A soundless burst of snarling lupine mirth broke upon Nelson's mind. Tark's green eyes flared with pure pleasure. "You overreached yourself when you had them put the thought-crowns on, Shan Kar!" he taunted. "You forgot that then I could hear their meaning too — and overhear that you'd promised them the gray metal!"
Shan Kar's hand gripped the hilt of his sword as he rose and glared in rage at the wolf.
Nelson, all thought of the scene's strangeness swept away by sudden suspicion, spoke directly to Tark.
"You mean — there is no gray metal here?"
Tark's eyes flickered. "There is gray metal here. But it is all in one place where you can't reach it — the Cavern of Creation."
"What's that?" demanded Nick Sloan, eyes narrowed.
"It is a forbidden place of our Brotherhood," Tark answered. "It is the place whence intelligent life first issued onto the face of Earth, long ago. And it lies at the northern end of the valley L'Lan."
Eric Nelson instantly caught at the salient point in the answer. "At the northern end of the valley? Then it's beyond Vruun?"
The wolfs thought answered like a snap of jaws. "It is. Which means you can't reach it!"