For an instant silence echoed. Then Reggar cursed, and there was the thud of the pistol hitting the floor. * * * * * Now the _Malyas_ holding Shane shoved him back into the room. There, another _Malya_--a hard-bitten, swaggering little man--already had Reggar pressed back against the wall, penned there by a knife like the one digging into Shane's belly. Other dark, cold-eyed fighting men stood by the mirrored door to the huge hybrid's quarters. Talu was with them, her face aglow with fierce joy. "_Malyas, Malyas--!_" The silver woman, Kyrsis, stood silent and apart. But shadows of strain showed in the lines and hollows of her face. "We have done our work well," the leader of the dark men said. "We have the Earthman, Shane. We have Reggar, the mongrel. We have the silver woman. There'll be joy and feasting at Amara when we ramp our ships." "You are of Amara, _Malya_?" Shane asked. The other's dark eyes gleamed. "We are of Amara, Earthman--and before you die, you'll wish you'd never heard of us or our asteroid! Other races may let the slavers raid and not strike back. But we claim blood for blood--" Shane said: "I am _gar_ of the _Chonyas_, not a slaver. Ask Talu, the slave girl. She is of your people--" "Who takes the word of a captive woman?" The _Malya_ laughed thinly. "We _Malyas_ have raided for slaves ourselves, in our day. A woman's heart goes with her man, not her race." "Check with others, then--" "We have checked already. The word is out: you raid with Reggar. You came to Horla with the woman, Kyrsis. It is enough!" Fierce lights gleamed in the _Malya's_ eyes. He grinned--a savage, death's-head grimace. "We've tracked you down across the void, you three, and now we'll see you pay for the _Malya_ blood you've spilt--battling the _zanths_ for your lives in Amara's great arena!" CHAPTER IX This was Amara's great arena. The oval pit was full twenty feet deep and floored with sand ... sand that here and there was churned and trodden, stained dark brown with men's life blood. Above the pit, seats rose into the star-flecked night in steep-banked tiers. Those seats were full, now--packed from pit to rim with the savage, dark-faced _Malya_ breed, a blood-lusting horde whose cries for slaughter rose in great, swelling waves like the screams of primeval beasts. In the forefront, ringing the rim of the pit, sat the _Malya_ chieftain and his court--the old raiders, the men of power, the warriors and their women. And there, too, sat another woman, a slim, lovely _Malyalara_, placed close beside the chief himself. Talu. Slave girl no longer, she now wore a gown of richest _kalor_. Jeweled clips held the rippling, blue-black hair, and a jewel-studded harness accented her shoulders' softness, her throat's clean curve, the bare breasts' proud, firm swell. Ankle-deep in the sand of the pit, Shane surveyed them, one and all.