The hand on his arm was small and brown, the voice very pretty with its accompaniment of little chiming bells. He smiled, as she had bade him, and turned aside into the alley, which was barely more than a crack between two rows of houses. Swiftly, he put his hands against the wall, so that the girl was prisoned between them. A green-eyed girl, with golden bells braided in her black hair, and impudent breasts bare above a jewelled girdle. A handsome girl, with a proud look to her. The serving girl who had stood beside the litter in the square, and had watched Kynon with such bleak hatred. "Well," said Stark. "And what do you want with me, little one?" She answered, "My name is Fianna. And I do not intend to kill you, neither will I run away." Stark let his hands drop. "Did you follow me, Fianna?" "I did. Delgaun's palace is full of hidden ways, and I know them all. I was listening behind the panel in the council room. I heard you speak out against Kynon, and I heard Delgaun's order, just now." "So?" "So, if you meant what you said about the tribes, you had better get away now, while you have the chance. Kynon lied to you. He will use you, and then kill you, as he will use and then destroy his own people." Her voice was hot with bitter fury. Stark gave her a slow smile that might have meant anything, or nothing. "You're a Valkisian, Fianna. What do you care what happens to the barbarians?" Her slightly tilted green eyes looked scornfully into his. "I'm not trying to trap you, Earthman. I hate Kynon. And my mother was a woman of the desert." She paused, then went on sombrely, "Also, I serve the lady Berild, and I have learned many things. There is trouble coming, greater trouble than Kynon knows." She asked, suddenly, "What do you know of the Ramas?" "Nothing," he answered, "except that they don't exist now, if they ever did." Fianna gave him an odd look. "Perhaps they don't. Will you listen to me, Earthman from Mercury? Will you get away, now that you know you're marked for death?" Stark said, "No." "Even if I tell you that Delgaun has set a trap for you at Kala's?" "No. But I will thank you for your warning, Fianna." He bent and kissed her, because she was very young and honest. Then he turned and went on his way. V Night came swiftly. Stark left behind him the torches and the laughter and the sounding harps, coming into the streets of the old city where there was nothing but silence and the light of the low moons. He saw the lower quays, great looming shapes of marble rounded and worn by time, and went toward them. Presently he found that he was following a faint but definite path, threaded between the ancient houses. It was very still, so that the dry whisper of the drifting dust was audible.