a. "I'd best get ready myself,"
he said. Volna nodded her lovely head.

A blood-lusting animal cry welled up from a hundred thousand throats
as the gladiators of Nadia marched out across the sands of the
amphitheater to do battle with the fierce snow-sloths of the Plains of
Ice.

While several jeks from the Gates of Ice, Retoc's legions waited....

* * * * *

"Wait here," Bram Forest told Bylanus, who had led them safely, along
with the vanguard of the Golden Apes, back up the River of Ice.

"What will you do, Bram Forest?"

"According to Ylia, we can trust Bontarc of Nadia. He's a fighting
man, but he craves peace for all Tarth."

"I'm sure of it," Ylia said. "Bontarc didn't send us to the Place of
the Dead. Princess Volna did. And long ago, according to the stories
the Wayfarers of Ofrid tell, Bontarc and your mother, Queen Evalla,
were allies striving to establish universal peace throughout Tarth.
Besides, despite his civility and fairness, Bontarc losses no love on
Retoc of Abaria."

"And if you need us?" Bylanus asked.

"We'll get a signal through to you," Bram Forest said. With Ylia he
climbed into a skiff and poled it out into the river.

Now the riverbanks were deserted, except for the solitary stilt-birds,
tall as men, wading out into the frigid water, their low-pitched calls
all but swallowed by the sound the cold wind made rustling through the
river rushes.

After a while the skiff came to a bend in the river. It was the last
turn before the Gates of Ice--and Nadia City. Here the wind blew more
strongly, and there was a section of rushes which had been cleared,
cut probably by an Ice Fields nomad who had used the tall rushes as
fuel.

"Look!" Ylia cried suddenly, startled.

Through the gap in the rushes, at a distance of two or three jeks
across the flat plain from the river, Bram Forest saw an armed
encampment. There were tents with flying standards, tethered stads,
pyramids of stacked spears like hayricks, and pacing sentries.

"What can it mean?" Ylia asked. "Those standards are Abarian."

"Retoc," Bram Forest said. He lifted the pole and felt the mud of the
river-bottom cling to it before it came clear. He allowed the skiff to
drift toward the bank. "Retoc's planning treachery. We'll have to go
back and alert the Golden Apes. Bylanus and his Apes can destroy
Retoc's legions before they even march on Nadia City."

"But we can't go back, Bram. If Retoc's a