She was too good a flame lancer to be disturbed by his shouting. She
remained calmly in position, taking a bead on the opposite window,
waiting for the appearance of the top of the enemy's head.
He came up for a quick sight upon the perfect target of the holes which
Firebird blacked out. They fired simultaneously.
Firebird's shot hit the edge of the window, spraying flame over the
wall and curling it into the window. Some of it must have washed
over the enemy, but too much of its energy had been dissipated to be
effective.
* * * * *
But Firebird was hit. Her body slumped down over the rifle and lay flat
on the roof. Crawling on his belly, Nathan wriggled over to her and
raised her head. She was unconscious, but no horrible blackening of her
flesh showed the touch of flame lance fire. Then he saw where it had
struck. Her silver helmet.
It was too hot to touch. He knocked it away with his fist. Beneath it,
her raven hair was singed but slightly. The electric shock had done
most of the damage. He bent over her tenderly and fanned her face with
the edge of her scarlet cloak. She began to stir. She opened her eyes
and looked up at him. In that instant he knew that their lives were
inseparably welded. No word was spoken, but he felt her trembling as if
she suddenly knew it, too, and was afraid of it.
After a moment she looked about and spoke, her voice unsteady. "We'll
have to get down. The hotel is on fire."
Nathan followed the direction of her glance. The open door of the
penthouse sent smoke billowing outward.
"We'll never get down through the interior," said Nathan. He glanced at
the adjacent building. It was one story lower and ten feet away.
Firebird saw his glance and shook her head. "We can't get over that
way. He'd shoot us the instant we tried it. We'll have to go inside."
"But it's impossible."
Firebird smiled. "After you've been to the pool of Luline, many things
are possible. Here--"
She unclasped the cloak from her throat and threw it about Nathan.
"Protect your head and wrap it around you as much as possible. It won't
burn."
Before he could protest, she wriggled away over the surface of the
roof, keeping low out of the fire of their assailant. She plunged
through the penthouse door into the inferno.
The smoke and flame billowed about her, licking at her slender,
unprotected body. Nathan tried to catch her, but the blinding vapors
made him stumble and fall clumsily. He wanted to throw the cloak about
her again, but he was forced to gather it about him in order to make
any headway at all.
Miraculously, Firebird seemed unharmed by the flames. On the second
floor Nathan made out her figure hurrying far ahead of him. Her
clothing was smouldering but her bare arms and legs seemed to glow with
that same inner light that he had seen back in the cave on Venus.
He stumbled in the treacherous sand and lost sight of her again. He
slid and fell down the first floor stairway, which was almost burned
away. His weight on it sent ominous vibrations through it, and he tried
to tread lightly.
Firebird was nowhere to be seen when he reached the street level. He
raced outside in time to see the sand sled start up and disappear
around the corner of the building. A puff of flame smashed against the
sand in front of him. The enemy was watching for them to leave.
That was why Firebird had moved the sled. He went back into the burning
building and fought his way to a back window out of the enemy's line of
fire. He found Firebird waiting for him there. The smell of smoke was
in her hair, but she seemed unharmed by the flames.
She gave him no time for questions. "I'm going to drive around the
town. Fire every building with the rifle. That will drive him out
eventually."
She twisted the sled out through the narrow street to the open desert
and began circling. Nathan pressed the rifle through the open port and
fired continually at the wooden buildings.
They watched sharply for their assailant, but he was apparently not
aware of their escape. As they finished the circle, Firebird turned the
sled out into the desert and swung up the far side of a high dune.
"We'll watch for him to make a break for his sled," she said. "When he
does, we'll let him get started and follow closely. He won't be able
to fire while driving, and he won't dare stop because we'll be on him."
Nathan nodded. As Firebird stopped the sled, he handed her the cloak, a
mere handful of cloth. "I'd like to know what the secret of this cloak
is--and how you made it through that fire without protection."
Firebird smiled. "So would a lot of other people." Then she sobered and
added, "I think perhaps you will be the one to know--some day."
She turned away and watched the burning ghost village. It was a
beautiful hell of flame. Every building was yellow with fire. The
desert was lit for miles around, and the sound of the crackling was
like the sound of some great battle.
"He can't stay in there much longer," said Firebird. The heat was
already strongly felt at the dune.
"There he is!" Nathan exclaimed.
* * * * *
A figure burst suddenly out of the inferno and ran towards the far side
of the burning town.
"We're on the wrong side," said Firebird. "Keep your eye on him and
we'll move over if we can do it without being seen."
Cautiously, through the blow holes and behind dunes, they made their
way forward. The sound of their engines and propellers was muffled in
the roar of the fire.
They topped a rise and Nathan exclaimed, "There's his sled. He's
moving."
"He must think we're dead," said Firebird. "He probably plans to come
back and search the ruins for the Jewels when it's cooled off."
She added speed to overtake the other sled. It was in sight only part
of the time and it would be easy to lose in the dunes and blow holes.
Nathan lowered the port a trifle and stuck the nose of the rifle
through. He got a bead on the forward sled. And the instant he pressed
the trigger, their own sled dipped down so that his shot went low.
But it served to warn their quarry of their presence. He must have
whirled to get a look at them, for the sled wobbled crazily for an
instant.
He dipped out of sight behind a dune and was gone when they reached
the spot. Dunes blocked sight in all directions and a dozen paths
branched out between them.
"Over there!" Nathan pointed to a fine sand cloud that betrayed the
presence of the sled beyond the dunes.
Firebird followed and soon they came in sight again. Nathan fired
another shot that went wide because of the plunging motion of the sled.
Then the enemy suddenly plunged into the depths of an immense blow hole.
Firebird swung wide of the hole. Nathan glanced at her in puzzlement.
"Where are you going?"
"Not down there. It would be fatal to get into a dog fight around the
sides of that blow hole. We'll wait for him to come out and hope it is
somewhere near us."
From the top of a small dune they caught sight of the other sled
speeding around the inside of the hole. But he knew he had failed to
lure them into it where he would have had as good chance as they. He
sped up and over the edge opposite them.
Firebird started the sled moving again. Nathan kept his eye on the
enemy. Even as he watched the other paused. "He's not running away.
He's going to turn and fight!"
Firebird held her speed down and let the other build up. He came in
shooting. Puffs of flame spurted from the small lance he was firing
through the port.
Nathan raised the rifle and fired. The shot struck midway between the
motor and the cabin and the enemy sled burst into flames.
"Good hit!" exclaimed Firebird. Then her face tensed. "He's going to
ram us. Get his steering runner."
The blazing sled was hurtling towards them at terrific speed now. It
was impossible to turn aside so that the enemy could not follow easily.
Firebird tried it and the other sled changed to a new collision course.
Nathan fired again. Then a shot pierced their own housing as Firebird
tried to weave out of the collision course. It made shooting difficult
for Nathan but he put another shot into the motor of the enemy.
The blazing comet of the enemy sled was less than three hundred feet
away now. Firebird could have turned tail to avoid collision, but that
was apparently what the enemy wanted. His own position was increasingly
desperate with the flames licking about the cabin and threatening the
fuel tank.
Firebird kept weaving and brought out her own lance. She tried to hit
the pilot, but her shots went wild.
"Stop weaving," said Nathan. "I've got to get a bead on that runner or
we'll have to turn tail."
"It'll be your last shot," said Firebird, but she complied. Her slim
hands held the sled steadily on a course towards the flaming wreckage
that bore down upon them like a meteor.
Nathan raised in his seat and aimed carefully. He pressed the trigger.
It was a hit. The steering runner of the enemy collapsed. The blazing
sled reared end over end into the air hurtling towards them with the
force of its momentum.
Firebird gave the wheel a mighty jerk and swerved aside as the wreckage
plummeted into the space they had just vacated.
For moments they simply drove forward without saying anything as they
lost speed.
"That was too close," Nathan said. "I waited too long for that shot."
"You got him. That's what counts."
He looked at Firebird. She was not disturbed by their narrow escape. It
was obviously not in her philosophy to hold post mortems.
They swung back to the blazing wreckage. The light of dawn streaked
the sky before it was cool enough to approach. There was no tangible
remains of the enemy who had died in the flames.
"It couldn't have been Tabor. He shoots better than that," said Nathan.
Firebird poked among the embers, using the pouch containing the four
Jewels as an indicator. Then she caught the sparkle in the sands.
It was the Blue Jewel.