their ancestors who built Ruszark when, fleeing from
the might of Iskander, they were sealed in the hidden valley by the
falling mountain.

"Then there sprang from one of the families of the nobles--Cherkis.
Evil, evil was he, and as he grew he lusted for rule. On a night of
terror he fell upon those who loved my father and slew; and barely had
my father time to fly from the city with my mother, still but a bride,
and a handful of those loyal to him.

"They found by chance the way to this place, hiding in the cleft which
is its portal. They came, and they were taken by--Those who are now my
people. Then my mother, who was very beautiful, was lifted before him
who rules here and she found favor in his sight and he had built for her
this house, which now is mine.

"And in time I was born--but not in this house. Nay--in a secret place
of light where, too, are born my people."

She was silent. I shot a glance at Drake. The secret place of light--was
it not that vast vault of mystery, of dancing orbs and flames transmuted
into music into which we had peered and for which sacrilege, I had
thought, had been thrust from the City? And did in this lie the
explanation of her strangeness? Had she there sucked in with her
mother's milk the enigmatic life of the Metal Hordes, been transformed
into half human changeling, become true kin to them? What else could
explain--

"My mother showed me Ruszark," her voice, taking up once more her tale,
checked my thoughts. "Once when I was little she and my father bore me
through the forest and through the hidden way. I looked upon Ruszark--a
great city it is and populous, and a caldron of cruelty and of evil.

"Not like me were my father and mother. They longed for their kind and
sought ever for means to regain their place among them. There came a
time when my father, driven by his longing, ventured forth to Ruszark,
seeking friends to help him regain that place--for these who obey me
obeyed not him as they obey me; nor would he have marched them--as I
shall--upon Ruszark if they had obeyed him.

"Cherkis caught him. And Cherkis waited, knowing well that my mother
would follow. For Cherkis knew not where to seek her, nor where they
had lain hid, for between his city and here the mountains are great,
unscalable, and the way through them is cunningly hidden; by chance
alone did my mother's mother and those who fled with her discover it:
And though they tortured him, my father would no