He stopped halfway up the steps and lifted his head to gaze up at the
Temple walls rising above him. They were solid stone, built in the
fashion of the Old Ones ... smooth-faced except for the carvings above
the entrance itself. They too were in the traditional style, copied
exactly from the older buildings which had been built thousands of years
ago, before the Hirlaji had even developed telepathy. The symbols of Kor
... so now at last he saw them.

Tomorrow he would effect a mass-linkage of minds and broadcast his
orders for reconstruction. That would mean staying up all night
preparing the communication, for it was impossible to maintain complete
planet-wide linkage for too long and Tebron had many plans. Perhaps it
would be possible to find a way to extend the duration of mass-linkages
if the science quest could be pushed forward fast enough.

But that was tomorrow's problem--today, right now, it was right that he
enter the Temple. It was not only symbolic of his assumption of power,
but necessary religiously: every new ruler leader within the memory of
the race had received sanction from Kor first.

A momentary echo-whisper of another mind touched his, and he whirled to
his right to see one of the temple-guards in the shadows; he had been
unable to successfully shield his thoughts. Tebron dropped to the ground
and sent a quick, cool order to his own guards: "Kill him." The heavy,
dark warriors stepped forward as the guard tried to shrink back further
into the shadows. He was trapped.

But not unarmed. As he dropped to the steps and rolled quickly to one
side Tebron heard the low vibration of a disintegrator beam pass over