extended his vision through warp-space and spotted
the tiny figure of a man trudging away from the wreckage. Bylanus
squinted, and shifted his buttocks on the saddle. Bylanus was fifteen
feet tall and weighed eight-hundred pounds. The steed he rode, about
twice the size of an Earth elephant, looked like a blown-up cross
between a Tarthian stad and an Earth horse.

Bylanus stared, then sat up very straight in his stirrups. Something
gleamed on the man's arm. Bylanus gaped.

It was the bracelet of Portox-saviour.

Bylanus used his will to psychokinesthize the man. The man, still
apparently trudging along, sped toward him.

Bylanus climbed down from his stallion and prepared to bow, all
fifteen feet and eight hundred pounds of him, before the man.

At first Hultax could think only of fleeing. Abruptly before him stood
a monster-stad and a man. No, not a man. A man-like figure pelted with
soft, smooth, lusterous, golden fur. The stad--the not-quite-stad--was
five times bigger than a stad had a right to be. The man, even as he
unexpectedly bent before Hultax, was almost three times Hultax's
height. Man? No, not a man. Hultax, rooted with fear to the spot,
unable to run, opened his mouth to cry out. But his vocal chords were
paralyzed.

* * * * *

This was no man. It was the Golden Ape of legend, the Golden Ape of
the Place of the Dead....

"Portox-saviour," said the Golden Ape quite distinctly. Then he
pointed a forefinger almost the size of Hultax' forearm at the
bracelet Hultax wore.

Hultax took a deep breath and could feel the strength returning to his
legs. Like all military officers, he was an opportunist. He had to be,
for in battle one had to seize upon opportunity as soon as it
appeared, if one were to win at all....

Hultax said, his voice surprisingly steady: "You may rise."

The Ape did so. The stallion pawed the ground, and great clods flew.
Hultax was trembling, but the Ape, speaking in Hultax' own language,
in the language of all Tarth, said: "Are you really from Portox? It
seems like only yesterday he was here although, of course, your people
and mine measure time differently."

"I am from Portox," Hultax said. He wished he could keep his knees
from trembling.

"Portox-saviour said that one day a man would come, to ask us for help
even as Portox helped us in our time of troubles," the Ape proclaimed.

"Yes," Hultax muttered.

"What kind of help do you wish?"