Part 3

"No." Unger's voice was almost a sob. "I may not leave this planet."

"Why not? We will protect you. On Earth there will be great honor for you."

"There is honor here for me among the Dreamers. You do not know it, my friend, but all the Dreamers of Venus are with me now in this moment while my life drains away. They give me honor. More than I deserve."

Horror flooded through Johnson. "While your life drains away? I don't understand."

Unger leaned forward. "Look...."

* * * * *

From his back the hilt of a knife protruded. "One of the knives found a target."

"The hopeless fools! Come. We will help you."

"No human and no Venusian may help me now. The Dreamers are with me. My life is going. Believe me, my friend, I know." The Venusian straightened up and coughed blood.

"The fools were throwing at me and they hit you accidentally."

"It was no accident," Unger said. "And the knife was aimed at me."

"At you? Why? But the Dreamers are sacred."

"Not if they break the rules. And I broke one of them. Some Venusian saw me leave the spot of light, the trick that you saw."

"But it was only a trick."

"As I did it tonight it was a trick," Unger whispered. "But as the rules go, it is no more a trick than the floating. We go into the light by a path that none may see."

"Then you deliberately stepped out of the spot of light--"

"Yes, my friend."

"In heaven's name, why?" One mystery had been solved only to open a greater one.

"Perhaps because I wanted _you_ to see me go, and follow me. Some Venusian saw me go, the one that screamed, 'I saw him!' It was a chance I took. The rules of the Dreamers say that if any watcher sees one come or go, his life is forfeit."

"You wanted me to see you go. Unger, why?"

"Because I saw your vision, your dream." Unger's voice was very weak. "Tell me, my friend, was not your dream that of a space ship flying through far-off voids, the pathway to the stars?"

"Yes. Yes. That was what I saw. But...."

"That is my dream too." Unger gasped. "It is a dream which you humans can bring to fruition. But it is not only a dream, it is a prophecy. Some day you humans will sail such a ship to the far-off stars. Here, tonight a Dreamer helped that prophecy to fulfillment. When that ship sails to the stars, Venusians will sail with you because of what a Venusian did here tonight. Two dreams met tonight and will meet again in the far-off stars."

"Lord!" Johnson whispered. Here was magic beyond comprehension. But if it was magic now, in one time to come it would be the laws of science, of energy, of space, and of time, when the records of the recorder had been translated.

"Go now," the Venusian whispered. Johnson could have stayed, he would have lifted the 300 pound bulk in his arms. Unger forbade it. "And one other thing."

"What other thing?"

"The dream of the woman. I saw that, too."

Johnson suddenly realized that while Martin and Caldwell had vanished into the night, Vee Vee was still with him.

"What about my dream?" she spoke.

"Your dream was of the man with you." Unger whispered. "I saw it. I understood it. It was another factor in the web of dreams I was weaving."

"She was dreaming of me!" Johnson said. "But she is in love with Martin."

"Idiot!" Her voice had a cutting edge. "Of course I love him. He's my brother. I wanted to come with him here but he wouldn't let me. It was from him that I learned so much about you, including how to break the Karmer grip, from his talk before he left Earth, from his letters to me."

"Your dream was of a space ship to the far-off stars. Her dream was of love, and of you." Unger sighed.

"I can dream of space ships too," Vee Vee spoke. "I can do more than dream of them. I can fly there with them."

"Good," Unger whispered as if now all things were complete. "That is all that is needed. Go now. Go!"

His voice drove them.

Hand in hand they ran through the rainy night.

Ahead of them, in some far-off sky, like a vision seen in a dream, a space ship floated.