Project Gutenberg's The Seven Jewels of Chamar, by Raymond F. Jones
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Title: The Seven Jewels of Chamar
Author: Raymond F. Jones
Release Date: November 26, 2020 [EBook #63886]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN JEWELS OF CHAMAR ***
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THE SEVEN JEWELS OF CHAMAR
By RAYMOND F. JONES
Scattered, they flamed like distant suns, maddening
the beholder. United, they became a godlike power
for the glory of the Solar System. But, their
flame lances still white-hot from killing, young
Ormondy and the fabulous Firebird learned how
impossible was the price of that power.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Winter 1946.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The bearded giant, Thymar Ormondy, raised stiffly on one arm from the
bed of litter on the damp cave floor. He pointed the charred stub of
his other arm at his son.
"Beware the Firebird!" His voice was distorted with pain. "She'll kill
a thousand men for every one of the Seven Jewels of Chamar."
Nathan Ormondy threw back his rain cape and knelt beside his dying
father. The great hulk of the old man sank back upon the rags.
"Did she do this?" Nathan demanded fiercely. His eyes filled with flame
at the sight of the terrible wound that had come from a shot in the
back.
Thymar lay without answering. His eyes were closed. Nathan heard only
the hushing sound of the eternal Venusian rains that blotted out the
distant hills like a ragged curtain hung over the mouth of the cave.
Behind Nathan another shaggy spaceman touched his shoulder. It was
Tabor, his father's companion. The two police custodians from Aquatown
shifted uneasily.
"Was it Firebird?" Nathan demanded of the watchers.
Before they could answer, Thymar's remaining hand fell upon Nathan's
wrist. "There is more to tell," the old spaceman whispered.
Nathan hunched lower to seize every word. "What is it?"
"The Jewels of Chamar--"
"Curse the Jewels of Chamar! They stink with blood. I'd blast them all
if I could!"
Thymar's wide, steel eyes opened slowly. The leather of his face
crinkled like finely tanned doeskin.
"When you have looked into the blue depths of a stone that is like the
eye of all the universe you'll never be able to turn your back upon
it. You'll never rest until you have found all seven of the Jewels--or
death."
"Death is all that anyone has ever found."
"Ah," said Thymar, "but one man will find himself the master of all the
universe when once he holds all seven of the Jewels in his hands. That
is the promise of the Jewels--mastery, power. And I know that it is
true. I've held them--as many as five of them at once, and I know what
it means. There's a force in them that sweeps through the brain and the
soul. It lifts a man to power and strength beyond himself."
"Pah! Autohypnosis--or plain drunkenness. There are a thousand other
names for it."
"No," said Thymar softly. "It's there--pure life force, or whatever it
might be termed, but with those Jewels one man would be as ten thousand
men, each greater than any Earth has produced.
"And you can be that man, Nathan!" The old spaceman raised again from
the bed. "I bequeath to you the two Jewels that I have left. There were
three, but--"
"Firebird?"
"That does not matter. I warned you of her because she has sworn to
have the Jewels. I know she has two, maybe more. You'll have to kill
her for them. Think what it would mean to the universe if that ruthless
witch possessed the Jewels. Hell would be let loose.
"The Jewels are no concern of mine. I want to know only who did this to
you."
Thymar sank back again. His voice whispered almost inaudibly, "Come
closer."
"In the cave of Lava Mountain," he whispered hoarsely, "do you remember
the Stone Pig? The two Jewels are there. It makes no difference who did
this to me. Nothing matters but the Jewels of Chamar. Take them--and
become master of the universe!"
"Who did--?" Then Nathan's fury-laden voice ceased. The only sound was
the hush of rain outside. Slowly Nathan's head bent low. His father was
dead. Never again would Thymar Ormondy's voice roar upon the spaceways
or in the thousand tavern rendezvous of the spacemen.
Tabor put his hand upon Nathan's shoulder. "Sorry, son."
* * * * *
Nathan rose. It was as if an electric charge had been thrust between
the other men.
"I'll find the killer," said Nathan evenly. He looked down at the form
on the cavern floor. "I'll find him if it takes the rest of my life.
Why did he warn me of Firebird? Was it only because of the Jewels or do
you think she could have done this?"
"He hated Firebird because of an old quarrel. She might have done it,
but I don't know. I was with Thymar in Aquatown when he received a
message saying information concerning the Blue Jewel could be found
here. He went alone and we were to meet a day later to leave for Mars.
He didn't show up so I came here and found him like this."
Nathan nodded. The policeman, Cleeg, had told him that much after Tabor
had sent word. But that was no help. It only served to fix Nathan's
hatred more intensely upon the cursed Seven Jewels of Chamar.
"Was my father carrying any of the Jewels when he came here?"
"He had the Pink one. I tried to warn him, but he said he could take
care of it."
"And now it's gone, of course."
Tabor nodded. "The whole thing was a trap by someone who knew he had
it."
"Who knew of it?"
"Half of Venus. He was drunk and boasting of it in the taverns the
night before."
That was Thymar, Nathan thought, a great flagon of wine in one hand,
boasting to the whole assemblage in some tavern, proclaiming his
fabulous deeds upon the spaceways and challenging any one to dispute
his word with flame lances.
"Take care of things, will you?" Nathan said abruptly. "I'll get back
to the town."
"What are you going to do?"
"I think I know a way to trap the killer."
The policeman and Tabor looked startled. "Be careful, boy," said Tabor.
"Do you want me to go with you?"
"No. Don't worry about me."
"Watch out for Firebird. She's on Venus now, and your father must have
had a reason for his warning."
"Bah! She's nothing but a Calamity Jane legend. Have you ever traded
flames with her?"
"I've seen men who have. They weren't alive to tell about it."
"Spacemen dislike combat with a woman so you've built up a myth about
her to give an excuse for not killing her. But if she is the one who
killed my father she's going to pay for it."
"Then why not let the police bring her in?"
"What police? Four planets have put a price on her head and she walks
free in the cities of any of them."
"She's dangerous," Tabor repeated his warning. "And perhaps she is not
the killer after all. There's no use crossing her trail needlessly."
"We'll soon know," Nathan promised.
He turned and strode out of the cavern of death while the two police
officers began preparing his father's body for the trip back to the
city under Tabor's direction. He paused a moment at the entrance and
drew up the waterproof hood of his cloak and tied the knot beneath his
chin, then went out into the sheeting rain.
At the bottom of the steep and slippery trail leading from the cave
waited Perseus, the white stallion imported from Earth. In a world
still battling incessantly against the jungle the horse was one of the
chief means of private transportation, even though practically extinct
on Earth.
Perseus nuzzled against Nathan's neck and the man rested his face
against the horse's head for a moment. Loneliness and weariness
descended upon Nathan. He was lonelier than he had ever known he could
be, he thought. Thymar had never given much companionship to his son
because their adventurous spirits had led them in opposite directions.
But the mere knowledge of Thymar's existence somewhere in the universe
was the only companionship Nathan had needed. Now that was gone.
And somewhere on Venus was a murderer he had to kill.
II
It was after dark when Nathan reached Aquatown. The streets of the
Venusian frontier village literally flowed with water, proving the
accuracy of its naming.
Lights on the corners and in front of the taverns were ghostly blobs
in the rain. Few Earthmen were about, but the little polite Greenies
of Venus swarmed the streets nodding and smiling when they saw Nathan.
They knew and revered him as the great engineer from Earth who had
brought lights and power to their wet, primitive world.
Aquatown was only a frontier village with more than its quota of
taverns to drain away the savings of the restless spacemen who stopped
for a day or a week, waiting for a new cargo or for ship repairs in the
nearby Universal Yards.
Nathan's plan was fixed in his mind. He left Perseus at his lodgings
and then headed for the taverns. The night's crowds were beginning to
swarm in as he entered the first one.
It was hot and steamy inside, and the fog of smoke made it impossible
to see the opposite wall. Bearded miners, lean adventurers, smooth
fingered confidence men were the customers. Dance hall girls who had
come from Earth for the adventure and stayed because of the utter
dejection with which Venus filled them were the men's companions for
the most part.
Nathan went directly to the bar and began ordering drinks. He grew more
boisterous and his voice grew unsteady as he boasted and shouted of his
good fortune in coming into possession of two of the Jewels of Chamar.
Then he left. He went to the next tavern and repeated the performance.
During the night he made a tour of the taverns that would have done
credit to old Thymar Ormondy himself.
And when the first light of Venusian dawn came he was stiff and
immobile in the last of the taverns. The bouncers pitched him out into
the mud and rain as the place closed up.
When he was alone Nathan rose and shook himself. He had accomplished
his purpose. Every thug and murderer on Venus knew by now that Nathan
Ormondy was going today to the secret cache of Jewels left by his
father.
And Nathan knew that his father's killer would be not far behind as he
moved up that mountain trail towards the cave in Lava Mountain.
He made his way through the mud and slime of the streets to his own
lodging. There, after a quick bath and breakfast, he armed and checked
the charge in each of two flame lances.
The weapons consisted of powerful electrodes with pistol grip handles.
The electrodes were just less than eight inches in length and full
charge was a thousand rounds. Nathan pocketed them solemnly, wondering
if one of those charges would avenge his father's death.
He dressed in brown riding cape and donned a crimson helmet to make it
easy to be followed. When he went out to the stable, Perseus seemed to
sense the importance of their approaching mission and nickered eagerly.
Nathan let the horse have his head and they raced along the forest
trail behind the city and upward to the hills. The tree branches
overhead dripped water that was already stagnant. And somewhere in
those trees Nathan knew that outlaws of four planets were silently
watching, waiting for him to lead them to part of the fabulous treasure
for which three generations of adventurers had searched.
His father's murderer was sure to be foremost among them.
* * * * *
Nathan wondered if he could have saved his father's life by following
him to the starways years ago. Born aboard a spaceship, Thymar had
never claimed any planet for his own. He had tried to raise Nathan
to be a starman like himself, but Nathan had seen the advancing wave
of civilization beating upon the shores of alien planets and knew
the only sure foundation would be built by the engineers, not by the
wandering starmen. So he had chosen to fight the battles of engineering
on primitive worlds. He was following the starways in a sense, but it
broke Thymar's heart when Nathan became "civilized."
Then seven years ago Thymar had dedicated the remainder of his life to
the recovery of the fabled, mysterious Jewels of Chamar.
The story of the cursed Jewels was obscure. No one knew their origin.
There was little more than the age old myth that to hold all seven
would make a man master of the universe, but to hold less than seven
would bring eventual death.
The latter at least was no myth, Nathan thought grimly.
The trail became steep as the trees thinned and the horse broke out
upon the hillside. There was a moment of sunlight blinding in its
beauty. Then dark clouds closed over again.
Nathan rode out along a ridge trail where he was silhouetted against
the sky. He stood for a moment, making himself as conspicuous as
possible to the unseen followers he knew were behind him. Ahead, the
tall spire of Lava Mountain loomed against the gray blanket of the sky.
It seemed near in its majestic might, but it was nearly midday when
Nathan reached the foot of it.
The sight of the mountain at close range brought back a thousand
memories to Nathan. He had spent much of his boyhood here and this
was where Thymar had taught him in the rugged ways of living of the
spacemen. Here he had learned from Thymar and Tabor to master the flame
lance until there was hardly a spaceman that could match his skill.
The mouth of the great cavern was in sight now, high up on the face
of the mountain. He hoped the narrow trail he and Thymar had so
laboriously cut out was still there. It appeared to be. He guided the
horse up the beginning of the steep cut.
He drew out one of the flame lances now and kept a sharp watch on the
trail below. He knew that he was in no danger from anyone with a sense
of calculation. That type of renegade would wait until Nathan had
recovered the Jewels before attacking. But some brainless fool might
try to pick him off now and search the cave on his own.
From far down the trail came the sudden clatter of rocks as a slide was
started by a careless step, but no one was visible behind the ridges.
Nathan had a clear view of his last hour's ride. So far, he was in the
clear.
He looked cautiously at the cliff above him. Attack from that angle was
not entirely impossible--especially if Firebird was in the vicinity. He
knew she would not be with the followers behind him.
But now the last two hundred feet of the steep trail were before him.
The great maw of the cavern was like a black cloud against the dirty
white rock of the mountain. He touched his heels sharply to the flanks
of the horse, and Perseus leaped up the incline in long jumps that
carried horse and rider on into the black cave.
Instantly, Nathan leaped off and flung himself behind a giant
stalagmite, half expecting a flame ball to be hurled at him from out of
the darkness.
* * * * *
But a flame would have been welcome after the darkness and silence
that pervaded the place. Only the distant sounds of the now emboldened
pursuers came from the ridge below.
Nathan moved to the entrance and obtained his first glimpse of the
pursuers. A battle skirmish had broken out between them. He had
expected that. A man who had already killed for the Jewels would not
welcome competition.
Nathan moved back and ordered the horse into a niche in the wall. He
was dismayed somewhat by the number of men he had seen on the trail.
There were at least twenty taking part in the skirmish and doubtless
more were hidden from his sight. Determining the murderer would be
difficult in such a mob.
The stalagmite which Nathan and his father had called the Stone Pig
was nearly a half mile back into the mountain along a tortuous trail.
He could not be sure that falling stalactites had not blocked the way,
so Nathan was forced to risk a light after leaving the mouth of the
cave.
The cave was hot. Steamy fog filled the air as he came at last to the
small room of the Stone Pig. He knew that some of his pursuers must
be near the cavern by now. He needed time to get to a hidden gallery
overlooking the path they would have to traverse.
Nothing seemed changed from the time he had last been near the Stone
Pig. The grotesquely formed stalagmite was shiny with moisture and its
enigmatic grin seemed to challenge Nathan to find out the things it had
seen while he had been gone.
A sense of excitement and anticipation seized Nathan despite his
efforts to control his feelings. He thought of the boyhood days when he
had hidden secret "maps" and strange and precious "formulae" beneath
the Stone Pig. Now he was to see for the first time the fabulous gems
that had cost so many lives, including his father's.
He pushed the stalagmite and it toppled over heavily. In the small,
hollow space beneath it lay the same metal can that he had used so long
ago. He pried open the lid.
There lay the Jewels--one green, one red.
But the gasp that escaped his lips at their sudden beauty was smothered
in the sudden roar of deafening thunder that came from the cavern mouth
far behind him.
He jerked to his feet. The air compression waves staggered him so that
he tottered drunkenly for a moment and the sound battered his body.
A flood of dust laden air flowed over him. Then gradually it settled
about the chamber and there was only silence once more.
Nathan looked back at the box. A cleverly arranged switch had closed
when he opened the lid, exploding the thunderous charge at the mouth of
the cave. He struggled mentally with the problem of who had placed the
explosive and the switch to seal the cave.
Perhaps Thymar had placed it as protection against robbery and his
mind had been so affected by his wounds that he had forgotten it.
Or someone might have planted it as a trap. But, if so, why were the
Jewels left?
Almost forgetting that he was sealed in the cavern, he knelt down
beside the box. The inner light of the Jewels pierced his eyes and
seized his mind in a hypnotic trance. For an instant he thought he was
gazing upon the beauties of some fair and alien world. In the red one
there was a fantastic garden of Mars, but a Mars where no red sand
clouds ever covered the cities with smothering death.
And in the green one he saw a fair and lovely vision of Earth so real
it pierced him with nostalgia.
Then the visions faded. Whether he actually saw them or they were
figments of imagination he never knew. But he had to shake his head and
tear his sight away from the Jewels in order to pocket them.
Then, as he turned away, there broke upon the air a high-pitched song
that trilled a moment's melody. It hung as if a crystal were suspended
in the cavern, echoing its vibrations from chamber to chamber.
It came again. Nathan straightened and put out the light. He whipped
out both flame lances.
It was the song of the Firebird.
III
Nathan darted out of the room of the Stone Pig, guided by his intimate
knowledge of the cavern. He waited a moment by the entrance, listening
in the darkness. Then he heard the soft scrape of a sandal against a
rock somewhere. And a voice.
"Nathan Ormondy!"
It called his name softly, echoing in the cavern, and it was like no
other voice he had ever heard. The music of its overtones was brilliant
and glowing like the inner light of the Jewels of Chamar themselves.
"I have come for you, Firebird," said Nathan. "Ready your flame lance."
He darted away, expecting a flame to be hurled at the sound of his
voice. None came. He waited, hoping Firebird would answer and give him
a target.
That first sound of her voice haunted him. It was the loveliness
of a spring day on Earth, the blue of the sky and the song of the
birds--but it was the song of the Firebird, a song of death.
Then she answered. "I came to make peace, Nathan. Put up your lance and
make a light."
He aimed in the darkness--and could not fire at that voice.
"Do you think I'm a fool?" he muttered savagely. It was to himself as
well as to Firebird.
"You _are_ a fool!" Firebird hissed in anger. "I came to you
peacefully."
From across the chamber a ball of fire the size of an orange spurted
with the speed of lightning. It splattered the wall two feet from
Nathan. The heat of its explosion singed his cape to a shred. His face
was scorched and his eyes blinded temporarily.
Nathan aimed again and unleashed a blast of his own, but it went wide
for he did not even glimpse Firebird in its glow. He leaped away to
hiding behind a large stalagmite.
"Listen to me!" the voice of Firebird commanded again. "I could have
killed you then. My shot landed two feet to the left of you. Now will
you hear what I have to say?"
"It's easy to call your shots after they are fired."
"Here's one neither to the right or left," said Firebird evenly.
Before she finished speaking a blast of flame burst over the huge
stalagmite in front of Nathan. The fire of it flowed around the sides
and enveloped him in a searing blanket.
For the first time, Nathan knew fear. The witch could see in the dark!
He was at her mercy.
Her voice spoke more softly now. "Are you coming out from behind there
or do I have to come and get you?"
"You'll have to come and get me--the same way you got my father."
He leaped away to still another stalagmite. He paused midway to unleash
his own burst from the flame lance. It splashed against the cavern
wall, but there was no answering fire.
He waited tensely in the darkness. Minutes passed. Surely he could not
have killed the Firebird with that blast. The silence could only mean
then that she was holding her fire, creeping up on him in the darkness.
"You have no excuse for my father's murder?" Nathan taunted. He slipped
away to another protecting rock.
Then the voice of Firebird came again--and she hadn't moved! Nathan's
eyes tried hopelessly to pierce the blackness to check the evidence of
his ears.
Firebird said, "I was just wondering what I could say to a fool like
you. If I killed your father for the Jewels why do you suppose that I
didn't take them and go? Why should I have left them, and prepared the
trap to destroy the cave mouth?"
"Is there anyone who knows the mysterious ways of the thief and killer,
Firebird?"
"I have never stolen except from thieves. I have never killed--except
murderers."
"My father was not a murderer!"
"And I did not kill him. Your father and I were partners for many
years. We searched together for the Seven Jewels."
"I don't believe that. He warned me against you."
"Yes. Because we quarrelled. I'll tell you about it some day. Together,
we found five of the Seven Jewels. One of his three was stolen by the
murderer. Now, there are four of the Jewels equally divided between you
and me. It is senseless for us to fight. There is power enough for us
both when the Seven are ours. In return for your cooperation I promise
to help you find your father's murderer. You know my reputation well
enough to know what my promise means. And remember, I could have taken
the Jewels instead of bargaining with you, but the Firebird is not a
thief."
Nathan didn't believe a word of what she said, but he knew that if
he continued to challenge Firebird with the flame lance it would not
take her a dozen shots to find him in the darkness. Though he had been
taught by Thymar he could not match such shooting. He would be lucky
to find her with a hundred shots. No wonder her prowess had become a
legend.
"I'll compromise--with one reservation," he said. "I think you killed
my father. I know you can kill me here in the darkness. I don't know
why you don't. I'll accept your offer, but unless you prove you did
not kill my father, you and I will sometime again trade flames to the
death."
"Done," said Firebird.
* * * * *
Almost instantly, a pink glow began filling the chamber. It was like
the rising of the sun over one of Earth's quiet seas. There seemed to
be the perfume of flowers in the air, and the song of birds.
[Illustration: _There seemed to be the perfume of flowers in the air,
and the song of birds._]
And then Nathan realized it was Firebird's song--that high-pitched
melody that caused a faint chill to race the length of his spine.
The glow, too, was coming from her. It heightened with a tremendous,
terrifying crescendo. Nathan had heard babbling outlaws who swore
drunkenly to having seen this sight.
He stood immobile now, not breathing in the face of the wondrous glory
of that unfolding light. The Firebird herself was so dazzling that the
pink radiance blinded him after the darkness, but when his eyes became
accustomed to it he saw her.
She was small, almost tiny, and exquisitely shaped. Her head was
encased in a close fitting silver helmet that did not prevent her
flowing, raven hair from tumbling over the nape of her neck. As she
stood there in the rising glow she seemed poised for flight.
A close fitting tunic that seemed to be of scarlet tinted mail
protected her body, but her arms and legs were bare and from her very
flesh the pink light was emanating.
Nathan murmured, half to himself, "Beautiful--and inhuman! Who are you?"
The Firebird smiled. And Nathan moved slowly towards her. It was
incredible that such evil as he had heard of the Firebird could have
come out of such beauty.
"Perhaps you shall know who I am some day. For now, our agreement does
not call for that. Would you mind pocketing your flame lance before we
go on?"
Nathan realized his hand still gripped the weapon and it was trained on
the girl. It would take only a squeeze of his finger to erase her evil--
"Better not try it," she warned, and the smile did not leave her lips.
He looked down at her hand. Her own weapon was trained with equal
sureness upon him.
Instinctively, then, he knew that all the stories about the fabulous
quick draw of the Firebird were true. If he so much as thought of
killing her, her finger would squeeze the trigger of her flame lance a
thousand times quicker than his.
He pocketed the weapon slowly and smiled at her.
"How do we get out?" he said. "Is the passage blocked?"
"Completely," Firebird said. "Or else the gentlemen who were so anxious
to meet you here would have arrived by now."
"You planted the explosive?"
"Yes. I wanted our interview in private, not amidst a battle."
"How do you know there is any other way out?"
"Your father and I built it long ago."
Nathan remained silent. Was it only some purposeful fiction, or had his
father actually been partners with Firebird?
She turned her back upon him and led the way out of the chamber by her
own mysterious radiance. He could draw his flame lance now, Nathan
thought. But it was only a thought. He wondered if he could ever seek
vengeance upon such beauty regardless of what she had done in the past.
There was a temptation almost stronger than vengeance now, a temptation
to see this whole affair all the way through--to find out the true
identity of the fabled Firebird and the secret of the Seven Jewels of
Chamar.
For a time they walked towards the blocked entrance, then they turned
abruptly aside into a narrow passage. The slim Firebird passed through
easily but for Nathan it was a tight squeeze that grew narrower as he
went.
A strangling sense of claustrophobia seized him. He pressed almost
frantically to get past the bottleneck. If this were a trap Firebird
could shoot before he could get a hand near a weapon.
Then he saw her waiting for him ahead in the larger chamber to which
the narrow passage led. She seemed to read his thoughts.
"Do you trust me now?"
"Does anyone really trust the Firebird--anyone on the nine worlds?"
The sudden sobering of her face was a terrible thing to see. She turned
away so hastily that Nathan barely saw the expression, but he saw
enough to know that there was weakness in her. She was not all iron
strength. He saw enough to know that the incredible, storied Firebird
had no friend in all the System and he knew what that fact meant to her.
IV
Nathan had never been in the part of the cavern which they were
entering. He knew the narrow passage must have been covered by a thin
shell of rock in his time.
They came at last into a chamber that was the equal in size of the main
one. There was daylight visible and the pink radiance from Firebird
began to die. When it was gone she seemed smaller and more fragile
than ever. Only the little blue lights in her eyes seemed hard and
unyielding.
Within the chamber Nathan stopped and gasped. There was the glistening,
silver hull of a space cruiser. And high on the nose of it was the
dread name: _Corsair_.
_Corsair_--the famed pirate vessel that had outrun every ship that had
ever pursued it. In a hundred acts of piracy, the Firebird had escaped
without leaving a trace by means of the _Corsair_.
She watched as he admired the ship. "Like it?"
"So this is the famous _Corsair_," he said, "--and your hideout. You
must be sure of your ability to win me as an ally or to kill me."
"I am--sure of both. But I need you more as an ally. Shall we go in?"
The needle-like hull housed a long, spiral catway that led to the
cabins and control room. Halfway to the nose Firebird showed Nathan a
tiny cabin which he could use.
"You'll find a supply of clothing," she said. "I find it necessary to
prepare for occasional guests who forget to bring luggage."
Guests taken from space liners in the midst of interplanetary space,
Nathan thought. He wondered what had become of the many that the
Firebird had kidnapped that way.
"And now the control room," she said. "I want you to become familiar
with the operation of the ship."
All the ships that Nathan had ever known seemed like clumsy scows
beside this splendid vessel. Every device known to space navigation
and combat was in the equipment. And many instruments he failed to
recognize.
"Who designed this ship?"
"My father."
"Father--" Somehow Nathan found himself unable to associate the
Firebird with any of the normalcies of life. "Who was your father?"
Her smile was wry. "A man who was little known during his lifetime."
He didn't pursue the subject; they could go into that later. He said,
"What I'm interested in is what do we do now?"
"We are going to find the other three Jewels. One of them is in the
hands of your father's murderer. We do not need to worry about losing
track of that because he will follow us."
"You know who it is?"
"Yes--but you would not believe me."
"Tell me!" He stepped forward, his big hands closing as if upon a
throat.
"Our bargain," the girl reminded him. "The Jewels first--I swear we'll
not lose him."
"The other Jewels--where are they, then?"
"One of them is buried inaccessibly in a mountain on Mars. The other is
in the possession of one of three outlaws, all of whom are on Mars. I
have traced it to one of them. So that is where we are going."
"How do you know who has them?"
"That's a long story," said Firebird, "and one that has cost many years
of my life. And would have cost more without Thymar's help."
"I'd like to know more of your story about him. He never told me until
he died that he had known you."
"It can wait."
Satisfied that the controls were in order, the girl turned her
attention to the engines.
"There's trouble in the port motor," she said. "It can't be repaired
with the facilities available to us here. We'll have to take a chance
using it."
Nathan was about to protest, then changed his mind. He and his father
had gone into space so often with decrepit and half worn equipment that
it should have made no difference, but this vessel was so sleek and
perfect that danger seemed to lurk in any minor imperfection.
Nathan strapped himself into the inertia-controlling chair next to
Firebird. He studied the duplicate controls in front of him but kept
his hands off.
Firebird started the warming coils to preheat the tubes. After a moment
she adjusted the ignition controls and twisted the fuel valve.
Nathan felt as if he had been slapped suddenly with a giant pillow that
pressed him flat in the chair. The acceleration of the _Corsair_ was
greater than any he had experienced before, and his father's old ship
had never been equipped with inertia chairs.
He caught no glimpse of the edge of the cavern's maw as the ship passed
upward through it. One instant they were in the cave, the next they
were in the sky and only seconds passed until they were soaring above
the thick cloud layer of Venus.
After five minutes of such intense acceleration, the Firebird relaxed
and cut the controls to a point where they could breathe more easily.
"Why the hurry?" Nathan gasped. "Nobody is chasing us!"
Firebird made no answer. She reached towards the small panel at the
lower edge of the control board and switched on the viewing plate.
Silently, she scanned the heavens behind them and the surface of
the planet they were leaving. The focus of the plate extended and
retreated, then suddenly it concentrated upon a blunt-nosed black
vessel rising somewhere below them.
"The Black Warrior," said Firebird. "He was watching for us to leave."
* * * * *
Nathan watched the black ship for hours while Firebird guided the
_Corsair_. Steadily the strange vessel gained on them.
"We could outrun him easily," said Firebird, "if it weren't for that
bad motor. Do you know how to handle light cruiser lances?"
"My father never carried a gun on his ship in his life."
"I remember," said Firebird. "How I used to argue with him. He said
he wouldn't risk being caught by the police in an armed vessel, so he
never came aboard the _Corsair_."
"Perhaps a wiser man than his son," said Nathan.
He told himself he wanted no part of this. He was an engineer, not a
buccaneer. Yet as the black vessel approached he felt the thrill of its
challenge. The challenge of combat in the impersonal depths of space.
His father had felt that challenge--the challenge of men and of space
itself, and he had met it with his own bare hands. It was impossible
for Nathan not to feel it.
They kept their steady pace at an acceleration something more than
fifteen G's. Firebird gave Nathan brief instructions in the operation
of the weapons and controls.
A viewing screen provided Nathan with sights. Its scale automatically
corrected for the relative motions of the two vessels.
Abruptly, and without warning, the Black Warrior fired. The _Corsair's_
defensive screens caught the blast with an absorption of energy that
made the dissipators whine and grow incandescent.
"He's using high powered stuff," said Nathan. "Those screens can't take
much of that."
"They weren't meant to. The _Corsair's_ main defense is her speed.
There wasn't room for heavy screens. This time our defense has to be
better shooting. Watch this."
As she spoke, she caught the enemy ship dead in the sights and
depressed the firing button. A cloud of bright vapor seemed to envelope
the black hull. Then all was as before.
"He's got our screens beat," said Nathan. "We'll never get through
them."
Firebird smiled. "That's the first time that's been said in the
_Corsair_. I hope your pessimism doesn't jinx us."
The black ship was swinging back, maneuvering closer.
"Hang on!" Firebird exclaimed. She flung the _Corsair_ into a tight
turn and held it.
Simultaneously, she fired the four big lances in the stern and left a
trail of flame balls that made it impossible for the enemy to follow
in their wake. Then, forcing the ship into a close spiral, she nosed
towards the black ship and fired the four forward lances together.
Nathan watched, his hands clenched to knuckle whiteness on the control
panel, as the four flames combined and enveloped the enemy. This time
the Black Warrior's screens flamed lividly. The big ship heeled crazily
away, twisting under the forces unleashed upon it.
But the black ship was vicious in its death agonies. Nathan saw its
beams lash out and yelled to Firebird, "Don't cross his stern!"
Firebird saw her mistake. Both of them twisted at the dual controls to
swing the _Corsair_ away from that cone of destruction into which it
was plunging.
It was too late. They swept across the stern of the Black Warrior which
was blasting with all it had. The _Corsair's_ screen lit momentarily.
Then the dissipators exploded in a crushing blast in the depths of the
ship.
The interior of the control room came alive with flame. Firebird flung
her hands before her face and her silver helmet was encased in a halo
of fire.
What protected him, Nathan never knew, but he seemed to be just outside
the sphere of burning destruction that burst through the walls of the
control room in a hundred million pin pricks of flame. For an eternity
he seemed frozen there watching the flame creeping over the slim form
of Firebird--watching it burn and smother her.
Automatic cells closed the innumerable pin pricks made in the hull by
the entering ions of fire. The control panel was blackened and burned.
Then the flame-points faded out.
His hypnosis induced by the flame could not have lasted more than a
fraction of a second, Nathan knew. But when he leaped out of the chair
towards Firebird, he shuddered.
The bronze and pink of her flesh was burned to blackness.
* * * * *
It was impossible, he told himself numbly. This couldn't be the end of
the storied Firebird. But it was. That charred corpse could never hold
life again.
A poignant pain of sorrow filled him as he looked upon the figure and
remembered the beauty of Firebird. He felt lost, and all the supreme
purpose in their flight to Mars had ceased.
His mind drifted back to the scene in the cave when he had
witnessed his father's death. He recalled the words his father had
spoken--"You'll never rest until you have found all Seven of the
Jewels--or death."
That's the way it had been with Thymar Ormondy. That's the way it had
been with Firebird. All they had found was death.
Then, with a shock of horror, Nathan realized that was the way it would
be with him, too. His father's words were true. He would never rest
until he had found the secret of those evil Jewels or suffered the same
fate that had befallen all the other spacemen who'd given their lives
in that vain search.
But he'd find those Jewels, he knew. And someday he'd know the secret
of the beautiful, the fantastic Firebird.
He wondered if his father's murder had been avenged with the death of
Firebird. And he knew that he would never be sure as long as he lived.
Nathan cut the acceleration of the ship, and then bent over to unfasten
the straps that held her in the inertia chair. Tenderly he picked up
the light body that had held the strong will of Firebird.
He took a step towards the passage leading to the airlocks. And then he
stopped in horror. The blackened lips of Firebird moved.
There was no sound. Only the ghostly movement of those lips to show
that Firebird lived.
This was worse than death, Nathan thought. But she could not live long.
He carried her to her own stateroom and laid her on the bed. He bent
down and heard the faint beating of her heart.
From a cabinet he obtained salves and drugs to ease the pain when and
if she regained consciousness. Even as he finished she began to stir.
She moved as if in tremendous pain, and facial expression was
impossible for her. Her lips moved again. But there was no sound.
If she should live, he knew he ought to head for Earth where the only
adequate medical facilities were. But it was a long journey to the
other side of the sun this time of year. The defunct motor would make
it even longer. It seemed impossible that she could survive the trip.
The lips of Firebird were still moving, and now Nathan caught the trace
of a word. He bent closer. She repeated the same sound over and over
again.
"Luline--Luline--" was the word she breathed.
It made no sense to him. He wondered if the name were that of some
unknown relative--or if she were merely delirious.
"Luline--Luline--take me to Luline--"
He spoke gently into her ear. "Who is Luline?"
She struggled mightily within herself against the pain waves attacking
her. She gasped, "Chart C-R-46. Luline."
Nathan raced to the chart room. There it was. On Chart C-R-46, circled
in red, was the word "Luline" beside a tiny asteroid.
This was more incomprehensible than ever. Or was the asteroid a burial
place for her mysterious clan?
He debated heading for Earth. And then another question arose as he
thought of her burned and tortured body. Even if she could live would
she want to? On Earth her existence would be in the double prison of
iron bars and her own damaged body.
He set the course for the asteroid, Luline.
V
Slowly, in the depths of black space there swelled the blob of rock
that was the half mile diameter of Luline.
As the ship approached, Nathan examined the surface through the screens
for a clue to Firebird's reason for wanting to go there. But it looked
the same as any other of the thousands of rocks floating through the
spacelanes. The only unusual feature was a small bright spot that
appeared to be about ten feet in diameter. It was centered in the
bottom of a large depression on one side of the rock.
Firebird seemed to sense the presence of the asteroid as they neared.
Her body twitched nervously. Or perhaps it was only her increasing
battle with the powers of death.
When Nathan told her they had arrived she struggled to rise. She fell
back helplessly. "The pool," she mumbled through lips that barely
moved. "Bury me in the pool of Luline."
Though he had guessed it, Nathan was moved to pity because Firebird had
known for so many hours that she was going to her own grave.
But he wondered what she meant by the pool of Luline. Was it that
bright spot he had noticed? There could be no liquid out here in the
depths of space.
It was difficult to land a familiar ship on an asteroid, and since
Nathan had never landed the _Corsair_ anywhere it was next to
impossible to make an accurate landing. But the urgency of Firebird's
desire told him it was worth the risk of taking the ship down upon the
jagged surface of the strange little rock.
He swept around it in an ever narrowing spiral until he finally came
low over the wide depression that held the shining "pool". He dropped
the ship rapidly, braking the _Corsair_ and letting it arc upwards to a
stall.
Swiftly, Nathan cut the propulsion tubes. The forward brakes dropped
the ship to the surface. The _Corsair_ settled with a hard jolt. A poor
landing but good under the circumstances.
Nathan hurried back to the stateroom of the Firebird. There he halted
in the doorway at the sight that met his eyes. The Firebird had risen
from the bunk and was standing in the middle of the room swaying like
some disjointed robot, gibbering wildly through her nerveless lips. She
was facing the port and shaking the stump of her hand at the shining
pool visible outside.
Nathan caught her frantic words. "Air there--no suit--"
She was hysterical. He made up his mind. The life of Firebird was no
more than a candle flame in a hurricane now. The least he could do was
grant her final wishes. If she wanted him to end her life by thrusting
her out into the cold of interplanetary space and bury her in the
"pool" it would be only merciful.
He donned a space suit quickly and went back to Firebird. She had
collapsed into unconsciousness and lay in a pitiful huddle in the
middle of the floor. Perhaps she was already dead, he thought.
Carrying her, he entered the airlock and paused the moment it required
for evacuation. It seemed to take an unusually short time to equalize
the pressure, then he stepped out. He had expected the body of Firebird
to become distorted and instantly frozen by the cold, but she changed
not at all as he stepped to the surface of the asteroid, held down by
the traction shoes of the suit.
He checked the thermometer on his sleeve. Only thirty degrees below
zero, and not falling.
He approached the pool that glistened like a shining disc of metal in
the brilliant sunlight. He kicked a stone onto it, and ripples arose.
It was liquid, and very dense--like a pool of mercury.
He came to the edge and looked one last time at the face of Firebird,
the once beautiful Firebird. Then slowly, she dropped from his arms
into the pool.
He stepped back and watched. For an instant it seemed as if she lay in
the surface, half-submerged and unmoving. Then slow fingers of waves
rose about her and dragged her beneath.
Abruptly she was gone. It was as if she had disappeared into the
surface of a mirror. The depths of the liquid were invisible. The
unmoving surface reflected only the white-hot light of the pool into
Nathan's eyes.
Firebird was gone. And with her disappearance there came to Nathan
the conviction that there had been nothing evil in her. She had moved
because she was driven by some wild and secret purpose that would not
give her rest. A purpose bound up in the Seven Jewels of Chamar. And
Nathan knew that somehow he would find the secret of the Jewels that
had driven his own father to death.
* * * * *
He suddenly turned and ran back towards the ship. He wanted to get away
as quickly as possible from this unreal world of Luline. It was a place
that breathed the presence of strange and alien ghosts. He would come
back, though--he would return to solve the mystery of Firebird after he
had been to Mars and obtained the remainder of the Jewels.
The _Corsair_ rose slowly from Luline. He let the great ship circle
once about the mass of rock, then turned into space towards Mars. He
focused his viewing screen and glanced back at the tiny rock. The pool
reflected the sun's rays like a great heliograph. Even at this distance
it was too bright to gaze at for long.
His only goal now was possession of all of the Seven Jewels. Firebird
had not shown him her two, but he knew they were somewhere within
the ship. The vision of the glorious depths of the two in his own
possession constantly floated before him as he let his thoughts drift
back to them. He understood now the spell to which his father had
succumbed.
He reached to turn the viewing screen off, but glanced for one last
time at the asteroid. Suddenly the light reflected from the pool
flickered and wavered. It was as if some hand were holding a giant
mirror and shifting it back and forth--flashing some mysterious message
across the depths of space, he thought. No doubt it was due to some
peculiarity of refraction caused by the remnant of air that seemed to
lie with the cup of the depression.
He turned to the charts and concentrated on the course. He checked the
position of Mars now and what it would be at his estimated time of
arrival. He put the figures into the computer.
The answer came out fantastically wrong. He tried again and failed.
* * * * *
It was impossible to concentrate. And he knew why. That shifting
reflection from the pool of Luline. That unintelligible message flashed
across space.
It could have been caused by the breaking of the surface of the pool.
It had to be caused by that.
And it would haunt him forever unless he turned back. He swung the
_Corsair_ into a turn that blacked out his vision, but when he could
see again he was headed for the asteroid once more.
He came in too fast. He had to circle twice to brake his speed. Then
the _Corsair_ sped down into the depression and over the pool.
Piloting required too much attention to keep a close watch on the shiny
surface, but one brief glance brought a gasp from his throat. There was
something lying at the edge of the pool that had not been there before.
His landing this time was made with a terrific jolt that rocked the
ship. Then he entered the lock without waiting to don a spacesuit. He
knew that Firebird had been right when she said it was unnecessary.
He kept the inner door of the lock closed to conserve the heat in the
ship, but he swung the outer door open and plunged out.
He staggered in sudden pain as the shock of meeting that alien
atmosphere swept over him. It was not atmosphere by any human standard.
It was rarefied beyond capacity to support normal human life. He gasped
in desperate breaths and the ice needles he breathed upon the air were
sucked back in to spear his own lungs.
Black checkerboard screens flashed across his vision, but he could see
now the object at the edge of the pool.
There was no questioning the instinct that had driven him to turn back
the _Corsair_. Firebird lay huddled on the rocks by the pool.
She lay as if she had been running and had fallen forward on her face.
Nathan reached her and turned her over. He stared in unbelief.
The swaths and bandages had vanished in the pool and her body lay white
and cold under the strong light of the sun. There was not a mark on
her. The mystic properties that lay in the strange pool had performed a
miraculous resurrection and healed all traces of the ghastly burns.
Nathan did not know whether she was yet alive or dead. She was icy to
his touch and unconscious, but he picked her up and started back to the
ship.
The exertion in that atmosphere caused swirls of dizziness in his
brain, and he did not even ponder the question of how gravity could be
great enough to make walking possible. He expended every fraction of
his draining energy to fight back to the ship.
At last he laid Firebird inside the lock of the _Corsair_ and closed
the outer door with the last dregs of his strength. Automatically, the
lock began to fill with warm air until the inner door swung open.
Nathan's strength revived shortly. He turned to Firebird. Her black
hair that spilled over the floor of the lock looked as if it had never
been touched by the destroying fire. Her face was molded in the same
lines of perfection as before. And her flesh was beginning to glow with
the pink of life. The final miracle showed itself in her breathing. She
was alive.
He carried her into the stateroom and wrapped her in blankets. Her body
was still icy from her long exposure. He started to move away to get a
hot drink when she should revive. Then her eyes opened.
She looked wildly about, then stared at him. "I thought you had
abandoned me. Did your conscience get the better of you?"
The hardness of her voice shocked him. He looked at her in pained
surprise. "I thought you were dead. I saw the flickering of the light
from the pool when you came out of it. I came back then only because I
couldn't believe you had really died."
"Of course. You couldn't really know, could you?" Abruptly she was
crying. He sat down and took her hand.
"There is no one else in the System who would not have been glad to
leave Firebird there forever," she said.
Nathan made no reply. He could not comprehend her strangeness. But for
the moment she was no longer the fearless Firebird. She was a little
girl, lonely and lost.
VI
Mars was wholesome in death before the coming of the spacemen. Now it
was the refuse heap of the Solar System.
There was Heliopolis, of course, the great, shining, chrome-plated
space port where vessels from all parts of the System touched for
refueling and recreation of the passengers. Recreation that was not
legal on any of the other planets.
The permanent population of Heliopolis was three fourths confidence
men. The other fourth was made up of fugitives from penal colonies and
thieves and murderers whose crimes had not caught up with them.
But these were the elite of the population of Mars. The lower types
were found in the five suburbs surrounding Heliopolis.
The worst of the five was Taurus, where daily morning chores was burial
of those who had been unfortunate in the night's tavern brawls.
As the _Corsair_ approached the red planet Nathan wondered where the
incomprehensible Firebird fit into this wild and evil city. But she
claimed it for home. Regarding the miracle of Luline she had refused
to say a word and his repeated inquiries only forced her to greater
reticence and widened the gap between them until he was forced to give
up.
It was night on that side of Mars when they dropped the _Corsair_ onto
the crowded field at the edge of Taurus. Amid the other vessels the
ship stood like a jewel in a handful of gravel.
There was always a pause in the activities of the field when the ship
of the Firebird came in. Attendants straightened up to stare, and
wizened, space-burned adventurers paused when Firebird strode out of
the port. She went down the ramp as if she were making a grand entrance
into a ballroom. A thousand eyes were upon her, from corners of the
field, from shops and all night eateries, and from the hulls of silent
ships.
She was a living legend walking in their midst.
She gave instructions for the needed repairs to the _Corsair_, then the
two of them started towards the town only a quarter of a mile away.
"What happens next?" said Nathan.
"Almost anything, but whatever it is it will require the use of
your flame lance. Keep it handy. There will be a lot of waiting and
listening. If you wait long enough you can hear all the secrets of
the innermost chambers of the System revealed right in the taverns of
Taurus.
"Our plan will be to let it be known that we have the four Jewels and
are here for the other three. There'll be happenings enough after that.
I'll leave it to you to spread that information."
Nathan did not question her further. They had arrived at the garish
entrance to the "Orbit", a two story tavern a little larger than
its neighbors. Nathan had heard his father mention the place as the
unofficial headquarters of half the brigands on the spaceways.
The noise of gambling and of drinking and tavern music poured out upon
them as they neared the place beneath the red brilliance of the sign
overhead.
As Firebird stepped through the door, she threw back the crimson cape
and tipped her chin a trifle higher. The tinkle of gambling chips and
glasses halted and the babble of noise hushed. Firebird strode towards
the bar, unmindful of the stares.
Nathan came more slowly. He heard whispering, first at Firebird, then
at himself. His hands stayed close to his flame lances.
At the bar, the squat-faced bartender, Louey, was pale and flushed by
turns. His mouth gaped at Firebird as she said, "Tokeela, please."
Louey chattered, "You're supposed to be dead. Somebody seen you. You
were dead for sure."
"And now I'm alive for sure. I don't know what you are talking about,
but hurry with that Tokeela."
Louey shook his head as if to clear the vision he had seen. He brought
the drink and some of the same for Nathan who was surprised that the
place even served the mild, nonintoxicating drink.
Nathan wondered about Louey's remark. How had the rumor of Firebird's
death been started? What was its significance?
As they picked up their glasses the babble slowly resumed, but Nathan
knew they were still the center of attention.
Heavy smoke clouds rolled against the lights like miniature
thunderheads. Through it Nathan watched the pale faces of the women who
seldom saw daylight, and the bronze leathered faces of the spacemen. He
could see them wondering who he was and if he were with Firebird, for
he had not spoken to her since they had come in.
Firebird made it clear. She turned abruptly and faced the room. "Folks,
I want you to meet Nathan Ormondy. You all knew his father. Thymar
was killed on Venus and Nathan has come to take his place on the
spaceways. Come up and have a drink to the new spaceman, who is as good
a man as his father ever was."
The music died. The room seemed to freeze.
* * * * *
Nathan stared at Firebird. She was smiling as if at some secret joke.
The little fool, Nathan thought. She knew this would happen. Even his
limited knowledge of their codes told him that much.
A big bronze spaceman at the nearest table looked up from his cards.
"We don't let women buy our drinks," he said. He turned back to the
cards.
Nathan swore under his breath. What was Firebird trying to do? But it
was his move now.
The big spaceman picked up a card from his hand and moved to throw it
on the table. The card vanished in midair and flakes of ash fell to the
table. He glanced up at Nathan's flame lance carelessly resting against
his hip.
"Perhaps you would accept an invitation from me," said Nathan slowly.
The spaceman eyed him narrowly. "We don't let women buy our drinks," he
said.
His eyes didn't shift, and Nathan's seemed to flicker only for an
instant. But it was long enough for the cards in the spaceman's hand to
puff into flame. He dropped them frantically.
His face lighted with rage and he half rose from his chair, but he said
nothing. Nathan's lance hung in the same position.
"I think it would be a good idea for you and me to be friends," said
Nathan.
"Yeah," said the spaceman, "it could be a good idea at that."
He rose and stepped slowly to the bar. "Straight Scotch for mine," he
told Louey. He turned to the rest of the crowd. "Come on up, folks. My
friend here is buying us drinks."
The hubbub resumed slowly as the crowd followed his leadership to the
bar. The spaceman edged close to Nathan.
"Name's Tompkins," he said. "Kind of taking after your old man, I see.
Hanging around with the Firebird, I mean. I knew Thymar pretty well
when he was trailing her skirts. Kind of always figured that he did the
trigger work and she got the reputation."
His loud drawl drew the other spacemen in a ring that was growing
tighter about Nathan. It was an old move.
"Please don't crowd," said Nathan. "There isn't room at the bar for
everybody, but there is plenty of drink."
The men glanced at Tompkins.
"Sure. Don't crowd," said Tompkins. "The boy's a little trigger nervous
tonight. Maybe going to do your first job for Firebird, huh? Does she
allow you gambling and drinking money?"
Nathan lifted his glass slowly and studied Tompkins and the men about
him. He could feel the unplumbed depths of emotion that was being
turned upon him.
Then he got it. It was their pent up resentment and hatred of Firebird.
They would not have dared bait her like this. It would have led to
shooting, and none of them wanted to be known as her killer.
Their own peculiar codes were responsible for this. Dueling with
Firebird would be open admission that she was their equal. She was
perfectly safe in the tavern full of thieves and killers who would have
welcomed news of her death at the hand of someone else.
Nathan felt like laughing at himself for considering himself something
of a noble protector as he had entered the "Orbit" behind Firebird. In
reality, she was safe, but the spacemen didn't mean for him to be alive
when he left.
"You've got me all wrong, gentlemen," said Nathan. "I think Firebird
killed my father and I'm stringing along to keep tabs on her. And we
have a little agreement that might interest you. Between us we have
four of the Seven Jewels of Chamar--"
* * * * *
Instantly, the smirking, taunting grins became frozen deadliness. The
circle pressed inward.
"I wouldn't come any closer," Nathan advised.
"Four of the Seven!" exclaimed Tompkins. "I think you're a liar."
"We'll take care of that later," said Nathan. "We've come to get the
other three. Then we'll settle who is to keep them, as well as the
matter of my father's murder. I mention it because I thought some of
you gentlemen might help us. In fact, you might have one or more of
the Jewels right here in this room. We'll be glad to relieve you of
them."
There was a dangerous trick with a flame lance that Nathan had learned
from his father. The flame could be made to reflect from a wooden
surface if the angle of incidence and the intensity of the beam were
just right.
Nathan had watched the play building up in the circle about him. It was
almost ready to go. Behind Tompkins, one of the spacemen had carefully
drawn his flame lance. Nathan knew it by the slow movement of the man's
shoulders and his attempts to keep his eyes carelessly forward.
Tompkins was keeping close against the man, one arm on the edge of the
bar. In a moment the point of the lance would appear at Tompkins' waist
and blast--as soon as Nathan's attention was turned away from Tompkins.
Carefully, Nathan weighed his chances. He had about a fifty-fifty
chance of coming out alive. He wondered just why Firebird had devised
such a trap. Right now she was sitting alone at a table on the opposite
side of the room, apparently not paying any attention to what was going
on.
He gauged his distance from the killer and moved a step closer to
Tompkins while draining his glass. Then he swung suddenly away, turning
his back on Tompkins. In the faces of the men surrounding him he could
see the sudden change of expression, which they could not hide.
He called the bartender. "Fill up again, Louey. All around. I feel
lucky tonight."
Simultaneously, his hand dropped carelessly to his side and twisted the
pocket of his flame lance to point the electrode behind him. His little
finger locked around the trigger and pressed.
A sharp scream arose from behind Tompkins and a flame lance clattered
to the floor. Nathan whirled. Both his lances were in front of him when
he faced Tompkins.
But Tompkins was staring down at the dead killer. And he was searching
frantically for the source of the shot. Then his glance fell on the
charred wood of the front of the bar where Nathan's reflection shot had
turned.
At first his unbelief was amusing. Then anger came like a hurricane
across his face.
The spacemen were hungry for a brawl. A hunching of Tompkins' shoulders
would send them rushing. Nathan could kill perhaps a dozen before they
got him. But there would be little satisfaction in that.
He said quietly, "I'll get you first, Tompkins. Better call off your
dogs."
Tompkins hesitated. If he gave the signal, Nathan would kill him first.
If he failed to give it, some drunk spaceman's shot might easily find
his back.
Then a bellowing interruption solved Tompkins' problem for him. A
newcomer burst into the tavern and grasped the scene.
He laughed with a gentle thunder. "Ho--I come to look for the son
of Thymar and find him holding up the brawlingest joint on all
Mars--including my old friend Trigger Tompkins!"
Nathan glanced out of the corner of his eye as Tabor strode forward.
VII
Tabor pushed his way into the crowd and the men backed away to return
to their tables. The mob urge was broken.
"Put up your guns, Nathan. Can't you see that old Tom here is just
having a little fun? Why, he wouldn't hurt a fly."
Nathan smiled thinly. "I hope the gentleman on the floor wasn't having
a little fun, too. I'm afraid he won't be able to have it now."
Tompkins said sourly, "I thought you said Firebird and this young fool
had been killed on the way here."
Tabor shrugged his shoulders. "That's the way news is here in these
parts of the System. Nothing reliable. Everybody's liars."
He turned to Nathan. "There was some report about you and Firebird
having gotten into trouble and I guess the story got exaggerated. I'm
plenty glad to see you safe. I came in the _Sunbeam_ to take you back
to Venus."
"How did you know I was here?"
"The _Corsair_ was 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 the _Sunbeam_ tonight and
we'll start back for Venus in the morning."
"I'm not going back. I'm staying aboard the _Corsair_."
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 the _Sunbeam_ for 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 the _Sunbeam_ for 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 the _Sunbeam_ on 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 the _Sunbeam_
lift into the Martian sky. For a moment Nathan wondered if they were
right. If Tabor should actually be heading for Venus--
Since the _Corsair_ was 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.
[Illustration: _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?"
End of Project Gutenberg's The Seven Jewels of Chamar, by Raymond F. Jones
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