Toka eyed her sardonically. "I don't know if the Sphere Of All Time reported this, but in my part of the Outer World we believe people should love each other first."
"I have loved you since first I saw you in the Sphere." Kolano's silvery eyes were alight for him.
Toka shifted his gaze away. "Perhaps it might be best to wait a while."
"Perhaps Toka needs only to know me better."
Toka stood up and sauntered away. At that moment the main portals swung in for the cortege to clear away the dining service.
As the portals swung shut again, Toka glanced cynically at Kolano. "Everybody knows just when to come and go."
"The Sphere has long told the times of all your needs and actions--past, present and future."
"All right," Toka challenged sardonically, "what am I going to do next?"
"You are going to bed. And I am returning to my private rooms." Touching open the passage door, Kolano departed with a soft smile for him.
He was alone and free--but for a vow. He opened the great portals. The Hall Of Life stretched away vast and deserted. To the continuity had been added the scene of his recent dinner with Kolano.
_If he could find where they had those scenes stored_.... But another thought held him. _If the future did show Kolano and him as she had intimated_....
Toka turned back into the bridal suite. If he was going to get free he would, and if he wasn't....
It was a line of reasoning typically Kosannan!
The ceiling's glowing had dimmed. Toka turned down the silky covers of the great bed.
... _the smooth whiteness of Kolano's skin ... the Titian sheen of her hair ... the deep smouldering in those silvery eyes ... the curve of those carmine lips ... the curvedness of_--
This was the way he used to think of Roya! _Used_ to think of Roya--
Toka tensed abruptly. Through the dimness he saw the boudoir door slowly move. Who could have gotten into this suite without toppling the chairs he had balanced against the doors? Hand on Battle-ax, Toka lay motionless--ready to leap. The door moved slowly in.
_In the black court, the Sphere Of All Time shone on with a pale cold light...._
_Ophid's men, boys and dragons were massed around him as he stood atop a huge stalagmite stump. His features were contorted with insane rage, his snaky body quivering with it. His fanged mouth began to froth. His wild-eyed subjects snapped their heads up and down in approval. Ophid made a sweeping gesture and the fanatical Dragon Men began a frantic search for handy lengths of limestone shards--broken from the mighty columns...._