"TheCorsairwas seen leaving. I knew you'd be aboard."
"Why?"
Tabor shrugged. "I saw how Firebird twisted your father around her little finger until he got wise. I knew you'd never be able to kill her or resist her. She's a witch. Stay aboard theSunbeamtonight and we'll start back for Venus in the morning."
"I'm not going back. I'm staying aboard theCorsair."
Tabor's face darkened. "Your father warned you, son. She's poison. Already you are convinced that she didn't kill him, but it'll always be my personal opinion that she is the one who shot Thymar."
"I believe so, too, but she has offered to help me find out who did. I'm seeing it through to find out what she knows."
"She's a liar and a thief. She'll get the two Jewels your father left you and do the same to you as she did to him."
Nathan knew that seemed the obvious conclusion, but it wasn't reasonable in the face of things he had seen. There was something more that was far from obvious. There was the mystery of Firebird herself and the magic pool of Luline. And the mystery of the Jewels themselves.
"I'll find out my own way," said Nathan.
Tabor's face broke with a deep laugh then. "I might have known what your answer would be. In a lifetime of argument with Thymar I never won yet. I see I'm going to do the same with you. Let's drink. You and Firebird come aboard theSunbeamfor tonight. I'll leave for Venus in the morning and wait for you to come back—which won't be long, I'm predicting."
Nathan went over to the table where Firebird still seemed to ignore her surroundings. But there was admiration in her eyes.
"That was nice handling," she said. "I knew you could do it."
"It could have been done without shooting," said Nathan.
"You don't know the 'Orbit'," Firebird replied with a smile. "No man sets foot in here for the first time without being tried by gunfire. I gave you the best possible opening. You took it like a veteran of the spaceways. They'll respect you, now."
"Tabor wants us to come aboard theSunbeamfor tonight. He's leaving for Venus in the morning and wants me to go back, but I told him that I wouldn't."
"Rather curious—that rumor about our being killed on the way here," said Firebird.
"Possibly the Black Warrior was in communication with someone just before the battle and gave word that he was closing in on us."
"Possibly—" Firebird's eyes were gazing across the room towards Tabor. "I'll go aboard theSunbeamon one condition," she said.
"What's that?"
"Let me have your two Jewels in my possession while we are aboard. I'll return them in the morning."
Nathan looked at her, trying to fathom her motives, wondering why he trusted her, why he wanted to trust her—
"Why?"
"The Jewels are syncro-responsive," said Firebird. "When several of them are together they indicate the near presence of another one by becoming warm. The more there are together, the warmer they become. When the nearby Jewel is very close the effect disappears."
"I don't see—"
"Tabor has one of the Jewels, I'm sure. The Pink one."
"But that's the one that was stolen! That would mean—"
"Exactly. How do you suppose he obtained the mistaken idea that we were dead? I'll tell you how it was: He tipped off the Black Warrior who attacked us in space. Tabor didn't dare do it himself, but he left it for the other killer to do, then Tabor planned to take our four Jewels from our attacker. That's why he came here—to look for the man."
"He came to take me back."
"Nonsense. That's a tale he thought up on the spur of the moment when he found that we were victorious in the space battle."
Nathan frowned. The story was logical even if it wasn't reasonable. But Firebird had no proof. Unless she could prove Tabor had the Pink Jewel—
Carefully concealing his emotions from the crowd in the tavern, Nathan unlocked the belt container of the Jewels and handed them over to Firebird.
"Tabor's waiting," he said.
For Tabor, Firebird donned another cloak of personality, revealing still another facet of herself to bewilder Nathan. She taunted and baited Tabor as if trying to rouse his anger.
But the shaggy spaceman seemed to be in a mood that would not be ruffled by Firebird's taunts. Aboard the ship, they entered the tiny lounge cabin.
"I've got frozen Grier steak direct from Venus," Tabor said. "How does that sound?"
"O.K." said Nathan.
"Then I'll show you how a master cook of the spaceways prepares it."
He disappeared into the galley. Nathan watched Firebird. Her eyes darted about the walls of the cabin as if searching every panel and joint. She edged closer to Nathan on the narrow lounge seat. When Tabor was out of sight around the corner of the corridor, she took Nathan's hand and pressed it against the pouch where she had the four Jewels.
The pouch was almost too hot to touch.
Questions piled upon his lips. Firebird smiled without speaking. "But we don't know the color of it," said Nathan.
"Right. We don't know the color of it, except that it's either blue or pink."
"We'll find out soon enough," said Nathan. He rose from the seat, his lips pressed tightly.
"No!" Firebird grasped his arm. "We don't need to do that. We'll let him bring it to us when we need it. There's no danger of his going to Venus, now."
"What do you mean?" Nathan sat down reluctantly.
"We'll head for the Pater Mountains where the seventh Jewel is buried. You did a good job of letting it be known what we were here for. When we start buying equipment the word will get around that we are going for the seventh Jewel. You can be sure that Tabor will be there—and so will the holder of the remaining Jewel. We'll have the seven then. They'll be ours for the taking."
Nathan nodded. "Perhaps you are right. It would be easier to force Tabor to tip his hand out there than here in Taurus."
The next morning they said goodbye to Tabor and watched theSunbeamlift into the Martian sky. For a moment Nathan wondered if they were right. If Tabor should actually be heading for Venus—
Since theCorsairwas being repaired they had a logical reason for preparing to go to the Pater Mountains by sand sled, besides the secret purpose of making it easy to trail them.
They made elaborate preparations. They visited every supply store in the Five Cities, pricing and examining sand sleds and boldly discussing their reason for wanting one.
By the time their equipment was assembled every spaceman in Taurus knew of their purpose and destination. And the word passed to the other towns on Mars as well.
It was a late afternoon two days later when they left Taurus. Firebird proposed a late start in order to make it easy for anyone to follow them. Since their destination was well known they anticipated ambush from ahead as well as trailing from behind.
Nathan climbed into the narrow seat of the sand sled beside Firebird. She took the wheel because she was familiar with the trail to the Mountains. When the transparent cowling was closed over them they seemed to be in a tiny, separate world all their own. Behind, the muffled roar of the propeller cut the air and mounted in intensity as the sled began to move forward and the runners hissed against the sand.
Firebird handled the sled as if any vehicle that traveled slower than a space ship was much too slow for her. She soon had the sled up to top speed over the level area near Taurus and soon they were weaving among the giant dunes.
The great, shifting dunes of the Martian desert were forty to fifty feet high. Already the valleys between them were filled with purple shadows and the air was turning cold.
The sled dipped and careened; sometimes it plunged into deep sand valleys and whipped around the curved walls of deep blow holes until it was tipped almost at right angles, clinging only by centrifugal force.
Nathan had the impression that Firebird was enjoying it. The treachery of the desert was a challenge to her skillful, daredevil driving.
Soon the sun was down and the pale light of the twin moons was deceptive on the sands. Firebird slowed the plunging flight of the sled and drove cautiously then until near midnight.
"We should be somewhere near the town of Pheme, such as it is," she said. "The last time I saw it, it was almost a ghost town. It may have been completely abandoned by now."
"I've never heard of it," said Nathan.
In a moment Firebird exclaimed, "There it is! How's that for navigation over this desert? Right on the nose."
Nathan laughed at Firebird's exuberance over her accuracy. He knew that it was no small job to follow such an unmarked trail across the sands that shifted constantly and made landmarks impossible.
When he first saw the town it looked like only another group of dunes until he saw some of the silhouettes had angular corners. Too angular. Some of the walls he could see sloped crazily.
As they came near to the town it appeared more evident that it was merely abandoned wreckage. There were no lights at all to betray signs of occupation.
Slowly, Firebird brought the sled up to the edge of the group of buildings. The floor of the town, which had been laid over the sands to prevent the buildings from being buried or undermined by the winds was itself covered now with shifting sands and the walls of some of the structures leaned drunkenly under the heavy burden piled against them.
Instead of driving into the town, Firebird turned her lights onto the sand directly in front of the sled and began circling the ruin.
"Where are you going?" Nathan asked.
"I want to see if there are sled tracks leading into the ruins. Unless they've been waiting for a couple of days we should be able to forestall any ambush here."
They peered ahead as the spot of light moved slowly over the sand. But nowhere did they see the twin ruts marking the path of a sand sled.
Suddenly Firebird stopped. "No one would bring a sled up into the town if they wanted to ambush us. They'd know we would look for tracks. They would leave the sled at a distance and come in on sand shoes."
"And it's almost impossible to track those."
"It can be done," Firebird said slowly. "But I don't think we'll have to do it."
"Why not?"
She placed his hand against the Jewel pouch. It was warm with warning heat.
"Whoever is here has one of the Jewels, and he's not more than two hundred feet away," said Firebird.
VIII
As she spoke, a burst of flame spatted sand in front of their sled. The shower of exploding particles blasted against the cowling.
Firebird turned off the light and spun the sled in towards the buildings. She sped into the shadows along what had once been the short main street of Pheme. Then they darted into a shadow between two buildings.
"There may be more than one of them," said Nathan.
The girl shook her head. "Searchers for the Seven Jewels do not work in pairs. Not for long, anyway. One of them soon kills the other when they do," she added enigmatically.
Nathan glanced at her sharply, wondering if she were reminding him of their own precarious agreement—or accusing Tabor.
They emerged cautiously from the sled, each gripping one of their flame rifles in addition to the smaller lances.
"That shot came from the flat-roofed building at the end of the street," said Nathan.
"We'll get on the roof of this one," said Firebird. "It's a hotel. It's the highest in town. We can fire the other building and get anyone trying to escape."
No other shots came their way. Nathan feared their assailant was leaving the building on the corner and trailing them up the street.
They entered the old hotel. A foot of sand covered the first floor. The stairs were slippery with it. Shattered windows let the cold night breeze flow through. On the second and third floors they disturbed coveys of sand bats who fluttered and squeaked and poured out the windows in a black cloud.
The enemy would certainly know their location now.
They came out onto the roof through a broken penthouse door, and in the faint moonlight they had a clear view of the decaying skeleton of the town.
The rifles they carried would shoot flames that spread over a great area and tended to hover like flaming coronae rather than piercing. Thus, they would be effective in firing the buildings.
They took up positions on opposite sides of the roof and sent a dozen shots into the base of the enemy hideout. But they had miscalculated as Nathan had feared. A fusillade of shots came from a roof directly across the street from them and their building burst into torrents of flame.
They transferred their fire to the building from which the shots came. The flames hovered and glowed like demons around the base of the structure, but they died like wraiths.
"I remember now," said Firebird. "That's the one fireproof building in Pheme. It was a special instrument laboratory. We'll have to smoke him out."
The tiny orange puffs of a flame lance came steadily from varying points of the other building as if the enemy were running about, pausing only long enough to shoot.
The flames from the burning building had already touched off the adjacent structures. The entire ghost town would be ablaze in a short time. Burning brands lit on the roof beside Nathan. They died, but others were coming in a rain of fire.
They could see the enemy by the light of the fire now. They fired the buildings on either side and forced him to keep low. But his shots were close and accurate. Nathan and Firebird shifted positions after each shot, but the parapet in front of them was sieved accurately.
Then Nathan suddenly realized that the building behind them was aflame and its light silhouetted them against the holes in the parapet. No wonder the enemy could find them.
He shouted to Firebird, "Get down!"
She was too good a flame lancer to be disturbed by his shouting. She remained calmly in position, taking a bead on the opposite window, waiting for the appearance of the top of the enemy's head.
He came up for a quick sight upon the perfect target of the holes which Firebird blacked out. They fired simultaneously.
Firebird's shot hit the edge of the window, spraying flame over the wall and curling it into the window. Some of it must have washed over the enemy, but too much of its energy had been dissipated to be effective.
But Firebird was hit. Her body slumped down over the rifle and lay flat on the roof. Crawling on his belly, Nathan wriggled over to her and raised her head. She was unconscious, but no horrible blackening of her flesh showed the touch of flame lance fire. Then he saw where it had struck. Her silver helmet.
It was too hot to touch. He knocked it away with his fist. Beneath it, her raven hair was singed but slightly. The electric shock had done most of the damage. He bent over her tenderly and fanned her face with the edge of her scarlet cloak. She began to stir. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. In that instant he knew that their lives were inseparably welded. No word was spoken, but he felt her trembling as if she suddenly knew it, too, and was afraid of it.
After a moment she looked about and spoke, her voice unsteady. "We'll have to get down. The hotel is on fire."
Nathan followed the direction of her glance. The open door of the penthouse sent smoke billowing outward.
"We'll never get down through the interior," said Nathan. He glanced at the adjacent building. It was one story lower and ten feet away.
Firebird saw his glance and shook her head. "We can't get over that way. He'd shoot us the instant we tried it. We'll have to go inside."
"But it's impossible."
Firebird smiled. "After you've been to the pool of Luline, many things are possible. Here—"
She unclasped the cloak from her throat and threw it about Nathan. "Protect your head and wrap it around you as much as possible. It won't burn."
Before he could protest, she wriggled away over the surface of the roof, keeping low out of the fire of their assailant. She plunged through the penthouse door into the inferno.
The smoke and flame billowed about her, licking at her slender, unprotected body. Nathan tried to catch her, but the blinding vapors made him stumble and fall clumsily. He wanted to throw the cloak about her again, but he was forced to gather it about him in order to make any headway at all.
Miraculously, Firebird seemed unharmed by the flames. On the second floor Nathan made out her figure hurrying far ahead of him. Her clothing was smouldering but her bare arms and legs seemed to glow with that same inner light that he had seen back in the cave on Venus.
He stumbled in the treacherous sand and lost sight of her again. He slid and fell down the first floor stairway, which was almost burned away. His weight on it sent ominous vibrations through it, and he tried to tread lightly.
Firebird was nowhere to be seen when he reached the street level. He raced outside in time to see the sand sled start up and disappear around the corner of the building. A puff of flame smashed against the sand in front of him. The enemy was watching for them to leave.
That was why Firebird had moved the sled. He went back into the burning building and fought his way to a back window out of the enemy's line of fire. He found Firebird waiting for him there. The smell of smoke was in her hair, but she seemed unharmed by the flames.
She gave him no time for questions. "I'm going to drive around the town. Fire every building with the rifle. That will drive him out eventually."
She twisted the sled out through the narrow street to the open desert and began circling. Nathan pressed the rifle through the open port and fired continually at the wooden buildings.
They watched sharply for their assailant, but he was apparently not aware of their escape. As they finished the circle, Firebird turned the sled out into the desert and swung up the far side of a high dune.
"We'll watch for him to make a break for his sled," she said. "When he does, we'll let him get started and follow closely. He won't be able to fire while driving, and he won't dare stop because we'll be on him."
Nathan nodded. As Firebird stopped the sled, he handed her the cloak, a mere handful of cloth. "I'd like to know what the secret of this cloak is—and how you made it through that fire without protection."
Firebird smiled. "So would a lot of other people." Then she sobered and added, "I think perhaps you will be the one to know—some day."
She turned away and watched the burning ghost village. It was a beautiful hell of flame. Every building was yellow with fire. The desert was lit for miles around, and the sound of the crackling was like the sound of some great battle.
"He can't stay in there much longer," said Firebird. The heat was already strongly felt at the dune.
"There he is!" Nathan exclaimed.
A figure burst suddenly out of the inferno and ran towards the far side of the burning town.
"We're on the wrong side," said Firebird. "Keep your eye on him and we'll move over if we can do it without being seen."
Cautiously, through the blow holes and behind dunes, they made their way forward. The sound of their engines and propellers was muffled in the roar of the fire.
They topped a rise and Nathan exclaimed, "There's his sled. He's moving."
"He must think we're dead," said Firebird. "He probably plans to come back and search the ruins for the Jewels when it's cooled off."
She added speed to overtake the other sled. It was in sight only part of the time and it would be easy to lose in the dunes and blow holes.
Nathan lowered the port a trifle and stuck the nose of the rifle through. He got a bead on the forward sled. And the instant he pressed the trigger, their own sled dipped down so that his shot went low.
But it served to warn their quarry of their presence. He must have whirled to get a look at them, for the sled wobbled crazily for an instant.
He dipped out of sight behind a dune and was gone when they reached the spot. Dunes blocked sight in all directions and a dozen paths branched out between them.
"Over there!" Nathan pointed to a fine sand cloud that betrayed the presence of the sled beyond the dunes.
Firebird followed and soon they came in sight again. Nathan fired another shot that went wide because of the plunging motion of the sled. Then the enemy suddenly plunged into the depths of an immense blow hole.
Firebird swung wide of the hole. Nathan glanced at her in puzzlement. "Where are you going?"
"Not down there. It would be fatal to get into a dog fight around the sides of that blow hole. We'll wait for him to come out and hope it is somewhere near us."
From the top of a small dune they caught sight of the other sled speeding around the inside of the hole. But he knew he had failed to lure them into it where he would have had as good chance as they. He sped up and over the edge opposite them.
Firebird started the sled moving again. Nathan kept his eye on the enemy. Even as he watched the other paused. "He's not running away. He's going to turn and fight!"
Firebird held her speed down and let the other build up. He came in shooting. Puffs of flame spurted from the small lance he was firing through the port.
Nathan raised the rifle and fired. The shot struck midway between the motor and the cabin and the enemy sled burst into flames.
"Good hit!" exclaimed Firebird. Then her face tensed. "He's going to ram us. Get his steering runner."
The blazing sled was hurtling towards them at terrific speed now. It was impossible to turn aside so that the enemy could not follow easily. Firebird tried it and the other sled changed to a new collision course.
Nathan fired again. Then a shot pierced their own housing as Firebird tried to weave out of the collision course. It made shooting difficult for Nathan but he put another shot into the motor of the enemy.
The blazing comet of the enemy sled was less than three hundred feet away now. Firebird could have turned tail to avoid collision, but that was apparently what the enemy wanted. His own position was increasingly desperate with the flames licking about the cabin and threatening the fuel tank.
Firebird kept weaving and brought out her own lance. She tried to hit the pilot, but her shots went wild.
"Stop weaving," said Nathan. "I've got to get a bead on that runner or we'll have to turn tail."
"It'll be your last shot," said Firebird, but she complied. Her slim hands held the sled steadily on a course towards the flaming wreckage that bore down upon them like a meteor.
Nathan raised in his seat and aimed carefully. He pressed the trigger. It was a hit. The steering runner of the enemy collapsed. The blazing sled reared end over end into the air hurtling towards them with the force of its momentum.
Firebird gave the wheel a mighty jerk and swerved aside as the wreckage plummeted into the space they had just vacated.
For moments they simply drove forward without saying anything as they lost speed.
"That was too close," Nathan said. "I waited too long for that shot."
"You got him. That's what counts."
He looked at Firebird. She was not disturbed by their narrow escape. It was obviously not in her philosophy to hold post mortems.
They swung back to the blazing wreckage. The light of dawn streaked the sky before it was cool enough to approach. There was no tangible remains of the enemy who had died in the flames.
"It couldn't have been Tabor. He shoots better than that," said Nathan.
Firebird poked among the embers, using the pouch containing the four Jewels as an indicator. Then she caught the sparkle in the sands.
It was the Blue Jewel.
IX
The bloody dawn of Mars lit the ruins of Pheme as they sped past it again. Though they had not slept they did not feel sleepy as daylight came.
Their attack and the acquisition of the Blue Jewel left two horrible alternatives in Nathan's mind. If it had been Tabor who had attacked them surely he had not known their identity and would not have fired on them if he had. In this case, Nathan had slain his father's lifelong friend without cause.
Or if it had not been Tabor it meant that Tabor possessed the sixth Jewel—the pink one—and was the murderer Nathan sought.
He thrust both thoughts out of his mind and forced himself to think of the task ahead. The peaks of the Pater Mountains were not even visible on the horizon. Soon the heat of the desert day made itself felt. They switched on the air conditioning after Nathan patched the hole in the cabin housing.
They ate as they drove, and in the afternoon, Firebird explained the course and they alternated driving and sleeping.
Near sunset they glimpsed the distant, ominous crags of the Pater Mountains. They looked like some gargantuan graveyard where the stark bones of giants had been heaped.
The wind was rising and spinning sheets of sand from the desert surface. The sandstorms of Mars are not simply the whipping, wind-driven sands of Earth. They are mighty electrical storms in which clouds of sand gather in the sky and are charged with millions of volts of potential by their ceaseless grinding against one another.
It grew dark quickly with the sand clouds masking the twilight. Streamers of fire began to lace the mountain top. A continuous purple corona gave it the aspect of luminescence.
The mountain rose slowly out of the desert and the sand gave way gradually to a trail of broken rocks that ground and protested against the runners of the sled.
"We'll go from here on foot in the morning," said Firebird. As she brought the sled to a halt she leaped quickly out and started tugging at a huge boulder nearby.
Nathan stared in puzzlement. The boulder slowly tipped on its side, exposing a small cavern.
"We'll hide the sled in here. I'll show you why in the morning."
They prepared a place to sleep for the night and alternated watches. At dawn they gathered their packs of food and water and the weapons. Firebird carefully closed the cavern over the sled.
She led the way along the trail that soon rose to increasing heights above the desert. They came across the burned and blackened ruins of a sand sled, destroyed with all its equipment.
"That belonged to someone who came up here for the first time as well as the last," said Firebird. "There is no love lost between searchers for the Seven Jewels. They burn each others' sleds when found."
The corona lightning increased with terrible streamers of blue and violet light that twisted about the peaks like living things. The air was charged with ozone and Nathan felt the dry crackling of electric discharges in his hair and on his body.
Firebird abruptly left the trails and struck out across the face of the mountain. Nathan followed and soon they came to a large overhanging rock. They slipped beneath the overhang and came into a narrow, half-enclosed passage.
"Get behind me now and watch carefully," said Firebird. She turned and faced the opening under the overhang. "We may not have too long to wait."
Nathan didn't quite understand, but he waited in silence. Beyond the opening, the rocks were gathered round to form a sort of small vestibule and nothing could be seen beyond that.
But abruptly a man appeared in the vestibule. Firebird shot him without warning.
"I just saved twenty lives," she said through thin lips. "Robert the Dog has killed five innocent men that I know of. He could have been expected to kill twenty more if he had lived ten more years."
Nathan stared from the body of the dead man to the marble face of Firebird as she sat there—judge and executioner. They waited an hour and another man appeared. She killed him, too.
"I've saved his mother the agony of knowing him hung for treason. The police have been ready for a month to pull him in."
They waited until midday, but no one else appeared. At last Firebird turned and advanced cautiously along the passageway. Nathan felt now that killers lurked behind every stone. He didn't need Firebird's warning to keep a sharp lookout.
They crept along a mile of the tortuous trail beneath the copper sky, then dipped suddenly into the blackness of a cavern. The ghostly corona that hovered over the mountain provided a faint gleam in the darkness but scarcely enough to guide them.
"Take my arm," said Firebird. "I can make it in the dark."
Nathan felt the tremor that was in her slight body. Some emotion beyond the grasp of his senses was surging through her. But he felt that before they left the cavern he would know what it was.
After a time they came to a spiral ramp that seemed to be endless as it dropped them into the depths of the purple glow. Suddenly Firebird placed Nathan's hand on the Jewel pouch. It was faintly warm.
"The buried Jewel?" Nathan whispered.
"No—the Pink one. We're still not far enough in. Your father's murderer was waiting for us somewhere inside. He's following us now."
Nathan was filled with pain for either he had slain Tabor unjustly or else he would shortly kill him to avenge the murder of his father.
The ramp leveled out shortly and they made a sharp turn. Then Firebird halted. "This is where we stop. Be careful. He's behind us somewhere."
"Yes, right behind you."
Out of the darkness came the unmistakable voice of Tabor.
Nathan whirled, reaching for his guns, but Firebird gave him a mighty shove that sent him sprawling into the corner of a deep niche in the cavern wall.
"I thought you went to Venus," Nathan gasped in hate and rage. "What do you want, Tabor?"
"The Jewels of Chamar. I'm your friend and your father's friend, Nathan, but first I'm a spaceman, and the Jewels of Chamar are above all friendship to a spaceman. Still, I'm an honorable man. I'll fight you for them, Nathan."
"Why didn't you just shoot us in the back as you did my father?"
"Why will you misunderstand me, Nathan? I had to do what I did to force Thymar to reveal where he had hidden the Jewels of Venus. He always said it was better for just one man to know that at a time. I agreed with him, but it was too bad that we didn't have the same man in mind."
"You dirty killer—"
"He'll accept your challenge on one condition," said Firebird. "Provided that you place the Pink Jewel in here in a pile with the others."
"You'll accept on no conditions at all!" roared Tabor, "if I say so. But I'd rather like to see them all together. Put them on the floor."
Firebird placed the five Jewels on the floor. Their rainbow phosphorescence seemed to Nathan to be a living force that touched him with strength and with peace.
From his hiding place behind a jagged boulder Tabor threw in the Pink Jewel and it landed beside the others. "Now, I've got something to fight for—!"
Firebird's flame lance aimed at the point where she had first seen the glowing Pink Jewel. A bubble of flame exploded.
Tabor's bellowing laugh ended in a roar of anger. "I'd know your touch anywhere, Firebird. Your honor was born in a pig pen."
Nathan tried to sense the direction of the sound. Then he aimed the rifle carefully. A ball of flame spattered upon the boulder and washed over its edges. He engraved the lighted scene in his mind.
"That was you, Nathan? You remember well what I told you about blackout combat. Use the rifle to illuminate the scene of battle. That is good. But do you remember what a rifle flame will do in a small space?"
Instantly, a rifle flame sped towards them. It blasted against the wall of the niche and flowed around in a sheet of blinding whiteness that gave off an intolerable heat before it died.
Nathan and Firebird crouched low at opposite sides of the opening.
"We'll have to get out," she whispered. "You take the right and I'll take the left, and we'll close in on him. Get behind cover as soon as possible."
"No! You can't risk that. It would be impossible to find cover before he illuminated you in a rifle flame. Let me try one more thing."
He sent another shot higher than the previous one. It burst upon the floor far behind Tabor. Nathan got a glimpse of a distant boulder directly behind the spot where Tabor was hidden.
Before he could shoot again another blast exploded within the niche. In its light, Nathan saw that Firebird was gone.
A wave of terror, an anxiety such as he had never known before, swept through him at the thought of her out there in plain view of Tabor. He aimed carefully with his small flame lance and tried to visualize the small boulder behind Tabor.
The flame hit and crashed away. Tabor's voice grunted, "A reflective shot? Good work, Nathan. Unfortunately I wasn't in the plane of incidence and reflection. And, Firebird, I hear you coming."
A sudden flame shot off towards the depths of the cavern at Nathan's left. There was a single agonizing scream in Firebird's voice.
Then nothing.
Tabor broke the silence. "Sorry, Nathan. I guess you'd gone pretty soft on her."
"You murderer!"
"Keep cool. Remember what I always taught you. Never let an enemy make you commit suicide by making you lose your head."
The niche was like a coffin in the darkness. Tabor's evil taunting and Firebird's scream seemed to combine in an echoing song of torment that swelled and beat upon his senses.
And then, in the purple darkness, the six Jewels that lay on the floor seized his attention. Where their color had seemed merely phosphorescent before, it now seemed to blaze up as if hidden fires had come to life. Nathan watched to make sure his eyes were not merely becoming more accustomed to the darkness. But it was more than that. The light pulsed and rose in the niche. It climbed the walls and filled the air with twitching streamers that seemed like living things.
And it was making him an easy target for a reflective shot from Tabor. But what did it matter what happened to him now that Firebird was gone?
He fired a half dozen shots in rapid succession.
"Wild, all wild," taunted Tabor. "You must do it with precision. Like this!"
A flame shot through the niche, but it ricocheted from the edge of the opening and missed Nathan's head by only a foot. The blast seared his face and blinded his eyes.
"See what I mean?" said Tabor.
He had the range now, Nathan knew. That's what the rifle shots had been for—to enable him to determine a good spot to make a reflective shot into the depths of the niche.
But in his own wild shots Nathan had glimpsed something that gave him new hope.
He had to move quickly. Another shot from Tabor grazed close to him, but it reflected from the opposite side of the opening where Tabor had miscalculated that Nathan would move.
Nathan said nothing, but dropped to the floor. He adjusted the rifle to automatic fire, and lay in the opening of the niche. He pressed the trigger and a river of fire swept across the floor and flowed about the base of the boulder that hid Tabor—and under it!
The boulder rested on narrow, jagged faces, between which there were openings. It was through these that Tabor had been firing and Nathan had glimpsed the secret of his protection.
The flame raced about Tabor in a torrent of light. It leaped upon him and outlined him as if in St. Elmo's fire.
He jerked up in searing pain, and in that instant a single shot came from across the cavern and found its mark. The fire died before Tabor fell, but the sound of his dead body smashing to the floor was loud in the dark silence.
"Your father's murder is avenged," said a voice from across the cavern.
"Firebird. I thought—"
"I had to make you think what I made Tabor think. I threw a stone to give him a target. There was no protection out here. I had only one shot to risk."
Nathan rushed towards the sound of her voice, and crushed her close to him to reassure himself that she was unharmed. In the light of the Jewels that was now pouring from the niche he could almost see her face. It seemed rich with gladness.
The light was flickering now like auroral curtains of fire.
"What is it?" murmured Nathan.
"Wait—you'll see. This is what I've lived for. My work is finished now."
It seemed to Nathan that they stood there for an interminable length of time while the light rose and fell, but gradually swelled until they could see each other plainly.
There came a high note like the far away tinkling of chimes. The Jewels were rising from the floor. Firebird's hand on his arm restrained Nathan from rushing forward.
"Wait," she commanded.
The Jewels rose higher and then they began to float out of the niche towards the two Earthlings, carrying their ghostly light with them.
The Jewels rose higher, carrying their ghostly light with them.
The Jewels rose higher, carrying their ghostly light with them.
The Jewels rose higher, carrying their ghostly light with them.
Nathan stared. Where there had been only six Jewels in the niche, there were now seven floating in the air. Three were end to end, forming a vertical pillar. Around this pillar the other four formed a rotating square. As it rotated faster or slower the pitch of the musical note rose or fell.
The singing, floating Jewels came nearer ... vibrating with the forces of life. And then out of the midst of them a voice spoke.
"You have done well. You have my gratitude. I shall reward you."
Nathan felt a prickling of the back of his neck. And suddenly Firebird clutched his arm and was sobbing faintly. "Are we too late?" she asked.
"The ship of Plar has waited long, but the Envoys are patient. They await my report."
The Jewels wheeled in the air and sped towards the tunnel ramp that bore upward to the surface.
"Come," the voice said.
Mechanically, Firebird followed. Nathan moved beside her, not looking back at the fallen Tabor.
"What is it?" Nathan whispered hoarsely. "Are the Jewels alive?"
"Long ago," said Firebird, "the Envoys of Plar came into our System. They came from a universe so far away that our greatest telescopes have never given a clue to its presence. The inhabitants of that world are life forms with a basis of metallic salts and they are formed as you see this one. They are literally Jewels. The life forces are contained in mighty storage cells of raw electronic energy reduced to its simplest form. Some of the creatures are only single Jewels. The Envoys are of the highest type, having seven.
"The life in them was dormant until they were brought together again. The Seventh Jewel was the brain so to speak. Each of the others might be likened to an arm or other organ of a human body, though that is far from accurate. The warming of the Jewels as they were brought nearer was the reaching out of their mutual life forces to seize upon each other. But no controlling life was there until the Seventh was near. It was buried deep in the ground, but the attraction between it and the other six was enough to draw it out to reunite with them."
Nathan watched the weird form as it gyrated in the air before them and lighted the way through the caverns. "What does it mean?"
"Centuries ago—in our time—the Jewel Beings of Plar left on an expedition to explore the universe and study the inhabitants of the planets they came to. They found their science and skill to be so vastly superior to any other that they contacted, that they decided to help the backward peoples they found and share their science with those who could benefit by it. They hoped to speed the evolutionary advances of these races and some day establish a congress of the worlds. To those who had no space flight they revealed the secret of the art. And so on with other arts and sciences."
"Do they intend to make such gifts to the Solar System?"
"Their decision to help a race is determined by the report of one of the Envoys who is placed on a world for secret investigation. Chamar, the seven-jeweled one, was the Envoy placed to report on Earth and the Solar System."
"Chamar! But how did he get scattered? Wasn't that like death to him?"
"They are nearly immortal. Chamar was left here by the expedition and the rest of them went on. My grandfather was the first to whom Chamar revealed himself. But soon after that the Envoy was blasted in a laboratory explosion. My grandfather died of the injuries received there, but first he told my father about the Envoy.
"My father didn't know what the reaction of the other Envoys would be when they returned, but he felt they would deny the Solar System their gifts unless Chamar were restored to them. He spent the rest of his life in the search. When he died he passed on the responsibility to me. He forced me to swear I'd spend my life in the search. And I have done it willingly, for Earth will receive gifts beyond man's wildest dreaming."
"But the myth of the Seven Jewels has been in existence for nearly two hundred years!" Nathan exclaimed.
Firebird was silent. They came out of the purple darkness into daylight again. The Envoy was barely visible in the light but the constant, high-pitched note told of his presence.
"The legend of Firebird is almost that old, too," she said.
"But there are supposed to have been many who called themselves Firebird. Surely you—" Nathan halted and stared at her.
"There has been only one Firebird," she said. "Chamar made one gift to my grandfather before the explosion. That was the pool of Luline. When I was only fifteen my father took me to it and I dipped in it for the first time. Besides its miraculous healing properties, the pool slows the rate of decay of animal organisms. It gives a natural life of a thousand years. It changes human tissue. You have seen the light that comes from my flesh, and you have seen me walk unharmed in the flames at Pheme, as well as witnessing my vision in the dark. All these are of the pool of Luline. But in a hundred and fifty years I have aged only ten."
The end of the hidden trail brought them out onto the rocky mountainside. They walked until the sharp tinkle of bells swelled upon the air. Their eyes focused in the space ahead of them. At first they could see nothing. Even the Envoy of Plar had become lost in the sunlight.
Then they caught the silken sheen of the almost invisible surface of the globe that hung in the air above the trail. The ship of Plar.
They knew instinctively that its substance was no material they could identify. Rather, it was a pure field, a segment out of another time, another space that hung there. It was massive, its dimensions uncertain.
Then a familiar sound came close to them in midair and they turned quickly.
"They have come," Chamar said. "I have given my report and now they are debating your case."
"Must they debate?" Firebird's voice was suddenly thin and a strange tremor was in it. "Is there doubt of their granting the gifts which they have?"
"Each world must stand upon its own merits."
"But you are one of them. Can you not tell us?"
"I am not permitted to vote upon a world which I have examined. That is the law."
The Envoy was suddenly motionless in the air before them, and a wild tinkling seemed to come from within the great invisible ship of Plar. An answering sound came from the Envoy.
"Envoy! What is it?" cried Firebird.
"They have come to a decision."
"The Gifts—?"
"Are not to be given."
There was no physical change in Firebird. Only her voice seemed as if her spirit had flown. "What have we done?" she asked.
"Not you—all the races of the System," said Chamar. "I have seen them all, felt their thoughts, known their actions in the century and a half that I have been here. I had to report the wars and bloodshed and thievery and hate that I have seen. I knew the Envoys would not grant their Gifts to such a System as yours."
"Is there only evil?" said Firebird. "Is there no good?"
"Not all is evil. But too much is. In a world where too many men want to rule all other men, we cannot bring powers that would be only a curse to you. Your eyes are too weak to stand the brightness of their light. Your backs lack strength to carry their burden. In ten thousand you may be ready, but until then the Envoys shall not return."
There was a moment of silence, then the Envoy spoke kindly. "You, Firebird, what would you do? Your self-chosen mission is completed."
Firebird's head came up slowly. "My mission is not completed. It has not even begun. I can shorten that ten thousand years. I'll stand in the way of a thousand men who would have it long. You'll come back to this System quicker because of me."
"That is good," Chamar said, and they imagined he was smiling benignly upon them. "That is what I hoped you would say. Because of your decision I shall stay even though my companions must go. I shall be near you all the rest of the days of your life, and when you want my help it shall be yours for the asking. Powers that I cannot give to you will be used for you. You won't see me always for I shall do my own work, but wherever you are, call upon me and I will answer. I go to arrange with my companions."
The creature sped into the bubble of light and vanished from their sight. The bubble itself lifted from the surface and burst into the sky, leaving them alone.
The cold wind of the desert broke upon them and whipped their cloaks about their bodies. They stood as if still in a trance, but Nathan moved slowly down the trail after a moment, drawing Firebird by the arm.
They did not speak until they came to the sled. It was safe in the hiding place where they had left it. Nathan climbed behind the wheel and pointed the nose of the sled across the desert towards the far cities of Heliopolis and the Five Towns.
The sled hissed over the sands, rocked between the high dunes and challenged the desert winds. And there was exultation in that challenge.
He spoke at last. "Where are you going, now? Is this the end of Firebird?"
She shook her head and smiled wanly at him. "There'll never be an end to the Firebird. By the time I am dead the legends will be so fabulous that they will never die. I'll make the name of Firebird a name to be feared among thieves and murderers in the high and low place of society. I'll fight the cause of justice in the realms where the law can never reach. Firebird will be the name to scourge evil on the spaceways.
"And what of you, Nathan? Your father's murder is avenged. Will you return to Venus?"
She was trying to smile, but Nathan turned and saw the smile waver on her lips, and his heart beat harder because he thought he knew why it wavered.
There was in her mind the vision of endless centuries with no one to share her secret, no one to love—except the cold Jewel Being from Plar.
Nathan touched her hand. "I suppose I'll go back to Venus now and then. But there's somewhere else I must go first."
"Where?"
"To the Pool of Luline. Do you think I'm going to let you live the rest of that thousand years alone?"