"It is a Man-thing after all!" she spat. "A hairless Wild One with the cowardly instincts of all Men. Fool! Know you not the dying one babbled foolishness in her delirium? Sticks that dwarf Warriors! Walls without bricks!" Daiv gritted, "I have no time for argument, Warrior." To the Mother he cried beseechingly, "There is little love lost between me and thy Clan, O Mother. But because you are Meg's sisters, I would see you live. Believe me, there was truth in Vivyun's warning. I myself have heard elders speak of a sunlit land called 'Mayco,' peopled by savage demons--" The Mother pressed her hands together in an agony of indecision. To Meg, in her desperation, she turned, crying, "See now, O my daughter, how heavy is the task of being a Mother?" And she muttered, half to herself, "If this be true, then all are doomed unless we flee. But if it be lies--" Daiv, man of action, tired swiftly of this maundering. For the second time that afternoon he reached for Meg's hand. "Come, Golden One! Let these fools die; let them become stiffened twigs of humans as the branches we saw in the forest were stiffened and dwarfed trees! I will take _you_ to safety--" Meg took a step forward. And then--one of the Women laughed. A sneering laugh. Meg's cheeks flamed, and her outstretched hand dropped to her side. She shook her head. "No, Daiv." Sadly. "I had not dreamed you were--" "A coward?" Daiv supplied the word wrathfully. "I am a coward to wisely flee from the magic of men who know the secrets of the Ancient Ones? By the Gods, Golden One, it is you who have lost your senses. If you will not come willingly, I'll save you in spite of yourself. Come!" And he sprang toward her. Meg stumbled backward, torn by a thousand conflicting emotions. Then, of a sudden, came that which coalesced all her emotions into one indistinguishable chaos. There came a mighty roaring _sough_ from the woodlands south of the village; a portion of the walls caved inward with a mighty crash; spent air howled like the breath of the flood-time gods, and-- In the opening, golden sunlight gleamed on glinting armor! A horde of dwarfed and evil yellow men, shining sticks in their hands, stormed in through the rent! CHAPTER III The Mate of Grensu What happened then was never afterward to be clear in Meg's mind. She realized that the air was alive with the cries of the attacking dwarfs; that these cries found echoes in the shouts of her Warrior sisters who sprang forward to meet them. She was conscious that a Warrior at her side, with a half-uttered choke of fear, had suddenly met breast-high a streaming light expelled from one of the invaders' sticks; she heard the clatter of metal upon rock as the Warrior's sword fell. She did not realize she had stooped instinctively to retrieve the fallen weapon until she found herself charging forward, cries ripping her throat, the sword waving above her head.