She repeated the question, naively unaware of its importance, staring at him with a bland curiosity. He gazed back blankly, wondering at that tremendous secret which she instinctively hid from purple lights.
He whispered, "World Rim, you do not know where I have been?"
She laughed. "Should I know?"
"No! No! You couldn't know. And you couldn't believe. I have been—"
And he stopped, faint with his knowledge of what she was and what she must be thinking deep in her mind. He must be cunning, strong, treacherous, too! He quivered with effort, laughed in the strange way that was possible for him.
"I have been," he chided, "ten billion light years away. I discovered fourteen million new comets and tied their beards together!"
She was piqued. "You must have been to a very interesting place," she decided. Tentatively: "Shall we go there together, Devil Star? I am tired of playing with those silly energy children. They're stupid."
Said Devil Star, magnanimously, "We shall go together! Now, or later?"
"Now!"
Devil Star frowned. "We'd better not," he said cautiously. "Not right away. Better make sure none of the others are around to see us. Come, World Rim!" And he shot into instant motion, gaining two light years on her before she knew what was happening. She surged into frantic motion after him, bewildered, panicky with incomprehension of his actions or thoughts.