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them were oddly alike in many ways; and both had felt those likenesses, as
though they might have been close friends if they had not been predestined
foes.
So now, he noted the changes in the other man since their last meeting between
the two walls of the tunnel opened in the phase-shield to let them meet. For
either to have touched the milky whiteness of these walls, then, would have
meant being drawn into it and destroyed, the touching body spread out evenly
through the physical universe.
The impression of strength and burliness Hal had noticed for the first time
then had developed even further in Bleys-even while in appearance Bleys'
height and slimness were still the same. He had been almost elegant in that
slimness, when Hal had first seen him, at the killing of Hal's tutors. He
could not be called "elegant" now.
Instead, a force that was invisible, but very powerful, now radiated from him.
It was strong enough that Hal could almost feel it, like the heat from the
fire; and it challenged by its mere existence, challenged and attempted to
dominate all those about Bleys.
For a long moment Hal was baffled at how such a thing could grow in the man he
faced-and then he realized. Each time before that Hal had met Bleys, it had
been obvious that the Other possessed great personal power. But the difference
now was that he had taken a step further, the ultimate step. He no longer
possessed nor controlled power. He was power.
Now most of the people of ten Younger Worlds looked and listened to him as if
he was, in some way, superhuman. They did not merely obey his commands
willingly. They rushed to follow the voice that would send them to die, if
necessary, to destroy a Mother World they now believed had never given up an
ancient desire to conquer and enslave them-an Old Earth, backed by the black
magic of the Final Encyclopedia and ruled by the evil will of an arch-demon
named Hal Mayne.
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Hal reached for some compensating power within himself, but did not find it.
He was not daunted by the strength now in Bleys, and he did not doubt that his
mind, his will and imagination, was as strong as the Other's. But he could not
feel a similar counterforce in himself. If it was there at all, it was as
something entirely different, for all that he stood as Bleys'
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Gordon R. Dickson
opposite number, the equal and countering chess piece on the board of History.
At the same time he was grateful that he had not met with Bleys, robed in
power and certainty as he was, a couple of months ago when he, Hal, had been
at his lowest ebb in the Final Encyclopedia. Or even, that they had not had
this meeting before this morning's sudden explosion of understanding in Hal;
the revelation that had come as the sun had risen above the mountains and the
dewdrop burst into its explosion of light.
As it was, now he looked at Bleys from the viewpoint of eternity and found
that which the other possessed to be infinitely small and transitory in that
context. "What brings you?" Hal asked. "You can't really be expecting any
change of attitude on my part?" "Perhaps not." Warmth now flowed from Bleys
instead of the push of personal power. He could charm, and he knew it; even
though everyone in the office at the moment knew that all but a fraction of
his abilities in that respect were composed of hypnotic and other techniques
developed by those same Exotics Bleys was now trying to destroy. "Perhaps
not," he said again, "but I've always believed you'd listen to reason; and I
have an offer, one you might want to consider. " "Offer?" "Yes. Let me
establish a little background first. One of your tutors, who I most wrongly
and mistakenly allowed to be killed-you'll never have forgiven me for that-"
Hal shook his head. "No," he said, "it's not a matter for forgiveness. I can
see now why it happened. At the time though, their murder triggered off the
way I'd felt about another, earlier death. So I wanted to destroy you, then;
as I'd wanted to destroy whoever was responsible, in that earlier time. It
wasn't until I had to live through that sort of loss a second time, with you,
that I started to understand retaliation's not the answer. No, forgiveness is
beside the point, now. Which changes nothing as far as you and I are
concerned."
al had seen Bleys' eyes narrow ever so slightly at the mention of an earlier
grief; and felt a touch of annoyance at possibly having betrayed himself to
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