She turned her back upon him and led the way out of the chamber by her own mysterious radiance. He could draw his flame lance now, Nathan thought. But it was only a thought. He wondered if he could ever seek vengeance upon such beauty regardless of what she had done in the past.
There was a temptation almost stronger than vengeance now, a temptation to see this whole affair all the way through—to find out the true identity of the fabled Firebird and the secret of the Seven Jewels of Chamar.
For a time they walked towards the blocked entrance, then they turned abruptly aside into a narrow passage. The slim Firebird passed through easily but for Nathan it was a tight squeeze that grew narrower as he went.
A strangling sense of claustrophobia seized him. He pressed almost frantically to get past the bottleneck. If this were a trap Firebird could shoot before he could get a hand near a weapon.
Then he saw her waiting for him ahead in the larger chamber to which the narrow passage led. She seemed to read his thoughts.
"Do you trust me now?"
"Does anyone really trust the Firebird—anyone on the nine worlds?"
The sudden sobering of her face was a terrible thing to see. She turned away so hastily that Nathan barely saw the expression, but he saw enough to know that there was weakness in her. She was not all iron strength. He saw enough to know that the incredible, storied Firebird had no friend in all the System and he knew what that fact meant to her.
IV