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course, being a Kildoi, he had been able to draw the dagger from the eye of the Brokelsh and wipe the blade of his drexer at the same time. Apims like me, with only a miserable pair of arms and no tail hand, could not do those simple things any Kildoi did without thinking.
    The numim lady assisted the apim princess to an overstuffed couch against the corridor wall. They talked quickly together, and both turned to ask at the same time what our news of the prince was. Fweygo said simply that he had not yet been found at The Clipped Rhok. Nandisha sank back, looking pale and weak, and Serinka chafed her hands. The two women did not enquire how it was we had so fortunately turned up to save them. For all they knew we could have left the tavern ages ago and walked quietly back. No doubt they expected to see Ranaj and his guardsmen soon.
    What they didn’t know was that we two kregoinyes had been summarily hurled through some outlandish and eerie other dimension. The Star Lords wanted us to guard the numim twins. We had no right to go gallivanting off in pursuit of other objectives.
    Also, and this sent a shiver of alarm up through my spine, I knew I’d been lucky. The Star Lords could always hurl me back through four hundred light years to Earth as punishment if I disobeyed them. That thought brought the image of Delia smack bang into the forefront of my mind. There really is no time when the thought of Delia is absent from my brain; but brutal incidents similar to what had transpired here shocked me with the disaster I had so narrowly courted. No. Oh, no, by Zair! There was nothing I would not do to stay on Kregen with Delia, Delia of the Blue Mountains, Delia of Delphond.
    Fweygo thrust his cleaned drexer back into the scabbard and the door opened again and he instantly drew the brand again and hurled himself forward.
    Nandisha let out a little moan and Serinka said: “Tolaar rot them.”
    Princess Nisha in a short white dress was casually slung over the shoulder of the second fellow through the doorway. She made no sound or movement so she’d probably fainted. The three other men, all apims, following on, carried their blades naked in their fists.
    The first kidnapper striding on ahead past the door he’d kicked open was a Chulik. His greasy yellow face shone in the lamp light. His pigtail — an anonymous black — was pulled forward over his left shoulder. His pakai was long, there were many rings forming the string of the pakai, each ring taken from the body of each of his past fights. He saw the golden Kildoi charging upon him and his sword snouted up into the en guarde. Highly professional fighters are Chuliks, trained up from birth to become mercenaries and to fight for gold. They had more humanity than at first I had believed; all the same, that humanity was not high and was seldom overtly exhibited.
    Before I went hurtling in to assist my comrade I called across to the numim twins. “Rofi! Rolan! Please help your mother to take the princess away. Make sure you are safe. Hurry!”
    Rolan hesitated. He still held that slender dagger. As a numim he could feel all his ancestral blood rebelling at the idea of thus tamely running off. I scowled at him and then, as I started off, snapped at his sister. “Rofi! Make Rolan see sense — find a safe place to hide. He can always go looking for our guards if he wants. Now — bratch!”
    They jumped and moved towards the couch and passed out of my vision. Kildoi and Chulik exchanged blows and circled and I skipped past them. Noise built up in the corridor, the chirr of steel on steel, the grunts of effort, yells from the men following — and, no doubt, Nandisha was in there screaming away, too.
    For a tiny instant of time speaking to the children I’d wondered if I was telling them to do the right thing. It might not be clever to have them wandering off. Perhaps they’d be safer nearer Fweygo and me. One of the men towards whom I charged settled that uneasy question.
    He