He smiled. The ardth! They were his race, a people that called a planet called Earth their home. It sounded so like the Tryllan word ardth, meaning old, that the Trylla had always called them that. Even the Earthmen accepted the term.
Hot was the car, like some monstrous bubble of fiery air. The light, yellow and brilliant and blinding, came seeping in through cracks in the jointures of the door.
The metal of the car was turning red, deepening to a cherry rose, fading to a cold blue, dawning to a pale white....
In the Auditorium of Ancestors, Space Commander Mason sat languidly on the highbacked ivory throne under an arched canopy. Sprayed fanwise before him were gorgeously uniformed ardth officers, stiff-backed as they faced the girl with black hair and black eyes.
Fifteen feet from the throne, Katha stood with head flung back, smiling at Commander Mason. "Your men are efficient, Space Commander," she said. "They found me on the street."
"There is no one as lovely as Katha among the ardth," smiled Mason. "There is no one as treacherous, either."
"I fled to Tyr because I felt him to be of help to us. He is—and will be a help. He has gone now to destroy the Glow."
Mason was out of his seat in one tremendous explosion of speed. His hands caught her arms.
"Destroy the Glow? Are you mad? Is he? Nothing can destroy the Glow! What secret does he know?"