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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07282da --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64725 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64725) diff --git a/old/64725-0.txt b/old/64725-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1829b95..0000000 --- a/old/64725-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1827 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Valkyrie from the Void, by Basil Wells - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Valkyrie from the Void - -Author: Basil Wells - -Release Date: March 06, 2021 [eBook #64725] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VALKYRIE FROM THE VOID *** - - - - - Valkyrie From The Void - - By BASIL WELLS - - Staggering under the blasting heat of a great ringed - sun, she fought only to cross her savage slimy world. - The lithe Priestess Ylda knew not that her goal lay, - bright and shining, a thousand light-years away. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Fall 1948. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Hardan Synn reined in his graceful golden-furred _maar_ as he reached -the rim of the river's low bluff. He was uncomfortable, for the -_vurth_-padded garments that covered his naked body were growing dry, -but tied to his huge hornless saddle were three fat Dryland birds. He -would eat well tonight. - -The rough fare of cereals and preserved fish had palled. Five years -of roaming the blistering plains and mountains with sun-hardened -prospectors and hunters had given Hardan Synn a taste for Dryland -flesh. So it was that he quitted the camp when the day's trek was done -and rode out in search of game. - -The maar's long black ears cupped forward, searching the source of some -discordant sound. Hardan's keen green eyes snapped back to the reality -of the camp sprawling half-in, half-out of the muddy bluish river. - -Men were fighting, fists and clubs smashing into the down-furred -flesh of their fellows. The sound of their enraged bellowing and the -shrill screams of pain and agony grew louder even as he forced his maar -down the steep path to the bluff's base. - -"Nitka Porn again," Hardan Synn spat out savagely as the blue dust -swirled about him. "Always he seeks to stir up trouble among the -_sarifs_." - -His sun-darkened face was a gaunt mask as he neared the river, but his -slitted green eyes were hot with growing rage. He could not leave the -eighty great wagons with their cargos of two hundred Wetlanders and -their meager supplies for so short a time as a _turev_ of the water -dial without trouble arising. - -Hardan sprang off his mount and elbowed his way into the thick of the -melee, his broad hard shoulders tossing soggy-padded men aside. His -hard fists smashed one scowling-faced Wetlander's nose, and then he was -through into the rude square formed by the inner ring of six-wheeled -wagons. - -"Nitka Porn!" he shouted, his voice a knife-thrust of sound above the -tumult. - -The fighting men separated slowly, some weaving on their legs -unsteadily, bleeding, and others kneeling and groaning. A half-dozen, -most of them wearing the short green capes of the nobles' personal -servants, sprawled limply in their own reddish-brown blood. - -From one of these unmoving bodies a huge-bodied man, his brutal jaws -masked by a bush of fiery red whiskers and his broad nose segmented by -a sword-cut's diagonal scar, rose. Half his protective shell of faded -blue cloth stuffed with vurth was ripped away from his shoulder and -chest. Great muscles knotted there in his swiftly dehydrating pink -flesh. He snarled at Hardan. - -"The Drylander arrives," he jeered, and laughed. - -From the hard-packed blue clay of the camping place he picked an -arm-long stake of wood. He waved it derisively at Hardan. - -"Watch him shiver," he roared. "When he is well beaten I will drive him -from the camp. Then I will lead." - -Hardan's stomach knotted--and then dissolved into a glowing spot of -fire. His fingers bit into the leather handles of his twin short -swords. He had no eyes for the grinning minority clustered about Nitka -Porn. Nor did he see the puzzled empty faces of the other trekkers, the -slow-minded plodding sarifs caught in this bloody trailside struggle. - -"You stand alone against us all," snarled Nitka Porn, swaggering -forward, his muddy green eyes slitted watchfully. "The Consars are -dead, swimming in their fine wagon tanks for the last time. Their -wagons and riding maars are ours now." - -Hardan caught his breath on that. This was disaster! - -"Fools," he said, his voice loud and sharp, "you know the price of any -rebellion. The Consars will track you down. For many it will be the -crushing death." - -Even as he spoke his eyes never left those of the red-whiskered killer -he fronted. In a moment the giant sarif would charge forward, his club -swinging and the long curved sword of a dead lord in his other hand. - -Hardan sprang to meet him, swords bared and gleaming. Perhaps with the -death of Nitka Porn the revolt would collapse.... - -The stake caught him squarely on the shoulder. His left-hand sword -dropped, tripping him. He caught himself, warded off a whistling slash -of the huge curved blade of the sarif, and leaped backward. His left -shoulder was numbed, his arm dangling limp as a blasted _netho_ leaf in -the noonday sun. - -Hardan's sword darted in and out, flickering in the brazen sunlight. -Blades clashed, slithered apart and the good steel rang clear as bells -tinkling. Blood leaked through the pierced blue cloth of the sarif's -vurth-padded garment in a half-dozen places. - -His arm was tingling with reviving life. Through a red mist of hate -Hardan fought with a cool machine-like series of lightning-swift lunges -that ripped the sarif's skin into myriad reddish-brown furrows. Hatred -was there, yes, but so controlled that it added strength to his sword -arm and length to his blade. - -The long curved sword flipped abruptly away into the faceless mass of -the ringed trekkers. Nitka Porn pawed at his dripping knuckles, his -mouth squared, his eyes bulging. He lunged backward, the men parting -before his blind rush. And Hardan followed, his eyes hot. - -"Kill him.... Mika, Garnd.... Don't let him.... No.... Mercy!" begged -the great coward, his hands before his face. - -Hardan poised his keen blade for the death thrust. - -"No," he swore angrily, "by Ung Roth, I have not the heart for killing -this foul _bladt_." - -He rammed the sword into the clay. His fists swung hard, all the -unleashed loathing and disgust of weeks past in their calculated blows, -and Nitka Porn went down emptily, to quiver and lie still. - -Hardan retrieved his swords, wiping the stains off on the unconscious -hulk's ribboned cloth. He faced the sullen Wetlanders. - -"I take over again," he announced. "Back to Aba we go. It's but two -days' trek. There the guilty will be punished before I guide you to -Lake Gron." - - * * * * * - -Dandu Mot, a gray-maned sarif, stepped forward. "No," he said simply. -"We will not go back. The innocent would die with the guilty. And our -children and women would be driven out of the settlement stripped of -even our poor store of tools and food." - -Hardan frowned. Dandu Mot was right. The justice of the Consars on the -frontier was severe. They would make of this revolt a lesson for all -that might follow along the arid dusty way from Wetland to Wetland. -Even he, as guide and leader of the wagon train, might be killed. - -The old man came closer, his faded green eyes pleading. - -"We did not wish to revolt," he said. "It was Nitka Porn and his men -who murdered the Consars. Perhaps beyond the Malsalm Range other -Wetlands lie...." - -His voice trailed off. Hardan's eyes swept over the oddly assorted -throng of sarifs and craftsmen, poor oppressed men seeking a new and -freer life beyond the Drylands. Could he see these sad-faced women made -widows needlessly? And what of the young ones, their soft pelts as yet -devoid of the scantiest of silky fur? - -"I must yield," he said soberly. "And beyond the eastern uplands there -does lie a sea. Only one Wetlander has ever looked upon it--Jaff Ka!" -He paused. "By the grace of Ung Roth and Zo Aldan we may win through." - -"There are Drylanders?" - -Hardan nodded. "Drylanders who hide in watered valleys and war on all -who venture there. Strange monsters, demons of Thog Molog, so say the -Drylanders, lurk in the darkness to kill. And winged _soraps_ that -carry off half-grown children and woolly bladts." - -"You know the way?" - -"I have ridden across the Plateau of Fire to the Plains of Niid, Dandu -Mot, but never to the Bitter Sea. But Jaff Ka told me the way." - -"So let it be," said the old sarif, stroking his blistered cheek -thoughtfully. "And, if we die in the Drylands--we at least die free!" - -He turned to his followers. "Seize the followers of Nitka Porn and bind -them. Tonight we will try them." - -Swords and knives flashed. Clubs smashed and battered, and a moment -later seven groaning men were led away. Four others of the red-bearded -sarif's followers would walk no more, anywhere. - -Hardan turned sharply on his heel and headed for the two wagons of the -priests of Ung Roth Ka. His dehydrated body cried out for a soaking in -the built-in tank in the wagon's middle. Only by frequent immersions -and water-soaked outer shells of cloth could the Wetlanders endure the -arid wastelands for more than a few hours. - -A line of wounded, bruised men were already at the wagon, the two -priests in their hooded orange cloaks attending to their hurts. And -with the priests worked their gentle-faced wives, the priestesses of -Zo Aldan Ra, the god's beloved mate. Hardan's blood pounded fast as -he caught a glimpse of the white-robed novice, Ylda Rusla, bearing a -steaming basin of water in her dainty hands. - -"Hardan!" cried the girl, her soft green eyes lighting up, "you escaped -death! You will take us back to Tarn--to safety?" - -The frontiersman smiled down at the lithe full-breasted woman facing -him. Even the soggy vurth-padded garments and the coarse white robe -could not conceal the perfection of her body and face. - -He shook his head. - -"We go into the Malsalm Range," he told her, "and beyond." - -"Not even to Lake Gron!" Ylda's face was ghastly. "But, I must--surely -you could send me back." - -"Sorry," Hardan muttered, "but you cannot leave us now. The wagon train -must disappear--as though the Drylanders had attacked and destroyed it." - - * * * * * - -The girl's eyes flamed. "I command you to take me back to Aba!" Her -foot stamped down imperiously. - -"Ylda, believe me, I would if it were possible. But the lives of us all -depend on absolute secrecy. No word of this train must ever reach the -Consars of Tarn." - -Ylda's small chin lifted and she turned her back, the hot water -slopping down across her robe. She headed blindly back toward the -wagons. Hardan shrugged, an empty pit in his middle. Any hope that he -might win the beautiful novice from her devotion to Zo Aldan Ra was -gone now. - -He hurried past the wagons and down the blue clay slope to the fresh -waters of the Gron River. For the moment he wanted no conversation with -the priestly healers of the wagon train--or anyone else.... - - - II - -His body soaked luxuriously in the shady pool beyond a looming jut of -reddish granite. Were his lungs drinking in the moist richness of the -Upper Sea, the vurth-maintained mistiness above the true seas of Osar, -he might have thought he was back in Tarn. - -The Wetlands of Tarn were a handful of islands and a narrow -thirty-mile-wide strip of foggy tropical plains and forests along the -true sea of Tarn. Over the sea and back over the mainland extended the -upper sea, a false sea of floating aerophyte growth, tenuous and frothy -as spun threads of silvery moonbeams; yet capable of retaining a vast -amount of moisture and warmth. - -For almost a mile it extended upward, its delicate tendrils touching -the restless sea and the fertile moistness of the land alike to draw -life from them. It offered no resistance to the passage of men or -ships; yet it shielded them from the harshness of the vast ringed sun -of Osar. - -And here four million Wetlanders lived and built their dank -massive-walled cities. Half of them were Tarns, ruled by the Council -of Consars, and across the vastness of the Tarn Sea four other -smaller kingdoms fought and squabbled over their narrow strips of -vurth-shielded Wetland. - -The land was overcrowded and so it came about that a few hardy -adventurers pushed out into the Drylands. At first they followed the -rivers, their bodies slowly toughening to the actinic rays of the -direct sunlight, and later they struck out into the unknown dryness of -grassy plains and deserts. They fought the huge apish Drylanders and -ate the hairless horned ulfo of the plains and the woolly bladts of the -barren hills.... And they found Lake Gron, where a large central island -offered new homes for thousands of impoverished Consars and their -sarifs. - -So it was that endless series of wagon trains, drawn by domesticated -Dryland beasts, maars and ulfos, pushed up the Aba River, and the Gron -River beyond the dam at Aba, to the upland lake. And the hardy men -of the frontier guided them--even as Earthmen ten centuries before, -and a thousand light-years distant, had guided their effete Eastern -countrymen into the Rockies and beyond.... - -Hardan stirred at last and climbed, refreshed, from his pool. Darkness -had come and a dozen fires blazed merrily within the ringed double -walls of the roofed wagons. He gathered up his weapons and clothing, -wearing only the thin inner jerkin and trunks against the dryness of -the night air, and went to the wagons. - -Before dawn the wheels were rumbling and grinding up over the -rock-strewn ridge above the river headed out into the eastern -grasslands. The sleeping tanks, where the Wetlanders slept on moist -elevated pads of vurth, were full and the spare water tanks were loaded -as well. A dry trek of three, possibly four, days lay ahead of them -before they could reach the eastward branching of the Aba River. - -Hardan and three of the young sarifs stayed behind as the train moved -away, readying the ten oldest wagons and the discarded equipment -for the fire that was to help cover their tracks. Later parties -of Wetlanders would find the ashes of wagons and the fire-blasted -skeletons of men beside the trail and presume this had been a massacre -by the apish barbarians of the plains. - -"I wish the council of sarifs had ordered the death of Nitka Porn last -night," said a blocky young sarif uneasily. "If they escape during the -night there will be trouble." - -Hardan touched his torch to the wagon they approached. The others were -already ablaze. Together they swung into the saddles of their snorting -maars. Only then did he speak. - -"Yes, Malth Jed," he agreed. "It seemed to me that the council feared -Nitka's wrath even though he was a prisoner. For that reason I advised -Dandu Mot to double the guard." - -"There was light from the fires last night," argued Malth Jed. "Why -wait for daylight to slice their necks?" - -"I do not believe all Porn's followers are prisoners," Hardan said -grimly. "They may hope to free Nitka Porn and recapture the wagon -train. Any delay would help that plot." - -"Fools," grunted Malth Jed shortly. "The red-bearded one would turn on -them even as he turned on the Consars." - -By this time the other two sarifs had joined them on the rim of the -bluff above the river. The wagons blazed up brightly, their sun-dried -wood and cloth burning fiercely. With the morning sun only a smoking -huddle of ashes and twisted metal would remain. - -Hardan reined away from the bluff. They made too perfect targets -against the illumination of the fire. But suddenly he arrested the -little party's advance with a hiss of warning. - - * * * * * - -From the pale darkness before them the sound of distant shouts and -shrieks came to them. The caravan was being attacked--or the outlaw -sarifs had been freed! - -"Spread out," Hardan commanded tensely, "as we reach the wagons. That -way we will present a poorer target." - -He dug his heels into the maar's sleek sides and they galloped forward -along the rutted broad track of the wagon train. - -The fighting had ended by the time they traversed the half mile gap -that lay between them. The wagons were halted in a jumbled confused -S-shaped tangle in the growing dawn. Only a sullen silence greeted -them, but they saw dark movement against the slant-roofed bulk of the -wagons. - -"Hold!" warned Hardan. "Let me ride forward. It may be a trap." - -And then, from a clump of wagons further along the snaking train, a -maar and rider pounded out into the grasslands and headed in their -direction. A man shouted something, and a confused chorus of yells -answered him. After the lone rider a dozen other mounted men raced. - -"It's a woman!" Malth Jed grunted, his bow ready in his thick fingers. -"The white-robed novice of Zo Aldan Ra." - -"Then they've overcome Dandu Mot and freed the red-bearded one," Hardan -muttered, readying his own weapons. - -The girl rode swiftly closer. The four riders went to meet her, their -swords loosened in their sheaths and their spears in their hands. -Only Malth Jed relied on his heavy hunting bow as a weapon; the others -preferred throwing spears and swords. - -"Hardan!" shrieked Ylda, "behind you!" - -The frontiersman twisted in his saddle, a throwing spear grazed his -vurth-padded shoulder, and he found himself facing the hate-twisted -features of the two sarifs who had accompanied him. The strength of -Nitka Porn in the wagon train must have been considerable, he thought -ruefully, as he crossed swords with the lanky sarif on his left. - -The sarif was no swordsman, the cowardly spear had been his only hope, -and even as he turned his terrified eyes briefly toward his fellow an -arrow bristled from the other sarif's throat. He shrieked and hurled -his sword at Hardan even as he dug his heels into the maar's flanks. He -went racing away, blood streaming from his sword-pierced upper arm. - -Malth Jed reined closer. "Wound you?" Hardan shook his head. - -"They killed Dandu Mot--many others--one of the holy healers who -rebuked them--and now they loot the wagons." The girl's lips quivered -as she spoke breathlessly. - -"I guess you get your wish now, Ylda Rusla," he said grimly. "We ride -back to Aba to ask for troops to pursue Nitka Porn." - -Further conversation was impossible. The first pursuers, augmented now -by a score or more of men on foot, were upon them. Spears and arrows -were dropping around them as they wheeled their maars about to escape. - -Ylda's maar went down, squealing horribly, a spear in her belly, and -the girl was hurled over her mount's head into the tangled coarseness -of the yellow ulfo grass. Before Hardan could swing back to scoop the -unconscious body of Ylda from the ground their pursuers had reached her -and surrounded her. - -Hardan rode into them, hewing and slashing with his twin swords, -letting his maar move as she willed. Blood splashed and spurted before -his maddened blows, and the rebellious sarifs fell back momentarily. -Ylda screamed. He saw a sarif on foot hoist the girl's struggling form -to a mounted man, a huge-bodied redbeard, and the rider's fist smashing -down at the juncture of rounded neck and fragile jaw. - -Ylda went limp as Nitka Porn's blow landed and then the outlaw rode -away, waving a derisive fist at Hardan across the bulwark of mounted -men and attacking sarifs on foot. - -He was battling for his life a second later. A spear found his body, -and then another. Arrows hailed upward at him, piercing his padded -limbs and drawing blood. In a moment he would be over-powered. Yet he -fought on, trying to break through the press of rebel sarifs to pursue -Ylda's captor. - -"Hardan," a terrible voice roared above the shouts of his attackers, -"escape.... Outnumbered!" - -A spark of sanity remained in his weary brain. And the words of Malth -Jed fanned it into life. His swords hissed, carving out a momentary -gap, and he sent his maar plunging back the way they had come. He -saw Malth Jed, sagging in his saddle, racing before him, and even -as he watched a feathered shaft jutted abruptly from between his -shoulderblades. - -The stocky sarif slumped forward, clinging in his death agony to -the saddle, and so they rode away into the growing daylight of the -Drylands--a wounded cursing Wetlander and a jouncing bundle of dead -sinews and bone that had once been a man.... - - * * * * * - -Two hands of days had passed before Hardan dared leave the sheltered -cave beside the Gron River not far from the ashes of the abandoned -wagons. The two maars had pastured in a grassy hidden ravine and there -too had he buried the stocky body of Malth Jed. - -Then he had taken up the trail of the wagons again, and, despite the -soreness of his half-healed wounds, come up with them in a matter of -three days riding. He found them camped at the Isr River junction. - -So now he lay on his belly in the early twilight, peering down into the -rough circle of wagons, his eyes searching for the white-robed form of -the girl he loved. - -At last he saw her with one of the priests and a priestess sitting -beside a small cooking fire apart from the others. But she no longer -wore the garb of a novice. Instead she wore the green cloak of a Consar -over her bulky vurth-stuffed coverings. A moment later he saw that her -legs were linked by a short length of chain, riveted to either ankle by -a cuff of metal. And across the fire squatted an armed man, a guard. - -Hardan was puzzled at her change of garb, but his blood pounded with -joy as he saw her apparently unharmed and well-fed. With the coming of -darkness he could rescue her, and, Ung Roth willing, the priests and -their wives as well. - -So he set out looking for a concealed pathway to the river's edge and a -thousand feet further downstream came upon a sheer gorge cut into the -clay and soft gray rock of the bluff. Down this he lowered himself and -in the increasing gloom made his way to the river and submerged. - -He swam upstream, silent as a hunting _prel_, his only weapons his two -swords. His spear and the excess garments he had left on the little -sunken bowl of grass where his maars grazed. - -Like a great Dryland Ape of the woodlands he crept up from the water at -last, his only shelter the waist-high clumps of ulfo grass that dotted -the river's shingly bank. And he won at last inside the carelessly -guarded ring of wagons to the small fire where Ylda sat silently and -stared into the flames. - -From the shelter of a great double-spoked wheel he studied the camp. -Well for the fleeing sarifs, he thought, that no raiding party of -Drylanders had come to attack. He heard them quarreling and shouting -drunkenly, and saw their swords and other weapons heaped carelessly -beside the fires as they ate and caroused. - -The guard spat impatiently into the fire and ran a dry tongue over his -parched lips. Longingly he studied the growing excitement at the center -of the encampment. There was nothing to do here, only the priest and -priestess discussing the strange healing property of a vegetable mold -recently discovered in Tarn. He slapped his hip, cursed roughly, and -climbed to his feet. - -"Don't stir from the fire," he ordered Ylda fiercely. His tongue poked -thirstily at his lips. - -The guard swaggered away from the fire toward the curtain-hung rear of -the wagon just ahead. This wheeled canvas-and-wood shack had a sagging -roof sloping from a central ridge to either end of the box so that a -sort of awning covered the low rear entrance. He reached inside and -when his arm emerged a basket-woven jar was in his hand, its inner -earthware lining containing a sloshing fluid. - -Hardan scented the raw reek of alcohol, of _garack_, as he crept -closer. The guard's thick lips smacked, he rubbed a rasping fist across -his mouth and snorted appreciatively. Then the jar tilted again, -gurgled. - -The guide sprang, his fingers clamping about the startled throat of the -sarif. He squeezed hard, choking back the gasp of terror, and the jug -crashed to the hard ground. Then his fist chopped in a short vicious -punch to the sarif's neck that felled the man. - -He trussed the sarif swiftly with his own filthy brown cape, stuffing a -generous handful into the gaping mouth, before he crossed to the fire -and squatted in the guard's place. - -Ylda came to her feet, hand to her mouth. - -"Hardan!" She came toward him jerkily, the chain making her take -mincing, careful steps. - -"Sit down," he told her. "And warn your friends to keep their places." -The priest and the priestess smiled quietly. - -"Fear nothing from us," they told him. "Our calling is to heal the -bodies and minds of the sick. It was for that mighty Ung Roth Ka came -from the greater of the four moons to dwell among men. We care nothing -for the quarrels and jealousies of men." - -"Though," added the priestess, "as a woman and not a servant of Zo -Aldan Ra, I hope you escape safely." - -The priest nodded, his eyes twinkling. "We are yet only human. Though -we will not use violence yet we can give advice and appeal to our -mighty master in your behalf." - -Hardan bowed, his hand making the respectful sign of a believer on the -great god of healing. "I will bind you before we leave," he said, -"unless you will come with us." - -The priest shook his head. "There are many sick and fearful in the -train," he said, "we remain to aid them." - -Hardan turned to Ylda. "After I break your chain slip beneath the wagon -and through the grass to the river. I will follow." - -He arose and came over to her as though to examine her bonds. His hands -clamped the chain and he tested the hand-forged links. One of them -twisted and spread apart. Quickly he wrapped a strip of her green cape -around either length of chain and her leg. - -Ylda slipped away. Hardan busied himself binding the priest and -priestess of the only gods and then followed. Almost he had reached -the river when the silvery light of the four moons of Osar shone from -beneath a pear-shaped cloud above the distant eastern hills. - -Instantly the river flats were lighted bright as their beloved -Wetlands. And a guard, rousing from his half-sleep in the white -brilliance, saw Hardan's moving shape. He cried a warning. - - * * * * * - -Hardan knew the need for stealth was gone now. He ran to the river -bank where Ylda waited, took her hand, and flung himself out into the -sluggish muddy stream. He swam directly across and there, taking her -in his arms, headed into the vine-tangled growth of scrub _ossa_ and -knotty _brel_. And at its edge he halted long enough to send a shout of -defiance back at the clustering sarifs. - -After that he wasted no more breath. Downstream he threaded his way -until a crook in the river piled a welcome wall of blue clay and shale -between the camp and them. Here he again took to the river and a few -minutes later they were running breathlessly across the moonlit plain -beyond toward the hidden maars. - -"Tricked them that time," chuckled Hardan, saddling their mounts. -"We'll circle eastward toward the Blue Malsalms and then head back -toward Aba." - -Ylda put her slim fingers on Hardan's arm and squeezed. It told him, -more than words, that she was happy to have escaped and that as yet she -was breathless. - -He lifted her into the saddle and then mounted himself. It was so easy -now--a day's ride away from the river and then a southward swing until -they could head directly westward back toward Aba and the river trail -to the Wetlands.... - - * * * * * - -The rocky escarpment loomed closer and closer as they drove their -lathered maars up the boulder-strewn slope. Ylda turned for a hasty -glance backward. - -"They're gaining, Hardan," she shouted. - -"It'll be night soon," Hardan called back, "and the Drylanders fear -darkness." But his eyes probed vainly for a way of escape ahead. - -His mouth twisted wryly as he recalled his plan of the preceding -night. At midday a mounted party of the giant Drylanders, savage -yellow-haired, apish brutes, had sighted them and for the last five -hours they had found safety only in swift flight. Now, unless a gorge -or pass opened in the looming grayness of the brown-splotched cliffs, -they were trapped at its base. - -Already the triumphant scrawling of the Drylanders sounded in their -ears as the ape-things fanned out on either hand. Once that curved line -pinned them against the cliff they were trapped, to be killed or, if -captured alive, saved for sacrifice to the foul god of the Drylands, -Thog Molog. - -The sheer escarpment loomed higher and more forbidding as they neared -it. Hardan felt his chest grow hollow as the last prospect of escape -dwindled. All that remained now was to find a vantage point above their -pursuers and sell their lives dearly. To be taken alive was unthinkable. - -A huge flat-topped boulder shouldered the cliff, its rim twenty feet -above the sandy soil, and toward this Hardan led the way. It was a -natural fort that they might hold until darkness clamped down. - -Hardan rode his maar close up to the rock, where a crevice split -several feet diagonally down the face of the boulder, and swung up from -the saddle. A moment later he was crouched on the rock helping Ylda to -his side. - -Their maars moved away only a few paces and started grazing on the -sparse-leaved clumps of ossa and brel at the cliff's base. Hardan -turned, facing the cliff, and now he saw an opening in the cliff wall -where the boulder's flat rim touched it. It was a low oval of darkness -going back deep into the cliff's heart, a cave entrance hid by the -great rock. - -"In, quickly," he ordered Ylda, "before the Drylanders arrive." - -And hardly had they reached that welcome shelter than the huge warriors -came thundering up to the cliff. - -At sight of the empty saddles the Drylanders growled their amazement, -their guttural meager speech carrying excited overtones of -superstitious terror. Hardan understood enough of their brutish gabble -to learn that they believed their monster god, Thog Molog, had carried -them away. - -Then keen tiny eyes discovered the flat-roofed boulder and a moment -later their shadowy hiding place was discovered. Instantly the hushed -mutterings and moans of awe changed to roars of rage. They came -swarming up over the rock. - -Hardan met them with arrows and spears. The first wave of attackers -fell back, only to launch a second and more powerful assault. This time -they swung up to the boulder-top together and the Wetlander dropped -back into the cave-mouth, his twin swords bared. - -The apish giants crouched down and came raging at him, only to be -spitted on his flashing blades until the opening was choked with bloody -chilling flesh. Their comrades dragged the bodies backward and once the -orifice was cleared flung themselves at him again. - -His swords bit deep, drinking the life of Drylander after Drylander -until at last the assault ceased. Darkness had fallen and the great -brutes had lost their stomach for further battle. So they withdrew, -taking their dead with them, and built three fires of dry brush and -cactus about the uprear of the huge rock. - -[Illustration: _His swords bit deep, drinking their lives._] - -"And that's that tonight," panted Hardan, wiping his swords -mechanically of the blood that smirched their keen blades. - -In the darkness Ylda's soft hands ran over his arms and chest searching -for wounds. His blood ran hot as her soft flesh met his. - -"You're untouched!" she cried, unbelieving. - -"Had all the advantage," Hardan scoffed. "But if we're here when the -sun rises again--we won't be so lucky." - -Ylda peered out, her eyes reading the purpose of the three fires. -Placed so they effectively ruled out any escape in the darkness, the -Drylanders on guard would see instantly any movement atop the rock. Her -breath caught in her throat and she clung to Hardan's sweat-damp body. - -"We'll try the cave," Hardan told her thickly, very conscious of her -intimate nearness. "It may have another entrance higher or beyond the -cliff." - -Roughly he broke away from the girl and started back into the darkness, -his swords probing the gloom. And behind him he heard the girl -following. The floor was uneven, rough patches of rock, and so, she -stumbled before she had come a dozen paces. - -After that her hand clung to his crossed sword-belts as the way climbed -gradually higher. - -Echoes of their passage grew more distant. The cavern roof and walls -must be drawing away on all sides. Hardan licked his dry lips and the -parched dryness of his vurth-padded body sapped his strength. They -halted for a moment to finish the last of their water bags and munch a -tough strip of dried ulfo meat before pushing on. - -"We must find water soon," whispered Ylda faintly, "or I am finished." - -And a short distance further along Hardan felt her fingers slip from -their grip on his belt. She lay silent and limp on the rocky floor, -her soft skin harsh and dry as the Dryland hills, and her cracked lips -moaning. - -He lifted her and staggered onward. His years in the Drylands had -toughened his flesh and lungs to withstand the arid violence of the -grasslands for several hours, but even yet he must sleep in or near -water at night. He suffered mightily, his lungs on fire and his throat -a dust-rasping channel. Like a man in a grotesque nightmare of torture -he felt his wooden limbs move uncertainly far below him. - -Only when the stars were above him and he felt the welcome fluidity -of water about his parched ankles did he halt and lower the girl. The -water was chill but his thirsty body sucked at it greedily. - - - III - -The huge ringed sun of Osar was yet hugging the rim of the ragged -Malsalm's peaks to the east when he awoke, shivering despite the thick -dampness of his vurth-stuffed covering. Behind him, wedged against the -rocky shelf and protected by a down-curving slab of rock, huddled Ylda. - -He slipped off his thick shell and heaped it on the girl's sleeping -body for additional warmth and stepped out, naked as go the men of the -Upper Seas in their moist-walled cities and lush meadows. As yet the -sun was not too warm for his sleek-furred flesh. - -They had come up from the cliff to a narrow long plateau atop it. A -shallow rocky lake was at their feet and a stream came down from a -snow-capped peak in the southern distance to feed its chill moistness. -Abruptly he remembered the cave and the yellow-haired Dryland giants -who trailed them. - -A long crevice rifted the floor of the miniature tableland not far from -the lake's brim. Perhaps in the rainy season the overflow of the lake -found escape there, but now it was dry, a crude staircase dipping down -into the gloomy abyss that was the cave they had traversed. Hardan -sensed the immensity of the void beneath, the whole cliff must be a -honeycomb of caverns and subterranean passages. - -The sound of horny bare feet and the rubbing of metal on the leather of -harness warned him that the Drylanders had overcome their aversion of -the darkness enough to trail them. He caught a glimpse of a moving blob -of blackness that could only be them a hundred feet and more below. - -Hardan laughed. The rift was walled with heaps of rocky debris, -boulders brought down from the poles in glacial eras and sections of -splintered igneous rock. He put his arm and shoulder against them and -heaved. He sang lustily as he worked. - -One after another they fell, the smaller ones entering the crevice and -bounding downward to rip the climbing Drylanders from their hold; the -others clogging forever the way from below. He rolled a last rounded -boulder of green-shot basaltic origin and turned, hand at his sword. - -Ylda was standing there, his vurth-padded garment's ugliness in -her extended hands. She smiled, her eyes warm in the shadow of her -wide-rimmed quilted headgear of vurth. Suddenly Hardan was aware of the -growing intensity of the morning sunlight parching his down-covered -flesh. In his excitement he had forgotten the blistering sun. - -He slipped quickly into the coverall-like covering, its dampness doubly -welcome after his exposure to the deadly atmosphere of the Drylands, -and went with her to the rim of the narrow flat-roofed ridge where they -had climbed. - -"We can't go back, Ylda," he told her, his hand pointing out the way -they had come up across the arid lands from the Isr River. - -Ylda's eyes swung northward and then on around to the south again. She -shuddered and Hardan sensed her terror of this molten naked hell of -tortured rock and waterless slope that hemmed them in. - -"We'll follow this stream up to its source," he went on after a moment, -"and then find another that flows westward toward the Gron or the Aba. -Nothing to it." - -The girl's lips twisted in a tremulous attempt at a smile. - -"Hardan," she said, "before you start back with me I must tell you why -I was held captive by the rebelling sarifs." - -Hardan shook his head, his mind raging. There could be only one reason -for her to be in chains. Nitka Porn had wanted her and until she would -consent to be his woman she might escape. That could be the only truth, -he thought, and he wanted to hear nothing about it. - -"But I must tell you, Hardan, before you--before we--leave the -mountains. I was going to Lake Gron to meet my lover. He is a Consar, -Serid Jern." - -"Serid Jern!" snapped out Hardan. "That beak-nosed gray-haired old -wastrel! You mean you--he was your lover?" - -"But let me explain. It's not what you think. There is nothing wrong. -He is a Consar and my father...." - -"Enough." Hardan jerked her along by the arm. "I wish to hear no more -about it. You are young and knew no better. When we reach Aba I will -carry you away in the lawful manner." - -Ylda's slight body stiffened and she pulled away from Hardan angrily. -"Don't touch me again, ever!" she cried. - -Hardan shrugged and headed off up the lake toward the stream that fed -it. If the obstinate little sarif girl wanted to follow him let her. -He had almost forgotten that he was born into an impoverished Consar -family, these last few years, but now he remembered the vast social -gulf between them. Yet he would gladly have given up his rank had Ylda -agreed to mate with him. - -And now she scorned him. It was as though she were the Consar and -he the sarif. The months she must have spent with the priests and -priestesses of Ung Roth and Zo Aldan had given her a false conception -of a woman's place on Osar. - -Let her have her soft-bellied old lover in Gron Lake. She'd get her -fill of battling the half-dozen other sarif girls he'd collected there -already.... - -Hardan's knuckles whitened on the handles of his swords, and he cursed -all the Serid Jerns of the Wetlands. - - * * * * * - -Abruptly he came to a halt. Beside the rough trail he followed a -peculiar-looking dwarfish creature lay sleeping at the stream's brink. -His body was hairless, save on the top of his skull and under his nose -and on his cheeks, and he was weaponless save for a short thick bow and -a club. A cloak of muddy green covered his tattered unpadded coveralls. - -Hardan stirred the sleeping creature with his toe and it sat up. He -spoke to it in Tarnish, and in the scanty tongue of the great Dryland -Apes. And at this the sunken monkeylike little eyes blinked with a -certain measure of intelligence. It rose to its meager six feet of -height and faced him. - -"I am called Kern Rensom," he cried shrilly. "I am from Aarth," his -puny arm made an indefinite circling motion. "Long ago we came to Osar -to conquer it all." - -Hardan grinned. "Little Drylanders like you better keep hid or the -winged soraps will carry you off. You couldn't lick a couple of -bladts." - -The little Aarthman's arms and body flashed into movement so swift that -Hardan could not see what was happening. He felt himself flying through -the air and jolted down a dozen paces away, his breath gone. He heard -Ylda's amused laughter, and the sound spurred him to bound to his feet -and leap toward the little man. - -Ylda cried out in protest--the Aarthman had drawn no weapon but stood -with arms folded--and Hardan's pace slowed. He could not run through a -man who would not protect himself. - -"Take up your club!" he cried savagely, "or one of my swords!" - -The little man grinned impishly, his wide mouth red in the uncouth -tangle of his scrubby brown whiskers. - -"Try to hit me," he invited. - -Hardan's anger overcame his scruples. He swung his right hand sword in -an arc that would have bit a respectable nick out of the Aarthman's -shoulder. And the sword seemed to freeze in midair! - -He fought against the paralysis that froze his muscles. Sweat salted -his face and body as he threw all his strength into the effort, but -he could not stir. Nor could he move his legs or the other arm. After -a long moment of struggle he recognized his efforts were useless and -ceased his frantic mental commands. And in that instant his body was -free again. - -"Are you a man or one of the devil-things of Thog Molog?" he demanded -fearfully, sheathing his blade. - -"I am like yourself, Hardan Synn," said the little man, amused. "But I -have mental power that you of Osar cannot comprehend. It is the only -weapon of Aarth we are permitted to use." - -"You--you called me by name!" Hardan cried out. "Now I know you are of -Thog Molog's foul brood. Only a devil-thing could be at once so puny -and so hideous." - -"You are wrong, Hardan," and now Kern Rensom used words that were a -blend of Dryland and Wetland speech. "I can look into your mind and -understand what you think. Even now I can tell you that you misjudge -Ylda Rusla." - -"No!" broke in the girl, "please keep silent, strange man." - -Kern Rensom shrugged. "As you wish," he said. He turned to Hardan again. - -"Perhaps you can come with me to my home valley before returning to -Aba." He laughed at the unspoken refusal in Hardan's brain. "We have a -small lake in the crater covered with an upper sea of vurth," he added. - -"Why not?" demanded Ylda. "For too long have I breathed the harsh -upland air. To move unencumbered through the soft dampness of the vurth -sea would be heaven." - -Hardan nodded doubtfully. "Very well," he said. "But remember it means -the revolting sarifs may escape beyond the Blue Balsalms." - -"I hope they do," flashed Ylda, "and you do too. Most of the sarifs are -good people. Even if Nitka Porn and a few others escape punishment the -innocent ones will escape." - -"That's settled then." Hardan turned to the Aarthman. "Lead off, Kern -Rensom." - - * * * * * - -And so they started off eastward across the mountains and bare -reddish-veined slopes of the blue ridges, the tiny Aarthman leading. -All forenoon they walked, pausing often beside the stream to soak -their padded garments and gather the sparse scattering of brown-husked -berries from bushes in the sheltered angles of the little watercourse. - -Toward noon they left the swift little stream and crossed a steep slope -of treacherous yellow shale and broken rock to a slope that carried -them down toward a vast sunken bowl, an extinct crater, in whose heart -the misty outlines of a small lake nestled grayly. That it was roofed -with vurth there could be no question, and thereafter Hardan forgot -most of his suspicions that the stranger meant them evil. - -"It was there," Kern Rensom said, his finger pointing out a squatty -ovoid of darker rock, "that our ship from beyond the stars landed. It -was broken, and all save two women and one man died." - -"You came from up there?" demanded Ylda. "Then you are of the race of -the true gods, Zo Aldan and Ung Roth?" - -The Aarthman shook his head. "No, we are mortals. I have read your -mind and learned about your gods. Perhaps your gods, too, were mortals -from another world who landed here safely on Osar." - -Hardan's ears tingled at such heresy. And yet he was forced to admit -what the little man said was logical. He knew that many of the wisest -Wetlanders did not believe in Thog Molog and the devil-things, nor -did he suppose the Drylanders believed in the power of Zo Aldan and -Ung Roth. It was true the two gods had come from the outer moons in a -strange metallic ship. - -"Why then," he asked, "did you not conquer the Drylands? Was it not for -that you came to Osar?" - -Kern Rensom tugged at his scrubby beard. "We were too few at first. And -when there were a thousand of us we tried to use the weapons and tools -we had sealed away, but we had forgotten. All the juice that powered -them had seeped away. Nor could we repair them." - -"But you have books," insisted Hardan. "They would tell you." - -The little man was shamefaced. "While we waited; hunting, building our -city, and tilling our fields, we forgot how to read. For many centuries -we have lived on a level but little above that of the Drylanders." - -Hardan swore with amazement. Despite their wonderful mental power these -Aarthmen were little better than ignorant savages. Perhaps if he could -bring a few wise men from the Wetlands to this valley and have them -work with the Aarthmen they could reconstruct that forgotten language -and learn to build ships that flew in the air. - -With great ships like theirs the journey from Wetland to Wetland would -be simple and all Osar would be opened to them. No longer would they -be forced to haul sleeping tanks of water by slow wagons across the -dry-grassed plains.... - - * * * * * - -The trail wound aimlessly, it seemed to Hardan, down into the vast -circular abyss of the crater. And after a time, as they neared the -lower slopes, he saw the Aarthman scratch his shaggy brown head in -apelike fashion, and stop. - -"You've lost your way," he told Kern. - -Kern Rensom nodded. "I escaped from a small band of Roons, the -Drylanders who dwell on the slopes above our craters, two days ago. I -was hunting on the northern side and was forced to circle southward to -where you found me." - -"But if we continue downward we must come to your city," Hardan said, -puzzled. "Why do you hesitate?" - -"All Smeth Valley is surrounded by a high wall, Hardan, built by -my people. But on the southern inner slope for more than a mile an -ancient, higher wall was there. A wall circling down to the lake. - -"Since we came to Smeth Valley only a few men have ventured beyond that -wall, and of them all only one returned--a madman!" - -"You think we are approaching that section then?" Hardan laughed and -his hands found comforting grip on his sword hilts. "Nothing could lie -beyond there save deserted ruins," he scoffed. - -"Perhaps we could walk along the wall's rim," Kern said, disregarding -Hardan's laughter, "until we passed the walled-in section. The ridges -on either side crowd up to the wall so it would be our only path." - -"That'd be better than climbing up again," agreed Hardan. - -And so, a dozen tortuous bends in the deepening ravine they followed, -later, they fronted the soaring smooth-jointed face of a gigantic wall. -At their feet the dry bed of the ravine ended in solid granite, and on -either hand the ravine's walls lifted sheer for fifty feet and more. - -Try as they would they could not climb the craggy walls. Apparently -they were to be forced to return back along the way they had come and -find some new path to the lower crater depths. - -Ylda cried out and pointed to the lower part of the pierced vertical -slab set in the wall before them. The scanty flow of freshets here in -the uplands had slowly worn away a larger hole, a process that must -have consumed unthinkable centuries, until even a Wetland warrior could -have wriggled through. - -Hardan nodded. He too had seen the opening but did not want to suggest -using it. The Aarthman's fantastic tale had affected him more than he -cared to admit. Now he knelt down and thrust his head carefully through -the orifice. - -"Just a grassy slope," he called back, his voice loud with relief. -"Down by the lake there's a jumble of rock slabs and columns, could be -a city. Not even any trees until the upper sea begins." - -He withdrew his head and slid through feet-first, dropping into a deep -wide rocky pocket gouged out by the ravening mountain torrents. Ylda -followed, slipping into his arms easily, but her face turned away -stiffly as he set her on her feet. Hardan growled and turned away, -disgusted at the little sarif's continued show of dislike. - -"Hurry up, Kern Rensom," he said. - -The Aarthman's be-whiskered face appeared. Under that brushy brown -stubble his brown skin had paled to a strangely green shade. - -"I don't know," he said uncertainly. "The Drylanders claim this is the -abode of Thog Molog. I've seen crude pictures of their god. It's a -many-armed ghastly monster bigger than a Drylander's communal _yad_." - - * * * * * - -Hardan too sensed the alien silence and remoteness of this -close-cropped expanse of sward. Almost he expected to see a flock -of the woolly, vari-colored bladts grazing there, so close was the -brook-watered grass trimmed to its roots. Something, ancient foul -things, must lurk in those brooding ruins and come out in the moonlight -to eat. No grass could grow so uniform and short. - -So they moved together, speaking no more, through the hushed silence of -growing dusk, into the shadows of the vast vertical mass of the ancient -wall that dipped southward. They searched for a way to scale that -soaring obstacle, vainly. - -The rim of the upper sea, the false sea that was vurth floating lightly -above the true sea far below, they reached and Hardan felt the tingling -thrill of a stranger returning home as the delicate moist tendrils -contacted his exposed flesh. He heard Ylda's sigh of sensuous ecstasy -as she sucked in the dank richness of the confined atmosphere, and he -heard the Aarthman breathing unsteadily as though half-choked. - -"How you can stand this pea-soup," came the little man's strangled -voice, "is beyond me. It's like walking underwater; yet breathing." - -Hardan laughed and slipped out of his cumbersome padded garb. Now he -could climb the wall or fight more freely. The intangible unseen menace -of the walled city and fields now struck him with returned power. He -bound the suit into a pack on his shoulders and set about examining the -damp and crumbling wall. The moisture had loosened its ancient bonding -material and he found many foot and hand holds. - -Swiftly he angled upward, his two companions following the way he had -found. Once he ran into a section of intact wall and was forced to turn -back, and Ylda swung upward along a new series of crevices, leading the -way. Hardan now brought up the rear instead of Kern Rensom. - -The vurth ended, and even as they saw that less than twenty feet lay -between them and the wall's top, a hideous gagging squelching sound, -like a mud-wallowing drunkard venting his addled rage, sounded from -below. - -Hardan turned to look down, his sword in his right hand and his feet -jammed in a shallow crack. - -A vast bulk, indistinct in the failing light of the vanished sun, and -rendered yet more vague by the aerophytic sea that washed around its -lower body, reared there. Hardan sensed that the greasily smooth hide, -wet and slime-covered, was slate-gray, liberally splotched with patches -of ghastly pale yellow. He saw an inner gaping maw, its huge inner -jaws covered with bony serrated ridges, and in a deadly fringe about -this mouth a score or more of specialized tentacles stretched like -multi-jointed arms upward. - -"Climb swiftly!" roared Hardan, "while I hold it back." - -The tentacles slithered nearer, their gray snaky flesh ending at the -tips in sucker-like yellow-tinged discs. Hardan swung his weapon down -at the nearest and from the severed tentacle tip a steaming purplish -ichor spurted. And with its wound the burbling mouthings from below -redoubled. - -The Wetlander sprang upward, a questing tentacle brushing his heel as -he found a new vantage point several feet higher, and then he sliced -through this leathery appendage's tip as well. - -But now three of the tentacles wormed together at him, and though his -blade slashed off two of them, the third found his naked flesh and the -suction discs ripped at him. He clung to the wall, his discarded sword -clattering downward, but relentlessly the monster was dragging him from -his precarious perch. - -He heard a sob at his side and his other sword was drawn from its -sheath even as his left hand lost its grip. Then he was released, the -tentacle tip yet clinging to his flesh, and he found Ylda tugging at -his arm. The Aarthman lowered his bow and Hardan pushed the trembling -girl up to him. - -A moment later they were all three safe a scant four feet above those -questing hungry ropes of flesh, and Ylda was in his arms.... - - - IV - -Moonlight silvered white the inner crater when they reached the Aarth -city. The gates were closed and Kern Rensom said they would not be -opened until the dawn. He guided them to a hunting estate owned by his -older brother, a well-to-do Aarthman farmer, that was not far from the -upper sea's rim and there they left him. - -That night they slept in a soft mound of hastily gathered Wetland moss, -the thick wetness of the upper sea closing about them like a warm -blanket. And for long Hardan lay awake, his blood singing with the -knowledge that Ylda's love was his. - -Their escape from the penned-in monster, the Drylanders' fabled Thog -Molog, had broken through the barriers of her false pride and she had -confessed that she loved him. And she had explained to him that she was -really the daughter of a noble landowner who had been courted by the -aging Serid Jern against her parents' wishes. She had disguised herself -as a sarif girl and joined the priestesses as a novice to reach Lake -Gron and her husband-to-be. - -"But I am glad I met you, Hardan," she had whispered, "before I mated -with him. I could not have really loved him; only the glamour of his -wild frontier kingdom attracted me. - -"Nor will my father object to my marrying a sarif. He holds that the -man himself is of more importance than his rank." - -Hardan smiled, before he went to sleep, at the reversal in his -position. Now he was the sarif, rather than Ylda. Nor did he intend -to tell her of his equal rank until they stood together before her -father.... - -With morning they left the upper sea and with the Aarthman made their -way to the city. Here the diminutive men and women made much of them, -feting and dining them, and learning all they could of the Wetland -civilization they had never before contacted. - -Kern Rensom showed them the buildings where the corroded tools of their -ancestors were stored so carefully, and he took them inside the twisted -wreckage of the space ship on the slope above the city. Most of all was -Hardan interested in the metallic-leaved books and stacks of circular -containers of record tape. Here was the secret of the Aarthmen if they -but had the key of written words to unlock it. - -The pictures interested him as well. The Aarthmen owned several worlds: -cloud-swathed, green-clad continents and vurthless broad seas, and a -dying red world of deserts. And their sun was a tiny red ball without -the least sign of an outer solar ring. How much more beautiful was -Osar's generous ringed luminary, thought the Wetlander. - -So it was that they spent day after day in the peaceful valley of the -Aarthmen, cementing the bonds of friendship that Hardan hoped would -release the forgotten knowledge of Aarth for both races. Almost had he -forgotten the toiling caravan of huge six-wheeled wagons that even now -must be traveling through the waterless desolation of the passes of the -Blue Malsalm Range to the north. - -"You should be told, Hardan," Kern Rensom said, as the mounted -messenger rode off down the broad paved street, "that the wagon train -you guided has halted less than a day's journey to the north. And the -evil-brained sarif, Nitka Porn, has laid a trap for the small party of -soldiers who pursue them." - -Hardan's eyes flashed. It was not enough that Nitka Porn had taken -over control of the train. Now he must slaughter more Wetlanders -instead of attempting escape. He realized that he must kill the -huge-bodied sarif before he could cause any more bloodshed and misery. -Perhaps there was yet time to rescue the doomed warriors. - -"One of our hunters crept close enough to the wagon train to catch the -thoughts of Nitka Porn," the little man was saying. "The attack is to -be late today or in the morning." - -"Kern Rensom!" cried Hardan, "could you get me a guide and maars to -take me to the soldiers?" - -"I can do better," grinned the Aarthman. "I can come along. And bring a -score of warriors as well." - -Hardan took his sword-belts down from their pegs and buckled them on. -He looked to his bow and replaced the somewhat frayed string. Then -he strode out the door to where the maars they had ridden earlier -in the morning were kept. And with him walked the little Aarthman, -clean-shaven now and dandified in embroidered blouse and wide-bottomed -trousers of woven blue fabric. He too was hooking on his harness of -knives, arrow quiver, and throwing club. - -They mounted, pulling their desert robes from behind the saddles--this -last was an Aarth invention that shielded them from sunglare and -stinging sand flurries--and rode toward the poorer section of Smeth -City where hunters and warriors lived. Nor were they long in recruiting -a force of thirty mounted men and leaving the city behind. - -Yet as they reached the great gate in the towering outer wall, the wall -that barred the lower crater to any but Aarthmen, a wide-hatted rider -with desert robes high about his face, awaited them. And as they filed -through the narrow slot the sliding gate-slab permitted this rider to -join the party. - -Hardan rode close to the stranger and uncovered the shielded features. -He shrugged and shouted across to Kern Rensom. - -"I might have known," he laughed. "It is Ylda." - -"Why should I not go?" she demanded. "Perhaps it is my father or my -brother who commands the soldiers. They were to be assigned to the Aba -River command this term." - -"So!" Hardan nodded. "You tire of us and wish to go with them. Or -perhaps you wish to find them so we can mate." - -The high color that flooded Ylda's downy haired cheeks was answer -enough. Her chin elevated proudly, but she said nothing. And Hardan too -hoped her father was serving his year, every sixth year a Consar was -supposed to enter the armed forces of Tarn, for that much the sooner -could they be mated. - - * * * * * - -Through the gate they rode and up increasingly dry barren slopes until -they reached the jumbled hell of ridges, splintered crevices, and -ragged gorges that lay above the crater's rim. They rode through the -midday heat, pausing but once to soak their dehydrated garments of -padded vurth in a cave-hidden pool, and then onward again until the -shadows on their right grew long and dark. - -"It is near," the Aarthman who guided them said. He dismounted. "Here -we must leave our maars and proceed on foot if we are to surprise the -sarifs." - -The little party obeyed, glad of the opportunity to stretch cramped -stiff limbs. They followed along a narrow shallow gorge to where it -opened into a larger sunken pass. Down there, in a rock-strewn boxlike -cavity, they saw movement. - -"We are too late," Hardan muttered to Ylda. "Shiny leather shells and -metal caps are those of Wetland soldiers. It is they who are trapped in -that hollow." - -Now they could see the sarifs just below their own vantage point. They -clustered at either end of the cliff-walled trap, their arrows and the -jagged boulders they had collected effectively barring any attempt -by the soldiers to cut their way through. Already more than half the -Tarnish fighting men were down, and it was but a matter of time until -the last of them died. - -Further to the east, in a stream-watered little park, the wagons were -bulked in a rude circle. They were fewer now, less than thirty were -left of the original train, and they were patched and travel-stained. -"We had better divide, Kern Rensom," said Hardan thoughtfully. "You -take ten men and take cover above the western party. I will take the -others to capture the wagons and the other party." - -"Good," agreed the little man from Aarth, and he started issuing orders -at once. - -Taking advantage of whatever cover the broken nature of the uplands -afforded, the Aarthmen and the Wetlanders slipped downward toward the -sarifs. Nor were they detected before they had reached a bulging ridge -of flinty red rock twenty feet above them. - -Hardan cupped his hands and shouted down at the fifteen ragged men -below, "Throw down your weapons, sarifs. You are surrounded." - -The men turned, startled, to look upward into the eyes of twenty -strange little men and the two Wetlanders. Nor could they fail to see -the arrows that centered on their vitals. One by one they loosed their -bows and spears, their nerveless fingers twitching. - -Nowhere could Hardan see Nitka Porn, though he counted five of the -rebel sarifs immediate underlings in the group. - -"Where is Nitka Porn?" he demanded. - -The sarifs stirred uneasily, their sullen green eyes shifting and -their tongues dabbing at blackened cracked lips. They were a hopeless, -stupid-looking crowd. From them the Drylands had sapped their strength -and sucked dry their brains. Nor had the browbeating of Nitka Porn been -without influence in this final result. - -One of them, a broken-toothed oldster who feared the rebel sarif the -less because he was so near to death, stepped clumsily forward. - -"He is at the wagons, Hardan." The reedy old voice trembled. "So -securely were the soldiers trapped that he knew they must die. He went -for wagons to carry the loot." - -"Good, Vesko Rok," said Hardan. "Now I would ask you more. Come aside -with me." - -The old sarif shuffled after Hardan out of earshot of the others. -Quickly he demanded the names of all the sarifs loyal to Nitka Porn in -this and the other group. Then he gave orders to separate the prisoners. - -"Nolson," he said to one of the sturdy little men of Aarth, "I want you -to remain here with ten men. Guard well these seven sarifs." - -The Aarthman's blue eyes were bright. "They will not escape," he said. - -"The others we are taking back to the wagon train," Hardan told him, -and set out along the rugged path down toward the camp. - - * * * * * - -Nitka Porn came riding out of the camp with two others of his men. They -were all three fat and healthy-looking. They had fared better than the -rest of the party, riding much of the day in the tank baths of the -wagons and eating the best of the food. - -Behind them rolled three wagons, the teams of bony maars pulling them -driven by women. Apparently all the able-bodied sarif males had been -forced to join the ambushers. - -When they came opposite the Aarthmen and the sarif prisoners stepped -out from their concealing boulders and rocks, the show of weapons by -the little hairless men of Aarth sufficient to make the whole force -seem armed. - -"I want you, Nitka Porn." Hardan's voice was slow, his pent-up rage -well under control. - -The huge sarif's freckled face was mottled with fear and hatred. His -yellowish-green eyes were baleful as he swung down from the saddle. -Hardan's ears heard a rush of feet and then a ghastly series of shrieks -and thuddings, and from the corner of his eye saw the other two horses -were now riderless. The sarifs were trampling at something underfoot -and the Aarthmen were turning away pale sickened faces from what was -there. - -Ylda's hand was on his arm. "Take him prisoner," she begged. "Tarnish -justice will punish him. And he is so big, so brutal--you will be -killed!" - -Hardan pushed gently at her arm. Nitka Porn was a spear's length away -now and his swords were drawn. Then, before Hardan could stop her, Ylda -had stepped between them. - -"Surrender your weapons, Nitka Porn," she commanded imperiously, "and -you will live to see Aba." - -Nitka's flat-nosed simian face snarled. "Surrender and be torn apart as -were they?" His head nodded toward the mumbling knot of crazed sarifs -beside the terrified maars. He laughed hoarsely, and with one great arm -swept the girl close. - -One of his swords now pressed against the breast of Ylda, ready to -plunge deep into her vitals. He backed again toward his maar. - -"At the first sign of attack," he told Hardan, "the woman dies." - -He prepared to climb into the saddle, to ride away into the eastern -uplands that led toward the Desert of Niid and the Bitter Sea that had -been their goal. And then it was that Hardan remembered the strange -power of the Aarthmen. - -No sooner had the thought been born in his brain than the little men -chuckled and their dejected faces brightened. Nitka Porn's body froze -immobile and slowly he spread his arms so the girl stepped free. - -"Enough," Hardan called. "Release him and let him fight for his life." - -"Better that we should make him slice his own throat," muttered one of -the Aarthmen, but unwillingly they complied. - -And after a moment the dazed sarif picked up his dropped swords and -faced the unmoving Wetlander's gauntness. Trapped at last he was and -like a cornered sorap with broken wings he launched himself at Hardan. - -Their swords met, clashed and sparks flew from their slithering blades. -They broke and circled again, each wary for an opening that the other -could not parry. Again and again the four swords rasped, yet from -neither man was any blood drawn, so evenly were they matched. Nitka -Porn's reach was the longer, but his bulk slowed down his speed, and it -was here that Hardan saw his advantage. - -Slowly he must wear down the big man, and the dry air that the huge -Wetlander was not yet accustomed to breathing would do the rest. He -would weaken, grow clumsy, and then his blade would find an opening. - -But this Nitka Porn must have sensed. He swung his swords in a -veritable hurricane of chopping steel and bore Hardan back against the -rearing maars of the foremost wagon. A maar's forefoot lashed out, -numbing Hardan's left shoulder, and the apish sarif's face glowed with -devilish satisfaction. The success of his strategy so pleased him that -he dropped his guard momentarily. - -It was the opening Hardan needed. Gritting his teeth against the pain -and numbness of his bruised shoulder he lunged upward with his left -sword and his other blade darted in lightning strokes at the sarif's -middle. His left hand jarred limply from the sword grip, but Nitka Porn -staggered backward dying, the sword piercing deep into his eye-socket. - -"Well done!" a hearty voice cried, and he turned to face a -leather-husked captain of the Tarnish Guard with his remaining five men. - -Ylda gave a little cry and in a moment was in the soldier's arms. A hot -wave of jealousy burned within Hardan and then was gone. - -"It is my father!" she cried gladly.... - - * * * * * - -The sun was high overhead when they rode toward the crater valley of -the Aarthmen where they were to spend another hand of days before -guiding the wagon train on its way to the Bitter Sea. And now their -purpose was to establish a treaty between Aarthmen and Wetlanders. -Nor did Hardan fear that his small friends would receive any but fair -treatment--their ability to read minds guarded them against that common -failing of expanding races, to take what they wanted by treachery. - -"We will guide the train to the Bitter Sea," he told Ylda as he loosed -her from her bonds. "Some day all the Wetlands will be ours, and the -men of Aarth will rule the Drylands, and ships-that-fly will link us -together. - -"But until then the trek must go on. Along this trail we are marking -out other wagons will follow until a great road stretches here. There -will be lakes and underground hostels along the way, and our children -will travel in vurth-insulated wagons without maars, wagons faster than -the wind. - -"It was so on Aarth, their legends declare, and so it will be with us." - -Ylda pouted. "What do we care about Aarth and treks?" she demanded. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Valkyrie from the Void</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Basil Wells</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 06, 2021 [eBook #64725]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VALKYRIE FROM THE VOID ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Valkyrie From The Void</h1> - -<h2>By BASIL WELLS</h2> - -<p>Staggering under the blasting heat of a great ringed<br /> -sun, she fought only to cross her savage slimy world.<br /> -The lithe Priestess Ylda knew not that her goal lay,<br /> -bright and shining, a thousand light-years away.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Fall 1948.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Hardan Synn reined in his graceful golden-furred <i>maar</i> as he reached -the rim of the river's low bluff. He was uncomfortable, for the -<i>vurth</i>-padded garments that covered his naked body were growing dry, -but tied to his huge hornless saddle were three fat Dryland birds. He -would eat well tonight.</p> - -<p>The rough fare of cereals and preserved fish had palled. Five years -of roaming the blistering plains and mountains with sun-hardened -prospectors and hunters had given Hardan Synn a taste for Dryland -flesh. So it was that he quitted the camp when the day's trek was done -and rode out in search of game.</p> - -<p>The maar's long black ears cupped forward, searching the source of some -discordant sound. Hardan's keen green eyes snapped back to the reality -of the camp sprawling half-in, half-out of the muddy bluish river.</p> - -<p>Men were fighting, fists and clubs smashing into the down-furred -flesh of their fellows. The sound of their enraged bellowing and the -shrill screams of pain and agony grew louder even as he forced his maar -down the steep path to the bluff's base.</p> - -<p>"Nitka Porn again," Hardan Synn spat out savagely as the blue dust -swirled about him. "Always he seeks to stir up trouble among the -<i>sarifs</i>."</p> - -<p>His sun-darkened face was a gaunt mask as he neared the river, but his -slitted green eyes were hot with growing rage. He could not leave the -eighty great wagons with their cargos of two hundred Wetlanders and -their meager supplies for so short a time as a <i>turev</i> of the water -dial without trouble arising.</p> - -<p>Hardan sprang off his mount and elbowed his way into the thick of the -melee, his broad hard shoulders tossing soggy-padded men aside. His -hard fists smashed one scowling-faced Wetlander's nose, and then he was -through into the rude square formed by the inner ring of six-wheeled -wagons.</p> - -<p>"Nitka Porn!" he shouted, his voice a knife-thrust of sound above the -tumult.</p> - -<p>The fighting men separated slowly, some weaving on their legs -unsteadily, bleeding, and others kneeling and groaning. A half-dozen, -most of them wearing the short green capes of the nobles' personal -servants, sprawled limply in their own reddish-brown blood.</p> - -<p>From one of these unmoving bodies a huge-bodied man, his brutal jaws -masked by a bush of fiery red whiskers and his broad nose segmented by -a sword-cut's diagonal scar, rose. Half his protective shell of faded -blue cloth stuffed with vurth was ripped away from his shoulder and -chest. Great muscles knotted there in his swiftly dehydrating pink -flesh. He snarled at Hardan.</p> - -<p>"The Drylander arrives," he jeered, and laughed.</p> - -<p>From the hard-packed blue clay of the camping place he picked an -arm-long stake of wood. He waved it derisively at Hardan.</p> - -<p>"Watch him shiver," he roared. "When he is well beaten I will drive him -from the camp. Then I will lead."</p> - -<p>Hardan's stomach knotted—and then dissolved into a glowing spot of -fire. His fingers bit into the leather handles of his twin short -swords. He had no eyes for the grinning minority clustered about Nitka -Porn. Nor did he see the puzzled empty faces of the other trekkers, the -slow-minded plodding sarifs caught in this bloody trailside struggle.</p> - -<p>"You stand alone against us all," snarled Nitka Porn, swaggering -forward, his muddy green eyes slitted watchfully. "The Consars are -dead, swimming in their fine wagon tanks for the last time. Their -wagons and riding maars are ours now."</p> - -<p>Hardan caught his breath on that. This was disaster!</p> - -<p>"Fools," he said, his voice loud and sharp, "you know the price of any -rebellion. The Consars will track you down. For many it will be the -crushing death."</p> - -<p>Even as he spoke his eyes never left those of the red-whiskered killer -he fronted. In a moment the giant sarif would charge forward, his club -swinging and the long curved sword of a dead lord in his other hand.</p> - -<p>Hardan sprang to meet him, swords bared and gleaming. Perhaps with the -death of Nitka Porn the revolt would collapse....</p> - -<p>The stake caught him squarely on the shoulder. His left-hand sword -dropped, tripping him. He caught himself, warded off a whistling slash -of the huge curved blade of the sarif, and leaped backward. His left -shoulder was numbed, his arm dangling limp as a blasted <i>netho</i> leaf in -the noonday sun.</p> - -<p>Hardan's sword darted in and out, flickering in the brazen sunlight. -Blades clashed, slithered apart and the good steel rang clear as bells -tinkling. Blood leaked through the pierced blue cloth of the sarif's -vurth-padded garment in a half-dozen places.</p> - -<p>His arm was tingling with reviving life. Through a red mist of hate -Hardan fought with a cool machine-like series of lightning-swift lunges -that ripped the sarif's skin into myriad reddish-brown furrows. Hatred -was there, yes, but so controlled that it added strength to his sword -arm and length to his blade.</p> - -<p>The long curved sword flipped abruptly away into the faceless mass of -the ringed trekkers. Nitka Porn pawed at his dripping knuckles, his -mouth squared, his eyes bulging. He lunged backward, the men parting -before his blind rush. And Hardan followed, his eyes hot.</p> - -<p>"Kill him.... Mika, Garnd.... Don't let him.... No.... Mercy!" begged -the great coward, his hands before his face.</p> - -<p>Hardan poised his keen blade for the death thrust.</p> - -<p>"No," he swore angrily, "by Ung Roth, I have not the heart for killing -this foul <i>bladt</i>."</p> - -<p>He rammed the sword into the clay. His fists swung hard, all the -unleashed loathing and disgust of weeks past in their calculated blows, -and Nitka Porn went down emptily, to quiver and lie still.</p> - -<p>Hardan retrieved his swords, wiping the stains off on the unconscious -hulk's ribboned cloth. He faced the sullen Wetlanders.</p> - -<p>"I take over again," he announced. "Back to Aba we go. It's but two -days' trek. There the guilty will be punished before I guide you to -Lake Gron."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Dandu Mot, a gray-maned sarif, stepped forward. "No," he said simply. -"We will not go back. The innocent would die with the guilty. And our -children and women would be driven out of the settlement stripped of -even our poor store of tools and food."</p> - -<p>Hardan frowned. Dandu Mot was right. The justice of the Consars on the -frontier was severe. They would make of this revolt a lesson for all -that might follow along the arid dusty way from Wetland to Wetland. -Even he, as guide and leader of the wagon train, might be killed.</p> - -<p>The old man came closer, his faded green eyes pleading.</p> - -<p>"We did not wish to revolt," he said. "It was Nitka Porn and his men -who murdered the Consars. Perhaps beyond the Malsalm Range other -Wetlands lie...."</p> - -<p>His voice trailed off. Hardan's eyes swept over the oddly assorted -throng of sarifs and craftsmen, poor oppressed men seeking a new and -freer life beyond the Drylands. Could he see these sad-faced women made -widows needlessly? And what of the young ones, their soft pelts as yet -devoid of the scantiest of silky fur?</p> - -<p>"I must yield," he said soberly. "And beyond the eastern uplands there -does lie a sea. Only one Wetlander has ever looked upon it—Jaff Ka!" -He paused. "By the grace of Ung Roth and Zo Aldan we may win through."</p> - -<p>"There are Drylanders?"</p> - -<p>Hardan nodded. "Drylanders who hide in watered valleys and war on all -who venture there. Strange monsters, demons of Thog Molog, so say the -Drylanders, lurk in the darkness to kill. And winged <i>soraps</i> that -carry off half-grown children and woolly bladts."</p> - -<p>"You know the way?"</p> - -<p>"I have ridden across the Plateau of Fire to the Plains of Niid, Dandu -Mot, but never to the Bitter Sea. But Jaff Ka told me the way."</p> - -<p>"So let it be," said the old sarif, stroking his blistered cheek -thoughtfully. "And, if we die in the Drylands—we at least die free!"</p> - -<p>He turned to his followers. "Seize the followers of Nitka Porn and bind -them. Tonight we will try them."</p> - -<p>Swords and knives flashed. Clubs smashed and battered, and a moment -later seven groaning men were led away. Four others of the red-bearded -sarif's followers would walk no more, anywhere.</p> - -<p>Hardan turned sharply on his heel and headed for the two wagons of the -priests of Ung Roth Ka. His dehydrated body cried out for a soaking in -the built-in tank in the wagon's middle. Only by frequent immersions -and water-soaked outer shells of cloth could the Wetlanders endure the -arid wastelands for more than a few hours.</p> - -<p>A line of wounded, bruised men were already at the wagon, the two -priests in their hooded orange cloaks attending to their hurts. And -with the priests worked their gentle-faced wives, the priestesses of -Zo Aldan Ra, the god's beloved mate. Hardan's blood pounded fast as -he caught a glimpse of the white-robed novice, Ylda Rusla, bearing a -steaming basin of water in her dainty hands.</p> - -<p>"Hardan!" cried the girl, her soft green eyes lighting up, "you escaped -death! You will take us back to Tarn—to safety?"</p> - -<p>The frontiersman smiled down at the lithe full-breasted woman facing -him. Even the soggy vurth-padded garments and the coarse white robe -could not conceal the perfection of her body and face.</p> - -<p>He shook his head.</p> - -<p>"We go into the Malsalm Range," he told her, "and beyond."</p> - -<p>"Not even to Lake Gron!" Ylda's face was ghastly. "But, I must—surely -you could send me back."</p> - -<p>"Sorry," Hardan muttered, "but you cannot leave us now. The wagon train -must disappear—as though the Drylanders had attacked and destroyed it."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The girl's eyes flamed. "I command you to take me back to Aba!" Her -foot stamped down imperiously.</p> - -<p>"Ylda, believe me, I would if it were possible. But the lives of us all -depend on absolute secrecy. No word of this train must ever reach the -Consars of Tarn."</p> - -<p>Ylda's small chin lifted and she turned her back, the hot water -slopping down across her robe. She headed blindly back toward the -wagons. Hardan shrugged, an empty pit in his middle. Any hope that he -might win the beautiful novice from her devotion to Zo Aldan Ra was -gone now.</p> - -<p>He hurried past the wagons and down the blue clay slope to the fresh -waters of the Gron River. For the moment he wanted no conversation with -the priestly healers of the wagon train—or anyone else....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>His body soaked luxuriously in the shady pool beyond a looming jut of -reddish granite. Were his lungs drinking in the moist richness of the -Upper Sea, the vurth-maintained mistiness above the true seas of Osar, -he might have thought he was back in Tarn.</p> - -<p>The Wetlands of Tarn were a handful of islands and a narrow -thirty-mile-wide strip of foggy tropical plains and forests along the -true sea of Tarn. Over the sea and back over the mainland extended the -upper sea, a false sea of floating aerophyte growth, tenuous and frothy -as spun threads of silvery moonbeams; yet capable of retaining a vast -amount of moisture and warmth.</p> - -<p>For almost a mile it extended upward, its delicate tendrils touching -the restless sea and the fertile moistness of the land alike to draw -life from them. It offered no resistance to the passage of men or -ships; yet it shielded them from the harshness of the vast ringed sun -of Osar.</p> - -<p>And here four million Wetlanders lived and built their dank -massive-walled cities. Half of them were Tarns, ruled by the Council -of Consars, and across the vastness of the Tarn Sea four other -smaller kingdoms fought and squabbled over their narrow strips of -vurth-shielded Wetland.</p> - -<p>The land was overcrowded and so it came about that a few hardy -adventurers pushed out into the Drylands. At first they followed the -rivers, their bodies slowly toughening to the actinic rays of the -direct sunlight, and later they struck out into the unknown dryness of -grassy plains and deserts. They fought the huge apish Drylanders and -ate the hairless horned ulfo of the plains and the woolly bladts of the -barren hills.... And they found Lake Gron, where a large central island -offered new homes for thousands of impoverished Consars and their -sarifs.</p> - -<p>So it was that endless series of wagon trains, drawn by domesticated -Dryland beasts, maars and ulfos, pushed up the Aba River, and the Gron -River beyond the dam at Aba, to the upland lake. And the hardy men -of the frontier guided them—even as Earthmen ten centuries before, -and a thousand light-years distant, had guided their effete Eastern -countrymen into the Rockies and beyond....</p> - -<p>Hardan stirred at last and climbed, refreshed, from his pool. Darkness -had come and a dozen fires blazed merrily within the ringed double -walls of the roofed wagons. He gathered up his weapons and clothing, -wearing only the thin inner jerkin and trunks against the dryness of -the night air, and went to the wagons.</p> - -<p>Before dawn the wheels were rumbling and grinding up over the -rock-strewn ridge above the river headed out into the eastern -grasslands. The sleeping tanks, where the Wetlanders slept on moist -elevated pads of vurth, were full and the spare water tanks were loaded -as well. A dry trek of three, possibly four, days lay ahead of them -before they could reach the eastward branching of the Aba River.</p> - -<p>Hardan and three of the young sarifs stayed behind as the train moved -away, readying the ten oldest wagons and the discarded equipment -for the fire that was to help cover their tracks. Later parties -of Wetlanders would find the ashes of wagons and the fire-blasted -skeletons of men beside the trail and presume this had been a massacre -by the apish barbarians of the plains.</p> - -<p>"I wish the council of sarifs had ordered the death of Nitka Porn last -night," said a blocky young sarif uneasily. "If they escape during the -night there will be trouble."</p> - -<p>Hardan touched his torch to the wagon they approached. The others were -already ablaze. Together they swung into the saddles of their snorting -maars. Only then did he speak.</p> - -<p>"Yes, Malth Jed," he agreed. "It seemed to me that the council feared -Nitka's wrath even though he was a prisoner. For that reason I advised -Dandu Mot to double the guard."</p> - -<p>"There was light from the fires last night," argued Malth Jed. "Why -wait for daylight to slice their necks?"</p> - -<p>"I do not believe all Porn's followers are prisoners," Hardan said -grimly. "They may hope to free Nitka Porn and recapture the wagon -train. Any delay would help that plot."</p> - -<p>"Fools," grunted Malth Jed shortly. "The red-bearded one would turn on -them even as he turned on the Consars."</p> - -<p>By this time the other two sarifs had joined them on the rim of the -bluff above the river. The wagons blazed up brightly, their sun-dried -wood and cloth burning fiercely. With the morning sun only a smoking -huddle of ashes and twisted metal would remain.</p> - -<p>Hardan reined away from the bluff. They made too perfect targets -against the illumination of the fire. But suddenly he arrested the -little party's advance with a hiss of warning.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>From the pale darkness before them the sound of distant shouts and -shrieks came to them. The caravan was being attacked—or the outlaw -sarifs had been freed!</p> - -<p>"Spread out," Hardan commanded tensely, "as we reach the wagons. That -way we will present a poorer target."</p> - -<p>He dug his heels into the maar's sleek sides and they galloped forward -along the rutted broad track of the wagon train.</p> - -<p>The fighting had ended by the time they traversed the half mile gap -that lay between them. The wagons were halted in a jumbled confused -S-shaped tangle in the growing dawn. Only a sullen silence greeted -them, but they saw dark movement against the slant-roofed bulk of the -wagons.</p> - -<p>"Hold!" warned Hardan. "Let me ride forward. It may be a trap."</p> - -<p>And then, from a clump of wagons further along the snaking train, a -maar and rider pounded out into the grasslands and headed in their -direction. A man shouted something, and a confused chorus of yells -answered him. After the lone rider a dozen other mounted men raced.</p> - -<p>"It's a woman!" Malth Jed grunted, his bow ready in his thick fingers. -"The white-robed novice of Zo Aldan Ra."</p> - -<p>"Then they've overcome Dandu Mot and freed the red-bearded one," Hardan -muttered, readying his own weapons.</p> - -<p>The girl rode swiftly closer. The four riders went to meet her, their -swords loosened in their sheaths and their spears in their hands. -Only Malth Jed relied on his heavy hunting bow as a weapon; the others -preferred throwing spears and swords.</p> - -<p>"Hardan!" shrieked Ylda, "behind you!"</p> - -<p>The frontiersman twisted in his saddle, a throwing spear grazed his -vurth-padded shoulder, and he found himself facing the hate-twisted -features of the two sarifs who had accompanied him. The strength of -Nitka Porn in the wagon train must have been considerable, he thought -ruefully, as he crossed swords with the lanky sarif on his left.</p> - -<p>The sarif was no swordsman, the cowardly spear had been his only hope, -and even as he turned his terrified eyes briefly toward his fellow an -arrow bristled from the other sarif's throat. He shrieked and hurled -his sword at Hardan even as he dug his heels into the maar's flanks. He -went racing away, blood streaming from his sword-pierced upper arm.</p> - -<p>Malth Jed reined closer. "Wound you?" Hardan shook his head.</p> - -<p>"They killed Dandu Mot—many others—one of the holy healers who -rebuked them—and now they loot the wagons." The girl's lips quivered -as she spoke breathlessly.</p> - -<p>"I guess you get your wish now, Ylda Rusla," he said grimly. "We ride -back to Aba to ask for troops to pursue Nitka Porn."</p> - -<p>Further conversation was impossible. The first pursuers, augmented now -by a score or more of men on foot, were upon them. Spears and arrows -were dropping around them as they wheeled their maars about to escape.</p> - -<p>Ylda's maar went down, squealing horribly, a spear in her belly, and -the girl was hurled over her mount's head into the tangled coarseness -of the yellow ulfo grass. Before Hardan could swing back to scoop the -unconscious body of Ylda from the ground their pursuers had reached her -and surrounded her.</p> - -<p>Hardan rode into them, hewing and slashing with his twin swords, -letting his maar move as she willed. Blood splashed and spurted before -his maddened blows, and the rebellious sarifs fell back momentarily. -Ylda screamed. He saw a sarif on foot hoist the girl's struggling form -to a mounted man, a huge-bodied redbeard, and the rider's fist smashing -down at the juncture of rounded neck and fragile jaw.</p> - -<p>Ylda went limp as Nitka Porn's blow landed and then the outlaw rode -away, waving a derisive fist at Hardan across the bulwark of mounted -men and attacking sarifs on foot.</p> - -<p>He was battling for his life a second later. A spear found his body, -and then another. Arrows hailed upward at him, piercing his padded -limbs and drawing blood. In a moment he would be over-powered. Yet he -fought on, trying to break through the press of rebel sarifs to pursue -Ylda's captor.</p> - -<p>"Hardan," a terrible voice roared above the shouts of his attackers, -"escape.... Outnumbered!"</p> - -<p>A spark of sanity remained in his weary brain. And the words of Malth -Jed fanned it into life. His swords hissed, carving out a momentary -gap, and he sent his maar plunging back the way they had come. He -saw Malth Jed, sagging in his saddle, racing before him, and even -as he watched a feathered shaft jutted abruptly from between his -shoulderblades.</p> - -<p>The stocky sarif slumped forward, clinging in his death agony to -the saddle, and so they rode away into the growing daylight of the -Drylands—a wounded cursing Wetlander and a jouncing bundle of dead -sinews and bone that had once been a man....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Two hands of days had passed before Hardan dared leave the sheltered -cave beside the Gron River not far from the ashes of the abandoned -wagons. The two maars had pastured in a grassy hidden ravine and there -too had he buried the stocky body of Malth Jed.</p> - -<p>Then he had taken up the trail of the wagons again, and, despite the -soreness of his half-healed wounds, come up with them in a matter of -three days riding. He found them camped at the Isr River junction.</p> - -<p>So now he lay on his belly in the early twilight, peering down into the -rough circle of wagons, his eyes searching for the white-robed form of -the girl he loved.</p> - -<p>At last he saw her with one of the priests and a priestess sitting -beside a small cooking fire apart from the others. But she no longer -wore the garb of a novice. Instead she wore the green cloak of a Consar -over her bulky vurth-stuffed coverings. A moment later he saw that her -legs were linked by a short length of chain, riveted to either ankle by -a cuff of metal. And across the fire squatted an armed man, a guard.</p> - -<p>Hardan was puzzled at her change of garb, but his blood pounded with -joy as he saw her apparently unharmed and well-fed. With the coming of -darkness he could rescue her, and, Ung Roth willing, the priests and -their wives as well.</p> - -<p>So he set out looking for a concealed pathway to the river's edge and a -thousand feet further downstream came upon a sheer gorge cut into the -clay and soft gray rock of the bluff. Down this he lowered himself and -in the increasing gloom made his way to the river and submerged.</p> - -<p>He swam upstream, silent as a hunting <i>prel</i>, his only weapons his two -swords. His spear and the excess garments he had left on the little -sunken bowl of grass where his maars grazed.</p> - -<p>Like a great Dryland Ape of the woodlands he crept up from the water at -last, his only shelter the waist-high clumps of ulfo grass that dotted -the river's shingly bank. And he won at last inside the carelessly -guarded ring of wagons to the small fire where Ylda sat silently and -stared into the flames.</p> - -<p>From the shelter of a great double-spoked wheel he studied the camp. -Well for the fleeing sarifs, he thought, that no raiding party of -Drylanders had come to attack. He heard them quarreling and shouting -drunkenly, and saw their swords and other weapons heaped carelessly -beside the fires as they ate and caroused.</p> - -<p>The guard spat impatiently into the fire and ran a dry tongue over his -parched lips. Longingly he studied the growing excitement at the center -of the encampment. There was nothing to do here, only the priest and -priestess discussing the strange healing property of a vegetable mold -recently discovered in Tarn. He slapped his hip, cursed roughly, and -climbed to his feet.</p> - -<p>"Don't stir from the fire," he ordered Ylda fiercely. His tongue poked -thirstily at his lips.</p> - -<p>The guard swaggered away from the fire toward the curtain-hung rear of -the wagon just ahead. This wheeled canvas-and-wood shack had a sagging -roof sloping from a central ridge to either end of the box so that a -sort of awning covered the low rear entrance. He reached inside and -when his arm emerged a basket-woven jar was in his hand, its inner -earthware lining containing a sloshing fluid.</p> - -<p>Hardan scented the raw reek of alcohol, of <i>garack</i>, as he crept -closer. The guard's thick lips smacked, he rubbed a rasping fist across -his mouth and snorted appreciatively. Then the jar tilted again, -gurgled.</p> - -<p>The guide sprang, his fingers clamping about the startled throat of the -sarif. He squeezed hard, choking back the gasp of terror, and the jug -crashed to the hard ground. Then his fist chopped in a short vicious -punch to the sarif's neck that felled the man.</p> - -<p>He trussed the sarif swiftly with his own filthy brown cape, stuffing a -generous handful into the gaping mouth, before he crossed to the fire -and squatted in the guard's place.</p> - -<p>Ylda came to her feet, hand to her mouth.</p> - -<p>"Hardan!" She came toward him jerkily, the chain making her take -mincing, careful steps.</p> - -<p>"Sit down," he told her. "And warn your friends to keep their places." -The priest and the priestess smiled quietly.</p> - -<p>"Fear nothing from us," they told him. "Our calling is to heal the -bodies and minds of the sick. It was for that mighty Ung Roth Ka came -from the greater of the four moons to dwell among men. We care nothing -for the quarrels and jealousies of men."</p> - -<p>"Though," added the priestess, "as a woman and not a servant of Zo -Aldan Ra, I hope you escape safely."</p> - -<p>The priest nodded, his eyes twinkling. "We are yet only human. Though -we will not use violence yet we can give advice and appeal to our -mighty master in your behalf."</p> - -<p>Hardan bowed, his hand making the respectful sign of a believer on the -great god of healing. "I will bind you before we leave," he said, -"unless you will come with us."</p> - -<p>The priest shook his head. "There are many sick and fearful in the -train," he said, "we remain to aid them."</p> - -<p>Hardan turned to Ylda. "After I break your chain slip beneath the wagon -and through the grass to the river. I will follow."</p> - -<p>He arose and came over to her as though to examine her bonds. His hands -clamped the chain and he tested the hand-forged links. One of them -twisted and spread apart. Quickly he wrapped a strip of her green cape -around either length of chain and her leg.</p> - -<p>Ylda slipped away. Hardan busied himself binding the priest and -priestess of the only gods and then followed. Almost he had reached -the river when the silvery light of the four moons of Osar shone from -beneath a pear-shaped cloud above the distant eastern hills.</p> - -<p>Instantly the river flats were lighted bright as their beloved -Wetlands. And a guard, rousing from his half-sleep in the white -brilliance, saw Hardan's moving shape. He cried a warning.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hardan knew the need for stealth was gone now. He ran to the river -bank where Ylda waited, took her hand, and flung himself out into the -sluggish muddy stream. He swam directly across and there, taking her -in his arms, headed into the vine-tangled growth of scrub <i>ossa</i> and -knotty <i>brel</i>. And at its edge he halted long enough to send a shout of -defiance back at the clustering sarifs.</p> - -<p>After that he wasted no more breath. Downstream he threaded his way -until a crook in the river piled a welcome wall of blue clay and shale -between the camp and them. Here he again took to the river and a few -minutes later they were running breathlessly across the moonlit plain -beyond toward the hidden maars.</p> - -<p>"Tricked them that time," chuckled Hardan, saddling their mounts. -"We'll circle eastward toward the Blue Malsalms and then head back -toward Aba."</p> - -<p>Ylda put her slim fingers on Hardan's arm and squeezed. It told him, -more than words, that she was happy to have escaped and that as yet she -was breathless.</p> - -<p>He lifted her into the saddle and then mounted himself. It was so easy -now—a day's ride away from the river and then a southward swing until -they could head directly westward back toward Aba and the river trail -to the Wetlands....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The rocky escarpment loomed closer and closer as they drove their -lathered maars up the boulder-strewn slope. Ylda turned for a hasty -glance backward.</p> - -<p>"They're gaining, Hardan," she shouted.</p> - -<p>"It'll be night soon," Hardan called back, "and the Drylanders fear -darkness." But his eyes probed vainly for a way of escape ahead.</p> - -<p>His mouth twisted wryly as he recalled his plan of the preceding -night. At midday a mounted party of the giant Drylanders, savage -yellow-haired, apish brutes, had sighted them and for the last five -hours they had found safety only in swift flight. Now, unless a gorge -or pass opened in the looming grayness of the brown-splotched cliffs, -they were trapped at its base.</p> - -<p>Already the triumphant scrawling of the Drylanders sounded in their -ears as the ape-things fanned out on either hand. Once that curved line -pinned them against the cliff they were trapped, to be killed or, if -captured alive, saved for sacrifice to the foul god of the Drylands, -Thog Molog.</p> - -<p>The sheer escarpment loomed higher and more forbidding as they neared -it. Hardan felt his chest grow hollow as the last prospect of escape -dwindled. All that remained now was to find a vantage point above their -pursuers and sell their lives dearly. To be taken alive was unthinkable.</p> - -<p>A huge flat-topped boulder shouldered the cliff, its rim twenty feet -above the sandy soil, and toward this Hardan led the way. It was a -natural fort that they might hold until darkness clamped down.</p> - -<p>Hardan rode his maar close up to the rock, where a crevice split -several feet diagonally down the face of the boulder, and swung up from -the saddle. A moment later he was crouched on the rock helping Ylda to -his side.</p> - -<p>Their maars moved away only a few paces and started grazing on the -sparse-leaved clumps of ossa and brel at the cliff's base. Hardan -turned, facing the cliff, and now he saw an opening in the cliff wall -where the boulder's flat rim touched it. It was a low oval of darkness -going back deep into the cliff's heart, a cave entrance hid by the -great rock.</p> - -<p>"In, quickly," he ordered Ylda, "before the Drylanders arrive."</p> - -<p>And hardly had they reached that welcome shelter than the huge warriors -came thundering up to the cliff.</p> - -<p>At sight of the empty saddles the Drylanders growled their amazement, -their guttural meager speech carrying excited overtones of -superstitious terror. Hardan understood enough of their brutish gabble -to learn that they believed their monster god, Thog Molog, had carried -them away.</p> - -<p>Then keen tiny eyes discovered the flat-roofed boulder and a moment -later their shadowy hiding place was discovered. Instantly the hushed -mutterings and moans of awe changed to roars of rage. They came -swarming up over the rock.</p> - -<p>Hardan met them with arrows and spears. The first wave of attackers -fell back, only to launch a second and more powerful assault. This time -they swung up to the boulder-top together and the Wetlander dropped -back into the cave-mouth, his twin swords bared.</p> - -<p>The apish giants crouched down and came raging at him, only to be -spitted on his flashing blades until the opening was choked with bloody -chilling flesh. Their comrades dragged the bodies backward and once the -orifice was cleared flung themselves at him again.</p> - -<p>His swords bit deep, drinking the life of Drylander after Drylander -until at last the assault ceased. Darkness had fallen and the great -brutes had lost their stomach for further battle. So they withdrew, -taking their dead with them, and built three fires of dry brush and -cactus about the uprear of the huge rock.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>His swords bit deep, drinking their lives.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"And that's that tonight," panted Hardan, wiping his swords -mechanically of the blood that smirched their keen blades.</p> - -<p>In the darkness Ylda's soft hands ran over his arms and chest searching -for wounds. His blood ran hot as her soft flesh met his.</p> - -<p>"You're untouched!" she cried, unbelieving.</p> - -<p>"Had all the advantage," Hardan scoffed. "But if we're here when the -sun rises again—we won't be so lucky."</p> - -<p>Ylda peered out, her eyes reading the purpose of the three fires. -Placed so they effectively ruled out any escape in the darkness, the -Drylanders on guard would see instantly any movement atop the rock. Her -breath caught in her throat and she clung to Hardan's sweat-damp body.</p> - -<p>"We'll try the cave," Hardan told her thickly, very conscious of her -intimate nearness. "It may have another entrance higher or beyond the -cliff."</p> - -<p>Roughly he broke away from the girl and started back into the darkness, -his swords probing the gloom. And behind him he heard the girl -following. The floor was uneven, rough patches of rock, and so, she -stumbled before she had come a dozen paces.</p> - -<p>After that her hand clung to his crossed sword-belts as the way climbed -gradually higher.</p> - -<p>Echoes of their passage grew more distant. The cavern roof and walls -must be drawing away on all sides. Hardan licked his dry lips and the -parched dryness of his vurth-padded body sapped his strength. They -halted for a moment to finish the last of their water bags and munch a -tough strip of dried ulfo meat before pushing on.</p> - -<p>"We must find water soon," whispered Ylda faintly, "or I am finished."</p> - -<p>And a short distance further along Hardan felt her fingers slip from -their grip on his belt. She lay silent and limp on the rocky floor, -her soft skin harsh and dry as the Dryland hills, and her cracked lips -moaning.</p> - -<p>He lifted her and staggered onward. His years in the Drylands had -toughened his flesh and lungs to withstand the arid violence of the -grasslands for several hours, but even yet he must sleep in or near -water at night. He suffered mightily, his lungs on fire and his throat -a dust-rasping channel. Like a man in a grotesque nightmare of torture -he felt his wooden limbs move uncertainly far below him.</p> - -<p>Only when the stars were above him and he felt the welcome fluidity -of water about his parched ankles did he halt and lower the girl. The -water was chill but his thirsty body sucked at it greedily.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>The huge ringed sun of Osar was yet hugging the rim of the ragged -Malsalm's peaks to the east when he awoke, shivering despite the thick -dampness of his vurth-stuffed covering. Behind him, wedged against the -rocky shelf and protected by a down-curving slab of rock, huddled Ylda.</p> - -<p>He slipped off his thick shell and heaped it on the girl's sleeping -body for additional warmth and stepped out, naked as go the men of the -Upper Seas in their moist-walled cities and lush meadows. As yet the -sun was not too warm for his sleek-furred flesh.</p> - -<p>They had come up from the cliff to a narrow long plateau atop it. A -shallow rocky lake was at their feet and a stream came down from a -snow-capped peak in the southern distance to feed its chill moistness. -Abruptly he remembered the cave and the yellow-haired Dryland giants -who trailed them.</p> - -<p>A long crevice rifted the floor of the miniature tableland not far from -the lake's brim. Perhaps in the rainy season the overflow of the lake -found escape there, but now it was dry, a crude staircase dipping down -into the gloomy abyss that was the cave they had traversed. Hardan -sensed the immensity of the void beneath, the whole cliff must be a -honeycomb of caverns and subterranean passages.</p> - -<p>The sound of horny bare feet and the rubbing of metal on the leather of -harness warned him that the Drylanders had overcome their aversion of -the darkness enough to trail them. He caught a glimpse of a moving blob -of blackness that could only be them a hundred feet and more below.</p> - -<p>Hardan laughed. The rift was walled with heaps of rocky debris, -boulders brought down from the poles in glacial eras and sections of -splintered igneous rock. He put his arm and shoulder against them and -heaved. He sang lustily as he worked.</p> - -<p>One after another they fell, the smaller ones entering the crevice and -bounding downward to rip the climbing Drylanders from their hold; the -others clogging forever the way from below. He rolled a last rounded -boulder of green-shot basaltic origin and turned, hand at his sword.</p> - -<p>Ylda was standing there, his vurth-padded garment's ugliness in -her extended hands. She smiled, her eyes warm in the shadow of her -wide-rimmed quilted headgear of vurth. Suddenly Hardan was aware of the -growing intensity of the morning sunlight parching his down-covered -flesh. In his excitement he had forgotten the blistering sun.</p> - -<p>He slipped quickly into the coverall-like covering, its dampness doubly -welcome after his exposure to the deadly atmosphere of the Drylands, -and went with her to the rim of the narrow flat-roofed ridge where they -had climbed.</p> - -<p>"We can't go back, Ylda," he told her, his hand pointing out the way -they had come up across the arid lands from the Isr River.</p> - -<p>Ylda's eyes swung northward and then on around to the south again. She -shuddered and Hardan sensed her terror of this molten naked hell of -tortured rock and waterless slope that hemmed them in.</p> - -<p>"We'll follow this stream up to its source," he went on after a moment, -"and then find another that flows westward toward the Gron or the Aba. -Nothing to it."</p> - -<p>The girl's lips twisted in a tremulous attempt at a smile.</p> - -<p>"Hardan," she said, "before you start back with me I must tell you why -I was held captive by the rebelling sarifs."</p> - -<p>Hardan shook his head, his mind raging. There could be only one reason -for her to be in chains. Nitka Porn had wanted her and until she would -consent to be his woman she might escape. That could be the only truth, -he thought, and he wanted to hear nothing about it.</p> - -<p>"But I must tell you, Hardan, before you—before we—leave the -mountains. I was going to Lake Gron to meet my lover. He is a Consar, -Serid Jern."</p> - -<p>"Serid Jern!" snapped out Hardan. "That beak-nosed gray-haired old -wastrel! You mean you—he was your lover?"</p> - -<p>"But let me explain. It's not what you think. There is nothing wrong. -He is a Consar and my father...."</p> - -<p>"Enough." Hardan jerked her along by the arm. "I wish to hear no more -about it. You are young and knew no better. When we reach Aba I will -carry you away in the lawful manner."</p> - -<p>Ylda's slight body stiffened and she pulled away from Hardan angrily. -"Don't touch me again, ever!" she cried.</p> - -<p>Hardan shrugged and headed off up the lake toward the stream that fed -it. If the obstinate little sarif girl wanted to follow him let her. -He had almost forgotten that he was born into an impoverished Consar -family, these last few years, but now he remembered the vast social -gulf between them. Yet he would gladly have given up his rank had Ylda -agreed to mate with him.</p> - -<p>And now she scorned him. It was as though she were the Consar and -he the sarif. The months she must have spent with the priests and -priestesses of Ung Roth and Zo Aldan had given her a false conception -of a woman's place on Osar.</p> - -<p>Let her have her soft-bellied old lover in Gron Lake. She'd get her -fill of battling the half-dozen other sarif girls he'd collected there -already....</p> - -<p>Hardan's knuckles whitened on the handles of his swords, and he cursed -all the Serid Jerns of the Wetlands.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Abruptly he came to a halt. Beside the rough trail he followed a -peculiar-looking dwarfish creature lay sleeping at the stream's brink. -His body was hairless, save on the top of his skull and under his nose -and on his cheeks, and he was weaponless save for a short thick bow and -a club. A cloak of muddy green covered his tattered unpadded coveralls.</p> - -<p>Hardan stirred the sleeping creature with his toe and it sat up. He -spoke to it in Tarnish, and in the scanty tongue of the great Dryland -Apes. And at this the sunken monkeylike little eyes blinked with a -certain measure of intelligence. It rose to its meager six feet of -height and faced him.</p> - -<p>"I am called Kern Rensom," he cried shrilly. "I am from Aarth," his -puny arm made an indefinite circling motion. "Long ago we came to Osar -to conquer it all."</p> - -<p>Hardan grinned. "Little Drylanders like you better keep hid or the -winged soraps will carry you off. You couldn't lick a couple of -bladts."</p> - -<p>The little Aarthman's arms and body flashed into movement so swift that -Hardan could not see what was happening. He felt himself flying through -the air and jolted down a dozen paces away, his breath gone. He heard -Ylda's amused laughter, and the sound spurred him to bound to his feet -and leap toward the little man.</p> - -<p>Ylda cried out in protest—the Aarthman had drawn no weapon but stood -with arms folded—and Hardan's pace slowed. He could not run through a -man who would not protect himself.</p> - -<p>"Take up your club!" he cried savagely, "or one of my swords!"</p> - -<p>The little man grinned impishly, his wide mouth red in the uncouth -tangle of his scrubby brown whiskers.</p> - -<p>"Try to hit me," he invited.</p> - -<p>Hardan's anger overcame his scruples. He swung his right hand sword in -an arc that would have bit a respectable nick out of the Aarthman's -shoulder. And the sword seemed to freeze in midair!</p> - -<p>He fought against the paralysis that froze his muscles. Sweat salted -his face and body as he threw all his strength into the effort, but -he could not stir. Nor could he move his legs or the other arm. After -a long moment of struggle he recognized his efforts were useless and -ceased his frantic mental commands. And in that instant his body was -free again.</p> - -<p>"Are you a man or one of the devil-things of Thog Molog?" he demanded -fearfully, sheathing his blade.</p> - -<p>"I am like yourself, Hardan Synn," said the little man, amused. "But I -have mental power that you of Osar cannot comprehend. It is the only -weapon of Aarth we are permitted to use."</p> - -<p>"You—you called me by name!" Hardan cried out. "Now I know you are of -Thog Molog's foul brood. Only a devil-thing could be at once so puny -and so hideous."</p> - -<p>"You are wrong, Hardan," and now Kern Rensom used words that were a -blend of Dryland and Wetland speech. "I can look into your mind and -understand what you think. Even now I can tell you that you misjudge -Ylda Rusla."</p> - -<p>"No!" broke in the girl, "please keep silent, strange man."</p> - -<p>Kern Rensom shrugged. "As you wish," he said. He turned to Hardan again.</p> - -<p>"Perhaps you can come with me to my home valley before returning to -Aba." He laughed at the unspoken refusal in Hardan's brain. "We have a -small lake in the crater covered with an upper sea of vurth," he added.</p> - -<p>"Why not?" demanded Ylda. "For too long have I breathed the harsh -upland air. To move unencumbered through the soft dampness of the vurth -sea would be heaven."</p> - -<p>Hardan nodded doubtfully. "Very well," he said. "But remember it means -the revolting sarifs may escape beyond the Blue Balsalms."</p> - -<p>"I hope they do," flashed Ylda, "and you do too. Most of the sarifs are -good people. Even if Nitka Porn and a few others escape punishment the -innocent ones will escape."</p> - -<p>"That's settled then." Hardan turned to the Aarthman. "Lead off, Kern -Rensom."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And so they started off eastward across the mountains and bare -reddish-veined slopes of the blue ridges, the tiny Aarthman leading. -All forenoon they walked, pausing often beside the stream to soak -their padded garments and gather the sparse scattering of brown-husked -berries from bushes in the sheltered angles of the little watercourse.</p> - -<p>Toward noon they left the swift little stream and crossed a steep slope -of treacherous yellow shale and broken rock to a slope that carried -them down toward a vast sunken bowl, an extinct crater, in whose heart -the misty outlines of a small lake nestled grayly. That it was roofed -with vurth there could be no question, and thereafter Hardan forgot -most of his suspicions that the stranger meant them evil.</p> - -<p>"It was there," Kern Rensom said, his finger pointing out a squatty -ovoid of darker rock, "that our ship from beyond the stars landed. It -was broken, and all save two women and one man died."</p> - -<p>"You came from up there?" demanded Ylda. "Then you are of the race of -the true gods, Zo Aldan and Ung Roth?"</p> - -<p>The Aarthman shook his head. "No, we are mortals. I have read your -mind and learned about your gods. Perhaps your gods, too, were mortals -from another world who landed here safely on Osar."</p> - -<p>Hardan's ears tingled at such heresy. And yet he was forced to admit -what the little man said was logical. He knew that many of the wisest -Wetlanders did not believe in Thog Molog and the devil-things, nor -did he suppose the Drylanders believed in the power of Zo Aldan and -Ung Roth. It was true the two gods had come from the outer moons in a -strange metallic ship.</p> - -<p>"Why then," he asked, "did you not conquer the Drylands? Was it not for -that you came to Osar?"</p> - -<p>Kern Rensom tugged at his scrubby beard. "We were too few at first. And -when there were a thousand of us we tried to use the weapons and tools -we had sealed away, but we had forgotten. All the juice that powered -them had seeped away. Nor could we repair them."</p> - -<p>"But you have books," insisted Hardan. "They would tell you."</p> - -<p>The little man was shamefaced. "While we waited; hunting, building our -city, and tilling our fields, we forgot how to read. For many centuries -we have lived on a level but little above that of the Drylanders."</p> - -<p>Hardan swore with amazement. Despite their wonderful mental power these -Aarthmen were little better than ignorant savages. Perhaps if he could -bring a few wise men from the Wetlands to this valley and have them -work with the Aarthmen they could reconstruct that forgotten language -and learn to build ships that flew in the air.</p> - -<p>With great ships like theirs the journey from Wetland to Wetland would -be simple and all Osar would be opened to them. No longer would they -be forced to haul sleeping tanks of water by slow wagons across the -dry-grassed plains....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The trail wound aimlessly, it seemed to Hardan, down into the vast -circular abyss of the crater. And after a time, as they neared the -lower slopes, he saw the Aarthman scratch his shaggy brown head in -apelike fashion, and stop.</p> - -<p>"You've lost your way," he told Kern.</p> - -<p>Kern Rensom nodded. "I escaped from a small band of Roons, the -Drylanders who dwell on the slopes above our craters, two days ago. I -was hunting on the northern side and was forced to circle southward to -where you found me."</p> - -<p>"But if we continue downward we must come to your city," Hardan said, -puzzled. "Why do you hesitate?"</p> - -<p>"All Smeth Valley is surrounded by a high wall, Hardan, built by -my people. But on the southern inner slope for more than a mile an -ancient, higher wall was there. A wall circling down to the lake.</p> - -<p>"Since we came to Smeth Valley only a few men have ventured beyond that -wall, and of them all only one returned—a madman!"</p> - -<p>"You think we are approaching that section then?" Hardan laughed and -his hands found comforting grip on his sword hilts. "Nothing could lie -beyond there save deserted ruins," he scoffed.</p> - -<p>"Perhaps we could walk along the wall's rim," Kern said, disregarding -Hardan's laughter, "until we passed the walled-in section. The ridges -on either side crowd up to the wall so it would be our only path."</p> - -<p>"That'd be better than climbing up again," agreed Hardan.</p> - -<p>And so, a dozen tortuous bends in the deepening ravine they followed, -later, they fronted the soaring smooth-jointed face of a gigantic wall. -At their feet the dry bed of the ravine ended in solid granite, and on -either hand the ravine's walls lifted sheer for fifty feet and more.</p> - -<p>Try as they would they could not climb the craggy walls. Apparently -they were to be forced to return back along the way they had come and -find some new path to the lower crater depths.</p> - -<p>Ylda cried out and pointed to the lower part of the pierced vertical -slab set in the wall before them. The scanty flow of freshets here in -the uplands had slowly worn away a larger hole, a process that must -have consumed unthinkable centuries, until even a Wetland warrior could -have wriggled through.</p> - -<p>Hardan nodded. He too had seen the opening but did not want to suggest -using it. The Aarthman's fantastic tale had affected him more than he -cared to admit. Now he knelt down and thrust his head carefully through -the orifice.</p> - -<p>"Just a grassy slope," he called back, his voice loud with relief. -"Down by the lake there's a jumble of rock slabs and columns, could be -a city. Not even any trees until the upper sea begins."</p> - -<p>He withdrew his head and slid through feet-first, dropping into a deep -wide rocky pocket gouged out by the ravening mountain torrents. Ylda -followed, slipping into his arms easily, but her face turned away -stiffly as he set her on her feet. Hardan growled and turned away, -disgusted at the little sarif's continued show of dislike.</p> - -<p>"Hurry up, Kern Rensom," he said.</p> - -<p>The Aarthman's be-whiskered face appeared. Under that brushy brown -stubble his brown skin had paled to a strangely green shade.</p> - -<p>"I don't know," he said uncertainly. "The Drylanders claim this is the -abode of Thog Molog. I've seen crude pictures of their god. It's a -many-armed ghastly monster bigger than a Drylander's communal <i>yad</i>."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Hardan too sensed the alien silence and remoteness of this -close-cropped expanse of sward. Almost he expected to see a flock -of the woolly, vari-colored bladts grazing there, so close was the -brook-watered grass trimmed to its roots. Something, ancient foul -things, must lurk in those brooding ruins and come out in the moonlight -to eat. No grass could grow so uniform and short.</p> - -<p>So they moved together, speaking no more, through the hushed silence of -growing dusk, into the shadows of the vast vertical mass of the ancient -wall that dipped southward. They searched for a way to scale that -soaring obstacle, vainly.</p> - -<p>The rim of the upper sea, the false sea that was vurth floating lightly -above the true sea far below, they reached and Hardan felt the tingling -thrill of a stranger returning home as the delicate moist tendrils -contacted his exposed flesh. He heard Ylda's sigh of sensuous ecstasy -as she sucked in the dank richness of the confined atmosphere, and he -heard the Aarthman breathing unsteadily as though half-choked.</p> - -<p>"How you can stand this pea-soup," came the little man's strangled -voice, "is beyond me. It's like walking underwater; yet breathing."</p> - -<p>Hardan laughed and slipped out of his cumbersome padded garb. Now he -could climb the wall or fight more freely. The intangible unseen menace -of the walled city and fields now struck him with returned power. He -bound the suit into a pack on his shoulders and set about examining the -damp and crumbling wall. The moisture had loosened its ancient bonding -material and he found many foot and hand holds.</p> - -<p>Swiftly he angled upward, his two companions following the way he had -found. Once he ran into a section of intact wall and was forced to turn -back, and Ylda swung upward along a new series of crevices, leading the -way. Hardan now brought up the rear instead of Kern Rensom.</p> - -<p>The vurth ended, and even as they saw that less than twenty feet lay -between them and the wall's top, a hideous gagging squelching sound, -like a mud-wallowing drunkard venting his addled rage, sounded from -below.</p> - -<p>Hardan turned to look down, his sword in his right hand and his feet -jammed in a shallow crack.</p> - -<p>A vast bulk, indistinct in the failing light of the vanished sun, and -rendered yet more vague by the aerophytic sea that washed around its -lower body, reared there. Hardan sensed that the greasily smooth hide, -wet and slime-covered, was slate-gray, liberally splotched with patches -of ghastly pale yellow. He saw an inner gaping maw, its huge inner -jaws covered with bony serrated ridges, and in a deadly fringe about -this mouth a score or more of specialized tentacles stretched like -multi-jointed arms upward.</p> - -<p>"Climb swiftly!" roared Hardan, "while I hold it back."</p> - -<p>The tentacles slithered nearer, their gray snaky flesh ending at the -tips in sucker-like yellow-tinged discs. Hardan swung his weapon down -at the nearest and from the severed tentacle tip a steaming purplish -ichor spurted. And with its wound the burbling mouthings from below -redoubled.</p> - -<p>The Wetlander sprang upward, a questing tentacle brushing his heel as -he found a new vantage point several feet higher, and then he sliced -through this leathery appendage's tip as well.</p> - -<p>But now three of the tentacles wormed together at him, and though his -blade slashed off two of them, the third found his naked flesh and the -suction discs ripped at him. He clung to the wall, his discarded sword -clattering downward, but relentlessly the monster was dragging him from -his precarious perch.</p> - -<p>He heard a sob at his side and his other sword was drawn from its -sheath even as his left hand lost its grip. Then he was released, the -tentacle tip yet clinging to his flesh, and he found Ylda tugging at -his arm. The Aarthman lowered his bow and Hardan pushed the trembling -girl up to him.</p> - -<p>A moment later they were all three safe a scant four feet above those -questing hungry ropes of flesh, and Ylda was in his arms....</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>Moonlight silvered white the inner crater when they reached the Aarth -city. The gates were closed and Kern Rensom said they would not be -opened until the dawn. He guided them to a hunting estate owned by his -older brother, a well-to-do Aarthman farmer, that was not far from the -upper sea's rim and there they left him.</p> - -<p>That night they slept in a soft mound of hastily gathered Wetland moss, -the thick wetness of the upper sea closing about them like a warm -blanket. And for long Hardan lay awake, his blood singing with the -knowledge that Ylda's love was his.</p> - -<p>Their escape from the penned-in monster, the Drylanders' fabled Thog -Molog, had broken through the barriers of her false pride and she had -confessed that she loved him. And she had explained to him that she was -really the daughter of a noble landowner who had been courted by the -aging Serid Jern against her parents' wishes. She had disguised herself -as a sarif girl and joined the priestesses as a novice to reach Lake -Gron and her husband-to-be.</p> - -<p>"But I am glad I met you, Hardan," she had whispered, "before I mated -with him. I could not have really loved him; only the glamour of his -wild frontier kingdom attracted me.</p> - -<p>"Nor will my father object to my marrying a sarif. He holds that the -man himself is of more importance than his rank."</p> - -<p>Hardan smiled, before he went to sleep, at the reversal in his -position. Now he was the sarif, rather than Ylda. Nor did he intend -to tell her of his equal rank until they stood together before her -father....</p> - -<p>With morning they left the upper sea and with the Aarthman made their -way to the city. Here the diminutive men and women made much of them, -feting and dining them, and learning all they could of the Wetland -civilization they had never before contacted.</p> - -<p>Kern Rensom showed them the buildings where the corroded tools of their -ancestors were stored so carefully, and he took them inside the twisted -wreckage of the space ship on the slope above the city. Most of all was -Hardan interested in the metallic-leaved books and stacks of circular -containers of record tape. Here was the secret of the Aarthmen if they -but had the key of written words to unlock it.</p> - -<p>The pictures interested him as well. The Aarthmen owned several worlds: -cloud-swathed, green-clad continents and vurthless broad seas, and a -dying red world of deserts. And their sun was a tiny red ball without -the least sign of an outer solar ring. How much more beautiful was -Osar's generous ringed luminary, thought the Wetlander.</p> - -<p>So it was that they spent day after day in the peaceful valley of the -Aarthmen, cementing the bonds of friendship that Hardan hoped would -release the forgotten knowledge of Aarth for both races. Almost had he -forgotten the toiling caravan of huge six-wheeled wagons that even now -must be traveling through the waterless desolation of the passes of the -Blue Malsalm Range to the north.</p> - -<p>"You should be told, Hardan," Kern Rensom said, as the mounted -messenger rode off down the broad paved street, "that the wagon train -you guided has halted less than a day's journey to the north. And the -evil-brained sarif, Nitka Porn, has laid a trap for the small party of -soldiers who pursue them."</p> - -<p>Hardan's eyes flashed. It was not enough that Nitka Porn had taken -over control of the train. Now he must slaughter more Wetlanders -instead of attempting escape. He realized that he must kill the -huge-bodied sarif before he could cause any more bloodshed and misery. -Perhaps there was yet time to rescue the doomed warriors.</p> - -<p>"One of our hunters crept close enough to the wagon train to catch the -thoughts of Nitka Porn," the little man was saying. "The attack is to -be late today or in the morning."</p> - -<p>"Kern Rensom!" cried Hardan, "could you get me a guide and maars to -take me to the soldiers?"</p> - -<p>"I can do better," grinned the Aarthman. "I can come along. And bring a -score of warriors as well."</p> - -<p>Hardan took his sword-belts down from their pegs and buckled them on. -He looked to his bow and replaced the somewhat frayed string. Then -he strode out the door to where the maars they had ridden earlier -in the morning were kept. And with him walked the little Aarthman, -clean-shaven now and dandified in embroidered blouse and wide-bottomed -trousers of woven blue fabric. He too was hooking on his harness of -knives, arrow quiver, and throwing club.</p> - -<p>They mounted, pulling their desert robes from behind the saddles—this -last was an Aarth invention that shielded them from sunglare and -stinging sand flurries—and rode toward the poorer section of Smeth -City where hunters and warriors lived. Nor were they long in recruiting -a force of thirty mounted men and leaving the city behind.</p> - -<p>Yet as they reached the great gate in the towering outer wall, the wall -that barred the lower crater to any but Aarthmen, a wide-hatted rider -with desert robes high about his face, awaited them. And as they filed -through the narrow slot the sliding gate-slab permitted this rider to -join the party.</p> - -<p>Hardan rode close to the stranger and uncovered the shielded features. -He shrugged and shouted across to Kern Rensom.</p> - -<p>"I might have known," he laughed. "It is Ylda."</p> - -<p>"Why should I not go?" she demanded. "Perhaps it is my father or my -brother who commands the soldiers. They were to be assigned to the Aba -River command this term."</p> - -<p>"So!" Hardan nodded. "You tire of us and wish to go with them. Or -perhaps you wish to find them so we can mate."</p> - -<p>The high color that flooded Ylda's downy haired cheeks was answer -enough. Her chin elevated proudly, but she said nothing. And Hardan too -hoped her father was serving his year, every sixth year a Consar was -supposed to enter the armed forces of Tarn, for that much the sooner -could they be mated.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Through the gate they rode and up increasingly dry barren slopes until -they reached the jumbled hell of ridges, splintered crevices, and -ragged gorges that lay above the crater's rim. They rode through the -midday heat, pausing but once to soak their dehydrated garments of -padded vurth in a cave-hidden pool, and then onward again until the -shadows on their right grew long and dark.</p> - -<p>"It is near," the Aarthman who guided them said. He dismounted. "Here -we must leave our maars and proceed on foot if we are to surprise the -sarifs."</p> - -<p>The little party obeyed, glad of the opportunity to stretch cramped -stiff limbs. They followed along a narrow shallow gorge to where it -opened into a larger sunken pass. Down there, in a rock-strewn boxlike -cavity, they saw movement.</p> - -<p>"We are too late," Hardan muttered to Ylda. "Shiny leather shells and -metal caps are those of Wetland soldiers. It is they who are trapped in -that hollow."</p> - -<p>Now they could see the sarifs just below their own vantage point. They -clustered at either end of the cliff-walled trap, their arrows and the -jagged boulders they had collected effectively barring any attempt -by the soldiers to cut their way through. Already more than half the -Tarnish fighting men were down, and it was but a matter of time until -the last of them died.</p> - -<p>Further to the east, in a stream-watered little park, the wagons were -bulked in a rude circle. They were fewer now, less than thirty were -left of the original train, and they were patched and travel-stained. -"We had better divide, Kern Rensom," said Hardan thoughtfully. "You -take ten men and take cover above the western party. I will take the -others to capture the wagons and the other party."</p> - -<p>"Good," agreed the little man from Aarth, and he started issuing orders -at once.</p> - -<p>Taking advantage of whatever cover the broken nature of the uplands -afforded, the Aarthmen and the Wetlanders slipped downward toward the -sarifs. Nor were they detected before they had reached a bulging ridge -of flinty red rock twenty feet above them.</p> - -<p>Hardan cupped his hands and shouted down at the fifteen ragged men -below, "Throw down your weapons, sarifs. You are surrounded."</p> - -<p>The men turned, startled, to look upward into the eyes of twenty -strange little men and the two Wetlanders. Nor could they fail to see -the arrows that centered on their vitals. One by one they loosed their -bows and spears, their nerveless fingers twitching.</p> - -<p>Nowhere could Hardan see Nitka Porn, though he counted five of the -rebel sarifs immediate underlings in the group.</p> - -<p>"Where is Nitka Porn?" he demanded.</p> - -<p>The sarifs stirred uneasily, their sullen green eyes shifting and -their tongues dabbing at blackened cracked lips. They were a hopeless, -stupid-looking crowd. From them the Drylands had sapped their strength -and sucked dry their brains. Nor had the browbeating of Nitka Porn been -without influence in this final result.</p> - -<p>One of them, a broken-toothed oldster who feared the rebel sarif the -less because he was so near to death, stepped clumsily forward.</p> - -<p>"He is at the wagons, Hardan." The reedy old voice trembled. "So -securely were the soldiers trapped that he knew they must die. He went -for wagons to carry the loot."</p> - -<p>"Good, Vesko Rok," said Hardan. "Now I would ask you more. Come aside -with me."</p> - -<p>The old sarif shuffled after Hardan out of earshot of the others. -Quickly he demanded the names of all the sarifs loyal to Nitka Porn in -this and the other group. Then he gave orders to separate the prisoners.</p> - -<p>"Nolson," he said to one of the sturdy little men of Aarth, "I want you -to remain here with ten men. Guard well these seven sarifs."</p> - -<p>The Aarthman's blue eyes were bright. "They will not escape," he said.</p> - -<p>"The others we are taking back to the wagon train," Hardan told him, -and set out along the rugged path down toward the camp.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Nitka Porn came riding out of the camp with two others of his men. They -were all three fat and healthy-looking. They had fared better than the -rest of the party, riding much of the day in the tank baths of the -wagons and eating the best of the food.</p> - -<p>Behind them rolled three wagons, the teams of bony maars pulling them -driven by women. Apparently all the able-bodied sarif males had been -forced to join the ambushers.</p> - -<p>When they came opposite the Aarthmen and the sarif prisoners stepped -out from their concealing boulders and rocks, the show of weapons by -the little hairless men of Aarth sufficient to make the whole force -seem armed.</p> - -<p>"I want you, Nitka Porn." Hardan's voice was slow, his pent-up rage -well under control.</p> - -<p>The huge sarif's freckled face was mottled with fear and hatred. His -yellowish-green eyes were baleful as he swung down from the saddle. -Hardan's ears heard a rush of feet and then a ghastly series of shrieks -and thuddings, and from the corner of his eye saw the other two horses -were now riderless. The sarifs were trampling at something underfoot -and the Aarthmen were turning away pale sickened faces from what was -there.</p> - -<p>Ylda's hand was on his arm. "Take him prisoner," she begged. "Tarnish -justice will punish him. And he is so big, so brutal—you will be -killed!"</p> - -<p>Hardan pushed gently at her arm. Nitka Porn was a spear's length away -now and his swords were drawn. Then, before Hardan could stop her, Ylda -had stepped between them.</p> - -<p>"Surrender your weapons, Nitka Porn," she commanded imperiously, "and -you will live to see Aba."</p> - -<p>Nitka's flat-nosed simian face snarled. "Surrender and be torn apart as -were they?" His head nodded toward the mumbling knot of crazed sarifs -beside the terrified maars. He laughed hoarsely, and with one great arm -swept the girl close.</p> - -<p>One of his swords now pressed against the breast of Ylda, ready to -plunge deep into her vitals. He backed again toward his maar.</p> - -<p>"At the first sign of attack," he told Hardan, "the woman dies."</p> - -<p>He prepared to climb into the saddle, to ride away into the eastern -uplands that led toward the Desert of Niid and the Bitter Sea that had -been their goal. And then it was that Hardan remembered the strange -power of the Aarthmen.</p> - -<p>No sooner had the thought been born in his brain than the little men -chuckled and their dejected faces brightened. Nitka Porn's body froze -immobile and slowly he spread his arms so the girl stepped free.</p> - -<p>"Enough," Hardan called. "Release him and let him fight for his life."</p> - -<p>"Better that we should make him slice his own throat," muttered one of -the Aarthmen, but unwillingly they complied.</p> - -<p>And after a moment the dazed sarif picked up his dropped swords and -faced the unmoving Wetlander's gauntness. Trapped at last he was and -like a cornered sorap with broken wings he launched himself at Hardan.</p> - -<p>Their swords met, clashed and sparks flew from their slithering blades. -They broke and circled again, each wary for an opening that the other -could not parry. Again and again the four swords rasped, yet from -neither man was any blood drawn, so evenly were they matched. Nitka -Porn's reach was the longer, but his bulk slowed down his speed, and it -was here that Hardan saw his advantage.</p> - -<p>Slowly he must wear down the big man, and the dry air that the huge -Wetlander was not yet accustomed to breathing would do the rest. He -would weaken, grow clumsy, and then his blade would find an opening.</p> - -<p>But this Nitka Porn must have sensed. He swung his swords in a -veritable hurricane of chopping steel and bore Hardan back against the -rearing maars of the foremost wagon. A maar's forefoot lashed out, -numbing Hardan's left shoulder, and the apish sarif's face glowed with -devilish satisfaction. The success of his strategy so pleased him that -he dropped his guard momentarily.</p> - -<p>It was the opening Hardan needed. Gritting his teeth against the pain -and numbness of his bruised shoulder he lunged upward with his left -sword and his other blade darted in lightning strokes at the sarif's -middle. His left hand jarred limply from the sword grip, but Nitka Porn -staggered backward dying, the sword piercing deep into his eye-socket.</p> - -<p>"Well done!" a hearty voice cried, and he turned to face a -leather-husked captain of the Tarnish Guard with his remaining five men.</p> - -<p>Ylda gave a little cry and in a moment was in the soldier's arms. A hot -wave of jealousy burned within Hardan and then was gone.</p> - -<p>"It is my father!" she cried gladly....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The sun was high overhead when they rode toward the crater valley of -the Aarthmen where they were to spend another hand of days before -guiding the wagon train on its way to the Bitter Sea. And now their -purpose was to establish a treaty between Aarthmen and Wetlanders. -Nor did Hardan fear that his small friends would receive any but fair -treatment—their ability to read minds guarded them against that common -failing of expanding races, to take what they wanted by treachery.</p> - -<p>"We will guide the train to the Bitter Sea," he told Ylda as he loosed -her from her bonds. "Some day all the Wetlands will be ours, and the -men of Aarth will rule the Drylands, and ships-that-fly will link us -together.</p> - -<p>"But until then the trek must go on. Along this trail we are marking -out other wagons will follow until a great road stretches here. There -will be lakes and underground hostels along the way, and our children -will travel in vurth-insulated wagons without maars, wagons faster than -the wind.</p> - -<p>"It was so on Aarth, their legends declare, and so it will be with us."</p> - -<p>Ylda pouted. "What do we care about Aarth and treks?" she demanded. 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