"How do we get out?" he said. "Is the passage blocked?" "Completely," Firebird said. "Or else the gentlemen who were so anxious to meet you here would have arrived by now." "You planted the explosive?" "Yes. I wanted our interview in private, not amidst a battle." "How do you know there is any other way out?" "Your father and I built it long ago." Nathan remained silent. Was it only some purposeful fiction, or had his father actually been partners with Firebird? She turned her back upon him and led the way out of the chamber by her own mysterious radiance. He could draw his flame lance now, Nathan thought. But it was only a thought. He wondered if he could ever seek vengeance upon such beauty regardless of what she had done in the past. There was a temptation almost stronger than vengeance now, a temptation to see this whole affair all the way through--to find out the true identity of the fabled Firebird and the secret of the Seven Jewels of Chamar. For a time they walked towards the blocked entrance, then they turned abruptly aside into a narrow passage. The slim Firebird passed through easily but for Nathan it was a tight squeeze that grew narrower as he went. A strangling sense of claustrophobia seized him. He pressed almost frantically to get past the bottleneck. If this were a trap Firebird could shoot before he could get a hand near a weapon. Then he saw her waiting for him ahead in the larger chamber to which the narrow passage led. She seemed to read his thoughts. "Do you trust me now?" "Does anyone really trust the Firebird--anyone on the nine worlds?" The sudden sobering of her face was a terrible thing to see. She turned away so hastily that Nathan barely saw the expression, but he saw enough to know that there was weakness in her. She was not all iron strength. He saw enough to know that the incredible, storied Firebird had no friend in all the System and he knew what that fact meant to her. IV Nathan had never been in the part of the cavern which they were entering. He knew the narrow passage must have been covered by a thin shell of rock in his time. They came at last into a chamber that was the equal in size of the main one. There was daylight visible and the pink radiance from Firebird began to die. When it was gone she seemed smaller and more fragile than ever. Only the little blue lights in her eyes seemed hard and unyielding. Within the chamber Nathan stopped and gasped. There was the glistening, silver hull of a space cruiser. And high on the nose of it was the dread name: _Corsair_. _Corsair_--the famed pirate vessel that had outrun every ship that had ever pursued it. In a hundred acts of piracy, the Firebird had escaped without leaving a trace by means of the _Corsair_. She watched as he admired the ship. "Like it?" "So this is the famous _Corsair_," he said, "--and your hideout. You must be sure of your ability to win me as an ally or to kill me."