The fear ripped through Toka. "Old Ledo, take the back third of the pit! Rok, take the right third! Listen at every door! Get Roya and Elees--or kill them." Toka spoke grimly on. "All doors open out--brace each one! We'll meet at the moss den!" Rok and Old Ledo whirled away. At the first door of his own area, Toka heard only Dragon Men. Snatching up a shard from a column, he braced it against the door and was away. Den after den of Dragon Men was swiftly secured. A den of slave girls was encountered. "Get out!" Toka commanded tersely. "Hide in the moss den by the path!" The pitiful girls filed away. Toka was on--securing the massive double doors to the vast den of the huge dragons. But he must be near to the end of his sector--and no Roya! Peering around a massive column, Toka saw the haze ahead abruptly thin--to reveal an ornate doorway above which was sculptured a spiked collar. To each side of this door a huge dragon lay coiled on guard. The yellow haze swirled back over the scene. "Toka!" Roya's voice cried. "Tok--" Fear ripping through him, Toka leaped for that door. In the yellow haze the first dragon reared its head and flexed its massive coils. Toka's knife arm whipped and his vicious blade was a black glitter. The dragon darted its head but Toka's battle knife sank to its hilt between those baleful pink eyes. The dragon hissed and shuddered. The second one slid from the haze. Toka's battle-ax whistled viciously and sent the ugly head toppling from its sinuous body. Leaping over the dying dragons, Toka slammed his battle-ax to that door. It flapped out--and rage exploded through Toka! * * * * * The hissing laughter of the Dragon Men threaded through the stark screaming of the Kosanna girls. "They're coming for us now!" Elees gasped. A group of the Dragon Men gathered about the cage. One was unlatching the trap door. As the Dragon Man advanced, Roya command, "We are not of Kosanna! Take us to your master!" The Dragon Man grinned mockingly. "You, fair one, are for our King Ophid! But you, dark one--" Leaping with startling speed, he bowled Roya and Elees to the scummy floor. Elees fought to escape the slimy creature. Roya battled to help. But that rattlered tail uncoiled with blinding speed to smash her back and the Dragon Man was carrying the frantically struggling Elees from the cage. Roya leaped to follow--only to have gleeful Dragon Men clang the door in her face. Instantly backing from the snaky fingers clawing through the bars, Roya watched Elees born away into the eddying haze and stench. Then there was an imperious vibration of rattlers. The mob about Roya's cage instantly backed away and from out of the shifting haze swaggered a giant Dragon Man wearing a spiked collar set with flashing gems. Flinging the cage door wide, he strode in with his voice hissing, "Ah, the new Queen of King Ophid's realm!"