r where the
barrier wall of the polar pack reared up, gigantic against the sky. The
wind blew, down from the ice, through the mountain gorges, across the
plains, never ceasing. And here and there the cryptic towers rose,
broken monoliths of stone. Stark remembered the vision of the talisman,
the huge structure crowned with eerie darkness. He looked upon the ruins
with loathing and curiosity. The men of Mekh could tell him nothing.

Thord did not tell Stark where they were taking him, and Stark did not
ask. It would have been an admission of fear.

In mid-afternoon of the second day they came to a lip of rock where the
snow was swept clean, and below it was a sheer drop into a narrow
valley. Looking down, Stark saw that on the floor of the valley, up and
down as far as he could see, were men and beasts and shelters of hide
and brush, and fires burning. By the hundreds, by the several thousand,
they camped under the cliffs, and their voices rose up on the thin air
in a vast deep murmur that was deafening after the silence of the
plains.

A war party, gathered now, before the thaw. Stark smiled. He became
curious to meet the leader of this army.

They found their way single file along a winding track that dropped down
the cliff face. The wind stopped abruptly, cut off by the valley walls.
They came in among the shelters of the camp.

Here the snow was churned and soiled and melted to slush by the fires.
There were no women in the camp, no sign of the usual cheerful rabble
that follows a barbarian army. There were only men--hillmen and warriors
all, tough-handed killers with no thought but battle.

They came out of their holes to shout at Thord and his men, and stare at
the stranger. Thord was flushed and jovial with importance.

"I have no time for you," he shouted back. "I go to speak with the Lord
Ciaran."

Stark rode impassively, a dark giant with a face of stone. From time to
time he made his beast curvet, and laughed at himself inwardly for doing
it.

They came at length to a shelter larger than the others, but built
exactly the same and no more comfortable. A spear was thrust into the
snow beside the entrance, and from it hung a black pennant with a single
bar of silver across it, like lightning in a night sky. Beside it was a
shield with the same device. There were no guards.

Thord dismounted, bidding Stark to do the same. He hammered on the
shield with the hilt of his sword, announcing himself.

"Lor