Chapter III

Nathan darted out of the room of the Stone Pig, guided by his intimate knowledge of the cavern. He waited a moment by the entrance, listening in the darkness. Then he heard the soft scrape of a sandal against a rock somewhere. And a voice.

"Nathan Ormondy!"

It called his name softly, echoing in the cavern, and it was like no other voice he had ever heard. The music of its overtones was brilliant and glowing like the inner light of the Jewels of Chamar themselves.

"I have come for you, Firebird," said Nathan. "Ready your flame lance."

He darted away, expecting a flame to be hurled at the sound of his voice. None came. He waited, hoping Firebird would answer and give him a target.

That first sound of her voice haunted him. It was the loveliness of a spring day on Earth, the blue of the sky and the song of the birds--but it was the song of the Firebird, a song of death.

Then she answered. "I came to make peace, Nathan. Put up your lance and make a light."

He aimed in the darkness--and could not fire at that voice.

"Do you think I'm a fool?" he muttered savagely. It was to himself as well as to Firebird.

"You _are_ a fool!" Firebird hissed in anger. "I came to you peacefully."

From across the chamber a ball of fire the size of an orange spurted with the speed of lightning. It splattered the wall two feet from Nathan. The heat of its explosion singed his cape to a shred. His face was scorched and his eyes blinded temporarily.

Nathan aimed again and unleashed a blast of his own, but it went wide for he did not even glimpse Firebird in its glow. He leaped away to hiding behind a large stalagmite.

"Listen to me!" the voice of Firebird commanded again. "I could have killed you then. My shot landed two feet to the left of you. Now will you hear what I have to say?"

"It's easy to call your shots after they are fired."

"Here's one neither to the right or left," said Firebird evenly.

Before she finished speaking a blast of flame burst over the huge stalagmite in front of Nathan. The fire of it flowed around the sides and enveloped him in a searing blanket.

For the first time, Nathan knew fear. The witch could see in the dark! He was at her mercy.

Her voice spoke more softly now. "Are you coming out from behind there or do I have to come and get you?"

"You'll have to come and get me--the same way you got my father."

He leaped away to still another stalagmite. He paused midway to unleash his own burst from the flame lance. It splashed against the cavern wall, but there was no answering fire.

He waited tensely in the darkness. Minutes passed. Surely he could not have killed the Firebird with that blast. The silence could only mean then that she was holding her fire, creeping up on him in the darkness.

"You have no excuse for my father's murder?" Nathan taunted. He slipped away to another protecting rock.

Then the voice of Firebird came again--and she hadn't moved! Nathan's eyes tried hopelessly to pierce the blackness to check the evidence of his ears.

Firebird said, "I was just wondering what I could say to a fool like you. If I killed your father for the Jewels why do you suppose that I didn't take them and go? Why should I have left them, and prepared the trap to destroy the cave mouth?"

"Is there anyone who knows the mysterious ways of the thief and killer, Firebird?"

"I have never stolen except from thieves. I have never killed--except murderers."

"My father was not a murderer!"

"And I did not kill him. Your father and I were partners for many years. We searched together for the Seven Jewels."

"I don't believe that. He warned me against you."

"Yes. Because we quarrelled. I'll tell you about it some day. Together, we found five of the Seven Jewels. One of his three was stolen by the murderer. Now, there are four of the Jewels equally divided between you and me. It is senseless for us to fight. There is power enough for us both when the Seven are ours. In return for your cooperation I promise to help you find your father's murderer. You know my reputation well enough to know what my promise means. And remember, I could have taken the Jewels instead of bargaining with you, but the Firebird is not a thief."

Nathan didn't believe a word of what she said, but he knew that if he continued to challenge Firebird with the flame lance it would not take her a dozen shots to find him in the darkness. Though he had been taught by Thymar he could not match such shooting. He would be lucky to find her with a hundred shots. No wonder her prowess had become a legend.

"I'll compromise--with one reservation," he said. "I think you killed my father. I know you can kill me here in the darkness. I don't know why you don't. I'll accept your offer, but unless you prove you did not kill my father, you and I will sometime again trade flames to the death."

"Done," said Firebird.

* * * * *

Almost instantly, a pink glow began filling the chamber. It was like the rising of the sun over one of Earth's quiet seas. There seemed to be the perfume of flowers in the air, and the song of birds.

And then Nathan realized it was Firebird's song--that high-pitched melody that caused a faint chill to race the length of his spine.

The glow, too, was coming from her. It heightened with a tremendous, terrifying crescendo. Nathan had heard babbling outlaws who swore drunkenly to having seen this sight.

He stood immobile now, not breathing in the face of the wondrous glory of that unfolding light. The Firebird herself was so dazzling that the pink radiance blinded him after the darkness, but when his eyes became accustomed to it he saw her.

She was small, almost tiny, and exquisitely shaped. Her head was encased in a close fitting silver helmet that did not prevent her flowing, raven hair from tumbling over the nape of her neck. As she stood there in the rising glow she seemed poised for flight.

A close fitting tunic that seemed to be of scarlet tinted mail protected her body, but her arms and legs were bare and from her very flesh the pink light was emanating.

Nathan murmured, half to himself, "Beautiful--and inhuman! Who are you?"

The Firebird smiled. And Nathan moved slowly towards her. It was incredible that such evil as he had heard of the Firebird could have come out of such beauty.

"Perhaps you shall know who I am some day. For now, our agreement does not call for that. Would you mind pocketing your flame lance before we go on?"

Nathan realized his hand still gripped the weapon and it was trained on the girl. It would take only a squeeze of his finger to erase her evil--

"Better not try it," she warned, and the smile did not leave her lips. He looked down at her hand. Her own weapon was trained with equal sureness upon him.

Instinctively, then, he knew that all the stories about the fabulous quick draw of the Firebird were true. If he so much as thought of killing her, her finger would squeeze the trigger of her flame lance a thousand times quicker than his.

He pocketed the weapon slowly and smiled at her.

"How do we get out?" he said. "Is the passage blocked?"

"Completely," Firebird said. "Or else the gentlemen who were so anxious to meet you here would have arrived by now."

"You planted the explosive?"

"Yes. I wanted our interview in private, not amidst a battle."

"How do you know there is any other way out?"

"Your father and I built it long ago."

Nathan remained silent. Was it only some purposeful fiction, or had his father actually been partners with Firebird?

She turned her back upon him and led the way out of the chamber by her own mysterious radiance. He could draw his flame lance now, Nathan thought. But it was only a thought. He wondered if he could ever seek vengeance upon such beauty regardless of what she had done in the past.

There was a temptation almost stronger than vengeance now, a temptation to see this whole affair all the way through--to find out the true identity of the fabled Firebird and the secret of the Seven Jewels of Chamar.

For a time they walked towards the blocked entrance, then they turned abruptly aside into a narrow passage. The slim Firebird passed through easily but for Nathan it was a tight squeeze that grew narrower as he went.

A strangling sense of claustrophobia seized him. He pressed almost frantically to get past the bottleneck. If this were a trap Firebird could shoot before he could get a hand near a weapon.

Then he saw her waiting for him ahead in the larger chamber to which the narrow passage led. She seemed to read his thoughts.

"Do you trust me now?"

"Does anyone really trust the Firebird--anyone on the nine worlds?"

The sudden sobering of her face was a terrible thing to see. She turned away so hastily that Nathan barely saw the expression, but he saw enough to know that there was weakness in her. She was not all iron strength. He saw enough to know that the incredible, storied Firebird had no friend in all the System and he knew what that fact meant to her.