time, assessed and dismissed.

"We go now." Jazia waved and Torgul sent men forward. They lifted the
wrapped carving to a board carried between them and started downslope.

Karara cried out and Ross looked around.

The pillar which had supported the head was crumbling away, breaking
into a rubble which cascaded across the stone ledge. Ross blinked--this
must be an illusion, but he was too tired to be more than dully amazed
as he became one of the procession returning to the ships.

13

The Sea Gate of the Foanna

Ross raised a shell cup to his lips but hardly sipped the fiery brew it
contained. This was a gesture of ceremony, but he wanted a steady head
and a quick tongue for any coming argument. Torgul, Afrukta, Ongal--the
three commanders of the Rover cruisers; Jazia, who represented the
mysterious Power of Phutka; Vistur and some other subordinate officers;
Karara; himself, with Loketh hovering behind: a council of war. But
summoned against whom?

The Terran had come too far afield from his own purpose--to reach Ashe
in the Foanna keep. And to further his own plans was a task he doubted
his ability to perform. His attack on the Baldies had made him too
important to the Rovers for them to allow him willingly to leave them on
a quest of his own.

"These star men"--Ross set down the cup, tried to choose the most
telling words in his limited Hawaikan vocabulary--"possess weapons and
powers you can not dream of, that you have no defense against. Back at
Kyn Add we were lucky. The salkars attacked their sub and halted the
broadcast powering their flamers. Otherwise we could not have taken
them, even though we were many against their few. Now you talk of
hunting them in their own territory--on land and in the mountains where
they have their base. That would be folly akin to swimming barehanded to
front a salkar."

"So--then we must sit and wait for them to eat us up?" flared Ongal. "I
say it is better to die fighting with one's blade wet!"

"Do you not also wish to take at least one of the enemy with you when
you fight to that finish?" Ross countered. "These could kill you before
you came in blade range."

"You had no trouble with that weapon of yours," Afrukta spoke up.

"I have told you--this weapon was stolen from them. I have only one and
I do not know how long it will continue to serve me, or whether they
have a defense against it. Those we took were naked to any force, for
their broadcast had fa