Ekbar voiced a single scream of anguish and toppled across the sill and to the ground beneath, dead beside the master he had so faithfully served.
While from that same window a young warrior of that same dead master smiled with grim satisfaction. Otar had made sure his bride, the lovely Marua, would never again be visited by her former suitor.
With Ekbar died the last of all resistance against Jotan's invading warriors. Scores of weapons fell uselessly to the ground and the palace defenders began to stream from the building, their hands lifted in surrender.
And it was then that a quiet voice from behind Jotan and his father said:
"Are the pits of Jaltor so shallow that they may not hold my enemies?"
The nobleman and his son wheeled about, then stiffened to rigid attention at sight of Jaltor, king of Ammad, standing at the forefront of a squad of his own guards.
CHAPTER XV
CONCLUSION
Dawn had come an hour before but the group of seven people sat about the breakfast table in the private dining room of Jaltor, ruler of Ammad.