He didn't know, at that point, whether he hated Smith or worshiped him—or, perhaps, feared him.
He decided it must be hatred, but it wouldn't do him any good to hate Earthmen, He was helpless, as they had known he would be. He had to rebuild Nidor— rebuild it along the lines they wanted. Why? Because he was built that way; he could do nothing else. He couldn't stand around and watch his home, his people, dissolve into barbarism.
He was irrevocably dedicated to the course ahead of him.
Damn them, he thought. Damn them! And then, after a moment: Bless their damned souls!
It was the night of the second day when he arrived in Holy Gelusar. The Great City looked oddly unimportant now, no longer the metropolis he had once thought it to be. He trotted across the Bridge of Gon and headed toward the Great Temple.
No sooner did he approach the charred building when a guard rushed up. "Secretary Norvis! Where have you been? We've looked all over Nidor for you!"
"What's happened?" Norvis asked. It was near morning, and he was tired.
"Leader Kris has been shot!"
"Take me to him!" Norvis said, he dismounted and the guard led him up the stairs to the room where Kris lay. His fingers quivered a little as he threw open the door.
Marja was standing at the foot of the bed, and Ganz by the Leader's side. Two other men that Norvis recognized as physicians stood by helplessly.
Norvis glanced at one of them. "How's his condition?"
"Serious," the physician said bleakly. He lowered his voice. "We don't have much hope."
Kris, Norvis thought sadly. You were almost a son to me—and here you are, dying of the bullet I should have gotten.
He took Kris' cool, limp hand. The Leader opened his eyes slowly and focused them on Norvis.
"I heard what that doctor said," he muttered indistinctly. "Not much hope. You don't have to hide it from me."
"Easy, Kris," Norvis said. "Don't talk."
"Doesn't matter. I'm going, maybe it's best this way—cut off at the top. Wealthy, good wife, everyone cheering. Earthmen gone. Nidor rebuilding. I might have lived to see worse." His head sank back. "You've been good to me, Norvis. Thanks."
Kris shuddered, and Norvis squeezed his hand and let it drop. "He's dead," Norvis said. There was little emotion apparent in his voice.
"He was a great man," Ganz peDel said. Behind him, Marja sobbed quietly.
Norvis took a deep breath and steeled himself for what had to be done. He rose from the bedside, walked toward Ganz peDel, put his arm around the boy's broad shoulders.
"Nidor needs a new Leader," he said quietly.
"But I'm ... you ... I—" Norvis smiled. "Kris thought you could do the job, Ganz peDel. Do you?"
"I ... I think so," Ganz said, after a pause.
"Good. We've got plenty of work ahead of us, then." Norvis walked to the window of the death-room and threw open the shutters. The Great Light had just risen, and the light of dawn came streaming in, breaking through the eternal clouds of Nidor.
The End