"Well," Andra said bitterly, "Nobla is gone. There's only Luma now. And soon the Green Ones will have that." "Nobla was yours?" Karn asked. "All of Mahlo was ours," Andra told him. "But that was only until the Green Ones got started. Now we have only one city left, and not many Mahloans to defend that." Scorn flashed from her eyes at Harus and Ven. "And you saw how brave they are," she said to Karn. "Where is this Luma?" Karn asked, disregarding her thrust at the two Mahloans. "Not far. After we have a look at what the Green Ones have done to Nobla we'll go there." The great ball skimmed over the meadow, lifted above the walls of Nobla and rose to the height of the tallest towers of the city. For a while it hovered alongside a great stone gargoyle that peered down into the street below. Bodies were strewn along the streets, Karn saw. They were all male. "The women escaped," he observed. He heard Andra suck in a sharp breath and turned to her. She was pointing to a nearby roof. From a doorway there a woman of her kind had emerged and was running across the roof toward the parapet. Behind her came three of the Green Ones. Only shreds of the woman's clothes remained. Her face was clearly visible to Karn. It was the face of a woman crazed by fear and shock. She reached the parapet, paused, and saw that the Green Ones were almost on her. Without hesitation she jumped. Karn watched her fall until she hit the street. "This would happen to you too?" he asked Andra. "If the Green Ones caught me. And eventually they will." * * * * * Rage welled up within Karn. The thought of Andra in the clutches of these slimy things sent the blood roaring through him. "They will not get you," he said. "No? After Luma there won't be any place to retreat. The voyage that Harus and Ven and I have just made was in search of another world where we might be safe. But the others are as dangerous as Mahlo." Karn reflected that a people who could not fight these Green Ones had little hope of survival among the Turs and the beasts of his own world. Compared to the great wolves and the saber-tooths the Green Ones were nothing. "We will kill the Green Ones," he decided aloud. "We will fight them and destroy them." "Don't make me laugh," Andra said. "You've seen our men when they were in danger." The ship had lifted and was leaving Nobla behind. Watching the horizon ahead, Karn saw another city come into view within a short time. It looked exactly like Nobla. They must be a great people who could build cities like these, who could make ships that flew through the air. But they could hardly be called men. What sort of man was it who did not have even the instinct for self preservation? What sort was it who would not defend his woman? Andra read Karn's thoughts. "What kind of men?" she said. "I'll tell you. They never built the cities of Mahlo. Those have stood for thousands of generations, erected by some forgotten ancestors.