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The man was bearded, wearing his thick mop of black hair in a round topknot secured by a hide loop. He wore a skin tunic, now in considerable disarray, which was held in place with a woven, tasseled belt. "Ho, so it is Lal of the Quick Tongue who speaks so loudly of spirits and the Wrath of Lurgha!" Ashe studied his captive.

Ross helped McNeil within the cave and to the pile of brush which was his own bed. "He was hunting traders as a present for Lurgha." "So " Ashe turned upon the tribesman "and by whose word did you go hunting my kinsman, Lal? Was it Nodren's? Has he forgotten the blood bond between us? For it was in the name of Lurgha himself that that bond was made "

When he has eaten up all that is yours and your kin with it?" "Perhaps," Assha repeated. "I do not think Lurgha will come so again." She shrugged, and the heavy cloak flapped. "That shall be as it shall be, Assha. Now go, for it is not good that any man come hither." Cassca paced back into the heart of the green tunnel, and Ross and McNeil came out of concealment.

Now " Ashe limped back and dragged out the white wolf skin, dropping it before Lal "this you will give to Cassca that she may make a curtain for the Mother's home. See, it is white and so rare that the Mother will be pleased with such a fine gift. And you will tell her all that has chanced and how you believe in her powers over the powers of Lurgha, and the Mother will be well pleased with you.

Any wandering stranger or enemy tribesman taken in a raid before that day would meet such a fate. On unlucky years when people were not available a deer or wolf might serve. But the best sacrifice of all was a man. So Lurgha had decreed from the air that traders were his meat? What of Ashe? Let any hunter from the village track him down.

He limped into the outer air where the shadows of evening were beginning to creep across the ground. "Hear me, Lurgha," he called into the coming night, "I am Assha of the traders, and upon myself I take your hate. Not upon Lal, nor upon Nodren, nor upon the people who live in Nodren's town, shall your wrath lie. Thus do I say it!"

And how had Lurgha spoken? Ashe's voice was softer, gentle. Out of the air, even as he had spoken to Nodren, who was a chief. He said that he had seen Lal in the hill post, and so Lal was his meat. But not yet would he eat him, not if Lal served him in other ways.

The Lurgha who struck our post, who spoke to you from the air, means you no good " "Aaaah!" wailed Lal. "So do I know, Assha. He is of the blackness and the wandering spirits of the dark!" "Just so.

You know the rules and the ones the Reds play by are twice as tough on their own men." "What kind of trouble?" Ashe wanted to know. "Some kind of a local religious dispute. We do our best with their code, but we're not a hundred per cent perfect in reading it. I gather they were playing with a local god and got their fingers burned." "Lurgha again, eh?" Ashe smiled.

"Now, Lal, since you speak for Nodren which I believe will greatly surprise him you will continue to tell me of this Wrath of Lurgha from the night skies and what has happened to Sanfra, who was my brother, and those others of my kin. I am Assha, and you know of the wrath of Assha and how it ate up Twist-tooth, the outlaw, when he came in with his evil men.