The thing was almost on him. A colossus with burning eyes set on foot-long stalks, with fanged jaws agape and muscles straining.
Falken grabbed for his blaster. The quick motion overbalanced him. Sheila slid down on him and they fell slowly together, staring helplessly at destruction, charging at them through a rainbow swirl of light.
The creature rushed by, in utter silence.
Paul Avery landed, his blaster ready. Falken and Sheila scrambled up, cold with the sweat of terror.
"What was it?" gasped Sheila.
Falken said shakily, "God knows!" He turned to look at their surroundings.
And swept the others back into the shadow of the cleft.
Riders hunted the colossus. Riders of a shape so mad that even in madness no human could have conceived them. Riders on steeds like the arrowing tails of comets, hallooing on behind a pack of nightmare hounds....
