But one pilot steered in behind and, with the blazing peril a fair target, loosed the destroying ray from his own fademe.
From behind him Minos heard a roar of steam and water entering in. A blinding radiance shot through the gallery below the pilothouse, withering all things as it passed. The structure of the fademe crumpled away beneath him.
"Memene!" he cried. "I come!"
Then the rising waters and the great darkness.
So by the hand of Minos of Sardanes perished the mighty navy which the king Bel-Ar had amassed to go forth and conquer the world. Of his hundred and fifty fademes that had ridden in the harbor of Adlaz, a bare score remained to him. And this is the tale which Brunar, the captain, told in the morning to Rose Emer in the old prison-palace of Bel-Tisam, and which she set down and sent by messenger to cross the Kimbrian Wall to Polaris Janess in Ruthar.
Meanwhile, scarcely had the riders from the forest home of Zoar of the Amalocs come again to Zele-omaz when Everson was off to see to the course of his operations at the Kimbrian Wall. He snatched only a few hours of rest and sleep, and rode out in the night.
On the day after the return, which also was the day on which Zoar had promised to set out with his mighty herd on the road to the barrier, Oleric the Red sought Polaris in the camp to the west of the city, and bade him accompany him to the Temple of Glorian.
Oleric told naught of the meaning of the summons, but rode with Janess through the city, saying little and staring at his horse's ears. Never had Polaris seen the red captain so silent and so thoughtful.
"What ails you, friend?" asked the son of the snows. "Why so moody, as is not your wont? Has aught gone amiss?"