"The floods are risen, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voices;
the floods lift up their waves.... The waves of the sea are mighty, and
rage horribly: but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is mightier--"
He held them. He held them, speaking a tongue they did not know, while
his mind shook under the impact of sanity-destroying pain. A slow, sick
bitterness crept into his soul. Was this the end--death here, prisoned
on an alien world, so far from his home planet?
Death--and for what?
He closed his mind to the thought. Mentally he paced Doc and the others
through the tunnel, from the black temple to the hangar. Surely they
must have reached it by now! Paula--
That first glimpse he had had of the girl, in Tolomo's
drinking-hell--Moira, he had thought then, for an incredible instant.
Yes, she had been like Moira. If the paths of destiny had led
elsewhere than to the Black Forest of Ganymede, the result might have
been far distant. He would not be dying here alone, horribly alone.
Moira--Paula--
They were the same, somehow. And Garth knew he had to keep going, till
he had saved Paula Trent. A little time--a few moments more, to keep
the Zarno in check.
He and Moira had been cheated of their lives, their futures in some way
he could not quite understand. But there remained Paula. She must not
die. She and the others must get through.
"_Ed._"
Garth's heart answered that soundless call. His lips formed the name
_Moira_.
* * * * *
She was there, beside him, and he did not question, did not even
wonder. It was enough that she had come back. Her brown ringlets curled
about the pale face as he remembered, and the blue eyes held love
and--something more.
A message.
"What is it, Moira? What--" He reached out hungry arms.
"Ed. It isn't only us. It's Earth. Don't stop now, Ed. A few more
minutes to hold the Zarno back; that will be enough. Be strong. A
little time more--such a little time, and then you can rest."
A phantom born of his delirium, Garth knew, but she was no less real
for that. He tried to speak and failed. His chest constricted with
pain. Outside the altar, the Zarno were stirring uneasily.
"I--I can't--"
"You must."
Anger swept through him. "Why? We've been cheated of everything, Moira!
Our heritage--"
She smiled at him, very tenderly. "The grass is still green on the
hills of Earth, my lover. Have you forgotten? The little streams that
go laughing down the valleys, and the ocean surging up to the white
beaches? There are still sunsets on Earth, and men and women will see
them for ages to come. Men who might have been our sons; women who
might have been our daughters. And they are our children, Ed, as surely
as though we had given them birth. For we are giving them life. There
will be a future for mankind because of us. We have given up our own
lives that our children may live, and go on to glories we can never
know ourselves. It is Earth that needs your help now--and that is
something greater than either of us."
Something greater....
The Zarno were beginning to move forward, and some of them were sidling
toward the passage. Garth, gasping for breath, summoned all his reserve
energy. He seemed to feel Moira's cool hand on his shoulder, silently
urging him on.
_Something greater_--
"The days of man are but as grass," he croaked, and the amplified sound
went thundering through the temple, halting the Zarno where they stood.
They turned again to the altar.
"For he flourisheth as a flower of the field ... for as soon as the
wind goeth over, it is gone--"
He held them, somehow, knowing that Moira stood beside him. Toward the
end, Garth was no longer conscious of his surroundings. The Zarno swam
before his eyes, changing, altering, and abruptly they vanished. In
their place was--was--
He saw Earth, as he remembered it, the loveliest planet of all. He saw
the heart-breaking beauty of flaming sunsets over the emerald seas,
and the snowy purity of high peaks lifting above baking deserts. He
felt the cold blast of Earthwinds on his cheeks, the stinging, exciting
chill of mountain streams against his skin. There was the warm smell of
hay, golden in the fields; the sharpness of eucalyptus and pine; the
breath of the little bright flowers that grow only on Earth.
He heard the voices of Earth. The chuckling of brooks, and the deep
shouting of the gale; the lowing of cattle, the sound of leaves
rustling, and the crash of angry breakers. The soul of Earth spoke to
the man who would never see it again.
He listened, while he chanted the majestic, rolling syllables that kept
the Zarno in check. Beside him was Moira. Beneath him, his own world,
green and beautiful.
And across the emerald planet men and women came marching, sunlight
making a golden path for them as they moved out of darkness into the
unknown brightness of the future. They were like gods, great-limbed,
lovely, and with eyes fearless as a falcon's filled with laughter.
Before their marching feet the road of the ages unrolled. Mighty cities
reared to the blue skies of Earth, and ships swept out beyond the
stars, binding the galaxies and the universe with unbreakable chains of
life. Outward and ever outward the circles of humanity and civilization
rippled.
Men and women like gods, unafraid, knowing a life greater than ever
before--
And they turned questioning eyes on Garth, asking him the question on
which their existence depended.
"Will you save us? Will you give us life? Will you give us the future
you yourself can never know?"
Garth answered them in his own way, with Moira beside him. For now it
did not matter that he was dying; he had found something greater than
he had ever known before.
Through the temple his voice rang like brazen trumpets.
"_--the wind bloweth ... and the place thereof shall know it no
more...._"
* * * * *
A panel in the wall by his head lit up, making a square of brightness.
He strained his eyes at it, discerning a picture. A scanner of some
sort. It showed a transparent ovoid slanting up through the black trees
of the forest, a ship with Doc Willard at the controls and eleven
men and a girl in the vessel with him--a girl with red-gold hair,
going back to Earth, with the knowledge that would save a world from
destruction.
He had not failed.
The picture on the scanner darkened. The burning ache in Garth's lungs
grew worse. If he could breathe--
On the dais, the robot swayed, its metal legs giving beneath its
weight. The crash of its fall brought the Zarno to their feet, frozen
with amazement for a moment. Then they moved forward like a wave.
Garth saw them, dimly, through the vision-slit. A white curtain of pain
blotted them out. He was dying; he knew that. The shouts of the Zarno
came to him faintly,
"the wind bloweth ... and the place thereof shall know it no more...."
But in that place the seeds of the future would grow. Once more Garth
saw the children of Earth's unborn generations, and this time the
question in their eyes was answered. They would live and go on, to the
stars, and beyond.
Moira was beside him. Her cool hand touched his; she came into his arms.
And the white curtain flamed agonizingly for the last time.
Then, mercifully, there was no more pain. Under the black throne
Garth's body lay motionless in its strange tomb.
The Zarnos' cries filled the temple as they mourned their dead god--but
the man who had saved Earth did not hear them.