Burke laughed harshly. "All right. Call me that if you want to." And then, tight-lipped: "Because make up your mind to it, you're going to do what I say as if I were your whole damn' pantheon!" He closed in. * * * * * The girl pressed back against the wall now--white to the lips, dark eyes distended. "Dion--Dion Burke--" Burke gripped her wrist. "Is it agreed, then? You'll do what I tell you?" His lovely captive winced as he twisted. "But--my lord--the Minotaur--Dion, it will slay you!" "Maybe. And then again, maybe not." Burke brushed a hand against the revolver in his waistband. "You see, I won't be on quite the same spot as those others who died, Ariadne. I've reserved a couple of special Dionysan thunderbolts to try out on your monster, patent of two subsidiary gods named Smith & Wesson." "But Daedalus--he's my father's man, Lord Dion, chief of all the palace craftsmen. He'd never help you, even if you could reach him." "I'll reach him. And he'll help me." "But why, my lord? Why risk it?" A sudden taut, eager note crept into Ariadne's voice. With her free hand, she smoothed the fabric of Burke's shirt. "Don't you see? There's no need--not when you've the power to come here as you have tonight, in spite of all my father's guards! Under his very sword, we can be lovers--" Burke smiled bleakly. "I'm sorry, princess. I wish it were that simple." "But it is!" Now Ariadne's lithe young body once more was tight against his. "I want you to come, my lord Dion! I welcome you--" "I know. And ... I love you too." For the fraction of a second Burke let his arms tighten around her. Then, abruptly, he pushed back; gripped her shoulders. "You see, I can't just come and go at will, the way you seem to think I can. And even if I could, it wouldn't help." "It would not--?" Blank bafflement spread across Ariadne's lovely face. "Not after tonight." Puzzled eyes. A wordless question. Burke said tightly, "By tomorrow there won't be any Knossos. The Great Palace here, the shrines, the other buildings--as of midnight tonight, less than an hour-and-a-half from now, they'll all be destroyed." Tension, spiraling higher with each passing second. Burke said, "Now you know why I came tonight, Ariadne: because this is the last chance I'll ever have. I've got to get you out of here, now or never. That's why I have to see Daedalus, and go into the Labyrinth, and meet the Minotaur and kill it." Still the silence echoed. A numb despair seeped through Burke. Bleakly, he wondered how he ever had been fool enough to think his words might spark response in a Bronze Age mind, or that any such mad enterprise as this could possibly end otherwise than in disaster. Only then, while he watched, once more Ariadne bowed her head and crossed her hands upon her breasts. Her words came low, submissive: "The quarters of Daedalus the Smith lie close at hand, my lord." She turned as she spoke.