nearby.

"Trokar," called the hawk-faced one.

"Yes, Vulcar." A slender young man came forward.

"Here is the girl who improved your looks! It will be your duty to look
after her on the way back to Sephar."

Trokar fingered three angry red welts along one cheek, and grinned
without speaking.

In single file they set out toward the south. For several hours they
pushed steadily ahead across gently rolling prairie land. The girl's
spirits sagged lower and lower as she trudged on, going she knew not
where. She thought of her father and the grief he must be suffering; of
her friends and her people. She thought of Tharn once or twice; if he
were alive, these men would not hold her for long. But he was dead, and
the realization brought so strong a pang that she forced her thoughts
away from him.

They camped that night at the edge of a great forest. All during the
dark hours a heavy fire was kept going, while the men alternated, in
pairs, at sentry duty. Several times during the night Dylara was
awakened by hunting cries of roving meat-eaters but apparently none came
near the camp.

All the following day the party of twelve skirted the edge of the
forest, moving always due south. By evening the ground underfoot had
become much more uneven, and hills began to appear frequently. The
nearby jungle was thinning out, as well, and the air was noticeably
cooler. Just at sunset they finished scaling a particularly steep
incline and paused at the crest to camp for the night.

Not far to the south, Dylara saw a low range of mountains extending to
the horizons. Narrow valleys cut between the peaks, none of the latter
high enough to be snow-capped. Through one ravine tumbled the waters of
a mountain stream. The fading sunlight, reflected from water and
glistening rocks, gave the scene an aura of majestic magnificence,
bringing an involuntary murmur of delight to the lips of the girl.

"Beyond those heights lies Sephar." It was Vulcar, he of the hawk face,
who spoke from beside her.

Dylara glanced at him, seeing the great pride in his expression.

"Sephar?" she echoed questioningly.

"Home!" he said. "It is like nothing you have ever seen. We do not live
in caves; we are beyond that. It is from tribes such as yours that we
take our slaves. Long ago the people of Sephar and Ammad were such as
you. But because they were greater and wiser, and learned many things
which you of the caves do not know, we have come to think of yo