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intrusion, oh Queen! But great news! We think we have discovered the location of Umgar Stro.
What do you mean you think? Lilah replaced the dagger in its sheath at her waist. She advanced on
Orpus like a leem. She was all queen now, all regality, lofty and cold and demanding, merciless to failure.
The scouts report
Wait. Lilah beckoned. Guards! Take this miserable creature to the cells; let her rot there until my
pleasure is known. Come, Orpus. We must go to the council chamber summon the scouts, my
generals, and my councilors. We must plan now!
As Orpus stood aside to let the Queen sweep past him, her long scarlet gown trailing, her naked legs
strong and thrusting before, her guards inclined, their helmets low. They moved into the chamber, and
their Deldar prodded Thelda with his spear point. That spear point was steel, as befitted a spearman of
the Queen s guard.
Up, little one. We have need of playthings such as you in the cells!
They closed upon Thelda and dragged her away and as she went she screamed most piteously.
Seg put his hand to the secret panel, but it was my foot that kicked it open.
Together, Seg and I, we burst into the empty chamber. Our swords were in our fists. Shoulder to
shoulder we started for the door.
Chapter Fifteen
Seg, Thelda, and I stand before Queen Lilah
On the way across to the door I used my left hand to scoop up a great mass of the palines. Juice
dribbled through my fingers.
Here, Seg. Munch on these
No time, Dray! Don t you realize what they re going to do to Thelda?
I pushed the palines at him.
Take them, Seg! You need them!
I stared at him, eye to eye. With a savage curse he pushed past me, scooped up a mass of the palines
and stuffed them into his mouth. Then, and only then, I ran for the door.
The guards had just reached the first turn in the corridor. We ran swiftly and silently down toward that
corner. I checked at the bend beside an alabaster statue of a risslaca seizing a leem, and the leem in its
turn seizing the risslaca, and peered around. Seg hopped with impatience. The guards were moving
Thelda along briskly. A few other slaves and functionaries moved along the corridor, which here
broadened with a supporting aisle of thick-bodied columns down its center. I had visited the palace
enough times to have a vague and general idea of its layout; but unlike most of the palaces I had
encountered on Kregen this one, because it had been built in the midst of a city closed up around it within
its encircling walls, had not sprawled out in an ever-growing maze of passages and courts and halls.
We marched smartly out and cut along the corridor.
Slaves looked at us, but slaves are slaves, and they took only enough notice of us, two warriors, to keep
out of our way. I hate and detest slavery; here was one facet of slavery clearly apparent. The guards
hustled Thelda around another bend. When we reached the corner where a vast pot of Pandahem ware
and how old it was I wouldn t care to guess brought up a few memories, I saw before me a
double-corridor I recognized from its decoration. Down that corridor lay the council chamber where
Lilah, the Queen, was now meeting the scouts who had brought information of the whereabouts of
Umgar Stro.
Without hesitation I started off down the corridor.
Dray! They went this way. . .
I turned. Seg was looking at me, and I could not read the expression on his tanned face. A stray shaft of
torchlight caught in his blue eyes and gleamed back lambently.
Umgar Stro I said.
The guards have taken Thelda down here, into the dungeons!
At once I came to myself. This was Seg Segutorio, the man who had unhesitatingly followed me to the
tower of Umgar Stro in Plicla to rescue Delia. Now I must go with him to rescue Thelda. Of course.
How could I have thought otherwise? I would fight my way to Umgar Stro never fear. So I thought as
I ran after Seg down the corridor branching at right angles, through the bronze-bound lenken door at its
end, and down bare stone steps into the dungeons of the Queen of Pain.
It was not as easy as I have made it sound. Every cell of my body screamed in agony that I must go to
seek my Delia, my Delia of the Blue Mountains. I did not think then, I could not, of what might be
happening to her. But the agony I suffered would only increase if I allowed poor Thelda and Seg to be
destroyed. I knew my Delia would understand that and approve; and I also knew I used her
acquiescence as a mere excuse.
The guards had been joined by men in the traditional uniform of their trade. They wore black aprons and
black masks and their brawny arms were bare. Thelda s pitiful brown rag had been stripped from her
and she huddled against a stone wall where iron rings fixed into the stone gaped open for her. Two sets
along they supported a skeleton clothed in decayed scraps of flesh and skin.
One of the men gripped Thelda and lifted her arm toward the iron ring. Beneath the mask his fleshy face
showed a vastly unpleasant sniggering enjoyment.
Seg had sheathed his sword.
Before I could run in with my brand naked in my fist Seg s first arrow punched meatily into the broad
black-leather-clad back. The torturer screamed like a de-gutted vosk and toppled away. Then I was in
among the guards. I laid about me with the flat of my sword, for in all the desperate anger blazing in me I
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