Rudra looked interested. Nuala went on, "Before you smashed Flormaseron, my parents and the Nekkalad scientists imprisoned me in your own crystal crypt. They fed me energy ... and the thought-waves of all living things. I know of you, Rudra, of your plans...."
The dark man laughed. "By my beginning! I am knowing the first interest I've had in a thousand million centuries. You've set yourself up against—me? Against the eternal one? The Werwile?"
Nuala moved her white fingers in a queer pattern. They seemed to blur before Travis's eyes, become faint and shadowy. Her hand disappeared. Rudra moved suddenly, swore by a long-forgotten god. He said abruptly, "You'd pull my heart into a different space-time, would you? Leave me locked forever in some blackness?"
His own hands moved, but Nuala was quicker. Her body swayed, twisted in odd manner. She disappeared. Rudra cried out. He brought his hand back to view again. There were teethmarks and blood on it. Nuala formed, laughed softly beside Travis; blood on her ruby mouth.
"Am I a fit opponent, Rudra—not-long-to-be-eternal?"
Rudra nursed his bitten hand in the black cloak. His black eyes glittered dangerously above the beaked nose, the ruddy mouth. Travis thought he looked like a cornered Saturnian vampire at that moment.
Rudra laughed. It was, surprisingly, a pleasant laugh. He bowed, and there was no mockery in it.
"You are a worthy opponent, Nuala. None that I know of could have done that to me—but you. You say you know my plans? Good! You know my thoughts, my sciences? Good again. Two equal opponents—you with that creature beside you to aid you, me with my kovokodans. Let us see who will turn the tide....
"I had the Lord Railan and others ease your way to me. I was—curious. Now I am glad. I will enjoy our duel, Nuala. Good—hunting!"
He was gone.