Jonathan settled himself in the seat before he looked at his opponent. Morka Kar sat facing him, both arms resting on the ebony arms. His thin mouth was twisted in a sardonic grin. His red-shot eyes glistened with hate. Adatha Za came forward with an oblong coffer, ornate with jewels. Dropping to her knees, she unlocked the cover, and threw it open. Inside, row on row, glittered vials and retorts of liquids and powders, and long metal bars and needles. Above Adatha Za's naked shoulders, Jonathan watched a three-legged Paravian dance-walk its way to Morka Kar. The Paravian also carried a monomachy casket. Adatha Za spoke swiftly: "As you see his weapon form, combat it. Use the antidote. Not knowing that," she was choking now, almost sobbing, "not knowing that, attack the weapon with your mind. It has existence, but it is a mentally energized existence. Mental energy may dissipate it if strong enough. It is not considered good form--but it is safe." The dark eyes shimmered through tears as she looked up at him. "Farewell," she whispered. And turned and fled. Morka Kar stretched out a foot and kicked shut the cover of the coffer before his throne. The _clunk_ of the closing lid sounded loud in the high chamber, merging with the breathless gasp that shook the throng. Only a mathless monomachy fighter scorned the help of the box. Jonathan looked at Morka Kar and grinned. He put out his own foot and slammed the cover down. Dimly he caught, in some remote recess of his brain, the amaze that held the onlookers. They didn't know, as did Adatha Za, that the contents of that box were as much a mystery to Jonathan as were the black shadows. He'd be better off without it. It gave him less to think about, and he needed all his powers of thought. Morka Kar snarled. His eyes blazed right at Jonathan-- Purple balls hung in the air before the Zarathzan! They shimmered and glittered, filled with opalescent mists of green and red and white and purple. They danced eerily, as though drunk, as though to the music of some alien piper. They bounced and swayed on invisible strings in a wild and eerie saraband. They swung outward, circling. Then darted straight at Jonathan. * * * * * Jonathan threw every bit of mental power at his control into his defense, but the first bubble did not break before it got within three feet of him. The others fell apart easily after that. Jonathan frowned, and an automatic hung in the air before him. It turned to grey mists and faded, struck by a bolt of liquid fire. Morka Kar rasped laughter, "Do better Earthling. We of Zarathza have forgotten weapons such as that." A haze of colorless hue quivered in front of the Zarathzan. It seemed only a heat haze; but when he saw the sandy waste inside the shimmer, when he saw grey and rolling ocean instead of the sand, and saw ocean turn to roaring flames, he knew he looked on a weapon utterly foreign to Earth thought.