The high in the black night, toward the Citadel. Above there were clear stars. Below there were clouds with lightning, the earth. Hiding the Belt, and the lines of men who moved in it, among the dark trees, in the wind and the rain.
One full night had passed, and another was to its close. Before the sun again it would be all over, one way or the other.
Price was in that of that comes at a point of without rest, where you move a little your and above the ground, from every normal consideration, and to go with a clear rush, as though a single act has set an series of going, and all you have to do is keep with them. He had not slept much, but he was not tired. The of the Citadel roof, the red circle of the and the thereof, the symbol marking the proper level, the shape and size and position of the fire-control center, in his mind. Their set and proper did not permit of any obstacles.
Sweetbriar sat him in the co-pilot's place. He the in his hands, and from time to time he it over or its and shape. So he had not had any occasion to use it. He had Price in a dozen wooden-built towns, helping him a dozen chiefs, or sub-chiefs, around the of the Belt. He had not slept much, either, but his was and as a hawk's. If the of him, he had not it in any way.
The six men of his sat in the cabin. They might have been the same six men Price had met when he in the Belt, woods-rangers, of deer and wild cattle, all speed and muscle, fighters. They were as as hound-dogs now, when there was nothing to be done. They, too, had they had had of flying.
The was moving toward the east, over a front. Price easily have it, but he did not, only high above it to a on the Citadel when it came into range. He was for the storm. It like an of good fortune. It would the of the from the west, and it would his own landing, if he it properly. A thick night would make it to his party onto the lift, and below, it was that they were not Linna's party returning.
Poor Linna. He had her for just a minute he left the Capitol of the Missouris. He had wanted to make sure she was safe and comfortable, and he had wanted to try once more to make her how he felt.
"I'm not your enemy, Linna," he had said. "Believe that. After this is all over—"
"If you take the Citadel," she had answered, "it won't who is anybody's enemy. You and I will be of the Ei. If you don't take it—you'll be dead, and so will your army, and how long will they let me live after that? Either way, of us lose."
And she had so despairing, that he had almost heart.
But not quite.
Starshine and the of him a of dark metal in the night. He spoke to Sweetbriar and pointed. The old man peered, squinting, and the six themselves and also.
"Don't look like much from here," one of them said.
Price did not him. Perhaps it was just as well for his army of seven not to have too clear a look at the they were to invade.
He for a little time in the high air, the roll like a wave. When it had almost the of metal he said sharply,
"All right, now!"
And he the the sky.
The wild air-currents him, ahead of the and over it. For one moment he he had of the aerodyne. It and and tossed, him against his seat-belt until his and his as though it was cut through. The were now and terrified. Then the built-in and Price's own flier's brain took again, and the whirling-leaf motion to a and but descent.
He not see anything now but the solid of the storm-clouds, until the and the rain-swept with a light, but to him. He had carefully, and he let the main wind-drift him until the of the Citadel up and in the of a bolt. He over the until another one him the painted circle of the lift. Then he set the hard right it.
There was no need for any talking. The had all been before. Price and the seven were out and across the of and onto the and going the next of broke.
The men heavily, their in one hand, their in the other. Sweetbriar at the shocker. Then he gave it to Price and the from his own belt, it gently.
There had been no alarm.
Price the past on the guide-strip. When the right one he pushed the proper and waited. The stopped. The door back. They moved fast, out into the corridor.
Only one man was in sight, going with a of papers in his hand. He stopped, and his widened, and his mouth opened. Price the shocker. The man and the papers all over the floor. Price to run. His own shoes a quick on the plastic surface. The of the no at all. He the doors, and then for a last at Sweetbriar and the men. Their were very and the of their teeth showed. Sweetbriar nodded.
Price open the door.
And it was easy, than he had dreamed. The four in their of gold and and for as long as a man might catch his breath, and that was time enough. Bolos around three of them like and them down, and the fourth under the shock-beam.
"Shut the door," said Price, and one of the it.
Price out the other three with the shocker, and the them. There was a of side-arms in one wall, with in it. Price them out and then his attention to the of firing-studs. The at the moving pictures of the Belt in the screens, until Sweetbriar sent them to the door.
There were service-hatches the waist-high panels. Price got one open and the wiring, more with than exertion. It was only a minutes until the pre-arranged time of attack. But he must not the in trying to de-activate them. He was to start indiscriminately.
But where the leads ran to join the they passed through a series of switches. It logical to Price that these were safety cut-offs to be used maintenance, and that they would cut off the on the roof.
He had nothing to go on, and time had almost out. He opened one of the switches, and at the screens. Nothing happened. He open the others fast, and the from the board. Then with a metal chair he the studs.
As he finished, Sweetbriar suddenly. "There they come—and right on time!"
Price, sweating, looked up. Sweetbriar and the were at the screens.
They the storm-swept Belt and they small dark in it—hundreds of them—thousands—tribesmen toward the Citadel.
An alarm-bell in the Citadel. Instantly other it, a of alarms.
"Out of here fast," Price cried. "This is the place the Vurna will be coming. If we can through, we can help the others."
They ran out of the room, the past the man who still on the floor. Whatever now, the across the Belt were safe from the on the roof.
Without the lift-door opened right in of them and five green-clad Vurna came out of it.
There was no to use or either—they were so close to each other that it was hands and fists. They struggled, and at each other, their on the floor, with the of in the background.
A new note was added to that clamor. A of voices, many of them up from the part of the Citadel.
"The are in!" Sweetbriar. "By God, I—"
He was by a green arm. His Vurna to his out of his belt. Price out at his own personal and him against the metal wall. He saw the the wall, and the man at the knees.
Price and up the now at Sweetbriar. The yelped, their blazing. It was their of a fight. They liked it. After a lifetime, they were using their on the Star Lords and they liked that.
The of from told of a there, through the Citadel. And then that sound, and the small, personal of their own fight, were cut across by a new sound.
A hooting, loud and commanding, louder by the second, like the voice of through the iron pile.
The two Vurna still left on their to turn and the corridor. The hunter's them quickly.
Sweetbriar's old was wild and as he got to his feet. "What the hell—"
"That's the Vurna's big battle-stations siren!" Price said. "They're a late with it. Come on!"
He and the to look for stairs, along the corridors. They some at last, and downward, level after level.
Bellowing, in now, the hooting.
It not out the that the levels. Price and the were met by a of up from the ground level. They were screaming, laughing, in the halls, with them one or two Vurna—triumphant victors, dancing a power under their feet. Their and and their were still wet with rain.
They up Price and Sweetbriar and the six others in their front, their shoulders, them.
"We did it! We got 'em!" they cried. "We took the Citadel!"
"Is it all over?" asked Price incredulously. "So soon?"
"That did it," said a red-bearded man. "All of a they and to run, like it was a signal, but they couldn't away from us. I they got old Arrin there, in a big room, and fit to bust."
"Where's Sawyer?" somebody shouted, and Sweetbriar took up the cry. Price said,
"Somewhere on this level, I think. Get a Vurna that speaks English and make him you. It'll save time."
He pushed on through them to the stairs, and his way down. He wanted to see Arrin. He wanted to see the of the Citadel humbled, broken.
Tribesmen through the corridors, like happy children. They him to a room that Price must be the very and of the Citadel, its for being. It was an place of screens and panels and equipment. But these screens looked Earth, spaces, and dark abysses. From here the Vurna had the whole of space, and these must be the of the missile-batteries the Citadel, the that fast and into the void.
Here there was a to keep out the roisterers. The of the had a for the possible results of with these but powers. They were the whole Citadel might up with them in it. A were still being out as Price entered.
A number of the were in here, and Arrin was with them, but he was neither crying. He was two tribesmen, the chiefs, and his such an of and terror that Price was by it.
"What must I do," he was saying, "to make you understand? That came from our fleet. The Ei have it in the Centaurus Gulf, and are in toward Earth. If we don't the Citadel—"
He off as he saw Price come up. Then he said bitterly, "I you. Few men can say that single-handed they a world."
One of the asked Price, "Is Sawyer with you?"
Price his head. "They've gone to free him now. He'll be here in a minutes."
"Oh my God," said Arrin softly. "Don't let them free the Ei. Even two of them at large here—we'd have no at all, with their coming." He looked at Price and Price's slowly out of him a void. Nobody, Vurna or not, what he saw in Arrin's eyes.
"Do you wish me to go on my and beg?" Arrin. "I'll do it. Only go up and stop them from opening that bulkhead."
And Price that he must do that.
He and ran along the and up the stairs, pushing and kicking his way past the of who wanted to him for what he had done, and all the way there was a thing his back, and its name was Doubt, and its second, Fear.
Was it possible, just possible, that the Vurna had been telling the truth all the time?
Uproar on the prison level him through a of corridors, to an of doors. He a corner. Burr and Twist and Sawyer were free. They part of the fore-front of a group that was the the doors. Two Vurna prone, and a third man, the English-speaking guide, was trying to away unnoticed, his with fear.
The was open.
A man's voice in terror. Then another, and another, and the were rolled upon themselves as by the of a great hand, as the of the group and its way to the rear. There was a moment of wild panic. Price against the and men by him sobbing. And then a of force, so cold and that it the last small of his self, his mind like the back-blast of a bomb.
Two dark in the corridor.
They were than men. At Price they were in black like old monks, with over their heads. But as they moved he saw that the and the with a thin were their own substance, quivering, shifting, around some of being. He not see they had under the black folds, and in the faces, but he them him. He their minds him and away his defenses, his own mind and them.
And these were the Ei. These were the Big Lie of the Vurna.
Only they were real!
He not them any longer. He ran.
They all ran. It was a compulsion. Run. Cry panic. Clear the Citadel and away!
He looked and the Ei were them, along the hall.
Run. Get away....
And then Price and the others, in the next with the who were to out what had happened. They still had Arrin with them, a prisoner.
"Out," said Sawyer thickly, his voice a croak. "Get out, fast—"
Arrin's voice like a whiplash. "Yes, run. Because they're making you, their minds are too much for you! Run, and let them have the Citadel, and when their comes, let them have the Earth!"
That stopped them. The they at that up so that the to a little. But them, in the corridors, they would be following....
Arrin and them. "We saved you from the Ei two ago, when Ei ships had your and they were to move in. We moved in first, we've them back, but now you've let them in! So run!"
"Good God!" said Sawyer, his stricken. "Then it was all true, what you told us about the Ei. It was true all the time!"
Price did not, like the other Earthmen, have a lifetime's to revise. He Arrin's shoulders.
"Can we them?" he cried. "Can we kill them?"
"They can be killed," Arrin said. "Their minds can many—but not an unlimited number. If we all them, many of us, there is a chance...."
Price the corridors, "What are you from? There's only two of them. We're going back! We're going to them down!"
The tribesmen, their a little abated, by from of their own terror, into rage.
"There's only two of them—come on!"
And then of a they were all of them the corridors, jostling, crowding, screaming, Price with Arrin him, with old Sweetbriar ahead, with Sawyer in anger. A mob, not an army, a by its own horror.
Around the corner, and into the where the two black came fast. And it was like walking into night and death, into black and the of swords, as the might of minds at them.
Tribesmen and fell, at their own heads. The over them, the right into the shapes.
"Pull them down!"
Price was in the fore-front now and he closed his and with his knife at the cloudy of a cowl.
A cold like that of space through him and he staggered, and falling, and his mind closed on the of packed men and and at the two tall shapes, them, them down.
When Price opened his he was in another and old Sawyer was his with hands.
"Yes," said Sawyer thickly. "They're dead. And a good many men with them, and some others that act like their are dead."
He his head, a little wildly. "To think it was true all the time—"
Whoom! came a from the Citadel. And then more of them, in quick succession. Whoom! Whoom! Whoom!
"Arrin—" said Price, to his feet.
"He's in that room, with his men," said Sawyer. "And they're on that Ei out in space."
And now the great from the the Citadel were going out so fast that the of them not be counted.
Price said, "Then you let him—"
"Let him?" Sawyer. "We asked him! Do you think we want a whole of—of them—reaching Earth?"
By the time Price and Sawyer got to the missile-control room, the were all on their way.
Arrin and his men the screens, and would not turn from them. Price, and the tribesmen, saw only and dark space in those screens—and then, finally, a little of pin-prick like a of in the dark void. Then nothing.
Arrin turned.
Sawyer said, painfully, "Did they—?"
"Yes," said Arrin. "We them—but none too soon. Our out there will up any Ei ships that survived."
He added, with slow weariness, "We've a battle—not a war. The Ei are many. But this world is safe. And we'll press them and back—"
Sawyer looked at Price. Price said, "Don't be so proud. Go ahead and say it."
Sawyer said to Arrin, "Seems like we were about some things. About you Vurna. We're things'll be different us, now."
"They can be," Arrin said.
"They will be, if you want it."
The old Chief of the Missouris asked, "Now it's all up, just who was the among us? Was it Oakes?"
For the time, a little touched Arrin's face. "Do you want to know, now it's over?"
Sawyer grunted. "Guess not." He looked around the other chiefs, and then his hand out in the of Earth, and Arrin took it.
Price and Linna next day on the of the Citadel and the going home.
There was, there had always been, a stiff-necked in the men of Earth. They away with their up, not looking back. But, at the of the forest, there was a and the of a they into the trees.
"They'll come back," Price said. "A of them at first—then more and more, to learn. A years will make all the difference."
He that the sons of Earth and the sons of the would together upon many worlds. The long against the Ei would end some day, that dark and would be rolled back, and Earthmen would do their share. But that was all to come.
Linna was saying earnestly, "And the people of your own in the west—they will join us too?"
Price looked at her. "There is no colony, Linna. I came alone from the west."
"But your clothes—your plane—where did you come from?" She was startled, her wide and wondering.
"I'll all that later. You won't it, at first. I do myself."
And, of the of and that had him from the older Earth, Price a last of for that world of long ago. That time when, safe on their little planet, men had of space and stars—it now like a long-dead of youth.
The Earth of those days come again. The had in upon it, and terrible and had the dreams, and it was a different and that was joining the of star-worlds. Who what it on that wider, stage? His hand on Linna's. Of their own part in that future, he very sure.
