The scuffing echoed through the silence. The guard stepped out onto the ramp. Jarl leaped forward--catching the _fala's_ chin from behind, jerking back the ugly head, slashing at the throat. The guard's cry died in bubbling purple blood. He wrenched spasmodically, hands and feet threshing; then went limp. Jarl dragged him backward--out of the corridor, down the ramp. Breathing hard, he lowered the sagging corpse to the floor. Ungo touched his arm, gestured questioningly. Jarl whispered: "The living quarters are upstairs. They'll have her there." The Jovian nodded, not speaking. Again Jarl dropped flat and wormed forward, searching the corridor. No one was in sight. Surging to his feet, he swung right down the hall to the next ramp, his crewmen behind him. Swift, silent, he raced to the second floor. There were no guards here--only echoing stillness and blank, closed doors. The first room was empty. In the second snored a sleeping _dau_ captain from the Federation fleet. Big Ungo whispered hoarsely, "This one's locked!" It was the door at the end ... the door to the room that had once been Sais'. Jarl pressed against it. Sheathing his knife, he brought out a light-gun and pressing its muzzle against the lock, squeezed the trigger. The silent beam blazed forth. The lock's bolt fused and fell away. The raiders pushed into the room. A girl lay in the bed, asleep. Quick, tight-lipped, Jarl crossed to her side. She was a vision of slim blonde loveliness, this woman. A golden vision from a far-off world. As he looked at her, the thought flickered through Jarl Corvett's mind: _She's almost as beautiful as Sais._ Dark Sais, _Ktar_ Wassreck's daughter.... Yet even while the girl slept, a deeper, darker mood seemed to shadow her loveliness, as if she held some brooding secret locked within her. Or perhaps it was only that a strain of clouded alien blood ran in her veins, from her mother--blood of Titan, or Io, or Venus. "Is this her, Jarl?" big Ungo whispered. "Is she Ylana? Time's running short...." Jarl shook off his mood. "Yes. She's the one, the commissioner's daughter." He caught the girl's shoulder and jerked at it roughly, one hand to her mouth, in case she should scream. * * * * * She came awake with a start, grey eyes flaring wide in sudden panic. Her whole body convulsed as she saw the raiders. Jarl threw himself on her, bearing her down. Fiercely, he whispered, "Quiet, if you wish to live!" Her struggles ceased. Lips pale, breasts heaving, she lay stiff and unyielding. He said: "Relax, woman! We're not going to hurt you." Her lips moved on his palm. He raised his hand a fraction. "Who are you?" Her voice shook. "What do you want here?" "They call me Jarl Corvett." The girl clutched her throat. "Jarl Corvett, the raider? The ally of Wassreck--?" Jarl smiled at her thinly. "Ally, friend, comrade, brother. That's why I've come here. I needed a hostage." "A hostage--?"