A low, snarling car bearing the sign of Merssu's priesthood drove up to him as he touched the ground. Two men got out and walked toward him, one of them dressed in the somber black of the priesthood. Merssu stood waiting, his eyes lighting with triumphant fire.
"Who are you?" the priest asked.
Merssu stared, the pose broken. "Who am I? Kneel, fool! I am Merssu, the Firegod."
The two men looked at him speechlessly for a moment, then burst into laughter.
"Merssu!" The priest wiped his eyes. The other man's laughter trailed into anger.
"Watch your tongue, blasphemer!" he said curtly, drawing a gun from his holster.
"Merssu!" the priest repeated, "You're the fool, stranger. At least the others who've tried to claim his godhood had the sense to disguise themselves to resemble his pictures."
"Pictures change, rash priest!" Merssu thundered. "I am the Firegod! Look on my power!" Once more he fired into the sea, and once more the steam pillars rose. "I am the God of Fire. I fly in the hands of flame. I walk on the air. I burn the land and the sea. I am Merssu!"
The priest's face lost its tolerant amusement. His mouth twisted in scorn.
"Walk on the air, do you? In a Mark XI Antigrav belt, yes. Burn sea and land, eh? With a sungun, certainly. Fly in hands of flame? If you wish to be picturesque about it, yes—but so does every drunken fool of a spaceman."