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"Where are we?" she asked. "Toward what are we drifting?"
Turan shrugged his broad shoulders. "The stars tell me that we are drifting
toward the northeast," he replied, "but where we are, or what lies in our path I
cannot even guess. A week since I could have sworn that I knew what lay behind
each succeeding ridge that I approached; but now I admit in all humility that I
have no conception of what lies a mile in any direction. Tara of Helium, I am lost,
and that is all that I can tell you."
He was smiling and the girl smiled back at him. There was a slightly puzzled
expression on her face--there was something tantalizingly familiar about that
smile of his. She had met many a panthan--they came and went, following the
fighting of a world--but she could not place this one.
"From what country are you, Turan?" she asked suddenly.
"Know you not, Tara of Helium," he countered, "that a panthan has no country?
Today he fights beneath the banner of one master, tomorrow beneath that of
another."
"But you must own allegiance to some country when you are not fighting," she
insisted. "What banner, then, owns you now?"
He rose and stood before her, then, bowing low. "And I am acceptable," he said, "I
serve beneath the banner of the daughter of The Warlord now--and forever."
She reached forth and touched his arm with a slim brown hand. "Your services
are accepted," she said; "and if ever we reach Helium I promise that your reward
shall be all that your heart could desire."
"I shall serve faithfully, hoping for that reward," he said; but Tara of Helium did
not guess what was in his mind, thinking rather that he was mercenary. For how
could the proud daughter of The Warlord guess that a simple panthan aspired to
her hand and heart?
The dawn found them moving rapidly over an unfamiliar landscape. The wind
had increased during the night and had borne them far from Bantoom. The
country below them was rough and inhospitable. No water was visible and the
surface of the ground was cut by deep gorges, while nowhere was any but the
most meager vegetation discernible. They saw no life of any nature, nor was there
any indication that the country could support life. For two days they drifted over
this horrid wasteland. They were without food or water and suffered accordingly.
Ghek had temporarily abandoned his rykor after enlisting Turan's assistance in
lashing it safely to the deck. The less he used it the less would its vitality be
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