om the picture which followed.

"Did the turbi blossom fade when pulled out?" countered Lur. "There is a
secret to these fastenings--" He pulled and pried impatiently.

Varta tried to help but even their united strength was useless against
the force which held the loops in place. Breathless the girl slumped
back against the wall of the cabin while Lur settled down on his
haunches. One of the odd patches of color drifted by, its vivid scarlet
like a jewel spiraling lazily upward. Varta's eyes followed its drift
and so were guided to what she had forgotten, the worlds of Asti.

"Asti!"

Lur was looking up too.

"The power of Asti!"

Varta's hand went up, rested for a long moment under the sun and then
drew it down, carefully, slowly, as she had in Memphir's temple. Then
she stepped towards the captive. Within her hood a beaded line of
moisture outlined her lips, a pulse thundered on her temple. This was a
fearsome thing to try.

She held the sun on a line with one of the wrist bonds, She must avoid
the flesh it imprisoned, for Asti's power could kill.

From the sun there shot an orange-red beam to strike full upon the
metal. A thin line of red crept across the smooth hoop, crept and
widened. Varta raised her hand, sending the sun spinning up and Lur's
claws pulled on the metal. It broke like rotten wood in his grasp.

The girl gave a little gasp of half-terrified delight. Then the old
legends were true! As Asti's priestess she controlled powers too great
to guess. Swiftly she loosed the other hoops and restored the sun and
worlds to their place over her head as the captive slumped across the
threshold of his cell.

Tugging and straining they brought him out of the broken ship into the
sunlight of Erb. Varta threw back her hood and breathed deeply of the
air which was not manufactured by the wizardry of the lizard skin and
Lur sat panting, his nostril flaps open. It was he who spied the spring
on the mountain side above, a spring of water uncontaminated by the
strange life of the lake. They both dragged themselves there to drink
deeply.

Varta returned to the lake shore reluctantly. Within her heart she
believed that the man they had brought from the ship was truly dead. Lur
might hold out the promise of the flowers, but this was a man and he had
lain in the water for countless ages--

So she went with lagging steps, to find Lur busy. He had solved the
mystery of the space suit and had stripped it from the u