"Taggad's pavilion, of course--where else?" Phagon yelled back. "Guardsmen, to me!" Tedric roared. "Make wedge, as you did at Sarpedion's Temple!" and the knights who could not hear him were made by signs to understand what was required. "To that purple tent we ram Phagon our King. Elbows in, sire. Short thrusts only, and never mind your legs. Now, men--_DRIVE!_" With three giants in impregnable armor at point--Tedric and Sciro were so close beside and behind the king as almost to be one with him--that flying wedge simply could not be stopped. In little over a minute it reached the pavilion and its terribly surprised owner. Golden tigers seemed to leap and creep as the lustrous silk of the tent rippled in the breeze; magnificent golden tigers adorned the Sarlonian's purple-enameled armor. "Yield, Taggad of Sarlon, or die!" Phagon shouted. "If I yield, Oh Phagon of Lomarr, what...." Taggad began a conciliatory speech, but even while speaking he whirled a long and heavy sword out from behind him, leaped, and struck--so fast that neither Phagon nor either of his lords had time to move; so viciously hard that had Lomarr's monarch been wearing anything but super-steel he would have joined his fathers then and there. As it was, however, the fierce-driven heavy blade twisted, bent double, and broke. Phagon's counter-stroke was automatic. His axe, swung with all his strength and speed, crashed to the helve through iron and bone and brain; and, as soon as the heralds with their clarions could spread the news that Phagon had killed Taggad in hand to hand combat, all fighting ceased. "Captain Sciro, kneel!" With the flat of his sword Phagon struck the steel-clad back a ringing blow. "Rise, Lord Sciro of Sarlon!" _"So be it," Skandos One murmured gently, and took up the life and the work of Skandos Four._ _Ultimate catastrophe was five hundred twenty-nine years away._ THE END * * * * * [Footnote A: See Encyclopedia Britannica (plug). E.E.S.] * * * * * Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Universe Science Fiction March 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Tedric, by Edward Elmer Smith