"Yes. I'm going with them. I know the way. I can control the maze and
guide them safely back. I don't know if I believe in this fabulous
machine, or jewels, or whatever. But I think I might learn to believe
in ... in him. It's something I'll have to find out."
Smiling, Khaljean stripped off his protective armor and yielded it to
the girl. As an afterthought, he handed her his blaster.
"The choice is yours to make. But in such company, the blaster may come
in handy."
Khaljean shook hands with Ferris and Angel, though he avoided looking
at Pao Chung.
To Ferris, he said, "Come back if you can. And look after my girl. In
the meantime, I'll throw some gnawed bones to the police wolves, and
we'll manufacture a new identity for you."
Without a farewell, Khaljean strode into the crystalline forest. His
lonely figure paused to wave.
"Good hunting, father," Teucrete called after him.
She tripped keys at the console. Light quivered in painful vibrations.
His figure became transparent, then dissolved....
Absent-mindedly, Teucrete climbed into the suit of protective armor.
Ferris helped her zip up the clumsy garments, then clasped her arm
impulsively.
"I haven't the skill to say it properly--but thanks."
"I'll expect your skill to improve with experience," she said
irritably, fixing the blaster gun securely in its spring clip.
Returning to the console, Teucrete worked out an elaborate composition
on the keys. Tubes flared and flickered, flamed and faded. There was
the humming and the bell-toned clamor like glass raindrops spattering
on a ceramic floor.
"We have arrived," she whispered. It was then Pao Chung acted.
* * * * *
Quick as a striking snake, he moved close beside the girl and snatched
the blaster from its clip.
Backing away, he waved the weapon in wide sweeps to menace both Ferris
and Angel at once.
Teucrete turned and cried out. Angel froze like a statue. Ferris
started a rush, then thought better of it.
"New deal, I think," said Pao Chung brutally. "From here on I'll give
the orders."
Angel chuckled ferociously. "You can't get both of us, Pao Chung. If we
rush at once, you can kill one, but the other will get to you."
"Don't try it," warned Pao Chung, sweating but deadly.
"You keep talking of deals," continued Angel evenly. "Better make one
with me. For the girl, and a third of the loot, I'll talk business with
you."
"I want her myself," croaked Pao Chung.
"Neither of you will get me alive," said Teucrete.
Ferris moved a little, and the gun held steadily on him. He hesitated,
glancing curiously at Angel. Light glinted from quivering wings. The
gargoyle face grinned hideously. Heavy eyelids blinked in remembered
signal.
"Now," snapped Ferris.
Ferris and Angel leaped, like two moving parts of the same machine.
Angel was quicker. His powerful wings wafted him in a long, swift bound.
The blaster swerved, flamed, burst in deafening explosion. A reek of
charred, disintegrating flesh and singed feathers filled the air.
Angel shrieked in torment as his legs vanished in crumbling ashes.
Wings flailing, his body a maimed and blasted horror, he crashed down
upon Pao Chung. The gun jerked from nerveless fingers and clattered on
the floor. Its beam cut a tinkling swathe among the crystal shafts.
Real droplets of half-molten crystal struck myriad bell-tones in
falling.
Writhing and threshing in agony, Angel clung to his desperate purpose.
Powerful clawlike hands circled Pao Chung's head and wrenched it off.
The head rolled free like a ball as two snarled bodies sagged together
in bloody horror.
Stricken, Ferris bent over his friend, trying hopelessly to help. The
gargoyle lips parted. Dry husks of sound whistled from them.
"Go on. Smash the machine! But first, do this job right--for me."
Trembling, Ferris recovered the blaster gun, cut down its intensity,
then thrust the blunt muzzle deep into the striped fur, where rich
crimson now mingled with the other gaudy dyes. Blinking his eyes shut,
he pressed the stud. Angel writhed and was gone.
Ferris did not look back. Hand in hand with Teucrete he walked slowly
toward the forest of crystal shafts. There was much damage, and his
heart quailed from the task ahead.
"Can you still find the way?" he asked numbly.
"I'm not sure," the girl faltered. "I'm not sure we can ever get back.
Exact alignment is so terribly important."
"We can try," said Ferris grimly.
Hand in hand, young men and women, with the dream still fresh within
them, will always seek the ultimate answer to the ultimate questions.
It may be, of course, that there is no ultimate answer, and that even
the quest is a delusion. But Teucrete and Ferris, with the flame of a
new love burning fiercely between them, believed that it was important
to find and destroy some alien thing that warped men's minds. Others
may think only of building a life together, as a pledge to the future,
but not Teucrete and Ferris. Time for that later, they hoped.
For the moment, they might, just possibly, make mankind's tomorrows a
little brighter, or more hopeful.
Hand in hand they walked together to the crystal maze, and entered.
Perhaps they found something....