Urthona looked as if he just couldn’t believe that this was happening to him. No wonder. After all he’d endured and the good luck he’d had to find a boulder with a gate in it. For all he knew, his enemies were stranded on his world or more probably dead. He was king of the palace again.
It must have been a shock when he found the door to the control room welded shut. Somebody had gotten in after all. Possibly a Lord of another world who’d managed to gate in, though that wasn’t likely. He must have figured that somehow Ore or Anana and Kickaha had gotten in. But they couldn’t get into the control room, where the center of power was. The first thing he had probably done though, was to cancel the decaying orbit of his palace. After setting it in a safe path, he would have started checking the sensory system. The regular one, first. No doubt one of the flashing red lights on the central console indicated that someone was in a trap. He’d checked that and discovered that Ore was in the cube.
But he must also have seen Anana. Had he ordered the robot Two to kill her?
He asked Urthona. The Lord shook his head as if he was trying to throw his troubles out.
“No,” he said slowly. “I saw her there, but she wasn’t doing anything to endanger me for the moment. I started then to check out the auxiliary sensories just to make sure no one else was aboard. I hadn’t gotten to the room in which you were yet. You connected with the control room… and … damn you! If only I’d gotten here a few minutes earlier.”
“It’s all in the timing,” Kickaha said, smiling. “Now let us get on with it. You’re probably thinking I’m going to kill you or perhaps stick you in that wheeled cage and let you starve to death. It’s not a bad idea, but I prefer contemplating the theory to putting it into practice.
“I promised Ore I’d let him go if he cooperated. He hasn’t done a thing to help, but I can’t hold that against him. He hasn’t had a chance.
“Now, if you cooperate, too, Urthona, I’ll let you live and I won’t torture you. I need to get Ore, your beloved brother, out of that trap so I can get my hands on the Horn. But first, let’s check that your story is true. God help you if it isn’t.”
He stood behind the Lord just far enough away so that if he tried to turn and snatch at the beamer he’d be out of reach. The weapon was set on low-stun. Urthona worked the controls, and the concealed TV of the auxiliary system looked into the room with the cube. Ore was still in his prison; Anana and Two were standing by the hole in the wall.
Kickaha called her name. She looked up with a soft cry. He told her not to be frightened, and he outlined what had happened.
“So things are looking good again,” he said. “Ore, your brother is going to gate you into the control room. First, though, put the beamer down on the table. Don’t try anything. We’ll be watching you. Keep hold of the Horn. That’s it. Now go to the corner where you appeared in the cube when you were gated through. Okay. Stand still. Don’t move or you’ll lose a foot or something.”
Urthona reached for a button. Kickaha said, “Hold it. I’m not through. Anana, you know where I went. Go up there and stand by the wall behind the control console there. Then step through the gate when it appears. Oh, you’ll meet a blind robot, poor old One. I’ll order it to stand still so it won’t bother you.”
Urthona walked stiffly to a console at one end of the enormous room. His hands were tightly clenched; his jaw was clamped; he was quivering.
“You should be jumping with joy,” Kickaha said. “You’re going to live. You’ll get another chance at the three of us some day.”
“You don’t expect me to believe that?”
“Why not? Did I ever do anything you anticipated?”