his hatred of this place there was another emotion Dalgard could not
read.

"This is the place of sorrow, the place of separation. But _they_
paid--oh, how they paid--after that day when the fire fell from the
sky." His scaled and taloned feet moved in a little shuffling war
dance, and his spear spun and quivered in the sunlight, as Dalgard had
seen the spears of the mer-warriors move in the mock combats of their
unexplained, and to his kind unexplainable, rituals. "Then did our
spears drink, and knives eat!" Sssuri's fingers brushed the hilt of
the wicked blade swinging from his belt. "Then did the People make
separations and sorrows for _them_! And it was accomplished that we
went forth into the sea to be no longer bond but free. And _they_ went
down into the darkness and were no more--" In Dalgard's head the chant
of his friend skirled up in a paean of exultation. Sssuri shook his
spear at the wall.

"No more the beast and the death," his thoughts swelled, a shout of
victory. "For where are _they_ who sat and watched many deaths? _They_
are gone as the wave smashes itself upon the coast rocks and is no
more. But the People are free and never more shall Those Others put
bonds upon them! Therefore do I say that this is a place of nothing,
where evil has turned in upon itself and come to nothing. Just as
Those Others will come to nothing since their own evil will in the end
eat them up!"

He strode forward along the wall until he came to the barrier,
seemingly oblivious of the carrion reek which told of a snake-devil's
den somewhere about. And he raised his arm high, bringing the point of
his spear gratingly along the carved surface. Nor did it seem to