Pain--the awful pain of unrequited love--rose like flames in Jotan's heart. Rose until they shook him with agony ... swelled ... and broke to settle back under the man's iron control. He was conscious, then, that a soft hand had placed itself on one of his as it lay palm down against the table. He looked down at it, not understanding, then lifted his eyes slowly to meet the troubled eyes of Alurna.... Jotan said, "I had hoped that you three would remain in Ammad for a few suns as the guests of my father and me. But I can understand your eagerness to return to your own people." Dyta, the sun, stood two hours above the eastern horizon. On a small hillock a few yards from the edge of dense jungle and forest not far from Ammad's walls, stood a group of Jaltor's warriors flanking the king and his guests. Silence, broken only by the voices of diurnal jungle, held those on the high bit of ground as they watched the three Cro-Magnons move lightly toward that towering wall of verdure. They moved lightly, eagerly, as though anxious to lose themselves among the riotous vegetation, a familiar world to them. Jotan, watching, felt a strange peace come into his heart. Only now did realization come that at no time during the past moons since Dylara had come into his life did he have the slightest chance to win her love. He stole a quick glance at the girl beside him. Here was the perfect mate for a nobleman--his own kind, fit to take up the duties of mate to one of his own high station. Yes, he told himself, it was better this way. His eyes went back to the three now almost within the jungle's reach. The girl turned back and waved her hand in farewell, joined by the lifted arms of Trakor and Tharn. Abruptly a mist seemed to form before Jotan's eyes and he bowed his head, blinking rapidly to dispel this evidence of unmanly weakness. When he looked up again only the empty distance met his eyes. TRANSCRIBERS NOTES: Minor errors in text amended as follows: Part I, page 42: Neels -> Neela: 'Neela, the zebra'. Part I, page 46: along -> alone: 'required courage to venture alone into the forest'. Part I, page 50: squarly -> squarely: 'struck the infuriated boy squarely in the face'. Part I, page 51: bobing -> bobbing: 'weaving, bobbing sensation'. Part I, page 52: largly -> largely: 'anger was largely responsible'. . -> ,: 'I have never slept in a tree," he laughed uncertainly'. Part I, page 53: discernable -> discernible: 'faintly discernible'. Part I, page 55: . -> ,: 'fifty men there, some of them tending'. Part I, page 56: inserted ,: '"Sadu is hungry too," one of the girls observed'. Part I, page 57: inserted .: 'sound of Sadu's roar.' Part I, page 58: inserted - after Be: 'God-Whose-Name-May-Not-Be-Spoken-Aloud'.