But the body of the man was equipped with a sword of antique but sturdy
length, and Diana had time to sweep this formidable weapon from its
scabbard and turn aside the down plummeting axe, so that it struck a
great shower of sparks from the strange golden metal of the floor.

Druga, his rage unabated, only swung the axe aloft again, parrying
Diana's thrust with the haft of it, and then as she ducked his next
blow, the great side of the weapon struck her alongside the head;
stretching her senseless upon the floor.

Eos, on her feet, had not expected Druga so quickly to knock the goddess
unconscious, and indeed the purple mist of her hyper-space body was
already rising from the unconscious form on the floor as Eos threw
herself to the wall where a switch hung open, and with her face a glory
of triumph, thrust the great handle upward into place.

As the switch closed, a tiny black vortice spun suddenly into being in
the center of the room, and within the black swirl was a tiny golden
center. Swiftly the black vortice grew until Eos and Druga were pressed
against the wall to avoid the clutch of the power of the whirlpool. The
purple mist that was Diana was swept along as a whirlpool draws a straw,
faster and faster, and a great scream came out of the blackness. Within,
the center of the golden core seemed to give a triumphant laugh as the
purple mingled there.

For a time Eos and Druga watched the swirling gold and purple sentience
mingling and struggling at the center, and as the golden core shone
stronger and stronger and at last overcame the purple swirling entity
that was Diana, Eos pulled the switch again open, and the black vortice
of space-force lessened and finally disappeared.

That intense whirlpool of black energy had taken Diana back with it into
the terrible current of space. Diana would live--but only as a mote of
defeated consciousness whirled along forever into the depths of space by
forces too great to fight.

The man on the floor raised his head, sat up, rubbed the great lump left
there by the flat of Druga's axe--and his eyes met the flaming
attraction of Eos' eyes. With a bound he was at her side, gathering her
up into his arms, crooning brokenly.

"How long I sat and watched your grief and envied the other men who came
for their brief spell of life in Paradise before the black witchcraft of
your enemy made them into stone. How long I pitied you, poor Eos! How
many centuries have passed, and n