Part 31 (1/2)

”I'll never be able to cliet down it without falling, is more than I know”

”We can not wish ourselves to the top,” Tharn pointed out ”Nor is there any point in re here We can at least make the effort”

It required e of the plateau Alurna was helpless to aid hi herself; Tharn literally had to carry her up that vertical slope

When they stood at last on level ground, the cave-man did not stop to rest After they had crossed the narrow stretch of plains bordering the forest, Tharn turned to his coain,”

he said ”Hold me about the neck and do not be afraid”

With that, he lifted her easily, and supporting her thus with one arh the branches lighted by Dyta's powerful rays, and with the knowledge that only a few hours remained before he would reclaim Dylara, Tharn elected to travel swiftly; and when the forest-le folk that couldli outward across space to hurtle into the eht of the forest top, his free hand finding, unerringly, soh at the very instant those sure feet ca branch Now he threaded his way above the hard-packed earth with all the grace and agility of a tight-rope walker, prevented fro only by an uncanny sense of balance If handicapped by his burden, none uessed it; certainly he could not have reater speed and surety had he been unencu up at the iainst the broad chest, her cheek pillowed on a firm shoulder, and be lulled to drowsiness by the rhythradually suffused her entire being, her eyelids grew languorously heavy, closed of their own volition Alurna fell fast asleep

How long she slept Alurna never knew, but her eyes opened as she felt the arrip and lower her to her feet There was sohness in the action, and she looked up at Tharn quickly To her surprise he was standing with head thrown back, nostrils twitching as he sniffed the wind froely drawn

She put a hand on his ar in sharp contrast to the tanned forearlanced uneasily about at the surrounding foliage ”Are we nearly to Sephar?”

Tharn was not listening To his sensitive nostrils the as bringing the scent of a lion--and of a girl The odors were coth, sufficient evidence to Tharn that the girl ht the tenseness to his face There was a haunting fairl

And then he was galvanized into action Whirling, he scooped up the girl and placed her on a thick branch, close to the bole

”Remain here until I return,” he coan the princess, then realized she was addressing thin air Tharn had gone, speeding through the trees into the north

His ht echoed and re-echoed in his ic told him it was next to impossible for Dylara to be elsewhere than in Uriainst reason itself--as, indeed, he was doing now

If his passage through the trees with Alurna had been rapid, he was literally flying now--hurling hi chances he ordinarily would never have considered

While ever stronger to his nostrils caht sight of her, seated on a fallen log at the edge of a trail, carefullyan ankle

And at the saht of Sadu a few paces behind the unheeding daughter of Majok The beast was lying belly-flat behind a curtain of vines; and even as Tharn discovered hi

Thestone he plu in front of Sadu as the beast rose in its spring

Dylara, aroused by crashi+ng foliage, leaped to her feet and whirled about She cried out awe-struck wonder as she saw the youngbetween her and an on-rushi+ng lion

Powerless to nard crouch to le instant that elapsed before Sadu reached him, she saw Tharn's hands were empty