Now he could go voyaging.
He ran towards the dwindling figures while the Grail sent up amushroom cloud of red, green, yellow, purple, and white shoots. He ran towardsthem, andthey shot away as if on skates.
"Wait for me!" he cried. "I'm going, too!"
The horizon, so distant, suddenly reversed its direction andcharged him andwas on him before he could stop running. Like a locomotive appearingout of a tunnel, it ran over him with flashing emerald, topaz, and ruby lightsscreamingat him, and swiftly rotating puffs of brilliant white and deep-spaceblack cutting through him instead of iron wheels.
Whatever the objective length of time, to him it seemedinstantaneous. He was in the hall and then he was in a huge room with gray walls, floor, andceiling. It had no furniture and no doors or windows. The only lightwas that escaping in waves from the Grail.
Childe and the others were with him. They were all looking ateach other dazedly. Some of them had not yet uncoupled.
The Grail and its pedestal stood before Childe.
Hindarf strode, to the wall and spoke one word. A large sectionof the wall became transparent, and they were looking out over the bleakestlandscape thathe had ever seen. There was only naked twisted rock. There was novegetation orwater. Yet the sky was as blue as Earth's, indicating that there wasan atmosphere outside.
Childe said, "Come here, Forry. Take my hand." "Why?" Forry said, but he obeyed. Hindarf activated another window on the opposite wall. This
showed more windswept rock, but far away, near the horizon, was a spot of greenand what looked like the tops of tall trees.
"This isn't our world or the Ogs' either!" Hindarf shouted. Hepointed intothe sky and Forry could barely see the pale moon there. It looked aslarge asEarth's, but it was darkly mottled in the center and resembled themarkings onthe wings of a death's-head moth.
Childe beckoned to Dolores del Osorojo, who smiled and came tohim and stood on his left, holding his hand. Childe said something in Spanish toher, and shesmiled and nodded.
"That about uses up my knowledge of Spanish," Childe said. "Butshe prefersto stay with me. And I want her to be with me."
"That is the moon of Gruthrath!" Hindarf shouted.
He wheeled upon Childe. "Captain! You have brought us to thedesert world of Gruthrath!"
Childe said, "It's a desert, but it can support you and the Ogsquitecomfortably, if you get out and dig, right?" Hindarf turned pale.
Weakly, he said, "Yes, but surely you are not thinking of...?"
"My ancestral memory or genetic memory or whatever you call ithas been opened," Childe said. "I know that there is very little chance thateither youTocs or Ogs would let me go once I made the first landing on eitherplanet. Youhave Captains greater than I who could neutralize my powers longenough for yourpeople to physically capture me. You'd have to, because I am partlyan Earthman, and you could never trust me. And whichever planet I got us to first, the home of the Toc or the Og, the people there would catch me. And they wouldtake captive the enemy peoples, too.
"That isn't true!" Hindarf and Igescu yelled.
"I know," Childe said. "You two were taking a chance in a cosmiclottery, asit were. You did not know which planet I would pick out to land onfirst, andyou couldn't even ask me, because I would not know which one until Iwas presented with a choice. Also, if you tried too hard to sway me, Imight getsuspicious. So you took a chance. And both of you lost."
"You can't do this!" The Tocs and the Ogs rushed towards Childe. Forry almost let loose of Childe because it looked as if the
three of them
were going to be torn to bits. Childe gripped Forry's hand so hard that the bones cracked. He shouted, "Fuck you!" and they were off. There was a thin triangle of nothing wheeling by Forry, a gush of
soundless purple flame around his feet, and the familiar walls of the AmericanLegion wereall around him and the familiar floor was under his feet.
Forry did not say anything for a moment. Then, slowly, he spoke. "Where's the Grail?"
"I left it behind. I can do that, you know, although it meansthat the Grail is now forever out of my reach. Unless another Captain brings onehere."
"That's all?" Forry said. "You mean the trip's over?" "You didn't get killed," Childe said. "I made a better trip when I saw the movie Barbarella," Forry
said. Childe laughed and said, "You'd gripe if you were hung with a newrope."
They got dressed and prepared to leave the hall. Childe said, "Iwouldn't tell anybody about this, if I were you. And I think we'd better notsee each other again."
Forry looked at Dolores. She was dressed in a white-peek-a-booblouse and tight orange slacks that one of the Toc women had left behind.
"What about her?"
Childe squeezed the dark-haired woman and said, "I'll take careof her. She may have been one of them, but she was one of the good ones."
"I hope so," Forry said. He stuck out his hand. "Well, good luck. Adiau, aswe Esperantists say."
"Don't take any wooden grails," Childe said.
Forry watched him walk away with his arm around the slender waistof Dolores, his hand resting on the curve of her ass. How could thefellow so easily give up that power, that chance to go star-voyaging?
But he felt good again when he came out into the familiar worldof Los Angeles. The rains had stopped, the sky night was clear and full ofstars, carhorns were blaring, water was splashing onto the pedestrians asreckless drivers roared through pools, a radio was screeching rock, an ambulance sirenwas wailing somewhere.
A half hour later, he entered his house. He stopped and gasped. The Stoker painting was missing again!
Renzo Dummock came down the steps then, scratching his hairychest and swollen paunch. He said, "Hi, Forry. Say, could you loan me a couplabucks for ciggies and a beer? I'm really down in the dumps, I..."
"That painting!" Forry said, pointing his finger at the blankspace on thewall.
Renzo stopped and gaped. Then he said, "Oh, yeah, I was going totell you. That guy, what's his name, Woolston Heepish? He showed up about anhour ago andsaid you had told him he could have the Stoker. So I let him. Wasn'tit all right?"
Forry charged into his office and dialed Heepish's number. Hisheart chunked when he heard the smooth soft voice again.
"Why didn't you go with the others?" Forry said.
"Why, Forry! You're back! I thought sure you'd be gone forever! That's why Istayed behind. I like this life, and I couldn't pass up the chance toadd yourcollection to mine!"
Forry was silent for a moment and then he said, "Hold on! Ithought you wereburied in that landslide?"
Heepish chuckled. "Not me! I slid out as nice as pie and tookoff. I had enough of Childe and the Tocs and the Ogs, even if the Ogs are mypeople."
"I want my painting back!" "Would you consider trading it for a rare Bok?" Forry wondered if the fellow had slipped some LSD into his
coffee. Perhaps everything that had happened was only a lysergic acid fantasy?
Heepish's voice, fluttering like the wings of a bat in the night, said, "Maybe we could get together soon? Have a nice talk?"
"You can keep the painting if you'll promise never to cross mypath again!" Forry said.
Heepish chuckled. "Could Dr. Jekyl get rid of Mr. Hyde?"