The ship skidded to a stop nearby and through a slitted eye Eldon watched two men emerge. Men--mutant Puvas of the Faith--and not Luvans. He allowed himself a sigh of relief before feigning unconsciousness. One of them rolled him over with a booted toe. "Hey, Thordan," he said to his companion. "It's the crippled Outworldling that Highness Sin ordered us to watch for." "But how could this have--" Thordan began. "Those Puvas!" The other mutant sounded disgusted. "They saw this thing; and when he hid from their clumsy searching they sent that false alarm that the Rebels had crossed the mountains. Superstitious fools!" Thordan nodded and examined Eldon critically. "Bah! Who'd want such an atrocity as a slave? Not me! Let's blast it here and not dirty our ship." "Blast it and you'll carry lash scars," the other warned. "That thing is--was--an Earthman." "All right. Throw it in and let's get back," Thordan agreed sourly. "And don't give it food or water either," the other reminded. "Highness Sin, or perhaps Lesser Highness Margaret may have other ideas." Something inside Eldon died at the casual mention of Lesser Highness Margaret. The words did something Krasna's hints and the open accusations of the Forest People had failed to do. They convinced him, brought into sharp focus all the half-thoughts and doubts he had so resolutely pushed aside. * * * * * The ship landed and Eldon was half-led, half-dragged across the courtyard of the Fortress and into Sin's audience hall. There he was given a final shove, tripped at the same instant, and made involuntary prone obeisance to the dark-haired woman on the throne. He had just time to notice with a start how closely she resembled Margaret. Sin looked down in questioning contempt Eldon could feel her mind probing tentatively at his and deliberately made incoherent thought-pictures of burning sands and torturing thirst, of howling savages with blood lust in their eyes, of the trembling hell of the Mountains that Move. He invented scenes of being hunted through an endless towering forest by murderous people. To set up a complete mind block would only have called attention to his ability. Sin's mind displayed increasing interest at those pictures, so he took his thoughts back to Earth and reproduced the nightmarish, multiform and utterly horrible and meaningless images of morphine and delirium which had haunted him in the hospital. He had the satisfaction of feeling her mind withdraw in fastidious disgust. "His mind is gone, Highness Sin?" a hulking, much-decorated warrior asked. Sin nodded. "Curse those Rebels. He is of no value in this condition." Wor nodded. "Could his mind be restored?" "Not worth it," Sin decided. "It would be a tedious task, I fear. A third Closed World mind for the Faith would have made the victory simpler, but no matter." She shrugged. "The Rebels still die under the new weapons?" she asked her military chief.