"Hurry!" cried Nelson. "Hurry!"
The southern edges of the city were crowded. All those who had been left behind had come there to watch the doom that rolled toward them down the reddened sky — the females, the old, the very young. The winding forest-avenues were choked with them.
As the returning Clans swept into Vruun, scorched and bloody and raging with defeat, from all sides the anxious question came.
"What word? Is the fire stopped?"
Then they saw Hatha and the burden he carried and it seemed to Nelson that the whole city gave one great cry of woe and was silent. Nsharra was waiting for them outside the Hall of Clans, and Nelson saw from her face that word of Kree's death had reached her.
She flung her mantle on the grass. She said to Nelson, "Lay my father here under the trees."
As he did so, he heard the thought of the Clan-leaders to Nsharra. "You inherit the Guardianship now!"
She took the weight of duty on her slim shoulders. "What is the word?"
Nelson told her rapidly. "You must get every living thing out of Vruun," he finished. "The fire will be in these forest-streets in less than an hour."
Nsharra showed no sign of fear. She turned to the leaders.