d slapped her. The deep brown of her
beautiful face paled somewhat and her eyes grew very sad.

Bram Forest saw the sadness by the light of the moon, that had risen
and was sending wan light in through the cavern's entrance. He only
sensed the paleness from the tremor of Ylia's voice. "It grows late. I
must go and bring food. Your strength must be nurtured and
greatened."

With that, she hurried off in the direction of the sounding water,
leaving Bram Forest both bewildered and intrigued. Why had she reacted
so violently to his question? And for that matter, why had he been
able to ask the question in the first place? By what process did he
know the name _Ofrid_ and that it designated a nation on Tarth,
without knowing of that nation and already possessing the knowledge
for which he had begged the patient and beautiful Ylia?

Then he remembered that he had resolved not to wonder about these
things--and at the same instant, remembered something else.

The small, flat package that had fallen from the box back on Earth. It
had been his first thought upon regaining consciousness near the
Ofridian well but it had been pushed from his mind by subsequent
events.

How long ago had that been? He tried to assess the passage of time but
failed. The only indication of its length was the fact that he bore no
wound where the Abarian's blade had entered his body. That pointed to
a long span of unconsciousness but perhaps there were contributing
factors.

* * * * *

He had sensed that the mysterious Ylia had at her command something
that had healed him very swiftly but he had no proof of this.

At any rate, he had to retrieve the package if possible. But would it
be possible? Granted the strange disc had brought him somehow from
Earth to Tarth, would it repeat the process in the opposite direction?

He resolved to find out and began unbuckling the disc from its place
on his right wrist.

As he did this a sound manifested outside the cavern but he was so
intent upon his task that he gave little note. Quickly, he strapped
the disc into its potent position on his left wrist. Then he sat
tensely awaiting the reaction.

As he waited, the sound without became so pronounced he could no
longer ignore it. He raised his head and saw a tall, sinister form
outlined against the moonlight. He was unable to distinguish the
features, but the outline told a sickening truth. Also the drawn
whip-sword spoke e