d
with strange and wonderful images. The stone shimmered and changed,
taking the form of dancing clouds of light, swirling with the music as
it rose. Frankle felt his mind groping toward the music, trying
desperately to reach into the heart of it, to become part of it.

Ravdin and Dana stood there, trancelike, staring transfixed at the
gleaming center of light, forcing their joined minds to create the
crashing, majestic chords as the song lifted from the depths of oblivion
to the heights of glory in the old, old song of their people.

A song of majesty, and strength, and dignity. A song of love, of
aspiration, a song of achievement. A song of peoples driven by ancient
fears across the eons of space, seeking only peace, even peace with
those who drove them.

Frankle heard the music, and could not comprehend, for his mind could
not grasp the meaning, the true overtones of those glorious chords, but
he felt the strangeness in the pangs of fear which groped through his
mind, cringing from the wonderful strains, dazzled by the dancing light.
He stared wide-eyed and trembling at the couple across the room, and for
an instant it seemed that he was stripped naked. For a fleeting moment
the authority was gone from his face; gone too was the cruelty, the
avarice, the sardonic mockery. For the briefest moment his cold gray
eyes grew incredibly tender with a sudden ancient, long-forgotten
longing, crying at last to be heard.

And then, with a scream of rage he was stumbling into the midst of the
light, lashing out wildly at the heart of its shimmering brilliance. His
huge hand caught the hypnotic stone and swept it into crashing,
ear-splitting cacophony against the cold steel bulkhead. He stood rigid,
his whole body shaking, eyes blazing with fear and anger and hatred as
he turned on Ravdin and Dana. His voice was a raging storm of bitterness
drowning out the dying strains of the music.

"Spies! You thought you could steal my mind away, make me forget my duty
and listen to your rotten, poisonous noise! Well, you failed, do you
hear? I didn't hear it, I didn't listen, _I didn't_! I'll hunt you down
as my fathers hunted you down, I'll bring my people their vengeance and
glory, and your foul music will be dead!"

He turned to the guards, wildly, his hands still trembling. "Take them
out! Whip them, burn them, do anything! But find out where their people
have gone. Find out! Music! We'll take the music out of them, once and
for