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into him. "A spell
in truth," he says. His tone gathers force. "I will not abide in its darkness, nor suffer it to blind and deafen
you, my lady." His gaze'takes hold of hers, which cannot break away. "There is but a single road to our
freedom. It goes through the gates of death."
She waits, mute and shuddering.
"Whatever we do, we must die, Ricia. Let us fare hence as our own folk."
"1--no-I won't-1 will-"
"You see before you the means of your deliverance. It is sharp, 1 am strong, you will feel no pain."
She bares her bosom. "Then quickly, Kendrick, before I am lost!"
He drives the weapon home. "I love you," he says. She sinks at his feet. "I follow you, my darling," he
says, withdrawing the steel, bracing the shaft against stone, and lunging forward. He falls beside her.
"Now we are free."
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"That was . . . a nightmare." Broberg sounded barely awake.
Scobie's voice shook. "Necessary, I think, for both of us." He gazed straight before him, letting
Saturn fill his eyes with dazzle. "Else we'd have stayed . . . insane? Maybe not, by definition. But we'd not
have been in reality either."
"It would have been easier," she mumbled. "We'd never have known we were dying."
"Would you have preferred that?"
Broberg shivered. The slackness in her countenance gave place to the same tension that was in his.
"Oh, no," she said, quite softly but in the manner of full consciousness. "No, you were right, of course.
Thank you for your courage."
"You've always had as much guts as anybody, Jean. You must have more imagination than me."
Scobie's hand chopped empty space in a gesture of dismissal. "Okay, we should call poor Mark and let
him know. But first-" His words lost the cadence he had laid on them. "First-"
Her glove clasped his. "What, Colin?"
"Let's decide about that third unit-Luis's," he said with difficulty, still confronting the great ringed
planet. "Your decision, actually, though we can discuss the matter if you want. I will not hog it for the
sake of a few more hours. Nor will I share it; that would be a nasty way for us both to go out. However,
I suggest you use it."
"To sit beside your frozen corpse?" she replied. "No. I wouldn't even feel the warmth, not in my
bones-"
She turned toward him so fast that she nearly fell off the pinnacle. He caught her. "Warmth!" she
screamed, shrill as the cry of a hawk on the wing. "Colin, we'll take our bones home!"
"In point of fact," said Danzig. "I've climbed onto the hull. That's high enough for me to see over those
ridges and needles. I've got a view of the entire horizon."
"Good," grunted Scobie. "Be prepared to survey a complete circle quick. This depends on a lot of
factors we can't predict. The beacon will certainly not be anything like as big as what you had arranged.
It may be thin and short-lived. And, of course, it may rise too low for sighting at your distance." He
cleared his throat. "In that case, we two have bought the farm. But we'll have made a hell of a try, which
feels great by itself."
He hefted the fuel cell, Garcilaso's gift. A piece of heavy wire, insulation stripped off, joined the
prongs. Without a regulator, the unit poured its maximum power through the short circuit. Already the
strand glowed.
"Are you sure you don't want me to do it, Colin?" Broberg asked. "Your rib-"
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He made a lopsided grin. "I'm nonetheless better designed by nature for throwing things," he said.
"Allow me that much male arrogance. The bright idea was yours."
"It should have been obvious from the first," she said. "I think it would have been, if we weren't
bewildered in our dream."
"M-m, often the simple answers are the hardest to find. Besides, we had to get this far or it wouldn't
have worked, and the game helped mightily .... Are you set, Mark? Heave-ho!"
Scobie cast the cell as if it were a baseball, hard and far through the Iapetan gravity field. Spinning, its
incandescent wire wove a sorcerous web across vision. It landed somewhere beyond the rim, on the
glacier's back.
Frozen gases vaporized, whirled aloft, briefly recondensed before they were lost. A geyser stood
white against the stars.
"I see you!" Danzig yelped. "I see your beacon, I've got my bearing, I'll be on my way! With rope
and extra energy units and everything!"
Scobie sagged to the ground and clutched at his left side. Broberg knelt and held him, as if either of
them could hand on his-pain. No large matter. He would not hurt much longer.
"How high would you guess the plume goes?" Danzig inquired, calmer.
"About a hundred meters," Broberg replied after study.
"Oh, damn, these gloves do make it awkward punching the calculator .... Well, to judge by what I
observe of it, I'm between ten and fifteen klicks oft. Give me an hour or a tad more to get there and find
your exact location. Okay?"
Broberg checked gauges. "Yes, by a hair. We'll turn our thermostats down and sit very quietly to
reduce oxygen demand. We'll get cold, but we'll survive."
"I may be quicker," Danzig said. "That was a worst-case estimate. All right, I'm o8'. No more
conversation till we meet. I won't take any foolish chances, but I will need my wind for making speed."
Faintly, those who waited heard him breathe, heard his hastening footfalls. The geyser died.
They sat, arms around waists, and regarded the glory which encompassed them. After a silence, the
man said, "Well, I suppose this means the end of the game. For everybody."
"It must certainly be brought under strict control," the woman answered. "I wonder, though, if they
will abandon it altogether-out here."
"If they must, they can."
"Yes. We did, you and I, didn't we?"
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