He took her in his arms. Her lips were cold against his, cold with the cruel silent chill of the night, but she answered him with a fierce yearning.

“I think I love you, Martin,” she said after a very long time. Suddenly she laughed, a clear and lovely music echoing from the frosty towers of Brontothor. “Oh, Martin, I shouldn’t have been afraid. We’ll never be lonely, not ever again—”

The moon had sunk far toward the dark horizon when he took her back to her rooms. He kissed her good night and went down the booming corridor toward his own chambers.

His head was awhirl—he was drunk with the sweetness and wonder of it, he felt like singing and laughing aloud and embracing the whole starry universe. Taury, Taury, Taury!

“Martin.”

He paused. There was a figure standing before his door, a tall slender form wrapped in a dark cloak. The dull light of a fluoroglobe threw the face into sliding shadow and tormented highlights. Vargor.

“What is it?” he asked.

The prince’s hand came up, and Saunders saw the blunt muzzle of a stun pistol gaping at him. Vargor smiled, lopsidedly and sorrowfully, ‘‘I’m sorry, Martin,” he said.

Saunders stood paralyzed with unbelief. Vargor—why, Vargor had fought beside him; they’d saved each other’s lives, laughed and worked and lived together—Vargor!

The gun flashed. There was a crashing in Saunders’ head and he tumbled into illimitable darkness.

* * *

He awoke very slowly, every nerve tingling with the pain of returning sensation. Something was restraining him. As his vision cleared, he saw that he was lying bound and gagged on the floor of his time projector.

The time machine—he’d all but forgotten it, left it standing in a shed while he went out to the stars; he’d never thought to have another look at it. The time machine!

Vargor stood in the open door, a fluoroglobe in one hand lighting his haggard face. His hair fell in disarray past his tired, handsome features, and his eyes were as wild as the low words that spilled from his mouth.

‘‘I’m sorry, Martin, really I am. I like you, and you’ve done the Empire such a service as it can never forget, and this is as low a trick as one man can ever play on another. But I have to. I’ll be haunted by the thought of this night all my life, but I have to.”

Saunders tried to move, snarling incoherently through his gag. Vargor shook his head. “Oh, no, Martin, I can’t risk letting you make an outcry. If I’m to do evil, I’ll at least do a competent job of it.

“I love Taury, you see. I’ve loved her ever since I first met her, when I came from the stars with a fighting fleet to her father’s court and saw her standing there with the frost crackling through her hair and those gray eyes shining at me. I love her so it’s like a pain in me. I can’t be away from her, I’d pull down the cosmos for her sake. And I thought she was slowly coming to love me.