went with the guard.

The way was long, through chambers in which priceless tapestries
hung, through narrow, musty corridors into which the light of day
barely penetrated, through rooms in which ladies in waiting and
courtiers talked and joked, up bare stone stairs and through heavy
wooden doors which Porfis the guard opened with a key which hung at
his belt. The doors opened slowly.

Bram Forest entered a large room. It was, he could see at a glance, a
woman's bower. Someone was standing at the far end of the room, in
shadow. He squinted. He took two slow steps into the room. He began to
run.

"Ylia! Ylia!" he cried.

Too late he saw the fetters binding her arms. Too late he saw her bite
savagely at something and twist her neck and spit the gag from her
mouth. Too late he heard her cry:

"Bram! Bram Forest! Behind you!"

He turned barely in time to see Porfis the guard, his whip-sword
raised overhead hilt-first. He lifted his arm, but it was swept aside
in the downward rush of the sword. Something exploded behind his eyes
and all eternity seemed to open beneath his feet. He plunged into
blackness with Ylia's name on his lips.

* * * * *

Unconscious, he was taken with Ylia through subterranean passages to
the Royal Dock on the River of Ice. The barge with Jlomec's embalmed
body waited. It was very cold on the river. The Place of the Dead
beckoned from the unseen end of the Journey of No Return.

CHAPTER XIV

_Land Beyond the Stars_

At first Retoc the Abarian was too stunned by what he witnessed to
think coherently. With the other Tarthians of royal blood he had
received an unexpected summons to appear at the Royal Dock on the
River of Ice and, before he could even try to fathom what it was
about, an escort of Nadian guards had come to fetch him.

It was cold and murky on the banks of the River of Ice. The two men,
Retoc and Hultax had arrived barely in time to see them unfastening
the hawsers of the Royal Barge. Curious, he pushed closer through the
crowd of nobles. Suddenly, before the barge was quite unmoored, as it
swayed and rocked on the currents of the river, Nadian soldiers
appeared with a platform on poles slung across their shoulders, the
usual means of intra-city transportation for Nadian royalty. But this
was no royalty Retoc saw on the platform, although they were dressed
as royalty.

The woman, conscious and bound hand and foot, was the Virgin of t