ll in the center of that smoothly tanned back.

It was then that Dylara caught a foot in a tangle of grasses and plunged
headlong!

Sadu, soaring in a majestic parabola, overshot his mark and landed a
full two yards beyond. Instantly he wheeled to pounce on his dazed
prey--and in that instant twelve heavy warspears tore into his exposed
flank!

The combined impact of those dozen flint heads knocked him to the
ground. Fountains of blood darkened his shimmering hide; his legs
scrambled madly to bring him upright--then he slumped back and moved no
more.

Dylara, wide-eyed and shivering, was rising to her feet when a horde of
white-tunicked Ammadians hemmed her in. One of them, a tall,
square-shouldered warrior of middle-age, caught one of her arms and
helped her up.

Still dazed by her narrow escape from death, Dylara looked about the
circle of curious faces. None of these men was familiar, although their
dress and appearance told her into whose hands she had fallen.

"Who are you, woman?" demanded the square-shouldered one roughly, "and
what are you doing thus far from Ammad?"

She met his stern gaze unflinchingly. "I am Dylara, daughter of Majok,
and I do not belong in Ammad. Let me go at once!"

* * * * *

The man's eyes narrowed speculatively. "What have we here?" he said, an
appraising gleam in his eyes. "Your bearing and appearance is that of a
nobleman's daughter; your words have the sound of the cave-dwellers.
Which are you, anyway?"

Briefly, Dylara weighed her chances of deluding this sharp-eyed man into
believing her the daughter of some Ammadian. Even as the thought came to
her she realized such a story would never stand up. Either way he would
take her to Ammad; and from the expressions of some of those warriors
crowding about her and feasting their eyes on her face and figure, she
would be better off telling the truth. The mere mention of Jotan's name,
while expunging her last hope of being released, would at least save her
from possible molestation....

"I am the noble Jotan's," she said, thankful that the earnest young man
was not around to hear that declaration. "I was accompanying him from
Sephar to Ammad when an attack by lions separated us."

The Ammadian leader's expression was one she could not analyze. He said,
almost humbly, "Perhaps you are the daughter of some Sepharian noble?"

It might have been wise for her to make such a claim. But strong within