"Pleasant?" Lundy was yelling aloud, and didn't know it. "Pleasant, damn you! So you kill a good guy like Farrell, and drown Jackie Smith...." _Kill? Wait--give me the thought again._... Something inside Lundy turned cold and still, holding its breath. He sent the thought again. Death. Cessation. Silence, and the dark. The tiny glowing figure on the black stone bent over its knees again, and it was sadder than a seabird's cry at sunset. _So will I be soon. So will all of us. Why did this planet take us out of space? The weight, the pressure breaks and crushes us, and we can't get free. In space there was no death, but now we die...._ Lundy stood quite still. The blood beat like drums in his temples. "You mean that all you creatures out of space are dying? That the--the madness will stop of itself?" _Soon. Very soon. There was no death in space! There was no pain! We didn't know about them. Everything here was new, to be tasted and played with. We didn't know...._ "Hell!" said Lundy, and looked at the creatures beating at the crack of the stone door. He sat down. _You, too, will die._ * * * * * Lundy raised his head slowly. His eyes had a terrible brightness. "You like to be worshiped," he whispered. "Would you like to be worshiped after you die? Would you like to be remembered always as something good and beautiful--a goddess?" _That would be better than to be forgotten._ "Will you do what I ask of you, then? You can save my life, if you will. You can save the lives of a lot of those little flower-people. I'll see to it that everyone knows your true story. Now you're hated and feared, but after that you'll be loved." _Will you let me free of this net?_ "If you promise to do what I ask." _I would rather die at least free of this net._ The tiny figure trembled and shook back the veil of dark hair. _Hurry. Tell me...._ "Lead these creatures away from the door. Lead all of them in the city away, to the fire in the mountain where they'll be destroyed." _They will worship me. It is better than dying in a net. I promise._ Lundy got up and went to the altar. His feet were not steady. His hands were not steady, either, untying the net. Sweat ran in his eyes. She didn't have to keep her promise. She didn't have to.... The net fell away. She stood up on her tiny pink feet. Slowly, like a swirl of mist straightening in a little breeze. She threw her head back and smiled. Her mouth was red and sulky, her teeth whiter than new snow. Her lowered lids had faint blue shadows traced on them. She began to glow, in the golden shaft of light, like a pillar of cloud rising toward the sun. Lundy's heart stood still. The clear gleam of her skin, the line of her throat and her young breasts, the supple turn of her flank and thigh.... _You worship me, too._ Lundy stepped back, two lurching steps. "I worship you," he whispered. "Let me see your eyes."