"We will teach you to use this weapon later," he said. "You will use it to kill Victor."
That gave Eldon his first ray of hope, a foundation upon which to build a plan.
Wor's eyes narrowed with jealousy as he spoke the Earthman's name, and Eldon had overheard enough to understand why. Since Victor Schenley's arrival the officer had found himself with a formidable rival for Sin's confidences and attentions. A smaller, physically weaker rival, but sly, and one who could not be removed by force without incurring Highness Sin's wrath.
It would have been pointless to hide the recovery of his body, but the concealment of his true mental condition—that the experiences he had undergone had not left him a mind-blasted dunce and that he was not even under the influence of Margaret's drugs—was of supreme importance. One incautious moment and he would die speedily, for the leaders of the Faith feared one thing only, El-ve-don, and if they suspected—
By a stroke of good fortune the room in which he was kept in luxurious captivity adjoined the larger one in which Margaret and her companion held most of their conversations. Eldon overheard everything, from endless plotting to love-making.
Wor boasted endlessly, egged on by Margaret's open adulation and flattery, of the deepening plight of the Rebels. The slave pits below the Fortress were filling rapidly. In fact so many Rebels were being captured that no more Puva slaves were being processed. Eldon clenched his fist in helpless anger, and a nagging worry began to haunt him.
One thing puzzled Margaret. Several of the Luvans had dropped out of sight.
"But they are not really of this plane at all," Wor dismissed the matter. "They are a law unto themselves."
Eldon guessed what was happening. He had seen the first two Luvans sent into nothingness by a bleeding, dying girl who had paid a great price in discovering their secret.