He had scowled at them. "All right, suppose I have. What do they offer?"
The man shook his head. "Death--if you're lucky. No man before you has ever won a battle for the Protectors. You know that--the Aesir still rule! Every chance is against you. In a thousand years no man has won the gamble. But this is greater than you or us, Derek Stuart. Do you think you have any choice?"
Stuart stared the other man in the eyes. "There's no chance?"
The leader smiled. All mankind's indomitable hope was in the smile.
"Would the Protectors have spent all their efforts, and ours, to find you if there were no hope? They have mighty and terrible powers. With the right man for their vessel, they could be stronger than the Aesir. No man could stand alone against the Aesir. The Protectors could not stand alone. But together--sword and hand and brain welded into one--yes, Stuart, there's a chance!"
"No one has yet been quite strong enough. Only once in forty years--fifty--is a man born who might, with luck, have the courage and the strength. Look at us here--do you think we would not offer ourselves gladly? Instead, the Protectors guided us to you. If you are willing to let them establish contact with your mind, enter it, possess it--there's a chance the Aesir can be destroyed. There's a chance that man's slavery may be ended!" His voice shook with that mighty hope.
Stuart glanced around at the ardent, fanatical faces, and something in him took a slow fire from the fire in theirs. A deep and vital purpose, as old as humanity--how many times before in Earth's history had men of Earth gathered in hidden rooms and sworn vows against tyranny and oppression? How many times before had Earthmen dedicated themselves and their son's sons, if need be, to the old, old dream that though men may die, mankind must in the end be free?
Here in this crowded room the torch of freedom still burned, despite the hell of slavery under which the worlds toiled now.
"It won't be easy, Stuart," the man warned. "A sword--blade must be hammered on the anvil, heated in flame, before it's tempered. The Protectors will test you--so that your mind may be toughened to resist the attacks of the Aesir later. You will suffer...."