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the crescent, we'd better enter quietly and hope to surprise him."
"Vannax?" Podarge said.
Wolff swore mentally. He and Kickaha had not wanted to reveal the identity of Abiru until later.
Podarge hated any Lord so much that she would have killed him at once. Wolff wanted to keep him alive
because Vannax, if he did not try to betray them, could be valuable in the taking of the palace. Wolff had
promised Vannax that he could go into another world to try his luck there if he helped them against
Arwoor. And Vannax had explained how he had managed to get back to this universe. After Kickaha
(born Finnegan) had accidentally come here, taking a crescent with him, Vannax had continued his search
for another. He had been successful in, of all places, a pawn shop in Peoria, Illinois. How it had gotten
there and what Lord had lost it on Earth would never be known. Doubtless there were other crescents in
obscure places on Earth. However, the crescent he had found had passed him through a gate located on
the Amerindian tier. Vannax had climbed Thayaphayawoed to Khamshem, where he had been lucky
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enough to capture the gworl, Chryseis, and the horn. Thereafter, he had made his way toward the palace
hoping to get within.
Wolff muttered, "The old saying goes that you can't trust a Lord."
"What did you say?" Podarge asked. "And I repeat, who is Vannax?"
Wolff was relieved that she did not know the name. He answered that Abiru had sometimes disguised
himself under that name. Not wanting to reply to any more questions, and feeling that time was vital, he
entered the laboratory. It was a room broad enough and high-ceilinged enough to house a dozen jet
airliners. Cabinets and consoles and various apparatuses, however, gave it a crowded appearance. A
hundred yards away, Vannax was bent over a huge console, working with the buttons and levers.
Silently, the three advanced on him. They were soon close enough to see that two crescents were
locked down on the console. On the broad screen above Vannax was the ghostly image of a third
semicircle. Wavy lines of light ran across it.
Vannax suddenly gave an ah! of delight as another crescent appeared by the first on the screen. He
manipulated several dials to make the two images move toward each other and then merge into a single
one again.
Wolff knew that the machine was sending out a frequency-tracer and had located that of the crescent set
into the floor of the control room. Next, Vannax would subject the crescents clamped to the console to a
treatment which would change their resonance to match that of the control room. Where Vannax had
gotten the two semicircles was a mystery until Wolff thought of that crescent which must have
accompanied him when he passed through the gate to the Amerindian tier. Somehow, during the time
between his capture and the flight, he had gotten hold of this crescent. He must have hidden it in the ruins
before the ape had captured him.
Vannax looked up from his work, saw the three, glanced at the screen, and snatched the two crescents
from the spring-type clamps on the console. The three ran toward him as he placed one crescent on the
floor and then the other. He laughed, made an obscene gesture, and stepped into the circle, a dagger in
his hand.
Wolff gave a cry of despair, for they were too far away to stop him. Then he stopped and threw a hand
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over his eyes, but too late to shut out the blinding flash. He heard Kickaha and Podarge, also blinded,
shouting. He heard Vannax's scream and smelled the burned flesh and clothes.
Sightlessly, he advanced until his feet touched the hot corpse.
"What the hell happened?" Kickaha said. "God, I hope we're not permanently blinded!"
"Vannax thought he was slipping in through Arwoor's gate in the control room," Wolff said. "But Arwoor
had set a trap. He could have been satisfied with wrecking the matcher, but it must have amused him to
kill the man who would try it."
He stood and waited, knowing that time was getting short and that he was not serving his cause or
anyone else's by his patience with his blindness. But there was nothing else he could do. And, after what
seemed like an unbearably long time, sight began to come back.
Vannax was lying on his back, charred and unrecognizable. The two crescents were still on the floor and
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