all."

* * * * *

The inquisition had been horrible. Their minds had had no concept of
such horror, such relentless, racking pain. The blazing lights, the
questions screaming in their ears, Frankle's vicious eyes burning in
frustration, and their own screams, rising with each question they would
not answer until their throats were scorched and they could no longer
scream. Finally they reached the limit they could endure, and muttered
together the hoarse words that could deliver them. Not words that
Frankle could hear, but words to bring deliverance, to blank out their
minds like a wet sponge over slate. The hypnotic key clicked into the
lock of their minds; their screams died in their brains. Frankle stared
at them, and knew instantly what they had done, a technique of memory
obliteration known and dreaded for so many thousands of years that
history could not remember. As his captives stood mindless before him,
he let out one hoarse, agonized scream of frustration and defeat.

But strangely enough he did not kill them. He left them on a cold stone
ledge, blinking dumbly at each other as the ships of his fleet rose one
by one and vanished like fireflies in the dark night sky. Naked, they
sat alone on the planet of the Jungle-land. They knew no words, no
music, nothing. And they did not even know that in the departing ships a
seed had been planted. For Frankle _had_ heard the music. He had grasped
the beauty of his enemies for that brief instant, and in that instant
they had become less his enemies. A tiny seed of doubt had been planted.
The seed would grow.

The two sat dumbly, shivering. Far in the distance, a beast roared
against the heavy night, and a light rain began to fall. They sat naked,
the rain soaking their skin and hair. Then one of them grunted, and
moved into the dry darkness of the cave. Deep within him some instinct
spoke, warning him to fear the roar of the animal.

Blinking dully, the woman crept into the cave after him. Three thoughts
alone filled their empty minds. Not thoughts of Nehmon and his people;
to them, Nehmon had never existed, forgotten as completely as if he had
never been. No thoughts of the Hunters, either, nor of their unheard-of
mercy in leaving them their lives--lives of memoryless oblivion, like
animals in this green Jungle-land, but lives nonetheless.

Only three thoughts filled their minds:

It was raining.

They were hungry.

The Saber-too