{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_65394/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_65394","id":"gutenberg_65394","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65394","summary":null,"tags":["Adventure stories","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Novels","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Mythology -- Fiction","Science fiction","Time travel -- Fiction"],"text":"Battle Out Of Time\n\n                          By Dwight V. Swain\n\n               Burke knew of the ancient Bronze Age and\n            its legend of the dread Minotaur. But he didn't\n            know he was about to become a vital part of it!\n\n           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from\n              Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy\n                              August 1957\n         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that\n         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]\n\n\nAn utter dark lay upon the hills outside the palace now, moonless and\nwith clouds drawn heavy all across the Cretan sky.\n\nWind, too, had come with the night, rising till Burke found himself\nfearing for the shutters. The lamps flared on their stands with each\nnew gust and draft. Light flickered orange and yellow on Ariadne's\nlovely face, eddying through the shadows so that the tentacles of the\nfrescoed octopi on the walls seemed to writhe and twist and turn....\n\nBurke laughed without mirth. It was that mad a moment.\n\nAnd that dangerous.\n\nFor while he might find temporary cover here with Ariadne, in these\nprivate quarters beyond the Queen's Megaron, death yet bayed at his\nheels.\n\nAlready, bearded King Minos himself no doubt paced some other palace\nhall--thirsting for Burke blood; raging in jealous fury that any\noutlander should dare aspire to his lovely daughter.\n\nThat slavering Greek lecher, Theseus, too--it was lucky he lay dead\ndrunk there in the corner. Sober, and confronted with a rival, he'd\nkill just to salve his wounded ego.\n\nAnd then, as if that were not enough of peril, there was ... the other.\n\nInvoluntarily, Burke shuddered.\n\nWhat chance did a mere human have, pitted against the dark craft of the\nalien? Where could he hope to find the strength and skill and insight\nto win over the strange horror from beyond the void?\n\nYet with Ariadne's life at stake, Earth's whole future in the balance,\nhow could he turn back?\n\nNo; he had no choice but to press on; seek out and challenge the might\nof that nightmare monster men called the Minotaur.\n\nHe couldn't help find it surprising, though, that in the face of such\nhe still had it in him to notice the play of light on decorative\nmotifs. Truly, the strange twist of mind that seemed to pervade this\nweird Mediterranean realm had claimed him for its own!\n\nBut to dare the Labyrinth, the Minotaur....\n\nAlmost without thinking, Burke rested a hand on the worn Smith & Wesson\nin his belt; then, bleakly, laughed again.\n\nAriadne moved uneasily beside him. Her words came halting and\nuncertain: \"You--you are amused, my lord Dionysus...?\"\n\nIrritation boiled up in Burke--quick anger that he should have let\nhimself forget even for a moment the desperate urgency of his task.\nHow could he play the fool so--here, now, at a time when every breath,\nevery second, brought inevitable disaster closer?\n\nIt added up to tension that had to find an outlet. Savagely, he lashed\nout at Ariadne: \"For the hundredth time, girl: I'm not Dionysus, not a\ngod. I'm Dion Burke, that's all. A man, like any other--\"\n\nHurt came to the great dark eyes. A tear-mist veil blurred the glow of\nawe and adoration. The soft lips quivered.\n\nBut only for a moment. Then, contritely, the girl bowed her head.\nJet ringlets glistened in the lamplight. Bringing up slim hands, she\ncrossed them upon the firm young breasts that she wore bared in the\ntraditional Minoan style. \"Your pardon, my lord....\"\n\nBurke breathed in sharply. As swiftly as it had come, his anger died.\nOf a sudden he wanted nothing so much as to take the girl in his\narms and draw her to him ... solace her, soothe her, hold her with a\nthousand tender caresses through the endless hours of this long, black\nnight.\n\nWhy was it always so between him and Ariadne? What was there about\nthis slim Minoan princess that the very sight of her should make his\nfirmest resolves melt? The women he'd known in his own world--they'd\nbeen wiser, wittier; more beautiful, even, perhaps, by an objective\nstandard. Yet not even the one who'd hurt him most and helped to\nprecipitate him onto this fool's mission had stirred him a tenth as\nmuch as Ariadne.\n\nWith a curse, he reached out, pulled her to him.\n\nShe came willingly, nestling against him, her lithe body soft and warm.\n\nFor a long moment, Burke held her close.\n\nOnly then, over in the corner, brawny, bull-necked Theseus stirred and\nshifted. A noisy, wine-sodden snore broke from his open mouth.\n\nBurke stiffened.\n\nLike an echo, Ariadne's lovely oval face lifted from his shoulder. \"My\nlord! You do not still feel anger--?\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBurke shook his head. \"Forget it, princess. It's just I'm all on edge.\nThere's not much time--\"\n\nHe broke off; brought up his wrist and strained to read the watch-face.\n\nAnd that was good for another wry, twisted shadow of smile: a watch,\nhere in Bronze Age Crete ... product of the United States of America,\nvintage 1954 A. D., wrenched 5,000 miles and 3300 years out of its\nplace and time. An anachronism to end all anachronisms.\n\nOr no, that wasn't quite true.\n\nFor surely he himself was a greater anachronism than the watch, even.\n\nThe bare facts alone would drive an obituary writer crazy: \"Dion Burke,\narchaeologist extraordinary without portfolio; born, Erie, Pa., August\n9, 1929; disappeared April 14, 1957; died at Knossos, in the Great\nPalace of Minos, mightiest sea-king of Crete, on some vague, early\nspring date in the vicinity of 1400 B. C.\"\n\nOnly no obituary writer would ever hear those facts. The watch, the\ngun, the lighter--they'd all have sifted away to rusty dust long before\nSir Arthur Evans and his fellow-scholars came this way.\n\nNot that that mattered. Not now; not while he still had a job to do.\n\nHe moved his wrist closer to the nearest of the flickering lamps, and\nstrained again to read the watch.\n\nAlmost 10:30. Little more than an hour-and-a-half till midnight and the\nmoment of Knossos' doom.\n\nSometime between now and then, he had to meet the Minotaur.\n\nFor a moment he held the slim girl in his arms even closer than before.\nThen, ever so gently, he moved her back away a fraction; lifted her\nsmall, satin-smooth chin. \"Ariadne....\"\n\n\"Yes, my lord?\"\n\n\"There's a thing I must do now, Ariadne. An important thing, for both\nof us.\" A pause. \"I need your help to do it.\"\n\n\"My help--?\" The dark eyes widened. \"My lord knows he has only to\ncommand. What must I do?\"\n\nCarefully, Burke picked his words; strove to hold the tension from his\nvoice: \"Among the people of this palace, there's one called Daedalus.\nYou know him?\"\n\n\"Daedalus the Smith, you mean?\" The jet ringlets danced as the\ngirl laughed. \"Of course I know him. He's chief of all my father's\ncraftsmen. What is it you seek of him?\"\n\nAgain, Burke weighed his words. \"Some talk, that's all. A chance to ask\na few questions.\"\n\n\"Talk--at this hour?\" Ariadne stared.\n\n\"I have no choice,\" Burke shrugged. \"To see him by daylight would be\nas much as my life is worth.\"\n\n\"Oh.\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Time for a smile now, Burke decided. His most engaging smile.\n\"You see, there are things the man knows, things his skill's taught\nhim--\"\n\nAriadne stiffened in the same instant. \"Things Daedalus knows--?\" For\nthe first time, her voice held an edge, dark shadows of suspicion. \"How\ncould a smith know anything that means so much? What might he say that\nmy lord Dion had not already heard a thousand times?\"\n\n\"What--?\" Burke felt his smile go stiff. \"Why--why, many things--his\nskills, his artifices--\" He groped and fumbled.\n\n\"No!\" In a flash all Ariadne's humility of manner vanished. She thrust\nBurke's restraining arm aside, defiance in the gesture. \"Do you think\nme a fool, my lord Dion? Daedalus the Smith holds but one secret that\nsuch as you might seek to learn. One only!\"\n\nBurke stood ever so still.\n\nAriadne spat like a cat. \"You seek the secret of the Labyrinth, my\nlord! You would stalk the Minotaur in his very lair! Waste no breath\ntrying to lull me with denials!\"\n\nBurke sighed. A weary sigh, heavy with the knowledge of all the things\nhe could not change.\n\nAnd, from Ariadne: \"What makes you think you're destined to succeed,\nwhere each year fourteen others fail? How dare you hope to live, when\nthe monster that is the Minotaur has slain the mightiest warriors of\nall Athens?\"\n\nHow, indeed? Of a sudden, Burke wanted no more of such questions.\n\nHe cut in flat and hard: \"Shut up, wench!\"\n\nThe girl stopped as short as if he'd slapped her. Her face paled with\nanger.\n\nOnly then, as she stared up at Burke, that too passed, and a mask of\nsudden fear came to replace the fury. Her naked breasts lifted with a\nquick, indrawn breath. She fell back an uncertain step ... another ...\nanother.... \"My lord--Dionysus--\"\n\nBurke laughed harshly. \"All right. Call me that if you want to.\" And\nthen, tight-lipped: \"Because make up your mind to it, you're going to\ndo what I say as if I were your whole damn' pantheon!\"\n\nHe closed in.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe girl pressed back against the wall now--white to the lips, dark\neyes distended. \"Dion--Dion Burke--\"\n\nBurke gripped her wrist. \"Is it agreed, then? You'll do what I tell\nyou?\"\n\nHis lovely captive winced as he twisted. \"But--my lord--the\nMinotaur--Dion, it will slay you!\"\n\n\"Maybe. And then again, maybe not.\" Burke brushed a hand against the\nrevolver in his waistband. \"You see, I won't be on quite the same\nspot as those others who died, Ariadne. I've reserved a couple of\nspecial Dionysan thunderbolts to try out on your monster, patent of two\nsubsidiary gods named Smith & Wesson.\"\n\n\"But Daedalus--he's my father's man, Lord Dion, chief of all the palace\ncraftsmen. He'd never help you, even if you could reach him.\"\n\n\"I'll reach him. And he'll help me.\"\n\n\"But why, my lord? Why risk it?\" A sudden taut, eager note crept into\nAriadne's voice. With her free hand, she smoothed the fabric of Burke's\nshirt. \"Don't you see? There's no need--not when you've the power to\ncome here as you have tonight, in spite of all my father's guards!\nUnder his very sword, we can be lovers--\"\n\nBurke smiled bleakly. \"I'm sorry, princess. I wish it were that simple.\"\n\n\"But it is!\" Now Ariadne's lithe young body once more was tight against\nhis. \"I want you to come, my lord Dion! I welcome you--\"\n\n\"I know. And ... I love you too.\" For the fraction of a second Burke\nlet his arms tighten around her.\n\nThen, abruptly, he pushed back; gripped her shoulders. \"You see, I\ncan't just come and go at will, the way you seem to think I can. And\neven if I could, it wouldn't help.\"\n\n\"It would not--?\" Blank bafflement spread across Ariadne's lovely face.\n\n\"Not after tonight.\"\n\nPuzzled eyes. A wordless question.\n\nBurke said tightly, \"By tomorrow there won't be any Knossos. The Great\nPalace here, the shrines, the other buildings--as of midnight tonight,\nless than an hour-and-a-half from now, they'll all be destroyed.\"\n\nTension, spiraling higher with each passing second.\n\nBurke said, \"Now you know why I came tonight, Ariadne: because this is\nthe last chance I'll ever have. I've got to get you out of here, now or\nnever. That's why I have to see Daedalus, and go into the Labyrinth,\nand meet the Minotaur and kill it.\"\n\nStill the silence echoed.\n\nA numb despair seeped through Burke. Bleakly, he wondered how he ever\nhad been fool enough to think his words might spark response in a\nBronze Age mind, or that any such mad enterprise as this could possibly\nend otherwise than in disaster.\n\nOnly then, while he watched, once more Ariadne bowed her head and\ncrossed her hands upon her breasts. Her words came low, submissive:\n\"The quarters of Daedalus the Smith lie close at hand, my lord.\"\n\nShe turned as she spoke.\n\nHeart pounding, Burke walked with her towards the doorway....\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\n\nThere was a guard in the corridor beyond the Queen's Megaron.\n\nWordless, Burke flicked a glance at Ariadne.\n\nHer dark eyes flashed a daredevil acceptance of the challenge. Sliding\npast him, she swung the heavy door back so it hid him, then leaned\nagainst it, body arched in practiced coquetry.\n\nThe spearman outside straightened just a fraction. His chest swelled\nand his belly drew in.\n\nSlowly, Ariadne's full lips curved in a smile that was all invitation.\nHer hand came up to smooth her hair as she turned, twisting and\npreening. Then, still unspeaking, and with one last lingering glance\nover her shoulder, she drew back into her own apartment.\n\nThe guard's head swiveled as his eyes followed her.\n\nAriadne laughed softly from the shadows. Her long skirt swirled and\nrustled.\n\nThe guard's breath rasped in the stillness. For an instant he\nhesitated, peering down the hall in both directions. Then, eagerly, he\ncrossed the threshold and moved with swift steps towards the princess.\n\nBurke waited till the man was clear of the door. Then, savagely, the\nSmith & Wesson flat on the palm of his hand, he stepped forth from his\nhiding place and smashed a blow to the back of the other's neck.\n\nThe guard's knees hinged. He spilled to the floor.\n\nBurke snapped, \"Quick! Cords! A gag!\"\n\nThe shrill, nerve-jangling squeal of cloth tearing echoed. Deftly,\nAriadne thrust strips from a drape into his hands.\n\nBurke bound and gagged the guard, then straightened and strode across\nthe room to where bull-necked, snoring Theseus lay, the stench of sour\nwine still thick about him.\n\nAriadne came close. \"More cloth, my lord?\"\n\nBurke prodded the Greek ungently with his toe, without response; then\nonce more glanced at his watch.\n\nTen forty-five now.\n\nAnd that left only an hour-and-a-quarter more, at best.\n\nThe back of Burke's neck prickled. \"Forget it,\" he clipped. \"The Hero\nof Athens is too drunk to turn over, even, let alone give us trouble.\"\n\n\"This way, then,\" the girl said. Her voice all at once was not too\nsteady, and the hand that gripped Burke's showed a tendency to tremble.\n\nTogether, they made their way from the apartment, down the corridor\npast a row of great painted jars and, finally, out onto the long\nascending ramp that led to the palace's central court.\n\nNow Ariadne turned right, keeping to the shadows of the colonnaded\nbuildings past which they moved.\n\nClose behind her, gun in hand, Burke tried to watch all ways at\nonce. Every rattling stone, every wind-tossed branch against the\ncloud-blocked sky, became for him a trigger for new tension. Once, when\nthe shadows behind him flickered, he almost persuaded himself that\nTheseus must be on their heels. Or perhaps, somehow, they'd caught the\nattention of another of old Minos' guards....\n\nAgain Ariadne veered right. A door creaked as she put her shoulder to\nit.\n\nThis corridor was so black Burke had to grip the girl's hand to keep\ncontact with her.\n\nMore doors. More halls. More rooms. The place was like a maze--the very\nLabyrinth itself.\n\nYet not once did Ariadne hesitate. Swift, sure, she led Burke on and on\nthrough one murky chamber after another.\n\nThen, as they rounded a final corner, a block of greyness came to mark\nthe end of a passage. In seconds, they were once more out into the open\nand the night.\n\nAriadne paused and pointed. \"That's the place,\" she whispered.\n\n\"Daedalus' quarters?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\nNarrow-eyed, Burke studied the looming bulk a moment. Then,\ntight-lipped, he strode towards the geometric shadows that marked the\nentrance.\n\nBut now Ariadne caught his arm. \"Please, my lord Dion--let me be the\none to talk to Daedalus.\"\n\n\"Let you--?\" Burke stared. \"But why?\"\n\n\"You wish him to speak, do you not--to tell you the things you seek to\nlearn?\"\n\n\"Do I want him to talk--?\" Burke spoke between clenched teeth. \"Believe\nme, it's more than that, Princess. He's got to!\"\n\nThe girl laughed softly in the darkness; and somehow there was a ring\nof steel beneath the velvet. \"That's why I must be the one to face him,\nLord Dion!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWithout waiting for further word from Burke, she stepped forward and\nknocked upon the door.\n\nNo answer. After a moment, she knocked again.\n\nThis time, a faint stir of sound rose from within. Then, abruptly, the\ndoor opened, framing a brawny, bearded man who glowered out at Burke\nand the girl from below a sputtering, hand-held lamp.\n\nUncowed, without hesitation, Ariadne stepped forward. \"Come, Daedalus!\"\nshe chided smoothly. \"Would you leave your master's daughter standing\nhere wind-whipped on your threshold in the night?\"\n\nThe belligerence vanished from Daedalus' face, replaced by an\nimpassive, noncommittal mask. For an instant his eyes flicked to\nBurke. Then he stepped back heavily; opened the door wider. \"Enter,\nmy princess. What brings you to my poor quarters at this hour of the\nnight?\"\n\nUninvited, ignoring the hostility that gleamed in their host's deep-set\neyes, Burke followed Ariadne in and closed the door behind them.\n\nSimultaneously, the girl said, \"It was a terrible thing for you to do,\nDaedalus! Did my father know it, he'd have you flayed alive!\"\n\nEven Burke rocked back on his heels: the words were that much of a\nshock, that unexpected ... cool, conversational, without preliminary.\n\nAs for the smith, he stood very still. The deep-set eyes seemed to\nretreat yet further into the broad, high-domed skull.\n\n\"And what is this terrible thing of which you speak, Princess Ariadne?\"\nhe asked finally.\n\n\"What is it--?\" Ariadne's eyes distended, then narrowed. Her voice\ntook on a taut, dangerous note. \"Do you think to mock me, artisan? Me,\ndaughter of Minos, favored beyond all women of this realm?\"\n\nDaedalus' hairy chest rose and fell in heavy, almost deliberate rhythm.\nTurning, he crossed with short, clumping steps to the nearest stand and\nset down his lamp, then made a small business of straightening the wick.\n\n\"What black slander is this, princess?\" he asked coldly, eyes still on\nthe flame. \"What are you trying to say I've done?\"\n\n\"Would you deny it, then?\" Like a sleek cat stalking, Ariadne moved\nround him in a long, slow arc. \"Or do you seek perhaps to saddle poor\nIcarus with the blame?\"\n\n\"Icarus--!\" The smith's head lifted sharply. \"Whatever this deed is\nthat you speak of, my son had nothing to do with it!\"\n\n\"Do you count it nothing for a youth to enter secretly into my\napartment, then assault a guard when he's surprised?\" Ariadne's lovely\nface fixed into a mask of scorn. \"Ambition ill becomes you, Daedalus.\nFor a man who'd plot such a thing, risk his own son's life to gain\npower over me, you show little courage and less sense.\"\n\nBefore Burke's eyes, sweat came to the smith's broad forehead. A tremor\nran through the heavy hands. \"May the gods bear witness, Ariadne, you\nknow I've done no such, and so does your father!\"\n\n\"And of course he'll take your word over his own daughter's.\" Ariadne\nlaughed without mirth. \"Tell me, smith, are you such a fool as to think\nyour fiend's work with my mother, Pasiphae, is so soon forgotten?\" And\nthen: \"Besides, you know all the secrets of the palace--a dangerous\nknowledge. My father will leap at an excuse to slay you!\"\n\nDaedalus rubbed at his beard with thick, scarred knuckles. His lips had\na dry, parched look, and his breathing was ragged and uneven.\n\nCoolly, Ariadne turned and walked away from him, to Burke. \"Come, my\nlord Dion! Let us waste no more time on this numb-skull.\"\n\nDaedalus' head seemed to sink down between his great shoulders. Through\nclenched teeth, he said, \"All right, curse you! What is it you want?\"\n\n\"What do you mean, smith?\" The girl stayed remote as some slim statue.\n\"Are your wits slipping? You know I've asked for nothing.\"\n\nHead high, a picture of poise, she moved towards the door. Stiffly,\nBurke fell in behind her.\n\nFor a moment, Daedalus stood flat-footed, rigid.\n\nThen, abruptly, he too was moving towards the door. For the first\ntime, his voice held a raw, uncertain edge, as if touched with panic.\n\"Princess--most favored of Minos--please--\"\n\nAriadne paused. Her dark eyes glinted soaring triumph in the instant\nthat they touched Burke's. \"Please indeed, Daedalus! After all, I came\nhere tonight but to satisfy a whim. This outlander,\"--a gesture to\nBurke--\"vows there's no access to the Labyrinth, the Minotaur, save by\nthe Shrine of Oracles.\n\n\"For my part, I argued that you, who laid out that whole area of the\npalace, could enter any chamber, no matter how well the doors were\nguarded.\" A shrug. \"All the talk--it ended in a wager. So, now, I count\non you to prove me right, show some secret way by which, if necessary,\na determined man could invade even the Minotaur's most secret precinct\nundetected.\"\n\nThe beads of sweat on the smith's broad forehead began to merge into\nrills and trickle down into his eye-brows. \"Princess, were I to tell\nthis outlander such a secret--believe me, you ask me to gamble with my\nlife!\"\n\n\"Yet if you do not tell,\" Ariadne retorted calmly, \"what will happen\nwill involve no gamble!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSeconds ticked by while the heavy-thewed chief of craftsmen stared at\nher. Then, bleakly, he said, \"Very well, princess.\"\n\nAnother long pause, with Daedalus frowning and tugging at his lower lip.\n\nAt last: \"The only unguarded way to the Minotaur leads through the\ndrainage system, the great sewer-pipes that lie beneath the palace.\"\n\nBurke frowned. \"You mean, you'd drop through a manhole here--anywhere\non the grounds--and then come up again inside the Labyrinth?\"\n\n\"Exactly,\" the smith nodded.\n\n\"But how would you know when you reached the right exit?\"\n\n\"Only one connects with the Labyrinth. A cage of bars cuts off the\npipe at that point, so no workman may by accident come up within the\nLabyrinth and thus meet his doom.\"\n\nNarrow-eyed, Burke brooded on the things the smith had told him.\n\nBut now Ariadne broke in; and all the poise she'd shown brief moments\nearlier had vanished: \"Dion--you mustn't! Don't you see? This is a\ntrap. Even though you were to slay the Minotaur, you'd never find your\nway back to safety through all that maze of pitch-black tunnels!\"\n\n\"On the contrary, princess.\" Burke smiled thinly. \"This is one\nadvantage of coming here from another time. It tells me in advance so\nmany of the things that are scheduled to happen.\"\n\nIgnoring her obvious blank bafflement, he again spoke to the smith:\n\"Daedalus, do you have cord here--light, strong line such as you use in\nlaying out the walls of each new building?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Then get some for me.\"\n\nThe brawny craftsman crossed to a chest against the wall; brought out a\nthick skein of twine. \"Will this do?\"\n\n\"Is it long enough to guide me to the Labyrinth?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Then that's all I need from you.\" Burke turned to go.\n\n\"Wait!\" This from Ariadne. Her dark eyes pinned their host's deep-set\norbs. \"Daedalus, I've a promise to make you.\"\n\n\"A promise--?\"\n\n\"A vow, if you will.\" Never had Ariadne looked more beautiful--or more\ndeadly. Her smile held the shadow of impending doom. \"For if there's\nany trick to this, smith, or if word should reach my father of what's\nhappened here tonight, I swear an hour will come when you'll pray for\ndeath to end your agonies!\"\n\nThen she and Burke were out in the night again, silent as shadows,\nfeeling their way back through the murky maze of alleyways and\ncorridors and buildings to the central court.\n\nBurke pulled the girl to a halt there, in the narrow slot between two\npillars. \"Where are we going?\" He held his voice low; spoke with his\nmouth close to her ear to compensate for the buffeting of the wind. \"We\ncan't chance your rooms, you know. That guard's snapped out of it by\nnow.\"\n\n\"Of course. I've a place in mind across the court, closer to the\nshrine.\"\n\n\"All right, then.\"\n\nBut again, as before, tension rose within Burke. A guard's shouted\nchallenge somewhere far off started him sweating. When the low, mingled\nlaughter of a man and a woman drifted from a nearby window, he froze in\nhis tracks.\n\nThe role of hero, he decided, ill became him. He thought too much of\nconsequence and peril; found it too difficult to lose himself in an\nemotional haze of recklessness.\n\nYet here, now, he had no choice--not feeling the way he did about\nAriadne; not knowing the things he knew from that brief session before\nthe inverter's scanning screen.\n\nAnd the time remaining was so short ... less than an hour, as of this\nmoment.\n\n\"This way, my lord Dion.\"\n\nWordless, once more Burke fell in behind the girl.\n\nTheir destination proved to be an ornate suite where Burke stumbled\nover furniture in the darkness.\n\nAriadne squeezed his hand. \"No one will disturb us here--those who\noccupy this apartment are visiting at Phaestos.\" And then, changing\nposition: \"I've a lamp. Give me fire.\"\n\nBurke fumbled out his lighter; flicked the wheel.\n\nThe flame showed his companion close beside him. In seconds, the lamp\nshe held was sputtering to life.\n\nThe girl turned quickly. \"There's a manhole back here, in the ante-room\nto the bath.\"\n\nShe led Burke to it as she spoke; held the lamp low so he could see the\ncover-slab.\n\nDropping to his knees, he heaved the heavy stone aside.\n\nInstantly, new air-currents swirled about him. A mustiness assailed his\nnostrils.\n\nSomewhere, along that black tube below or another like it, the\nMinotaur was waiting.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA knot drew tight in the pit of Burke's stomach. Rising, he tossed\nDaedalus' thick skein of cord down by the base of the nearest\nlamp-stand, then faced Ariadne.\n\n\"Thank you for your help, my princess,\" he said gently. \"Now, though,\nit's time for you to go.\"\n\n\"To go--?\" She stared at him, dark eyes suddenly wide. \"What byplay is\nthis, my lord Dion? Surely you'd not ask me to leave you now, in the\nhour when your worst danger is upon you?\"\n\nBurke forced a wry smile. \"Do you remember what happened the other time\nwhen you refused to carry out my orders?\"\n\n\"You mean--when you hit me?\" Gingerly, the girl's fingers moved along\nher bruised jaw as she spoke.\n\n\"Precisely.\"\n\n\"But my lord Dion--\"\n\nBurke stopped smiling. \"I'm sorry, Ariadne. You're not going with me.\nThat's final. If you try, if you won't promise to go back to your own\napartment, I'll knock you out and tie you up. Is that clear?\"\n\nHe started forward as he finished--face set, fist doubled.\n\nBut the girl gave not an inch before him. Stepping in, instead, she\nstood very close, face upturned to his.\n\n\"My lord Dion,\" she said softly, \"I tell you now: you're the bravest\nman I've ever seen.\"\n\nIt threw Burke off balance. He could find no words with which to answer.\n\nThe girl said, \"I promise you, you needn't worry for me; a warrior\nshould not have to think of women, or fear for them. I'll await you at\nmy own apartment.\"\n\nBurke groped. \"Ariadne--\"\n\nIt was as if he hadn't spoken: \"Remember, you have my promise.\nBut if anything should go wrong, if I'm missing when you reach my\nquarters--Lord Dion, do you know the River of Amnissus?\"\n\n\"Yes, of course.\"\n\n\"To its left, where it meets the sea, a headland rises. So, if fate\ndecrees that I must flee from Knossos, you can expect to find me there.\"\n\nHer slim, soft arms were round his neck, then; her lips on his for a\nlong, pulsing moment.\n\nWhen it ended, she was sobbing, her cheeks tear-streaked.\n\n\"Dion ...\" she choked. \"Please my Lord Dion, come back to me! Without\nyou--\"\n\nShe broke off; whirled and fled.\n\nFor a long, long moment, Burke stared after her, straining his eyes\nagainst the black encroachment of the night.\n\nThen, abruptly, he dropped to one knee and set to looping one end\nof Daedalus' cord around the lamp-stand--tying it tight; tugging and\ntesting it.\n\nSound stirred behind him, a faint whisper.\n\nBurke bit down hard. \"Damn you, Ariadne!\"\n\nNo answer.\n\nAnother fragment of sound. A footstep.\n\nA footstep far too heavy to be Ariadne's.\n\nBurke went rigid; started to turn.\n\nOnly before he could even bring his eyes up, something clouted him a\nterrific blow to the side of the head, so hard it knocked him clear off\nhis feet and against the wall beside him.\n\nDesperately, he tried to roll clear, get his gun out.\n\nBut his eyes blurred. His head rang. A sandaled foot kicked the Smith &\nWesson out of his fumbling fingers before the weapon had hardly cleared\nhis waistband.\n\nAnd now, a tremendous weight crashed down upon him. Blows rained\nto his face, his rib-cage, his belly. A knee drove for his groin.\nCable-muscled fingers clutched his windpipe.\n\nBurke choked on his own tongue. The fingers cut off his breath. His\nhead spun. His chest heaved--lungs aflame, convulsing in agony.\n\nThen spidery tendrils of blackness seeped into his brain. His will\nto fight ebbed. He felt himself drifting away, as on a swift-flowing\nstream that plunged into a cave's dark, swirling shadows.\n\nCautiously, the fingers relaxed on his windpipe.\n\nBurke fought for breath in short, tremulous gasps. He didn't have the\nstrength in him even to fill his lungs fully, let alone try to renew\nthe battle.\n\nThe fingers left his throat and fumbled at his wrists; then his ankles.\n\nBurke began to get better control of his breathing. Forcing himself to\nignore his aching head and battered body, he pried his eyes open.\n\nBull-necked Theseus squatted by his side, leering down at him. The\nGreek gripped the Smith & Wesson in one hand, and every line of his\nface and stance mirrored gloating triumph.\n\nCold with rage--or was it partly panic?--Burke stared up at his captor.\nBut when he tried to move his arms to lift himself, he found that they\nwere bound together.\n\nBeside him, the Athenian chuckled unpleasantly. \"That Minos is smart,\nisn't he?\"\n\nBurke stared. \"Minos--?\"\n\n\"Sure. He told me I'd catch you if I just played drunk long enough.\"\nThe other's smirk broadened. \"That's how much he hates you, see? He\nsaid he'd let me and the others go, forget all that crazy stuff with\nthe Minotaur. All I had to do was grab you before you could sneak away\nsomeplace with Ariadne.\"\n\nIt was all Burke could do to keep from groaning.\n\nIf Theseus noticed, he ignored it. \"Me, I've got a better idea.\nSomething really clever. You'll love it.\"\n\nA small chill ran through Burke. He still didn't speak.\n\nTheseus said, \"You want to get at the Minotaur so rotten much--well,\nI'm just the boy to help you do it, now you've worked all the details\nout with that Daedalus and Ariadne.\" A leer. \"We'll handle it just the\nway you planned it: drop into the sewer-tunnel here, then hunt till we\nfind the manhole into the Labyrinth.\"\n\nThe burly Greek got up as he finished. \"All right. On your feet!\"\n\nBy way of emphasis, he kicked Burke in the stomach.\n\nRetching, Burke lurched over to a face-down position and tried to rise.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nStumbling erect proved difficult enough. Then, on his feet at last, he\ndiscovered that his captor had hobbled his ankles also, so he could\nmove only in short, awkward steps.\n\nNow the Athenian gestured to the open manhole that led into the sewer.\n\"Hurry it up! Get down there!\"\n\nAwkwardly, Burke shuffled towards the opening.\n\nApparently he moved too slowly for his captor's tastes, for a sandaled\nfoot took a leg from under him and he spilled to the floor and\nhalf-fell through the hole.\n\nThen he was down in the cool, drafty blackness of the great drain. A\nmoment later, Theseus joined him, a lamp in one hand, Daedalus' cord\nin the other. The revolver he'd taken from Burke was thrust into his\nloin-band.\n\nTogether, with Burke pushed into the lead, they moved along the tunnel.\n\nIt was a nightmare, after that--a nightmare of slime and smells, sudden\nwinds and water. Snakes slithered across Burke's feet. Cobwebs brushed\nhis face. The lamp's gleam was a pinprick in an infinity of darkness.\nA dozen times they struck dead ends; retraced their steps out of blind\nalleys. And each time Theseus raged with greater fury, till Burke's\nback and hips were numb with blows and kicks and buffets.\n\nAnd then, suddenly, they came to a place where a cage of bars blocked\noff the passage.\n\nBurke's heart leaped. A tight band seemed to constrict his chest.\n\nBut before he could even speak, Theseus elbowed him aside with new\nblows and curses. The Hero of Athens was breathing hard; even by the\nlamp's feeble light, his eyes showed distended.\n\nLooping the heavy skein of twine over his shoulder, the Greek now\ngripped the nearest bar in a brawny hand and shook it.\n\nIt didn't even quiver.\n\nSnarling, Theseus stepped back and, lifting the lamp, scrutinized the\nterra cotta of the tunnel wall till he found a crack-formed ledge wide\nenough to hold the light. Then, returning to the bars, he seized one in\nboth hands and heaved on it while he braced a foot against another.\n\nStill nothing happened.\n\nAgain the Athenian heaved, and this time every muscle along his back\nand arms and legs swelled. His belly drew into heavy ridges. Veins\nstood out at throat and temple.\n\nFor the instant, even Burke couldn't help but watch fascinated at the\npicture of sheer physical strength displayed.\n\nAnd now, ever so slowly, one of the bars began to bend ... the merest\nfraction ... an inch ... a hand's breadth....\n\nThen, suddenly, with a dull metallic twang, the piece tore loose from\nits fitting.\n\nThe sound broke Burke's spell. Convulsively, he strained at the bonds\nthat held his own wrists.\n\nThey only cut deeper into the flesh.\n\nAnd there was so little time....\n\nWarily, Burke cast a sidewise glance at the revolver, still hanging at\nthe other's waist. Then, as casually as he could manage it, he started\nmoving closer.\n\nNow, panting with exertion, Theseus turned his attention to a second\nbar.\n\nThis time, he had more room to maneuver. Almost from the first moment,\nthe metal showed signs of twisting.\n\nBurke took yet another sidling step--a step that brought him within\narm's reach of the Smith & Wesson. Clumsily, he poised, readying\nhimself to spear out for the butt with both hands as one.\n\nA groan escaped Theseus as he wrenched at the reluctant bar with all\nhis might. Little by little, the heavy metal bent.\n\nBurke snatched for the gun.\n\nOnly as he did so, incredibly, the weapon wasn't there. His hands\nslapped Theseus' sweat-greased side instead.\n\nSimultaneously, a fist like a maul smashed him full in the face: The\nAthenian's harsh laughter rang in his ears. He crashed back against\nthe sewer-pipe's wall like a doll flung aside by an angry child. Words\nhammered at him; Theseus' words: \"I wondered when you'd try that, you\noutlander dog!\"\n\nIt was all Burke could do to keep his feet, let alone answer.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Greek snarled, \"Now's a good time to tell you the rest of it, too,\nrack you!\"\n\nBurke tried to blink away the haze between them. \"The rest of it--?\" he\nmumbled.\n\n\"That's right; the rest.\" His captor gloated openly now. \"You didn't\nthink I dragged you through this hell-hole just for entertainment, did\nyou, when all I needed to do to get rid of you was hand you over to\nMinos?\"\n\nBurke didn't answer.\n\nTheseus scowled, spoke almost as if to himself; \"That slut\nAriadne--I'll teach her to scorn me for an outlander! Once I've shoved\nyou up through this manhole into the Labyrinth, where there's no chance\nfor anyone but the Minotaur to find you, alive or dead, I'm going to go\nexplain to Minos all about how you took me unawares and almost killed\nme, back there in Ariadne's quarters. He'll believe me, because it fits\nright in with what that guard you tricked will tell him.\n\n\"Then, while Minos has everyone out hunting for you, I'll take Ariadne\ndown to where my ship lies anchored at the mouth of the Amnissus.\nBy the time Minos realizes what's happened, I'll be gone, with his\ndaughter with me; and she'll be good for nothing but to be queen of\nAthens, so he'll have no choice but to make peace with my father, no\nmatter how it galls him.\"\n\nThe hair along the back of Burke's neck prickled. Of a sudden he saw\nhow he'd vastly underestimated Theseus. Because the man looked like a\nhandsome, stupid, dissipated block of beef, Twentieth Century intellect\nhad sneered at him.\n\nOnly Theseus had a schemer's brain, as well as a Greek God's face and\nphysique. And what looked like stupidity came out as an almost oriental\ntaste for the un-prettier types of vengeance.\n\nAll of which added up to nothing less than disaster.\n\nKeeping his voice level with an effort, Burke said, \"Theseus, you hate\nme, and I don't blame you for it. For that matter, I hate you too.\n\n\"But right now, there's no time for either of us to indulge his\nfeelings. This is too big for that. Knossos falls tonight. It's going\nto be destroyed--soon now, within the hour.\n\n\"Unless we kill the Minotaur, Ariadne dies too. There'll even be other\nMinotaurs, not just here but all over the world. That's why I wanted to\nget into the Labyrinth--\"\n\nLaughter exploded in Burke's face.\n\nIt was a better answer than words. Tight-lipped, Burke groped\nfrantically for some new plan, some trick, some lingering straw of hope\nto cling to.\n\nTheseus said, \"Don't worry, outlander. You'll get your chance at the\nMinotaur.\"\n\nHe stalked forward as he spoke; poised a doubled fist close by Burke's\njaw. \"Just remember, though: while you're taking care of the monster,\nI'll be taking care of Ariadne!\"\n\nThe poised fist lashed out. When Burke tried to jerk his head aside,\nTheseus' other hand came up in a casual, almost lazy arc and slapped it\nback into place.\n\nFist and jaw met. Burke's brain exploded inside his skull. The\nflickering lamp seemed to burst into a blaze of dazzling, kaleidoscopic\nstars.\n\nThen, one by one, they faded. Blackness closed in....\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n\nThe feeling, Burke decided, basically was one of frustration--a\nmoiling, roiling, boiling tension that crept higher and higher as his\nown helplessness became the more apparent.\n\nWell, what else could he expect, in a situation sprung from\nmonomania's loins? From the beginning, everything about this business\nhad had the spell of madness on it. Success, when the cards were down,\nhad always been too much to hope for.\n\nNow, thinking of it, Burke could only sigh bleakly and shake his head.\n\nOnly that wasn't quite true, either. For his head wouldn't shake, and\nhis sigh held neither sound nor breath.\n\nHow had it all come about, this nightmare? Where had it started, really?\n\nWith the Research Professor?\n\nWith The Girl?\n\nWith The Director?\n\nBut no. In his heart Burke knew that none of them held the answer.\n\nBecause the beginning lay farther back ... so much, much farther....\n\n... All the way back to the old, dormer-windowed house amid the elms,\nand his childhood, and the Bowl of Minos.\n\nThe bowl....\n\nHe could still remember the first time he saw it, lying in a\nlitter-heaped trunk up in the attic.\n\nFascinated, he'd picked it up and run stubby fingers over the stylized\nMinoan octopus that stood out in bold relief upon its surface, till it\nseemed he could almost feel the twining tentacles' pressure.\n\nIt brought a queer sense of excitement to him ... a sort of paradox of\nfeeling that made him thrill to the bowl's beauty even while he stared\nat the creature that served as its decoration with a strange, shuddery\nsensation close akin to horror.\n\nThen his mother saw what he was doing, and took the pottery vessel from\nhim, explaining the while about the footloose, adventuring uncle who'd\nbrought it here all the way from Crete.\n\nA lump formed in Burke's throat as he recalled her patience ... how\nwhen she'd found him returning again and again to the attic and\nthe trunk, she'd brought the bowl down and given it a place on the\nlivingroom table, where he could examine it all at will.\n\nSomeone even told him about Minos and Theseus and Pasiphae and Ariadne\nand the Minotaur, and all the rest of the legendry that went with\nBronze Age Crete.\n\nYet the legends were never quite enough. They raised too many\nquestions; left too much unsaid.\n\nThe fragments of fact he picked up proved even less satisfactory.\n\nHow had a civilization rich and powerful and advanced as that of the\nMinoans ever risen on a sea-isolated island such as Crete?\n\nWhere had the Minoans learned their skills, their arts?\n\nAbove all, why had their culture vanished? What brought about Great\nKnossos' fall?\n\nQuestions without answers, all of them. Mysteries like the Cretan's\nstrange, undeciphered writing, and the final fate of lovely Princess\nAriadne, Minos' daughter, and how Theseus, bare-handed, could have\nslain the mighty Minotaur.\n\nIt was all enough to drive a seven-eight-nine-ten-year-old boy to\ndistraction!\n\nThen a careless visitor's elbow knocked the bowl to the floor. It\nshattered into shards.\n\nAt ten, a boy's too old to cry--before company, at least. So he'd\nclenched his fists behind his back, and blinked back the tears, and\nheld his mouth to a stiff white line till he could be alone, face\npillow-muffled, behind the closed door of his room.\n\nAnd from that moment he'd known that sometime, somehow, he himself\nwould find his way to Crete.\n\nSchool became a place where he greedily snatched up crumbs of mythology\nand history between dreary hours spent battling his way through all the\nother subjects his teachers demanded that he learn.\n\nHigh school brought a broader view. He began to see the\ninterrelatedness of learning. Literature, chemistry, physics,\nLatin--of a sudden he found he loved them all.\n\nYet always, always, there ahead lay Knossos, beckoning.\n\nHow old had he been when, avidly, he plowed his way through Sir Arthur\nEvans' \"Palace of Minos\", groping his way by context past all the\nunfamiliar words? Thirteen? Fourteen?\n\nBy high school commencement time, he no longer cared that his parents\ncouldn't understand his passion for things Cretan.\n\nCollege, then. Major in anthropology, minor in classics. Greek now,\nas well as Latin. Linguistics, too. Comparative cultures, technical\nphotography, ethnological methods, archaeological methods, museum\nmethods. Year after year, course after course.\n\nAnd always, the same goal. Let others weigh and choose between\nYucatan and Oceania, Murdering Beach and the Valley of the Kings. For\nhim--ever; always--there was only Minos and Knossos and Bronze Age\nCrete.\n\nDion Burke, B.A., now, Dion Burke, M.A.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThen, the last step; the final goal: the onward, upward march to Doctor\nof Philosophy, Ph.D.\n\nOr rather, not quite: not quite Ph.D.\n\nAnd that was where The Director came in.\n\nBurke cursed the day he'd met him.\n\nA kindly soul, The Director, by his own statement, in spite of his\nscowl and beetling brows and jutting, heavy-boned, prognathous jaw. So\nfascinated by all things Minoan. So happy such a brilliant student had\nselected this most benign of all universities as the one at which to\nwork for his doctorate.\n\nIt was only a step from there to casual acquaintance with The Research\nProfessor.\n\nThe Professor was the first universally-acknowledged-as-authentic\ngenius Burke had even known. Even the man's colleagues on the staff\nof the university's Science Institute agreed that he knew more about\ncertain aspects of electronics than anyone alive.\n\nThe Professor, it developed, wanted Burke's collaboration on a\nproject--a device he termed a \"computational translator\" which he felt\nmight solve the riddle of the mysterious Minoan language, if only its\nhieroglyphics could somehow be reduced to sound.\n\nThat was when Burke brought out his own idea, his madman's dream for\nthe ultimate archaeological tool.\n\nAn inverter, he called it; a time inverter, designed to carry\nresearchers back bodily into the past.\n\nThe Professor scoffed openly when Burke first told him about it.\n\nThe second time, he frowned and tugged at his pointed chin.\n\nThe third found him already at work.\n\nThe computational translator, and the time inverter. Two lunatic\nconcepts, born of monomania and genius.\n\nTwo concepts that, it appeared increasingly, just might work.\n\nTime out for Korea ... Chinese communists in quilted coats ... blood\nand iron and freezing death.\n\nWell, at least it would pay for the rest of the doctorate, under the GI\nBill.\n\nIf he lived through it.\n\nThe notice of the car crash reached him at Heartbreak Ridge.\n\nNo mother now, no father. Just an inheritance.\n\nMore courses, more digging, more Professor's letters, pulsing\nexcitement and jubilation for all their veiled language.\n\nHome again. Back to the university. The shock of seeing at first\nhand just how far The Professor had gone; how short a distance there\nremained to go.\n\nAnd then, at last, The Girl, and the old line about passes and glasses\nturning out not always to be true after all.\n\nMore courses, more digging, more months slipping by. The discussions,\nincreasingly acerbic, as it developed that The Director was a\nstiff-necked, belligerent bigot who classed Sir Arthur Evans and God in\nthat order when it came to authority on matters Minoan.\n\nThe Girl, encouraging, all intellect and well-bred adoration. The\nProfessor, designing a new-type radiation detector to help search out\nthe truth about Knossos' fall, just in case they never did get the time\ninverter to work properly.\n\nThe Director, adamant.\n\nThe inverter, failing again and and again.\n\nThe faint, nagging disappointment of discovering that The Girl could\ndiscuss the courtship customs of Papua and Parthia and Patagonia in\ndetail, yet still hold a man at arm's length here on the campus.\n\nBut still, there was his dissertation to sustain him, his long-planned\ntrip to Crete to cling to. Even if it took every penny of his\ninheritance, even if The Girl wouldn't marry him and go along because\nhe still lacked his degree, the journey couldn't help but prove\nworthwhile.\n\nBy air, to London. Then to Athens and the British School, to complete\ncontacts.\n\nFinally, down across the Aegean to Crete itself.\n\nHe had to shove his hands deep into his pockets to hide their trembling\nwhen first he stepped from the car at Knossos. Even seeing the\nreconstructed palace with his own eyes shook him that much.\n\nThe British, polite and helpful as they tried to hide their amusement\nat the use of the detector. The Cretan workmen, exchanging glances that\nsaid openly that he was surely mad.\n\nAnd then, the needle, going crazy--trying to bounce clear off the dial.\nThe headphones, buzzing till his ears hurt.\n\nEndless hours of aching to talk to someone, yet not daring. Long days\nwhen the right words for the dissertation just wouldn't come.\n\nAnd the words had to be right, exactly. He couldn't content himself\nwith anything less. The whole dissertation--every page, every sentence,\nmust be logic-grounded, solidly-documented, overwhelming evidence to\nprove his hypothesized explanation of the fall of Knossos.\n\nHe finished it, finally ... came home again ... turned in the first\ndraft....\n\nThen came that day in The Director's office. That ugly day, the last\nBurke was to spend in his own time and place.\n\nThe argument; the tempers, rising.\n\nThe Director--face flushed, jaw outthrust: \"You young whelp, how dare\nyou contradict Sir Arthur Evans? Would you set yourself up on a level\nwith Hogarth? Pendlebury? Wace?\" And then, the final knife-thrust:\n\"Very well; have it your way. But so far as I'm concerned, I'll not\naccept this dissertation, now or ever. And so long as I'm here, you'll\nreceive no doctorate, let alone a recommendation of any sort!\"\n\nExit The Director. Forever.\n\nThen, The Girl: \"But Dion! Why did you have to be so stubborn? You\ncould at least have kept your opinions to yourself till later.\nNow--well, how much of a field is there for an archaeologist with only\nan M. A. degree? You might as well forget Crete right now. And for my\npart, I must admit the idea of being the wife of an instructor in some\nsecond-rate college, at four thousand a year hardly appeals to me.\"\n\nExit The Girl. Forever.\n\nThe Research Professor, finally: \"Damn it, Burke, I just don't dare to\nback you on it! Old Ape-Jaw's got the president's ear. If I even let it\nbe known I designed that detector, I'll be operating this laboratory on\na negative budget next biennium.\"\n\nExit The Professor. Forever.\n\nIn spirit, at least.\n\nIn body, though, he still might have his uses.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBurke held his voice carefully level. \"In other words, then, you won't\neven let me use your name as supporting authority for my statement\nthat the ruins at Knossos still show radiation traces?\"\n\nThe Professor: \"I'm sorry, Dion.\"\n\n\"But the time inverter--\"\n\n\"Are you completely insane, boy? I built that thing with university\nfunds. If anyone should find out about it, and that I didn't have\nproper authorization for it--well, all I've got to say is that I'm\ngoing to junk it first thing in the morning, before The Director has a\nchance to snoop around.\"\n\nWhat happens to a man when he plunges into that deep a pit? How many\nblows can he take before he cracks?\n\nBurke didn't even recognize that it was raining when he stepped out\ninto the street.\n\nDully, he tramped through the gathering dusk. Block after block, mile\nafter mile, hardly aware that his clothes clung to his body, soaked, or\nthat water sloshed in and out of his shoes with every step.\n\nSlowly, then, his thoughts began to sort themselves into some sort of\norder. A little at a time, conclusions took form and gave strength.\n\nWhen it came right down to it, he didn't give a hang whether he ever\nachieved a Ph. D. degree or not.\n\nSo to hell with The Director!\n\nAs for security, a job, he'd lived through Heartbreak Ridge; and after\nthat, any more economic peril came out as strictly anticlimax.\n\nLosing The Girl--well, he had no choice but to admit it bruised his\nego. Yet, on the other hand, it relieved him of all the gnawing inner\ndoubts, the secret hesitations at her coolness.\n\nThe Professor? Another disappointment. But the mere fact that an idol's\nfeet turned out to be of clay hardly rated as a unique discovery.\n\nAt any rate, he'd survive it.\n\nSo, what did that leave of his losses?\n\nHe cringed.\n\nThat was the way with dreams. They were so hard to give up.\n\nAnd he'd worked towards this one for so long.\n\nNow, there was nothing left to do but face the facts: he'd never have a\nchance at Crete; never really know for sure why Knossos fell.\n\nUnless--\n\nBurke stopped short.\n\nWhat had The Professor said? That he'd destroy the time inverter first\nthing tomorrow morning?\n\nWhich still left tonight, didn't it?\n\nIt was a thought to appall any man in his right mind. For while The\nProfessor admitted to small progress with the machine, he also said\nfrankly that he was completely stymied in the most vital area: while\nhe had succeeded in transporting objects from present to past on an\nexperimental basis, he couldn't move them even an instant into the\nfuture.\n\nCarrying this a step further, anything sent into the past stayed there.\nIt couldn't be returned to the present.\n\nAnd that meant that if anyone named Dion Burke should prove so mad as\nto send himself back to Bronze Age Crete, there he'd stay, with no\nchance ever of return to Twentieth Century United States.\n\nIt was a thought to numb a man.\n\nYet, was it really so insane?\n\nAfter all, what was more important to him than that he learn the truth\nabout the fall of ancient Knossos? What else could satisfy him, after\nall these years?\n\nEven if he died, it wouldn't matter too much. His parents were already\ngone, his friends mostly on the casual side.\n\nFor the first time, now, it dawned on Burke that rain was splattering\nin his face. It felt good. His clothes and shoes--he didn't even care\nthat they were ruined.\n\nPivoting, he started the long tramp back to his apartment.\n\nThere, for comfort, he took a hot shower; then put on a clean, dry\noutfit.\n\nIt seemed like a good idea, also, to check his watch, fill his\ncigarette lighter, and stow the old five-shot Smith & Wesson\nthirty-eight he'd inherited from his father in the waistband of his\ntrousers.\n\nBy the time he'd completed all such arrangements, the rain had stopped.\nHere and there, stars shone amid the thin clouds overhead.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHead up, shoulders back, Burke strolled along the wet, glistening walk\ntowards the campus. He felt somehow detached, apart from the world\nabout him, and it was a good feeling, even though he also enjoyed the\nsmell of the rain-soaked earth, and the way leaves had piled up in\nlittle dams along the gutter, and the hissing, whispering sound of\ntires on wet pavement every time a car went by. Once he even caught\nhimself smiling a little, a small, quiet, secret smile, over the way\nThe Director and The Girl and The Professor each in turn had looked as\nthey took their stands and walked out of his life.\n\nThe main door of the Science Institute was still unlocked, so Burke\nwent on in, pausing only to nod pleasantly to a campus policeman who\nhappened to pass by at the moment.\n\nThe laboratory had a glass-paned door. Without hesitation, Burke rapped\na hole in it with the butt of his revolver, reached in long enough\nto turn back the bolt, then stepped inside and locked the door again\nbehind him.\n\nNow he turned to the inner room where The Professor dealt with his most\nprivate matters.\n\nThe first thing he noted upon entering was a cluttered desk, on one\ncorner of which lay a flat box perhaps five by eight by two inches in\nsize.\n\nThat pleased him, for by its grilled front he recognized the thing as\nthe incredible, transistor-packed device The Professor described as a\n\"computational translator.\" Experiments with assorted foreign students\nand American Indians of various tribes indicated that it would enable a\nman to conduct a successful two-way conversation in any language.\n\nStrapping the box in place flat against his belly, Burke moved on past\nthe desk.\n\nBeyond it, around a corner, loomed the time inverter.\n\nIt was a cumbersome-looking thing, a cramped platform suspended amid\ngrids of wire. Each grid, in turn, fitted within a larger framework\nappropriately equipped with calibrated spindles, so that the grids'\nrelative position to each other and to the inner platform could be\nadjusted at will.\n\nTo one side, a neat control-board occupied a wall-space. A larger area\nwas given over to a screen somewhat like that of a television set.\n\nWarily, Burke picked his way over to the screen. Now that he was here,\nhis stomach showed a strong tendency to quiver. Despite all the long\nnights he'd spent in this room with The Professor, he found himself\ndoubting his own ability to operate the inverter. As for the theory of\nthe thing, that was completely beyond him.\n\nBut it was no time for doubt. Switching on the power, Burke carefully\nset about adjusting the control dials.\n\nLatitude and longitude came first, down to minutes and then seconds.\nA moment's tuning, and Crete and then the Great Palace of Knossos lay\nbefore him on the scanner screen.\n\nFalling back a step, Burke rubbed the nape of his neck where it ached\nfrom strain.\n\nTime adjustment, now. A new set of dials.\n\nThe screen changed before his eyes. The work of excavation and\nreconstruction vanished. Off to one side, olive groves appeared. Then a\nbuilding with unmistakably Byzantine architecture flashed on.\n\nAgain Burke twisted the dial. Again.\n\nNow whole towns came and went. One moment, the screen showed neat huts\nand cultivated fields; the next, ruins or no buildings at all.\n\nBut never a trace of people. People moved too quickly for even the\nfinest settings of the time-spindles to show them.\n\nFarther back ... farther ... farther....\n\nAnd now there was only a great, dark ring on the hillside to mark the\npalace. Wall-blocks and pillars lay strewn like scorched blocks in all\ndirections. It was as if lightning had blasted the very earth. The few\nhuts to be seen stood far off, as if the site of Knossos were a place\naccursed, to be avoided under pain of death.\n\nA chill touched Burke; and though he'd seen this sight a dozen times\nbefore, his fingers trembled.\n\nBack farther ... farther....\n\nAs swiftly as it had darkened, the screen came bright. The palace rose\nagain, white gypsum walls and columns aglisten in the sunlight.\n\nSkillfully, Burke adjusted the detail dial, working forward again to\nthe moment when the palace had crumbled.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe disaster came at night; that was plain to see. And so fast that the\nscreen could not record the instant when it happened. One second, the\nbuildings were there, solid as only rock could make them.\n\nThe next, there were only dark, blighted ruins.\n\nOf course, the destruction could conceivably have taken hours, yet\nstill show as instantaneous on the scanner.\n\nBut if a man were to go back to a time, say, twelve hours before the\ncataclysm....\n\nHe'd need to choose the right place, too ... somewhere out of the line\nof palace traffic--that apartment off the Queen's Megaron, for instance.\n\nNot too steadily, Burke set the dials; then straightened.\n\nThe realization of his own folly flooded through him in the same\ninstant.\n\nHow could anyone be so mad as to sacrifice his life on the altar of\nsheer intellectual curiosity? What did it matter if he never knew why\nKnossos fell? To go through with this because he'd been intrigued by an\noctopus-decorated Minoan bowl as a child of seven--it was absurd. His\nplace was here--in his own time, his own land. To think otherwise could\nonly be evidence of gross imbalance.\n\nHe started to reach for the main switch; to turn off the inverter.\n\nSimultaneously, a hand rattled the knob of the laboratory's outer door.\n\nBurke froze.\n\nNow a key clicked in the lock. A voice--the voice of the campus\npoliceman--called, \"All right, you! Come on out! We know you're there!\"\n\nAnd then, not quite so plainly, the voice of The Professor: \"Be\ncareful, officer. He's been acting queerly--thinks I've some kind of\nstrange machine in there. What he needs is a psychiatrist. But till we\ncan get him to one, he may be dangerous.\"\n\nThe Professor, coppering his bets ... taking no chances on trouble over\nhaving misused university funds to finance a private project.\n\nNot even if it involved proclaiming a friend insane.\n\nThe final straw, piled on the camel's back.\n\nAnd only one way out.\n\nSavagely, Burke whipped the Smith & Wesson from his belt; then,\ntight-lipped, flicked a quick glance along the dials.\n\nThe inverter was as ready as it ever would be.\n\nBreathing hard, Burke slid between the wire grids; stepped up onto the\ncramped central platform.\n\nFrom the outer room: \"Come out, now, Burke! You'll have a chance to\nprove you're sane--just a few tests, a month or two of observation--\"\n\nBurke gripped the activating switch, the lever that would throw full\npower into the grids.\n\nAgain, then, he hesitated.\n\nThe campus policeman's head appeared around the corner, peering. To\none side, The Professor cried out. \"The inverter--! Stop him!\"\n\nIt was like a wire snapping in Burke's brain. He fired a single shot,\nhigh, and simultaneously threw the activating switch in one swift,\ncoordinated flow of motion.\n\nThe grid-wires glowed. A tingle of energy pulsed through Burke's body.\n\nThe laboratory disappeared....\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\n\nBurke heard the voices first--strange voices, speaking in a strange\nlanguage.\n\nThe room came clear a moment later, cool and shadowy. Burke recognized\nit by its shape, and by the distinctive relief in painted stucco on one\nwall.\n\nSo his calculations had been correct. He'd landed in the apartment off\nthe Queen's Megaron.\n\nCat-like, he moved towards the room's doorway, the voices.\n\nThe speakers were man and woman, apparently. And when Burke flicked the\nswitch of the computational translator strapped tight to his belly, he\nfound he could understand them almost as well as if they'd been talking\nEnglish.\n\n\"... and you're a pretty thing, you know,\" the man was saying. \"As a\nmatter of fact....\"\n\nHis voice trailed off, the last words lost in a rising feminine giggle.\n\"Master Theseus! You're here to see my mistress, not me--\"\n\nWarily, Burke peered through the grating of a sort of grilled divider\nthat helped to separate room from room.\n\nThe chamber beyond was larger than the one in which he stood. Brighter,\ntoo--a typical Minoan light-well spilled noonday sun clear along one\nside. The furnishings and the octopus frescoes on the wall showed an\nopulence that spoke of nothing less than royalty.\n\nAs for the man and the woman, they were alone in the room, and playing\na game as old as time. That is, the man was trying to catch the\nwoman--girl, really--while she strove to stay out of his reach.\n\nBurke decided he could have taken her efforts more seriously if she\nhadn't kept giggling--not to mention slowing whenever the man gave any\nsign of pausing in his pursuit.\n\nThen, abruptly, the man leaped across a low table, cutting her off.\n\nThe girl promptly tripped, and fell into his arms.\n\nThe embrace that followed was a trifle too prolonged for Burke's\ntastes. When it ended, the girl sighed, starry-eyed, and ran long,\nsupple fingers through her companion's short black hair. \"How can a\nwarrior such as you, a hero, even look at a serving-wench like me,\nMaster Theseus?\" she murmured.\n\nThe man straightened and swelled out his chest; and now Burke saw that\nhe was not only a good six feet tall and powerfully built, but handsome\nin a somewhat coarse, heavy-featured way.\n\n\"I'll deny no wench my favors just because she's of a lower station,\"\nhe proclaimed pompously. \"I've no doubt you'll keep a man as warm as\nthis Princess Ariadne who's your mistress.\"\n\nThe girl giggled. \"You mustn't say such things, Master Theseus!\nAriadne's the loveliest woman in all Knossos.\"\n\n\"What--?\" Theseus' broad brow furrowed, and he stood with mouth half\nopen, looking more than a little stupid. \"Are you trying to confuse me,\nwench? If this Ariadne's such a beauty, why must she send secretly for\nprisoners from her father's dungeon in order to find lovers?\"\n\nAn uneasy shadow seemed to fall across the maid's pretty face. She\nmoved restlessly. \"It--it's the curse of Pasiphae, Master Theseus.\"\n\n\"The curse of Pasiphae--?\" Theseus looked blank. \"What's that, wench?\nTell me of it.\"\n\n\"Of the curse?\" The girl's smile grew suddenly stiff, and her hands\nmoved in a small, nervous gesture.\n\nThen, quickly, she came close to her barrel-chested companion and\nslipped her arms about him. \"No wonder you're the pride of Athens,\nMaster Theseus! Close to you this way, I feel your strength. It brings\na woman all sorts of thoughts--\"\n\nBelligerently, Theseus scowled and pushed her back. \"None of that,\nwench! This curse--tell me about it!\"\n\nThe girl drew a deep, unhappy breath, \"If you must, then--\" And, after\na moment's pause: \"You know, of course, that Pasiphae is King Minos'\nwife; Ariadne's mother?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"And also that she lusted after the sacred bull of Zeus--\"\n\n\"--and so gave birth to the monster in the Labyrinth, the Minotaur? Of\ncourse. Who hasn't heard it?\"\n\nThe maid looked round almost fearfully. \"Do you not see, then, Master\nTheseus? There's the curse! Ariadne's daughter of a woman who's defied\nall the laws of gods and men. Who knows what evil may befall the child?\nSo, no youth dares even look at Ariadne, no matter how great her\nbeauty.\"\n\nTheseus' jaw sagged for a moment. Then he bristled. \"It's not because\nof my fame, then, my prowess as a lover, that she sent you to bring me\nhere in secret?\"\n\nThe maid bowed her head. But from his vantage-point, Burke could see\nher hidden smile--quick, minx-like. \"She seeks only to escape her\ndestiny, Master Theseus. In you, hero that you are, she sees one who\nmight slay the Minotaur and take her away from Crete and the scorn and\nloneliness that so long have been her lot here.\"\n\n\"So!\" grunted Theseus. \"She'd use me, would she! Me, hero of Athens!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHis scowl grew even blacker. Then, abruptly, it faded. Sweeping the\ngirl up bodily in his arms, he bore her to the nearest couch. \"Enough\nof this empty talk, wench! We've wasted too much time already on your\nprecious mistress!\"\n\nThe couch groaned with their joint weight. Throwing the maid back,\ntilting her face up, Theseus strove to kiss her.\n\nBut now the girl drew away, struggling in obvious earnest. \"No, Master\nTheseus, no! We dare not! Ariadne may come at any moment--\"\n\n\"Let her come!\" Athenian pinned maid with hands and body. \"Let her see\nfor herself who I prefer--\"\n\nAcross the room, a door opened. A slim young girl, proud-faced and\nbeautiful and poised, stood framed within the entry.\n\nOn the couch, the maid gave a little shriek. \"Princess Ariadne!\"\nFrantically, she tried to writhe free of Theseus.\n\nHe clutched at her as she spun erect. Cloth ripped as her whole skirt\ntore away, leaving her standing well-nigh naked.\n\nThe maid's face flamed. Whirling, she darted for the grill-masked\ndoorway where Burke stood hiding.\n\nIt took him off balance; it was that unexpected. Before he could even\nget clear, jump back, she dodged behind the grating; crashed into him\nfull-tilt.\n\nBurke reeled back against the door-frame.\n\nThe maid screamed.\n\nLike an echo, Theseus tore away the screening grillwork.\n\nAfter that, for Burke, there was no choice. Instinctively, he knew that\nno matter what the cost, he must gain command of the situation.\n\nSnatching the Smith & Wesson from his waistband, he leveled it at\nTheseus. \"Stand back, you!\"\n\nApparently the computational translator put words and tone into\nlanguage the bull-necked Athenian could understand. He stopped short.\n\nCatching the maid by the shoulder, Burke shoved her, stumbling, over to\njoin her playmate.\n\nNext, Ariadne, still standing frozen beside the far door:\n\n\"You, princess!\" Burke clipped tightly. \"Over here, on the double!\"\n\nThe slim girl didn't move a muscle.\n\nBurke snapped, \"Come here, I said! Now! Do you hear me?\"\n\nColdly, the great dark eyes took in Burke and his so-different\ngarments. Then, in a voice edged with scorn, the princess asked, \"And\nwho are you, to command the daughter of Minos in her own chambers?\"\n\nSweat slicked Burke's palms, his forehead. \"That doesn't matter. It's\nenough that I hold the power of the thunderbolt in my hand here.\" He\ngestured with the Smith & Wesson.\n\n\"Indeed?\" Now, coolly, Ariadne strolled in his direction. \"Perhaps,\nthen, you're a god; is that it?\"\n\nBurke groped. \"Perhaps.\"\n\n\"Or more likely, you're just a thief from some far country.\" The girl\nstood very erect before Burke, oval face even lovelier for her anger.\n\"What brought you to my chambers, dog? Or must I have you flayed alive\nto get an answer?\"\n\nThe trouble with taking command of a situation, Burke decided, was that\nyou had to be willing to go all out. And he wasn't.\n\nAt least, not with this slim young beauty.\n\nDesperately, he tried a final gambit. \"You, Theseus! Seize her!\"\n\nBut now the Athenian's eyes had narrowed. His head came forward, just\na fraction. It had the effect of making his body loom even larger than\nbefore. He looked belligerent and dangerous.\n\nBurke tried again. \"Theseus--\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\nWithout volition, Burke found his finger tightening on the Smith &\nWesson's trigger.\n\nBeside Theseus, the maid whimpered. \"Master Theseus--the thunderbolts--\"\n\nThe Athenian snorted. \"He's no god; he's a man. But if he reaches Minos\nwith a tale of having found me in the Princess Ariadne's quarters, I'll\nbe a long time dying.\" He licked thick lips. \"No. Better that _he_\nshould die. Here. Now.\"\n\nHe lunged at Burke.\n\nLeaping aside, Burke thrust a foot between his charging adversary's\nlegs.\n\nThe Athenian lurched wildly, clawing at the air.\n\nGun high for a quick blow, Burke leaped in close behind him.\n\nOnly then, incredibly, the other was whirling on one foot, with all the\ngrace and skill of a ballet dancer.\n\nSimultaneously, the other foot whipped up, kicking for Burke's groin.\n\nWith a desperate effort, Burke caught the blow on his forearms.\n\nBut now it was he who'd been feinted off balance. Before he could\nrecover, a left-handed blow sent him tottering backwards.\n\nThen he hit a couch. His knees hinged. He sprawled belly-up exposed and\nhelpless.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLike lightning, Theseus seized a great stone jar, a pithoi. Muscles\nbulging, with unbelievable strength he swung it high above his head,\npoised to dash down on Burke.\n\nBurke jerked his revolver up and fired in one spasmodic movement,\nstraight at the pithoi.\n\nGun-thunder echoed through the chamber. The great jar shattered,\ncascading slack-jawed Theseus with shards and oil.\n\nBurke rolled from the couch and stumbled to a new defense-point against\nthe nearest wall.\n\nBut one shot had been enough for the Hero of Athens. He still stood\nblank-eyed, looking more stupid than ever as he stared in a sort of\nnumb fascination at the shattered stoneware about his feet.\n\nAs for the maid, she'd fainted. And the expression lovely Ariadne now\nwore was beyond Burke's power to read.\n\nBut already, feet were pounding in the corridor outside. Guards poured\ninto the room, half-a-dozen of them--great, strapping blacks with\nspears and swords and shields.\n\nSix guards ... and only three shots left in the revolver.\n\nNow the Cretan who seemed to be in command of the Negroes looked about\nuncertainly. \"What happened, princess?\" he asked. \"Who are these men,\nthese strangers?\"\n\nFor a moment, Burke thought, a smile almost flickered at the corners of\nAriadne's mouth.\n\nThen, coolly, she said, \"They're strangers to me, too, warrior. I only\nknow that when I came in, this one\"--a gesture to Burke--\"was tearing\nthe clothes from my maid. Then, he swore he'd possess me, also, and\nwould have, had it not been that this other,\"--the gesture was to\nTheseus this time--\"fought to save me.\"\n\nThe Cretan's nostrils flared. He spat an order to the guards: \"This dog\nis yours. Slay him!\"\n\nBurke's stomach churned. It was all he could do to breathe.\n\nWas this the way his dream must end--here, now, before he'd even\nlearned the secret he'd come after?\n\nOnly then, as the blacks started forward, Ariadne spoke again: \"No,\nguards! Don't kill him!\" And slowly, calculatingly, dark eyes strangely\nbrooding: \"For this man says he's a god, and for such a blasphemer a\nquick death is too good.\n\n\"So, let him live--to face my father, Minos!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\n\nThe place was called the Shrine of Oracles, Burke gathered. It\nfeatured distinctively Minoan pillars--of cypress, and so tapered as to\nbe smaller at the base than at the top.\n\nAlso, it stank with a peculiar, acrid odor.\n\nBut beyond that, to Burke, it seemed disappointingly ordinary ...\nhardly colorful enough to rate the trial of a man accused of playing\ngod.\n\nThat is, so it appeared until his captors dragged him into a central\nroom ... and there, black-browed and haughty, sat bearded Minos on his\nthrone.\n\nA chill ran through Burke. Never had he seen such malevolence staring\nout of human eyes.\n\nFor his own part, it would be the supreme test of his skill and daring\nif he even left this room alive. With all his heart, he wished he had\nthe Smith & Wesson back.\n\nLacking it, he'd have to rely upon his wits and play the scene by ear.\n\nAnd that brought up another nagging question: why had Ariadne insisted\non possessing herself of the weapon? And why did she take such pains\nto stay well separated from him, with others of his captors always in\nbetween?\n\nStudying her now, it once again came home to Burke that she was indeed\na strange, a tragic figure, for all her loveliness. For even here, in\nthe presence of the mighty sea-king who was her father, her isolation\nshowed up all too clearly. The guards, the priests, the nobles--as one,\nthey walked wide around her, as if some mark of shame and menace were\nblazoned on her forehead.\n\nPerhaps--\n\nBut now Minos leaned forward upon his carved gypsum throne. \"Well,\nblasphemer? How do you choose to die?\"\n\nThe monarch's voice echoed the black hatred of all mankind that gleamed\nwith such intensity in his eyes.\n\nBurke forced himself to boldness. \"Who says I blaspheme?\" he demanded.\n\n\"Do you deny it, then, dog?\" King Minos came up from his throne in\nblazing fury. \"Do you dare to say that the Princess Ariadne, my own\ndaughter, lies?\"\n\n\"When she says I claim to be a god? No.\" Burke laughed harshly. And\nthen, with sudden inspiration: \"It's only the blasphemy I deny; not the\ngodhood.\"\n\n\"Not the godhood--?\" Now Minos' eyes distended. A note of uncertainty\ncrept into his voice. \"You mean, you stand before me claiming kinship\nto the mighty ones, the lords of earth and sea and sky who rule men's\ndestinies?\"\n\n\"Do you doubt it?\"\n\n\"Then name yourself, mocker! Who is it you claim to be?\"\n\nWith a strange sort of detachment, Burke found himself mentally\nflicking through the pantheon for some name that would fit well with\nhis own.\n\n\"Well, blasphemer?\"\n\nBurke twisted his mouth into a thin, wry smile. \"Would you disown\nmighty Dionysus?\" he queried coolly. \"Would you drive from your midst\nthe giver of grapes and wine and joy?\"\n\n\"Dionysus--!\" In awed whispers, the name ran round the crowded room.\n\nFor the fraction of a second, Minos' gaze flickered.\n\nOnly then, a new storm of belligerence seemed to shake him. He strode\nforward, shaking his fist. \"We'll see, dog! We'll see! The oracle shall\ndecide!\"\n\nThe whole throne-room quivered with sudden hushed fear.\n\n\"Make way!\" roared Minos. \"Make way to the shrine, that the oracle\nhimself may judge this mocker!\"\n\nThen, to Burke: \"--And if he declares you false, you dog, you'll wish\nI'd thrown you to the Minotaur before you die!\"\n\nHe pivoted; stalked down an aisle formed by the onlookers.\n\nRoughly, Burke's guards shoved him along behind. A stone-walled well\nloomed, with broad steps leading down.\n\n--The lustral area! The sacred place of purification that Sir Arthur\nEvans first had assumed to be a bath!\n\nOnly now, it was turning out in reality to be for revelation,\nnot purification; a holy of holies where Man could receive the\npronouncements of the gods.\n\nThe guards let go of Burke when he reached the steps. Apparently they\nhad no intention of following him down into the pit itself.\n\nOf a sudden he felt strangely nervous. His knees showed a tendency to\nshake.\n\nBut he couldn't let that happen, and he knew it. Not if he wanted ever\nto leave this weird place alive. So he straightened his shoulders and\nclenched his teeth and strode boldly after King Minos.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith every step, the biting, acrid smell grew stronger. Burke almost\nchoked on it. He found himself wondering if perhaps the oracle spoke in\ntrances induced by vapors; if maybe this pit were outlet for a pocket\nof some sort of natural gas.\n\nNot even a whisper rose from the watchers in the throne-room. The only\nsound was the scrape of his own shoes upon the stone.\n\nThen, at last, he and Minos reached the bottom of the stair.\nDramatically, the sea-king threw wide his arms. \"Mighty oracle of Zeus,\nit is your chosen one who calls!\" he thundered. \"Speak to me! Tell\nme--tell all of us--if this creature here beside me is a god!\"\n\nSilence.\n\n\"Speak, oracle! Give us your answer! Is this truly Dionysus? Or is it\nbut a man, a blasphemer we should slay?\"\n\nMore silence.\n\nBurke choked on a sudden impulse to laugh. To think of it--a twentieth\ncentury man and a Bronze Age sea-king, together in this dank, smelly\nhole, calling on the gods for a revelation!\n\nAnd what if the oracle's secret really turned out to be gas? Might it\nprove his own salvation--or at least give him a quick and easy death?\n\nFor instance, suppose he were to flick the wheel of his pocket\nlighter--would the all-pervasive smell explode or burn?\n\n\"Oracle, I am your chosen one, King Minos! I command you--\"\n\nQuietly, Burke palmed the lighter.\n\n\"Speak, oracle; speak!\"\n\nA sudden recklessness surged through Burke. He opened his mouth to\nlaugh.\n\nAnd stopped stone cold.\n\nBecause suddenly, out of nowhere, another mind was probing in his brain!\n\nInstinctively, he strove to force out the invader.\n\nThe very effort gave him new insight. For now, as he fought, he knew\nthat the mind which he had joined in combat was not human, but alien.\nIts whole quality and mode of thought were of another order, another\nrealm.\n\nFeeling that mind, fighting it, Burke all at once understood the\nmalevolence he'd seen in Minos' eyes.\n\nIn the sea-king, he faced a man possessed.\n\nNow, the alien thing sought to possess him, too.\n\nSavagely, Burke met its probings. Sweating, straining, he fought it,\nhate for hate, and turned it back, and drove it from his brain.\n\nThen, as quickly as it had come, the pressure was gone.\n\nBut in the same instant, Minos cried out, \"This is no god! This is but\na man!\"\n\nAnd from the crowd above, a thunderous echo: \"Yes, yes! He's but a man!\"\n\nThe bearded king turned on Burke. His sword-point scraped the grillwork\nof the translator case still strapped flat against Burke's belly\nbeneath the clothes. \"Up, dog! Up from this holy shrine and meet your\ndoom!\"\n\nBleak, dry-lipped, Burke started up the stair.\n\nAt the top, directly ahead of him and in the front row of those\nwaiting, stood Ariadne.\n\nAs he climbed, now, her eyes caught his and, burning, held them for\na moment. Then her hands moved in a quick, restricted gesture that\nmomentarily pulled her stylized apron to one side.\n\nThe Smith & Wesson hung beneath it.\n\nBurke drew a shallow, unsteady breath.\n\nSix steps more and he'd be at floor level. That left no time to\nquestion motives.\n\nCasually, he flipped back his lighter's lid.\n\nThree steps more, now.\n\nAnother quick, shallow breath. Then, spinning the lighter's wheel with\nhis right thumb, he knocked Minos' sword from his back with his left\nforearm and thrust flame straight at the sea-king's eyes.\n\nThe monarch gave a choked, incoherent yell and jerked back. A shove,\nand he was crashing down the stair.\n\nWhirling, Burke charged like a battering-ram straight into the crowd at\nthe head of the steps.\n\nScreams, scrambling, panic. Burke dived across two fallen priests, at\nAriadne.\n\nThe next instant he had the revolver, and his free arm was locked about\nher waist. When a thick-shouldered noble started towards him, swinging\na great double-axe, he fired by sheer reflex.\n\nThe axeman stopped short, a shocked expression on his face and a hole\nin his chest. When he fell, the whole throne-room sounded with the\nhiss of breaths sharply indrawn.\n\nBurke rapped, \"I'm leaving. Your princess goes with me. Try to stop me\nand she dies!\"\n\nOut the door, then. Down a corridor.\n\nAriadne whispered, \"Quick, my lord Dionysus! Up this stair, here!\"\n\nMore halls, more stairways. Big rooms and little.\n\nFinally, a tiny, windowless cubicle opening off a light-well.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBurke turned to Ariadne. \"All right, princess. We'll hide here till\ndark, then get you out of Knossos.\"\n\nA look of strain came to the girl's face. \"My lord, it--it cannot be.\"\n\n\"It can't?\"\n\n\"No, my lord. We--I--I dare not leave the palace. My father's\nmen--they'd run me down within a finger's-breadth of time.\"\n\n\"Oh?\" Burke studied her. \"Tell me, princess, what makes you so sure?\"\n\n\"It--it is the Minotaur, my brother.\" Ariadne's face took on a\nheightened color. \"You see, Lord Dionysus, at my father's will the\nmonster holds me here within the palace. No matter how I try to hide or\nrun away, always he tracks me down.\"\n\nBurke stood very still. \"He--tracks you down--?\"\n\n\"Yes, my lord.\" The girl raised a restless hand to smooth her jet-black\nhair. \"His mind--it follows mine, you see. So when I would flee, he\nsends pursuers to drag me back.\" And then: \"Lord Dion, I confess: at\nfirst I sought to save you so that you, a god, would slay the Minotaur\nand carry me away.\"\n\n\"I see.\"\n\n\"But now--I'm not so sure that you're a god.\"\n\n\"So?\"\n\n\"So ... so....\" The girl's voice broke. She hid her face. \"My lord, I\nknow only that I bear a curse. So, you must go quickly, and forget me.\nBecause if you should die on my account, I--I--\"\n\nHer words faded into sobs.\n\nA sudden tenderness rose in Burke. He held the shaking girl close.\n\nAnd then, all at once, the things he felt were beyond tenderness.\n\nIt gave his problem a new dimension; added another element to\ncomplicate his road.\n\n\"Could it be that the Minotaur and the oracle really are one?\" he asked\nabruptly.\n\nAriadne lifted a tear-stained face. \"How did you guess, my lord?\"\n\n\"This mind-track business--do you have any idea how it works?\"\n\nThe girl's cheeks flamed. \"Don't shame me, Lord Dionysus! You know\nhe's only--half--my brother.\"\n\n\"And on account of that wild story about the sacred bull and your\nmother, Pasiphae, you think he's got powers beyond the human?\" Burke\nsnorted. \"Believe me, princess, it isn't true. Either that creature's\nnot half a bull, or else he's not half your brother. A thing called\nscience says it can't be.\" He grinned suddenly. \"My own bet's that he's\nneither bull nor human. And maybe the best way to check on that is to\nask your mother a few questions.\"\n\n\"Then I'll come with you!\" This eagerly, from Ariadne.\n\nBurke shook his head. \"No. We'll not risk your pretty neck on the kind\nof thing I need to do.\"\n\n\"To walk with a god can bring no risk, my lord.\"\n\n\"That's just the trouble, princess,\" Burke acknowledged ruefully. \"You\nsee, you were right. I'm a man, not a god.\"\n\n\"Then all the more reason for me to stay with you.\"\n\n\"There's no use arguing. It's settled.\"\n\nA small foot, stamping. \"Lord Dion, I shall go!\"\n\n\"Sorry, princess.\" Burke smiled bleakly. \"I'll see you at your quarters\nlater. Meanwhile....\"\n\nHe struck quick and hard, straight to her jaw, then gently stretched\nher limp form on the floor....\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\n\nIt was a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces, Burke decided. No matter\nhow he tried to analyze it, he always came out with a vital fragment or\ntwo left over.\n\nTake the Minotaur. Did such a creature actually exist? Or was the thing\nsimply a figment of imagination?\n\nAssuming its existence, what about the strange mental powers with which\nit had tried to probe his brain?\n\nAlien powers.\n\nYet if it were alien, what was King Minos' relation to it? Why would a\nhuman join hands with anything that radiated such malevolence and hate?\n\nOr, for that matter, what was the relation between the sea-king and\nhis own daughter, Ariadne? Freudians would have a field day with that\nbusiness of the mind-thing's holding her within the palace at her\nfather's behest.\n\nFinally, staying on the personal level, where did Pasiphae fit in? What\nlay behind the legend of her having bribed Daedalus the Smith to build\nher a wooden cow so that she could be joined with the sacred bull?\nCould she actually have given birth to the Minotaur, or was that tale\nmerely symbolic?\n\nThen, looking at the larger elements, the questions that had brought\nhim here to start with, what was the origin of the radiation traces on\nthe site of Knossos? And how had the city so mysteriously fallen in a\nsingle night?\n\nQuestions without answers, so far. All of them.\n\nFurther--Burke checked his watch--it was past four now, and that meant\nhe had only eight hours more before the palace met its doom.\n\nYet he couldn't take Ariadne out till he'd somehow immobilized the\nMinotaur.\n\nCursing under his breath, he wondered what had become of Pasiphae; why\nshe wasn't where she belonged, in the Queen's Megaron.\n\nNow two maids appeared, an older woman between them. Hastily, Burke\nflattened himself on the high ledge where he was hiding and waited to\nsee what would happen.\n\nLeading the woman to one of the low benches along the wall, the maids\nspread a tapestry-like cloth for their charge to sit upon, then\nwithdrew. The door closed behind them.\n\nBurke frowned. There was a strangeness about the whole procedure that\npuzzled him. Not a word had been spoken. And, once seated, the woman\nhadn't moved.\n\nWarily, he moved a fraction closer to the edge of his ledge, so that\nhe could see the woman better.\n\nShe was richly dressed, with skirts that fell in bright folds\nornamented with lotus-blossom designs. Her bodice was the most ornate\nthat Burke had seen.\n\nYet it was her face, rather than her garments, that held the largest\npart of Burke's attention. That this was Pasiphae, he could have no\ndoubt. The resemblance between her and Ariadne was that marked.\n\nThe points of difference puzzled him, though. He tried to analyze them.\n\nAnd then, all at once, he knew.\n\nFor where Ariadne's face was alive and expressive and animated, this\nwoman's features sagged passive and loose. Her greying hair had the\nneatness of the maids' attention, but none of the flair that bespoke\npersonal interest. Her eyes stared out vacuous and blank upon the room.\n\nBurke's frown deepened. Carefully, he checked every detail again and\nagain.\n\nAnd then, in the position of her hands, he found the key.\n\nFor the fingers of the left were turned up and twisted at an awkward\nangle ... yet still they stayed there, minute after minute after minute.\n\nBurke sucked in air. \"Catatonic!\" he exclaimed aloud.\n\nThe woman gave no indication that she'd heard him.\n\nDropping from the ledge, he came close to her: passed his hand before\nher eyes.\n\nStill she gave no sign of awareness.\n\nBurke shivered. \"Pasiphae ...\" he whispered. \"Pasiphae!\"\n\nNo answer.\n\nBurke tried again: \"Pasiphae, tell me about your son, the Minotaur.\"\n\nNothing.\n\n\"About Minos, Pasiphae. About Ariadne.\"\n\nBlank, staring eyes.\n\nBurke paused, considered. Then, leaning close, he whispered, \"The\nthing, Pasiphae; the mind-thing. The creature that comes into your\nbrain--\"\n\nWithout warning, Pasiphae screamed. Then, before Burke could stop\nher, she was on her feet and darting past him--fleeing like a woman\npossessed down a long corridor.\n\nBurke raced after her.\n\nThen, just when he thought that he would catch her, she came up short;\nwhirled on him, eyes suddenly wild and wide. \"You! Are you one of them?\"\n\n\"One of them--?\"\n\n\"No, you're not! You don't make my head hurt like they did! They always\nhurt. Always ... always....\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nShe sagged back against the wall. Once again, her eyes began to glaze.\n\nBurke said, \"Minos, your husband ... is Minos one of them?\"\n\nStartlement. \"Don't take him! Don't take my baby! I won't let them have\nhim! I'll get him back! I will--\"\n\nThe woman struck out at Burke, then ran.\n\nSickness in him, he followed.\n\nOnly this time, she turned sharply; plunged down a narrow flight of\nstairs.\n\nCursing, Burke half-fell down the steps.\n\nIt was dark at the bottom. He could see nothing of Pasiphae. But her\nfootsteps still sounded so, groping, he tried to follow.\n\nThe next instant he stepped off into hip-deep water. Floundering, he\nfought for balance.\n\nSomething clutched at his legs.\n\nBurke bellowed aloud from sheer shock. Desperately, he tried to\nscramble out of the pool.\n\nThe thing holding him let go. Shaking, Burke dragged himself onto the\nfootwalk, flicked on his lighter, and stared down into the water.\n\nAn octopus with a head nearly double the size of his own met his gaze\ncoldly.\n\nShivering, Burke closed the lighter and felt his way, an uneasy step at\na time, along the edge of the tank.\n\nThen at last he met a blank wall ... found another flight of\nstairs ... groped his way down them.\n\nClose at hand, Pasiphae screamed shrilly and ran on again.\n\nAbruptly, then, light, as a distant door opened. Burke sprinted towards\nit.\n\nBeyond, when he reached the entry, lay the strangest room he'd ever\nseen.\n\nFor this was no half-barbaric Bronze Age chamber. Instead, it shimmered\nwith the cold fire of a blue-white metal the like of which Burke had\nnever seen before. Light pulsed from it--all of it, till he felt as if\nhe were walking in some sort of tremendous lamp.\n\nAnd there ahead, at the far end of the room, was Pasiphae.\n\nAgain, Burke sprinted.\n\nLaughing wildly, the woman stepped into a cubicle.\n\nLike magic, she vanished.\n\nFor an instant Burke hesitated, then entered the box-like area himself.\n\nThis time, the room through which he'd come vanished.\n\nAlmost instantly, then, another chamber appeared--one so vast Burke\ncouldn't be sure where it ended.\n\nA thing like a flattened cone stood in the chamber's center, looming\nlike a miniature mountain.\n\nOr perhaps one not so miniature.\n\nIt, too, was of the shimmering, blue-white metal. Not a sign of an\nopening marred its shining surface.\n\nAnd yet, Burke realized numbly, there must be ports of some sort.\n\nBecause the thing was beyond all doubt a space-ship, a vessel designed\nfor interplanetary--maybe even interstellar--travel.\n\nIt came to Burke in that moment, with grim humor, that he'd found the\nanswer to his questions; most of them, at any rate.\n\nThe radiation; Knossos' downfall; the mind-thing that was the Minotaur,\nor vice versa--all such came clear now.\n\nThis was an alien colony, set down on Crete. Which meant that anything\nwhich might befall the native population would, in the eyes of the\ninvaders, be seen as no great issue.\n\nSo, this was a good place to be away from; and the quicker, the better.\n\nBleakly, he looked around for Pasiphae.\n\nShe stood cowering a dozen yards away, eyes fixed blankly on the\ngigantic alien craft.\n\nSlowly, carefully, Burke approached her. The best idea he could think\nof was to take her hand; he'd read somewhere that leading was the best\nprocedure in dealing with any mental case.\n\nGently, he reached out.\n\nBut when his fingers touched hers, it was as if an electric shock had\nleaped between them. Screaming as before, Pasiphae ran from him.\n\nFrom him, and straight towards the space-ship.\n\nIn frantic haste, Burke started to follow.\n\nOnly then, all at once, there was a blinding flash that centered on the\nwoman. Tendrils of smoke curled up from a charred, crumbling husk.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSick with horror, Burke stared for one brief moment. Then, at the\ndouble, he hurried back to the cubicle from which he'd stepped.\n\nNow he noted that a duplicate stood beside it. Which, he assumed, meant\nthat this was a two-way transportation system, leading from the ship\nto Knossos. How far apart the two were, he couldn't even guess at.\nMiles, probably. The very fact that transportation was called for would\nindicate that.\n\nHe stepped into the second cubicle; then, a moment later, out again in\nthe room beneath the palace.\n\nIt bothered him a little that he still hadn't seen any of the aliens.\nHe liked the idea of knowing what he was fighting.\n\nBut that couldn't be helped. The important thing now was to act\nquickly; to meet and defeat the Minotaur so that he could get Ariadne\nout of the palace before it was destroyed.\n\nHe checked his watch: nearly eight already. It was incredible how fast\ntime slipped away.\n\nBack up the stairs and through the tank-room to the Queen's Megaron.\nThen out the light-well by which he'd entered, and through the\ngathering dark to the Shrine of Oracles.\n\nBecause that was where he'd have to start; he knew that from the things\nhe'd heard as prisoner. The entrance to the Labyrinth, the way to the\nMinotaur, was through some passage in the shrine.\n\nOnly there was a guard on the first entrance he tried, and on the\nsecond also.\n\nIn ten minutes he knew the truth: a mouse couldn't creep into the\nshrine tonight without being run through by a Sudani spearman.\n\nSo, he had no choice but to try a different route, the route of legend.\n\nFirst, he'd have to locate Ariadne, even though it demanded another\nhair-raising human fly act, clambering down a pitch-black light-well.\n\nThen, through her, he'd reach Daedalus, demand a thread, plunge into\nthe Labyrinth.\n\nOnly that wasn't right. The legend said Theseus did that.\n\nYet Theseus was drunk, dead drunk, back there in Ariadne's quarters.\n\nOr was he?\n\nIt dawned on Burke, then, that nothing but delirium could account for\nsuch confusion. How else could he be flying and falling at once? What\nother explanation would take in such a strange, shifting mixture of\npast and present?\n\nThen, suddenly, he became aware of the cold stone beneath his back. In\na flash, he remembered how Theseus had trapped him ... forced him into\nthe sewer ... dragged him to the Labyrinth's one secret entrance ...\nstruck him down....\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\n\nConsciousness returned to Burke with dragging steps.\n\nPerhaps that was because the place in which he now lay was so dark. It\nstayed that way even when his bruised jaw and aching head told him for\ncertain that this was reality, not delusion. No matter how he strained\nhis eyes, he could see absolutely nothing.\n\nNot that it mattered. Because he knew where he was, beyond mistaking.\nHis nose told him, picking up the acrid scent that had been so\nall-pervasive in the Shrine of Oracles.\n\nOnly here, it was worse. Here, it rose sharp and biting as the very\nsmell of death.\n\nAnd that meant he could be nowhere but in the Labyrinth itself!\n\nThe thought knotted Burke's stomach. Yet when he strove to move, his\nbonds held him, unyielding.\n\nTheseus had done this job well, Burke decided. With no trouble at all,\nit could spell doom for him.\n\nWhich brought up another question: what time was it?\n\nBy the very fact that he remained alive, he assumed it still wasn't\nmidnight; that Knossos hadn't been destroyed.\n\nBut even if he'd blacked out only for two or three minutes, the fatal\nmoment couldn't be far off ... not more than half an hour, at most.\n\nIt was the kind of thought to put a man upon his mettle. Floundering,\nBurke tried to break his bonds.\n\nIt was useless. The cords wouldn't give a fraction.\n\nThat meant he had to find some other way out.\n\nTwisting, he made an effort to check his pockets' contents.\n\nSmall change, a comb, two keys, his lighter.\n\n_His lighter--!_\n\nInvoluntarily, Burke breathed faster. Squirming, writhing, he strained\nto bring his bound hands to where one could reach into the proper\npocket, instead of just feeling what was there through fabric.\n\nNow tingling fingers told him the cords had cut off circulation. Let\nhis hands get too numb, and he wouldn't even be able to hold the\nlighter.\n\nA final effort. One thumb slipped into the pocket. Burke hooked it into\nthe opening and heaved.\n\nA seam ripped, noisy in the stillness. The pocket's contents rattled on\nthe stone floor.\n\nRolling over again, Burke groped till his trembling fingers found the\nlighter. Flicking back the lid, he spun the wheel.\n\nFlame licked at the palm of his other hand. For a moment it was all he\ncould do to keep from crying out, dropping the lighter.\n\nBut he gritted his teeth instead and, sweat streaming down his face,\nforced himself to lower the lighter carefully so that it stood upright\non the floor.\n\nNow, once again, speed became the issue. It went without saying that\nthe lighter's fluid must be almost exhausted.\n\nIf it burned out too soon--!\n\nBurke bit down harder. Heedless of the pain and sweat and knotting\nmuscles, he forced himself to thrust his wrists down so the flame could\nplay upon the cords.\n\nIn seconds, the stench of searing flesh and burned cloth blotted out\nthe chamber's odor. Eyes squeezed tight shut as if to shut out the\nagony, cursing beneath his breath, Burke strained to keep his bonds\ntaut and in the right position.\n\nThen, when it seemed that he could stand the pain no longer, a cord\nsnapped like a clipped wire. Another followed.\n\nThe next instant, Burke's wrists were free.\n\nSobbing soundlessly, he batted out the lighter, to save what fuel\nremained.\n\nAfter that, the job became routine--a matter of stripping loose ends\nof cord from his wrists; working his fingers till circulation was\nrestored; untying his ankles.\n\nThe burns still hurt; and, he knew the pain would be even worse later\non. What to do about it, though--that was something else again.\n\nIn any case, he needed light.\n\nRising, once more he flicked on the lighter.\n\nMostly, it revealed emptiness and shadow. But there was a lamp-stand\nover to one side, so Burke made his way to it and lighted the lamp.\n\nNow, for the first time, he checked his watch.\n\nEleven thirty five. Less than half an hour till Knossos met its doom.\n\nIt raised a new problem: what was his own best course now? To stay\nhere? To go seek out the Minotaur as first planned? Or to drop back\nthrough the open manhole he now spotted over in one corner, and put his\ntrust in flight?\n\nThat last idea--it had much to commend it. For one thing, almost any\nmanhole where he might come up, save only this one, would put him in a\nposition to keep a whole skin and escape the palace, even without the\nthread of Daedalus to guide him.\n\nFor another, any attempt on his part now to slay the Minotaur was\ndoomed to failure in advance. Obviously. Theseus had made off with the\nSmith & Wesson. Without it, or equivalent, no one could hope to meet\nthe monster and live.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLamp in hand, Burke went over to the manhole and sat down on the edge,\nlegs dangling, in preparation for the drop into the drainage tunnel\nbelow.\n\nOnly then, as he momentarily hesitated there, bracing himself, his mind\nturned to the one subject he most wished to avoid.\n\nAriadne.\n\nIt had to come, of course. He'd known it all along. You couldn't ignore\na woman in a moment of crisis such as this one--not when she meant as\nmuch to you as Ariadne did to him.\n\nSo, what would happen to her, if he dropped down through this manhole\ninto the sewer?\n\nAnswer: she'd die. In less than half an hour she'd die, without note,\nin the destruction of this strange, gleaming palace men called Knossos.\n\nAnd nothing he, Dion Burke, or anyone else, could do would save her,\nso long as the Minotaur lived.\n\nNow the question became, did he care about escaping, living, if he had\nto do it alone, without his lovely Ariadne?\n\nBurke forced himself to hesitate on that one. He didn't want to react\nto it hastily, or casually, or emotionally, or without due thought and\nconsideration.\n\nThe only difficulty was, a man's feelings weren't something he could\nput on or take off at will, like a suit of clothes. They were part of\nhim, incorporated into every cell of meat and blood and bone and tissue.\n\nAnd there was the answer to his basic question: win or lose, live or\ndie, he'd leave Knossos only with Ariadne at his side.\n\nBeside, hadn't the legends said that Theseus slew the Minotaur with his\nbare fists? Maybe a proxy could do likewise!\n\nSwinging his legs up out of the manhole, Burke scrambled to his feet,\nsomewhat heavily. The burns on his wrists were hurting worse now, and\nhe hardly felt in the best of shape to do battle with a monster.\n\nBut it seemed he had little choice. So, lamp in hand, he moved along\nthe wall looking for an exit.\n\nIt wasn't till he'd worked his way through half-a-dozen pitch-black\nchambers that two things dawned on him:\n\nFirst, the solution to the problem of his scorched, seared wrists was\noil; and such was available in the jars that flanked almost every\nlamp-stand.\n\nSecond, the quickest way to the Minotaur was to follow his nose. Once\nhe'd located the source of the strange, acrid smell, odds were he'd\nalso have found the monster.\n\nDoused liberally with oil, Burke's wrists felt better. And it was no\nfeat at all to choose his path by odor.\n\nYet time still seeped away ... he had a bare fifteen minutes left now,\nif his watch and calculations proved right.\n\nHow big could this cursed maze be?\n\nToo big, apparently.\n\nThen, just when despair was about to overtake him, a thin line of light\ngleamed far ahead.\n\nA sheen of cold sweat came to Burke's palms. He moved forward more\nwarily, more silently, than ever.\n\nThe light, it developed, shone from the crack beneath a door.\n\nLike a shadow, Burke crept close; laid his ear against the panel,\nlistening.\n\nNo sound.\n\nEver so gently, he laid the fingers of his left hand against the\nportal; pressed slowly.\n\nNew light appeared, washing through the crack along the jamb.\n\nA moment of taut waiting. Then Burke put his eye to the opening and\npeered through, into a large, sumptuously-furnished room. The room of a\nnoble, perhaps, or even a king.\n\nThe only thing strange about it that Burke could see was that what\nappeared to be a large tank occupied the center of the room ... a tank\nof shimmering, blue-white metal, utterly unlike the bronze of the\nMinoans; precisely the same as the material of which the great ship in\nthe cave was made.\n\nThe hair along the back of Burke's neck prickled. Moving first to one\nside and then the other, he checked as large a portion of the room\nbeyond the door as possible.\n\nNo occupants, so far as he could see.\n\nWith a quick push, he sent the door all the way back, swinging wide,\nwhile he poised rigid in the shadows.\n\nStill no reaction.\n\nSilently, Burke crossed the threshold.\n\nHere the acrid smell was almost overpowering; and though the room\nitself was unoccupied, a strange, pulsating aura of evil seemed to flow\nthrough it in great waves.\n\nBurke tip-toed to the shining, blue-white tank; peered down into it.\n\nIt held clear liquid only. But the stink of the stuff made Burke choke\nand gasp. His eyes burned. He stumbled backward, fighting for breath.\n\nIn the same instant, cloth rustled behind him.\n\nBurke whirled.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA tapestry had been flung back, revealing a previously-hidden door.\nFramed in it, well over seven feet tall, stood a creature Burke\ncouldn't believe even now, as he stared at it.\n\nThe thing was a man, at first glance--a giant of a man, mightily\nmuscled. He wore nothing save the traditional Minoan loin-band.\n\nBut it was the creature's head that held Burke; froze him.\n\nFor instead of a human head, to match a human body, this monster had\nthe head of a gigantic bull, with monstrous horns and great glaring\neyes and nostrils that flared and quivered.\n\nBurke's hand shook so his lamp almost slopped over. A slow step at a\ntime, he tried to back away.\n\nBut now, with a great bull-roar, the monster's head came down. It\nlunged at him.\n\nBurke hurled the lamp at it.\n\nIncredibly fast, the thing dodged. The lamp struck the wall. Flame\nleaped along the tapestry.\n\nBut the Minotaur paid the fire no heed. Again it lunged at Burke,\nspearing in at him with one of the great bull horns.\n\nBarely in time, Burke dived aside. Desperately, he scrambled past the\ncentral tank, searching vainly for some weapon. When he stumbled over\na low stool, he snatched it up, glad for anything that he could use to\nstrike a blow.\n\nAnother bellow. The monster launched a new charge.\n\nBurke swung the stool.\n\nBut even as the blow descended, the Minotaur brought up huge hands to\nstop it. Catching the stool by the legs, the creature jerked it up,\ntrying to wrestle it away from Burke.\n\nFor an instant, then, they struggled, toe to toe, fighting for\npossession of the stool.\n\nBut only for an instant, for Burke knew without question what the\noutcome would be; must be. No ordinary man could stand against this\nhideous freak of nature. It simply was too much to hope for.\n\nYet unless he won, what would happen to Ariadne?\n\nFiercely, he threw all his weight onto the stool, swinging by it,\ncompletely clear of the floor.\n\nThen, savagely, he slashed a foot down, so that the edge of his shoe\nraked his opponent's shin from knee to ankle before it hit the instep\nwith smashing force.\n\nThe Minotaur half doubled over. A hoarse gust of pain burst from its\nthroat.\n\nBurke let go the stool. With all his might, he struck straight upward,\nbetween the monster's outstretched arms to the great bull-jaw.\n\nNew sounds of anguish--almost human, this time. The creature lurched\nforward flat-footed, off balance.\n\nBurke leaped back. Catching the huge horns, he gave them a tremendous\nwrench, with all his weight behind it, the way he'd seen bull-doggers\nhandle steers at rodeos.\n\nSomething cracked, so loud Burke could hear it even through the tumult.\nHe wrenched again, harder.\n\nA tearing sound, this time.\n\nThe next instant, Burke tumbled to the floor.\n\nAnd that didn't make sense, because he still gripped the Minotaur's\ngreat horns.\n\nSpasmodically, he threw himself to one side and over.\n\nAcross the room, the whole length of the tapestry was in flames now,\nblazing and crackling. Eddies of fire danced along the cypress beam\nabove it, and the door-frame.\n\nIn front of it stood the Minotaur.\n\nOnly now, the Minotaur had no head.\n\nAt least, not the great bull's head. That was gone, torn away, left\nto lie like a hideous mask on the floor midway between Burke and the\ncreature.\n\nWhere the bull's head had been, atop the monster's mighty shoulders\nwas now, instead, a human head ... the tiny, distorted skull of a\nmicrocephalic imbecile.\n\nAnd on top of that head--eyes glittering balefully; tentacles hugging\nit tight to its host's skull--squatted what appeared to be a jet-black\noctopus slightly less than the size of a bowling ball.\n\nYet it was no octopus sprung from Earth's own waters. Burke knew\nthat the instant he saw it; knew it by the way the creature's eyes\nfixed on him; knew it in the chill that shook him as the thing's evil\nintelligence lanced forth to lock in mortal combat with him in his own\nbrain.\n\nAnd in a way, all that was good. At least, it relieved him of\nuncertainty; demonstrated once and for all that he'd been right when\nhe refused to believe offspring could come from the mating of bull and\nwoman.\n\nNo, that was only fable; a Bronze Age fantasy.\n\nThe fact, quite probably, was that Pasiphae had given birth to an\nimbecile who also happened by some strange quirk to be a physical giant.\n\nWhat better host for an alien telepath, a creature not adapted to\nEarth as a planet or to dry-land living?\n\nThen, to conceal the truth, hide alien and microcephalic skull alike\nbeneath a great bull's head mask, and build a labyrinthine domicile\nwhere only its victims would ever meet it face to face.\n\nAll of which was interesting as conjecture, but hardly of practical use\nto a man faced with an alien-guided, seven-foot giant as of this very\nmoment.\n\nSuch thoughts--! In spite of his plight, Burke couldn't help but smile\nwryly. With a strong effort of will, he forced the alien's probing\ntentacles of thought out of his brain; rose slowly, warily, holding the\noctopod's glittering eyes with his own.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHe was on his feet now; and, once up, he became distinctly,\nunpleasantly aware of the room's heat ... the billows of smoke, the\nroaring of the flames that leaped along the roof-beams.\n\nIt was time for him to leave. Definitely.\n\nFor the fraction of a second, he let his eyes flicker towards the door.\n\nLike a flash, his giant foe lunged for him. Before he could duck or\ndodge, he was jammed back against the wall. Great hands shoved at his\nchest, pinning him.\n\nDesperately, Burke tried to strike back.\n\nHis reach was too short. He couldn't land a blow.\n\nNow a vacuous smirk wreathed the microcephalic's loose-lipped face. The\ntiny eyes shone with delight.\n\nThere was no change in the octopod's baleful glare.\n\nNow the giant pushed harder ... harder....\n\nBurke felt his ribs begin to give. He swung his arms wildly, clutching\nin a frenzy for something--anything--\n\nHis hand touched an oil-jar. He clawed it to him.\n\nBut the Minotaur merely shifted, blocking him so he couldn't strike a\nblow.\n\nDeath was very close now. Burke knew it. Another moment, and his ribs\nwould snap and pierce his heart, his lungs.\n\nA convulsive tremor shook him. Oil spilled from the jar.\n\nOil--!\n\nWith his last ounce of strength, he brought the jar up sharply, knowing\neven as he did it that his foe would block the blow.\n\nBut the oil would keep on going, maybe....\n\nIt hit the alien full in the face.\n\nBurke could feel the thing lose control of its host. Even in his own\nbrain, it was as if a crushing weight had suddenly been lifted.\n\nSimultaneously, the human giant's arms dropped.\n\nBurke ducked and threw himself bodily at the other's knees.\n\nThe imbecile fell.\n\nAnd now, alien abandoned host, racing across the floor on its tentacles\ntowards the shimmering, blue-white tank.\n\nBurke snatched up a second oil-jar; hurled its contents.\n\nThe oil slapped over the creature in a wave. Fire leaped from the\nflaming tapestry to meet it.\n\nThe next instant the alien itself was a threshing, blazing ball.\n\nThen a ceiling timber crashed down on it in a shower of sparks.\n\nThe threshing stopped.\n\nBurke ran for the nearest door....\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n\nShe wasn't there. Even when he ran back through her rooms, calling her\nname aloud, she wasn't there.\n\nNumbly, Burke stumbled forth again, out onto the long ascending ramp\nthat led to the central court.\n\nOver on the far side, at the Shrine of Oracles, orange-yellow flames\nleaped high into the black night sky. Whipped by the buffeting south\nwind, they jumped to another building while Burke watched; then on to\nstill another. Silhouetted figures ran this way and that--gesturing,\nshouting.\n\nOnce again, Burke checked his watch.\n\nEleven fifty-five now. Only five brief minutes till the moment all\nKnossos was to be destroyed, according to the time inverter's scanner\nscreen.\n\nStill Burke hesitated, straining his eyes against the night as he\nstrove for some glimpse of Ariadne. In taut concentration, he listened\nfor the distant echo of her voice.\n\nWithout avail.\n\nThen, while he yet lingered, a man called out to him hoarsely. He\nwheeled just as one of Minos' huge Sudani guards came hurrying in his\ndirection.\n\nIt was a stimulus Burke couldn't ignore. Another moment and the man\nmight recognize him. Whirling, he sprinted up the nearest stairway,\nthen across the flat roof of the back of the building.\n\nA quick drop to the ground again. A daredevil slide down the steep East\nBastion. A stumbling, headlong run along the bank of the river called\nKairatos to the cover of a clump of cypress trees.\n\nBut now that he had started running, it seemed the best idea not to\nstop. On he fled, and on, clambering over boulders, careening into\nditches.\n\nThen, at last, he found himself in a crown of brush atop a little\nknoll, a good half-mile or better from the palace. Panting, unable to\ngo further, Burke flung himself down in the blackest of the shadows and\nlay there, staring back at the strange, stark majesty that was Knossos.\n\nThe flames of the fire he'd started in the Labyrinth still were\nspreading. Sparks swirled in the wind, carried high by blaze-stoked\nupdrafts; then dispersed, floating farther and farther from the central\ncore of heat, till at last they fell again, to ignite new buildings.\n\nTearing his attention from the distant holocaust, Burke peered at his\nwatch once more.\n\nTwelve ten.\n\nSo the zero hour had come and gone, with nothing happening save the\ncontinued spread of the fire.\n\nBurke felt a little sick. Had all his efforts, his anguish, gone for\nnothing? Was he to live out his life in Bronze Age Crete to no purpose\nsave to prove correct that part of Pendlebury's theory that said that\nKnossos, dying, had been swept by fire?\n\nBurke cursed beneath his breath. He still couldn't, wouldn't, believe\nit. It left too many loopholes. After all, what about the business of\nthe radiation traces he'd detected; the blighted circle that showed on\nthe scanner screen? Why, for so many hundred years, had Cretans shunned\nthe site of their ancient glory?\n\nThen, too there were his own personal experiences of the past few hours\nto think of. Pasiphae's monstrous imbecile son; the octopodal alien\ntelepath--what roles did they play?\n\nNot to mention the great, shimmering, blue-white ship hidden deep\nwithin the earth.\n\nCertainly Pendlebury's theory offered little save the detail of the\nfire to commend it. The invasion part, the idea that outsiders had\nswept down on the palace with torch and sword--that simply wasn't true.\n\nNot unless he, Dion Burke, might be said to constitute a whole task\nforce in himself, just because by accident he'd set the Labyrinth\nablaze.\n\nAs for his hopes, his dreams, the way he felt towards Ariadne--\n\nA wave of sheer frustration came with the thought. Savagely, Burke\nhammered the dirt with a clenched fist. Then, breathing hard, he\nscrambled to his feet.\n\nOnly in that same moment, a sound pulsed in upon him ... a high, thin,\nwailing sound that rose in sudden sharp crescendo.\n\nBurke spun round.\n\nBut before he could even place the noise, the earth beneath his feet\nbegan to shake. A roar, louder and deeper than the bellow of a thousand\nangry bulls, thundered up to counterpoint the wail.\n\nSimultaneously, light flared, so blinding bright Burke had to throw up\nhis arms to shield his eyes.\n\nThe glare seemed to come from the southeast, off in the direction where\nMount Lasithi's rocky pinnacles rose.\n\nMount Lasithi, whose towering, cliff-girt bastions shielded the sacred\nCave of Zeus....\n\nWhile Burke cringed, the radiance seemed to fade a little. The\nearth-shaking roar diminished also. The shrill wail struck a slightly\nless ear-piercing note.\n\nAnother moment, and Burke dared to squint skyward once more.\n\nWhat he saw made the hair stand up along the back of his neck.\n\nFor off there, to the southeast, a great spray of light radiated out\nfrom Mount Lasithi. Before his very eyes, the whole crest seemed to\nsplit asunder. Rocky buttresses crumbled. Great crags and ledges split\naway.\n\nUp from among them rose a huge, flattened, metallic cone--the\nblue-white ship at which Burke had stared in awe brief hours before.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLight pulsed from it now, as if it were a miniature sun. Rock fell away\nfrom the craft in avalanches as it broke free of the mountain.\n\nNow the light drew into a single, broad, fan-shaped shaft that thrust\ndown from the ship's base to the rugged terrain of the shattered\nmountain below. The thing began to climb, faster and faster.\n\nThen, as it gained altitude, it swung round in a tremendous, wheeling\ncircle ... swung round, and then straightened, and lanced earthward\nonce more, straight for the flaming tumult that was Knossos.\n\nBurke threw himself flat in the dirt.\n\nIt was wasted caution. He might as well not have been there. The alien\nship went wide of him by miles.\n\nAnother moment, and it was hovering over Knossos; leveling off till its\nbase was parallel to the ground below.\n\nSlowly, slowly, then it descended, riding down on its fan-shaped shaft\nof light till it hung bare feet above the tops of the buildings. For an\ninstant, Burke thought it must surely be going to land.\n\nBut no. For suddenly, the light-shaft pulsed brighter by a dozen, a\nhundred, a thousand times. The ship spun in a low, flat circle that\ncarried it over the entire area of the palace and surrounding grounds\nin seconds.\n\nThen the wailing sound went shrill again--so shrill Burke clapped his\nhands over his ears. The ship peeled away from the palace and lanced\ninto the sky like an electron-streak. In a flash, it was gone--gone\nfrom Knossos, from Crete, from Earth itself ... a dim and distant\npinpoint, sparkling as it faded away, incredibly fast, into the night.\n\nNumbly, Burke turned once more to the palace.\n\nSo far as he could see from this vantage-point, no sign of life\nremained. It was as if a giant hammer had smashed down on it; reduced\nit to a heap of tumbled stone. Even the fires were dead.\n\nAnd Ariadne--?\n\nBurke couldn't let himself think about her. Better to marvel at the\nalien ship, with its pulsing power that shattered mountains and wiped\nout cities. Better to grope for some bitter tendril of satisfaction\nthat at last he'd learned the truth about the palace's destruction.\n\nAs if that would do him any good now.\n\nBecause always, always, fight as he might against it, Ariadne was in\nhis mind and heart alike.\n\nYet perhaps she'd survived. After all, he'd not been able to find her\nin her quarters. And she'd promised to meet him--where was it?--on the\nheadland to the left of the mouth of the River of Amnissus.\n\nAt least, hunting for her would give him something to do; something to\noccupy his muscles and maybe, even, a small part of his brain.\n\nSo, now, he rose; turned towards the sea.\n\nIt was nearly dawn before he found his way to the headland. By then,\nthe wind had died, and the sky in the east lay grey as the whispering,\nslate-colored waves.\n\nA spark of tension came to life within Burke. Suddenly eager, heedless\nof fatigue, he clawed his way to the headland's highest point and\nscanned the whole area.\n\nNo sign of Ariadne.\n\nThe spark flickered; died. Dully, Burke stared out across the shadowy\nsea.\n\nHis life from now on would be like that: grey; all grey.\n\nIt didn't even matter that now he could see the hidden pattern behind\nthe rise of Bronze Age Crete.\n\nThe alien ship's presence was, of course, the key.\n\nObviously, that ship had brought the biggest part of so-called Minoan\nculture with it. That was why Cretan civilization had flowered so\nincredibly fast. Perhaps even the Minoans themselves had arrived on\nEarth aboard the craft, as dry-land slaves in the service of masters\nbetter adapted to a liquid environment.\n\nWhy had the aliens come? That was a question harder to answer.\nBut whether because of external foes or internal problems, the\ncreatures had been looking for a new world to colonize. And since\nthe Mediterranean teemed with octopi, Cephalopoda, no doubt Crete\nhad offered advantages. Maybe there'd been experiments--attempts\nto cross-breed the superior, telepathic aliens with the\nless-highly-developed native octopi. Or perhaps the intruders had\nmerely sought to adapt themselves to life in water, rather than the\nsmelly stuff in the Labyrinth tank.\n\nIn any case, they'd held Crete for a long, long time--the way they'd\nburied their ship in the heart of Mount Lasithi proved that.\n\nMinos, in turn, had played the role of a Quisling, power-hungry\nintermediary between his own race and the aliens. To hold his kingship,\nhe'd had Daedalus build the Labyrinth, to serve as quarters for the\nalien overseer who, in the guise of oracle, held final power in\nKnossos. And when a human host for this octopodal commandant had been\ndemanded--a man to serve as transportation for the creature--Minos had\nblackened his wife's name and dedicated his imbecile son to the duty.\n\nOr perhaps he hadn't. Perhaps he'd done the things he'd done\nreluctantly, and only in order to save his people from alien wrath such\nas had struck tonight.\n\nIn any case, the death of the alien in the Labyrinth had served\nas trigger for the disaster. One of their number slain, the\nextraterrestrials no doubt had concluded Earth unsafe, and so had fled\nback to the outer space from which they'd come.\n\nWhich meant that the alien's slayer was also responsible for Knossos'\nfall ... the death that had struck down all the hundreds trapped in the\nnow-blighted palace area tonight.\n\nBurke shivered.\n\nOnly there was another side to that, too.\n\nFor instance, suppose he'd stayed in his own time; never come to Crete,\nnor slain the Minotaur?\n\nWhere would that leave Earth? As an alien outpost, overrun with\ntelepathic octopodal horrors, while Man survived as mere serfs to carry\nout the bidding of the master race?\n\nAgain, questions without answers.\n\nBurke's shoulders shook.\n\nBut then, while he still stood brooding--fatigue-worn, lame,\nhalf-sick--the first pale fingers of the sun began to touch the horizon\nwith rose.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTurning, Burke stared down at the river and the tiny port village near\nits mouth.\n\nAs if his move had been a signal, there was a sudden stir of activity.\nMen hurried to and fro along the water's edge. A Greek long ship pushed\nout from shore.\n\nNow those aboard the craft hoisted its sail.\n\nA black sail.\n\nInvoluntarily, Burke stiffened.\n\nBecause the black sail made it Theseus' ship.\n\nAnd legend said Theseus left Crete with Ariadne.\n\nBurke ran for the point closest to the water; stared tight-lipped at\nthe long, slim vessel.\n\nScarlet caught his eye--the scarlet of a woman's bright-striped cloak.\n\nThe same cloak Ariadne had swirled for him so prettily, perhaps--?\n\nBurke dived from his point, straight down into the river. With all his\nstrength, he swam to intercept the slowly-drifting long ship.\n\nNow those aboard had glimpsed him. Men pointed. Women's voices rose,\nthin on the morning breeze.\n\nBurke plowed the water closer ... closer....\n\nAnd now a brawny, familiar figure came striding to the bow: Theseus,\nHero of Athens.\n\nBurke swam the harder. Just a dozen strokes more--\n\nAlmost, it seemed as if he could reach out and touch Theseus.\n\nThe Athenian leaned forward--face stiff, teeth bared, eyes bright with\nmalice. Then his arm came up and back, and Burke saw he gripped a spear.\n\nTheseus hurled the weapon in the same instant.\n\nDesperately, Burke tried to throw himself aside.\n\nBut the waves, the water, slowed his movements. The spear struck home,\ndeep in his shoulder.\n\nIn spite of himself, Burke cried out.\n\nAnd now Theseus caught up another spear and poised to throw it.\n\nBurke drove the air from his lungs in a gust. He sank like a rock,\nturning over and over, as the rush of the Amnissus into the sea carried\nhim along.\n\nBut at least there were no more spears; and after a long moment when\nit seemed his lungs must surely burst, he fought his way back to the\nsurface, and drank in air, and then floated till he could grit his\nteeth and tear Theseus' javelin from his shoulder.\n\nAfter that, there was the long swim back to shore--a swim against\nthe current, this time. By the time Burke made it, Theseus' ship was\ntoy-size in the distance.\n\nFor his own part, and what with fatigue and pain and loss of blood,\nBurke wasn't at all sure that he cared whether he lived or died.\nStumbling up from the water onto a narrow strip of beach, he crumpled\nface-down before he'd gone ten steps.\n\nHalf in delirium, thinking of Ariadne, he almost sobbed aloud.\n\nThe delirium grew. He knew it did, because now he could even hear her\ncalling to him dimly, as from afar.\n\nOnly then the voice came closer: \"Dion, Dion! Please, my lord Dion,\nspeak to me!\"\n\nHands lifted his head; cradled it in soft arms. Tender fingers smoothed\nhis hair and brushed the sand from his face.\n\nWith a tremendous effort, Burke opened his eyes.\n\nAnd there was Ariadne.\n\nIt took him a full minute to know he wasn't dreaming, or in that dark\nhalf-world between reality and hallucination.\n\nThen, at last, incredibly, it was true, and she was with him, her salt\ntears spattering his face faster than she could wipe them away. \"Oh, my\nlord Dion ...\" she whispered, again and again, \"My Dion, my Dion!\"\n\nBurke said hoarsely, \"Ariadne, what happened? I thought--How'd you get\nhere?\"\n\n\"How indeed, my lord Dion!\" Of a sudden the slim princess was laughing\nthrough her tears. \"I walked, as you did, though it took me longer, for\nI wanted to be sure we were free of that dog Theseus before I joined\nyou.\"\n\n\"Free of Theseus--?\"\n\n\"Of course. When he came seeking me at my quarters in the night I fled,\nthen followed him, till I knew for certain he was aboard his ship.\"\n\nAnd that brought up another matter: \"But--the cloak--the woman--\"\n\n\"The woman?\" Never had Ariadne looked more a picture of wide-eyed\ninnocence. \"I do not understand, my lord.\"\n\nBurke gave her back stare for stare, holding his tongue; and after a\nmoment, with a sound suspiciously like a giggle, she murmured, \"It\ncould not be my maid you mean, could it, my lord?\"\n\n\"Your maid--?\"\n\n\"Yes, the peasant girl who found such favor with Theseus.\" Ariadne's\ndark eyes held more than a hint of laughter. \"I thought it only fitting\nthat he be rewarded for his efforts, Lord Dion. So I wrapped the wench\nin my cloak and told her that if she kept her face hidden and played\nthe role of Princess Ariadne long enough and well enough, she might end\nup as Theseus' queen.\"\n\nThe picture was perfect. Burke laughed till he feared he'd open his\nwound again.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAriadne laughed with him for a moment, then sobered. \"I meant what\nI told her, Lord Dion. She's a clever girl, and Theseus can see no\nfarther than the nearest bed. By the time he reaches Athens, she may\nhave him so in her toils as not to be able to bear the thought of\nparting from her.\"\n\nBurke smiled wryly; shook his head. \"I'm sorry, Ariadne. It won't work.\nTheseus isn't going to like being tricked. So when he puts in at Naxos,\nhe'll leave your maid behind.\"\n\nAriadne's great eyes widened. \"And--Theseus himself--?\"\n\n\"When he reaches Athens, he'll find his father dead.\"\n\n\"I see.\" The slim, lovely princess nodded slowly. \"And then, you'll go\nto Athens, and you'll kill him. And after that, if my father, Minos,\nstill lives, you'll kill him, too. And then--\"\n\nBurke said, \"No, princess.\"\n\n\"No--?\" she stared. \"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"I mean, I'm all through killing.\"\n\nBurke shifted, trying to ease his wound. \"You see, Ariadne, I don't\nneed to kill anyone. Because Theseus isn't stupid, really, and after\nall this trouble here, he's going to settle down and make Athens a good\nking.\n\n\"As for your father, he's alive. But we don't need to worry any more\nabout him. All he's thinking of is avenging himself on Daedalus for\nhelping us. Only Daedalus is going to get away to the court of King\nCocalus, in Sicily, and Cocalus' daughter will kill Minos.\"\n\nIt was a long speech. When he'd finished, Ariadne brought up her hands\nand crossed them on her firm, bared breasts. \"It is good to know what\nthe future holds, my lord Dionysus. I thank you.\"\n\nQuick irritation touched Burke. \"Damn it, girl, I'm not--\"\n\nHe stopped short.\n\nThat line he'd half spoken--the one about him not being Dionysus, not a\ngod; just plain Dion Burke?\n\nWas it true, really?\n\nAfter all, in a world as primitive as this, what was a god but a man\nwho knew spectacularly more than his fellows?\n\nSo, wasn't Ariadne maybe right? Wasn't the Dionysus of legend maybe\njust plain Dion Burke, twentieth century man, set down in Bronze Age\nCrete with his name corrupted to fit the language and the era?\n\nAnd in that case--\n\nAriadne squirmed a little and began to smooth his hair again. Her hand\ntrembled, ever so slightly. Her voice, too. She whispered, \"My lord,\nthis talk of days to come--would you tell me about--about--\"\n\n\"About you, you mean? About your own future?\"\n\nAriadne hid her face. Her words came tremulous and muffled. \"Yes, yes,\nmy lord!\"\n\nBurke couldn't help but smile a little. It was a good thing he\npractically knew his classical mythology by heart.\n\nAnd there was nothing quite like time travel to make a man's\npredictions work out.\n\nShifting, he brought his good arm up so he could hold Ariadne. Then,\nvery gently, he began: \"You needn't fear, my princess. You and\nI--we'll go to Lemnos, make our home there. Then, we'll have four\nchildren--Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, Peparthus....\"\n\nIt was a good story, even if somewhat foreshortened by the fact that\nAriadne stopped it with her lips.\n\nThen, abruptly, she halted the new activity, too, saying, \"My lord\nDionysus, Lemnos is a far place. We'd better try to find a ship before\nthe sun climbs higher into the sky.\"\n\nTogether, they got up, then, and moved slowly down the beach towards\nthe tiny harbor town.\n\nAs for the sun, Burke decided it had never shone on a finer day.","title":"Battle Out of Time","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":21866}