rangers there."

The sound of music and laughter, and the confused babel of many voices,
came to Gerry's ears as soon as the far door was opened. They entered a
vast hall. It was low ceiled, as were all the water-locked chambers of
this strange place, but it was broad and spacious. Heavy stone columns
carved like giant sea-horses supported the roof. Patterns of sea-weed
and star fish and other denizens of the deep were inter-mingled with
rearing dragons in the painted designs along the walls. The room was
filled with wide tables flanked by long benches.

The men and women who sat at the tables, or stood gossiping in noisy
groups in corners of the hall, were nearly all of the Green People of
Giri, but there were a few escaped Golden Amazons who came flocking
eagerly around Closana. In outward appearance these green skinned men
and women were similar to the folk who lived in the city overhead with
their scaly masters, but there was a subtle difference. These people had
none of the cowed and subjugated air of the citizens who lived above
ground. There was a different look in their eyes, a more confident note
in their voices, a firmer set to their shoulders. These folk had the air
of free men and warriors, not slaves.

A stocky and merry eyed man caught sight of them and came striding
across the hall. It was Sarnak, the man who had been tethered next to
them in the field of the dakta hunt.

"Welcome to the halls of Luralla!" he boomed, "we are glad to have you
come to the hidden realm of the Dragon's Teeth. _Hiziren_ and comrades,
these are the outlanders from afar who freed me this afternoon so that I
and a dozen more of our people escaped death at the hands of the Scaly
Ones!"

"Thrice hail!" roared the crowd, while a hundred blades flashed in the
golden light. Angus McTavish wrung the water out of his dripping beard.

"These look like men of spirit," he rumbled cheerfully, "I think I'm
going to enjoy myself again."

* * * * *

A little later, wearing dry clothes, the three of them sat down with
Sarnak and his officers at a table in the corner of the hall. Young
girls brought them dishes of fried sea-urchins, and broiled steaks of
the grappa fish, and other savory dishes.

"We who call ourselves the Dragon's Teeth are outlaws descended from
outlaws," Sarnak explained. "Our ancestors were men and women who never
acknowledged the rule of the Scaly Ones when they overran this once
pl