"I don't remember them, if there were any to remember. The first thing I recall is sand under my feet, and running. The sun was always my friend. I love the sun. It feeds me. I need nothing to exist, other than the sun." Her left hand was warm where it caught his wrist. The damp cotton was swept across his flesh swiftly. "I remember a lot of things about my youth. Unconnected things, like the first day I found the blue lake and the silver forest. The day I killed a _panth_ with my bare hands. The first night I saw the stars, and recognized them for what they were." Katha held his hand in hers and said, "I am going to draw blood. It will hurt--a little." As the ruby liquid oozed from his wrist, the woman went on speaking. "And you cannot recall anything beyond that? Only that you were a boy, and that you grew up?" "Only that. It was many years before I saw another ... human. The Trylla are not desert-dwellers. They like their cities. But I saw a caravan, and came close to examine it, and when the guards saw me, I ran so swiftly they started rumors." Her mouth smiled in amusement as she walked across the room. "No wonder. A man who can outrun three aircraft is quite a runner." "From that began the tales about me. A hunter would shoot and miss. That started my invincibility legend. After many years, during which I found the Tower, they sent a delegation to me, to ask me to be their god, to take the ruby throne." "How did you learn to speak, if you never knew other men and women?" Tyr paused. Some of his education he had gotten from the books in the Tower. His other knowledge, and it was vast, he secured from eavesdropping in the narrow alleys of Yawarta. But he said, "Oh, I just picked it up." "The tower you mention. What is that?" "An old building I broke into. It stands by itself on the Desert of the Whipping Wind." "Can you read?" "No," he lied. She was sliding a splinter of glass under a frosted screen, and depressing a button, and bending. Tyr watched, wondering what she sought. "That is too bad," she murmured. "For if you--you--you--ohh!" Her face whitened as she stared at him. "What is it?" "Your blood ... if it is blood. It is so--so different!" * * * * * Katha put out a white hand and deflected a switch on the wall. A section of panelling slid back, disclosing a screen on which stood the three-dimensional images of the black-cloaked men in the throne room. "Space Commander, I must see you. Already the preliminary test has disclosed revolutionary reactions." Her voice was excited. It made the bald, lean man jump a little. Tyr saw him stride toward him, loom larger and larger, walk out of the screen and--disappear. A moment later, the laboratory door opened and Mason entered. "What is it, Katha?" he said coolly.