" Sssuri's fingers brushed the hilt of
the wicked blade swinging from his belt. "Then did the People make
separations and sorrows for _them_! And it was accomplished that we
went forth into the sea to be no longer bond but free. And _they_ went
down into the darkness and were no more--" In Dalgard's head the chant
of his friend skirled up in a paean of exultation. Sssuri shook his
spear at the wall.

"No more the beast and the death," his thoughts swelled, a shout of
victory. "For where are _they_ who sat and watched many deaths? _They_
are gone as the wave smashes itself upon the coast rocks and is no
more. But the People are free and never more shall Those Others put
bonds upon them! Therefore do I say that this is a place of nothing,
where evil has turned in upon itself and come to nothing. Just as
Those Others will come to nothing since their own evil will in the end
eat them up!"

He strode forward along the wall until he came to the barrier,
seemingly oblivious of the carrion reek which told of a snake-devil's
den somewhere about. And he raised his arm high, bringing the point of
his spear gratingly along the carved surface. Nor did it seem to
Dalgard a futile gesture, for Sssuri lived and breathed, stood free
and armed in the city of his enemies--and the city was dead.

Together they climbed the barrier, and then Dalgard discovered that it
was the rim of an arena which must have seated close to a thousand in
the days of its use. It was a perfect oval in shape with tiers of
seats now forming a staircase down to the center, where was a section
ringed about by a series of archways. A high stone grille walled this
portion away from the seats as if to protect the spectators from what
might enter through those portals.

Dalgard noted all this only in passing, for the arena was occupied,
very much occupied. And he knew the occupiers only too well.

Three full-grown snake-devils were stretched at pulpy ease, their
filled bellies obscenely round, their long necks crowned with their
tiny heads flat on the sand as they napped. A pair of half-grown
monsters, not yet past the six-foot stage, tore at some indescribable
remnants of their elders' feasting, hissing at each other and aiming
vicious blows whenever they came within possible fighting distance.
Three more, not long out of their mothers' pouches scrabbled in the
earth about the sleeping adults.

"A good catch," Dalgard signaled Sssuri, and the merman nodded.