More Than Fire

He paused, then said, "Remembering that calls up the absolute panic and horror possessing me then. But I managed to get my hands unbound, and I managed to live, though I experienced the torments of the damned."

"What year was it that you gated through?" Kickaha said.

"The year of Our Lord eighteen hundred and seventeen."

"Then you've been about one hundred and seventy-five years in the Thoan worlds."

"Good God! That long! I've been so busy most of the time."

The Englishman sketched his life since then. He had been many places, had passed safely through many gates, had been a slave many times to both Thoan and humans, had been a chief of a small tribe, and had finally settled down into a comparatively happy life.

"But then I got an itch for adventure. I took a gate that led me eventually through many worlds until I fell into the trap, the pit, set up by Red Orc. I did not know whose it was until I saw the man who appeared in Khruuz's cell and was blown to bits."

He paused briefly, "That man looked exactly like Lord Riven."

"I had guessed that," Kickaha said. "The baron was Red Orc, living at that time on Earth One and disguised as a Scotch nobleman."

13

THOUGH KICKAHA KEPT BUSY SO THAT HE WOULD NOT THINK about Anana, he could not keep her out of his mind. With the images of her came anguish and fury. By now, the Thoan should have finished his memory-erasing on Anana, and she would think that she was only eighteen years old.

Red Orc would explain to her that she had had amnesia and was now in his care. Or that she had been given as his ward to him by her father and then had suffered a memory loss. He would make sure that she did not learn how many mille

Even now, he might be attempting to seduce her. Or he might be forcing her to his bed. Kickaha tried shutting out the visions of her making love to Red Orc. But it was not as easy as pulling down a window blind.

Two months passed. On the third day of the third week of the third month (a good omen, if you believe in omens), Khruuz told Kickaha and Clifton to come to the gates-display room. The vast chamber was unlit except for the light-points on the ceiling dome and the walls. They were much brighter than during the first visit. A single light illuminated Khruuz and the control panel before which he sat. When they entered, he rose with an expression that the two knew by now was intended for a smile.

He rubbed his hands together just as humans did to express their joy or high satisfaction. "Good news!" he said. "Very promising!"

He stabbed a finger at the ceiling. Bending his neck, Kickaha saw a huge point that had not been there when he was in the chamber. Many lives ran from it to many smaller points. He also saw that one bright point had changed from white to orange. Several lines leading to it were also orange. One of them ended at the big point.

"The orange point leads to Zazel's World-if my calculations are correct."

"Are you sure?" Kickaha said.

Khruuz sat down before the huge indicator-control panel. "I just said that I was not sure. If the computer is correct, I'm sure. But I don't know if it is correct. The only way to know will be to gate someone to it."

"How did you do it?" Kickaha said.

"I set the computer to tracing all the lines you see in this room. Since you were here last, many new points and lines have been added."

"But you said that you had shut down all the gates leading to here because of Red Orc," Clifton said.

"True. I had. But I took the chance that Red Orc would not detect the new gates I opened. These were opened for some microseconds before closing down. In that time, the computer did its tracing. The results of millions of tracings in the microsecond intervals are now displayed."

Kickaha wondered what it was that made the Khringdiz believe that he had found the gate to the Caverned World. Before he could ask, Khruuz said, "Look at the point that is far larger than the others. Now, do you see the orange line leading from it to the smaller orange point? The large point is a cluster of points so close together they look to your eye as if they were one point."

He looked up and smiled again. "The big point represents something I do not believe that the Thoan know about."

"Is that the all-nodes gate you asked me about two months ago?" Kickaha said. "I wondered about that, but you didn't say anything more when I said I'd never heard of it."

"Your answer was enough, even though you are only an expert on gates by experience. But you are not a scientist. Also, if Red Orc knew of the revolving or all-nodes gate, he would have used it."

He said something into the panel, and the screen before him showed a different display. In its center was a big light, the cluster of points that made up the all-nodes gate. Now Kickaha could see a small separation among the points.

Khruuz said one word in his harsh language. The screen zoomed in toward the point until the image almost filled it. By it appeared a word in small Khringdiz letters.

"That indicates the gate in the all-nodes cluster that leads to two places, what you call cracks, in the `wall' of Zazel's World. Note that the faults are much dimmer than the active gates. One fault is a once-active gate; the other, a weakness that was in the wall when that universe was made. The once-active gate was the gate that was closed, I believe, by the creature that rules the Caverned World. That being-you said his name is Dingstethnot only closed the gate, he moved the fault. That implies great knowledge and a vast power source. Even my machines are not capable of doing that. But my machines can detect that the fault has been moved. Look closely. I'll turn the power up so that it may be better seen."

He spoke another word. A very faint line appeared. One end was at the dim point, and the other end was at an even dimmer point.

"Traces of the operation," the scaly man said. "There are thousands of light-points on the chart. But this is the only one showing the path of a gate or fault that has been moved. Of course, what Dingsteth did was to shut down the shearing trap in the one-way gate that Red Orc had used to get into his world. Then he made it into a two-way gate just long enough to disintegrate the hexagonal structure. He would not have to leave his own world to do that since the beamer rays he used on the i

"After doing this, he remade the gate into a one-way entrance. Having done that, he moved the fault to another location, a feat beyond the power of present-day Thoan technology. That's why Red Orc could not find it on the Unwanted World. What you saw through Manathu Vorcyon's device was, as you realized later, a false light."

"That's wonderful!" Kickaha said. "But what about the one-way gate through which Dingsteth let Red Orc out of the Caverned World?"

Khruuz held his opened hands palms up in another human gesture. "It's been closed down, made into a no-way fault. I doubt that Red Orc has detectors sensitive enough to locate the fault. The lack of these also accounts for his failure to detect the entrance gate and the path it made when it was relocated. Even though the gate had been a two-way momentarily, the creature had means to cancel the trace of the two-way gate's existence. But you'll have to reopen the exit gate after you get in there."

"I'll handle it!" Kickaha said. "Let's get going!"

"Not so fast. Here's the machine that will open, or should open, the entrance point Dingsteth closed."