More Than Fire

The clones started to protest that there was not enough time to carry out his orders. He said "Do it!" and turned the screen off. Ten minutes later, he had sent another message to Manathu Vorcyon. This brought her up to date on the situation. Then he verified that Anana had been transmitted to the escape-proof suite. At the time he had set for them, Wemathol and Ashatelon appeared on their one-man airboats.

Kickaha said, "Let's go." He lifted the Horn to his lips.

20

THEY HAD EXPECTED A WORLD MADE ALIVE AGAIN BY DINGsteth. But it was as dead as when they had left it. However, it was not quite as it had been during their previous visit. And it looked as if someone had blasted through a section of a wall. The new hole led to a very large cave containing live plants and animals and an area with chairs, tables, dishes, cutlery, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Dingsteth must have lived here, though there were no signs of struggle.

"Khruuz has been here," Kickaha said, "and he captured Dingsteth despite its traps. Nothing subtle or easy, just powered his way through them, destroying them. So, we go to Khruuz's World."

"Elyttria!" Wemathol said. "How do we get into his world? And would it be wise to go there?"

"No," Kickaha said. "Not if you want to live forever. We'll have no trouble, though, transmitting ourselves there. The Great Mother is helping us. She told me some time ago how we could do it. The way is now set up."

They flew back to the final X marking the gate through which they had entered. Here, Kickaha blew three times on the Horn. Manathu Vorcyon had also arranged that blowing it thrice at this point would alert her to open the passage to Khruuz's World. Kickaha did not know how she did this, but the important thing was that she could. She was now willing to use the knowledge she had kept to herself for so many mille

After warning them, though u

They had expected traps in the form of explosions, deadly gases, or gates switching them into a circuit or to a desolate universe. But they encountered none. Khruuz seemed to have assumed that no one could gate to his complex unless he permitted them entrance. Finally, after searching the scaly man's living quarters, which were empty, they got to the entrance to Khringdiz's control chamber.

Kickaha was the first to go into it. He halted; the others crowded around him. They stared at the smears of dried blood on the floor directly before the main control panel. Then Kickaha saw the body on the floor fifty feet from the stains. Clifton was lying there on his face. His outstretched hand still gripped a beamer. He had not been taken completely by surprise by Khruuz.

Kickaha strode to the body, noting on the way that there were no bloodstains between the smears and Clifton. Kneeling down, he put his finger on Clifton's neck. No pulse. He had not expected one. Clifton was wearing only a kilt, sandals, and a belt with a holster. On the back of the left arm was a cauterized hole, and close to the lower spine was a similar hole. He had been shot twice with a narrow beamer ray.

He turned the Englishman over. The two wounds in the front matched those in the back. Rising, he said, "Khruuz must've been in a hell of a hurry. He didn't even take the time to get rid of the body."

He ordered Wemathol to take the corpse into the hall some distance away and disintegrate it with the big beamers on his airboat. The Thoan put on his gas mask and began dragging the body from the room. Kickaha went back to the smears before the main control panel. He looked at them more closely.

"Clifton did get off some shots before he died. It looks as if Khruuz was wounded. But not bad enough to lay him low."

Again, he got down on one knee, and he examined one edge of the stains. He said, "Ah! Here's the imprint of the front part of a foot! It's not human! And it's not Khruuz's! Has to be Dingsteth's! It was standing close to Khruuz when the beamer fight was going on!"

Ashatelon got close to the half-print. When he arose, he said, "You're right. But was Dingsteth a prisoner, or did it come with Khruuz voluntarily?"

"I doubt very much it came willingly."

Ashatelon said, "Why would Khruuz take Dingsteth with him? If Dingsteth obeyed your orders, it would have erased all data about the creation engine."

He stopped, then said, "Oh, I see! I think I do, anyway. The data in the computer could be erased, Dingsteth having followed your orders. But it could be in Dingsteth's brain!"

Kickaha nodded. "I goofed up. I should have thought of that Dingsteth wouldn't have told me the data was in its mind unless I'd asked it if it was. Khruuz was smarter. He may even have thought of it when we were there. But he kept quiet about it for his own reasons."

The clone said, "He's hellbent for revenge. He's going to do what Red Orc meant to do! Destroy all universes except one!"

Kickaha said, "We don't know that for sure. But you're probably right. We're going back to the palace but not until we see Manathu Vorcyon. Bad as the situation is, she may want to join us. I think Khruuz is already in the palace. He'll expect us to be treading on his heels. We may have hurried him so much he didn't take time to prepare for us. Let's hope so. In any case, we're going to take a detour, see Manathu Vorcyon first."

If the giantess was surprised by their sudden appearance, she did not show it. As soon as she had been informed of the latest events, she said, "I'm going with you. I have not left my world for many thousands of years, but I have not forgotten how to fight. It will take a few hours to get ready. Meanwhile, eat. You need the rest and the food."

What she did during this time, the others did not know. But when she appeared before them, she wore a suit like a firefighter's, a transparent globe over her head, gloves, and an oxygen tank on her back. A harness over her torso held at least a dozen weapons, some of them unfamiliar to Kickaha. Behind her were four servants carrying similar outfits. These were given to the men.

She is indeed the goddess of war, he thought. But Athena never looked so formidable. And it was at once evident that she had assumed command. Though Kickaha did not like that, he knew that it was best for all of them. Her mille

"Follow me," she said, her voice coming through a speaker in her helmet. "We're going to a place where only I have been. You may put on the suits when we get to it."

They went up the winding staircase in the tree to her room. She spoke a code word. The glindglassa, the huge mirror, shimmered. Kickaha, the first in line behind her, stepped through it into a gigantic room with many doors. He did not have time to marvel at its many objets d'art, some of which must have been twenty thousand years old, nor at the stuffed bodies of men and women standing here and there, all arranged in various postures, their faces expressing a range of emotions. These, he supposed, were enemies she had killed during the ancient Time of Troubles. Unique mementos-and dust-free, too.

She led them from the room into a hallway at least four hundred feet long. Near its end, she turned into a fifty-foot-high entrance. Beyond it was a huge hangar housing scores of aircraft. At her orders, the four do