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would call it robbery,’ Storm said.
    He started. She laughed. ‘This energy gun, which I hadwith me, can be set to do no more than stun. There was no problem in gathering some thousands of dollars, a few at a time.
     I was desperate. Can you blame me so very much?’
    ‘I ought to.’ He looked at her in the firelight. ‘But I don’t.’
    ‘I didn’t think you would,’ she said softly. ‘You are such a one as I hardly dared hope I could find.
    ‘You see, I needed a helper, a bodyguard, someone to make me appear otherwise than a woman traveling alone. That is too conspicuous
     in all past ages. And I had to go pastward.
    ‘I ascertained there was no guard on this Danish corridor. It was the only one I dared attempt with a gate open on those decades.
     Even so, you saw how near we came to destruction.
    ‘But now, here we are. There is a Warden base in Crete, where the old faith is still strong. Unfortunately, I cannot simply
     call them to come fetch us. The Rangers are also active in this milieu – it is, as I said, a crucial one – and they might
     too likely intercept the message and find us before our friends can. But once we have reached Knossos, we can get an armed
     escort, from corridor to corridor until I have reached home. You will be dismissed in your own era.’ She shrugged. ‘I left
     a good many dollars hidden in the United States. You may as well have them for your trouble.’
    ‘Skip that,’ Lockridge said roughly. ‘How do we get to Crete?’
    ‘By sea. There has long been trade between these parts and the Mediterranean. The Limfjord is not far away, and a ship from
     Iberia, which is under the religion of the megalith builders, should call sometime this summer. From Iberia we can transship.
     It should take no longer, and is less hazardous, then following the amber route overland.’
    ‘M-m-m … okay, sounds reasonable. And I suppose we have enough metal on us to buy a passage. Or do we?’
    Storm tossed her head. ‘If not,’ she said haughtily, ‘they will not refuse to carry Her Whom they worship.’
    ‘What?’ Lockridge’s mouth fell open. ‘You mean you can pose as—’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘I am the Goddess.’

CHAPTER FIVE
    White sunrise mists rolled low across a drenched earth. Water dripped from a thousand leaves, glittered in the air and was
     lost in brush and bracken. The woods were clamorous with birdsong. High overhead wheeled an eagle, the young light like gold
     on its wings.
    Lockridge woke to a hand shaking him and blinked sandy lids. ‘Huh? Whuh – No—’ Yesterday had drained him, he was stiff and
     dull in the head, aching in his muscles. He looked into Storm’s face and fumbled to recognize her, to know and accept what
     had happened.
    ‘Rise,’ she said. ‘I have started the fire again. You will prepare breakfast.’
    Only then did he see that she was nude. He sat up in his sleeping bag with a choked-off oath of amazement, delight, and –
     awe was perhaps the word. He had not known the human body could be so beautiful.
    Yet his instinctive reaction died at once. It was not only that she paid him no more attention than if he had been another
     woman, or a dog. One does not, cannot make passes at Nike of Samothrace.
    And a remote bass bellow, thundering down the forest till a flock of capercailzie took flight with enough wings to blot out
     the sun, distracted him. ‘What’s that?’ he cried. ‘A bull?’
    ‘An aurochs,’ Storm said. The fact that he was really here, now, personally, stabbed into him.
    He scrambled from the bag shivering in his pajamas. Storm paid the chill no heed, though dew lay heavy in her hair and gleamed
     down her flanks. Is she human? he wondered. After everything we’ve been through, everything we’ve got ahead of us, not a trace
     of strain – Superhuman. She made some mention of genetic control. They’ve created the man beyond man, off in the future. She
     wouldn’t need much trickery to start the cult of