A den of slave girls was encountered. "Get out!" Toka commanded tersely. "Hide in the moss den by the path!" The pitiful girls filed away.
Toka was on—securing the massive double doors to the vast den of the huge dragons. But he must be near to the end of his sector—and no Roya!
Peering around a massive column, Toka saw the haze ahead abruptly thin—to reveal an ornate doorway above which was sculptured a spiked collar. To each side of this door a huge dragon lay coiled on guard. The yellow haze swirled back over the scene.
"Toka!" Roya's voice cried. "Tok—"
Fear ripping through him, Toka leaped for that door. In the yellow haze the first dragon reared its head and flexed its massive coils. Toka's knife arm whipped and his vicious blade was a black glitter. The dragon darted its head but Toka's battle knife sank to its hilt between those baleful pink eyes. The dragon hissed and shuddered. The second one slid from the haze. Toka's battle-ax whistled viciously and sent the ugly head toppling from its sinuous body.
Leaping over the dying dragons, Toka slammed his battle-ax to that door. It flapped out—and rage exploded through Toka!
The hissing laughter of the Dragon Men threaded through the stark screaming of the Kosanna girls.
"They're coming for us now!" Elees gasped.
A group of the Dragon Men gathered about the cage. One was unlatching the trap door.