Only a strong effort of will kept Larkin from shaking. "Sire—"
Malovar rose. He lingered in the doorway. "I have come to regard you as a friend, the only human I have ever known whom I was willing to call by that name. I should regret very much losing my human friend."
"Sire—"
"But my regret will not stay my hand at the time of the testing!"
His lone elder following him, Malovar was gone into the Martian night.
III
Malovar left behind him an exceedingly perturbed human. Larkin knew the ruler well enough to know that Malovar meant what he said. His hand would not be stayed at the time of the testing. And that time might be any time when the temple bells sounded a summons to the vast, almost-ruined amphitheater which was used for the tests. Again a chill passed through Larkin. He had been through the testing before, many times, but there had never been any doubt in his mind that he would win through it. Now there was doubt.
He had seen what happened to those who failed. In him the chill grew to a shudder. These Martians had the damnedest customs.
Faced with this choice, there could be only one answer.
Docker and his cut-throat crew could really go to hell. Better defy Docker than Malovar. There was no way in which the humans could enforce their demands on him.