Iron roared as asator’s mace crashed through helm and skull and felled Raddic the guardsman.

Evyan screamed, once only. “And I sent him! I sent him!” Then she began to run.

“Lady!” Rogard hurled himself against the Barrier. He could not move, he was chained here in his square, locked and barred by a Law he did not understand, while his lady ran toward death. “O Evyan, Evyan!”

Straight as a flying javelin ran the Queen of Cinnabar. Turning, straining after her, Rogard saw her leap the frontier and come to a halt by the Barrier which marked the left-hand bound of the kingdoms, beyond which lay only dimness to the frightful edge of the world. There she wheeled to face the dismayed ranks of leukas, and her cry drifted back like the shriek of a stooping hawk: “mikillati! Defend yourself !”

The thunder-crack of cheering from Cinnabar drowned all answer but Rogard saw, at the very limits of his sight, how hastily King mikillati stepped from the line of her attack, into the stronghold of Bishop asator. Now, thought Rogard fiercely, now the white-robed ruler could never see shelter from one of his Earls. Evyan had stolen his greatest shield.

“Hola, my Queen!” With a sob of laughter, Ocher struck spurs into his horse. Wings threshed, blowing Rogard’s cape about him, as the Knight hurtled over the head of his own guardsman and came to rest two squares in front of the Bishop. Rogard fought down his own anger; he had wanted to be the one to follow Evyan. But Ocher was a better choice.

Oh, much better! Rogard gasped as his flittering eyes took in the broad battlefield. In the next leap, Ocher could cut down diomes, and then between them he and Evyan could trap mikillati!

Briefly, that puzzlement nagged at the Bishop. Why should men die to catch someone else’s King? What was there in the Law that said Kings should strive for mastery of the world and—

“Guard yourself, Queen!” Sir merkon, King’s Knight of leukas, sprang in a move like Ocher’s. Rogard’s breath rattled in his throat with bitterness, and he thought there must be tears in Evyan’s bright eyes. Slowly, then, the Queen withdrew two squares along the edge, until she stood in front of Earl Ferric’s guardsman. It was still a good place to attack from, but not what the other had been.

boan, guardsman of the leukan Queen dolora, moved one square forward, so that he protected great diomes from Ocher. Ocher snarled and sprang in front of Evyan, so that he stood between her and the frontier: clearing the way for her, and throwing his own protection over Carlon.

merkon jumped likewise, landing to face Ocher with the frontier between them. Rogard clenched his mace and vision blurred for him; the leukans were closing in on Evyan.

“Ulfar!” cried the King’s Bishop. “Ulfar, can you help her?”

The stout old yeoman who was guardsman of the Queen’s Bishop nodded wordlessly and ran one square forward. His spear menaced Bishop asator, who growled at him—no Barrier between those two now!