" The warrior, wincing
from the pain of a long gash in one arm, pulled himself into a sitting
position as he replied to Jotan's questions. "She was crouched down near
the fires until one of the lions began to creep up on her. She wasted no
time in doing something about that!"

"What _did_ she do?" Jotan demanded impatiently.

"The only thing she could have done: slipped through the fires and ran
for the trees."

The young Ammadian noble glanced toward the Stygian gloom of the distant
jungle and a faint shudder coursed through him. "What a mad thing to
do!" he said, half to himself. "I would rather face Sadu here in the
light than plunge into those shadows." To the wounded man he said, "Did
you see her reach the trees?"

The other man shook his head. "My eyes are not that good. The lion
chased her into the darkness and I lost sight of them both. She had a
good start and she ran very swiftly."

"Which way did she go?"

The warrior waved an arm toward the south. Jotan picked four men who,
carrying spears and torches, accompanied their leader in that direction.

They reached the fringe of trees and jungle to the south of the camp,
and walked among the tree boles, calling out the cave girl's name. But
only the voices of disturbed bird life and the distant scream of a
panther answered their cries.

"Sadu must have gotten her after all," said one of the four.

"I don't believe it!" Jotan snapped. "She knows the jungle beasts too
well for that to happen."

"Then why," asked another of the men, "does she not answer our calls?"

Jotan ignored the question. "Return to the camp," he said through a
strange lump in his throat. "When morning comes, we will take up the
search for her."

Alurna, still weak and shaken from her recent experience with Sadu,
watched the five men enter the camp. She saw Jotan dismiss the others
and come over to where she was seated between Tamar and Javan. When
there was no sight of Dylara, and when she noticed Jotan's grim
expression, her heart bounded with a wild and horrible hope.

"Well, Jotan?" Tamar said quietly.

* * * * *

His friend spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "There is no trace of
her," he admitted, and in his voice was a note of such intense suffering
that Tamar's heart went out to him.

Javan, blinked stolidly at the stricken man, put into words the unvoiced
question of the others. "The lions...."

Jotan shook his head. "I don't bel