he Games is so small that we may as well forget it."

Tharn's smile widened. "We are not dead yet. Much can happen before the
Games begin. The rainy season is almost a moon away."

Katon gave it up. One could not make the blind see, nor the deaf hear.
This barbarian would lose his smile when they put him in the arena with
a hungry lion!

* * * * *

Tharn, seeking to change the subject, said, "I saw that this man, Urim,
hates you, Katon. Is it because of him that you are here?"

There was a wry twist to Katon's lips. "Urim and I were once great
friends. I came to Sephar from Huxla, a city of Ammad, where my father
is ruler. Upon arriving here, I entered Urim's service as a common
warrior. During a hunting trip, I saved him from being mauled by a
wounded lion. In gratitude he put me in charge of Sephar's quarries--a
position much sought after by Sepharian nobles.

"And then I met a girl--the daughter of a nobleman. She was very
beautiful; and before long we were in love."

Katon seemed to have forgotten Tharn's presence. His speech was slow,
his words toneless and deliberate. The cave-man was quick to sense the
other's mental suffering as he recounted a painful chapter of his life.

"As it turned out," Katon continued, "Urim, himself, desired this girl
and was planning to make her Sephar's queen. When he learned that she
loved me, his anger was very great, and one night I was taken from my
bed and put here."

His voice took on a deeper note. "The next morning they called to take
the girl to Urim. They found her on the floor of her room, dead, a knife
driven into her heart. She had taken her own life."

The two men talked on, while the time slipped by. Finally their
conversation turned to religion as accepted by the Sepharians. Tharn
found his friend's explanation difficult to understand; a creed that
allowed a single god both to threaten and defend his worshippers was far
beyond his simple direct way of thinking.

One part of Katon's remarks on religion did interest him, however. This
concerned the friction between Urim and Pryak, high priest in Sephar of
the God-Whose-Name-May-Not-Be-Spoken-Aloud. Of this, Katon offered the
following:

"Pryak is as cruel and tyrannical as Urim is kind and just. Many rites
and ceremonies introduced by the high priest have so angered the king
that he has banned their practice--a move widening the rift between the
two men.

"Twice, I am told, t