He ducked into the cabin, settled into the control seat and stared at the panel before him.
"Damn!" he announced, his hand starting forward and twitching back.
The other Rakasha appeared suddenly, passing through the metal wall of the ship and hovering above the console.
"The gods move rapidly," he announced. "Particularly Agni."
Sam snapped a series of switches and pressed a button. Lights came on all over the instrument panel and a humming sound began within it.
"How far is he?" asked Taraka.
"Almost halfway down. He widened the trail with his flames. He runs upon it now, as if it were a roadway. He burn obstacles. He makes a clear path."
Sam drew back on a lever and adjusted a dial, reading the indicators before him. A shudder ran through the ship.
"Are you ready?" asked Taraka.
"I can't take off cold. It has to warm up. Also, this instrument board is trickier than I'd thought."
"We run a close race."
"Yes."
From the distance, there came the sounds of several explosions rising above the growing growl of the chariot. Sam pulled the lever forward another notch, readjusted the dial.
"I go to slow them," said the Rakasha, and vanished as he had come.
Sam drew the lever two notches farther, and somewhere something sputtered and died. The ship stood silent once more.
He pushed the lever back into its former position, spun the dial, pushed the button again.
And again a shudder ran through the chariot, and somewhere a purring began. Sam drew the lever one notch forward, adjusted the dial.
After a moment, he repeated it, and the purr became a soft growl
"Gone," said Taraka. "Dead."
"Who? What?"
"The one who went to stop the Lord of Flames. He failed."
There were more explosions.
"Hellwell is being destroyed," said Taraka.
Perspiration upon his brow, Sam waited with his hand on the lever.
"He comes now—Agni!"
Sam looked through the long, slanted shield plate.
The Lord of Flames came into the valley.
"Good-bye, Siddhartha."
"Not yet," said Sam.
Agni looked at the chariot, raised his wand.
Nothing happened.
He stood, pointing the wand; and then he lowered it, shook it.
He raised it once more.
Again, no flame issued forth.
He reached behind his neck with his left hand, performed some adjustment upon his pack. As he did this, light streamed from the wand, burning a huge pit in the ground at his side.
He pointed the wand again.
Nothing.
Then he began running toward the ship.
"Electrodirection?" asked Taraka.
"Yes."
Sam drew back upon the lever, adjusted the dial farther. A huge roaring grew about him. He pressed another button and there came a crackling sound from the rear of the vessel. He moved another dial as Agni reached the hatch.
There was a flash of flame and a metallic clanging.
He rose from his seat and moved out of the cabin and into the corridor.
Agni had entered, and he pointed the wand.
"Do not move—Sam! Demon!" he cried, above the roar of the engines; and as he spoke, his lenses clicked red and he smiled. "Demon," he stated. "Do not move, or you and your host will burn together!"
Sam sprang upon him. Agni fell easily when he struck, for he had not believed that the other would reach him.
"Short circuit, eh?" said Sam, and hit him across the throat.
"Or sunspots?" and he struck him in the temple.
Agni fell to his side, and Sam hit him a final blow with the edge of his hand, just above the collarbone.
He kicked the wand the length of the corridor, and as he moved to close the hatch he knew that it was too late.
"Go now, Taraka," he said. "This is my fight from here on. You can do nothing more."
"I promised my assistance."
"You have none to give, now. Get out while still you can."
"If such is your will. But I have a final thing to say to you — "
"Save it! Next time I'm in the neighborhood—"
"Binder, it is this thing I learned of you—I am sorry. I - "
There was a terrible twisting, wrenching sensation within his body and mind, as the death-gaze of Yama fell upon him and struck deeper than his own being.
Kali, too, looked into his eyes; and as she did so, she raised her screaming scepter.
It was as the lifting of one shadow and the falling of another.
"Good-bye, Binder," came the words within his mind.
Then the skull began its screaming.
He felt himself falling.
There was a throbbing.
It was within his head. It was all about him.
He was awakened by throbbing, and he felt himself covered with aches, as with bandages.
There were chains upon his wrists and his ankles.
He was half seated on the floor of a small compartment. Beside the doorway sat the One in Red, smoking.
Yama nodded, said nothing.
"Why am I alive?" Sam asked him.
"You live for purposes of keeping an appointment made many years ago in Mahartha," said Yama. "Brahma is particularly anxious to see you once again."
"But I am not especially anxious to see Brahma."
"Over the years, that has become somewhat apparent."
"I see you got out of the mud all right."
The other smiled. "You are a nasty man," he said.
"I know. I practice."
"I gather your business deal fell through?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Perhaps you can try recouping your losses. We're halfway to Heaven."
"Think I'd have a chance?"
"You just might. Times change. Brahma could be a merciful god this week."
"My occupational therapist told me to specialize in lost causes."
Yama shrugged.
"What of the demon?" Sam asked. "The one who was with me?"
"I touched it," said Yama, "hard. I don't know whether I finished it or just drove it away. But you needn't worry about it again. I doused you with demon repellant. If the creature still lives, it will be a long time before it recovers from our contact. Maybe never. How did it happen in the first place? I thought you were the one man immune to demonic possession."
"So did I. What's demon repellant?"
"I found a chemical agent, harmless to us, which none of the energy beings can stand."
"Handy item. Could've used it in the days of the binding."
"Yes. We wore it into Hellwell."
"That was quite a battle, from what I saw of it."
"Yes," said Yama. "What is it like—demonic possession? What does it feel like to have another will overriding your own?"
"It is strange," said Sam, "and frightening, and rather educating at the same time."
"In what ways?"
"It was their world first," said Sam. "We took it away from them. Why shouldn't they be everything we hate them for being? To them, we are the demons."
"But what does it feel like?"
"To have one's will overridden by that of another?
You should know."
Yama's smile vanished, then returned. "You would like me to strike you, wouldn't you, Buddha? It would make you feel superior. Unfortunately, I'm a sadist and will not do it."
Sam laughed.
"Touché, Death," he said.
They sat in silence for a time.
"Can you spare me a cigarette?"
Yama passed him one, lit it.
"What's First Base like these days?"
"You'll hardly recognize the place," said Yama. "If everyone in it were to die at this moment, it would still be perfect ten thousand years from now. The flowers would still bloom and the music would play and the fountains would ripple the length of the spectrum. Warm meals would still be laid within the garden pavilions. The City itself is immortal."