y away. The
knot of swordsmen drew back.

Into their places sprang and knelt a dozen archers. They ringed in the
two, bows drawn taut, arrows in place and pointing straight to their
hearts.

Out of the litter rolled a giant of a man. Seven feet he must have been
in height; over the huge shoulders, the barreled chest and the bloated
abdomen hung a purple cloak glittering with gems; through the thick and
grizzled hair passed a flashing circlet of jewels.

The scarlet armored Kulun beside him, swordsmen guarding them, he walked
to the verge of the torn gap in the wall. He peered down it, glancing
imperturbably at the upraised, hammer-banded arms still threatening;
examined again the breach. Then still with Kulun he strode over to
the very edge of the broken battlement and stood, head thrust a little
forward, studying us in silence.

"Cherkis!" whispered Norhala--the whisper was a hymn to Nemesis. I felt
her body quiver from head to foot.

A wave of hatred, a hot desire to kill, passed through me as I scanned
the face staring at us. It was a great gross mask of evil, of cold
cruelty and callous lusts. Unwinking, icily malignant, black slits of
eyes glared at us between pouches that held them half closed. Heavy
jowls hung pendulous, dragging down the corners of the thick lipped,
brutal mouth into a deep graven, unchanging sneer.

As he gazed at Norhala a flicker of lust shot like a licking tongue
through his eyes.

Yet from him pulsed power; sinister, instinct with evil, concentrate
with cruelty--but power indomitable. Such was Cherkis, descendant
perhaps of that Xerxes the Conqueror who three millenniums gone ruled
most of the known world.

It was Norhala who broke the silence.

"Tcherak! Greeting--Cherkis!" There was merciless mirth in the buglings
of her voice. "Lo, I did but knock so gently at your gates and you
hastened to welcome me. Greetings--gross swine, spittle of the toads,
fat slug beneath my sandals."

He passed the insults by, unmoved--although I heard a murmuring go up
from those near and Kulun's hard eyes blazed.

"We will bargain, Norhala," he answered calmly; the voice was deep,
filled with sinister strength.

"Bargain?" she laughed. "What have you with which to bargain, Cherkis?
Does the rat bargain with the tigress? And you, toad, have nothing."

He shook his head.

"I have these," he waved a hand toward Ruth and her brother. "Me you may
slay--and mayhap many of mine. But before you c