meth said, his voice a croaking
whisper. Ylia knew that he was afraid again. Somehow with the
advancing years, the steel and fire had gone from Hammeth's heart. Or
perhaps, she thought in sympathy, the terrible defeat and destruction
of Ofrid a hundred years ago had done this to him, had turned one of
the Queen's proven champions into an aging craven wayfarer.

"We'll have to flee," Hammeth said breathlessly.

Behind them was the frozen wave of snow. To the right, far away across
the snows, Abaria and the Plains of Ofrid. To the left, not half a
day's journey, Nadia City. Ahead of them, the advancing footprints.

"Your whip-sword!" Ylia cried. "Quickly."

"I carry it, but I can't use it now," Hammeth protested. "I'm an old
man, Ylia. An old man."

"Then let me have it."

"You? But you're just a girl. You couldn't--"

"Don't you see, Father Hammeth? It's only a man. An Utalian. It can't
be anything else. If he comes in peace, well enough. Otherwise ...
here, give me that sword."

But Hammeth shook his head with unexpected pride and pulled the weapon
from its scabbard.

Just then the footprints became wider spaced and appeared more quickly
in the snow. The invisible Utalian was running toward them. Awkward,
cursing at his own impotence, Hammeth fumbled with his weapon.

_You who call yourself Bram Forest_, Ylia thought, _White God or
whatever you are--help us, help us_! Then she hated herself for the
unbidden thought. Bram Forest had deserted her once, hadn't he, after
she had saved his life? What help could she expect from a man like
Bram Forest? Or was Father Hammeth right? Perhaps Bram Forest had fled
so that Ofrid might one day live again to see the wrath of the gods
fall on Retoc and his Abarians.

Or, Ylia thought with an abrupt flash of insight, perhaps Bram
Forest's flight had been out of his control. Perhaps he was as yet a
pawn in a game he barely understood....

_Bram Forest, we need you!_

The running footprints were almost upon them.

CHAPTER XII

_Volna the Beautiful_

Bram Forest had been day-dreaming.

Ylia? Hadn't Ylia been calling his name? But how could that be? Ylia
was almost two hundred million miles away. Clearly, as long as they
kept the magic disc away from him, he could never see Ylia again. And
besides, now that he had been vouchsafed a vision of his dead mother,
the former queen of Ofrid, and now that that vision had conjured up
the entire tragic past for him, why