In the midst of the wild mêlée that followed, Broddok did the only thing that he could do to save his skin. He rallied such of his men as were under arms, fought through to the stables, and released the fear-maddened horses. All who could of the Maeronicans mounted in haste. For a moment it seemed that the captain would give the order to charge down the street into the fighting press, where the men of Ruthar were putting his comrades to the sword. But Broddok thought better of it. With nearly four hundred men, the captain rode down the northern slope of the hill, opened the road-gates there, and galloped off through the pass, leaving his leaderless garrison to fend for itself. When that became known, the Maeronican soldiers, beset on both sides and confused and disheartened by the suddenness of the stroke, threw down their arms and surrendered, on promise of their lives. So fell the strong fortress of Barme, because its captain had broken faith with a woman. With the first light of morning, Polaris sent his prisoners south toward Ruthar under a strong guard. Leaving a thousand men under one of Jastla's hill-captains to hold the citadel, the son of the snows pushed on through the pass with the remainder of his division. That move of his came near to costing Ruthar a king. CHAPTER IX THE COMING OF THE BEASTS Seated on her ivory throne in the empty hall of her temple, the Goddess Glorian fought within her heart a battle that was every whit as fierce and hard as that of Ruthar in the field. In that sounding citadel two forces stood arrayed, one for good and one for evil, and the conflict between them was passing bitter. It was the world-old war of duty and love that has ever torn the heart of woman. No outward signal of the struggle marred the supernal beauty of her face. She sat as one sits who is thoughtful and somewhat weary. Light-rays that stole down from the windows in the lofty dome wrought strange effects of fire in the wonder of her hair--fire which smoldered and glowed and ran in tiny sparks along the silklike filaments. Her head was slightly bowed. The slender hands, which lay in her lap, were quiet and listless. Only in the depths of her eyes was she betrayed. In those red-brown deeps, could one have seen them through the half-closed lids, one would have found a pleading misery that would not still, almost a terror. Compelled by the ancient secret and a will that never slept, the passing years had dealt splendidly by Glorian. Experience they had given her, which is more than knowledge, and patience, and an almost supernatural poise; but they had not made her more than human. And a man had come.