Especially when the folk of Killorn were still strangers in a camp of allies who did not trust them very far, when Killorn needed every friend it could find. And the Broina were an elvish clan who had never let overly many scruples hold them. Only—only he liked Sathi as a human being. She was brave and generous and wise and she was, really, so pitiably young. She had had so little chance to learn the hard truths of living in the loneliness of the imperium and only a scoundrel would hurt her. She sighed, ever so faintly, and moved back a little. Kery thought he saw her stiffening. One does not reject the offer of a queen. "Sathi," he said, "for you, perhaps, even a man of Killorn might forget his home." She half turned to him, hesitating, unsure of herself and him. He took her in his arms and kissed her. "Kery, Kery, Kery—" she whispered, and her lips stole back toward his. He felt rather than heard a footfall and turned with the animal alertness of the barbarian. Jonan stood watching them. "Pardon me," said the general harshly. His countenance was strained. Then suddenly, "Your majesty! This savage mauling you...." Sathi lifted a proud dark head. "This is the prince consort of Imperial Ryvan," she said haughtily. "Conduct yourself accordingly. You may go." Jonan snarled and lifted an arm. Kery saw the armed men step from behind the tall flowering hedges and his sword came out with a rasp of steel. "Guards!" screamed Sathi. The men closed in. Kery's blade whistled against one shield. Another came from each side. Pikeshafts thudded against his bare head— He fell, toppling into a roaring darkness while they clubbed him again. Down and down and down, whirling into a chasm of night. Dimly, just before blankness came, he saw the white beard and the mask-like face of the prince from Ganasth. VI It was a long and hard ride before they stopped and Kery almost fell from the hest to which they had bound him. "I should have thought that you would soon awake," said the man from Ganasth. He had a
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