if--"

"You are the champion of the future too! Don't you see, oh, don't you?
Of all the unborn tomorrows when the Ofridian nation may live again.
Of all the unborn tomorrows when the nations of Tarth can live
together in peace and harmony. Don't you understand that?"

"It's funny. I try to see my mother's face. Queen Evalla. But all I
see is you. She's the past, Ylia. You're the future." He held her
lightly.

"There is no future for anyone as long as Retoc the Abarian rules, and
dreams of Tarth, all Tarth, as his domain."

Bram Forest stood up. The cold winds blew. He looked at the blue-cold
body of Jlomec, lying in state, at the ice-choked river, at the banks
of rustling reeds. He did not have to ask where they were. He knew.
"Perhaps," he said at last. "I only mean that if I do this thing it
will be more to see that future generations live in peace than to
bring vengeance on a power-mad Abarian."

"Oh, Bram! That's what I wanted you to say. I wanted to hear you say
that. For tomorrow! For all our tomorrows."

* * * * *

Bram Forest walked to the rail of the barge, and gripped it, and
looked out over the ice-flows. He recited:

"An ape, a boar, a stallion,
A land beyond the stars.
A Virgin's feast, a raging beast,
A prison without bars."

"Why, what an unusual poem!" Ylia cried. Then: "Hold me close, it's so
cold. And I'm afraid, Bram Forest...."

"Of the Place of the Dead?"

"Yes, yes. The Place of the Dead."

"It and the poem are entwined," Bram Forest said musingly. "I know
they are. Together, they're my destiny."

"And the destiny of all Tarth?"

"Perhaps. Portox liked to think so, I guess."

"I like to think so, Bram Forest." She smiled up at him tremulously.
"And my destiny as well."

"Ylia," he asked abruptly, "what do you know about the Golden Ape? You
mentioned it to me once, when you thought I ... well, when you thought
I endangered your virginity."

"Why, nothing beyond what the legends say."

"And what do the legends say?"

"It is written in the most ancient of our religious beliefs that the
messenger to the Place of the Dead is a Golden Ape. Naturally, in
these same beliefs, a defiled virgin is supposed to kill herself.
Thus, in a way of speaking, she goes to the Golden Ape. You see?"

* * * * *

Bram Forest smiled down at her. "What would you think if I told you
the Golden Ape was real? If I tol