More Than Fire

He was shepherded out of the vessel. After the Thoan had commanded the craft to close the canopy, he guided Kickaha toward the boulder. Then he spoke a code word, and part of the side of the boulder shimmered with bands of red and violet. Looking steadily at it hurt Kickaha's eyes.

"Go ahead," Red Orc said.

Kickaha entered the gate into a small chamber in the rock. The next second, he was in a large windowless room made of greenish marble and furnished with carpets, drapes, chairs, divans, and statuary. A few seconds later, part of the seemingly solid wall opened and Red Orc stepped inside the room.

He motioned with the beamer. "Sit in that chair there."

After his captive had obeyed, Red Orc sat down in a chair facing Kickaha's. He smiled, leaned back, and stretched out his legs.

"Here we are in one of my hideaways on Earth Two."

"And?"

"Are you hungry? You may eat and drink while I'm discussing a certain matter with you."

Kickaha knew he would be foolish to refuse just because his enemy offered it. He needed the energy to get free, if he was going to do that, and he had no doubt that he would. "When," not "if," was the way it was going to be.

He said, "Yes.

Orc must have given some sort of signal, or he had assumed that his captive would not refuse a meal. A door-sized section of the wall opened. A woman pushed in a cart on which were goblets, covered dishes, and cutlery. She was a black-haired, brown-eyed, and dark-ski

"You may not only have the best food and drink this planet offers, but her, too," the Thoan said. "And others equally as beautiful and skilled in the bodily arts. If, that is, you accept my proposal."

Kickaha arched his eyebrows. Proposal? Then Red Orc must need his help in some project. Since he was not the man to draw back from danger, he had something near-suicidal in mind.

Afterward? If there was an afterward?

Kickaha held up his bound wrists and pointed a finger at the table. Red Orc told him to raise his arms high and to hold them as far apart as he could. Kickaha did so. There was approximately an inch between his wrists.

"Hold steady," the Thoan said, and he drew his beamer so swiftly his arm seemed to be a blur. A yellow ray lanced out; the bond was cut in half; the beamer was holstered. It was done within two eyeblinks.

Very impressive, Kickaha thought. But he was not going to tell Red Orc that. And what kind of beamer projected a yellow ray?

"I'll be back when you've finished eating," the Thoan said. "If you wish to wash first or need a toilet, utter the word `kentfass,' and a bathroom will extrude from the wall. To make it go back into the wall, say the same word."

A curious arrangement, Kickaha thought. But Red Orc had a curious mind.

The Thoan left the room. Though Kickaha did not have much appetite, he found that the food, which consisted of various vegetables, fruits, and different kinds of fish, was delicious. The wine was too heavy for his palate, but it did have an inviting don't-know-what taste and went down easily. Afterward, he used the bathroom, which was decorated with murals of undersea life. It slid into the wall, and the wall section swung shut. Some of these sections must conceal gates.

A few minutes later, the Thoan entered. Now he wore a longer robe and sandals. With him were three dark men wearing conical helmets topped by peacock feathers, short kilts, and buskins. All were armed with spears, swords, and knives. They took positions behind Red Orc, who had drawn up a chair shaped like a spider and sat down in it facing his captive. He was unarmed.

"You must be very puzzled," he said. "You're asking yourself why I, a Lord, require the assistance of a leblabbiy?"

"Because you've got something to do that's too big for you to handle by yourself," Kickaha said.

Red Orc smiled. He said, "I suppose you're wondering what your reward will be if you succeed in carrying out my desires. You also doubt that I'd keep my word to reward you."

"You have an astounding ability to read my mind."

"Sarcasm has no place here. I have never broken my word."

"Did you ever give your word?"

"Several times. And I honored it, though my natural inclination is to break it. But there have been situations ..."

He was silent for a few seconds. Then he said, "Have you heard about Zazel of the Caverned World?"

"Yes," Kickaha said. "Anana ..."

He choked. Even speaking her name summoned up grief like a thick glutinous wave and burned his heart.

After clearing his throat, he said, "Anana told me something about him. He created a universe that was a ball of stone in which were many tu

"Many Lords have committed suicide," Red Orc said. "They are the weaklings. The strong kill each other."

"Not fast enough for me. What does he have to do with us?"

"When I was a youth, I mightily offended my father. Instead of killing me, he gated me through to a world unfamiliar to me and very dangerous. It was called Anthema, the Unwanted World. I wandered around on it, and then I met another Lord, Ijim of the Dark Woods. He had gated through to Anthema while being pursued by a Lord whose world he had tried to invade. For forty-four years he had tried to find a gate through which he could travel to another universe."

The Thoan paused. He looked as if he were recalling his hard times on that planet.

He spoke again. "His long solitude had made him paranoiac. But we teamed up, though of course each of us was pla

"Ijim was halved like an apple, and I lost some skin and a slice of flesh on the end of my heels and on my buttocks. After wandering through tu

"Dingsteth was very naive. It did not kill me at once as it should have done. It wasn't loneliness, a desire for companionship, that stopped it. It did not know what loneliness was. At least, I think it does not suffer from that emotion. There were certain signs ..."

Red Orc again became silent. He looked past Kickaha as if he were viewing a screen displaying images of the Caverned World. Then he spoke.

"I found out from Dingsteth that the whole stone world was a computer, semi-protein and semi-silicon. It held enormous amounts of data put there by Zazel. Much of that data has been lost to the rest of us Lords."

The Thoan paused, licked his lips, and said, "So far, only I have entered Zazel's World. Only I know of the priceless data-treasures contained in it. Only I know about the gate that gives access to it. Only I know about certain data that would give me complete power over the Lords and their universes."

"Which is?" Kickaha said.

Red Orc laughed loudly. Then he said, "You are not only a trickster, you are a jester. It's not necessary that you know what I am specifically looking for, and you know that. I know that, if you should somehow get into Zazel's World, you will make a desperate effort to find out what I so greatly desire. I won't tell you because I won't take the slightest chance that knowledge of it should ever get to other Lords. And I certainly would not trust you with that knowledge."