At last we had them on the run and the combined force of Srinai and Karnala chased the retreating Argzoon towards the Calling Hills from whence they had come.

The Argzoon stood their ground on the crest of the first range of hills, and then we withdrew to count our strength and plan fresh strategy.

It was soon obvious that the Argzoon still outnumbered us and that the Srinai and Karnala who had attacked them from behind had had the advantage of being fresh and able to take the Argzoon by surprise.

But I felt much better. Now, I decided, we could withstand the next attack and hold the Argzoon off until help came.

Then I remembered the ship and Shizala. I returned to the now ruined Argzoon camp. The tent with the banner was still standing, unlike most of the others and, rather strangely, the ship still hovered above it. It seemed to me, peering through the moonlit darkness, that the ship was now lower above the roof, the rope-ladder brushing the top of the tent.

I called her name, but silence greeted me. With a feeling of foreboding I climbed up the yielding sides of the tent. It was a hard climb, but I made it rapidly, almost in panic. Sure enough, the rope-ladder was closer, the ship lower. I grabbed the ladder and began to clamber up it.

Soon I was inside the ship.

A brief glance showed me that it was empty.

Shizala had gone!

How? Where?

What had happened to her? What had she done? Why had she left the slip? What reason was there for doing such a thing?

All these thoughts raced through my brain and then I was dropping down the rope-ladder again, hand over hand, until I was above the now uncovered roof-opening. I dropped through it as I had done earlier.

Save for the corpse of Ranak Mard the tent was empty. Yet there were signs of a struggle and I noticed that Ranak Mard's sword had been removed from his dead grasp and now lay on the other side of the tent.

Something else lay beside it.

A gun.

A gun of the Sheev.

It could only be Shizala's gun.

The mysterious, dark-haired woman Horguhl and the Argzoon warriors must have taken part in a struggle soon after I had left.

For some reason best known to herself, Shizala had decided to follow me into the tent. She had found me gone, of course, and confronted Horguhl and the Argzoon. There had probably been a fight and Shizala had been overpowered and captured. She had not been killed—that was a mercy—or I should have found her corpse.

Abducted, then?

My misguided plan to kill the absent mastermind behind the Argzoon had been worthless. All my plan had succeeded in doing was putting a hostage in the hands of the Argzoon.

The best hostage they could ever hope for.

The ruler of Varnal.