utes we
were entering a tremendous room, and Carna nudged me.

"Their boss, Carl! Look impressed."

It was easy to look impressed. I _was_ mightily impressed by the _She_
on the throne!

* * *

I had no eyes for the score or so of Schrees that surrounded the massive
carved chair, even though I was curious about their difference from men.
Above them were her sleepy eyes, wide almonds, molten and wise,
incandescent with intense inner fire above a mouth that was a wide,
scarlet oval torn into the whitely-glowing face.

A great black pelt softened the harsh lines of the throne, framed her
chalk-white body so that it curved starkly sensual, dominating the great
chamber with beauty. It was a beauty one knew this woman used as a tool,
a weapon, keen and polished and ready, and it struck at me swift as a
great serpent, the fires behind her eyes driving the blow.

She wore a kind of sark of shadowy black veil, sewn over with sparkling
bits of gem. It was in truth but an effective ornament for the proud
firm breasts, the narrow waist, the arch of the hips and the curves of
her thighs. Inadvertently I let out a low whistle of approbation and
astonishment. Carna, beside me, nudged me sharply, and I snapped out of
it.

The purple, lazy lids of her eyes moved, the slow weary-wise gaze
centered on me, her hand moved. In two strides a man from the
throne-side had me by the arm, and another seized my other, tugged me
forward to her feet, thrust me down on my knees. Still, I looked.
Curiosity and something more held me in a grip I couldn't shake.

This was more than a woman, I sensed. There was an awe of her throbbing
in me. Not fear--something deeper, something one feels before the
unexplainable, something one feels gazing at the moon and wondering; an
ominous, deep, thrilling and unexplainable emotion.

Closer, I could see her firm flesh was dusted over with a glittering
powder, the soft curves of her hair swept back to mingle and lose
themselves in the black fur of the pelt so that the night-black hair
seemed to spread everywhere about her and melt into the shadows.

Her hands were sinuous as serpents, the fingers tapering, the nails very
long like the Chinese. Her nose was exquisite, but thin-edged, and with
a cruel line on each side that vanished when she spoke.

"It is death to strangers in this valley...." she mused, not speaking to
me or to anyone, but with a cruel intent to toy with me in the word