He came to the edge and looked one last time at the face of Firebird, the once beautiful Firebird. Then slowly, she dropped from his arms into the pool.
He stepped back and watched. For an instant it seemed as if she lay in the surface, half-submerged and unmoving. Then slow fingers of waves rose about her and dragged her beneath.
Abruptly she was gone. It was as if she had disappeared into the surface of a mirror. The depths of the liquid were invisible. The unmoving surface reflected only the white-hot light of the pool into Nathan's eyes.
Firebird was gone. And with her disappearance there came to Nathan the conviction that there had been nothing evil in her. She had moved because she was driven by some wild and secret purpose that would not give her rest. A purpose bound up in the Seven Jewels of Chamar. And Nathan knew that somehow he would find the secret of the Jewels that had driven his own father to death.
He suddenly turned and ran back towards the ship. He wanted to get away as quickly as possible from this unreal world of Luline. It was a place that breathed the presence of strange and alien ghosts. He would come back, though—he would return to solve the mystery of Firebird after he had been to Mars and obtained the remainder of the Jewels.
The Corsair rose slowly from Luline. He let the great ship circle once about the mass of rock, then turned into space towards Mars. He focused his viewing screen and glanced back at the tiny rock. The pool reflected the sun's rays like a great heliograph. Even at this distance it was too bright to gaze at for long.
His only goal now was possession of all of the Seven Jewels. Firebird had not shown him her two, but he knew they were somewhere within the ship. The vision of the glorious depths of the two in his own possession constantly floated before him as he let his thoughts drift back to them. He understood now the spell to which his father had succumbed.
He reached to turn the viewing screen off, but glanced for one last time at the asteroid. Suddenly the light reflected from the pool flickered and wavered. It was as if some hand were holding a giant mirror and shifting it back and forth—flashing some mysterious message across the depths of space, he thought. No doubt it was due to some peculiarity of refraction caused by the remnant of air that seemed to lie with the cup of the depression.
He turned to the charts and concentrated on the course. He checked the position of Mars now and what it would be at his estimated time of arrival. He put the figures into the computer.