himself to the
cloaked shape, "they believe to be a threat. We heard that they urged
the Wreckers to this attack and so--"

"And so the Rovers come, but not to loot? Then they are something new
among their kind." The Foanna's reply was as chill as the sea bay's
water.

"Loot does not summon men who want a blood price for their dead kin!"
Ross retorted.

"No, and the Rovers are believers in the balance of hurt against hurt,"
the Foanna conceded. "Do they also believe in the balance of aid against
aid? Now that is a thought upon which depends much. Gordoon, it would
seem that we may not take to our ships. So let us return to council."

Ashe's hand was on Ross's arm guiding him through the murk. Though the
fog which had choked the bay had vanished, thick darkness remained and
Ross noted that even the fires and flares were dimmed and fewer. Then
they were in a passage where a very faint light clung to the walls.

Robed Foanna, three of them, moved ahead with that particular gliding
progress. Then Ashe and Ross, and bringing up the rear, a dozen of the
mailed guards. The passageway became a ramp. Ross glanced at Ashe. Like
the Foanna, the Terran Agent wore a cloak of gray, but his did not shift
color from time to time as did those of the Hawaikan enigmas. And now
Gordon shoved back its folds, revealing supple body armor.

Questions gathered in Ross. He wanted to know--needed desperately to
know--Ashe's standing with the Foanna. What had happened to raise Gordon
from the status of captive in Zahur's hold to familiar companionship
with the most dreaded race on this planet?

The ramp's head faced blank wall with a sharp-angled turn to the right
of a narrower passage. One of the Foanna made a slight sign to the
guards, who turned with drilled precision to march off along the
passage. Now the other Foanna held out their wands.

What a moment earlier had been unbroken surface showed an opening. The
change had been so instantaneous that Ross had not seen any movement at
all.

Beyond that door they passed from one world to another. Ross's senses,
already acutely alert to his surroundings, could not supply him with any
reason by sight, sound, or smell for his firm conviction that this hold
was alien as neither the Wrecker castle nor the Rover ships had been.
Surely the Foanna were not the same race, perhaps not even the same
species as the other native Hawaikans.

Those robes which he had seen both silver gray and dark b