ll parts of his body creaked,
split back from the worse wounds, achily stretched; blood sprang from
shoulder and from other hurt places. Yet he was not only whole, but full
of eager vitality. The small pains of his hide were only incentives to
act violently and forget them. He relaxed and turned to his friends.

"You two, find the nags of the gentry we slew. I hear stamping nearby.
Nirea, go to your own beast and wait for me. You two, with Rack, Jerran,
John and me, we'll search the mines for men. We need plenty of
them--it's miners' guts and muscles it'll take to move that
beam-throwing thing from the cavern. Let's begin."

He drew the Lady Nirea up to him, slapped her face lightly, kissed her
open mouth. "Quick, wench, hop when I speak!" A touch of starshine
glistened on his grin-bared teeth. Then he turned and leaped off the
rock shelf.

* * * * *

The nearest mine was guarded by three gods, nervously jiggling up and
down in grotesque little air-dances; below them sat half a dozen
hideous-headed zanphs. Revel crawled up toward the entrance. At the
first touch of an alien mind on his own, he shot forward, pick flailing.
Two gods he caught with one stroke, the third began to rise and his
backswing took it on the underside and tore a gash as if the pick had
struck a rubber bag: yellow gore dropped in a flood. He had no time to
wonder if the third globe had telepathed a distress signal, for the
zanphs were on him.

Their snake-like heads were fitted with only two teeth in each jaw, yet
those were four inches long and thick as a man's thumb at the base,
tapering to needle points. One zanph, propelled by all the vigor of its
six legs, rose like a rocketing pheasant and clamped its jaws across his
left arm. It overshot, and two teeth missed; but the others dug down
into the flesh and grated on the ulna bone.

He gave it a jab of the handle of his pickax between its cold pupilless
eyes, and it swung limp, losing consciousness but anchored to his arm by
the frightful teeth. He cracked the neck of another zanph with his foot,
spitted a third, and then Rack and Jerran were slaying the others. John
appeared and lifted the first one's body so that Revel could disengage
the teeth from his bloody arm.

"What a beastie," marveled the Ancient Kingdom man. "How I'd love to
dissect one!" Revel, puzzling over the word "dissect," went into the
mine.

"Jerran, come along. You others remain, and kee