His face was a blended thing of conjecture and consternation on thus once more beholding Zollaria's lovely magnet of the flesh. But he said no word, though his hand crept out and touched me as we stood side by side to watch. Kalamita smiled. "'Tis well, Ptoth," she made answer. "Arise. You have proven faithful, and you shall have your reward. Found you any obstacle worth naming on your mission?" "Nay, Sister of Bandhor," said Ptoth, rising. "None but the house slaves lay there to oppose us--one we brought with us, since so it was ordered--the rest were slain." I glanced at Croft again, and he nodded. I understand that, although he had made no mention of it, the fact to him was already known. And I felt my own anger harden. Mitlos was not the only one of Jason's retainers who had paid the penalty of their fidelity to his trust. The entire foray had been a deliberate bit of murder. "'Tis well," said Kalamita again, turning her tawny eyes beyond Ptoth to where Naia and the others stood. "Found you any trace of this Mouthpiece of Zitu?" "Nay," the captain answered, smiling, "but we left him ample trace of us." Kalamita's whole expression darkened. Her amber eyes flashed. "Aye--and may Adita forsake my beauty and blast it if I give him not another. Let this woman wait, and bring me his slave." Ptoth turned to Bathos, seized him by an arm, and flung him at the feet of the woman on the couch. The blue man groveled. He made no attempt to rise. Kalamita put out a pink-nailed foot and touched him. "Come, get up," she prompted. "How are you called?" "Bathos," the servant faltered, lifting himself on limbs that shook beneath him, to stand with downcast eyes. "Listen, then, Bathos," Kalamita continued. "Canst find the way over which my captain led you, and return?" "Aye, if I be granted the chance." Bathos glanced toward the end of the passage. "It will be granted, provided you will bear a message." "Aye, I will bear it," Bathos assented promptly. "Then give ear. It is for your lord. Return to his dwelling and from there to Himyra; seek out one in authority, and bid him send word to the Hupor Jason that the woman he has taken to wife and her child are in Kalamita's hands. Say further that they shall be taken to a place I know of and held until I have received word from him, and that I shall await his coming in a hunting house, one of my possessions, in the mountains north of Cathur's border, half a sun's journey, where, when he comes to listen to my requirements, he will be led by men who will lie in watch. Repeat now my own words to me, Tamarizian canor, and make no mistake in the telling. I desire that this Hupor Jason fails not to understand." Bathos complied. He mumbled the message quickly, too fired by the thoughts of freedom, as it seemed, to resent in the least Kalamita's use of the word canor, the Tamarizian equivalent of dog. "So shall I say to the one I find to send word to the Hupor Jason," he made an end.