an agony which she had not spoken of to anyone else--this actress
supreme, who for all her life had pretended to approve of the alien
Jivro's sabotage of her own racial stock--was a heart-rending picture,
and her own face told me with its extreme tension that what she said was
a fact. But perhaps this alien from space _could_ act that well? I
preferred to believe her.

"I don't see how you expect me to get a chance to release Cyane of her
crystal coffin? I will have no opportunity."

"I will _make_ an opportunity. I am not yet alone or helpless, much as
the insects would like me to be. This is my only power, that I am the
same blood as the people, and not a Jivro. They know that, and
constantly try to destroy this strength of mine by making me commit
cruelties which I cannot always avoid for fear of such of them as the
old Jivro whom you met at the council. So long as I retain his favor, I
live. When he raises his finger in the death signal, my days will be few
thereafter."

"I think I understand your position. I have heard of puppet rulers
before--woman whom I am delighted to learn has a human heart after all.
I am wholly with you, and want you to feel that you can trust me to the
hilt."

She smiled and dried her eyes. After a moment she leaned forward, and
the glory of her beauty, the near nudity of her utterly graceful body
struck at me as she fixed my eyes with her own, her face now intent with
will to make me completely understand quickly what she knew must be very
obscure to me.

"The Jivros fear the power of Cyane, the Croen captive, as they fear
death! The Croens have fought to destroy their power for centuries, on
many planets in our area of space. Cyane is one of their greatest. She
is a scientist of vast wisdom, and one who has developed a technique of
increasing the vitality of life within herself, as well as in anyone she
chooses to favor. You could well win from her such gifts, if you should
release her. It is one reason I wish to release her, in order to win
from her that secret of long life which she holds. The Croens are
masters of warfare and she would be able, with only a little help, to
develop an attack which they could not withstand."

"If they are so powerful, how is it they have not defeated the Jivros?"

"The Jivros are a very ancient, very widespread race. The Croens came
into our space-area recently, as time goes, only three centuries by your
time. They were lost. There were only a fe