"No secret, other than himself. He is Tyr."
Mason clenched a fist, saying, "You said he could help us. It is no help to destroy the Glow!"
"He cannot destroy it. He will learn that!"
"I think he will, too. It will destroy him, long before he reaches it. But I have spoken enough with you. You must die for actions performed detrimental to the ardth welfare."
Space Commander Mason clapped his hands. Guards entered a doorway, and behind them came ragged men with flogged backs, bleeding, wearing manacles. Katha started toward them, before Mason caught her.
She called, "Which of you is Zarman?"
A big man lifted a face swollen with beatings. His eyes were sullen as he looked across the room, at a group of Trylla clad in rainbowed silk garments. Otho smirked beside Fay, who wore a gigantic emerald necklace on her white throat. Her hand fingered it lovingly. On her hand gleamed a golden ring with the letters TYR engraven on it.
"She bears the ring of Tyr," rasped Zarman. "She came to us with a lying message and we believed her. She led us to—the ardth!"
Fay tossed her blonde curls indifferently, and glanced down at the necklace that once had belonged to Queen Yatha-sath.
Commander Mason cleared his throat.