Karola shuddered beside him, handing him arrows. "Will Thor find Aava? Will he be in time to help us?"
"Jove, I hope so. But it looks bad, Karola. Very bad."
The girl grimaced, and closed white fingers on the hilt of a slim dagger. "They'll never take me back. Never!"
"Got the bounder!... No, I know. Aava hopes to breed a race of living beings with artificial insemination. But he needs women for that, and so far we've kept him from them—"
Below the balcony where they stood, they saw Slag and Yorg lead a charge with club and sword. The red dwarf howled his oaths as he slammed and battered at android skulls. Yorg, grunting and panting, used his blade like a scalpel.
"They're holding, Karola. The jolly blighters are driving them back."
"No, no. There—another blast by Aava-in-the-urn. Another group!"
The fresh androids drove into Slag and Yorg's flank, wedged in the screaming fighters, threw them back on themselves. A hairy red arm wielded a club like a blackjack. A white-furred arm cut and stabbed with a sword. But the androids came forward. They rolled over the outlaws.
Gordon said sadly, "We'd best fall back, Karola. We can't hold them any longer."