The sled hissed over the sands, rocked between the high dunes and challenged the desert winds. And there was exultation in that challenge.
He spoke at last. "Where are you going, now? Is this the end of Firebird?"
She shook her head and smiled wanly at him. "There'll never be an end to the Firebird. By the time I am dead the legends will be so fabulous that they will never die. I'll make the name of Firebird a name to be feared among thieves and murderers in the high and low place of society. I'll fight the cause of justice in the realms where the law can never reach. Firebird will be the name to scourge evil on the spaceways.
"And what of you, Nathan? Your father's murder is avenged. Will you return to Venus?"
She was trying to smile, but Nathan turned and saw the smile waver on her lips, and his heart beat harder because he thought he knew why it wavered.
There was in her mind the vision of endless centuries with no one to share her secret, no one to love—except the cold Jewel Being from Plar.
Nathan touched her hand. "I suppose I'll go back to Venus now and then. But there's somewhere else I must go first."
"Where?"
"To the Pool of Luline. Do you think I'm going to let you live the rest of that thousand years alone?"