* * * * * _Then did I draw the long blade and hold it at the throat of Qulqlan. "Press me not, or your king will surely die," I said. And they feared me and shrank back._ _"Do you dream that I, Ammaerln, wisest of the wise, have come for the love of far-voyaging?" I raged. "Long have I plotted against this hour; to lure the king a-voyaging in this his princely yacht, his faithful vizier at his side, that the Change might come on him far from his court. Then would the ancient wrong be redressed._ _"There are those men born to rule as inevitably as the dream-tree seeks the sun--and such a one am I! Long has this one, now mindless, denied to me my destiny. But behold: I, with a stroke, shall set things aright._ _"Below us lies a green world, peopled by savages. Not one am I to take blood vengeance on a man newborn from the Change. Instead I shall set him free to take up his life there below. May the Fates lead him again to royal state if that be their will--"_ * * * * * _But there were naught but fools among them and they drew steel. I cried out to them that all, all should share!_ _But they heeded me not but rushed upon me. Then did I turn to Qulqlan and drive the long blade at his throat, but Gholad threw himself before him and fell, impaled in the throat. Then they pressed me and I did strike out against three who hemmed me close, and though they took many wounds they persisted in their madness, one leaping in to strike and another at my back, so that I whirled and slashed at shadows who danced away._ _In the end I hunted them down in those corners whither they had dragged themselves and each did I put to the sword. And I turned at last to find the Rthr gone and some few with him, and madness took me that I had been gulled like a tinker by common men._ _In the chamber of the memory couch would I find them. There they would seek to give back to the mindless one that memory of past glories which I had schemed so long to deny him. Almost I wept to see such cunning wasted. Terrible in my wrath I came upon them there. There were but two and, though they stood shoulder in the entry way, their poor dirks were no match for my long blade. I struck them dead and went to the couch, to lay my hand on the cylinder marked with the vile gold and black of Qulqlan, that I might destroy it and, with it, the Rthr, forever--_ _And I heard a sound and whirled about. A hideous figure staggered to me from the gloom and for an instant I saw the flash of steel in the bloody hand of the accursed Gholad whom I had left for dead. Then I knew cold agony between my ribs...._ * * * * * _Gholad lay slumped against the wall, his face greenish above the blood-soaked tunic. When he spoke air whistled through his slashed throat._