"You were alone with her," Fay muttered sullenly. "Otho saw you kissing her." "Otho! So that is where you get your news." "The talking trees, the silver ones," said Gaarn between toothless lips. "They pick up subsonic messages. That was how we heard." "And of course, you believe. It matters not that the _ardth_ appointed Otho in place of Zarman. Take his word to mine. It was Otho that sent the messages out, wasn't it?" "Yes," said a woman. "Otho wants me as a captive. So do the _ardth_. Otho hopes that you will turn me in. There will be a reward for me. That is why he sent out that message. He wants to turn the Trylla against me." He talked to their eyes that reflected their feelings, fighting to recapture their trust, "If the _ardth_ kill me, what hope is left to you? You all say I am a god, your god. Yet you desert me at the first lies of a renegade!" The men shuffled their feet. Their faces were haggard, and lined with bitterness and distrust. In some eyes, Tyr could read real hate. "Why have you come back?" whispered Fay, staring up at a distant mountaintop. "To turn us in? To give my back to the floggers? Am I that valuable to the _ardth_?" Tyr pleaded, "Should I have returned alone, if my purpose was your capture? If that were the case, the skies would be alive with aircraft! I knew you were on your way to the Barrow. I could have made you all prisoners by now, if such was my intent. Reason it out. Otho tells you lies to turn you away from the one thing that had any chance of helping you!" * * * * * Like children, their faces grew hopeful, as their minds absorbed his words. Fay was biting her lip. From under her yellow lashes, her brown eyes studied him. "But you kissed this Katha, didn't you? You kissed an _ardth_-woman! The god of the Trylla would never do that." Tyr could see her illogical reasoning was swaying the others. They were hesitant, reproachful. He said defiantly, "I kissed her, because she was a woman, and lovely. I--" Fay turned her back. The others looked from the girl to Tyr and back at the girl again. "I am no traitor, because of that kiss. I--" They were not listening, but following Fay who was walking swiftly away, and toward the hills in the purple distance. His fingers closed on empty bitterness as he stood there alone, miserable. His people ... following a girl toward destruction. Sorrow gnawed in his heart. This was the fate of a god, then, that his children should misunderstand him, perhaps even that they should hate him. Still, he did not blame them. They were so alone, so helpless, and so afraid. Watching them move away, Tyr knew they needed him more than ever. They were leaving the only one who stood any chance of helping them. Without him, the Trylla were like toys before the hard, sure hands of the _ardth_. He touched the handle of the solar gun and let his fingers trail away. He would have to find the Barrow alone, now.