"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.