"It's all in the timing," Kickaha said, smiling. "Now let us get on with it. You're probably thinking I'm going to kill you or perhaps stick you in that wheeled cage and let you starve to death. It's not a bad idea, but I prefer contemplating the theory to putting it into practice.
"I promised Ore I'd let him go if he cooperated. He hasn't done a thing to help, but I can't hold that against him. He hasn't had a chance.
"Now, if you cooperate, too, Urthona, I'll let you live and I won't torture you. I need to get Ore, your beloved brother, out of that trap so I can get my hands on the Horn. But first, let's check that your story is true. God help you if it isn't."
He stood behind the Lord just far enough away so that if he tried to turn and snatch at the beamer he'd be out of reach. The weapon was set on low-stun. Urthona worked the controls, and the concealed TV of the auxiliary system looked into the room with the cube. Ore was still in his prison; Anana and Two were standing by the hole in the wall.
Kickaha called her name. She looked up with a soft cry. He told her not to be frightened, and he outlined what had happened.
"So things are looking good again," he said. "Ore, your brother is going to gate you into the control room. First, though, put the beamer down on the table. Don't try anything. We'll be watching you. Keep hold of the Horn. That's it. Now go to the corner where you appeared in the cube when you were gated through. Okay. Stand still. Don't move or you'll lose a foot or something."
Urthona reached for a button. Kickaha said, "Hold it. I'm not through. Anana, you know where I went. Go up there and stand by the wall behind the control console there. Then step through the gate when it appears. Oh, you'll meet a blind robot, poor old One. I'll order it to stand still so it won't bother you."
Urthona walked stiffly to a console at one end of the enormous room. His hands were tightly clenched; his jaw was clamped; he was quivering.
"You should be jumping with joy," Kickaha said. "You're going to live. You'll get another chance at the three of us some day."
"You don't expect me to believe that?"
"Why not? Did I ever do anything you anticipated?"
He directed the Lord to show him the unmarked controls which would bring Ore back. Urthona stepped back to allow Kickaha to operate. The redhead, however, said, "You do it."
It was possible that the controls, moved in the manner shown, would send a high voltage through him.
Urthona shrugged. He flipped a toggle switch, pressed a button, and stepped away from the console. To the left, the bare wall shimmered for a few seconds. A hemisphere of swirling colors bulged out from it, and then it collapsed. Red Ore stood with his back almost touching the wall.
Kickaha said, "Put the Horn down and push it with your foot toward me."
The Lord obeyed. Kickaha, keeping an eye on both of them, bent down and picked up the Horn.
"Ha! Mine again!"
Five minutes later, Anana stepped out of the same gate through which Kickaha and Urthona had fallen.
Her uncles looked as if this was the end of the last act. They fully expected to be slain on the spot. At one time, Kickaha would have been angered because neither had the least notion that he deserved to be executed. There was no use getting upset, however. He had learned long ago not to be disturbed by the self-righteous and the psychopath, if there was any difference between the two.
"Before we part," he said. "I'd like to clear up a few things, if possible. Urthona, do you know anything about an Englishman, supposedly born in the eighteenth century? Red Ore found him living in this place when he entered."
Urthona looked surprised. "Someone else got into here?"
"That tells me how much you know. Well, maybe I'll run across him some other time. Urthona, your niece has explained something about the energy converter that powers this floating fairy castle. She told me that any converter can be set to overload, but an automatic regulator will cut it back to override that. Unless you remove the regulator. I want you to fix the overload to reach its peak in fifteen minutes. You'll cut the regulator out of the line."
Urthona paled. "Why? You ... you mean to blow me up?"
"No. You'll be long gone from here when it blows. I intend to destroy your palace. You'll never be able to use it again."
Urthona didn't ask what would happen if he refused. Under the keen eye of Anana, he set the controls. A large red light began flashing on a console. A display flashed, in Lord letters, OVERLOAD. A whistle shrilled.
Even Anana looked uneasy. Kickaha smiled, though he was as nervous as anybody.
"Okay. Now open the gates to Earth and to Jadawin's world."
He had carefully noted the control which could put the overload regulator back into the line if Urthona tried any tricks.
"I know you can't help being treacherous and sneaky, Urthona," Kickaha said. "But repress your natural viciousness. Refrain from pulling a fast one. My beamer's set on cutting. I'll slice you at the first false move."
Urthona did not reply.
On the towering blank wall two circular shimmerings appeared. They cleared away. One showed the inside to a cave, the same one through which Kickaha and Anana had entered southern California. The other revealed the slope of a wooded valley, a broad green river at the foot. And, far away, smoke rising from the chimneys of a tiny village and a stone castle on a rocky bluff above it. The sky was a bright green.
Kickaha looked pleased.
"That looks like Dracheland. The third level, Abharhploonta. Either of you ever been there?"
"I've made some forays into Jadawin's world," Urthona said. I planned someday to ... to ..."
"Take over from Jadawin? Forget it. Now, Urthona, activate agate that'll take you to the surface of your planet."
Urthona gasped and said, "But you said ... ! Surely ... ? You're not going to abandon me here?"
"Why not? You made this world. You can live in it the rest of your life. Which will probably be short and undoubtedly will be miserable. As the Terrestrials say, let the punishment fit the crime."
"That isn't right!" Urthona said. "You are letting Ore go back to Earth. It isn't what I'd call a first-rate world, but compared to this, it's a paradise."
"Look who's talking about right. You're not going to beg, are you? You, a lord among the Lords?"
Urthona straightened his shoulders. "No. But if you think you've seen the last of me ..."
"I know. I've got another think coming. I wouldn't be surprised. I'll bet you have a gate to some other world concealed in a boulder. But you aren't letting on. Think you'll catch me by surprise some day, heh? After you find the boulder-if you do. Good luck. I may be bored and need some stiff competition. Get going."
Urthona walked up to the wall. Anana spoke sharply. "Kickaha! Stop him!" He yelled at the Lord, "Hold it, or I'll shoot!" Urthona stopped but did not turn. "What is it, Anana?"
She glanced at a huge chronometer on a wall. "Don't you know there's still danger? How do you know what he's up to? What might happen when he gives the codeword? It'll be better to wait until the last minute. Then Ore can go through, and you can shut the gate behind him. After that, we'll go through ours. And then Urthona can gate. But he can do it with no one else around."
"Yeah, you're right," Kickaha said. "I was so eager to get back I rushed things."
He shouted, "Urthona! Turn around and walk back here!"
Kickaha didn't hear Urthona say anything. His voice must have been very soft. But the words were loud enough for whatever sensor was in the wall to detect them.