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right to stand in this place? Was she being ques-tioned? On the chance that she was, she spoke for the
third time.
"Great One, I am she who is one of three in Ruwenda  in the great land of the mires. This was my
birth gift from the Archimage Binah." She touched the amulet. "This," now she held the sword higher,
"was won when I followed the geas laid upon me after Ruwenda fell to the evil ones. I strove to return it
when my labor was over, but the earth from which it was grown refused it. And, Great One, it led me
here when I trailed a new darkness through the land. I am Kadiya, King's Daughter, but I have chosen
the swamps. Any evil which touches them is my concern. Great One, today I have seen this evil come
before me through the wall gate  "
"Not so!"
Kadiya's head snapped around. They had gath-ered very silently  or else she had been too
ensorcelled by the flower to hear. Three of them 
Her eyes widened. Vanished Ones! And no stat-ues to be wondered at and dreamed over.
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Neither did they have about them any of the misty clouding which had been a part of the One she had
met before. To her eyes they were as much alive as she.
They were taller than she, even as she topped the Oddlings  the Oddlings! For the first time since she
had won through the golden haze to the tem-ple, Kadiya remembered her companions. A quick glance
right and left showed her that she stood alone.
She set the sword point-down on the flooring, but kept her hand below the pommel so that the open
eyes were still visible. In spite of the awe which held her fast she eyed these others defensively.
They were two men and a woman. Their gar-ments were few and so finely woven that through them
their bodies could be plainly seen. The men wore belts, one over each shoulder crossing on the breast.
These flashed with white and green gems, and at that crossing was set a large gemmed medal-lion.
Another belt at waist level, even more orna-mented, supported a kilt not quite knee length. Covering feet
and rising nearly to the knee were footgear which glistened with a silver sheen.
The woman who stood a little behind had a loose shift-like garment, fastened on the shoulders with
broad brooches also gem set and belted with as com-plex a girdle as those of her companions. She wore
also the high sandals on her feet.
The clothing was in contrast to their skins which were dark as those of the Labornoki plains dwellers
who worked under the sun. Though the men ap-peared beardless their heads were covered with curl-ing
hair trimmed close to the skull. The woman's hair had not been so tightly cropped, locks falling to brush
her shoulders.
However, it was their features which made Kadiya catch her breath. For of these three, two she had
seen before  appearing carven in stone leagues away from this place. One she could even put name to

"Lamaril!" He was the living embodiment of that statue which, hacked free of its armor of mud dried
hard as iron, had pointed her way to the lost city when she had first sought it. Lamaril, who Jagun had
said legend hailed as a great warrior against the Dark.
The woman she knew also, but not by name. Her likeness stood to the left on the fourth step of the
garden stairway.
Certainly none of the three showed any signs of welcome. Both the woman and Lamaril were frown-ing.
It was the third of their company who spoke.
"Who are you  what are you  who has dared the Gate?" His cold demand shook Kadiya out of her
blank astonishment. Her chin came up and she faced the three squarely, yet one hand sought the amulet
and the other tightened on the sword.
"I am Kadiya, King's Daughter to Krain who ruled in the Citadel of Ruwenda. It is set upon me to hold
the mire lands against the Dark. We are those who came after your people departed."
"Mire lands," the man repeated. "You name a place we do not know, yet you have come through the
Last Gate as one who has full right. And we heard your babble that you followed evil hither. There is no
evil in this place!"
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Now it was Lamaril who spoke. "You called upon my name, you who say that you are King's Daughter.
Yet I have never seen you before. What mischief would you stir by naming me?"
His mouth set sternly, but Kadiya refused to be daunted by the coldness in his look.
"I have seen your likeness, not your person." She did not know what title of honor she should grant him
and at the moment she did not care. "There is a figure of you on guard  though long ago it was mud
buried and it was the enemy which chipped it free. Jagun of the Nyssomu named you to me then as a
mighty captain who stood firm against the Dark in a troubled time."
His sternness of feature was suddenly gone. Now he showed astonishment, as one who might have
heard a silent stone give voice.
Kadiya pressed what she felt was a small advan-tage. "And you," she addressed the woman directly, "I
cannot name you. Yet your likeness, too, remains in the city of the fair garden, the Place of Learning. It
stands guard on the stairs which lead to that same garden."
"Yatlan!" The woman pressed forward now. "Yatlan," she repeated and there was a soft note in her
voice. She raised one hand, half extended it toward Kadiya. "You who have come, what is Yatlan now?"
"A city forgotten. No," the girl corrected herself, "forgotten by most. But it has its indwellers. They call
themselves Hassitti and they have made efforts to hoard safely all which was left. There is the garden" 
Kadiya raised the sword to hold it fully into view "this was born of the garden. Binah, the Archimage,
laid it upon me and my two sisters at birth to be the saviors of Ruwenda. She gave me a root which [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]