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.Half of it was of thestone, the rest of it new.And that portion flashed metallic, cold, smooth, like a sword pointed to sky.Kincar could count four no five similar structures in U-Sippar.They could not all be dwelling placesof Lord Rud.But surely each housed some measure of Star magic.The one farthest from him wasplanted so that sea waves washed about its foot.Though there were ships in the harbor, anchored therefor the cold season when no trained mariner attempted passage into the freakish winds, none were tiedup near the tower, and what purpose it might serve was beyond Kincar s powers of speculation.Having seen U-Sippar, or as much of that city as could be viewed through a window slit, he set about the more urgent business of seeking a way out, not only of that room, but of the fortress itself.Unless hecould shrink to less than Vorken s size and possess her wings into the bargain he could not attemptthat window.And a single testing told him that the door was secured from the outside.An examination ofthe bed made it plain that bare hands could not rip loose any part of it for an improvised weapon, and thesame was true of table and bench.He had been stripped by his captors of his outer ring-sewn jerkin andhis belt, so even the empty sheaths of his weapons were gone.And since he was no hero of thesong-smith s creation, he could not blast his way out with a well-tried spell.But at least he could eat.And coming back to the table Kincar did just that.The fare was coarse, rationssuch as were given to the rank and file of guardsmen.But it was not prison fare, and he finished it to thelast crumb of soggy milt-bread, the last swallow of sour frangal juice.Then he threw himself on the bedand tried to prove his right to Lord Rud s charge of quick wits.Lord Rud! Was this the man his father had been in that alternate Gorth? Strange His hands folded overthe comforting bulge of the Tie.Had a change in history also wrought a change in a man s nature, the wayLord Dillan insisted that it would? This Lord Rud could not be the man he had heard extolled in the hold.This ruler was corruption, evil power, fear and death; the odor of his character was an evil smellthroughout his stronghold.Kincar wondered what would happen if the truth were made plain to this Dark One.And in the sameinstant he knew that no act, no betrayal, would be more fatal.No matter what chanced with Kincar ofStyr as long as he could, he must lock lips and mind alike against telling what he knew.Had Murren and the boy escaped? Cim was better than any of the larngs he had seen in the troop thathad captured him.And Murren s desperate dash might just have broken through the circle with enoughforce to give them the necessary start, since Cim had had a period of rest and was fairly fresh, and thetroop mounts were weary at the end of a long day.That escape had been wholly Murren simprovisation the boy would not have deserted another to the Hands of Lord Rud, though, because hebore the mark he did, the fugitives might have believed Kincar was in no great danger.What was thecrime held against those two? From the bits he could piece together, it was enough to stir up allU-Sippar.He wished that they could have been picked up earlier by men from the hold.So, in place of planning, his thoughts drifted from place to place, until, at last, the needs of his body couldno longer be denied and he slept, while outside the sky over U-Sippar darkened into night and it seemedthat Kincar of Styr was forgotten by his guards.He was aroused by a cry so familiar that he lay blinking at the roof overhead, hazy as to where he was,certain for the space of an instant or two that he lay on his pallet within Styr s walls.That shriek,ear-torturing, came from the hatchery on the watchtower, where Vorken was doubtless exerting herauthority over some rebel.Vorken was ruler of the Styr hatchery; let any other mord challenge her at itsperil.Vorken! Kincar sat up as he remembered.Vorken was gone and Styr, too, was farther away than if thewhole of Gorth s sea lay between him and its towers! There was a square patch of sun on the floor of hisprison.It must be hours later into the morning.And he had been visited during sleep, for a jug and aplate, both filled, stood on the table.Apparently, if Lord Rud had not yet made up his mind concerningKincar s disposal, his men were still under orders to treat their captive well.Kincar ate as a duty.There was no reason to believe that such coddling of a prisoner would continue,and he d best take rations while they were still coming.It was again fare of the most common sort, but itwas filling and designed to satisfy men who were ready for a spear-festing. While he munched away, he twice more heard the challenge call of a mord.But his window gave him nosight of any.The hatchery might be at the crown of the same tower in which he was locked, but mordsalways sought the heights when they took wing.That cry set him to a restless pacing, and, as time passedwith a bar of sun creeping from crack to crack across the rough slabs of the floor, his impatience grew.There was no doubt at all the Lord Rud planned some unpleasantness for him.And, knowing so little ofU-Sippar, of this fortress, there was very little he could do on his own behalf.He would be as a child inSood s paws, and the giant would be very pleased for a chance to subdue him physically.As to matchingwits who could match wits with the Star men?The shaft of sun crawled on, disappeared
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