She saw the threatening tongue of fire too late. It was as if the fire
of all the other tongues had combined in one. It covered her from head
to foot.
Every spaceman in the chamber ceased firing and stared at the horror of
her plight. Her screams rang through the chamber as she was lifted from
the balcony and hurled into the air only to fall into the midst of a
great, devouring maw that appeared in the side of the head. It closed
over her, and the sound of the voice of golden-haired Alayna, Queen of
the Silver Stars was heard no more.
[Illustration: _Her screams rang through the chamber._]
As she vanished from their sight the spacemen turned the unleashed
fury of their very souls upon the Martians. How long Alayna could live
within that horror hanging in the air above them, they did not know,
but they knew the thing would vanish only with the last of the Martians.
With wild cries they leaped upon the seated creatures stabbing,
burning, slashing a frenzy of killing and slaughter.
As for Roal, his own fury congealed into a single bright purpose beside
which all else dimmed into insignificance. He selected a path from the
outer circle to the center of the assembly and slowly blasted his way
forward. A thousand ghastly mental creations of the Martians now beset
them. Great lizards slashing with fanged teeth, enormous slugs that
dropped from above and encased them in suffocating slime.
But Roal gradually found himself in possession of a defense against
them. He observed that if he gave way to fright and fear at their
presence they were able to attack him. But those that came up without
his awareness produced no effect until he saw them and let a moment's
anxiety sweep over him. Then he felt the pain of their stabs. That was
what had happened on the balcony.
"Shorty," he called to the patrol pilot who was fighting beside him.
"It's only your imagination. Don't believe in the thing and it can't
hurt you!"
Shorty was down on his back slashing vainly to get from under an
enormous blob of living slime that was sucking the life from him.
Shorty's own fear gave the thing life.
"Shorty. It's gone. There's only a blanket over your head."
For an instant, Shorty appeared, "Yeah?" Then the thing came back as
his imagination powered it again.
* * * * *
But he had seen enough to know what Roal meant. He rose with the thing
still about him and slashed out towards the Martians with his lance as
if the slug weren't there. Gradually it vanished and he walked forward
unhindered.
"We've got it!" he exclaimed. "They can't hurt us if we won't believe
in them!"
"Right!" said Roal. "These are created by the Thousand Minds, but they
are powered by our own! Let's get these devils!"