -<p>Sark: a smirking, bulbous, obscene thing; half humanoid, half -reptilian. <i>Gar</i> of the space-raiders, king of killers. He sat in his -famed Uranian riding-chair like some mad, monstrous potentate upon a -throne. Eyes murder-bright beneath their reptilian lids, gross rolls -of fat aquiver, he leaned far forward, watching the bloody battle -unfold before him.</p> - -<p>Here, looking at the raider chief for the first time, a wave of -incredulous loathing, disillusion, rose up within Haral. Was this gross -slug the best the warrior worlds could offer? Could a creature as soft -and slack as this wield the power that had shaken half the void?</p> - -<p>The bitter ashes of his own thwarted drive for empire ate at the blue -man. The world swam with a crimson haze of hate and fury.</p> - -<p>Then that mood passed, and Haral noticed other things.</p> - -<p>For the raider's fat-rimmed eyes were never still, and the lights -that gleamed deep in them told of craft and savage cunning. There was -a brain behind those eyes—a brain so lightning-fast and wary that -against it mere physical strength alone meant nothing. That was how he -ruled this pack; that was why none lived to challenge.</p> - -<p>And now, as he watched, Haral observed another thing: though the -webbed fingers of Sark's left hand splayed out along one tree-like -leg, kneading and clenching as if he were at one with the coleopteron, -thirsting for the Ulno's very life, his right hand never moved from a -switch set in the chair-arm.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Narrow-eyed, the blue man shifted for a better view. As best he could -see, a cable led from the switch down to what appeared to be a bulky, -black, cymosynthesizer box slung beneath the seat.</p> - -<p>Frowning, Haral pondered. Almost unconsciously, he caressed his -light-lance.</p> - -<p>Then a new shout from the crowd drew his attention back to the arena.</p> - -<p>In the ring, the wild-eyed, shaking Ulno was retreating before the -giant beetle. One of his four hands already was shredded beyond all -recognition. Blood gushed from a wound in another arm, slashed open to -the bone. His two heads turned jerkily this way and that, desperately -seeking some avenue of escape, some sign of mercy.</p> - -<p>But no sign came. No path appeared.</p> - -<p>The beetle poised. The point of its dagger-like antenna dropped a -fraction lower.</p> - -<p>With a shrill cry, the Ulno darted along the interlinked cables that -bounded the arena in a last frantic effort to escape.</p> - -<p>The coleopteron lunged. Beetle and primitive crashed together in wild, -paroxysmic conflict.</p> - -<p>Then, suddenly, the Ulno was reeling, falling. Again, his awful scream -of pain and terror rent the air.</p> - -<p>Like great, saw-toothed pincers, the coleopteron's mandibles stabbed -in. The Ulno's cry cut off in bubbling death.</p> - -<p>The crowd shrieked savage exaltation.</p> - -<p>Once more, contempt, revulsion, gripped Haral. Thin-lipped, he worked -his way around the ring towards Sark.</p> - -<p>Laughter—ghoulish, obscene—rocked the raider chief. His rolls of fat -shook. Tears of sheer sadistic glee spilled down his puffy cheeks.</p> - -<p>But he still kept his hand on the switch set in the arm of the -riding-chair.</p> - -<p>Bleak, watchful, Haral brought the <i>hwalon</i> to a halt in the lee of the -wall nearest the arena. With the casualness of long habit, he surveyed -the crowd, the ground, the disposition of Sark's forces.</p> - -<p>In the same instant, he caught himself wondering whether Sark would -laugh as loud by the time this day was done.</p> - -<p>Or whether either he or Sark would live to laugh.</p> - -<p>He smiled wryly.</p> - -<p>But now, for the time, the raider's mirth had passed. A sudden air of -suppressed tension came into his manner. His fleshy hand came up in a -curt, peremptory gesture.</p> - -<p>Instantly, two leering reptilian <i>Pervods</i> from his crews dragged -forward another victim.</p> - -<p>But this time their prey was no quaking Ulno.</p> - -<p>Instead, they held a woman.</p> - -<p>A taut, furious excitement surged up within Haral. He sucked in air; -leaned forward, gripping the <i>hwalon's</i> saddle hard between his knees.</p> - -<p>Sark gestured. The <i>Pervods</i> dragged their prisoner to him.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She was young. Haral saw now; young, and slim, and incredibly lovely. -Hair like spun gold hung to her waist—the silken blonde hair of the -<i>Shamon</i>, the race that had ruled Ulna in the days before the renegades -of a dozen worlds poured in from across the void to make the planetoid -a blood-drenched, anarchistic madhouse.</p> - -<p>But more than her face or body, it was her garb that held the blue man.</p> - -<p>For she wore the blue cloak of Xaymar's order, and against her high, -proud breasts hung the shining <i>toloid</i> metal tablet that signified her -consecration.</p> - -<p>Once more, the gross monster that was <i>Gar</i> Sark leaned forward. He -spoke to the girl in a gentle, beguiling voice that struck a clashing -paradox with the fiend's own soul that dwelt within him: "They call you -Kyla, do they not?" He touched the tablet that rested upon her breasts. -A webbed finger traced the lightning-bolt symbol emblazoned on it. -"Kyla, virgin priestess to the veiled woman-goddess Xaymar, the one -your people call the queen of storms...."</p> - -<p>The blue man could see the tremor that rippled through the girl at -Sark's grisly touch. But she did not quail. When she spoke, her voice -was steady.</p> - -<p>"That is true."</p> - -<p>"Xaymar, queen of storms...." the raider chief repeated softly. He -leaned back in the riding-chair, eyes sleepy and low-lidded. "She once -lived, did she not, in mortal form? Here, on your planetoid of Ulna?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. That is what the stories say."</p> - -<p>"At her command, the storm-clouds gathered? She hurled the lightning -bolts against her enemies?"</p> - -<p>"So it is written in our sacred books."</p> - -<p>"But then she went away," Sark murmured. "She left all you who were her -people."</p> - -<p>The girl called Kyla did not answer.</p> - -<p>"Or did she?" Of a sudden the raider's lidded eyes were not so sleepy. -His bulbous head came forward just a fraction. "There is another story, -priestess ... a story that says the goddess Xaymar was truly woman—the -most beautiful woman your world had ever seen. And because she was -woman, human, she could not bear the thought that she must age and -wither. So she commanded that she be placed, still young and in the -full bloom of her beauty, within a secret crypt in frozen sleep, so -that she might live forever as she had been."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For an instant Haral thought he could see a new tremor touch the -priestess Kyla's slim young body. But only for an instant. Then her -shoulders straightened. Her tone was cool, disdainful: "These are old -wives' tales our stupid Ulnos tell—empty, without meaning. Xaymar was -not even of my people, if indeed she ever lived. The old books say she -came from a forgotten alien race, long vanished."</p> - -<p>Haral felt a sudden rush of admiration—a kinship, almost, born of the -girl's poise and unbending courage.</p> - -<p>What path had she traveled to this final meeting? What forces had -driven her to do whatever she had done to catch Sark's notice? Why was -she playing for such stakes in a mad world filled with monsters?</p> - -<p>What forces? His jaw tightened. Why had he, himself, come? Why was he -throwing his own life into the balance? There could be no answer; not -really. Not even five hundred <i>samori</i> were enough to account for it. -A man did the things that he must do—played the crazy game as he saw -it and made up the reasons later; that was all. Raider, priestess, -adventurer—each carved his own destiny.</p> - -<p>Even Sark....</p> - -<p>The raider chief was smiling now—a slow, smirking, secretive smile -that was somehow horrible and loathsome. "But the other part, -priestess? Is it true? Was your Xaymar really sealed in frozen sleep in -a hidden vault here on your pygmy world of Ulna?"</p> - -<p>The girl's slim shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Who knows? We <i>Shamon</i> -only let the tales go on to satisfy the Ulnos."</p> - -<p>"What? You do not know?" Sark's fat-rimmed eyes now were bright and -mocking; and, watching him, Haral gave new weight to the raider's craft -and menace. "But I had heard a different story, Priestess Kyla! They -told me you <i>did</i> know—that you knew more of it than any other."</p> - -<p>It was coming now, the moment of crisis. Haral could see it in their -faces.</p> - -<p>Grimly, he gripped his light-lance.</p> - -<p>But Kyla still faced the raider chieftain boldly. "I cannot help what -others say. I do not know."</p> - -<p>The squat monster in the riding-chair leaned back once more, still -smiling his secretive, sinister smile. A strange horror clung to his -very calm, the deadly benignity of his soft-spoken words. It was as if -he were some great toad, toying tenderly with a lovely, captive moth -that its agony might last the longer.</p> - -<p>"They say your whole life is given to a search for Xaymar, priestess. -That you dream of the days when the <i>Shamon</i> still ruled Ulna, and so -you seek your goddess's hidden crypt, in order to rouse her from her -sleep and turn her powers against all those whom you call alien." He -licked his lips, and his head seemed to sink between his shoulders. -"Some claim you even know where the crypt is hidden, and could go there -now, were it not for fear of the thinking beetles, the coleoptera."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Slowly, the color drained from Kyla's face. A spark close akin to -panic lighted in her eyes. She did not speak.</p> - -<p>"Why do you blanch so, priestess?" Sark prodded. "I only seek to help -you. Tell me where your goddess lies and I'll find her for you, in -spite of the coleoptera. I'll bring her here, revive her, let her reign -again among you—"</p> - -<p>"You talk nonsense!" the girl cried. But her voice broke. Her whole -body trembled.</p> - -<p>Now, suddenly, Sark seemed to grow within the riding-chair, till -he loomed like some gross giant. His lips drew back from his -stained reptilian fangs. His eyes gleamed like burning coals. The -mock-benignity, the gentleness, fell from him like a mask. His words -slashed, low and savage: "Tell me where your bitch-goddess lies, you -she-<i>sabar</i>! Tell me now, while you still have a voice to speak!"</p> - -<p>"No, no—"</p> - -<p>"So, virgin priestess—?" Sark's laugh rang like the mirth of hell. -And then, with furious, fiendish passion: "You'll tell, or you'll not -stay virgin long! There are mutants among my crews who have strange -lusts. Press me too far, and you'll be the one to sate them! I'll turn -them loose with you here in this arena as a show for the rest of us to -see! What's left of your tender flesh when they are through will make a -tasty morsel for the coleoptera!"</p> - -<p>Sheer horror flooded Kyla's pale, lovely face. Convulsively, she tried -to tear free from the grip of the two <i>Pervods</i> who held her.</p> - -<p>But they laughed aloud and jerked her back; lifted her upright before -their chief, panting and struggling.</p> - -<p>Haral sucked in air. In spite of himself, he dug his knees hard into -the <i>hwalon's</i> horny flanks. It took all his effort to hold himself -otherwise immobile and fight down the fury that surged within him.</p> - -<p>"Which shall it be, Priestess Kyla?" Sark now mocked with savage -malice. "Do you talk and live, or meet my men? The choice is yours!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For a moment the girl's eyes closed. Then, slowly, they opened once -more, and she stood erect in the <i>Pervods'</i> grasp. Her breath came -faster. "Do you think me so weak that I'd betray my goddess and my -people to save myself?" she cried passionately. A wave of wild, -half-hysterical laughter shook her. "I know what you want! You seek -not Xaymar, but Xaymar's secret—the way she harnessed the power that -lies within the lightning, a power so great that with it you might -rule the universe! But you will not have it! Bring on your crew, your -coleoptera—"</p> - -<p>Haral went rigid in the <i>hwalon's</i> saddle. The girl's words rang in his -ears, his brain.</p> - -<p>There it was! There lay the secret, the prize that had lured Sark here -to Ulna!</p> - -<p>A prize of power.</p> - -<p>The search for it had led this slim girl-priestess here, to death, -dishonor.</p> - -<p>The fear that such a secret might go to Sark, be lost to Ulna, had -spurred the old high priest, Namboina, to dark plots and plans for -murder.</p> - -<p>Power! Haral's fist clenched. The lust for it had driven him on bloody -courses that stretched across half this solar system. It had earned him -a name, that lust; and then it had put a price on his head to match it, -till at last he'd had no choice but to flee out here, beyond all law, -to this mad, twisted world of Ulna.</p> - -<p>And now—?</p> - -<p>Within him his heart was pounding, pounding, like the beat of one of -Titan's great <i>corba dia</i>; and of a sudden he knew it was destiny that -had brought him to the blood and dirt and heat of this foul arena.</p> - -<p>His own dark destiny that had marked him out from day of birth to carve -an empire....</p> - -<p>As from afar, he heard Sark's furious voice lashing out at Kyla: "Defy -me, will you? Then so be it!" The raider surged up, half out of the -riding-chair. Savagely, he slapped the slim girl-priestess across the -face, so hard that his webbed fingers left great welts of white and -scarlet. "To the ring with her! To the ring!"</p> - -<p>The <i>Pervods</i> jerked Kyla back. Roughly, they dragged her to the fenced -ring that served as pit for the arena and threw her in.</p> - -<p>In his turn, the blue man shifted. The tension was running high within -him now, locked in the icy bands of iron-nerved control. Once more, -he surveyed the howling crowd and Sark's mongrel raider crewmen, then -smiled to himself with dark, reckless mirth.</p> - -<p>Fat face still livid, Sark sank back into the depths of his -riding-chair. "Who's first?" he cried. "Who wants to test the brave -priestess?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A shout burst forth from a hundred savage throats. A churning mass of -nightmare forms of life thrust forward.</p> - -<p>But before the raider chief could even make a choice, a huge, hairy, -heavy-thewed Uranian <i>dau</i> was charging to the fence. Full seven -feet tall he stood, and he bowled the others from his path like -<i>byul</i>-balls, a living avalanche of lust. Leaping high in the air, he -caught the top strand of the cable and swung up and over, dropping into -the arena like some monstrous, many-armed Earth gorilla.</p> - -<p>The girl called Kyla stared at the creature as if paralyzed with -horror. She did not even raise her hands.</p> - -<p>"I give you your last thought as a chaste priestess!" Sark cried, -taunting. "You shared your secret with another—the high priest, him -they call Namboina! He, too, knows where Xaymar's crypt lies hidden! So -all your stubbornness has gained you nothing, for I'll tear the truth -from him even though you die here!"</p> - -<p>Kyla's tragic eyes went wide—shocked, half-disbelieving.</p> - -<p>Haral breathed deep. The tension was a tight knot in his stomach now. -His hand grew sweaty against the light-lance.</p> - -<p>Slavering, the Uranian shambled towards Kyla. The mad din of the crowd -grew deafening.</p> - -<p>A churning excitement boiled within the blue warrior. This was the -moment for which he'd come; this was the final peak of crisis.</p> - -<p>The <i>dau</i> lunged.</p> - -<p>In one smooth flow of motion, Haral whipped up the light-lance. Its -beam speared out, stabbing at the <i>dau</i>.</p> - -<p>The lumbering creature stumbled and swerved, twisting in a sudden, -agonized frenzy. Smoke curled from the matted hair of its massive -torso. It tottered—fell back a step—another—another. Then, arms and -legs jerking spasmodically, head out of control, it crumpled into the -gory dirt of the arena and lay twitching.</p> - -<p>A thunderous, stupefied silence fell upon the crowd. Creatures from the -far-flung planets of the whole solar system stared in blank disbelief.</p> - -<p>Then, suddenly, the shocked spell broke; and Sark was on his feet and -shrieking, "Seize him! Kill him! Blast him down!"</p> - -<p>The mob surged forward.</p> - -<p>But now Haral was moving too, booting his great blue <i>hwalon</i> dragon -into the screaming throng, clawing and slashing and trampling. A -force ray struck him a hammer blow between the shoulders, but its -impact broke on the heavy copronium armor and he paid it no heed. His -light-lance blazed—again; again. A <i>Pervod</i> fell. A <i>Malya</i> writhed -back in his death throes.</p> - -<p>Then the <i>hwalon</i> was surging against the fence that bounded the arena. -The blue man roared, "Kyla—!" And, to the crowd: "Back! Back—! Stand -back or die!"</p> - -<p>The wave of bodies broke. The milling mass gave way.</p> - -<p>Savagely, Haral slashed at the cables with his lance-beam.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Snapping like tight-drawn strings, they parted. Already, beyond, the -girl-priestess Kyla was running up beside him. Sweeping low in the -saddle, he caught her arm and lifted her bodily to a place in front of -him astride the <i>hwalon</i>.</p> - -<p>But if the crowd, the rabble, was falling back, Sark's raiders now were -forming.</p> - -<p>Again Haral spurred the <i>hwalon</i>—driving it forward, straight at the -mutant chieftain.</p> - -<p>"You—Sark! Call off your pack if you want to live!" he cried.</p> - -<p>He leveled the light-lance, like a helium hammer to drive home his -words.</p> - -<p>Sark's face took on the color of the molten purple mud in Mercury's -<i>sotol</i> swamps. Spasmodically, he clutched the switch set in his -chair-arm. His voice, his body, shook with seething fury. "Who are you, -<i>chitza</i>, that you should come so long a way to die?"</p> - -<p>Haral brought the <i>hwalon</i> to a halt, so close to the raider chief that -the lance's ray-head gouged Sark's gross midriff.</p> - -<p>"They call me Haral," he slashed back fiercely. "Perhaps you've heard -the name—if they ever let you pause to listen where warriors spoke. As -for dying, I'll meet that when it comes. But not from you, Sark. Not -here; not now."</p> - -<p>The raider's webbed fingers flexed and clenched. His fat-rimmed eyes -glinted like murderous Titanian diamonds set in flesh.</p> - -<p>"Haral—?" A sneer contorted his fat face. "A raider without a ship. -A space tramp soaked in <i>kabat</i>." He bared his teeth. "You fool! What -chance do you think you have? My men surround you, ready to blast you!"</p> - -<p>Haral laughed aloud. "And what happens to the woman—Xaymar's -priestess, Kyla?" he challenged harshly. "Her body's pressed next to -mine. Can your blasters kill me, and let her live? Can they burn my -armor through, yet leave her still unharmed?" Again he laughed, and -the fierce recklessness he felt poured out in hot, slashing words. -"No, Sark! You can't afford to have her die, no matter how you'd shame -her or abuse her to break her spirit and make her speak. For though -you talk of the old high priest, Namboina, you can't know for sure how -much she told him. Your crew hasn't even managed to catch him. So if -this woman dies, it may well be that your only chance for the goddess -Xaymar's secret will die with her!"</p> - -<p>In the same instant, he wondered bleakly what would happen if he'd -guessed Sark and the situation wrong.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A veil seemed to fall across the raider's eyes. When he spoke, his -voice had lost its fury. Now it was gentle again, almost—low-pitched, -persuasive, as it had been when he first talked to Kyla.</p> - -<p>"I've heard the tales they tell of you, Haral, and they all say that -you're mad—mad with ambition, mad with daring. You want the whole -universe for your own, they say, and you'll throw your own life on the -block to claim it. But even ambition and daring can go too far."</p> - -<p>He paused and eyed Haral. Then, when the blue man made no answer, he -went on again. The persuasive note in his voice grew stronger.</p> - -<p>"Can't you see what you're doing, warrior? I'm <i>gar</i> of the raiders. If -I let you carry off this woman, it means the end of me. Every <i>stabat</i> -on the spaceways will say, 'Sark has lost his strength. Sark has let -Haral take a woman from him.' Even my own crews would mutiny against -me."</p> - -<p>"And so—?"</p> - -<p>"So I cannot let you go, Haral. No matter what the cost, I must kill -you. If not now, then later. If you take the woman, you must die!"</p> - -<p>Haral could feel his stomach muscles quiver. The menace that radiated -out from Sark hung over him like some deadly cloud.</p> - -<p>Baring his own teeth in a death's-head grin, he dug the light-lance -deeper into Sark's rolls of flesh.</p> - -<p>He said: "If the things you say are true, <i>Gar</i> Sark, then I must kill -you now, before you have the chance to slay me." He allowed himself the -luxury of a thin, wry smile. "In fact, perhaps it would be best that -way. With you dead, your men might pick me as their leader...."</p> - -<p>Silence echoed for a moment long as eternity, while their eyes locked -in a fierce, interminable battle.</p> - -<p>Then, slowly, Sark smiled and shook his head. His webbed fingers -caressed the switch set in his chair-arm.</p> - -<p>"You'll never kill me, warrior," he answered Haral. "I have a reason -for this riding-chair, a reason beyond mere comfort."</p> - -<p>Haral said nothing.</p> - -<p>"This switch"—the raider closed his hand about it—"connects with the -box that hangs beneath me. A cymosynthesizer box, you may have guessed."</p> - -<p>"A cymosynthesizer—?"</p> - -<p>"A very special kind of cymosynthesizer, warrior." Sark chuckled -grimly. "The multiplying waves of energy it radiates are synthesized -and focused on the core of this pygmy planetoid of Ulna. When they -strike it, they'll disrupt its whole atomic structure and set up a -disintegrative chain reaction."</p> - -<p>Haral stared at him, unbelieving. "You mean—?"</p> - -<p>"I mean that I hold the power to destroy this whole world within my -hand!" Sark cried in sudden, explosive anger. "This is my protection -against you and all others! I have but to throw this switch, and Ulna -itself will be torn asunder—and you and the woman and all else with -it! If I die, you die, also! That is my answer to you, <i>chitza</i>!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Haral said tightly: "You lie! No cymosynthesizer can set up an -initiating wave strong enough to tear apart a whole planet!"</p> - -<p>"Then try me! Make me prove it!" the raider chieftain spat. "It's -simple, warrior! Just trigger a beam from your light-lance through me! -As I die, I'll still throw the switch, and there will be your answer!"</p> - -<p>Haral sat very still. He was gripping his lance's shaft so hard that -the very bones of his fingers ached. A thin rill of sweat ran down his -spine. Yet he could not fight off the spell of shock that gripped him.</p> - -<p>As if sensing it, Sark spoke once more in coaxing tones: "You make your -task hard, warrior. There is an easier way. Give up this madness, this -trying to beat me and destroy me. Daring is a virtue I, too, admire. -Stay with me and I'll make you a captain in my fleet, give you a ship -so you can raid again. Then, when I've won this thrice-cursed Xaymar's -secret, together we'll reach out across the universe to bring all -planets into our power. Or, if it's the woman you want,"—he laughed -his smirking, obscene laugh—"why, as soon as she's told me the things -I want to know, I'll let you have her—"</p> - -<p>Haral felt Kyla's slim body stiffen against him. A tremor ran through -her.</p> - -<p>His answer to Sark came almost without volition. "No."</p> - -<p>"What—?"</p> - -<p>The spell was broken, now. The recklessness was back, and the fierce -surge of ambition.</p> - -<p>That, and something more ... a something Haral could not quite touch.</p> - -<p>He laughed aloud. "I'm leaving now, Sark!" he cried. "I'm leaving, and -I'm taking the woman with me. Blast us if you will!"</p> - -<p>The blandness fell from Sark. He half rose from his seat, his face -contorted. "You <i>chitza</i>—!"</p> - -<p>Haral laughed again. "Blast, Sark!" he mocked. "But if you do, -remember—your chance for the girl dies with me!"</p> - -<p>"<i>Stabat! Zanat! Starbo</i>—"</p> - -<p>"Go ahead, great <i>gar</i>! Blast us! Take your chances on what you can -learn from old Namboina!"</p> - -<p>Slowly, then, Sark sank back into his chair. His eyes were like live -coals, incredibly baleful.</p> - -<p>"Go!" he choked thickly. "Go, for now, you <i>chitza</i>! Take your woman -and your <i>hwalon</i> and your light-lance! My day will come, and when -it does, you'll pray for a death that will not answer! You and the -woman—you'll share your agony together, and in the end I'll still -claim Xaymar's secret—"</p> - -<p>Haral said: "Perhaps. Or perhaps it will be you who rots in hell -instead."</p> - -<p>Bleakly, he wheeled the <i>hwalon</i>; and to the crowd he shouted, "There's -death in my lance for the man that follows!" Then, weapon ready, the -girl close against him, heedless of the steaming hate and curses of the -mob that parted before him, he rode away.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER III</p> - - -<p>They rode fast and in silence—first skirting the outskirts of the -town; then plunging full-tilt into the tangled maze that was the native -quarter.</p> - -<p>The Ulno Haral had hired on the chance he'd need someone to hide the -<i>hwalon</i> was already waiting at the appointed place.</p> - -<p>But the blue man rode on past the primitive with no sign of -recognition, pausing instead around the next corner, by the entrance to -a blackly burrow-like dead-end alley.</p> - -<p>There he let the girl called Kyla down. For the first time since their -escape, he spoke to her: "We'll take cover now, for a little while, -priestess. Wait here in the shadows for me till I can hide my dragon. -It won't take long—ten <i>samori</i>, maybe."</p> - -<p>Wordless, eyes inscrutable, the lovely <i>Shamon</i> nodded.</p> - -<p>Haral flashed her a tense smile. Then, wheeling the <i>hwalon</i>, he rode -back in the direction from which they'd come.</p> - -<p>But the instant he was out of sight around the corner, he dropped from -the saddle and waved up the Ulno to take the nightmare steed.</p> - -<p>Another moment, and he was peering warily towards the spot where he'd -left Kyla.</p> - -<p>But already the slim young priestess had abandoned her post. She was -hurrying away, instead—running off down the narrow, crooked street, -just as he'd gambled that she would.</p> - -<p>It was ever dusk in these cramped warrens, where the yellow sky showed -only straight up. Now, too, the purple Ulnese night drew near at hand. -Black rivers of shadow were taking form at the bases of the buildings.</p> - -<p>Taking advantage of every unevenness and entryway and patch of murk, -Haral followed Kyla.</p> - -<p>The girl led him a dizzy chase through jumbled streets and alleys, -a world of strange smells and sounds and dull-witted, blank-eyed, -two-headed Ulnos. Twice, only the glint of her long, blonde, <i>Shamon</i> -hair kept him from losing her.</p> - -<p>Then, abruptly, she halted.</p> - -<p>Giving no attention to the vaguely-curious glances of nearby Ulnos, -Haral drew back into the angle where two buildings came together. -Pressed flat to the wall, he watched while Kyla peered this way and -that, as if searching for some sign of pursuit.</p> - -<p>A moment later she disappeared into the shadow-shrouded entrance of a -shabby building.</p> - -<p>Swiftly, Haral ran after her. But instead of approaching the door, he -slipped down a narrow cleft between the place she'd entered and the one -next to it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A slot of window showed above him. Bracing his back against one wall, -his feet against the other, he levered himself swiftly upward till he -could peer through the casement.</p> - -<p>It opened into an empty room.</p> - -<p>A kick from one mailed foot burst it open. Another moment, and Haral -himself stood inside.</p> - -<p>Across the room was a door. Moving silently to it, he opened it a crack -and listened.</p> - -<p>From down the hall that ran outside came faint sounds of movement. -Peering through the gloom, Haral caught a glint of light. Then a door -opened. More light flooded out. He glimpsed Kyla in silhouette as she -left the one room and went into another.</p> - -<p>Now light blazed from the second room. Then that door closed, and there -were sounds of running water.</p> - -<p>Haral smiled thinly and loosened his ray-gun in its holster. Quickly, -quietly, he walked down the hall to the room from which the girl had -come.</p> - -<p>Bleak and bare and windowless, it was sparsely furnished with a cot, -table and two chairs. The clothes Kyla had worn—the cloak, the -tablet, all her priestess' habit—were strewn across the cot. One of -the self-sealing plastic boxes such as was used on Ulna for packing -garments lay open on the table.</p> - -<p>Across the hall, the sounds of running water ceased.</p> - -<p>Silently, Haral stepped on into the room and behind the door. He caught -the click of a latch: then the firm rhythm of Kyla's footsteps as she -came towards this chamber where he stood in hiding.</p> - -<p>She was humming softly as she entered—a weirdly lilting tune Haral had -never heard before. Now, too, she wore the scant, filmy garments so -favored by <i>Shamon</i> women. No indication that she was one of Xaymar's -priestesses remained. While Haral watched in silence, she picked up a -comb and began to smooth her shimmering, waist-long wealth of silken -hair.</p> - -<p>Haral said: "You're very lovely, Kyla—you treacherous little <i>slazot</i>!"</p> - -<p>The girl whirled, her eyes suddenly big with terror. Her hand clutched -her throat. Her breasts rose and fell too fast.</p> - -<p>Her lips moved: "You—You...."</p> - -<p>Haral poured acid into his voice: "My name's Haral, Kyla. Remember? -I'm the man who saved your pretty carcass from Sark's arena not so very -long ago."</p> - -<p>The priestess sank into a chair. Her eyes closed, as if she were -praying, or perhaps trying to blot out the very sight of the blue man -from her brain.</p> - -<p>Tight-lipped, Haral strode to her. He caught her chin and tilted back -her head.</p> - -<p>"Did you think I risked my life for you for nothing, priestess?" he -clipped grimly. "Some say I'm worthless. But in my way, I still value -my head."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kyla's eyes opened. They were very large and innocent. "Truly, I am -grateful, blue warrior...."</p> - -<p>"Grateful—?" Haral brought up the crooked forefinger that held her -chin so savagely her head snapped back. "Yes, you're grateful! So -grateful you could hardly wait till my back was turned before you ran -away! So grateful you'd gladly leave me to face Sark's tender mercies -alone, so long as you got to cover!"</p> - -<p>"But, warrior—You do not understand. I have a mission—a duty bigger -than you or me, or the debt of gratitude I owe you—"</p> - -<p>"Duty—?" Haral smashed one mailed fist into the palm of the other. -"Will your duty save my neck? Will it halt Sark's crewmen as they haunt -me and harry me and hunt me down?"</p> - -<p>The girl's lips trembled. The violet eyes dodged his. "But—but—what -would you have me do—?"</p> - -<p>"You know what I want!" Haral gripped her shoulders. "My death -warrant's sealed. You heard Sark say it. I've got just one chance—one, -and one only. With your Xaymar's secret, it may be that I can smash -Sark before he smashes me—"</p> - -<p>"No—"</p> - -<p>"That's what I want! I want the secret—your goddess, your queen of -storms—"</p> - -<p>"But I cannot—"</p> - -<p>"You can! You will!" Fiercely, he shook her. "Where is she, Kyla? Where -does she lie, this woman-goddess, Xaymar?"</p> - -<p>The girl went limp in his grasp. Tears brimmed her eyes.</p> - -<p>Slowly, Haral straightened. He let go the priestess' slim shoulders. -"Can't you see?" he grated tightly. "Can't you understand? Now, -this very moment, Sark's hunting for your doddering high priest, -Namboina. When he catches him—and he will catch him, have no doubt of -that—he'll tear your goddess's hiding-place from him like a tooth from -the socket. Then where will you stand? What good will all your talk of -duty do you? Would it not be better—"</p> - -<p>"No." Even though Kyla's lips still trembled, there was no compromise -in her tone. She flicked away her tears, and her back drew very -straight. Her eyes met Haral's—defiant; proud and steady as his own.</p> - -<p>"No, blue man," she repeated. "If helping me costs you your life, I'm -sorry. But my duty lies with Ulna and with Xaymar. Do what you will; -I'll tell you nothing."</p> - -<p>"And Namboina? What of him? Will his loyalty match yours when Sark -stretches him out for a taste of torture?"</p> - -<p>"Sark has not yet caught Namboina."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As it had in the arena, admiration now touched Haral. Steel lay -sheathed in the velvet of this <i>Shamon</i> girl's slim, soft body. He -could not but respect its temper.</p> - -<p>Yet he dared not let her know his thoughts.</p> - -<p>Instead, coldly, he drew his ray-gun from its holster. "Then I have no -choice...."</p> - -<p>"You'll kill me, you mean—?" There was contempt in the girl's voice, -the twist of her lips. "So in the end you're not so different from -<i>Gar</i> Sark, after all."</p> - -<p>Haral smiled thinly. "Say rather that I know enough to bow to reality -when I face it. If I cannot win this battle, then I must come to terms -another way." He let his smile broaden, building up impact for the -climax. "But not by killing you, Priestess Kyla. That truly would get -me nothing."</p> - -<p>"Then what—?"</p> - -<p>Haral shrugged. With careful casualness he said, "Sark still might -strike a bargain for you."</p> - -<p>"<i>Sark—!</i>"</p> - -<p>The shock in the girl's voice stabbed at Haral. Fear was in her eyes -now—the bright, shiny fear of those nightmare eternities she stood -helpless in Sark's arena.</p> - -<p>But the blue man held his face immobile. "You leave me no choice," he -clipped. "I must either have the lightning-force, the secret of your -goddess Xaymar, or I must buy back my life from Sark. Since I lack the -stomach to force the secret from you, that leaves only Sark for me to -turn to. You surely understand."</p> - -<p>He watched the sickness come to Kyla's face, then. Her eyes closed. Her -tongue flicked at her lips.</p> - -<p>At long last she looked at him again. Dully, she said, "Put away your -weapon, warrior. I am vanquished."</p> - -<p>Wordless, Haral slipped the ray-gun back into its holster.</p> - -<p>Kyla said: "I'd hoped this might have another ending, blue man. When -you rode out in the face of <i>Gar</i> Sark and all his might to save me, my -heart leaped, and strange feelings woke within me, here." She touched -her breast. "I saw you as a Galahad of the spaceways, a valiant who -fought for right and honor instead of booty. But now I see you true. -You're as the rest—greedy, blood-thirsty, driven by hate and a lust -for power."</p> - -<p>A knife seemed to twist deep in Haral's vitals. He did not speak.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The girl's great, tragic eyes stayed set upon him. "Yet, blue man, you -saved my life. There is indeed a debt of gratitude I owe you. I'll pay -it now...."</p> - -<p>She rose; came close to him. Her hand touched the heavy copronium -brassart that sheathed his upper arm.</p> - -<p>"There's a reason our living goddess Xaymar has lain sleeping through -all these years of Ulna's sorrow, blue man," she told him tensely. "Did -you think my people, my proud, unbending <i>Shamon</i>, would have suffered -all the insults and degradation you alien raiders brought here with you -had it not been so? Can you vision us submitting to your despoilment -while we held an invincible weapon in our hands, unless the dangers -that lay in unsheathing that weapon were even more dreadful than the -worst that you, in your crude butchery, could offer?"</p> - -<p>Haral shifted. Frowning, he studied the priestess' shadowed eyes and -strain-straught face.</p> - -<p>She breathed deep. Her words rushed forth in a flood, a frantic, -half-hysterical jumble:</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you the secret, warrior! I'll tell you why we left our -goddess sleeping through all our hour of need!" Her lips parted. Her -voice rose shrilly. "She's mad, that's the reason! Xaymar's mad! Mad -with lust and power, and passion! Her beauty was a thing of shining -splendor that no man could resist or deny. Each night she took a -different lover—and then, at the dawn, at her command, each one -was slain! She harnessed the lightning against our enemies—and when -our own greatest city refused to send more of its sons to her for -slaughter, she smashed it to rubble with her bolts! In her madness, it -was she who gave the power of thought to the coleoptera—"</p> - -<p>She broke off, laughing wildly. Her face came close to Haral's, her -body against his.</p> - -<p>"Would you waken her, warrior? Would you be the next to share her -couch—and her graveyard? Beside her, Sark ranks as a saint—"</p> - -<p>There was a prickling along Haral's spine as he pushed her back. But -she still clung to him. He could feel his tension climbing. It was as -if Kyla had hypnotized him with her rush of words, her fierce burst of -emotion.</p> - -<p>He said tightly: "You lie, Kyla! This is some kind of a trick—"</p> - -<p>Like magic, her hysteria vanished.</p> - -<p>"A trick? Of course! A good one—"</p> - -<p>She twisted, and he felt the wrench of his ray-gun being jerked from -its holster.</p> - -<p>Before he could move, she had its muzzle between his teeth. Her -triumphant voice echoed like the ring of steel on steel:</p> - -<p>"Your first move will be your last, blue man! You'll die if even a -finger twitches!"</p> - -<p>Haral stood very still.</p> - -<p>From somewhere below came the creak of a door opening, then the -muffled slam of its closing.</p> - -<p>Kyla laughed. Her eyes sparkled. "Did you speak of Namboina, warrior? -Of how Sark would catch him? Yet here he comes now!"</p> - -<p>Haral spoke carefully: "Wrong, priestess! Those steps are too quick for -old Namboina's!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Watching her eyes, he could see the doubt flicker, then flare into -panic. Her lips parted as she strained to hear. She fell back a step. -The ray-gun in her hand was suddenly shaking.</p> - -<p>"If there's trouble," Haral observed, "that gun might prove surer in my -hand than yours."</p> - -<p>"No! Stand back!" the girl cried. "I'll shoot for your face! Your armor -won't save you!"</p> - -<p>The blue man halted.</p> - -<p>The approaching footsteps were closer now—coming lightly, swiftly, -towards this room.</p> - -<p>Kyla pushed the door half shut, then stepped to its hinge side, -gesturing Haral to a place before her. Her face was grey.</p> - -<p>Outside the room, the footsteps halted. The door pushed open.</p> - -<p>"Kyla—"</p> - -<p>It was the voice of a woman—a woman in the garb of Xaymar's order who -hurried into the room.</p> - -<p>"Lyess—" cried Kyla. The ray-gun sagged in her hand.</p> - -<p>The newcomer whirled in fright. Her eyes flicked from the priestess to -Haral.</p> - -<p>Kyla cried, "Why are you here, Lyess? Where is Namboina?" Her tone held -a note of desperation.</p> - -<p>"I came to tell you, Kyla—to warn you! Sark has found him! They say -the torture is already under way to make him tell where Xaymar lies—"</p> - -<p>Unspeaking, Haral looked to Kyla.</p> - -<p>Her mouth was working. New tears had come to her eyes. Now, of a -sudden, they overflowed and spilled down her cheeks.</p> - -<p>Harshly, Haral slashed: "What now, priestess? Do we wait here while -Sark tears out Namboina's heart, then goes and wakens your mad -woman-goddess Xaymar?"</p> - -<p>Slowly, the hand that held the ray-gun lowered, till the weapon -hung loose against Kyla's side. Her shoulders, too, slumped. In the -stillness, her falling tears made tiny splatting sounds as they hit the -floor.</p> - -<p>"Kyla, Kyla—!" the other priestess whispered. "You dare not linger! -Sark seeks you, too. That is why I came to warn you—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Again the silence echoed. Then, wearily, Kyla straightened. She shook -away the tears. Her mouth stopped quivering.</p> - -<p>Never had she been more lovely.</p> - -<p>She turned to the blue man: "Haral...."</p> - -<p>It came to him, with a queer sort of shock, that it was the first time -she had ever called him by his name.</p> - -<p>"Yes, Kyla...?"</p> - -<p>"I've lost. I wanted Xaymar's secret for my people—this world of ours, -this Ulna. But now, that cannot be. The most I can hope is that Sark, -at least, shall never have it."</p> - -<p>"Yes, Kyla."</p> - -<p>"She—Xaymar—lies in the dead land—the land infested by the great -thinking beetles, the coleoptera. The road to her crypt is a dangerous -road."</p> - -<p>"I've traveled dangerous roads before."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Danger is in your blood, you aliens. And we of Ulna are weak, so -weak...."</p> - -<p>Gently, Haral said: "There's little time, Kyla. Namboina may be -babbling all he knows already."</p> - -<p>"Yes, and the way is long." Wearily, then, the girl held out the -ray-gun to him. "You'll need this more than I, along the road that we -must travel." She sighed. "You see, Haral? Destiny is on your side. In -the end, you are the winner."</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IV</p> - - -<p>The coleoptera were drawing their noose ever tighter now. A killer -cordon, they ringed in Kyla and Haral. The rustle of their giant -wing-sheaths, borne on the night wind, whispered of death. The great, -flesh-rending mandibles clacked like the distant rattle of dry bones.</p> - -<p>Flat on his belly amid this rubble that once had been a mighty city, -the blue warrior let his head sink forward onto his arms. He closed his -eyes, and weariness welled up in him, a dull, relentlessly-rising tide.</p> - -<p>Pain throbbed along his whole left side, and blood still dripped -from his numb left hand. Silently—absently, almost—he touched the -shoulder-plate of his armor, probing the perforations and the wound.</p> - -<p>Then a sound of spilling gravel came through the darkness. He looked up -sharply.</p> - -<p>A dozen yards to one side, one of the great scarlet beetles was -clambering atop a heap of crumbling stone. Its wing-sheaths scraped -harshly—a rasping, off-key note.</p> - -<p>Kyla leaned close. Her words came, a fearful whisper, barely loud -enough to hear: "Lift your helmet, blue man! Listen to the things the -coleopteron tells—but carefully, lest its mind control should seize -you...."</p> - -<p>Cautiously, Haral tilted back his battered copronium headpiece. It -had rendered strange service in its day, that scarred old helm; but -none stranger than this. For by some weird clash between its metal -and certain electrocephalic wave-pulsations, it guarded his brain -from the probing beetle minds, just as Kyla's bucket-like Ulnese -heaume—designed for the purpose—guarded hers.</p> - -<p>Now, as Haral lifted the helmet, thought-vibrations washed in on him in -throbbing waves: "Man-things, man-things! Find the man-things! Kill -the man-things! Kill, kill, kill!"</p> - -<p>A new vibration slashed through, fiercely urgent: "Blood! Blood! Here! -They came this way!"</p> - -<p>"Kill! Kill! Kill!"</p> - -<p>Already the coleoptera were surging forward. Antennae outthrust like -lance-points, Q-rays probing, they combed the murky waste—each rise, -each hollow. Their feet slithered through the rubble with sounds like -the writhings of Venus' great snake-things in dry leaves. The acrid -stink of their hate crept on the breeze in biting tendrils.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Haral cast a longing glance back towards his <i>hwalon</i>, still standing -at bay amid the crags where they had lost it in their last swift, -clashing contact with the beetles.</p> - -<p>But darting Q-rays hemmed in the dragon. And here and there between, a -head, a leg, a thorax showed.</p> - -<p>Haral bit down hard. The coleoptera were hoping they could tempt him to -try to regain the <i>hwalon</i>.</p> - -<p>For if he tried, he'd die in seconds.</p> - -<p>Kyla crept close against him. Her voice shook: "I've lost my way, -Haral. Even if the beetles were to leave us, I'd not know how to go."</p> - -<p>For an aching moment Haral lay still. "I guessed as much," he said at -last. "This running and fighting has pulled us from our path."</p> - -<p>"If we could only find one of the pylons of which the old books spoke—"</p> - -<p>"Yes. If." Grimly, the blue man fumbled the ray-pistol from his holster -and shoved it into Kyla's hand. He gave no sign that he had even caught -the tears, the desperation, creeping into her voice. "Here. Take this."</p> - -<p>"What—?"</p> - -<p>Haral held his voice flat, without emotion. "You'll need some weapon. -The ray-gun will do as well as any." He settled the helmet more firmly -on his head and took a new grip on his light-lance. "Come on!"</p> - -<p>Twisting, dragging the light-lance beside him, he wormed his way -towards the nearest of the skeletal shafts that rose like gravestones -over this dead city, last monuments to a civilization fallen into dust.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the shaft had been part of a building, once—a wall, a -buttress, maybe. Now, pillar-like, it stood alone. Gaping holes showed -through its mass. Great chunks of rock had fallen, here and there -exposing the huge, corroding metal beams that were its core.</p> - -<p>They reached its base. Haral pulled himself erect amid the black -shadows cloaking the foundation. Wearily, he leaned against a fallen -column.</p> - -<p>The move brought fragments rattling down.</p> - -<p>At the sound, a coleopteron in a nearby hollow came to a sudden halt. -For a moment it hesitated, then began to work its way warily towards -the shaft.</p> - -<p>Kyla said, "Haral—!" in a voice choked with new panic.</p> - -<p>"Stay here. Don't move," Haral clipped tightly. "And don't shoot—not -unless you have to!"</p> - -<p>As he spoke, he levered himself up onto the lowest beam.</p> - -<p>More broken stone clattered to the ground below him.</p> - -<p>The beetle came forward faster.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Awkwardly, the blue man climbed upward. His left arm was almost -useless. The light-lance dragged and got in his way.</p> - -<p>Below, the great scarlet insect stopped short. Of a sudden its -mandibles clacked wildly.</p> - -<p>Haral lifted his helmet a fraction. Vibrations poured into his brain: -"Blood! Here, here, this way—!"</p> - -<p>Cursing, Haral whipped up the light-lance and triggered a beam at the -beetle's thorax.</p> - -<p>The coleopteron wallowed backward, great wings threshing.</p> - -<p>Clutching a vertical girder, again the warrior clambered upward.</p> - -<p>Above him, and to one side, a gap that might once have housed a window -loomed. Painfully, he worked towards it. His left arm dragged, less -help than hindrance. He couldn't seem to get in air. His body rebelled -at his brain's commands.</p> - -<p>Then, at last, he got a grip on a jagged fragment near the edge of the -slot-like opening. With a final, spasmodic effort, he dragged himself -up and sprawled on his belly across the masonry.</p> - -<p>On the other side of the wall, spread out before him in the shadowy -purple of the Ulnese night, lay the heart of the dead city. From this -height he could see its plan, its prospect. There, ragged strips that -once had been broad avenues radiated out from a central park. There, a -spider-web of cross streets showed, linking the great arteries together.</p> - -<p>And there, too, were the ruins Kyla called the Triad—the huge, -three-winged structure that rose in the park's heart.</p> - -<p>Somewhere beneath it lay the shrine of Xaymar, queen of storms, living -goddess of all Ulna.</p> - -<p>Awe gripped Haral. Silent, brooding, he stared across the fallen -splendor.</p> - -<p>Such splendor, so far fallen.</p> - -<p>These others, who once had walked this mighty city in its day of -greatness—they, too, had been strong. They, too, had felt the drive to -power.</p> - -<p>Now they lay in dust beneath his feet.</p> - -<p>And here he sprawled, beset and wounded, driven by a dream on a -madman's quest, mayhap to meet death himself in this silent city of the -dead.</p> - -<p>His weariness welled up once more; engulfed him.</p> - -<p>How had Sark put it—"Why have you come so long a way to die?"</p> - -<p>Sark, and a dream turned nightmare.</p> - -<p>Yet he'd ridden other nightmares in his time, with less to gain and -more to lose. That was the meaning of life; the challenge.</p> - -<p>There below lay a living goddess; and a priestess waited to guide him -to her.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A priestess.... He pondered. Already there was a bond between them, -for she had a courage to match her beauty, and courage was one trait -he gave full honor, no matter what the cause to which it rallied. And -it had taken courage to stand in the bloody mud of that arena, defying -Sark.</p> - -<p>Sark?... Haral smiled. Sark, too, would have a role to play before this -game was done.</p> - -<p>Sark had pledged him death. Sark would keep that pledge, unless he fell -before the might of Xaymar's vaunted secret.</p> - -<p>And as for himself, Haral—?</p> - -<p>The battle lines were drawn: On the one hand, power beyond his fondest -dreams ... a living goddess ... a lovely priestess.</p> - -<p>On the other, Sark and the coleoptera, defeat and death.</p> - -<p>What more was there for a fighting man to ask? What better prize for -a wanderer to strive for as he carved his way up from the asteroids' -bleak want and bondage?</p> - -<p>He laughed aloud. His weariness fell away.</p> - -<p>Sitting up, turning, he once more gave attention to the swarming -scarlet beetles far below him.</p> - -<p>Fear of his light-lance was upon them now, it seemed. They hung back, -spread out in a menacing arc that centered on his side of the pillar.</p> - -<p>Directly below him, Kyla crouched as if frozen, the ray-gun ready in -her hand. But as yet the beetles had not come close enough to find her.</p> - -<p>Haral shifted.</p> - -<p>Like lightning, a Q-ray speared up from an ebon crevice to one side of -the shaft.</p> - -<p>The range was too great. The beam burned out yards short of Haral. But -a flicker of movement betrayed that one of the monster insects now was -climbing along the other side. The next ray might strike home.</p> - -<p>Again, Haral sought out the Triad, and the great arterial avenue that -led to it.</p> - -<p>The nearest of the roadways lay within a hundred yards of this column -that was his vantage-point. A pylon still thrust its weathered peak -skyward on the far side of the thoroughfare.</p> - -<p>A pylon: the crumbling, truncated pyramid burned into Haral's brain -like a beacon. The very sight of it sent recklessness surging through -him.</p> - -<p>To Kyla, below, he cried, "Come round the wall, priestess! Come round! -Quick!"</p> - -<p>Then, cat-like, he twisted, swinging his legs up and through the gap -in the masonry. His body arched—catapulting out into space, hurtling -groundward along the towering shaft's other face.</p> - -<p>But as he plunged, he shifted the light-lance. Bracing it against his -body, he gripped its head between his feet and triggered it on, full -strength. Its broad force beam blazed forth, straight at the ground -below.</p> - -<p>Like a flexible, compressing shaft of radiant energy, it slowed his -plunge. Balancing skillfully, he rode the beam on down.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The force of the landing made him wince. But at least, for the moment, -he was free of the coleoptera, though even now he could hear the -scurrying of their hairy feet in the dirt as they raced to head him off.</p> - -<p>Whirling, he ran along the base of the shaft.</p> - -<p>As he reached the corner, Kyla came stumbling toward him from the other -side of the shaft, scrambling over the ruins, debris, in desperate -haste. Two huge beetles, hot for the kill, bore down upon her from -behind, closing the gap that separated them from her with every -slithering step.</p> - -<p>Haral drew back and whipped up the light-lance.</p> - -<p>Running full-tilt, the slim girl burst from the shadows, the coleoptera -close at her heels.</p> - -<p>Haral triggered the light-lance. Its beam slashed through the night. -The foremost beetle drew into a writhing ball under its impact, -rolling crazily through the rubble. The second fell back, its forelegs -half burned off.</p> - -<p>The blue man pivoted and ran after Kyla. Catching her by the arm, he -half-dragged her with him towards the avenue.</p> - -<p>Ahead, the ground leveled off. The broad expanse that had been the -roadway spread before them.</p> - -<p>Beyond it loomed the pylon.</p> - -<p>Behind, the rustle of coleopteron wing-sheaths, the furious fluttering -of the vestigial wings themselves, came loud as the rasp of branches in -a storm-tossed forest, closer and closer.</p> - -<p>Haral shoved the priestess on towards the roadway. Then, boldly, he -turned and brought up the light-lance.</p> - -<p>The coleoptera broke. Scrambling wildly, they rushed for cover.</p> - -<p>"What, you <i>sabars</i>? You fear to meet my lance?" Haral shouted the -words, even though he knew the beetles could not hear nor understand. -Laughter boiled up in him—the ringing, defiant laughter that was not -so much mirth as lust for battle.</p> - -<p>But already the insects' Q-ray tubes were blinking. He had no choice -but to wheel and again run after Kyla.</p> - -<p>And as he ran, a new sound slashed through to him: the familiar keening -blast of space-ship carrier craft lancing through the night.</p> - -<p>Haral shot one swift glance upward. He glimpsed slim, silvery -streaks ... streaks that were carriers in flight.</p> - -<p>Sark's carriers—?</p> - -<p>Haral cursed aloud. Panting, staggering with fatigue and the weight -of his heavy copronium armor, he stumbled through the avenue's broken -stone. Once he fell. But Kyla's ray-gun blazed above him, holding back -the beetles till he could lurch up and wallow onward.</p> - -<p>Then, at last, there was the pylon ... the yawning entrance at its base.</p> - -<p>"Hurry!" Kyla cried. "They gain upon us!"</p> - -<p>A Q-ray sang its shining song of death too near at hand.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The blue man threw all his strength into one last effort. Together, he -and the girl ran through the entry, into the blackness.</p> - -<p>Haral turned. He laced his back-track with the light-lance's searing -beam.</p> - -<p>The beetles halted.</p> - -<p>"This way," said Kyla. Her hand gripped Haral's. In silence, he -followed her further and further into the pylon's pitchy depths.</p> - -<p>Now they walked on a strange, entangling surface that crunched brittly -beneath their feet.</p> - -<p>Haral flicked on his lance's illumination cell just long enough to -glimpse the scene about them.</p> - -<p>A prickling ran up and down his spine. For they walked a corridor of -death, a passage carpeted with bones ... the bones of those who once -had ruled this mighty city. A thousand skulls stared up at them, a -hollow-eyed horror. Skeletons spread in heaps and tangles, rising on -all sides like some rank, evil fungus.</p> - -<p>Kyla's voice came through the darkness: "You wonder why we hate all -aliens, warrior? Once, a thousand years ago, this was our proudest -<i>Shamon</i> city. Then the first ships came out of space to Ulna. They -hurled down bombs, and my people sought to hide here from them. But -gas came with the bombs—a heavy gas, and deadly. It seeped into these -ancient tunnels, and those who survived the blasts, the radiation, died -by thousands—yes, by millions...."</p> - -<p>The girl's voice broke.</p> - -<p>Her horror, her pain, pressed in on Haral. But he dared not let himself -think of them.</p> - -<p>He said sharply: "This is no time for talk! Any moment, the coleoptera -may be upon us. Those ships that passed above us, too—they may have -been Sark's. If Namboina's told where Xaymar lies, Sark's men may beat -us to her. If we're to find her first, we must go quickly—"</p> - -<p>"Yes, quickly!" Again Kyla's trembling hand seized his. She led the way -down a long, steep ramp, then on through what seemed endless blackness. -"The old books say these tunnels end beneath the Triad. And then, below -that—there lies our sleeping goddess, Xaymar!"</p> - -<p>On they toiled, and on. Twice, in the ebon murk, they heard the -muffled rattle of coleopteran mandibles. Once, the beetles' acrid -stench rose rank and close into their nostrils.</p> - -<p>"Pray to your gods, warrior, that they do not guess our goal in time to -head us off," Kyla whispered hoarsely.</p> - -<p>"Pray to your own, and my light-lance!" Haral answered harshly. He -shifted, striving to ease the pain that still throbbed out from his -wounded shoulder. Numbly, he wondered how much longer he could go on.</p> - -<p>They came out of the tunnel, then, into a vast, echoing subterranean -chamber.</p> - -<p>"Now we must have light to find our way," the priestess said. "Already -we are beneath the Triad."</p> - -<p>Haral flicked on his lance's illumination cell.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The room stretched as far as its beam would throw. Other tunnels -debouched from the walls on every side.</p> - -<p>"This way," said Kyla. "Xaymar's shrine lies beneath the central -staircase."</p> - -<p>Together, they picked a path through more jumbled bones to the middle -of the vast concourse, then descended down the stair they found there -in spiral after spiral.</p> - -<p>As they went down, the stink of the coleoptera grew steadily stronger.</p> - -<p>"If this should be a trap—" Haral began.</p> - -<p>"There is no other way," the priestess answered.</p> - -<p>The staircase ended in a circular room. High ledges lined its walls. -In the center stood a great bronze ball, high as a tall man's head and -set in a base of polished stone. Markings were etched upon it, markings -that matched the configurations of this wild outlaw world of Ulna.</p> - -<p>But slashing even deeper were other markings—the stylized images of -the lightning that were Xaymar's symbol.</p> - -<p>"A strong man can roll the globe within its base," Kyla told Haral. She -studied the markings, chose a spot. "Here is the place. Now spin it -upward."</p> - -<p>New uneasiness came upon Haral. The muscles along the back of his neck -felt stiff and drawn with tension.</p> - -<p>He wondered if it could be his weariness, his wound.</p> - -<p>But he could not shrug it off.</p> - -<p>He said tightly. "This smells of danger, Kyla. There's trouble here."</p> - -<p>Once more, he swept the lance's illumination beam across the room.</p> - -<p>A long smear on the floor shimmered. Haral dropped to one knee, touched -it. "Look! This is wet, and not with water! It's more like the blood of -the coleoptera!"</p> - -<p>A tremor ran through Kyla. "Then hurry! Quick! Spin the globe!"</p> - -<p>The blue man straightened. Narrow-eyed, uneasy, he laid the lance -aside. Then, bracing himself, he put his unwounded shoulder to the -globe and heaved at it with all his might.</p> - -<p>It moved a bare inch; then another.</p> - -<p>He strained again.</p> - -<p>Slowly, the great sphere turned. The edge of a slot cut in its under -side came into view—a crack that widened as the globe rolled within -the base, till an oblong orifice lay exposed like a tunnel mouth -leading down into the footing.</p> - -<p>Haral started to step back.</p> - -<p>But, of a sudden, a faint sound came—the muffled ring of metal against -stone.</p> - -<p>Haral lunged for the light-lance.</p> - -<p>But a harsh, unfamiliar voice slashed in upon him—a voice from atop -the high, flat ledge that lined the walls: "Drop it, <i>chitza</i>! Drop the -light-lance!"</p> - -<p>From a different angle, another voice rang: "Quick! Drop it!"</p> - -<p>A third: "Just one false move...."</p> - -<p>An icy knot gathered in the pit of Haral's stomach. He let the lance -fall.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>To his right, a <i>Pervod</i> rose into view upon the ledge, ray-gun -murderously ready. A squat, tentacled Thorian appeared to his left. -Sounds told him others were getting up behind him.</p> - -<p>Desperately, he looked to Kyla.</p> - -<p>But she stood rigid, fists clenched at her sides. The ray-pistol he'd -given her had disappeared.</p> - -<p>He turned back to the <i>Pervod</i>. "Well, finish it!" he cried. "You're -here to burn us down. Get it done and be on your way!"</p> - -<p>But the <i>Pervod</i> didn't answer.</p> - -<p>Instead, there was laughter ... ghoulish, obscene laughter, laughter -Haral had heard before.</p> - -<p>A chill shook the blue man.</p> - -<p>He wished he could be sure it was only his wound.</p> - -<p>Again the laugh echoed; again. It came from the staircase, swelling -louder and louder with each passing second.</p> - -<p>And then, there were more <i>Pervods</i>, more Thorians, more <i>Malyas</i> -and Martians and mutants. There, too, was <i>Gar</i> Sark's famed Uranian -riding-chair sweeping into view on its anti-gravitational direction -beam.</p> - -<p>There was Sark.</p> - -<p>He leered at Haral. Never had the menace stood out in his fat face more -sharply.</p> - -<p>"Burn you down—?" He repeated the blue man's words as if he liked -their flavor. "No, no, you <i>starbo</i>. I'd not do that. Not now; not -ever. It's far too quick a way for you to die."</p> - -<p>"You'll do your worst, so do as you like." Haral forced himself to -shrug despite the pain.</p> - -<p>Sark smirked. "Of course. But first there's another task we must -attend."</p> - -<p>"Another task—?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, now that you two have opened up the way." Sark chuckled, deep in -his throat. His fat-rimmed eyes gleamed like tiny, vicious stars. "We -go now to waken the living goddess, Xaymar, queen of storms, so that -she can deliver her secret into my hands!"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER V</p> - - -<p>There lay the woman!</p> - -<p>Xaymar. Woman and death, the end of a madman's quest.</p> - -<p>The great crystal globe that cased her rested atop a dais in the center -of an echoing, high-roofed chamber. Pulsing, aglow with strange life, -its radiance fought back the crypt's impinging gloom.</p> - -<p>Haral swayed for a moment under the impact of the sight, his wounds -forgotten. Excitement raced through him.</p> - -<p>But Sark's men held him by either arm, and others penned him in front -and behind, and Sark himself sat in the riding-chair mere feet away, -his hand never straying from the cymosynthesizer switch.</p> - -<p>And there was Kyla, pale and forlorn, in a Thorian's tentacled grasp.</p> - -<p>The end of a quest, indeed. The bitter end.</p> - -<p>Sickness came to Haral.</p> - -<p>Yet because he was the man he was, such a mood could not last long even -here, even now. Thoughtfully, he gazed about—taking in the vaulted -roof; the walls, honeycombed with coleopteran burrows; the expressions -with which Sark's mongrel crewmen tried to mask their awe.</p> - -<p>Above all, he looked upon the woman.</p> - -<p>Sark's eyes, too, were gleaming. Drawn as by some mighty lodestone, he -sent his riding-chair scudding forward to the dais on which the globe -encasing the sleeping goddess rested. His web-fingered hand reached out -to touch the crystal.</p> - -<p>Then, abruptly, he halted. Slowly, he withdrew his hand and wheeled the -chair about. His eyes sought Haral, and his lips parted in a leer.</p> - -<p>He said: "Ulna has little love for strangers, <i>chitza</i>."</p> - -<p>Haral said nothing.</p> - -<p>"Perhaps they thought to trap a few with this pretty bauble," the -raider chief remarked. His smile was sinister. "Perhaps Namboina told -the things he told too easily, in order that he might laugh in hell -because I, too, had died."</p> - -<p>Haral shrugged. "You talk in circles, <i>starbo</i>."</p> - -<p>"You came here seeking to waken Xaymar, did you not?" Sark smirked. "I -merely meant that you should have the chance to do it."</p> - -<p>His smile vanished. His words crackled: "Go to the dais, <i>chitza</i>! -Awaken Xaymar!"</p> - -<p>Haral's captors shoved him forward. Numbly, he clumped across the floor.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Sark and his men drew back to the protection of the archway. Kyla stood -in the shadows, pressed against a wall.</p> - -<p>For the fraction of a second, the blue man thought of calling out to -her to draw the ray-gun she'd hidden in her garments, and blast the -raiders with it.</p> - -<p>But the fascination that lay in the sleeping goddess pulled even -stronger.</p> - -<p>He ran his tongue along dry lips. It could be as Sark had guessed—that -this was a trap for the unwary; that the first time he touched the -bubble would also be the last.</p> - -<p>Yet still he stepped onto the dais. Then, breathing deep, he wiped a -window through the dust that shrouded the shining globe.</p> - -<p>Nothing happened.</p> - -<p>A mass of valves and tubes and coils of unfamiliar pattern were mounted -high inside the bubble. To one side, a cord like a bell-pull hung -nearly to the floor.</p> - -<p>But Haral gave the equipment scant heed. He had eyes only for the woman -known as Xaymar.</p> - -<p>Her body gleamed smooth and sleek in this eerie light—voluptuous, -lithe-limbed, perfect. Motionless, naked save for the short, jeweled -veil that masked the top half of her face against a nimbus of jet-black -hair, she lay like some lovely manikin, frozen in a sleep as deep as -death itself. Yet, somehow, there was a warmth and texture to her skin -that seemed to reach out even through the crystal; a melding of curves -and hollows that cried out that once she, too, had been alive.</p> - -<p><i>And might still live!</i></p> - -<p>The blue man sucked in air. Pivoting, he studied the panel set in the -great globe's base.</p> - -<p>The switch was there, just as Kyla had described it.</p> - -<p>And the secret prayer, the call to waken—?</p> - -<p>Only the soul of dead Namboina could chant it now.</p> - -<p>Haral clutched the lever. Then, stiff with tension, he jammed it shut.</p> - -<p>Seconds crept by on leaden feet. He felt a lone drop of icy sweat slide -down his spine.</p> - -<p>Then, inside the bubble, greenish mist began to rise. It filled the -crystal casing. Eddying, swirling, it thickened till the woman's -recumbent form grew dim and blurred.</p> - -<p>In the vibrant stillness, Haral could hear his own heart beat.</p> - -<p>Slowly, the mist within the great globe thinned again. A tube set high -above the woman flashed on. Waves of pale violet light washed over her -smooth, nude, perfect body.</p> - -<p>In spite of himself, Haral's tension soared.</p> - -<p>Now—abruptly, without warning—a wild, shrill, keening sound rose -thinly. A new light blazed above the woman. Like lightning striking, a -shining, silvery beam lanced down out of a queerly-shaped projector.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A sheet of crackling silver flame encased the woman. Her body went -suddenly rigid. She jerked spasmodically, lifting half clear of her cot -in a writhing, twisting arch.</p> - -<p>Then, sharply, light and sound cut off again.</p> - -<p>The woman fell back limply and lay still.</p> - -<p>It dawned on Haral that his nails were rasping against the crystal.</p> - -<p>Through an interminable moment, the woman within sagged inert as any -corpse. Then, almost imperceptibly, her lips quivered. The bare breasts -stirred as she drew a shallow, sobbing breath.</p> - -<p>In the same instant, it seemed to Haral that he could see her lids open -beneath the veil. But he could not be sure.</p> - -<p>She tried to lift herself; fell back.</p> - -<p>Fiercely, Haral slashed at the crystal with his elbow.</p> - -<p>The heavy copronium elbow-piece of his armor tore through the -globe—puncturing, not shattering. Haral stabbed at the bubble again, -and it ripped, in the manner of some flexible, transparent plastic. -Forcing a hand into the gash, the blue man tore a great chunk loose, -clear to the floor: then another.</p> - -<p>Stepping inside, he bent over the woman—gripping her shoulders; -straining for her whisper.</p> - -<p>"Quick! The flagon—!" Her hand stretched out in a feeble gesture.</p> - -<p>Haral followed the movement to a holder beside the cot. It held a -flask. Snatching up the container, he tore away the seal, then lifted -and held the woman while she drank in great, greedy gulps.</p> - -<p>When at last the flask was empty, she sank back once more. But now -color was flowing to her face. Her breathing steadily grew deeper and -more regular.</p> - -<p>Haral let his weight rest on the edge of the cot. Very gently, he -reached to lift the goddess' veil.</p> - -<p>Spasmodically, her hands came up. "No—!" Nails dug into his wrist.</p> - -<p>He started at the tempestuous violence of her; the sudden strength. -Then, wearily, he drew back his hand.</p> - -<p>In the same instant Sark's voice lanced in: "Leave her alone, <i>chitza</i>!"</p> - -<p>Haral turned.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The raider chief and his men were back, now. They poured into the crypt -in a rush. Sark himself swept toward the dais in his riding-chair as -on the crest of a wave, ahead of all the others. His thick lips were -working, his eyes hot with excitement.</p> - -<p>But his fingers never left the cymosynthesizer switch.</p> - -<p>Haral clenched his fist in frustrated fury. Of a sudden his wounds, his -weariness, hung heavy on him.</p> - -<p>He glimpsed Kyla. Hesitantly, she, too, was coming towards the goddess. -Her lips were parted as if to cry out in protest against this whole -bizarre affair. Deep lines of strain marred the pale loveliness of her -face.</p> - -<p>Sark cried: "Back, <i>chitza</i>! Stand clear of Xaymar!"</p> - -<p>For an instant Haral stiffened. Then, painfully, he forced himself to -his feet.</p> - -<p>But now a new voice interrupted, imperious and vibrant:</p> - -<p>"Who are you to give commands, fat beast, here in the innermost -sanctuary of Xaymar, queen of storms?"</p> - -<p>Haral pivoted.</p> - -<p>The woman on the cot now sat erect, her very stance a mirror of -haughtiness and pride.</p> - -<p>Anger flamed in Sark's puffy cheeks. "Who dares to question? I am -Sark—"</p> - -<p>"Yes. He is Sark," Haral cut in. He poured savage irony into his words. -"They say you are a goddess, Xaymar. But he—he is Sark, <i>gar</i> of the -space-raiders, a being so fierce and brave he does not even dare to -waken you himself!"</p> - -<p>"Silence, <i>chitza</i>!" shrieked the raider chief.</p> - -<p>Haral mocked him: "He seeks your secrets, Xaymar—if he can pay the -price with someone else's life, and not his own! As for commands—what -does he care that others call you goddess? He is the great <i>Gar</i> Sark—"</p> - -<p>Sark cried: "Kill the <i>starbo</i>—!"</p> - -<p>Now, for the first time, the woman men knew as Xaymar gave the gross -raider heed. Twisting, she faced him. Her hand touched the cord that -hung down beside the cot on which she rested, and even that simple -gesture was somehow pregnant with a nameless menace that halted Sark -and his crewmen in their tracks.</p> - -<p>In a voice suddenly cold as Pluto's ice-things, she said, "If he dies, -creature, you die with him!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For an instant there was a silence that echoed vibrant tension. Then, -calmly, Xaymar turned again to Haral. "And you, blue one—?" she -queried. "What of you? Why do you seek me?"</p> - -<p>Haral let her words hang for a moment. He looked out across the -crypt ... past Sark, the crewmen, Kyla....</p> - -<p>Kyla. She, too, rode with destiny; but it was a different destiny than -his, a destiny that tolled her doom already. The lines that etched -her face seemed even deeper now, set off by the contrast with the -shimmering spun gold of her hair. There was more than beauty in her. -There was spirit, also, born of stark courage, and all at once the very -sight of her brought a poignancy that stabbed him like a knife.</p> - -<p>But he pushed it back, and let his laugh ring out. "I seek the only -thing in the void worth seeking!" he slashed recklessly. "I seek power, -Xaymar—the power to fulfill my destiny and carve an empire. But I -never thought to find the key to it locked in the brain of a woman as -beautiful as you, or I'd have sought it sooner!"</p> - -<p>Xaymar's ripe lips parted. "Your tongue is skilled, blue man! It alone -should carry you to your empire!"</p> - -<p>"But does that skilled tongue have truth, too, my goddess? Or is it so -practiced that now it lies by instinct?" It was Kyla who lashed out, -from a place close by the dais. Passion had brought hot color to her -cheeks.</p> - -<p>"They lie, my goddess! All these aliens lie!" she rushed on fiercely. -"Hate and greed are the only creed they know. Already Ulna lies -drenched in the blood they've shed—the blood of your followers, ground -down by these monsters to slaves or less. Now, still thirsting for more -wealth, more power, they seek you, too, my goddess! They would make you -their slave—tear your secrets from you, that they may use the power -that lies within the lightning to reach out across the void for yet -more worlds to conquer—"</p> - -<p>The woman who was the living goddess Xaymar, queen of storms, stared -coolly down at her slim young priestess, Kyla.</p> - -<p>"You are of the <i>Shamon</i>, are you not?" she interrupted, and open -condescension was in her tone.</p> - -<p>"Yes, my goddess—"</p> - -<p>"A race of stuffy fools, the <i>Shamon</i>."</p> - -<p>"My goddess—!"</p> - -<p>"You prove my point. Who but a race of stuffy fools would try to pass -off a sleeping woman as a goddess? That is, unless they were knaves, -instead, seeking some gain by their deception."</p> - -<p>"But these aliens would destroy us—"</p> - -<p>"And why not, if the best you can do is pray to me for succor? The -blue one spoke true. Power is the only thing in all the void worth -seeking—for without it, man and race alike are doomed!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kyla stood very still. But, watching her, Haral could see her lips -begin to tremble. The color was draining from her face again. Her -features had taken on a stiff, unnatural set.</p> - -<p>"Then ... Xaymar, queen of storms, deserts her faithful ones for -aliens? She casts off my <i>Shamon</i> people ... me, her priestess—?"</p> - -<p>Xaymar tossed her head. "I tire of this dreary prattle!" she cried, and -gestured to a massive, tentacled Thorian at Sark's side. "You! Take -this <i>Shamon</i> drab away!"</p> - -<p>For the fraction of a second the Thorian's great saucer eyes rolled -from Xaymar to Sark to Kyla. Then, wordless, he undulated towards the -shrinking girl.</p> - -<p>And Haral, too, stared, still not quite believing that this incredible -creature, be she woman or devil or goddess, could so take command even -of Sark's own men.</p> - -<p>Then, again, he glimpsed the stiffness in Kyla's face, and a strange -uneasiness gripped him. Perhaps it was the way she stood, almost as if -waiting for the Thorian, with no thought of retreating.</p> - -<p>The Thorian whipped a tentacle towards her.</p> - -<p>But in the same instant Kyla, too, was moving. Her hair shimmered like -quicksilver as she slid beneath the Thorian's snake-like member. Her -hand darted beneath her filmy outer garment, then out again, jerking -forth her ray-gun. Her body twisted as she stabbed the weapon close to -the Thorian's monstrous bulk.</p> - -<p>Then she was blasting, at so short a range that the raider's flesh -burst asunder under the impact of the beam.</p> - -<p>The Thorian's tentacles lashed out in frenzy. But already the girl was -leaping back beyond his grasp.</p> - -<p>Now, she was turning; springing up onto the dais. Her voice rang with a -fury born of outrage:</p> - -<p>"Die, traitor! Die for the <i>Shamon</i> and for Ulna!"</p> - -<p>She blazed a ray straight for Xaymar's naked body.</p> - -<p>Haral threw himself forward, between the two women. Desperately, he -tried to knock Kyla's ray-gun up with one hand while he swept Xaymar -from her cot with the other.</p> - -<p>But his wound-stiffened shoulder caught. The ray-gun's energy bolt -burst on his own chest-plate. Its impact smashed him down. For a -split second he saw the crypt as a blazing kaleidoscope of action, a -maelstrom swirling in on a pain-wracked vortex that was his brain. He -caught the madness in Kyla's eyes; the sudden panic in the way that -Xaymar fell. Beyond them, the space-raiders' faces merged in a weird -blurred jumble.</p> - -<p>Then Sark was roaring, "Now! Now! Seize them—!"</p> - -<p>Frantically, Haral tried to tear clear of pain and shock and debris.</p> - -<p>But before he could move, Xaymar caught the cord that hung beside her. -Spasmodically, she jerked it down.</p> - -<p>He knew, somehow, that it was an alarm, even though the sound of its -signal was pitched too high and thin for human ears.</p> - -<p>The sight that followed was one of the strangest he had ever seen.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For out of the thousands of coleopteran burrows that pock-marked the -walls of this hidden crypt, a horde came leaping—a horde of great -scarlet beetles that hurtled down upon Sark and his raiders before they -could so much as turn. A living wave, they burst over the crewmen and -the dais—clutching the aliens, bearing them down; yet holding them, -not killing.</p> - -<p>Haral found himself flat on his back, pinned there by two monstrous -coleoptera. Kyla, too, lay prone, shaking under the touch of another of -the beetles.</p> - -<p>Haral twisted, looking for Xaymar.</p> - -<p>Alone out of all the throng, she stood erect, untouched. A horde of the -coleoptera had grouped themselves about her. Now they bent low in weird -attitudes of genuflection.</p> - -<p>The woman waved them back with a quick, impatient gesture. Swiftly, she -picked her way to Haral.</p> - -<p>The beetles that held him gave way before her. Gripping the blue man's -hand, she helped him to his feet.</p> - -<p>"You see, warrior—?" She lifted her hand in a sweeping, all-inclusive -gesture. "I know what power means—a power greater than any the void -has ever seen. I, too, have carved an empire: the empire of these -silent ones, the coleoptera. To them, I am truly goddess. They are mine -to command."</p> - -<p>Haral swayed a little. Tiny waves of nausea washed over him, rising -like vapors out of the pain flowing from his wound. With a sort of dull -detachment, he observed that blood had begun to drip from his left -hand's fingers once again.</p> - -<p>A trifle thickly, he said, "I hear your words. But what good is your -beetle empire? Where can it lead you? How far can you go?"</p> - -<p>The woman called Xaymar smiled a smile that was old when this outlaw -world was young. "Did you not say I held the key to your fate, blue -one? The coleoptera are my workers and my warriors. Because I saw the -role that they might play, I helped them gain the power of thought; so -now they help me turn my dreams to destiny."</p> - -<p>"Dreams?" Haral muttered. "Dreams indeed! They say you've lain here -sleeping a thousand years."</p> - -<p>Xaymar laughed softly, tauntingly. "And why do you suppose I slept so -long, blue warrior? Believe me, it was not out of boredom. No; I, too, -like you, reached out for power. But first I had to fill my legion's -ranks. I needed time for my coleoptera to breed and multiply, in -preparation for my day of conquest...."</p> - -<p>She paused, and the jewels with which her veil was set seemed to gleam -so bright that Haral closed his eyes against them. Once again the air -of nameless menace he'd felt before crept through the crypt.</p> - -<p>Xaymar's voice came as from afar: "We shall ride together, warrior, you -and I! You've saved my life, and you have a will that matches mine. -I've longed this thousand years and more for a man like you to share my -dreams...."</p> - -<p>The words went on and on, but Haral could no longer hear. The sickness -in him grew. He knew of a sudden that he was going to fall.</p> - -<p>Words and more words—an incoherent jumble. He was toppling now, yet -there was nothing he could do to stop it. In great, languorous spirals, -the floor of the dais was roaring up into his eyes.</p> - -<p>But as it approached, somehow, it grew dimmer ... dimmer ... dimmer....</p> - -<p>Then new words came. Or, rather, old words, thundering out of the black -sack of his memory.</p> - -<p>Kyla's words:</p> - -<p>"<i>Each night she took a different lover—and then, at the dawn, at her -command, each one was slain!</i>"</p> - -<p>The blackness closed in....</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VI</p> - - -<p>Haral woke in the glow of a wondrous iridescent warmth that pulsed -through every nerve and fiber of his body. The pain and weariness were -gone. Surging strength, new vigor, flooded through him.</p> - -<p>Slowly, still not quite believing his own senses, he opened his eyes.</p> - -<p>He discovered that the iridescence was no mere metaphor, no figment of -his imagination. For he lay in what seemed a boundless sphere of light -that painted his naked body with an interweaving, continually changing -tapestry of glowing color.</p> - -<p>He would have reached up to touch the wound in his shoulder, then, but -when he tried, he found he could not move; that his whole body was -somehow gripped in invisible bonds of force that held and molded him at -will. They twisted him, turned him, flexed and stretched his muscles. -Apparently without support, he moved through space and time—now -flat on his back; now curled first on one side and then the other; -now upright, upside down, cramped or contorted into an infinity of -positions.</p> - -<p>When his head rotated as under the pressure of unseen fingers, he at -last glimpsed his shoulder. With a shock, he saw it had grown well and -whole. No wound was visible, no scar apparent.</p> - -<p>The blue man relaxed, content to bask unresisting in this wondrous -healing bath of radiant energy.</p> - -<p>Then, slowly, the radiance dimmed. Haral felt himself sinking gently. -His back brushed what might have been resilient fabric, and he came to -rest. The last of the light had faded. He lay in utter darkness.</p> - -<p>Xaymar's voice reached out of the blackness close at hand: "Is the pain -gone from your body, warrior?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. All gone."</p> - -<p>"Yet this unit that gives out life and strength is but one of the least -of all my secrets!" The voice of the woman-goddess took on a deeper, -more vibrant timbre. "There are so many things I know—so many secrets -of life and death—But come! You shall see them with me!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A switch clicked as she spoke. Light came—a strange, halo-like glow -without visible source, utterly unlike the shimmering radiance that had -gone before. It formed a lambent wall against the blackness.</p> - -<p>Haral sat up. He found himself on a cot much like the one on which the -queen of storms herself had lain, back in the crypt.</p> - -<p>She was here beside him now, her lips curved in a smile of welcome -below the veil. She wore a close-fitting, high-necked garment of some -unique material that matched the glistening blue-black of her hair. -Yet, though the raiment masked her body's ripe curves with fabric, the -overall effect became one of accent rather than concealment.</p> - -<p>It made Haral suddenly conscious of his own nude frame. He shifted.</p> - -<p>Xaymar laughed. "There's a cloak on the rack beneath your cot, my blue -one." She turned. "Follow me."</p> - -<p>The note of mockery in her tone jabbed at Haral beyond all reason. But -he swept the cloak about him with one swift, incisive movement and fell -in beside the woman.</p> - -<p>He wondered where this road would take him. Whether it led to -destiny ... or death.</p> - -<p>Instinctively, at the thought, he shot a narrow-eyed glance at Xaymar, -and his blood quickened. The momentary irritation fell away. Perhaps -even death would not be too high a price to pay for a night as this -strange creature's lover.</p> - -<p>But why a single night? Why did she kill when the new day came?</p> - -<p>Above all, why did she wear that weird jeweled veil?</p> - -<p>For the moment, at least, he could not hope for answers. Shrugging, he -turned his attention elsewhere.</p> - -<p>The light was moving with them as they walked, like a torch afloat in -an encroaching sea of blackness. The echo of their footsteps told the -blue man that they must be in some vast, high-ceilinged chamber—a -cave, a hall.</p> - -<p>Yet they stood alone. There was no sign of life about them.</p> - -<p>Haral said: "What happened to the others?"</p> - -<p>"The ... others—?" Xaymar's voice held a curious note of hesitation.</p> - -<p>"Sark and his men. The priestess, Kyla."</p> - -<p>It was the woman's turn to shrug. "I let Sark go, on his promise that -he'd blast off within the hour he reached his ships."</p> - -<p>"You let him go—?" Haral stared. His tension and temper soared. "Are -you mad, woman? Sark's word's worth nothing. He'll blast off, yes—but -only to roar down on you here and smash you!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Xaymar stopped short. Before Haral realized what she was doing, she -lashed a slap out at him. Fire flashed through his face beneath her -fingers. "Have a care who you call mad, blue warrior!" she cried in -fury. "Men have died for less—as you can die—"</p> - -<p>The sight of her anger lit a spark within Haral. Of a sudden he did not -care whether this was death or destiny. Before she could escape, he -caught the hand with which she'd slapped him and jerked her to him.</p> - -<p>"The blood runs hot in others' veins as well as yours," he rasped out -tightly. "You've gone too long with your arrogance unchallenged. But -I'm the man to break that habit."</p> - -<p>Her nails raked bloody paths along his sides. Her feet beat at his -shinbones.</p> - -<p>Haral cursed her—and then, bringing her face to his by sheer brute -strength, he kissed her.</p> - -<p>Her body went limp against him. Her bruised lips welcomed his.</p> - -<p>He breathed deep; straightened. "And now—we'll see what's hidden -beneath that veil!"</p> - -<p>Her body went rigid again. She twisted as he clutched for the jeweled -mask. "No, blue man—"</p> - -<p>He caught the veil and ripped it off.</p> - -<p>In the same instant, before he could see her face, the light snapped -out.</p> - -<p>They stood there in the darkness, then, adventurer and goddess, bodies -tight together, the silence broken only by the hoarse rasp of their -breathing.</p> - -<p>Then Haral said, "I can wait as long as you can, Xaymar."</p> - -<p>She laughed softly. "You leave no doubt about your daring, do you, -warrior? Nor am I even angry with you for it. I like a man with the -strength to take what he desires. But not quite yet. You'll have to -wait a little while."</p> - -<p>"Then you'll wait, too—till the light goes on again."</p> - -<p>"Must I?" The mocking note crept back into her tone. "Don't press the -gods of chance too far...."</p> - -<p>"You'll wait," Haral said.</p> - -<p>As he spoke, he felt something touch his backbone a little above his -waist.</p> - -<p>The next second two great claws clutched him just below the ribs.</p> - -<p>He stiffened.</p> - -<p>Xaymar laughed again. "We'll wait!" she mocked him. "We'll wait till -the light goes on—or a coleopteron rips out your backbone!"</p> - -<p>Haral stood motionless. His hands all at once were slick with sweat.</p> - -<p>Xaymar's ripe body came full against him. Her hands touched his face, -pulled his lips down to hers. Then—fiercely, brutally—as he had -kissed her, she kissed him.</p> - -<p>Her words came, a vibrant whisper: "You are the one who's mad, blue -man! But it is a madness that can lead you to your own dark destiny—if -you live!"</p> - -<p>She twisted free.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There was a moment of black silence. Then the light snapped on. Once -more the veil masked Xaymar's face as it had before.</p> - -<p>The mandibles let go of Haral. Stiffly, he looked around.</p> - -<p>Half a dozen of the great scarlet beetles stood within the lighted -circle, watching him with cold, multi-faceted insectile eyes.</p> - -<p>He shuddered.</p> - -<p>As if there had been no interruption, Xaymar said: "You wonder why -I let Sark go. But I had no choice. He told of a thing called a -cymosynthesizer with which he could destroy our planetoid of Ulna."</p> - -<p>"And if he lied—?"</p> - -<p>"He did not. I looked into his brain and saw he spoke the truth as best -he knew it."</p> - -<p>"You ... looked into his brain?"</p> - -<p>"I have that power." Xaymar's smile was cryptic, whether with dark -mirth or ancient wisdom Haral could not say. "Thoughts to me are things -to grasp like tools or weapons. When I focus my brain I can turn -another mind inside out and drain it dry."</p> - -<p>An uneasiness chilled Haral's spine. "You speak in jest...."</p> - -<p>"You mean—you wish I did?" The woman laughed aloud, and the light -glinted in her hair as on dark waters. "In jest, then—I looked into -Sark's brain, and when I saw the things I saw, I turned him and his -crewmen free."</p> - -<p>Haral grimaced. "And he'll come back."</p> - -<p>"Of course. I saw that, too. But I do not care." Again Xaymar smiled -her cryptic smile. "Now, come! You shall see why I await him without -fear!"</p> - -<p>They walked on again. Then, at last, there was a door ahead and, beyond -it, a long, dark passageway.</p> - -<p>Haral frowned as he strode through the murk beside the woman. Once -more, as he had a dozen times before, he thought of Kyla, with her -dreams and rippling golden hair and slim young body. She was so -different from this dark voluptuary who was a living goddess. Yet she, -too, had shared the dangers of this adventure with him.</p> - -<p>What had happened to her? He wondered. But something told him to make -no query.</p> - -<p>Another door loomed. Xaymar cried, "Behold my warriors!"</p> - -<p>She flung the portal wide.</p> - -<p>Haral stared.</p> - -<p>For here were no coleoptera. Here lay what appeared to be a mausoleum, -instead—another vast, echoing chamber, dim-lighted and stretching out -as far as the eye could see, with banked, sealed crypts rising row on -row from floor to ceiling, like some monstrous, many-celled honeycomb.</p> - -<p>Xaymar asked: "Now do you see why I slept so willingly for a thousand -years, my warrior? In each cell here is sealed an egg, preserved secure -from harm and the ravages of time. From each egg, when the time to -strike has come, will spring one of my fighting coleoptera—"</p> - -<p>She broke off; hurried the blue man up a ramp to another level.</p> - -<p>Here were stacked Q-ray tubes, light-guns, and blasters, piled high in -bins by millions upon millions.</p> - -<p>"Come! There is still more!"</p> - -<p>They climbed another ramp.</p> - -<p>At the top, before a heavy door, a huge coleopteron waited.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The woman who was the living goddess Xaymar paused, head tilted. It was -as if she were listening to some silent message. Then she turned, half -towards Haral, and her lips curved in a strange smile that was somehow -infinitely evil. She spoke no word, but even the blue man could feel -the hammering, affirmative impact of her thought-waves: "Yes ... -yes ... yes...."</p> - -<p>The great scarlet beetle moved swiftly off down another corridor.</p> - -<p>Xaymar moved close to the door. Like magic, it opened before her.</p> - -<p>She said: "Beyond this door, no being but me has ever gone, blue -warrior! But now you, too, shall enter!"</p> - -<p>Haral followed her across the threshold.</p> - -<p>The door swung shut behind them.</p> - -<p>The room in which they stood was cramped and box-like, with walls and -floor and ceiling of dully gleaming metal. As the portal closed, a -feeling of motion pulled at Haral's vitals. It dawned on him that they -had entered some sort of carrier that even now was hurtling them upward -with the speed of lightning.</p> - -<p>Then the feeling left him. The door opened once more, and they stepped -out into the hot yellow light of an Ulnese day.</p> - -<p>Shielding his eyes against the sudden glare, Haral looked about.</p> - -<p>Above them rose a gigantic crystal bubble, a dozen times as large -as the one beneath which Xaymar had lain sleeping. Set high amid -craggy grey and green and purple peaks, it thrust up like a beacon, a -watch-tower, into the yellow sky. Concentric circular tracks on which -were mounted banks of strange, snub-nosed projectors, each set at a -different angle, ran round the globe above his head. Control boards, a -mass of indicator dials and switches, were set at intervals along the -metal-walled, chest-high base.</p> - -<p>Xaymar touched his arm. "Your trappings, blue man...."</p> - -<p>He turned to her gesture. There, stacked in a niche beside the shaft -up which they'd come, lay his light-lance, his armor, the clothes he'd -worn.</p> - -<p>"Your steed, too...." The woman pointed through the crystal, down the -slope.</p> - -<p>Haral stared. His great blue Mercurian <i>hwalon</i> dragon moved -restlessly to and fro in a narrow natural yard bounded on three sides -by steep rock walls less than half an Earth mile from them. Two -coleoptera stood guard along the open side.</p> - -<p>Narrow-eyed, Haral turned back to the woman. "But why? What made you -bring my gear here, and my <i>hwalon</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Is it not plain?" shrugged Xaymar. "You are a warrior, and I have need -of such to lead my beetle hordes to battle."</p> - -<p>"To battle—?"</p> - -<p>"My day has come. In a little while I shall reach out and seize all -Ulna. You know the ways of the aliens who now hold it, so you shall be -in the van of my advancing legions. You'll show them when and where to -strike; how best to meet the alien weapons."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Haral tried to probe the blankness that was her veil; to fathom the -mind of this strange woman who hid her beauty behind its jewel-sprayed -folds.</p> - -<p>At last he said: "You've picked the wrong man, Xaymar. I'm a warrior, -yes—but not such a fool that I'll try to lead your ground-bound hordes -out to battle against space ships. The wars of the void are fought in -the air, not down in the muck and mire of a pygmy planetoid. Sark would -butcher your beetles from above before they'd marched a mile."</p> - -<p>Xaymar's lips curved. The clash of cymbals, of swords and shields, was -in her laugh.</p> - -<p>"This one war will be different, blue man! We'll fight to seize and -hold the ground till Ulna's taken. Then will be time enough to talk of -ships that slash across the void, and battles for planets fought in -deep space."</p> - -<p>"But Sark's fleet—"</p> - -<p>"Sark will have no fleet!" the woman slashed back fiercely. Her whole -body swayed, and even here, in the full light of the blazing yellow -sky, her hair showed black as a Martian <i>koboc's</i> sinister hood. "You -came here seeking my secret, warrior. I mean that you—"</p> - -<p>Close at hand, a bell rang shrilly.</p> - -<p>Xaymar halted in mid-sentence. Whirling, she flicked a switch on the -nearest of the control boards.</p> - -<p>A plate like that of a visiscreen flashed on. Swiftly, the woman -adjusted dials.</p> - -<p>Blurs on the plate resolved into a horde of rising silver ships. Like -screaming meteors, they lanced into the sky.</p> - -<p>"Sark's ships?" the woman who was a fleshly goddess asked Haral coolly.</p> - -<p>He nodded. "Yes. Carriers. Light craft, small and slow enough to fight -close-in on a world the size of Ulna."</p> - -<p>"But not all Sark's fleet?"</p> - -<p>"No. His great raiders would have no room here to maneuver."</p> - -<p>"Then Sark himself still lingers at the spaceport, waiting to see how -I'll meet this latest challenge."</p> - -<p>"What—?"</p> - -<p>Xaymar laughed. "He fears me, blue man. I read it in his brain as he -sat there in my crypt. And I learned more: this weapon of his you call -a cymosynthesizer is useless once he's in the air. So he'll leave it on -the ground and then stay with it for the sake of the protection that -it offers, instead of risking his own fat neck in one of the ships he -sends against me."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The ships on the screen were looming ever larger now. Streaks of silver -light set against dullness, they hurtled closer ... closer....</p> - -<p>Forcing casualness into his voice, Haral gestured to them. "And what -will you do when at last they reach us?" He touched what appeared to be -some sort of triangulation finder. "At the rate they're moving, they -should be here within another minute."</p> - -<p>Turning, not answering, Xaymar stepped to a huge switch-box set in the -center of the bubble's floor and threw a lever. An eerie, whining sound -rose, and with it a faint smell of ozone.</p> - -<p>The woman threw a second lever. A third. A fourth.</p> - -<p>The whining grew louder, the odor stronger.</p> - -<p>Xaymar moved back to the control board. Almost idly, she said: "They -call me queen of storms."</p> - -<p>Haral stayed silent. But of a sudden his heart was pounding.</p> - -<p>"Do you know the power of the lightning, blue man? Can you vision the -force that lies locked within it?"</p> - -<p>The whining continued to rise. It was almost a thin scream now.</p> - -<p>Still Haral waited, wordless.</p> - -<p>Xaymar twisted dials again. The warrior saw that her knuckles showed -white through the skin. Her voice took on new intensity, new vibrance:</p> - -<p>"You dream of power, blue man—but never can you have imagined power -such as this!" She laughed, a little wildly. "I cannot pretend to -explain these things so you can understand them. But a thousand years -ago I learned how to create what I choose to call an ionic vacuum—an -electrolytic vortex that sucks in electrons from the atmosphere's -neutral atoms. The very process sets up a storm condition. Wind, rain, -turbulence—they all come with it."</p> - -<p>Like an echo to her words, a shadow fell across the inverted crystal -bowl in which they stood.</p> - -<p>Incredulously, Haral shot a fast glance skyward. An icy knot took form -deep in his midriff.</p> - -<p>Where mere seconds before he had gazed up into the bright, clear yellow -of the Ulnese day, now clouds were swirling! Before his very eyes, they -grew and darkened.</p> - -<p>Through his haze of shock, Xaymar's words came dimly:</p> - -<p>"A storm is a dynamo, blue one—a dynamo greater than it lies within -man's power even to conceive! It generates the lightning. Mighty bolts -crash from it down to earth—spent, wasted. But these projectors,"—she -gestured to the massed banks that lined the tracks overhead—"these -projectors can direct its fury! They focus its shafts, throw out -magnetic targets for it...."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Now the whole sky above them had grown dark. For as far as Haral could -see, the storm-clouds gathered. The roar of thunder drowned out the -shrilly keening whine that filled his tortured ears. Lightning leaped -in blinding sheets and chains and flashes.</p> - -<p>With an effort, the blue man tore his eyes from the violence overhead -and looked again to the viewer plate by the control board.</p> - -<p>It blazed with the glint of Sark's carrier ships. A rushing silver wall -of death, they hurtled ever nearer.</p> - -<p>"Twenty seconds more!" Xaymar cried into his ear. "Twenty seconds—and -they perish!"</p> - -<p>The hurtling ships overflowed the screen. Hulls blotted out the sky.</p> - -<p>"Ten seconds!"</p> - -<p>The plate blurred, out of focus.</p> - -<p>"Look! They come!" shrieked Xaymar, and there was a vindictive triumph -in her scream that whispered of something close to madness.</p> - -<p>Haral followed her sweeping gesture—up, to the sky itself, and the -rocket-borne death that dwelt there.</p> - -<p>There were Sark's ships—a fleet, a horde. Now they lanced downward -on their final strike. The roar of their rockets slashed through the -storm.</p> - -<p>In spite of himself, Haral felt the clutch of fear.</p> - -<p>Overhead, the projector banks were tracking. The lightning was a -blinding, continuous flash.</p> - -<p>"Is it power you want?" screamed Xaymar madly. "I'll show you power, -blue warrior!"</p> - -<p>Her hand darted out and pressed a button.</p> - -<p>The heavens exploded.</p> - -<p>Desperately, Haral kept his eyes on the raider fleet. Through the blaze -and glare, he saw great, jagged bolts spear down upon it. Some ships -were split, some torn asunder. A hundred smashed themselves to atoms on -the cruel crags of the mountains.</p> - -<p>Others simply disappeared in mid-air.</p> - -<p>In ten seconds not one was left still in the sky.</p> - -<p>Haral sagged limp against an upright.</p> - -<p>How many battles had he seen across the void? How many ships gone down -in blood and flame?</p> - -<p>But beside this, all the rest were nothing. Where they left off, this -cataclysmic holocaust began.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was the answer to his dream of power, his pact with destiny. Given -this weapon—yes, this weapon only—the universe was his!</p> - -<p>He swayed in the grip of his mad ambition. His heart was a driving, -hammering piston.</p> - -<p>Xaymar said: "Throw the switches, blue one. Let the storm pass."</p> - -<p>Numbly, Haral stepped to the box and slammed down the four heavy levers.</p> - -<p>The whining died away. The smell of ozone faded.</p> - -<p>The woman came close to him. "We shall rule the universe together, -warrior...."</p> - -<p>He looked at her ... at raven hair and ripe, half-parted lips and -slender fingers ... the temptation, incarnate, that lay in her perfect -body.</p> - -<p>She whispered: "Kiss me, warrior!"</p> - -<p>A tremor ran through him. He pulled her to him.</p> - -<p>Her head went back. Her lips were trembling.</p> - -<p>Breathing deep, Haral kissed her. The softness of her mouth made him a -little giddy. Her lips clung to his. He could feel her arms about him, -the pressure of her breasts against him.</p> - -<p>But the jewels in her veil gouged his cheek.</p> - -<p>What did that bizarre mask hide?</p> - -<p>And there were Kyla's words again:</p> - -<p>"<i>Each night she took a different lover—and then, at the dawn, at her -command, each one was slain!</i>"</p> - -<p>He lifted his head, then, and the living goddess whom men called Xaymar -laughed softly, still in his arms.</p> - -<p>"How many men have sought my kisses, warrior? Yet I ask you to claim -them!"</p> - -<p>Haral did not speak.</p> - -<p>Her midnight hair brushed his face. "There will be nights without -number, blue one—nights when you'll forget even your ambition in my -arms!"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>She drew back a fraction. "Why, then, are you so silent? Am I not -beautiful? Can you not feel the warm fire I promise you?" Her voice -took on a sudden edge. "Or—is it that you would rather hold that -blonde <i>Shamon tirot</i> they call Kyla in your arms?"</p> - -<p>With an effort, Haral held his face immobile. "Now you speak as a -woman, not a goddess. Kyla was your priestess. I sought her only to -guide me to you."</p> - -<p>Xaymar pushed back from him. "Have a care how you lie to me, blue man! -I looked into your mind while you lay unconscious. She was there, that -Kyla! Your first thoughts were of her!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Haral let his words go harsh and angry: "You still talk like a jealous -woman! She gave me only trouble. I care nothing for her."</p> - -<p>"Trouble? That was all she gave you?" Xaymar taunted. Her lips twisted. -"Then you'll be happy to hear what I've done with her, warrior!"</p> - -<p>"What you've done—?" Haral's words came blurted. In spite of himself, -tension rolled up within him. "What do you mean? Where is she?"</p> - -<p>"You'll laugh with me, blue man! She tried to kill me, yet I was -merciful, as a goddess should be. Instead of tearing her heart out, I -freed her, and found a mate to woo her."</p> - -<p>"A mate—?"</p> - -<p>"A mate fit for her kind of <i>tirot</i>." Xaymar laughed, and of a sudden -the spell of nameless menace and infinite evil Haral had caught before -rang in the sound. "I gave her to Sark."</p> - -<p>"Sark—!" Haral reeled.</p> - -<p>"Yes, Sark." The woman moved back one sinuous step, then another, like -a great cat toying with its prey. "He asked that I let him take her -away from Ulna with him. I said no. But then, later, it came to me that -I could devise no greater suffering for her, so I sent her to him."</p> - -<p>"You ... sent her to that creature?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. Already she's on her way there." A fiend would have envied -Xaymar's smile. "That was why the coleopteron was wailing for me at the -shaft below here. He sought my last decision—and I said, 'Yes. Good -riddance. Let Sark have her.'"</p> - -<p>Through a scarlet haze, Haral cried out, "Curse you, Xaymar!"</p> - -<p>He was moving forward in the same instant, lashing out at her, and he -saw her mouth go slack with shock at his sudden onslaught.</p> - -<p>Then his fist hammered home on her jaw: The force of it lifted her and -slammed her back across the bubble, to land in a heap on the floor, -crumpled and unconscious.</p> - -<p>Then the haze cleared. Numbly, Haral stared down at her.</p> - -<p>Why had he done it? What did he care whether Sark got Kyla? He'd meant -it when he said she'd given him naught but trouble. His destiny lay -here—here, with Xaymar, queen of storms; here, with the secrets that -would give him the power to carve out his dream empire. This other was -sheer madness—without sense or logic; without even volition.</p> - -<p>Yet he'd done it.</p> - -<p>And now—?</p> - -<p>Already, out there in the green-grey-purple Ulnese mountains, a slim -<i>Shamon</i> girl was being dragged to a monster.</p> - -<p>Almost without thinking, he looked to his armor.</p> - -<p>He was half-way down the slope to his <i>hwalon</i> before it dawned on him -that, with Xaymar unconscious and at his mercy, he'd still forgotten -even to look beneath her veil.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VII</p> - - -<p>Bleakly, Haral looked down on the knot of coleoptera moving through the -valley below.</p> - -<p>There could be no mistake. This was the party. Even from here, sitting -his <i>hwalon</i> high amid the barren crags above them, he could glimpse -the shimmering gold of the captive Kyla's hair.</p> - -<p>He pondered. Nearly a dozen of the giant beetles were in the party, -guarding the girl on all sides.</p> - -<p>Further, considering their mastery of mind-to-mind communication, it -seemed impossible that they had not heard by now of his escape and -mission.</p> - -<p>Almost affectionately, he touched his own worn helmet. With it to -insulate his brain, at least he had little to fear from the weird mind -control that was their deadliest weapon.</p> - -<p>As for the odds, what real difference did it make whether they were a -dozen to one against him, or a hundred? From any angle, his course was -madness, and no calculation could make it otherwise. He'd thrown out -logic when he struck Xaymar down and blasted the two beetles on guard -over his <i>hwalon</i>. Now his fate lay with the gods of the void and his -own right arm.</p> - -<p>Laughing harshly, he wheeled the dragon. Then, light-lance raised and -ready, he moved on down the rock-strewn defile for a closer survey of -the situation.</p> - -<p>When he came out of the gorge, he'd quartered the distance between him -and his quarry. Thoughtful, narrow-eyed, he studied the group in more -detail from the cover of a boulder.</p> - -<p>But the coleoptera were obviously on guard. Two ranged ahead as scouts. -Another pair closed up the rear, while one held to either side of the -procession's line of march as outriders. The rest of the party stayed -close-grouped about the girl.</p> - -<p>Again the blue man checked the rugged terrain, searching for some -accident of ground that would give him the chance he needed.</p> - -<p>Ahead, the valley narrowed sharply, then divided. One of the two spurs, -that on the left, was cramped and tortuous, a cleft-like gully. The -other, smoother and wider, had walls so steep that it could not but -force in the beetles covering the company's flanks.</p> - -<p>Haral breathed a fraction faster. Spurring the <i>hwalon</i> forward, -following the high ground and taking advantage of every rise and rift -and clump of cover, he headed full-tilt for the narrow left spur of the -divided valley, racing to reach it ahead of the coleoptera.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>His mount strained to the task. Clawing through broken stone, around -boulders, up a dozen near-sheer rock faces, it matched the pace of the -beetles as they hurried along the infinitely smoother road that was the -valley. Then, slowly, it began to pull ahead. Rear guard, main group, -scouts—one after another, they were lost to the blue man's view as the -great dragon surged to the fore.</p> - -<p>The last rise loomed. Haral pressed the <i>hwalon</i> up it.</p> - -<p>A moment later, they were plunging perilously down the steep wall of -the left spur.</p> - -<p>At the bottom, Haral wheeled the dragon to the right, back towards the -spot where the two spurs came together. Riding swiftly to its mouth, -he took up a position in a side crevice where boulders permitted him a -view of the valley's main course, while at the same time screening him -from the view of the coleoptera.</p> - -<p>A rattle of stones, the rustle of wing-sheaths, warned him of the -beetles' approach. Seconds later, the two advance scouts came into view.</p> - -<p>Haral sat statue-still in the <i>hwalon's</i> saddle. He shifted his grip -closer to his lance's trigger.</p> - -<p>The scouts came abreast his hiding-place, so close he could catch their -smell and see their ray-tubes' glitter. He held his breath.</p> - -<p>Then they passed on. Haral let out air.</p> - -<p>Mandibles clacking like deadly castinets, the outriders moved up.</p> - -<p>Again Haral froze.</p> - -<p>But they, too, passed, unheeding.</p> - -<p>Now louder sounds drifted to him. There was a whispering of hairy feet -on sand; a slither of insectile bodies.</p> - -<p>And, through it, a silvery voice rose, singing.</p> - -<p>The main body of the coleoptera appeared. Kyla pocketed among them.</p> - -<p>Her hair was mud-caked now, and streaked and straggling. Her garments, -too, were torn, and bruises and cuts showed through the rents.</p> - -<p>Yet still she sang her <i>Shamon</i> song, head high and back unbending. -And if she reeled and stumbled as she walked, it was weariness and not -defeat that caused it.</p> - -<p>It came to Haral in that moment that even madness had its glory ... -that even death could be worthwhile.</p> - -<p>He leaned forward, lance poised and focused on the coleoptera that -shoved and buffeted her along.</p> - -<p>But the time was not yet. Savagely, he fought down the rage that -seethed within him, waiting while the beetles and their captive moved -on past the spur that hid him and the <i>hwalon</i>.</p> - -<p>Then, swiftly, before the rear guard could appear, he drove his great -blue dragon forward—out of the crevice, out from behind the screening -boulders, out of the spur canyon itself.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Like a thunderbolt, then, he charged, straight at the rear of the knot -of huge scarlet beetles. His shout rose, a battle-cry of fury. The -<i>hwalon's</i> rush drummed a death-roll.</p> - -<p>A glad cry burst from Kyla's lips. She tried to dart to Haral.</p> - -<p>But fatigue slowed her. A coleopteron sprang upon her from behind, and -she crashed to the ground. Great mandibles reached out to crush her.</p> - -<p>Haral blazed with his light-lance. The beetle died.</p> - -<p>The girl lurched to her knees. But she could not rise. Another -coleopteron rushed in to seize her.</p> - -<p>Haral's <i>hwalon</i> lunged to her. Catching her up in one mighty claw, it -dragged her close and stood above her, defying the beetles with all -the menace of its fangs and talons and horrid, hook-beaked head.</p> - -<p>Haral whipped round his light-lance just as the pursuing insect flicked -on its Q-ray. The savage jolt of the beam striking home rocked him -in the saddle. But the heavy copronium armor's breastplate held. He -triggered the lance.</p> - -<p>The beetle spun crazily, legs kicking, as the life seared out of it.</p> - -<p>The <i>hwalon</i> lifted Kyla. Swinging forward, heedless of the other -Q-rays that now appeared close about him, the blue man caught her and -dragged her up beside him.</p> - -<p>Already, the <i>hwalon</i> was backing and pivoting with the amazing agility -of its kind.</p> - -<p>Again and again, Haral triggered the light-lance, clearing a path for -them. They raced back up the valley in the same direction from which -they'd come.</p> - -<p>The two coleoptera of the rear guard, close in now, made one futile -effort to cut them down. But the furious rush of the blue man and his -dragon was too much for them. They broke, scrambling desperately for -safety.</p> - -<p>Then Haral, girl and <i>hwalon</i> were out of the narrow part of the -valley. The broad expanse where travel was easier and faster lay before -them.</p> - -<p>But instead of taking it, the blue man turned the dragon back into the -bleak, craggy hills. Grimly, he urged his mount on deeper and deeper -into the wild mountains, all ups and downs and steep rock ledges. He -still had not spoken to the slim young <i>Shamon</i> priestess.</p> - -<p>He wondered if it were because he was afraid to put into words the -thoughts that gnawed within him.</p> - -<p>But now she turned to him. "Where do we go, Haral?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He shrugged and gave her a twisted smile. "Where is there to go, -Priestess Kyla? To the city, the spaceport. It's our only hope."</p> - -<p>"The spaceport—?"</p> - -<p>"If we stay on Ulna, sooner or later Sark or Xaymar or the coleoptera -will hunt us down. We've got to blast off, somehow, and that quickly."</p> - -<p>She looked at him for a long moment, and it suddenly came to him that -he had never realized before that her eyes were blue.</p> - -<p>Blue, and calm, and very steady.</p> - -<p>She said quietly, "I'll never leave Ulna, Haral."</p> - -<p>There were the words he'd feared, already spoken. They tied a knot of -tension in him.</p> - -<p>"Not even after all this? Not even with your life at stake?"</p> - -<p>"No, Haral. Not even if it means death in Sark's arena."</p> - -<p>He smiled again, wryly, because he knew that if he didn't smile, the -dark thoughts that came with his tension would boil over. "It's up to -you. But I've no taste for Sark's tender mercies, and even less for -Xaymar's."</p> - -<p>She said, "I'm sorry," and would have turned away. But now he would -not, could not, let her. He lashed out:</p> - -<p>"What do you mean, you're sorry? Sorry for what? That not everyone's -fool enough to want to die on your crazy rockpile planet?"</p> - -<p>Her eyes flashed. "Are you so afraid of death, then, blue man?"</p> - -<p>"You ask it?" His fury ate into his words like acid. "You <i>dare</i> to ask -it, after the blood I've shed just to save your lovely neck?"</p> - -<p>The blue eyes lost their fire. "Haral, I'm sorry. Truly sorry—"</p> - -<p>But the rage that was in him now would not let him take up the peace he -knew she was trying to offer.</p> - -<p>"What do I care for dying? I've gambled my life a thousand times, -a thousand ways. But curse me for a <i>chitza</i> if I want to die for -nothing! What would it gain me or anyone else if I stayed here and -drowned in my own blood in Sark's arena? If I perish, at least let it -be somewhere along the road to empire, not here in the backwash of this -pest-hole you call Ulna!"</p> - -<p>The words quenched his fire, and as it died a strange confusion churned -within him, a discomfiture that seemed to come only when he spoke with -this slim girl, Kyla. Furiously, he riveted his gaze straight to the -pathless wilderness ahead, trying to lose himself in scrutiny of the -rocky course the <i>hwalon</i> followed.</p> - -<p>But Kyla asked, "Is that, then, your only dream, Haral? A dream of -empire? Is that the height of your ambition?"</p> - -<p>"What—?" He turned in the saddle to stare at her, as much for her tone -as for her words. He thought he almost caught a note of sadness.</p> - -<p>Or perhaps it was disillusion.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In spite of him, it brought back the old, hot-blooded, restless, -reckless fever: the fever that had carried him through all these years -of blood and battle.</p> - -<p>He threw out his challenge fiercely:</p> - -<p>"What better dream can a fighting man have than one of empire, -priestess? What higher ambition?"</p> - -<p>She bit her lip. Her eyes fell before his onslaught.</p> - -<p>"They spell out power, my priestess!" he cried in bitter triumph. -"Power, do you hear? Without it, a man's as nothing—sport for the -rabble, fair game for every passing knave. With it—"</p> - -<p>"With it, you can be a butcher and a tyrant!" the girl slashed in upon -him. He could see the lines of strain and inner tumult etch deeper into -her face. "You can carve your bloody way like Sark himself, till some -worse monster topples you from your throne!"</p> - -<p>Haral clenched his fist. He threw his words like thundering boulders.</p> - -<p>"Strength rules the void, woman! Give me the strength to carve my way -and I'll ask no more!"</p> - -<p>The girl's face whitened. Her lips trembled. Passion echoed in her -voice: "But ... is strength enough? Can you find the things you really -seek in strength alone?"</p> - -<p>"With power, I can do anything!"</p> - -<p>"No! Power is not enough—"</p> - -<p>"It is! It is!" He could not hold down his heat, his fervor.</p> - -<p>But how could he tell her? How could he make her understand?</p> - -<p>And why did he care?</p> - -<p>He clutched the saddle and stared bleakly off across the crags. A flood -of memories washed through him. And because their roots struck so very -deep, he knew before he spoke that in spite of all his efforts, his -words were going to come out as cold and hard as the stones of these -barren mountains.</p> - -<p>He said tightly: "I was born on Pallas. My ancestors came out to the -asteroid belt from Earth as colonists, in the days when Earth still was -mighty."</p> - -<p>He could see the girl's eyes widen. "Then ... you are of Earth—?"</p> - -<p>"Of Earth?" Haral laughed harshly. "Call it that if you will. But what -place is there for any colonist, anywhere, when the mother planet -falls? The first of my people came out three hundred years ago. But by -the time Earth at last was vanquished, no one cared from whence they -came, or what happened to them. They were left on their own, to stay -and face their troubles. The weak died; the strong survived."</p> - -<p>He broke off, and looked away. The memories were roaring now. Emotion -choked him. But it was as if he were a witness, speaking out in behalf -of all his hopeless, derelict kind. Coldly, brutally, he forced himself -to speak on:</p> - -<p>"I grew up watching the <i>Malyas</i> come, and the <i>Chonyas</i>, and a hundred -mongrel raiders. When I was twelve, Ibarak's killers cut my father -down, so Ibarak could add my mother to his harem."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He heard Kyla's low gasp of horror, and the shock that was in the sound -stabbed him with a feeling that held both pain and, somehow, a fierce, -vindictive pleasure.</p> - -<p>He said harshly: "It was his mistake. She slit his throat, and then her -own."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no—!"</p> - -<p>"Yes!" He swung round, and looked squarely into the slim, lovely -<i>Shamon's</i> eyes. "I swore an oath that day, my priestess—because that -day I saw that nothing mattered save the power to take and hold. Love, -honor, duty—what did they count? What had they done for my father, my -mother, a million others like them? So I swore I'd live to see the time -when no living creature in all the universe would dare to strike a blow -against me. I swore I'd have the might to smash them, one and all!"</p> - -<p>There was silence, then, for a vibrant moment, broken only by the -scraping of the <i>hwalon's</i> claws as they moved over rock and slides of -gravel.</p> - -<p>At last Kyla said, "What can I say, Haral?" And now pain was in her -voice, too.</p> - -<p>Wordless, tight-drawn, Haral nodded and turned away.</p> - -<p>But then the girl spoke again: "I have long been Xaymar's priestess, -blue one, and a priestess learns many things. Namboina himself it was -who taught me to read men's hearts from the words they speak and the -things they do, no matter how confused and torn they themselves might -be."</p> - -<p>Haral shrugged, not turning. Dimly, the priestess' words drifted to him -through the haze of his own dark thoughts and feelings:</p> - -<p>"Your life has been bitter, warrior—as empty as the void itself. But -the thing you've sought, the thing you seek, is not an empire, no -matter what you think. Even if fate should give you the power of which -you dream, its savor would turn to ashes in your mouth."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A welling anger touched the blue man, and he twisted in its clutches. -He'd saved this slim <i>Shamon</i> girl from the coleoptera; thrown away his -own chance at destiny for her. Why could she not now let him be?</p> - -<p>Yet still she spoke, almost as if she'd read his thoughts:</p> - -<p>"You care nothing for destiny; not really. For if you did, you'd not be -here with me now. What you truly seek is an excuse for living, a warmth -to fill the void inside you. There lies the root of your recklessness, -your mad ambition."</p> - -<p>The anger grew in Haral, and sweat drenched him inside his armor. The -very rocks through which they rode seemed out of shape, distorted.</p> - -<p>"Do you think me a fool or a child, then, not even able to see my own -self straight? Or perhaps you believe me mad. Is that it?" He spat. -"Why did you bother to come with me? Why didn't you stay with your -thrice-cursed beetles?"</p> - -<p>But Kyla's voice stayed calm ... so calm it sent new fury through him.</p> - -<p>She said: "I have no quarrel with you, warrior; and the thing you did -for me is worth more credit than your words would ever give it. That is -why I say that power will never fill the hunger in you. What you need -is a cause to fight for and to live for, not greed and blood and booty."</p> - -<p>"So you'd like to see me play the fool for Ulna! You want me, -single-handed, to take on Sark and Xaymar and the coleoptera!"</p> - -<p>As Haral lashed out, the <i>hwalon</i> topped another ridge.</p> - -<p>In the distance loomed the squat buildings of the shabby spaceport town -that was their destination.</p> - -<p>Haral forgot his fury. Frowning, he headed the dragon down a steep -ravine.</p> - -<p>A gnawing doubt was growing in him. This was all so smooth, so easy....</p> - -<p>Grimly, he debated the chance of ambush before they reached the town.</p> - -<p>Kyla said: "Truly, Ulna needs a champion—"</p> - -<p>Haral bared his teeth and cursed aloud.</p> - -<p>And as he cried out, the world exploded.</p> - -<p>He didn't even see the blaster that knocked him down.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VIII</p> - - -<p>They dragged Haral out of his cell just after noon.</p> - -<p>Wearily, he raised his eyes from his shackled wrists and, squinting at -the sudden glare, looked up into the yellow Ulnese sky.</p> - -<p>He wondered, bleakly, if he'd ever get another chance to taste its -freedom.</p> - -<p>Then a <i>Pervod</i> took one arm, a <i>dau</i> the other. Roughly, they hurried -him into the central park with shoves and buffets.</p> - -<p>A shout went up from the lusting crowd—a shout for blood, a shout for -slaughter. A Martian leaped forward to trip him. A Thorian slapped a -tentacle savagely across his face, and he knew from the blinding pain -that flesh had torn away under its suction.</p> - -<p>Then he was stumbling through the blood-soaked sand of the arena to the -bank of seats where the raider chieftains waited.</p> - -<p>And there was Sark, just as before, sprawled out like some great, slimy -slug in his ornate Uranian riding-chair.</p> - -<p>The raider's fat-rimmed eyes gleamed bright with murderous triumph now. -He bared his teeth in a sinister smirk, and his whole gross body shook -with a cruel laughter.</p> - -<p>But his hand never left the cymosynthesizer switch.</p> - -<p>There, too, sat Xaymar: living goddess, queen of storms, the prize that -had drawn Sark here to Ulna.</p> - -<p>Even now, standing there before her, Haral felt the spell of her -vibrant, voluptuous loveliness. With wrenching force, it came to him -what a fool he'd been to go against her; to toss away her favor and all -it stood for in order to take his own mad road.</p> - -<p>Her ripe lips curved into a smile.</p> - -<p>He wondered if she were laughing at him behind the jeweled veil that -masked her.</p> - -<p>But if she were, what did it matter? What difference could it make to -him, in this last hour of his bitter odyssey?</p> - -<p>Then, half-unconsciously, he straightened. His thoughts, at least, -were still his own. No one need know that regret, despair, welled high -within him. He could die as he'd lived, by the warrior's creed, head -high and neck unbending.</p> - -<p>It was as if the very gesture rekindled some near-dead spark within -him. A little of his feeling of hopelessness and black dejection seemed -to fall away. Coolly, almost, he gazed about him.</p> - -<p>It dawned on him, now, that the mob gathered here to watch his downfall -was not quite the same as the one he'd faced that other day when he'd -first blazed his path across Sark's devilish drive for conquest.</p> - -<p>For now coleoptera were massed along one side of the arena. A rustling, -eddying sea of vivid scarlet, they crowded close by the chieftains' -stand, as if drawn to the incredible woman who was their ruler by a -magnet.</p> - -<p>Then a new, wild shout roared up from the crowd.</p> - -<p>Haral shot a quick glance back across his shoulder.</p> - -<p>The yelling mob was parting. Two more crewmen drove through the throng, -dragging along another prisoner.</p> - -<p>A lovely prisoner.</p> - -<p>Kyla.</p> - -<p>Or did her beauty now lie only in his own eyes?</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Blood ran down her face. Her features were drawn to a mask of anguish. -When she stumbled, one of the raiders caught her by the hair and jerked -her upright.</p> - -<p>In the stand, Sark rocked with laughter.</p> - -<p>Then she was standing, swaying, in the crewmen's grip, beside Haral.</p> - -<p>Sark's laughter died. He leaned forward, thick lips working. His fat -face was a study in sadistic fury.</p> - -<p>A hush fell over the crowd.</p> - -<p>He cried: "So, <i>chitzas</i>! Now you die!"</p> - -<p>The silence rolled like thunder.</p> - -<p>Haral stood wordless. He could barely see Kyla, out of the tail of his -eye.</p> - -<p>She did not move. She did not speak. Only the way her breasts rose and -fell too fast whispered of the conflict that churned within her.</p> - -<p>Or was it exertion, sheer weariness, that made her breathe so hard?</p> - -<p>Now, savagely, Sark turned on the blue man.</p> - -<p>"You, warrior!" He spat, and his face contorted. "Warrior? I'll teach -you to call yourself a warrior, <i>starbo</i>! You talked bold, you <i>zanat</i>, -when you rode in here with your <i>hwalon</i> and your armor and your -light-lance. But there's <i>kabat</i> in your veins instead of blood. Now -you'll learn to crawl, and beg for death!"</p> - -<p>Haral stood very still. A haze seemed to hang over the leering crowd, -the blood and dirt, the yellow sky.</p> - -<p>How had Sark said it, that other time? "<i>Why have you come so long a -way to die?</i>"</p> - -<p>Here it had begun. Here it was ending.</p> - -<p>This was his destiny.</p> - -<p>And here was Kyla. Here was Xaymar....</p> - -<p>Xaymar, most beautiful of women, with a body to tempt a man to hell. -Paradise, and infinite evil. His chance for power and glory.</p> - -<p>Xaymar, in a clinging scarlet gown.</p> - -<p>The smile still lingered on her lips.</p> - -<p>How had Sark lured her here, after all his treachery?</p> - -<p>But then, hatred made strange partners.</p> - -<p>And they were waiting for him to crawl.</p> - -<p>Recklessly, then, he laughed aloud. With a twist and a jerk, he tore -free from the grasp of the raider crewmen and strode forward.</p> - -<p>He could see Sark's web-fingered hand knot convulsively on the -cymosynthesizer switch.</p> - -<p>He laughed again, and made his voice ring: "Bring on your torture, -<i>stabats</i>! I'll show you how a warrior dies!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A spasm of rage shook Sark's gross body. His face grew purple as Ulna's -peaks. "You <i>chitza</i>—!" His voice rose crazily, shrilly. "Throw him in -the ring! Let the beetles tear his flesh from his bones! Stake him out -and let them feast upon him before he dies!"</p> - -<p>A clacking of mandibles rose, a hideous, castaneting rattle. A thousand -protuberant, multi-faceted insectile eyes drew into focus.</p> - -<p>In spite of himself, Haral felt the hair on his nape go stiff.</p> - -<p>The crewmen moved in to seize him.</p> - -<p>"Die with this thought, you fool!" Sark shouted. "Xaymar has pledged -herself to share her secret with me! I'll have the lightning for my -weapon! Die thinking of me with the universe in my power, Haral! Die! -Die—"</p> - -<p>And then, for the first time, Xaymar spoke: "No, Sark." Her tone was -flat, decisive, final.</p> - -<p>The raider chief went rigid in his riding-chair. His bulbous head -swiveled. "What—?"</p> - -<p>She smiled, a lazy, mocking smile. Her hand came up in an easy gesture. -"I said no, he does not die. Not till he's heard a thing I have to say. -That is the only reason that I've come here." Her voice dropped a note. -"Perhaps ... he need not die at all."</p> - -<p>"No!" Sark shouted, and even through the fat, muscles stood out along -his neck and jaws. "He dies, I tell you! Here, now, in this arena—"</p> - -<p>The woman's lithe body seemed to draw together like that of a tigress -crouching. "I say he lives!" she slashed back fiercely. And then, with -swift, deadly emphasis: "Or ... would <i>you</i> rather die?"</p> - -<p>Grey came to Sark's puffed, blubbery face, washing out the purple. -Flecks of foam formed at the corners of his mouth, and his eyes were -suddenly diamond-bright with hate and fear. Snarling, incoherent sounds -bubbled in his throat.</p> - -<p>"You may make the choice," said Xaymar smoothly. "Which shall it be -<i>Gar</i> Sark?"</p> - -<p>The harsh sounds ceased. The raider chief sank back into his chair.</p> - -<p>Still smiling, the woman men called Xaymar turned once more to Haral; -and of a sudden the strange, dark, nameless evil of her reached out to -him in throbbing, vibrant waves.</p> - -<p>"Would you live, blue warrior?" she asked softly.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Narrow-eyed, wary, he tried to read her face through the masking veil. -His nerves all at once were like groping tendrils, so sharply tuned his -whole body ached with tension.</p> - -<p>He said: "Let me hear the price before I answer."</p> - -<p>"It is not high...."</p> - -<p>"Let me hear it!"</p> - -<p>The ripe lips parted. Her sleek, voluptuous body seemed to reach out to -his till, eerily, it was almost as if he could feel it pressed against -him.</p> - -<p>She said: "Never before you have I met a man with fire to match my -own, blue warrior! Always, my lovers fawned and flattered, whimpering -phrases that were half fear, half weakness."</p> - -<p>"The price!"</p> - -<p>"But you—you waded through your own blood to find me! You would have -taken me by force! You dared to strike me down!"</p> - -<p>She came to her feet in one lithe movement. Her voice took on new -vibrance.</p> - -<p>"You still may have me, warrior—both me, and my secrets! I'll give -them gladly, if I can only share your destiny, travel with you...."</p> - -<p>She paused, and the feeling of dark sin and horror that radiated from -her wound round Haral—enveloping, all-pervasive. He swayed, caught up -in the surging power of it as by bonds of steel.</p> - -<p>Her words came, dim and distant:</p> - -<p>"Grant me only one favor, blue man ... only one, and all shall be -yours!"</p> - -<p>Haral did not speak.</p> - -<p>"Give me the woman, warrior! Give me the <i>Shamon</i> priestess to do with -as I will, to prove that you are truly mine!"</p> - -<p>The horror was no longer nameless. The evil took form in words of fire.</p> - -<p>Haral choked. "No! Not Kyla—!"</p> - -<p>"Sit here beside me as my lover, while my children feast upon her -body—" Xaymar's gesture took in the whole blank-eyed, slithering, -lusting beetle horde. "Bind yourself to me with this one sacrifice of -passion—"</p> - -<p>"No!" screamed Haral. "No, no—!"</p> - -<p>The words came from his throat, but it was not his voice. The world -rocked. His body shook, and he could not stop it.</p> - -<p>Xaymar's hands, her voice, reached out to him, cajoling: "What can her -one life mean to you, who have carved your destiny in blood? What can -she matter, this <i>Shamon</i> scum?"</p> - -<p>"No—!"</p> - -<p>"Look deep within you, warrior! Look to your dreams of empire, your -ambition! Look to me—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As she spoke, with one tempestuous sweep, she flung wide her scarlet -gown and stood before him naked, as she had lain beneath the crystal -bubble in her deep-sunk vault. Her hand moved sensually over the sleek -curves of her perfect body. Her midnight hair rippled in the breeze.</p> - -<p>"Look at me, blue man! Look—and then tell me you can reject me -for another!" Her voice swelled with a richer timbre. "I am yours, -warrior—and I know you want me, for I have looked into your brain! -It was I who reached out across the miles and found you, through your -<i>Shamon</i> girl's unguarded mind, so that Sark could seize you and bring -you here. I've been inside you all the time you've stood in this -arena—thinking your thoughts, feeling the things you felt. I know you -better than you know yourself. I know how many times you've cursed -yourself for giving me up to save this other creature. Now, at this -very moment, you waver. Why should you die with her, when you can live -and see your dreams of power come true and have me, Xaymar, queen of -storms, most beautiful of women?"</p> - -<p>Haral could not make the world stop rocking. His body was a numb, -unfeeling thing. His brain ... his brain—He clutched his head between -his shackled hands and tried to fight, to think, to slash the haze away.</p> - -<p>Xaymar cried: "Come to me, warrior!"</p> - -<p>Numbly, dumbly, he stared at her, swaying.</p> - -<p>She raised her hands. "Come...!" And as she spoke, it was as if her -fingers had reached into his mind—twisting it; pulling....</p> - -<p>He stumbled towards her, a single step.</p> - -<p>"Come!"</p> - -<p>This time the word was in his brain itself, not in his ears. He took -another step. Another.</p> - -<p>"Come... come... come...."</p> - -<p>It was like that other night—was it a million years ago?—the night -he'd heard the coleoptera calling.</p> - -<p>But the thing the beetles called was "Kill! Kill! Kill!"</p> - -<p>Kill the man-things.</p> - -<p>He staggered forward.</p> - -<p>And there was Xaymar, ripe lips smiling. He felt her arms go tight -about him, the pressure of her naked body on him.</p> - -<p>He tried to think of Kyla.</p> - -<p>But what was Kyla? Why should he die for a girl called Kyla when he -could live and have his dreams and Xaymar?</p> - -<p><i>Kill the man-things.</i></p> - -<p>Blonde hair, and a slim young body. Courage, and a head held proudly.</p> - -<p>Xaymar. Power, and ripe lips, hot with passion.</p> - -<p><i>Kill the man-things.</i></p> - -<p>"Kiss me, warrior." A jeweled veil-mask.</p> - -<p>What did it hide?</p> - -<p><i>Kill the man-things!</i></p> - -<p>But Kyla.... No—! Not even for power could he give up Kyla! Not send -her to her death, to the coleoptera—!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Something snapped inside Haral. The world went mad. His brain was -on fire, on fire, twisting and turning, turning and burning, pulled -through his skull by sensuous fingers.</p> - -<p>He couldn't think. His body was a bursting entity of anguish.</p> - -<p><i>Kill the man-things!</i></p> - -<p>Jewels glinting in a filmy mask.</p> - -<p>Spasmodically, he jerked away. Convulsive, clutching, without volition, -his hands clawed up into Xaymar's face and snatched away the veil.</p> - -<p>The fire in his brain went out. The torment ended. Staggering, he saw -the world without the haze.</p> - -<p>Now Xaymar's hands were before her face; her fingers masking, shielding.</p> - -<p>Savagely, he caught her wrists and jerked them down ... stared into her -eyes.</p> - -<p>He almost screamed aloud.</p> - -<p>Because her eyes were not humanoid eyes.</p> - -<p>Faceted, fixed, protuberant, glassy, they were <i>insectile</i>!</p> - -<p>The eyes of a beetle, a coleopteron!</p> - -<p>A phrase she'd used came back: "... <i>while my children feast</i>...."</p> - -<p>Through the horror and shock that froze him, he heard Sark shouting: -"Seize him! Seize him—!"</p> - -<p>Hands clutched his arms. They jerked him back and pinned him down.</p> - -<p>Xaymar said; "So at last you know ..." and now her voice crawled with -hate and fury.</p> - -<p>Haral did not answer.</p> - -<p>She raved at him: "Yes! I am of the coleoptera—a mutant, and a hybrid! -Now you know how I gave them the power of thought! Those that think are -my own children, my descendants! And now you know, too, why I took a -thousand human lovers, and slew each one before the dawn. For I have -human passion hot within me, but no man could forbear to look beneath -my veil, and with my brain close-tuned to theirs, I felt the horror -well up in them—the same disgust and loathing that even you cannot -conceal. So I killed them, that they might never tell my secret—"</p> - -<p>She broke off. Her hands clenched till blood spurted where the nails -gouged through the palms. Her voice rose—hysterical, vindictive. -"Throw him alive into the arena! Yes, let my children feast upon him—!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The crewmen jerked Haral to his feet again. The coleoptera surged -forward. He glimpsed slim Kyla, with horror written on her lovely -face.... Sark, doubled over, gloating and laughing ... the seething -fury that dwelt in Xaymar.</p> - -<p>But now his brain was clear again, the shadow of the nameless evil -gone. Fire surged in his veins, and wild, reckless daring.</p> - -<p>The <i>dau</i> and the <i>Pervod</i> dragged him towards the beetles.</p> - -<p>He cried, "I'll meet my fate standing, you <i>chitzas</i>!" and kicked with -all his might for the <i>Pervod's</i> fragile reptilian ankle.</p> - -<p>He heard the bones snap over all the tumult. The <i>Pervod's</i> shriek rang -like the scream of a sky-shell.</p> - -<p>He snatched for its ray-gun.</p> - -<p>The <i>dau's</i> great arms caught him as the weapon tore loose from the -holster. He felt his ribs cracking as it lifted him—crushed him.</p> - -<p>Desperately, he triggered the beam square into its belly.</p> - -<p>The hairy arms dropped him. The <i>dau</i> sprawled back, dying.</p> - -<p>Haral spun round, still firing.</p> - -<p>The beam caught the first of the onrushing beetles. It seared through a -second. A third reeled and stumbled.</p> - -<p>Haral lunged for the chiefs' stand.</p> - -<p>Sark stood there, stiff-frozen. Xaymar lurched back in terror.</p> - -<p>Haral cried: "Die, curse you!"</p> - -<p>He whipped up the ray-gun. But Sark shrieked, "Wait, blue man—! You -and all Ulna die here with me!"</p> - -<p>His gross body twisted, and Haral saw the fat fingers still locked on -the cymosynthesizer switch.</p> - -<p>In the same instant the raider chief's other hand darted beneath his -tent-like tunic, incredibly fast, snatching out a Venusian <i>xlan</i>-tube.</p> - -<p>Blue fire belched at Haral.</p> - -<p>He threw himself flat. But it was the end. It could be no other way.</p> - -<p>This was where destiny and the road to empire at last had led him.</p> - -<p>To failure. To death. To his blood in the dirt of Sark's arena.</p> - -<p>Why had he picked such a road to travel? What good did it do to die, -when even death was empty, without meaning?</p> - -<p>Unless, perhaps, he could save Ulna....</p> - -<p>He triggered the ray-gun as the fire seared down his back.</p> - -<p>But not at Sark. His target was the cymosynthesizer switch; the cable.</p> - -<p>Through a haze of pain, he saw them fuse; saw Sark's hand, too, turn to -sifting ashes.</p> - -<p>The raider screamed and surged forward.</p> - -<p>Haral triggered a final beam.</p> - -<p>It tore Sark's bulbous head from his shoulders.</p> - -<p>The roar of the mob, lunging in for the kill, came dimly to the blue -man's ears.</p> - -<p>He was glad. They'd at least put an end to his agony.</p> - -<p>But the roar seemed to die again, and he wondered if perhaps some dark -corner of his brain still functioned in its way after consciousness had -left him.</p> - -<p>Then hands touched his face; soft hands, caressing.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>With a tremendous, wrenching effort, he opened his eyes, and there was -Kyla, with tears on her cheeks and soft lips atremble.</p> - -<p>But where was the crowd, the beetles, the cutthroat crewmen?</p> - -<p>Another face came ... the face of Xaymar.</p> - -<p>As from afar, her words came fiercely: "I hate you, warrior, for you -spurn me for a stupid <i>Shamon</i> child! But I am of Ulna, and again you -have saved my life and planet. So, now, my coleopteran legions shall -protect you till my science can give back your daring and make your -body whole once more. My projectors, too, my secrets of the wind and -rain, the lightning—I leave them in your hands to help you guard this -world of mine, till my own day to strike shall come. But for myself, I -must go back to frozen sleep again, for another thousand years, lest I -should rise and slay you in my fury!"</p> - -<p>Her face, her voice, faded into distance; and he wondered if it were -only in his mind that he seemed to hear a final, gentler whisper: -"... And I shall dream of you a thousand years, my warrior...."</p> - -<p>Then Kyla's tears were on his cheeks, too; her soft lips pressed -against his. And there was peace in him at last, and he was at one with -his dreams, his destiny.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p><i>Naked, still as death, the veiled woman-goddess men called Xaymar -rested on a gold-draped dais within a great, glowing, crystal ball.</i></p> - -<p><i>Xaymar, passionate goddess, queen of storms. Ruler of rain and wind -and lightning, empress of all the surging forces that spread their -tumult across the sky. Sainted monster, evil savior. Old as time, and -young as folly. Born of woman, damned of men, wise with dark wisdom -gone astray....</i></p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DARK DESTINY ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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