"Forget it. Sit tight there. I think I know how to slip in--alone." He
switched off.

He stood up and shrugged his shoulders heavily, loosening his tensed
muscles. Then he turned purposefully to Manning.

"The rest of the party won't be here for awhile yet, so you can't
possibly go in now. I'm going to try to get Mara out before any fighting
starts."

"What if they capture you too?" Manning said. "I can't hold off an
attack too long--you could be right about the Outsiders helping them.
The sooner we finish them off, the better."

Rynason looked coldly at him. "You heard what Mara said. We won't have
any trouble taking them. You can't attack them while she's in there,
though. Or can you?"

"Lee. I've told you--I can't take chances. If the Outsiders are in this,
it's a dangerous business. You can go in if you want, but we're not
waiting more than half an hour for you to get out."

Rynason met his gaze steadily for a moment, then nodded brusquely. "All
right." He turned and moved into the over-hanging shadows of the
mountains, toward the ancient, alien city.

* * * * *

He stayed in the shadows as he approached the walls of the fortress,
darting quickly across exposed ground. The Hirlaji were large and
powerful, physical battle with them was of course out of the question.
But he had some things on his side: he was small, and therefore less
likely to be seen; he was faster than the quiet, aged aliens. And he
knew the city, the fortress and the temple, almost as well as they did.

Perhaps better, in fact, for his purposes. For while he had shared
Tebron's mind he had been ... not only Tebron, but also Rynason,
Earthman. A corner of his mind had been alert and aware ... hearing the
distant screams of Horng, wondering about the design of the Altar of
Kor. And he had seen other things when he looked through Tebron's eyes:
when the ancient warlord had stormed the city-fortress, there had been
an observer in him who had said: An Earthman could go in this way,
unobserved. A smaller attacker could slip through _here_, could conceal
himself where no Hirlaji could reach.

He arrived, at last, at the base of the wall where the blunt rocks of
the mountains tumbled to a dead-end against flat, weathered stone. So
far he must not have been seen; there had been no disintegrator beams
fired at him, no leathery Hirlaji heads watching from the walls. He
flattened against the stone and raised his e