Chapter IX

The bloody dawn of Mars lit the ruins of Pheme as they sped past it again. Though they had not slept they did not feel sleepy as daylight came.

Their attack and the acquisition of the Blue Jewel left two horrible alternatives in Nathan's mind. If it had been Tabor who had attacked them surely he had not known their identity and would not have fired on them if he had. In this case, Nathan had slain his father's lifelong friend without cause.

Or if it had not been Tabor it meant that Tabor possessed the sixth Jewel--the pink one--and was the murderer Nathan sought.

He thrust both thoughts out of his mind and forced himself to think of the task ahead. The peaks of the Pater Mountains were not even visible on the horizon. Soon the heat of the desert day made itself felt. They switched on the air conditioning after Nathan patched the hole in the cabin housing.

They ate as they drove, and in the afternoon, Firebird explained the course and they alternated driving and sleeping.

Near sunset they glimpsed the distant, ominous crags of the Pater Mountains. They looked like some gargantuan graveyard where the stark bones of giants had been heaped.

The wind was rising and spinning sheets of sand from the desert surface. The sandstorms of Mars are not simply the whipping, wind-driven sands of Earth. They are mighty electrical storms in which clouds of sand gather in the sky and are charged with millions of volts of potential by their ceaseless grinding against one another.

It grew dark quickly with the sand clouds masking the twilight. Streamers of fire began to lace the mountain top. A continuous purple corona gave it the aspect of luminescence.

The mountain rose slowly out of the desert and the sand gave way gradually to a trail of broken rocks that ground and protested against the runners of the sled.

"We'll go from here on foot in the morning," said Firebird. As she brought the sled to a halt she leaped quickly out and started tugging at a huge boulder nearby.

Nathan stared in puzzlement. The boulder slowly tipped on its side, exposing a small cavern.

"We'll hide the sled in here. I'll show you why in the morning."

They prepared a place to sleep for the night and alternated watches. At dawn they gathered their packs of food and water and the weapons. Firebird carefully closed the cavern over the sled.

She led the way along the trail that soon rose to increasing heights above the desert. They came across the burned and blackened ruins of a sand sled, destroyed with all its equipment.

"That belonged to someone who came up here for the first time as well as the last," said Firebird. "There is no love lost between searchers for the Seven Jewels. They burn each others' sleds when found."

The corona lightning increased with terrible streamers of blue and violet light that twisted about the peaks like living things. The air was charged with ozone and Nathan felt the dry crackling of electric discharges in his hair and on his body.

Firebird abruptly left the trails and struck out across the face of the mountain. Nathan followed and soon they came to a large overhanging rock. They slipped beneath the overhang and came into a narrow, half-enclosed passage.

"Get behind me now and watch carefully," said Firebird. She turned and faced the opening under the overhang. "We may not have too long to wait."

Nathan didn't quite understand, but he waited in silence. Beyond the opening, the rocks were gathered round to form a sort of small vestibule and nothing could be seen beyond that.

But abruptly a man appeared in the vestibule. Firebird shot him without warning.

"I just saved twenty lives," she said through thin lips. "Robert the Dog has killed five innocent men that I know of. He could have been expected to kill twenty more if he had lived ten more years."

Nathan stared from the body of the dead man to the marble face of Firebird as she sat there--judge and executioner. They waited an hour and another man appeared. She killed him, too.

"I've saved his mother the agony of knowing him hung for treason. The police have been ready for a month to pull him in."

They waited until midday, but no one else appeared. At last Firebird turned and advanced cautiously along the passageway. Nathan felt now that killers lurked behind every stone. He didn't need Firebird's warning to keep a sharp lookout.

They crept along a mile of the tortuous trail beneath the copper sky, then dipped suddenly into the blackness of a cavern. The ghostly corona that hovered over the mountain provided a faint gleam in the darkness but scarcely enough to guide them.

"Take my arm," said Firebird. "I can make it in the dark."

Nathan felt the tremor that was in her slight body. Some emotion beyond the grasp of his senses was surging through her. But he felt that before they left the cavern he would know what it was.

After a time they came to a spiral ramp that seemed to be endless as it dropped them into the depths of the purple glow. Suddenly Firebird placed Nathan's hand on the Jewel pouch. It was faintly warm.

"The buried Jewel?" Nathan whispered.

"No--the Pink one. We're still not far enough in. Your father's murderer was waiting for us somewhere inside. He's following us now."

* * * * *

Nathan was filled with pain for either he had slain Tabor unjustly or else he would shortly kill him to avenge the murder of his father.

The ramp leveled out shortly and they made a sharp turn. Then Firebird halted. "This is where we stop. Be careful. He's behind us somewhere."

"Yes, right behind you."

Out of the darkness came the unmistakable voice of Tabor.

Nathan whirled, reaching for his guns, but Firebird gave him a mighty shove that sent him sprawling into the corner of a deep niche in the cavern wall.

"I thought you went to Venus," Nathan gasped in hate and rage. "What do you want, Tabor?"

"The Jewels of Chamar. I'm your friend and your father's friend, Nathan, but first I'm a spaceman, and the Jewels of Chamar are above all friendship to a spaceman. Still, I'm an honorable man. I'll fight you for them, Nathan."

"Why didn't you just shoot us in the back as you did my father?"

"Why will you misunderstand me, Nathan? I had to do what I did to force Thymar to reveal where he had hidden the Jewels of Venus. He always said it was better for just one man to know that at a time. I agreed with him, but it was too bad that we didn't have the same man in mind."

"You dirty killer--"

"He'll accept your challenge on one condition," said Firebird. "Provided that you place the Pink Jewel in here in a pile with the others."

"You'll accept on no conditions at all!" roared Tabor, "if I say so. But I'd rather like to see them all together. Put them on the floor."

Firebird placed the five Jewels on the floor. Their rainbow phosphorescence seemed to Nathan to be a living force that touched him with strength and with peace.

From his hiding place behind a jagged boulder Tabor threw in the Pink Jewel and it landed beside the others. "Now, I've got something to fight for--!"

Firebird's flame lance aimed at the point where she had first seen the glowing Pink Jewel. A bubble of flame exploded.

Tabor's bellowing laugh ended in a roar of anger. "I'd know your touch anywhere, Firebird. Your honor was born in a pig pen."

Nathan tried to sense the direction of the sound. Then he aimed the rifle carefully. A ball of flame spattered upon the boulder and washed over its edges. He engraved the lighted scene in his mind.

"That was you, Nathan? You remember well what I told you about blackout combat. Use the rifle to illuminate the scene of battle. That is good. But do you remember what a rifle flame will do in a small space?"

Instantly, a rifle flame sped towards them. It blasted against the wall of the niche and flowed around in a sheet of blinding whiteness that gave off an intolerable heat before it died.

Nathan and Firebird crouched low at opposite sides of the opening.

"We'll have to get out," she whispered. "You take the right and I'll take the left, and we'll close in on him. Get behind cover as soon as possible."

"No! You can't risk that. It would be impossible to find cover before he illuminated you in a rifle flame. Let me try one more thing."

He sent another shot higher than the previous one. It burst upon the floor far behind Tabor. Nathan got a glimpse of a distant boulder directly behind the spot where Tabor was hidden.

Before he could shoot again another blast exploded within the niche. In its light, Nathan saw that Firebird was gone.

A wave of terror, an anxiety such as he had never known before, swept through him at the thought of her out there in plain view of Tabor. He aimed carefully with his small flame lance and tried to visualize the small boulder behind Tabor.

The flame hit and crashed away. Tabor's voice grunted, "A reflective shot? Good work, Nathan. Unfortunately I wasn't in the plane of incidence and reflection. And, Firebird, I hear you coming."

A sudden flame shot off towards the depths of the cavern at Nathan's left. There was a single agonizing scream in Firebird's voice.

Then nothing.

Tabor broke the silence. "Sorry, Nathan. I guess you'd gone pretty soft on her."

"You murderer!"

"Keep cool. Remember what I always taught you. Never let an enemy make you commit suicide by making you lose your head."

The niche was like a coffin in the darkness. Tabor's evil taunting and Firebird's scream seemed to combine in an echoing song of torment that swelled and beat upon his senses.

* * * * *

And then, in the purple darkness, the six Jewels that lay on the floor seized his attention. Where their color had seemed merely phosphorescent before, it now seemed to blaze up as if hidden fires had come to life. Nathan watched to make sure his eyes were not merely becoming more accustomed to the darkness. But it was more than that. The light pulsed and rose in the niche. It climbed the walls and filled the air with twitching streamers that seemed like living things.

And it was making him an easy target for a reflective shot from Tabor. But what did it matter what happened to him now that Firebird was gone?

He fired a half dozen shots in rapid succession.

"Wild, all wild," taunted Tabor. "You must do it with precision. Like this!"

A flame shot through the niche, but it ricocheted from the edge of the opening and missed Nathan's head by only a foot. The blast seared his face and blinded his eyes.

"See what I mean?" said Tabor.

He had the range now, Nathan knew. That's what the rifle shots had been for--to enable him to determine a good spot to make a reflective shot into the depths of the niche.

But in his own wild shots Nathan had glimpsed something that gave him new hope.

He had to move quickly. Another shot from Tabor grazed close to him, but it reflected from the opposite side of the opening where Tabor had miscalculated that Nathan would move.

Nathan said nothing, but dropped to the floor. He adjusted the rifle to automatic fire, and lay in the opening of the niche. He pressed the trigger and a river of fire swept across the floor and flowed about the base of the boulder that hid Tabor--and under it!

The boulder rested on narrow, jagged faces, between which there were openings. It was through these that Tabor had been firing and Nathan had glimpsed the secret of his protection.

The flame raced about Tabor in a torrent of light. It leaped upon him and outlined him as if in St. Elmo's fire.

He jerked up in searing pain, and in that instant a single shot came from across the cavern and found its mark. The fire died before Tabor fell, but the sound of his dead body smashing to the floor was loud in the dark silence.

"Your father's murder is avenged," said a voice from across the cavern.

"Firebird. I thought--"

"I had to make you think what I made Tabor think. I threw a stone to give him a target. There was no protection out here. I had only one shot to risk."

Nathan rushed towards the sound of her voice, and crushed her close to him to reassure himself that she was unharmed. In the light of the Jewels that was now pouring from the niche he could almost see her face. It seemed rich with gladness.

The light was flickering now like auroral curtains of fire.

"What is it?" murmured Nathan.

"Wait--you'll see. This is what I've lived for. My work is finished now."

It seemed to Nathan that they stood there for an interminable length of time while the light rose and fell, but gradually swelled until they could see each other plainly.

There came a high note like the far away tinkling of chimes. The Jewels were rising from the floor. Firebird's hand on his arm restrained Nathan from rushing forward.

"Wait," she commanded.

The Jewels rose higher and then they began to float out of the niche towards the two Earthlings, carrying their ghostly light with them.

Nathan stared. Where there had been only six Jewels in the niche, there were now seven floating in the air. Three were end to end, forming a vertical pillar. Around this pillar the other four formed a rotating square. As it rotated faster or slower the pitch of the musical note rose or fell.

The singing, floating Jewels came nearer ... vibrating with the forces of life. And then out of the midst of them a voice spoke.

"You have done well. You have my gratitude. I shall reward you."

Nathan felt a prickling of the back of his neck. And suddenly Firebird clutched his arm and was sobbing faintly. "Are we too late?" she asked.

"The ship of Plar has waited long, but the Envoys are patient. They await my report."

The Jewels wheeled in the air and sped towards the tunnel ramp that bore upward to the surface.

"Come," the voice said.

Mechanically, Firebird followed. Nathan moved beside her, not looking back at the fallen Tabor.

"What is it?" Nathan whispered hoarsely. "Are the Jewels alive?"

"Long ago," said Firebird, "the Envoys of Plar came into our System. They came from a universe so far away that our greatest telescopes have never given a clue to its presence. The inhabitants of that world are life forms with a basis of metallic salts and they are formed as you see this one. They are literally Jewels. The life forces are contained in mighty storage cells of raw electronic energy reduced to its simplest form. Some of the creatures are only single Jewels. The Envoys are of the highest type, having seven.

"The life in them was dormant until they were brought together again. The Seventh Jewel was the brain so to speak. Each of the others might be likened to an arm or other organ of a human body, though that is far from accurate. The warming of the Jewels as they were brought nearer was the reaching out of their mutual life forces to seize upon each other. But no controlling life was there until the Seventh was near. It was buried deep in the ground, but the attraction between it and the other six was enough to draw it out to reunite with them."

* * * * *

Nathan watched the weird form as it gyrated in the air before them and lighted the way through the caverns. "What does it mean?"

"Centuries ago--in our time--the Jewel Beings of Plar left on an expedition to explore the universe and study the inhabitants of the planets they came to. They found their science and skill to be so vastly superior to any other that they contacted, that they decided to help the backward peoples they found and share their science with those who could benefit by it. They hoped to speed the evolutionary advances of these races and some day establish a congress of the worlds. To those who had no space flight they revealed the secret of the art. And so on with other arts and sciences."

"Do they intend to make such gifts to the Solar System?"

"Their decision to help a race is determined by the report of one of the Envoys who is placed on a world for secret investigation. Chamar, the seven-jeweled one, was the Envoy placed to report on Earth and the Solar System."

"Chamar! But how did he get scattered? Wasn't that like death to him?"

"They are nearly immortal. Chamar was left here by the expedition and the rest of them went on. My grandfather was the first to whom Chamar revealed himself. But soon after that the Envoy was blasted in a laboratory explosion. My grandfather died of the injuries received there, but first he told my father about the Envoy.

"My father didn't know what the reaction of the other Envoys would be when they returned, but he felt they would deny the Solar System their gifts unless Chamar were restored to them. He spent the rest of his life in the search. When he died he passed on the responsibility to me. He forced me to swear I'd spend my life in the search. And I have done it willingly, for Earth will receive gifts beyond man's wildest dreaming."

"But the myth of the Seven Jewels has been in existence for nearly two hundred years!" Nathan exclaimed.

Firebird was silent. They came out of the purple darkness into daylight again. The Envoy was barely visible in the light but the constant, high-pitched note told of his presence.

"The legend of Firebird is almost that old, too," she said.

"But there are supposed to have been many who called themselves Firebird. Surely you--" Nathan halted and stared at her.

"There has been only one Firebird," she said. "Chamar made one gift to my grandfather before the explosion. That was the pool of Luline. When I was only fifteen my father took me to it and I dipped in it for the first time. Besides its miraculous healing properties, the pool slows the rate of decay of animal organisms. It gives a natural life of a thousand years. It changes human tissue. You have seen the light that comes from my flesh, and you have seen me walk unharmed in the flames at Pheme, as well as witnessing my vision in the dark. All these are of the pool of Luline. But in a hundred and fifty years I have aged only ten."

The end of the hidden trail brought them out onto the rocky mountainside. They walked until the sharp tinkle of bells swelled upon the air. Their eyes focused in the space ahead of them. At first they could see nothing. Even the Envoy of Plar had become lost in the sunlight.

Then they caught the silken sheen of the almost invisible surface of the globe that hung in the air above the trail. The ship of Plar.

They knew instinctively that its substance was no material they could identify. Rather, it was a pure field, a segment out of another time, another space that hung there. It was massive, its dimensions uncertain.

Then a familiar sound came close to them in midair and they turned quickly.

"They have come," Chamar said. "I have given my report and now they are debating your case."

"Must they debate?" Firebird's voice was suddenly thin and a strange tremor was in it. "Is there doubt of their granting the gifts which they have?"

"Each world must stand upon its own merits."

"But you are one of them. Can you not tell us?"

"I am not permitted to vote upon a world which I have examined. That is the law."

* * * * *

The Envoy was suddenly motionless in the air before them, and a wild tinkling seemed to come from within the great invisible ship of Plar. An answering sound came from the Envoy.

"Envoy! What is it?" cried Firebird.

"They have come to a decision."

"The Gifts--?"

"Are not to be given."

There was no physical change in Firebird. Only her voice seemed as if her spirit had flown. "What have we done?" she asked.

"Not you--all the races of the System," said Chamar. "I have seen them all, felt their thoughts, known their actions in the century and a half that I have been here. I had to report the wars and bloodshed and thievery and hate that I have seen. I knew the Envoys would not grant their Gifts to such a System as yours."

"Is there only evil?" said Firebird. "Is there no good?"

"Not all is evil. But too much is. In a world where too many men want to rule all other men, we cannot bring powers that would be only a curse to you. Your eyes are too weak to stand the brightness of their light. Your backs lack strength to carry their burden. In ten thousand you may be ready, but until then the Envoys shall not return."

There was a moment of silence, then the Envoy spoke kindly. "You, Firebird, what would you do? Your self-chosen mission is completed."

Firebird's head came up slowly. "My mission is not completed. It has not even begun. I can shorten that ten thousand years. I'll stand in the way of a thousand men who would have it long. You'll come back to this System quicker because of me."

"That is good," Chamar said, and they imagined he was smiling benignly upon them. "That is what I hoped you would say. Because of your decision I shall stay even though my companions must go. I shall be near you all the rest of the days of your life, and when you want my help it shall be yours for the asking. Powers that I cannot give to you will be used for you. You won't see me always for I shall do my own work, but wherever you are, call upon me and I will answer. I go to arrange with my companions."

The creature sped into the bubble of light and vanished from their sight. The bubble itself lifted from the surface and burst into the sky, leaving them alone.

The cold wind of the desert broke upon them and whipped their cloaks about their bodies. They stood as if still in a trance, but Nathan moved slowly down the trail after a moment, drawing Firebird by the arm.

They did not speak until they came to the sled. It was safe in the hiding place where they had left it. Nathan climbed behind the wheel and pointed the nose of the sled across the desert towards the far cities of Heliopolis and the Five Towns.

The sled hissed over the sands, rocked between the high dunes and challenged the desert winds. And there was exultation in that challenge.

He spoke at last. "Where are you going, now? Is this the end of Firebird?"

She shook her head and smiled wanly at him. "There'll never be an end to the Firebird. By the time I am dead the legends will be so fabulous that they will never die. I'll make the name of Firebird a name to be feared among thieves and murderers in the high and low place of society. I'll fight the cause of justice in the realms where the law can never reach. Firebird will be the name to scourge evil on the spaceways.

"And what of you, Nathan? Your father's murder is avenged. Will you return to Venus?"

She was trying to smile, but Nathan turned and saw the smile waver on her lips, and his heart beat harder because he thought he knew why it wavered.

There was in her mind the vision of endless centuries with no one to share her secret, no one to love--except the cold Jewel Being from Plar.

Nathan touched her hand. "I suppose I'll go back to Venus now and then. But there's somewhere else I must go first."

"Where?"

"To the Pool of Luline. Do you think I'm going to let you live the rest of that thousand years alone?"

End of Project Gutenberg's The Seven Jewels of Chamar, by Raymond F. Jones