Here we go, Jerome thought. One last little chore to perform for these people, and then I…That’s the question. Take up permanent residence in a wheelchair? In a hydrotherapy unit?
The surrounding bleakness served to depress his mood even further, and insulated in his cocoon of introspection he scarcely noticed when the vehicle began passing through gateways in wire fences. It was only when it crawled to a halt at a flat dome of a building, more than a hundred metres across, that he was again touched by the unearthly mystery and power of the occasion. His heart began a steady drumbeat as he realized that the unique moment was at hand, the moment when the histories of two worlds would fuse into one—with incalculable results.
The Four Thousand were about to be roused from their millennia-long slumber.
“We can go no closer to the entrance,” Nordenskjöld said, interrupting his reverie. “Do you think you can walk that far?”
Jerome studied the fan-shaped flight of steps which rose to the dome’s entrance. They were very wide, curving to the line of the building’s perimeter, and very shallow, gently ascending between granite windbreaks and heaps of cleared snow. This was where the Dorrinian he had seen die on the surface of Mercury should have walked in majesty and triumph as the chosen Bearer of the Thabbren, but fate had decreed that Rayner Jerome should take his place.
“I’ll be all right,” Jerome said. “Just put me on my feet.”
He waited without moving, not daring to negotiate the drop to the ground on his own, until Nordenskjöld had descended. The Dorrinian helped him out of the vehicle and stood back, looking pale and tense, as Jerome swayed for a second and then began his laboured ascent to the dome’s dark-shadowed entrance. Jerome reached the first step, raised his right foot on to it with comparative ease, and by leaning forward and exerting all the strength of his thigh successfully elevated the rest of his body. His left foot trailed into place beside the other, and he was stable again.
That wasn’t too bad, he thought. Only seven more to go.
Two unexpected events occurred simultaneously.
Behind Jerome, Paul Nordenskjöld emitted a tortured cry.
And ahead of Jerome, to the right of the stair, a mound of snow broke open, powdering away in the breeze, to disclose the figure of a man who was carrying a rifle.
Jerome, transfixed by fright, gaped at the apparition. The man raised his free hand and slowly drew back the hood of his parka, giving Jerome a clear view of his face, a face which had a strange familiarity to it. Jerome gave a quavering sigh as recognition came to him.
There was a moment of tumultuous silence, then the man said, “That’s right, Rayner—against all the odds, we meet again.”
Had Jerome been able he would have fled, obeying the dictates of instinct, heedless of his inability to outpace a bullet, but he was in the grip of a sick paralysis and all he could do was stand, teetering, on the first step and stare at the face which had once been his own.
They lied to me, he thought numbly. They lied because they knew I could never face this.
“No, they didn’t lie,” Belzor said. The fools had me—they actually had me!—and it’s a measure of their sheer incompetence that I’m still alive.”
Jerome willed his legs to let him back away, but all that happened was that a shudder went through his body.
Belzor gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. “You can’t leave, Rayner—not until you know all that you ought to know, all that your friends have kept from you.”
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Jerome mumbled.
“Yes, I made a serious mistake when I disposed of Marmorc the way I did,” Belzor said. “Under normal circumstances twenty Dorrinians would have been no match for me, not even when they had overcome their na;ïve prejudice against your world’s beautiful weaponry, but I was too weak to fight them. The only way I could win the struggle was by making them believe I had lost it—and that was so easy to do. The intelligent course would have been for them to fire bullets through my brain, but the fools weren’t even aware that I was influencing them when they contented themselves with stopping my heart and leaving me to freeze.”
Belzor smiled calmly. “This body I inherited from you was in extremely bad condition, Rayner. You would have died from arteriosclerosis within a matter of months, but now it is perfect and will continue to be that way for many years.”
Jerome, distraught and faint, became aware that another voice—a telepathic voice—was sounding above the clamour of his thoughts. The Prince cannot harm you, Rayner. He made a mistake in coming here. He has not regained his former powers, and we are containing him. He is unable to move or aim the rifle at you. Take the Thabbren into the dome.
“The fools are right in one respect,” Belzor said. “My kald energy has been greatly depleted, and for that reason they are able to contain me. It is an even match at present—tens of Guardians against one of me—but they are wrong to believe that I have made a mistake in meeting you here.”
The power of hatred enabled Jerome to speak firmly. “It was a mistake, Belzor. You tried to kill me.“
Belzor smiled again, unperturbed. “I fired at you and missed. You fired at me and hit. That more than put you even.”
“It wasn’t a game—you killed Pitman.”
“You’re not seriously concerned about that, are you? A Dorrinian body-snatcher! An alien invader who was in the very act of setting you up for a transfer! Be logical, Rayner.”
“I’m trying to be logical,” Jerome said, emboldened by the assurance that Belzor posed no physical threat. “And I still say you made a mistake in coming here.”
“But consider my alternative. I could have gone into hiding somewhere and allowed you to deliver the Thabbren, to reincarnate four thousand powerful Dorrinians who have good reason to want me dead. That would have been the real mistake.”
The Prince cannot prevent you delivering the Thabbren, a silent voice told Jerome. Carry it into the dome now!
Jerome took a pace towards the next stair. “You tried to kill me, Belzor.“
“I underestimated you that day at the lake, Rayner,” Belzor said. “The fact that you are back on this planet shows how much I underestimated you, but that is part of the past. I now know that you are intelligent enough to do what is best for you and your own people. That is my justification for meeting you here—I am staking my life on your intelligence.”
“But…” Jerome stiffened his legs to steady the leaden weight of his body. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean that you are going to give me the Thabbren. You, of your own free will, are going to give me the Thabbren and allow me to draw off its kald energies, thus consigning the Four Thousand to oblivion, for ever.”
Carry the Thabbren into the dome NOW!
Jerome raised weighted arms and pressed his hands to his temples. “Why?” he said to Belzor. “Why should I do as you say?”
“Because, Rayner, I am going to tell you the truth about the Four Thousand…the truth which has been so carefully concealed from you by your highly ethical friends…and when you hear it…”