After a moment she looked about and spoke, her voice unsteady. "We'll have to get down. The hotel is on fire."
Nathan followed the direction of her glance. The open door of the penthouse sent smoke billowing outward.
"We'll never get down through the interior," said Nathan. He glanced at the adjacent building. It was one story lower and ten feet away.
Firebird saw his glance and shook her head. "We can't get over that way. He'd shoot us the instant we tried it. We'll have to go inside."
"But it's impossible."
Firebird smiled. "After you've been to the pool of Luline, many things are possible. Here—"
She unclasped the cloak from her throat and threw it about Nathan. "Protect your head and wrap it around you as much as possible. It won't burn."
Before he could protest, she wriggled away over the surface of the roof, keeping low out of the fire of their assailant. She plunged through the penthouse door into the inferno.
The smoke and flame billowed about her, licking at her slender, unprotected body. Nathan tried to catch her, but the blinding vapors made him stumble and fall clumsily. He wanted to throw the cloak about her again, but he was forced to gather it about him in order to make any headway at all.
Miraculously, Firebird seemed unharmed by the flames. On the second floor Nathan made out her figure hurrying far ahead of him. Her clothing was smouldering but her bare arms and legs seemed to glow with that same inner light that he had seen back in the cave on Venus.