The Return of Sathanas | Page 7

will in these old places. I activated one of the penetray view rays and
took a look at the shining city on the surface not far away. A one man
flyer of an antique make rose from the city and came toward us. I
augmented the passengers' mind, saw that his name was Tyr, that he
was of the Aesir, as the people of the city evidently called themselves.
He had seen our ship and was coming to investigate. He seemed excited,
as though something about our appearance had revealed to him that we
were the uncommon "visitors from the stars" mentioned in the legends
and folk-tales of his people.
"Arl," I called to my lovely lady who was busy satisfying her curiosity
about some of the old mechanisms at the far wall of this big room. "Arl,
come here and watch this flier--he seems to be heading this way!"
With the quick, cat-like change of interest of women, Arl pranced gaily
over to where I sat at the controls of the tele-thought augmentor. With a
pleased little laugh, she wagged that ever-charming tail of hers and
took her place beside me.
As we sat at the screen watching the approaching flier, we could see his
mind was a maelstrom of conflicting sentiments--I couldn't repress my
laughter at the fear I saw there. But there are times when Arl saves me
from unrequired cruelty, and when I laughed, she chided me.
"Oh Mion, don't laugh at that poor little man! Remember, it has been
almost twenty centuries since they have had a visit from any of the
Elder Races."
"Lovely Arl," I agreed, "I had forgotten. I should have remembered that

fear goes with sun-infection."
"He is a brave man, Mion," Arl pointed out. "He is afraid, yet his will
to investigate makes him overcome his fear. If he is representative of
mankind...
I nodded, knowing what Arl meant. As long as there are brave men on
Earth who can conquer their fear and dread with their own wills, there
is hope that mankind can, in time, defeat the "de" curse of the Sun.
"Look, Mion, he's dropping down the shaft as though he has done it
many times before."
It was true. The pilot of the little flier expertly dropped down the shaft
and came to rest beside the Darkome's tender. There was a moment of
indecision--Arl and I knew from reading his mind that it was all he
could do to restrain a wild, nearly uncontrollable impulse to flee. He
took heart, however, stepped from his machine, and came toward us.
He was large for the race of Earthmen, being about twelve feet high.
Finally, eyes bulging, he stood in awe before us where we sat at the
ancient mech.
I greeted him by name: "Ho, Tyr, what brings you to us who are
strangers to you?"
At that he flung himself prostrate before us. Our lack of enmity loosed
his tongue and he protested: "Of course you know me, O Gods from the
Stars. I have heard the old men speak of your kind, and have read
something of you in the ancient writings, but many of us no longer
believe in the greater Gods. Of course, you understand all mysteries,
and you have read my thoughts over the ancient mechanisms I see you
toying with. I am of the Aesir race, and that is our city you see in the
distance. I am one of the few who understand the great significance of
your coming here. Odin, our all-father, in his palace invites your
presence. We have great need of your wisdom, Mighty Ones."
I finally assented to Tyr's importuning and the invitation of Odin

himself over the great ray called Odin's Eye, and we entered the tender
and took off for the palace of Gladsheim [*8] dominating the shining,
gilded-roofed city of Asgard in the distance.
We spiralled down toward the great courtyard of the palace, reading a
dozen minds on my telaug on the way down.
It is habitual for a Nor to be careful. There was nothing but curiosity
and awe in their minds; this was no trap, I knew. As I landed the ship,
several brawny, armored warriors came up to us. Axes were slung on
their belts beside the antique dis-ray pistols, pistols of a type that the
science of the high gods has not surpassed to this day. They spoke the
ancient universal tongue called Mantong, but time had so changed the
pronunciation that it was difficult to understand it at once. We used
small portable telaugs to tell what was in the minds about us anyway.
We easily carried them in our hands. But Arl and I soon began fully to
understand the speech, for the basic sounds were all the