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Updated: May 31, 2025
At the door, Argo had appeared. From a black object in his hand, the beam was streaming. He rested the black thing on a wall ledge so that the beam hung level. "Stand where you are, all of you." He started toward Maida, behind the beam from the rest of us. Georg made as though to leap forward, but Wolfgar restrained him. "Wait! You don't understand that's death!"
Her glance turned to Wolfgar; her slim hands went out to greet him. "Wolfgar, my friend. It is good to see you here." Wolfgar knelt before her, gazed for one instant into her eyes, and then with head bowed, brushed the hem of her robe to his face. She laughed gently. "Stand up, Wolfgar. I would not be the Princess Maida to you now. Only your friend. Your grateful friend."
The room around us went black a barrage of blackness and silence, with ourselves and Wolfgar in a pale glow standing within it as in a cylinder. The isolation-barrage. I had never been within one before, though upon drastic occasion they were in official use. Wolfgar said swiftly: "We cannot be seen or heard. I have been in charge of the mirror observing you I have thrown it out of use.
Across the room, creeping for the balcony doorway, I was aware of the figure of Georg. Tarrano saw him also; and with a swift gesture snapped back to his belt the interference cylinder with which he had uncovered us; then plucked at another weapon, gripped it to turn it upon Georg. Everything was happening too swiftly for coherent thought. I leaped toward Tarrano, with Wolfgar rushing beside me.
The holiday spirit which was on Tarrano was spreading everywhere throughout the city. Boats gayly bedecked in such contrast to the funeral cortege of poor Wolfgar just the night before began passing the palace on their way to the festival waters. Men and laughing girls thronged them. All with red masks covering their faces.
That night our first night on Venus midway between the darkness of sunset and the dawn we buried Wolfgar. The air was soft and warm, with a gentle breeze that riffled the placid waters of the lake. Overhead, the sky gleamed with a myriad stars reddish stars, all of them like Red Mars himself as seen through the heavy Venus atmosphere. Largest of them, the Earth. My birthplace!
But to pass through one of them, the barring current struck you like a wall, with darting sparks when it was touched. As Wolfgar had said, we had access to the upper balcony; the waist-high rail there, with its needle-points of electrodes, sent up a visible stream of the Nth Electrons a dull glow by daylight; at night a riot of colors and snapping sparks.
Wolfgar had felt it also; he was reeling near me, holding himself from falling with difficulty. I was unarmed; but there were weapons hanging from Wolfgar's belt. His numbed fingers were groping for them. But the effort was too great. The blood, driven back from his arms, left them powerless; they fell dangling to his sides. A few seconds; but we had occupied Tarrano during them.
I'd be so happy just to hear you say it." As I sat there behind them, I prayed then that she might say it. "I love you, Wolfgar." "Oh," he whispered. "You did say it! My Maida says that she loves me!" Happiness transfigured his livid face. But his smile was whimsical still. "You're very kind to me. Please say it again." "I love you, Wolfgar." "Yes that's how I always dreamed it would sound.
It would always have been my secret the little Mars man Wolfgar in love with his Princess Maida. You don't think it too impertinent of me do you? I mean confessing it now just at the end?" "No," she whispered. "No, Wolfgar." "Thank you very much." His breath exhaled with a faint sigh. "Thank you very much. I wanted to tell you that before I go.
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