Part 11 (2/2)

”Now, you're quibbling,” Gunnar jeered. ”Get on with your speech, Grim Hagen.”

Grim Hagen bowed to the broad-shouldered little man. ”Some day, Gunnar, I may have to kill you--”

”Now. Now.” Gunnar urged, fairly jumping in rage. ”Just the two of us, Grim Hagen. Just the two of us with bare hands--”

”Not yet.” Grim Hagen sneered. ”Now, I will continue. From what I have learned, it appears that Wolden's work has been a success. It is possible for men to master both time and s.p.a.ce. I have mastered s.p.a.ce, but time is turning everything to dust and ashes. What good is it to be an old emperor?

No better than to be an old herdsman.” Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar's direction--

”That's easy,” Gunnar retorted. ”The old herdsman sleeps well at night.”

”Bah. Who wants to sleep? Please quit interrupting, Gunnar.”

”Even before we came to Aldebaran,” Hagen went on, ”I was in contact with a dying world out there at the edge of s.p.a.ce. Those people are desperate. And they are weary of life, having seen too much of it. They have agreed to go with me. Why, this sun and these worlds are piddling trifles. With that invention we could go from sun to sun. s.p.a.ce would be ours to play with--”

”Loki, the Mischief-Maker, running through creation--” Gunnar muttered.

Grim Hagen may not have heard him for he continued in that same desperate, pleading voice. ”So here is my proposition, Ato. Give me your father's secret. In return, I give you the treasures, the Old s.h.i.+p, the prisoners, and even Maya. Is not that complete surrender?” He smiled disarmingly.

Ato stood tall and proud as he answered. His eyes were blazing now, as he saw through Grim Hagen's plan. ”So, you thought I would bargain away Wolden's secret, did you? Well, your surmises were wrong. When last I saw him his work was not finished. I know so little about it that I could tell you nothing of any value. But if I did,” Ato's voice was trembling in disgust. ”If I did, Hagen, would I turn you and your h.e.l.ls' sp.a.w.n loose upon the stars to perplex them forever?”

Grim Hagen's face was almost blue with rage. ”You have said enough. And there are other ways to make you talk. Make these swine prisoners,” he screamed.

A dozen knives flashed. A dozen death-tubes were pointed toward Ato and his followers.

But one of Grim Hagen's lieutenants, a Bron who was now silver-haired, intervened. ”No, Grim Hagen. They are under truce. The week is not yet up.

I will not see you go back on your own word--”

Grim Hagen flamed. ”You will die on the hook for this--”

”Maybe so. One thing is certain: I will die. And I can face it. But you can't, can you, Grim Hagen? You would prefer to be some sort of eternal devil, working its fury upon the stars. Now, where is the new thinking that you used to preach? That dream is as old as the incantations beside the cave-fires--”

”Arrest them all,” Grim Hagen screamed. ”Arrest Rama too,” he added with rage.

But the knives and swords were back in their holsters. The guns were lowered. One by one his men filed out of the council room. Grim Hagen's face was so dark that Odin feared a stroke. But with a curse at Ato and Odin, Hagen lifted his chin high and followed his men from the room. Only the one called Rama remained.

”I will do what I can, Ato,” he said quietly. ”I was nearly fifty when we started this journey. And we lived hard and fast. I am old now. I married one of the slave-girls. We have children. Were it not for that, I would go with you. But I am tired. G.o.d, I'm tired--”

He saluted them as he went out the door.

They never saw Rama again.

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