asp to her
lips. She had thought Sephar wonderful beyond compare, but next to
Ammad, it was hardly more than a frontier outpost.

A challenging voice rang out from the shadowy recess shielding the
nearest gate and Ekbar's column ground to a halt. Three Ammadian
soldiers, their white tunics gleaming under the moon's rays, moved
toward them and Vokal's captain advanced to meet them.

After a brief discussion, the three warriors returned to their posts,
the twin gates swung wide, Ekbar's command sounded and the column of
fifty Ammadians, accompanied by the two prisoners, filed briskly through
the opening.

Trakor, looking back over his shoulder, saw the twin gates move slowly,
grindingly together, saw the reaches of distant jungle narrow, then
disappear as those two sections of heavy planking ground firmly into
place.

And in the dull, sodden thud of their meeting, the last flicker of hope
was extinguished in Trakor's heart.

* * * * *

It was the hour of Jaltor's daily audience. The vast throne room was
crowded with men and women from all walks of Ammadian life. Slaves,
freedmen, merchants, traders, warriors and noblemen crowded that
two-thirds of the room set aside for their use.

At the far end of the hall-like chamber, set off from the heavily
crowded section by a line of stalwart guards armed with spears, stood a
pyramid-shaped dais, its sides serrated into wide steps. At the
flattened apex stood a richly carved, high-backed chair of dark wood.
Here sat Jaltor, king of all Ammad, his tremendous, beautifully
proportioned body seeming to dwarf not only the chair and its supporting
dais but the entire room as well. He was bending forward slightly at the
waist, his head turned slightly the better to hear the words a nobleman
was droning into his ear. The shuffling of many feet, the buzz of many
muted voices from beyond the line of guards formed a backdrop of sound
against the message he was receiving.

Because of the ever-present possibility of assassination at the hand of
some disgruntled commoner or a hired killer, only the noblemen of Ammad
were allowed to pass that spear-bristling line of guards. As a result,
the citizenry of the city was split into factions, each faction owing
its allegiance to that nobleman situated in its district. The nobleman
justified the loyalty of his faction by protecting its members against
criminals and vandals both within and without his district an