is kiss.

"Wait," Gaar whispered. "Not much longer now." His sword glinted in
the sunlight, hovered at the man's throat.

"I will tell you all I know," the Pict said.

* * * * *

The inlet was a perfect hiding place for the ship. There were enough
branches about to screen it from distant eyes. And yet Gaar had the
feeling that they were being watched.

He swung around suddenly. Nothing to be seen except the gently waving
branches. A harmless scene, the dancing waters of the inlet and the
serenity of the woods, and yet terror lurked there.

Considering the fact that their knowledge was only from hearsay, the
Picts had directed him well. Down the coast of this great island, they
had said, and then through a long channel. And then you sailed around
the southern end and to the westward. There was a smaller island and a
smaller channel.

And now it would be overland travel. Not far, the Picts had said, and
they had wondered at these men who had the daring to sail through
strange waters to certain death. There was a plain rising from the
coast. Somewhere on that plain Gaar would find what he sought.

"I have a feeling," Asgar muttered. He was as blond as the rest, but a
foot shorter than Gaar and with a chest that threatened to burst
through his breastplate.

"So have I," Gaar admitted. "In my bones." And out of the plain to the
north came a scent like an opened grave.

They walked through the forest with their hands on their swords, these
men of the North. A long twilight here, a twilight that brought
shadows that could deceive a man. A strange land this, where Spring
came early and where the air was soft.

Swords were worthless here, the Picts had said. A man's strength meant
nothing.

A voice whispered to Gaar's mind that the Picts were right. But there
was another voice, a voice that had grown stronger night by night as
he sailed southward. This was a voice that came from long dead lips,
but lips that retained their freshness.

"I hear something," Asgar whispered. "I hear something inside my
head."

The others had heard it too. They stared at each other in the
gathering dusk. There was magic here. But Gaar knew that there was
magic to fight this magic.

And then suddenly it was night. On a far off peak a fire spurted
upward. Was it a beacon or a device to lure them to doom? Gaar
wondered. They paused in a grove, in a circle of stones. It was time
to rest. A lassitude cre