Faolan rose carefully from his seat. He thought the name over. He took a short sword from a place beside the high seat. He stepped down. He walked toward Starke. "You brought Rann alive to me?" Starke pulled the chain that bound Rann. She ran forward in little steps, her white face down, her eyes slitted with animal fury. "Faolan's blind," said Starke. "I let you live for one damned good reason, Rann. Okay, go ahead." Faolan stopped walking, curious. He waited. Rann did nothing. Starke took her hand and wrenched it behind her back. "I said 'go ahead.' Maybe you didn't hear me." "I will," she gasped, in pain. Starke released her. "Tell me what happens, Faolan." Rann gazed steadily at Faolan's tall figure there in the light. Faolan suddenly threw his hands to his eyes and choked. Beudag cried out, seized his arm. "I can see!" Faolan staggered, as if jolted. "I can see!" First he shouted it, then he whispered it. "_I can see._" Starke's eyes blurred. He whispered to Rann, tightly. "Make him see it, Rann or you die now. Make him see it!" to Faolan. "What do you see?" Faolan was bewildered, he swayed. He put out his hands to shape the vision. "I--I see Crom Dhu. It's a good sight. I see the ships of Rann. Sinking!" He laughed a broken laugh. "I--see the fight beyond the gate!" Silence swam in the room, over their heads. Faolan's voice went alone, and hypnotized, into that silence. He put out his big fists, shook them, opened them. "I see Mannt, and Aesur and Clev! Fighting as they always fought. I see Conan as he was. I see Beudag wielding steel again, on the shore! I see the enemy killed! I see men pouring out of the sea with brown skins and dark hair. Men I knew a long darkness ago. Men that roved the sea with me. _I see Rann captured!_" He began to sob with it, his lungs filling and releasing it, sucking in on it, blowing it out. Tears ran down from his vacant, blazing eyes. "I see Crom Dhu as it was and is and shall be! _I see, I see, I see!_" Starke felt the chill on the back of his neck. "I see Rann captured and held, and her men dead around her on the land before the Gate. I see the Gate thrown open--" Faolan halted. He looked at Starke. "Where are Clev and Mannt? Where is Blucc and Aesur?" Starke let the fires burn on the hearths a long moment. Then he replied. "They went back into the sea, Faolan." Faolan's fingers fell emptily. "Yes," he said, heavily. "They had to go back, didn't they? They couldn't stay, could they? Not even for one night of food on the table, and wine in the mouth, and women in the deep warm furs before the hearth. Not even for one toast." He turned. "A drink, Romna. A drink for everyone." Romna gave him a full cup. He dropped it, fell down to his knees, clawed at his breasts. "My heart!" "Rann, you sea-devil!"