ar aside and tearing it from its bearer's grasp. Karn's
other hand shot out and connected with a snout. The man-lizard dropped,
its face turned to green and oozing pulp.

In Karn's hands the spear became a club. The Green Ones turned toward
him in a body, trying to fend off this unexpected attack. They were met
by a whirling staff that crushed whatever it hit. Karn's power was
overwhelming. His rush cut a swath of death through the green ranks,
forcing them back.

He heard Andra calling and looked back over his shoulder. She was
standing at the opening in the ship, screaming to him. In their blind
fear, Harus and Ven were prepared to take off and leave him behind.

No saber-tooth could have altered the direction of his charge more
quickly than Karn. Before the Green Ones could even attempt to block his
retreat, Karn was through them and past them.

* * * * *

Harus and Ven sprawled in their flight chairs, panting as though it were
they who had done the fighting. Only Karn seemed relaxed as the ship
rose and hovered above the Green Ones.

"Well," Andra said bitterly, "Nobla is gone. There's only Luma now. And
soon the Green Ones will have that."

"Nobla was yours?" Karn asked.

"All of Mahlo was ours," Andra told him. "But that was only until the
Green Ones got started. Now we have only one city left, and not many
Mahloans to defend that."

Scorn flashed from her eyes at Harus and Ven. "And you saw how brave
they are," she said to Karn.

"Where is this Luma?" Karn asked, disregarding her thrust at the two
Mahloans.

"Not far. After we have a look at what the Green Ones have done to Nobla
we'll go there."

The great ball skimmed over the meadow, lifted above the walls of Nobla
and rose to the height of the tallest towers of the city. For a while it
hovered alongside a great stone gargoyle that peered down into the
street below. Bodies were strewn along the streets, Karn saw. They were
all male.

"The women escaped," he observed. He heard Andra suck in a sharp breath
and turned to her.

She was pointing to a nearby roof. From a doorway there a woman of her
kind had emerged and was running across the roof toward the parapet.
Behind her came three of the Green Ones.

Only shreds of the woman's clothes remained. Her face was clearly
visible to Karn. It was the face of a woman crazed by fear and shock.
She reached the parapet, paused, and saw that the Green Ones were almost
o