nd they
looked back, to see Narf and Sonig coming, walking swiftly. Even at the
distance, there was anger like a red aura about Narf.

"Well," Lyla said softly, "here comes my medicine."

Sonig stopped at his own cabin, to stand just within the doorway,
watching. Narf strode on and stopped before Hunter and Lyla, his face
twisted with savage hatred as he looked at Hunter. He spoke to Lyla with
grating vehemence:

"You've done an excellent job of making an ass of yourself--and of
me--haven't you? Come on in the cabin!"

Narf seized her by the arm, towering over her as he jerked her around
toward the door. Hunter stepped quickly forward, feeling the hot flash
of his own anger, but there was the paleness of Lyla's face as she
looked back, an appeal on it that said, _No!_ He stopped, realizing that
Narf would not physically harm the woman who would make him king of
Vesta, and that any interference on his part would only make everything
the harder for her.

He watched the two go into the cabin--into Lyla's half--and Narf slammed
the door shut behind them. There followed the quick bang of windows
being closed, and then Narf's muffled tirade began: "_... May think I'm
a fool ... I'm going to tell you a few things...._"

Sonig was still standing within his doorway. Hunter knew, without seeing
it, that the thin-lipped smile would be on Sonig's face.

He turned and walked back to his own cabin. There was nothing he could
do but withdraw--and listen from a distance and be ready to act if it
seemed she was in danger.

He sat on his doorstep in the darkness, hearing occasional phrases in
Narf's unrelenting abuse. One was: "_So prim you had to countermand my
order for a key to that lock--then you went out to play with that second
lieutenant...._"

Alonzo materialized out of the darkness, coming as silently as a shadow.
He was no longer the bumbling clown. The idiotic grin was gone and his
eyes were green fire, slanted and catlike, his teeth flashing white in a
snarl as he looked back toward the sound of Narf's voice.

"She are _my_ Princess Ryra," Alonzo said. "He are cursing her. If he
ever hurt her, I wirr tear out his throat and his river."

"He won't hurt her, Alonzo," Hunter said, wishing he could be sure.
"He'll only use words on her."

"He never ask her _why_ she run away--he onry curse her and threaten her
because she embarrass him."

"Embarrass him?"

"He and Sonig, they see you coming out of the forest wit