The ledge came into sight. Toka eased to the tunnel's maw. Midway back, a dragon was coiled on guard. Drawing back, Toka held up one finger. Rok and Old Ledo joined him. Toka breathed, "Take it as it comes!" He skipped a rock across the ledge. There was a heavy sliding within the tunnel and the dragon's head thrust out. Rok and Old Ledo with him, Toka leaped with battle-ax flashing. The three blades tore true and the dragon's head toppled over the ledge. Aided by butchering blows of great axes, the violently convulsing body plunged after. The tunnel's stinking gloom was traversed and the escapees crowded the mucky shore of the underground river. Old Ledo came back. "No canoe." But that dilemma was instantly flung into the background as a murmur suddenly swept through the hopeless slave girls. Even as Toka glanced to ascertain the reason, the pitiful creatures began walking into the river. Instantly the vicious fish swarmed. The first slaves went down like mown blades of grass. The ones behind came on--hopeless, impassive, unstoppable! Placing an arm about Roya's shoulders as she covered her face with her hands, Toka turned sickly away. The river was finally quiet but for the empty swallowing of its whirlpool. "Look!" Roya exclaimed. IV Toka followed Roya's gaze up river. As if guided by an invisible pilot, an empty black canoe was drifting straight toward Toka. The party was swiftly in. Thrusting his paddle into the mucky bank, Toka shoved the canoe into the current. The paddles dipped, the canoe shot up-stream into the gloom of the winding cavern. Roya's voice echoed musically. "Isn't that a ring you're wearing, Toka?" A miracle she hadn't noticed the damnable thing sooner! "Let me see it!" Roya laughed. "No time to stop paddling." "But where did you get it?" "Kosanna." Better he had stayed in the pit of Ophid! Roya sensed something in Toka's quiet terseness, in the odd silence of Rok and Old Ledo. "Toka, what does it mean?" Only the swift thrusting of the paddles and the swush of the river against the canoe's shell filled the next moments. Roya's patient waiting for an answer was inescapable. "It means," Toka replied quietly, "that I ... shall not be leaving Kosanna." Roya took it surprisingly well. "And the rest of us?" "Free to go, I guess." "Why can't you come too?" Roya wouldn't give up till she knew. Toka tried to keep it factual. "I married Queen Kolano." "And who is Queen Kolano?" Toka tried to explain. "Lives in the palace--up in the dome or some place. I met her--" Why explain his crazy trance! "So...." "Toka, I hope you and Queen Kolano will be very happy." Roya quivered with the hurt. The dank cavern curved--to reveal the distant glow of Kosanna. Joyous choraling came on the air. The singing was a mockery to Toka. "Roya, look. I only--" "I understand perfectly." Roya dismissed him. Rok cut in. "See here, Roya--"