THE FIGHT IN THE PALACE
For a long moment they stood, the three of them, without movement or speech. The dead boy lay looking quietly into eternity, and there was no sound save the hissing of the torches as they burned. Nothing stirred but the flames, their light running ragged and uncertain over the gleaming walls.
Over and over, above his horror at the brutality of this thing, the thought tolled like a bell in Nelson's mind: Barin is dead, and I shall never be a man again.
It was a thought he could not face.
"I knew nothing of this," said Li Kin out of the depths of shame — shame that his own kind could have done such a thing. "I swear it."
Nelson realized then that Tark had swung around toward Li Kin and that there was death in his green eyes.
Nelson sprang, interposing his wolf body between them.
'^Wait, Tark!" he thought swiftly. "Li Kin speaks the truth. He, of all of us, never wished to come here, never wished your people harm. Sloan was here and Van Voss. Not this one."
Tark's hairy body quivered. He did not seem to have heard.
Nelson told him, "Tark, listen to me! Barin was the price of my body. I want as much as you to punish those who did this. And for that we need Li Kin's help. Do you hear me?"