ne as you choose; or if you ask our aid, remembering that we are outlaws, we will give you aid to the limit of our means. If you fail to convince us, you shall die as all the baits sent to trap us have died. It will be no pleasant death; we do not delight in suffering, but it is wisdom to discourage others from following you."
	"Fair enough," said Graydon.
	"You are not of our race," Huon said. "You may be a prisoner sent to betray us, your life and liberty the promised rewards. The bracelet you wear may have been given you to blind us. We do not really know that you passed the Messengers. You may have been guided through the lairs of the Urd, and set down where you met the men who brought you here. That you slew some of the Urd proves nothing. There are many, and their lives are less than nothing to Lantlu and the Dark One whose slaves they are. I tell you all this," he added with a touch of apology, "that you may know the doubts you must dissipate to live."
	"And fair enough," said Graydon again. Huon turned
	to the woman, who had been studying Graydon with a wholly absorbed, puzzled intentness ever since he had named Suarra.
	"You will stay with us and help us judge?" he asked.
	"As if," drawled Dorina, and stretching herself upon the couch, "as if, Huon, I had the slightest intention of doing anything else!"
	Huon spoke to the spider-man; a red arm stretched out and brought a stool to Graydon's feet Regor lowered his bulk upon another; Huon dropped into his chair. The eyes of that strange quartet upon him, Graydon began his story.
	A little he told them of the world from which he had come, and his place in it; as briefly as he could, of his trek into the Forbidden Land with the three adventurers; and of his meeting with Suarra. He heard Regor growl approval as he sketched his battle with Starrett, saw Huon's eyes warm. He told of Suarra's return next morning. And as he spoke of the Lord of Folly, he saw conviction of his truth begin to steal into their faces, and deepen as he told of his glimpse of Lantlu among his hissing pack. But he was amazed to see it turn to such a horror of belief as it did when his story led them into the cavern of the great stone Face.
	For as he described that visage of ultimate evil, and the seeming transmutation of the three men into globules of golden sweat, Dorina covered her face with shaking hands, and the blood was drained from Huon's own, and Regor muttered; only Kon, the spider-man, stood unmoved, regarding him with his sorrowful, shining golden eyes.
	And this could only mean that none of them had ever seen the Face-and that therefore there were in YuAtlanchi secrets hidden even from its dwellers. Some obscure impulse bade him be cautious. So he said nothing of his vision of the Temple, but told them of his awakening, of the Indian he had found beside him as guide, and of his impulsive return. He showed them the scar of the wound that had been its penalty.
	"As for what it was that summoned me back," he said, "I cannot tell you-at least not now. It was a summons I might not disobey-" and that was true enough, he thought, as the face of Suarra came before him, and her appeal echoed in his heart.
	"It is all I can say," he repeated. "And all I have said is truth. How the summons came to me has no bearing upon the matter, since because of it I am here. Staythere is something else-"
	He took from his pocket the packet that held Suarra's caraquenque plume, opened it and held it toward them.
	"Suarra's," breathed Dorina, and Huon nodded.
	There was no question of their belief now. It might-be well to put a spur to their own self-interest.
	"And still there is one more thing," he said slowly. "Regor has spoken of some purpose. Of that purpose, it may be I know as little as you. But this happened-"
	He told them of the elfin bugles that had led him across the plain of the monoliths, and finally to the cleft in the ramparts. Huon drew a deep breath and stood erect, hope blazing upon his face, and Regor leaped to his feet, swinging his clubbed arm in a whistling circle.
	Huon clasped Graydon's shoulders.. "I believe!" he said, voice shaking; he turned to Dorina; "And you?"
	"Of course it is truth, Huon!" she answered; but some swift calculation narrowed her lids and clouded her face, and Graydon thought for an instant she looked menacingly at him.
	"You are our guest," said Huon. "In the morning you shall meet the Fellowship, and repeat to them what you have told us. And then you shall decide whether to call upon us for help, or go on alone. All that is ours is yours for the asking. And-Graydon-" he hesitated, and then with abrupt wistfulness-"by the Mother, I hope you throw your lot with ours! Regor, see to it that the little beast is cared for. Take this, Graydon," he stooped and picked up the rifle. "To-morrow you shall show us what it is. I will take you to your quarters. Wait for me, Dorina."
	He took Graydon by the arm, and led him toward the wall of the room opposite that which he had entered. He parted the webs.
	"Follow," he bade.
	Graydon looked back as he passed after him. Dorina was standing, watching him with that menacing speculation stronger upon her face.
	Graydon passed through the webs, and followed Huon's broad back into another faintly sparkling, black-walled corridor.


CHAPTER XI

The Deathless People

	"UP, LAD, bathe and break your fast. The Fellowship will soon be gathering, and I am here to take you to them."
	Graydon blinked uncomprehendingly at his awakener. Regor stood at the foot of his couch, on his face a broad smile that his scars turned into the grin of a benevolent gargoyle. He had changed the chain armor for the closefitting garments that seemed to be the fashion of YuAtlanchi's men. Black Regor he still was, however, for these were black, and black was the cloak that hung from his immense shoulders.
	Graydon looked around that chamber to which Huon had led him, at the thick rugs which were like spun silk of silver, the walls covered by the webs of shadowy silver through which ran strange patterns of a deeper argent, webs which were drawn aside at one end of the room to reveal a wide alcove in which a sunken pool sparkled. He drew together the threads of memory.
	Huon had watched and talked while two silent brown men had bathed and massaged away his weariness and the marks of Kon's talons. And then had sat with him whilst he had eaten unfamiliar meats which two Indian girls, with wide wondering eyes, had set before him in dishes of crystal. Huon himself had poured his wine, asking many questions about the people who dwelt outside the Hidden Land. He had not seemed much interested in their arts or sciences or governments; but avidly so upon how death came to them, and what was done with the old, the customs of mating, whether there were many children and their upbringing. Ever and ever be had returned to the subject of death and the forms in which it came, as though it held for him some overpowering fascination.
	And, at last, he had sat silent, thinking; then, sighing, had said:
	"So it was in the old days-and which is the better way?"
	He had risen, abruptly, and passed out of the chamber; the light had dimmed, and Graydon had thrown himself upon the couch to sink into deep slumber.
	Why had Huon dwelt so persistently upon death? There was something about that which vaguely troubled Graydon. Suddenly he recalled that Suarra had said her people had closed the Door of Death. He realized that he had not taken her literally. But might it be truth-
	He roused himself from his reverie, shook himself impatiently, and rising, walked over to the pool, splashed about and dried himself upon silken cloths. He returned to his chamber to find a table set with fruits, and with what seemed like wheaten cakes, and milk. He dressed quickly, and sat down to it Not till then did Regor speak.
	"Lad," he said, "I told you that I am a subtle one. Now my subtlety tells me that so are you, and that very subtly you held back much from your story last night. Notably- your command from the Mother."
	"Good Lord," exclaimed Graydon, in the Aymara equivalent "There's nothing subtle in that discovery. I warned you I couldn't tell you how-"
	He stopped, afraid that he had hurt the giant's feelings. But Regor smiled broadly.
	"I'm not referring to that," he said. "What you were careful not to mention was the reward the Mother promised you if you obeyed her summons-and managed to reach her."
	Graydon jumped, in his astonishment, choking on a bite of the wheaten cake.
	"Ho! ho!" roared Regor, and gave him a resounding whack upon the back. "Am I not a subtle one, eh?
	"Dorina is not here now," he muttered slyly, looking up at the ceiling, "nor am I bound to tell Huon all I hear."
	Graydon swung around on his stool and looked at him.
	Regor looked back quizzically, yet with such real friendship in his eyes that Graydon felt his resolve waver. There was something about Huon, as there had been about Lantlu, that made him feel lonely; something alien, something unhuman. Whether it was their beauty, so far beyond any dream of classic, antique sculpture, or whether it lay deeper, he did not know. But he felt none of it concerning this man. Regor seemed of his own world. And certainly he had demonstrated his kindliness.
	"You can trust me, lad," Regor answered his thought. "You were wise last night, but what was wisdom then may not be so now. Would this help you to decide-that I know Suarra, and love her as my own child?"
	It turned the scale in Graydon's mind.
	"A bargain, Regor," he said. "Question for question. Answer mine, and I'll answer yours."
	"Done!" grunted Regor, "and if we keep them waiting let the Fellowship chew their thumbs."
	Graydon went straight to the matter that was troubling him.
	"Huon asked me many questions last night. And the most of them were about death in my own land, its shapes, how it came to us; and how long men lived there. One would think he knew nothing of death except that which comes by killing. Why is Huon so curious about-death?"
	"Because," said Regor, tranquilly, "Huon is deathless!"
	"Deathless!" echoed Graydon, incredulously.
	"Deathless," repeated Regor, "unless, of course, some one kills him, or he should choose to exercise a certain-- choice which all of us have."
	"Which all of you have!" echoed Graydon again. "You, too, Regor?"
	"Even I," answered the giant, bowing urbanely.
	"But surely not the Indians," cried Graydon.
	"No, not they," Regor replied, patiently.
	"Then they die," Graydon was struggling desperately to find some flaw in what seemed to him a monstrous condition. "They die, like my people. Then why have they not taught Huon all that death can be? Why ask me?"
	"There are two answers to that," said Regor with quite a professional air. "First, you-and therefore your race- are much closer to us than are the Emer, or as you call them, the Aymara. Therefore, Huon argues, he might learn from you what would probably come out of the Door of Death for us if it should be decided to reopen that door upon Yu- Atlanchi-all Yu-Atlanchi. It is, by the way, one of the matters that has made us outlaws. The second answer is, however, all-embracing. It is that, except in the rarest of cases, the Emer do not live long enough for any one to find out how they might possibly die except in the distressingly similar manner in which they do. I mean, they are killed before they have opportunity to die otherwise! It is another of the matters that has made us outlaws." Graydon felt a nightmarish creep. Was Suarra too-deathless? And if so, then in the name of God how old was she? The thought was definitely unpleasant. They were unhuman, those hidden people; abnormal! Surely Suarra, with all her sweetness, was not one of these-monsters! He did not dare ask; approached the question obliquely.
	"Dorina too, I suppose?" he asked.
	"Naturally," said Regor, placidly.
	"She looks very like Suarra," hazarded Graydon. "She might be her sister."
	"Oh, no," said Regor. "Let me see-she was, I believe, the sister of Suarra's grandmother-yes, or her greatgrandmother. Something like that, at any rate."
	Graydon glared at him suspiciously. Was Regor after all making game of him?
	"A sort of an aunt," he observed, sarcastically.
	"You might say so," agreed Regor.
	"Hell!" shouted Graydon, in utter exasperation, and brought down his fist on the table with a crash. Regor looked startled, then chuckled.
	"What does it matter?" he asked. "One of your day-old babes, if it had the brain to think, would probably consider. you an ancient as you do me. But it would accept it as natural. All these things are comparative. And if our ages offend you," he added, unctuously, "be thankful that it is Dorina who is Suarra's great-grandmother's sister, and not the other way about."
	Graydon laughed; this was comforting common sense after all. And yet-Suarra centuries old, perhaps! Not Primavera, not the fresh young Springtide maid he had thought her! Well, there was no use crying about it. It was so, or it wasn't. And if it were so-still she was Suarra. He thrust the whole matter aside.
	"One more question, and I'm ready for yours. None of you thoroughly believed me until I told you of the Face, and what I told you frightened you. Why?"
	Now it was Regor who was troubled; his face darkened, then paled, the scars standing out like livid welts.
	"And again you are frightened," Graydon said, curiously. "Why?"
	"At a Shadow," answered Regor, and with effort. "At an evil Shadow which you have turned to substance. At an ancient tale-which you have turned to truth. Let be-I say no more."
	A shadow... the Serpent-woman had spoken of a shadow... linking it with this enemy they called the Dark One... there had been a name... The Shadow of... ah, yes-he had it now.
	"You speak," be said, "in riddles. As though I were a child. Do you fear to name this Shadow? Well, I do not- it is the Shadow of Nimir."
	Roger's jaw dropped; closed with a snap. He took a menacing step toward Graydon, face hard, eyes bleak, with suspicion.
	"You know too much, I think! And knowing, fear too little-"
	"Don't be a fool," said Graydon, sharply. "If I knew why you feared, would I ask? I know the name, and that is all-except that he is foe of the Mother. How I came to know it, I will tell you later-after you have answered my question. And with no more riddles."
	For a full minute the great man glared at him, then shrugged his shoulders, and sat facing him.
	"You shook me," he said, quietly enough. "Of all the Fellowship, I alone, or so I think, know the name of Nimir. It has been forgotten. The Lord of Evil-that name all know. But not the name he bore before-"
	He leaned over toward Graydon, laid his hand on his shoulder, and his stern mouth quivered.
	"By the Power above us all, I want to believe you, lad!
	I would not have this hope die!"
	Graydon reached up, and pressed the clutching hand. "And by the Power above us all-you can believe, Regor."
	Regor nodded, face tranquil once more.
	"Thus then it is," he began. "This is the ancient story. That long, long ago Yu-Adanchi was ruled by the Seven Lords and Adana, the Snake Mother. They were not as other men, these Lords. Masters of knowledge, holders of strange secrets, wielders of strange powers. Both death and life they had conquered, holding back death at will, doing as they willed with life. They came to this land with the Mother and her people, age upon age long gone. Through their wisdom, they had ceased to be entirely human-these Lords. Or at least-we would not think them so; though men like us they must once have been.
	"There came a time when one of them plotted secretly against the others, scheming to wrest their power from them. Himself, to rule supreme. And not alone in YuAtlanchi, but over all earth, all living things his slaves. Himself enthroned. All powerful. God on earth. Slowly, steadily, he armed himself with dread powers unknown to the others.
	"When he felt his strength had ripened-he struck. And almost won. And would have won-had it not been for the guile and wisdom of the Mother.
	"That Lord was-Nimir.
	"They conquered him-but they could not destroy him. Yet by their arts they could fetter him. And this they did, so the ancient story ran, preparing a certain place, and by their arts prisoning him within the rock there.
	"Out of that rock they carved a great Face, in the likeness of Nimir's own. It was not in mockery.,. they had some purpose... but what that purpose might have been... none knows. And by their arts they set in action within
	that place forces which would keep him bound fast as long as the land-or Nimir-endured. Of fruit of jewels or flowing gold, such as you described, the tale said nothing.
	"All this being done, the Six Lords and Adana, the Mother, returned to Yu- Atlanchi. And for long the old peace reigned.
	'Time upon time passed. One by one those whose eyes had beheld the Lord of Evil grew weary, and opened the Door of Death. Or opened the Door of Life, brought babes through it, and then passed through the dark portal, that being the price of children in Yu-Atlanchi! So there came a day when in all this hidden land there was none of its people left who knew the whole truth except a handful among the Dream Makers, and who would believe a Dream Maker?
	"That war whose stakes had been a world, faded into a legend, a parable.
	"Then, not so long ago as time is measured in YuAtlanchi, there came the rumor that this evil Lord had reappeared. A Shadow of him rather; a Darkness that whispered; bodiless but seeking a body; promising all things to those who would obey him; whispering, whispering that he was the Lord of Evil. And that the Urd, the lizard-people, were his slaves.
	"When first we heard this rumor of the Shadow and its whisperings, we laughed. A Dream Maker has awakened, we said, and some one has believed him. But as the Shadow's following increased, we laughed not so loudly. For cruelty and wickedness grew swiftly, and we realized that whether Lord of Evil or another, there was poison at the roots of the ancient tree of Yu-Atlanchi.
	"Of all the six Lords there remained only one, and the Mother and he had long withdrawn from us. We sought audience with the Mother, and she was indifferent. "Then Lantlu seized power, and life in the ancient city became intolerable to many of us. Following Huon, we found refuge in these caverns. And ever darker through the years grew the Shadow over Yu-Atlanchi. But still we said-'He is not that ancient Lord of Evil!'
	"And then-you come. And you tell us--'I have seen that secret place! I have looked into the eyes of the Face!'"
	Regor arose and paced the room; there were little drops of sweat on his forehead.
	"And now we know that the Shadow has not lied, and that it and the Lord of Evil are one. That he has found means of partial escape, and that once again embodied, as he seeks to be, will have power to break all his bonds, find full release, and rule here and in time over earth, as ages ago he was balked from doing."
	Again he took up his restless pacing, and again halted, facing Graydon.
	"We fear, but it is not death we fear," he said, and it was like an echo of Suarra. "It is something infinitely worse than any death could ever be. We fear to live-in such shapes and ways as this Lord of Evil and Lantlu could devise. And would devise for us, be sure of that."
	He covered his face with his cloak. When he uncovered it he had himself in hand once more.
	"Well, lad, courage," he rumbled. "Neither Lantlu nor the Dark Master has us yet! Your turn now. What was it the Mother promised you?"
	And Graydon, with a dull horror knocking at his own heart, told him fully all that he had heard and seen in that vision of his. Regor listened, silent. But, steadily, hope grew in his eyes; and when Graydon had repeated the Serpent- woman's threat against Lantlu, he leaped to his feet with an oath of joy.
	"Win to her you must and shall!" he said. "I am not saying it will be easy. Yet there are ways-yes, there are ways. And you shall bear a message to the Mother from us-that we stand ready to join her and fight as best we can beside her. And that there are perhaps more in YuAtlanchi worth the saving than she thinks," he added a little bitterly. "Say to her that we, at least, each and all of us, will gladly lay down our lives if by doing so, we can help her conquer."
	From somewhere far away came the mellow golden note of a bell.
	'The Fellowship has gathered," said Regor. "It is the signal. When you come before them say nothing of what you have just told me. Repeat only your story of last night.
	Dorina will be there. And I have told you nothing. You understand, lad?"
	"Right," answered Graydon.
	"And if you're a good lad," said Regor, pausing at the curtained door and poking his bar into Graydon's ribs, "if you're a really good lad. I'll tell you something else."
	"Yes, what?" said Graydon, intent.
	"I'll tell you how old Suarra really is!" answered Regor, and, laughing, marched through the doorway.


CHAPTER XII

The Secret Ancient City

	GRAYDON DECIDED that he would have to revise his estimate of Black Regor. He had laughed inwardly at his boasts of subtlety, considering him as transparent as air. He knew now that he had been wrong. The sly reference to Suarra's years showed how accurately Regor had read him. That, however, was only one egg of the omelette. More significant had been his perception that Graydon had held back the most vital part of his story.
	There was, besides, his independence of thought, manifest both in word and action; Huon's man he might be, but he was master of his own judgment. His distrust of Dorina was proof of that. And certainly the way in which last night he had infected Huon with that sinister doubt of her had been subtle enough. Also he had a sense of humor, . and somehow Graydon was quite sure Huon had none.
	The corridor along which they were passing was not long. It ended against a huge door of the black metal, guarded by the yellow-kilted Indians.
	"Remember!" warned Regor. The door slid aside, revealing webs of curtains. He parted them, and Graydon followed him through.
	He stood at the' threshold of an immense chamber from whose high ceiling poured light, golden and dazzling as though from full sun. His vision clearing, he saw curving across the wide floor a double semicircle of seats that appeared cut from rose coral. Occupying them were a hundred or more of Huon's people, the men in yellow, the women dressed in vivid color; and each and all of them, his swift glance told him, possessed of that disturbing beauty which was the heritage of this unknown race.
	Graydon, studying them, trembled again at the touch of the strange loneliness.
	There was a low dais facing the semicircle, on it a wide and cushioned bench of the rose coral, and in front of it a pedestal, like a speaker's rostrum. Dorina sat there, and rising from her side was Huon. He came swiftly down, greeted Graydon most courteously, and taking him by hand led him up to the dais where Dorina acknowledged his bow by a negligent lifting of black lashes and a careless word. Regor dropped down beside her; then Huon turned him toward the others, raising the wrist that held the bracelet, at sight of which there was another murmuring and hands lifted in salutation.
	"This," began Huon, "is the Fellowship, outlaws of YuAtlanchi, haters of and hated by Lantlu and the Dark Master, loyal children of the Mother, and ready to serve her if she will so allow. Something I have told them of your story, and that we three believe you. Yet, though they call me leader, still am I only one of them. It is their right to judge you. Speak-they listen."
	Graydon mustered his words; then launched his tale. Ever more tensely they listened as that tale progressed, and it came to him that, so far as judgment of him was concerned, this hearing was only a formality; that they had been convinced of his genuineness by Huon before he had entered. With that thought came a greater assurance, and as he sensed their growing sympathy and approval, a greater ease, so that his speech flowed more readily.
	And when at last he had led them to the cavern of the Face, all doubt of this was ended, for now they leaned forward in rigid attention, pallid, with whitened lips and in their eyes was horror-they were like seraphs, Graydon thought, hearing suddenly that Satan and his legions had broken through a gate of Heaven. But if there was horror, there was no sign of panic, nor of despair, and no weakening of spirit apparent upon those masks of beauty that stared at him so raptly. When he had ended, a long sigh went up, and a silence fell.
	"You have heard," Huon broke that silence. "Now let any who doubts this man rise and question him."
	A murmuring ran through the Fellowship as one turned to the other; little groups formed and whispered. Then came a voice from among them.
	"Huon, we believe. And quickly must he reach the Mother. Remains now to decide how to do it."
	"Graydon," Huon turned to him, "last night I promised, you that if we believed, you should go your own way, as your own wit might guide you-or you could throw in your lot with us, and call upon our wits to help you. And now you must decide. Stay-" he said, as Graydon was about to speak, "we cozen none with fair promises which we know are doubtful of performance. And it may well be that our help would be more harmful to you than otherwise. Before you decide, see the board upon which the game must be played."
	He strode down from the dais and over to the farther end of the chamber. He thrust aside the thick hangings which covered its wall. Behind them was a gleaming black stone. Huon rested his hand upon it, and slowly a circular aperture opened. A little gust of fragrant air came dancing in.
	Graydon looked out upon hidden Yu-Atlanchi. Far beneath him sparkled the blue waters of a long lake. Huon's lair was at one narrowed end of it. Beaches of golden sand and flowering marshes bordered it. Beyond the marshes was thick forest, marching mile upon mile away, to be thrust back at last like a green wave by cliffs, sheer and gray and thousands of feet high. He looked down the lake, following its ever-widening southward course. There was a faint haze over the landscape, but far away he saw a splotch of color, as though a gigantic jewel box had been spilled there. Opposite it, the cliffs marched forward and out into the water, narrowing the lake once more. And set in these cliffs was a row of huge black ovals, like windows opening into darkness. Beside each of them was a gigantic figure.
	Of course! That splotch of spilled jewels was the secret ancient city. The oval shadows were those caverns he had glimpsed when summoned by the Serpent- woman; the guarding shapes were the colossi-and there at the left where a precipice made a mighty buttress, leaning against its green and ebon breast, was a rod of shining silver. It was the cataract of his vision.
	Huon handed him a mask of crystal, and he set it over his eyes. The splotch of color leaped forward, swam in front of him and resolved itself into a towered and turreted city, a city built by Djinns with blocks and scales of red glowing gold and gleaming silver, and roofed with tiles of turquoise and sapphire, smoldering ruby and flashing diamond. He could see the spume of the cataract waving like signaling veils. He saw that no two of the colossi were alike, that some were shaped like women, and that some, like the gods of ancient Egypt, bore the heads of animals and birds. A hundred feet in height he judged them. His eyes lingered on one, a naked woman's body, heroically proportioned, yet exquisite. Her face was that of a grinning frog.
	Behind the city was a long low hill. Crowning it was a building whose proportions dwarfed even the columned immensity of ancient Karnak. It was of white marble, and it brooded over the jeweled city like a white-robed vestal. Its front was pillared, but the enormous columns were without ornament. It was of Cyclopean simplicity, aloof; and, like the colossi, it seemed to watch.
	He saw no streets; there were leafy lanes on which was sparse movement. West, south and east, his gaze was checked by the sky-reaching ramparts of the mountains. The hidden land was a vast circular bowl some thirty miles in diameter, he estimated.
	"There," Huon was pointing at the temple, "is your goal. There dwells the Mother-and Suarra."
	The aperture closed; Huon let the curtains drop, and led Graydon back to the dais.
	"You have seen," he said. "What you could not see were the obstacles that lie between you and that temple, the way to which seems so near and open. The city is well guarded, Graydon, and all its guards are Lantlu's men. You could not get to the Temple without being caught a score of times. Therefore, dismiss all hope that you can reach the Mother by stealth, unaided. Inevitably you would be taken before Lantlu. By the ancient law, your life would be forfeit.
	"But it might be that if you went boldly into the city, showing your bracelet as passport, and demanding in its name audience with the Mother-it might be that thus simply you could gain your end. It might be that Lantlu, mazed by the mystery of how you passed the Messengers, of how you were guided to Yu-Atlanchi, would not dare slay you nor hold you back from the Mother."
	"The best he would do," growled Regor, "since whatever Lantlu may be he is no fool, would be to greet you fairly, find out all he could from you, put you off on the pretext that the Mother must be prepared for your visit, probably slip some drug into your drink, and while you slept take counsel with the Dark Master as to what was to be done with you. I do not think you would ever reach the Mother by that route."
	There was a murmur of assent from the Fellowship, and Huon himself nodded agreement "Still, he should weigh the chance," he said. "Now, if you reject that plan, there is the matter of our aid. Frankly, Graydon, it can be none too great. Those of the Old Race who still live are not many. There are in all perhaps two thousand of us. Of these, we account for a scant hundred. Of those within the city, some three hundred more are with us, and serve us better by being there than here. Of those remaining, the Dream Makers number half a thousand. They are not concerned with anything of earth. The others are with Lantlu, one with him in his amusements and aims, followers, more or less, of the Dark Master.
	"We are in no position to take issue in the open with Lantlu. He controls the Xinli, both the hunting packs, and those which are ridden-and these latter are as formidable as the hunters. Through the Dark Master he controls the Urd, the lizard-men. Against all these we have for weapons swords and lance, bow and arrow and battle mace. Once we had weapons of a different kind-sounds that went forth like swift sparks, flaming, and slew all upon whom they fell; shadows that flitted where they were willed to go, and turned to ice all upon which they rested; shapes of flame that consumed all living things upon which they rested; and other strange devices of death. But, so our legends run, after a certain war, these were taken and hidden away in one of the caverns, so that never might we use them upon each other. Or it may be they were destroyed. At any rate, we have them not.
	"I tell you this, Graydon," added Huon a trifle bitterly, "to show you why it is we do not take you by the hand and go marching up to the white Temple with you. If we had but one of those weapons of the old ones-"
	"If we had but one, we would march with you so," roared Regor. "The Mother knows where they are, if they still exist, and, therefore, you must get to her and persuade her to let us have them. By all the Hells, if the Dark Master is the Lord of Evil-then Adana had better be looking for her own safety! Maybe he, too, knows where those weapons are hidden!"
	"This we can do, Graydon," went on Huon. "We can arrange to hide you with friends in the city, if we can get you there undiscovered. After that we must plot to get you into the Temple. That done, if Lantlu tries to take you, it will be open war between the Mother and him. And that, frankly, is what interests us. The danger is in your discovery before you can reach her. Yet I do believe you have a better chance to win to her with our help than unaided!"
	"I too," answered Graydon. "But whether so or not, Huon, something tells me that our fortunes are interwoven. That if I win, there is hope for you, and for all those who would see life changed in Yu-Atlanchi. At any rate, if you will accept me, I throw in my lot with you."
	Huon's face lightened, and he caught Graydon's hands, while Regor muttered and struck him on the shoulder, and from the Fellowship arose a hum of relief. And suddenly through it struck the voice of Dorina, sweetly languid.
	"But it seems to me that you have missed the simplest solution of all. Clearly, it was Suarra as much as the Mother who brought Graydon here. And clearly Suarra is, to say the least, interested in him. And Suarra is the Mother's favorite. Well then-let word be sent secretly to Suarra that Graydon has returned, let her say where she will meet him; then, having met, let her tell him how best he can reach Adana."
	Graydon saw Regor look at her suspiciously, but Huon hailed the suggestion, and after a little discussion the Fellowship approved it. And so it was decided that a messenger be sent at once to Suarra to tell her of Graydon's presence, and as proof that this was so he wrote at Regor's suggestion one brief line-"by your caraquenque feather on my heart this is truth"-that and no more. Also, at Regor's suggestion, the place of meeting was set at the first of the caverns of the colossi which was close to the great cataract and almost at the lake's level.
	"There is none to stop her or question her going there," urged Regor. "She can say she is sent by the Mother, for a purpose of her own. None will dare interfere-and why should they? She has visited the caverns before. It should be well after dusk, say the fifth hour. I and a half-dozen of us will be sufficient guard for Graydon. I know a way that has few dangers of discovery."
	So it was settled. The message was prepared for Suarra, and its carrier, one of the Indians, departed. Graydon did not have a clear idea how it was to be gotten to her. Vaguely, he gathered that it would be passed along through other Indians not known to be enemies of the rulers, until it reached the Emers who were the servants and bodyguard of the Temple, owing no allegiance to any except the Snake Mother and the Lord of Folly. They would see that Suarra got it.
	That day, Graydon spent with Huon and the Fellowship and found them gay, witty, and delightful companions, the women of perilous charm. He dined with them. Dorina, oddly, paid him marked attention, but Huon's jealousy slept. Like Huon, she was curious about death, and that part of his evening he spent at her side Graydon did not find so gay. At last she was silent for many minutes, then said:
	"If Huon wins this fight and comes to rule Yu-Atlanchi, he threatens to open the Door of Death for all of us. Why should we not have the right to choose?"
	Without giving him time to answer, she stared at him through narrowed lids, and said with utmost finality:
	"Well, I for one do not intend to die! You can tell the Mother so-if you ever reach her!"
	And abruptly turned away and left him.
	Later on, as he was turning in, Regor had come and sat and talked with him.
	"Lad," he said, "I have forebodings. It was in my own mind to suggest that meeting with Suarra, nevertheless I like it ill coming from Dorina. So Suarra is to meet us not at the fifth hour, but the third. Also, the place will not be the first cavern, but the cavern of the Frog-woman."
	"But the message has gone," said Graydon. "How is Suarra to know?"
	"Don't worry about that," retorted the giant. "In my subtle fashion, I sent a message of my own with that other. Even the messenger who bore it did not know what it was. If we get a caraquenque feather back from Suarra, it means she understands. If we don't-why, then we'll have to go to the first cavern."
	He nodded gloomily.
	"I repeat. I don't like that idea coming from Dorina. Oh, well-"
	He grumbled a good-night, and stalked out.


CHAPTER XIII

Cavern of the Frog-Woman

	THE MORNING of the third day Graydon heard from Regor that Suarra had got his message, and had set that night for their meeting. She had sent a plume of the caraquenque bird to show she had understood, and would be at the cavern of the Frog-woman.
	"Not even Huon knows it is there we go," said Regor. "If he did, Dorina would wheedle it out of him. And two nights' sleep have not diminished my distrust. In making that suggestion she had something more in mind than making easy your way to Adana, or gratifying your desire to see the young woman whose aunt, in a manner of speaking, she is," he ended with a grin.
	Graydon had given considerable thought to that matter himself; and now he repeated to Regor his curious conversation with Dorina.
	"She may," he said, "plan a trap to deliver me to Lantlu. She may reason that if I get to the Mother, the issue will be joined at once. Then, if Lantlu is conquered, Huon will rule and open the Door of Death, whatever that may be, which she so greatly dreads. Whereas, if I am put out of the way definitely, things will probably go on .much as now, which will give her time to persuade Huon from his resolve. That is the only basis I can think of for your suspicions, if there is any basis for them."
	Regor listened thoughtfully.
	"It is no secret that Dorina opposes Huon in that matter. There has always been that conflict between them. His desire for children is as strong as hers for deathlessness. Before we came here, he urged her to join him in opening the two Doors. She would not. There are other women who would. But Huon is a one-woman man. He would kill Dorina if he found her in treachery, but he will be the father of no other woman's child." He paced the room, grumbling.
	"You have given words to my thoughts, true enough," he stopped his pacing. "Yet there is another side to the matter which I do not think Dorina would overlook. If you are trapped, so in all probability will be Suarra. She runs great risk in meeting you. Enough to secure her condemnation by the Council, which Lantlu controls-it would mean at best her outlawry. The Council would be within its rights in so dealing with her. But if I know anything of women, and remember the Snake Mother is woman, she would not allow that foster- child of hers to suffer. And then the issue would be joined indeed, and in a way that only the destruction of Lantlu or Adana herself could end.
	And that, if you are right, is exactly what Dorina does not want."
	"Good God, Regor!" exclaimed Graydon, aghast. "Why didn't you let me know that before I told them how Suarra came back to me? Surely that puts her in Lantlu's power if that hell-cat gets the information to him."
	"No," answered the giant, "no, it doesn't. You see, lad, then she had the Lord Tyddo with her. She was but obeying his bidding."
	"Perhaps he'll come with her to-night," said Graydon, hopefully.
	"No," Regor shook his head, "no, I don't believe he will. This is different. Then there were four of you, going to punishment. And if it had not been for the Mother, you would have gone rolling down the abyss, a bit of golden sweat with the others. The Mother interfered there, and I think she would again-for Suarra. But she might not for you. Also, you told me she said you must win to her by your own wit and courage. So, I hardly think that we can count on any protection to-night beyond what we ourselves devise."
	Again he grumbled, inarticulately. "Furthermore," he pointed his bar at Graydon like a finger, "Adana is woman, and therefore changeable. She might decide that, after all, you are not essential to Suarra's welfare, or she might grow momentarily weary of the whole matter, and that brief abstraction might occur at a most unfortunate time for you-"
	"Hell!" cried Graydon, springing up, "you are certainly a cheerful companion, Regor!"
	"Well," chuckled Regor, "if it's a cheerful thought you want, here is one. The Mother is woman true enough- but certainly not human woman. Therefore neither of us can possibly know what she may or may not do!"
	He left Graydon to wrestle with the depressing conviction that he was completely right.
	The balance of the day Graydon spent with Huon and certain members of the Fellowship, as he had the day before, all of them eager to know more of that world which had grown up outside the Hidden Land. Dorina did not appear. They were interested in his rifle and pistols, skeptical as to their effect upon the dinosaurs; like children, they were more interested in the explosions than the work of the bullets. The Xinli, they explained, were vulnerable only in one unprotected place in their necks under the jaw, and an upward thrust from a lance into this spot was about the one way to kill them. There were some two hundred in the hunting packs, and not more than a score of the monsters used for riding. They bred scantily, and their numbers were slowly but steadily lessened by fights among themselves. The greater creatures were tractable as horses, and could be ridden by any one. The packs were ravening devils over which only Lantlu had complete control. There was an amphitheater where races of the great dinosaurs were regularly held; and it was also the arena of combats between selected fighters of the hunting packs and small bands of the lizard-men, raids upon whom were periodically made to keep down their numbers. And now Graydon discovered why none of the Indians died in ways that would have given Huon the enlightenment he sought as to the varied guises of death. When they began to age they were fed to the packs.
	Then, too, it appeared, Lantlu had a passion for hunting human game. Offenders against the law, and offenders against him, were often taken-openly in the case of the first and secretly in that of the other-beyond the barriers, given a start and run down. That, he also discovered, was how Regor had gotten his scars and lost his arm. Daring to oppose Lantlu in one of. his cruelties, he had been trapped, loosed and hunted. He had managed to evade the pursuers, all except one questing dinosaur; had fought and killed it. Fearfully wounded, he had by some miracle of vitality reached Huon's lair, and had there been nursed back to life. Lantlu's price for his capture was only a little less than that for Huon's.
	Rapidly Graydon's understanding of this lost people clarified. Scant remnants of what must have been a race more advanced than any following it on earth-a race that had reached a peak of scientific attainment never afterward touched by man-they were all that was left of a mighty wave of prehistoric civilization, a little pool fast becoming stagnant Over-sheltered, over- protected, made immune from all attack and necessity for effort, they had retained the beauty of their bodies; but initiative, urge to advance, impulse to regain the lost knowledge of their ancestors had atrophied, or at best was comatose to the point of extinction. Except for that beauty-and the disquieting thought of their age-they seemed normal people, charmingly courteous.
	Apparently there had been a sharp line of cleavage among them. Huon and the Fellowship were atavars, throwbacks to a more humane period of the race. Lantlu and his followers had been carried in the opposite direction, toward cruelty, indifference to suffering, pleasure in its infliction, dropping steadily to the black nadir of evil which made them fit tools for the Dark One. Those whom they called the Dream Makers were entirely withdrawn from all that was human, static. And Graydon believed that he could understand why Huon desired to open those mysterious Doors which would, so far as span of years was concerned, rid them of that deathlessness which had been the curse of the race; a vague conviction that by doing this he would get back to the well-springs of the youth of his people, recover from them their olden strength.
	For now Graydon accepted that deathlessness as fact Studying Kon, he could not doubt that the science which had effected that monstrous blend of man and spider was entirely capable of performing the lesser miracle of indefinitely prolonging life. The lizard-folk were other proof of it. And above all was the Serpent-woman, Adana, the Snake Mother, by her indubitable reality saying to him:
	"When such as I can be, and where such as I am, all things are possible!"
	The day wore on, dusk began to fall within the mountain-rimmed bowl of the Hidden Land. A little before the time set to start, Regor brought him a suit of the black chain mail, and he and Huon fastened it upon him. It was oddly light and flexible. Greaves, and the ankle-high, tanned footwear he rejected, preferring his own stout boots. He girdled himself with his own belt, and thrust into it one of his automatics and some extra clips of cartridges. Although he could not get at it, he left the second automatic in its holster under his left armpit-why he did not know, except that the familiar feel of it gave him more confidence. He saw that they had not much confidence in his own weapons, so to satisfy them he let Regor fasten to his belt a scabbard holding a short, stabbing sword of the black metal, and took from him one of the curiously shaped maces. If there was to be any fighting, said Regor, it would be at close quarters; and Graydon reflected that the giant knew what he was talking about, and that the strange weapons might be useful. He told himself that he would put his first trust in the automatic.
	His rifle was a problem. Since there was a probability that Suarra might have some plan for his reaching the Snake Mother which would prevent his return to the lair, he did not want to leave it behind. If the possible fighting was to be of the hand-to-hand variety Regor predicted, the rifle would not only be secondary to pistol and mace or sword, but a handicap; he compromised by asking that one of the Indian soldiers be allowed to carry it, and march close behind him or at his side when possible. They agreed to this. Then Huon placed upon his head a cap of mail, padded, close- fitting, covering his ears and falling upon his shoulders.
	And when this had all been done, he set his hands on Graydon's shoulders.
	"Graydon," he said, "something tells me that with your coming the balances of Yu-Atlanchi's fate, so long motionless, begin to move. You are the new weight that disturbs them, and whether for good or for evil-who knows? Whether, when they come to rest again, Lantlu will have outweighed those who oppose him, or whether he will be outweighed-who knows? But it comes to me that change sweeps swiftly down on Yu-Atlanchi--in one way or another the old order is close to its end. And that you and I, Graydon, will never again meet here-will meet but once more, and briefly... and part under a crimson sky... from which shadows drop... slaying shadows and cold... cold slaying shadows that clash with shapes of flame... and then... meet never again.... 'Till then-fare you well, Graydon!" He turned abruptly, and strode out of the room. "Now I wonder-" muttered Graydon, and shivered, as though two hands of ice had rested fleetingly on his shoulders where Huon's had been.
	"I wonder, too," said Regor, brusquely. "But at least you two are to meet again, it seems. Therefore Death does not stalk you to-night."
	They passed from that room into a guard chamber where a dozen of the kilted Aymara awaited them. They were sturdy men, armed with maces and spears, in their girdles the short stabbing swords. To one, Regor handed the rifle, and. explained what he was to do. The Indian looked at it doubtfully, until Graydon, smiling, snapped the safety lock back and forth a few times, showing him that the trigger could not move with the catch on. Reassured, he threw the thong over his head, and took his place, the rifle dangling at his side.
	Regor led the way. They marched at first along a wide, well-lighted tunnel from which ran smaller passages. As they walked along Graydon reflected that the barrier walls must be honeycombed with these corridors and caverns, both great and little; wondered whether they had been shaped by nature or cut out by the ancient Yu-Atlanchan's; and if by the latter, for what purpose. He had also given much thought to the luminous properties of the walls, but. without discovering their secret. Either the rock had been covered with some vitreous substance possessing radioactive qualities unknown to modern science, or the ancients had found some way to treat the atomic structure of the stone so that luminous centers were created at the intersection of certain of the crystalline planes. There was no warmth to the light, which had in it much of the soft brilliancy of the firefly. It cast no shadows.
	They had gone well over a mile when the tunnel widened into a crypt, and ended there against a solid wall.
	"And here," said Regor, speaking for the first time, "our danger begins."
	He stood close to the wall, listening; then took from his belt one of the cone-shaped objects. He pressed it against a carved symbol at the level of his shoulder. A six-foot section of the wall began to rise slowly like a curtain. When it was a few inches from the floor, two of the Indians dropped upon their bellies and peered through the opening. The curtain rose a foot higher; they wriggled under it and disappeared. Regor's hand fell, and the stone's motion ceased. Perhaps five minutes went by, and then the pair wriggled back, and nodded to the giant. Again he pressed the cone to the symbol. The rock rose swiftly, leaving a squat portal through which the Emers, bending, streamed, with Regor and Graydon at their heels.
	A few yards of this crouching progress, and Graydon straightened. He looked out into a vast cavern filled with a faint reddish light so faint indeed that it was barely removed from darkness. He turned to Regor, and saw that he was thrusting the cone back into his girdle. The wall through which they had come was unbroken, with no trace of the passage.
	The Indians formed a circle around the two of them, and, noiselessly as ghosts, began a quick march. Graydon, about to speak, caught Regor's warning gesture. The reddish darkness closed about them. Through the dim and strangely oppressive light they sped, over a floor of yellow sand. How the Indians guided themselves he could not tell, but there was no uncertainty in their movements and their swift pace never slackened.
	Suddenly they closed around him, touching him, and at that instant they passed out of the murk into absolute blackness. They did not lessen their speed. There came a grunt from Regor, like a long-held breath, and a whispered command. The Indians halted. A ball of the cloudy luminescence flashed out and raced ahead of them. Behind it a pallid light grew, as though it had clothed the particles of air with a misty spray of phosphorescence. They went down a sharply sloping passage which the light had revealed, a thousand feet, two thousand feet, before the glow began to dim.
	Five times the luminous ball shot ahead of them, lighting their way through the unbroken tunnel. Four miles and more they must have gone since they had left the lair, and the pace was beginning to tell on Graydon. Again the faint light was dimming, but far ahead was an oval opening behind which there seemed to be a flood of moonbeams. Now they were out of the passage and through that opening. And there Graydon paused, transfixed with amazement and awe.
	It was another caverned space whose walls and roof he could not see. It was filled with silvery light like the woven rays of full moons of Spring. Under that light, upon low couches, lay cushioned the bodies of score upon score of women and men, each of their faces stamped with the unearthly beauty of Yu- Atlanchi, and as though asleep. Across the cavern, and back into the mountain as far as his vision could go, they lay. At first he thought that they were sleeping; then he saw that no breath raised their breasts. Staring at silken hair, golden and black and ruddy bronze, at red lips and blossoms of fair bosoms, he thought them exquisitely tinted statues.
	Touching the hair, the cheek of one close to him, he realized that they were no effigies, but bodies once instinct with life; transmuted now by some alchemy of this mysterious land not into stone but into imperishable substance retaining both the coloring of the body when it had been living flesh, and its texture.
	"Yu-Atlanchi's dead!" said Regor. "The ancient ones who passed before the Gate of Death was closed. And those who since that time opened of their own will that Gate, so new life might stream among us. The dead!"
	The Indians were uneasy, eager to be going. Quickly they left that silent place of the dead, and even Regor seemed to be relieved when they had passed into another passage through the rock.
	"A few steps more, lad," he rumbled, "and we are out. And here the way is not beset with such dangers. We have passed under five of the great caverns, the place of the dead was the sixth; we skirt the entrances of three more and then we are at the Frog-woman's. And by every scale of the Mother-I will be glad to get once more into the open."
	And shortly they passed cautiously out of that passage, and Graydon felt the fresh air upon his face, and looked up into a sky where a half-moon dipped in and out of scurrying clouds.
	They dropped down upon a narrow trail. Here the Indians re-formed, part going ahead of them, the others following. At left, the verdure rose high, masking the lake. Looking upward and back, he saw the colossal figure of a woman, in .pure white stone, with arms raised to the Heavens-the guardian of that cavern through which they had just passed. Then the vegetation closed round him.
	The trail was easy to follow, not dark even when the clouds covered the moon. Louder, and even louder came the roar of the cataract. Through gaps in the trees and bushes, he caught glimpses of the monstrous figure of the Frog-woman, on watch at the entrance of the black oval that was the mouth of her cavern.
	The path began to rise. It passed behind a high ledge and became a steep flight of narrow steps. He climbed these. He stood in the shadow close to the opening of the Frog-woman's cavern. He looked up at that colossal figure, a squatting woman, unclothed, and carved of some green stone that glistened beneath the moon as though its rays were falling spray. Her grotesque face grinned at him above the .exquisite shoulders and breasts. Beside her gaped the cavern's mouth, inky black.
	He was at the inner edge of an immense platform of smooth stone. Directly opposite him, a half-mile across the lake, was the secret city.
	More than ever, under the moon, did it seem a city built by Djinns. It was larger, far larger, than he had thought it. Its palaces thrust up their fantastic turrets and domes; their gay colorings as of lacquer of jewels were changed and softened into a tapestry that spread for mile upon mile, an immense rug each of whose irised patterns was surrounded by arabesques of dark green, and black, and white, the foliage and flowers of the trees that circled the dwellings. From minaret and tower and dome sprang tiny arches of light, delicate moon-bows, spanning them like bridges. In the air, above the green and black, and threading them, tiny dancing lights flashed and vanished and flashed out again, fireflies, he thought, playing among the trees. At the right, looking down upon the city, was the Temple, vestal white, majestic, serene.
	Somewhere within it might be-Suarra! Perhaps she would not be able to meet him here after all. With half his mind he hoped that she would not, for Huon's farewell still echoed in his heart, and he feared for her. And half
	his mind willed fiercely that she should come-let the perils be what they may.
	There was a rustle close beside him. A little hand caught his. He looked down into soft dark eyes, a tress of cloudy hair kissed his cheek, rocking him with its fragrance.
	"Suarra!" he whispered, and again-"Suarra!"
	"Graydon!" her sweet voice murmured. "You did come back to me-beloved!"
	Her arms were around his neck, her lips were close to his, and slowly, slowly, they drew closer. They met, and clung-and for a time there were no such things in all the world as peril or suffering, sorrow or death.


CHAPTER XIV

Shadow of the Lizard Mask

	THE SHADOW of the Frog-woman, sharply outlined by the moonlight, lay in fantastic profile from side to side of the great platform. Behind them was the blackness of her cavern, and between them and the city the lake shone like a vast silver mirror, waveless, no sign of life upon it. Below the platform, the Indians watched. The Frogwoman's head seemed to bend lower, listening to their whispering.
	"Graydon! Graydon!" Suarra was weeping. "You should not have returned! Oh, but it was wicked of me to call you back!"
	"Nonsense!" rumbled Regor. "You love each other, don't you? Well, then, what else was there for him to do? Besides, he has made strong friends-Huon and Black Regor, and one stronger than all of us, or by Riza the Lightning Eater he wouldn't be here! I mean the Mother herself. Child," he said slyly, "has she instructed you how to take him back to her?"
	"Ah, Regor," sighed Suarra, "far from it It is what weighs so upon my heart. For when I received your message I told her straightway of it, and asked her aid, but told her also that with it or without it, still must I go. She only nodded, and said: 'Naturally-since you are woman.' Then after a little silence she spoke again: 'Go, Suarra- no harm shall come to you.' 'I ask protection for him, Mother,' I said, and she did not answer. And I asked:
	'Mother Adana, will you not summon him to you through me, so that none will dare harm him?' The Mother shook her head: 'If he loves you he will find his own way to me.'"
	"No one saw you? No one followed you?" questioned Regor.
	"No," said Suarra, "no, I'm quite sure they did not. We went through the Hall of the Weavers, and into the secret way that leads beneath the cataract, thence out and by the hidden path along the shore."
	"You came silently? You heard nothing, saw nothing, as you passed the first cavern?"
	"Very silently," she answered. "And as for the cavern, the path dips far below it, so that one can neither see it nor be seen from it. And I heard nothing-nothing but the voice of the torrent."
	"Where was Lantlu?" Regor still did not seem satisfied.
	"They fed the Xinli to-night!" she said, and shivered.
	"Then," said Regor with satisfaction, "we know at least where he is."
	"Well," Graydon spoke, "the upshot of the matter seems to be that much depends upon my doing obeisance in person to the Mother. And she has put it severely up to me to accomplish that-"
	"Graydon," Suarra interrupted softly, "there is another way for us. If you wish it-I will go with you to Huon! I love the Mother. But if you wish it-I will not return to her. I will go with you to the Fellowship. This will I do for you, beloved. I would not have you meet any of the deaths of Yu- Atlanchi, and I think they throng thickly about your path to Adana. With Huon, we can live and be happy-for a time at least."
	Now Graydon heard Regor gasp at this, and felt that he waited with anxiety for his answer, although he said nothing. He was tempted. After all, there was a way out for them from Huon's lair. And once beyond the barrier, it was probable that the Snake Mother would hold back her hand, not loose the winged Watchers upon them-for Suarra's sake. And if he could get Suarra safely away, what did he care about Yu-Atlanchi or any who dwelt within it?
	Swiftly, other thoughts came. The Mother had aided him, not once but twice. She had saved him from the Face! She had bade her Messengers protect and guide him.
	She had challenged his loyalty and his courage. And she had shown that in some measure she trusted him.
	And then there was-this Dark One! This Shadow of Nimir, Lord of Evil, which menaced her... Huon and the Fellowship, who also had trusted him... and Regor... pinning his hopes upon his meeting with the Serpentwoman to rid the land of evil and to deliver them all from outlawry.
	No, he could not run from all this, not even for Suarra! He told her so. And why.
	He felt Regor relax. He had the curious feeling that in some way that weirdly beautiful, un