e more.

The commander was suddenly alone, his blaster half lifted. Fenrir leaped
at his throat and Humbolt shouted the quick command: _"Disarm!"_

It was something the prowlers had been taught in their training and
Fenrir's teeth clicked short of the commander's throat while his paw
sent the blaster spinning across the room.

The commander stared at them with his swarthy face a dark gray and his
mouth still gaping.

"How--how did you do it?" he asked in heavily accented Terran. "Only two
of you----"

"Don't talk until you're asked a question," Lake said.

"Only two of you...." The thought seemed to restore his courage, as
sight of the ship had restored Narth's that night, and his tone became
threatening. "There are only two of you and more guards will be here to
kill you within a minute. Surrender to me and I'll let you go free----"

Lake slapped him across the mouth with a backhanded blow that snapped
his head back on his shoulders and split his lip.

"Don't talk," he ordered again. "And never lie to us."

The commander spit out a tooth and held his hand to his bleeding mouth.
He did not speak again.

Tip and Freckles were holding tightly to his shoulder and each other,
the racing of their hearts like a vibration, and he touched them
reassuringly.

"All right now--all safe now," he said.

He called Charley Craig. "Charley--did you make it?"

"We made it to the drive room--two of us and one prowler," Charley
answered. "What about you?"

"Norman and I have the control room. Cut their drives, to play safe.
I'll let you know as soon as the entire ship is ours."

He went to the viewscreen and saw that the battle was over. Chiara was
letting the searchlight burn again and prowlers were being used to drive
back the unicorns from the surrendering Gerns.

"I guess we won," he said to Lake.

But there was no feeling of victory, none of the elation he had thought
he would have. Sigyn was dying alone in the alien corridor outside.
Sigyn, who had nursed beside him and fought beside him and laid down her
life for him....

"I want to look at her," he said to Lake.

Fenrir went with him. She was still alive, waiting for them to come back
to her. She lifted her head and touched his hand with her tongue as he
examined the wound.

It was not fatal--it need not be fatal. He worked swiftly, gently, to
stop the bleeding that had been draining her life away. She would have
to lie quietly for weeks but she would rec