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d see nothing but a cruel inflexible purpose.
"Tarrano in defeat! That is impossible, Lady Elza. You will very shortly realize that, for I am going to show you how, single-handed, I can make it impossible. Show you with your own eyes. It was my purpose in coming to waken you--my purpose, when your beauty led me into weakness incredible.... Get up, Lady Elza."
She stared. With folded arms he stood emotionless regarding her.
"Get up, I tell you. Put on those garments you wore when we arrived. We are going travelling again."
He stood waiting; and beneath his gaze she shrank back, drawing the fur rug over her.
A smile of contempt parted his lips. "You hesitate? You think I am still a weakling? You over-rate your beauty, Lady Elza.... Make haste, I command you. We must start very soon."
She summoned her voice. "Start? Where? What are you--"
"No questions, Lady Elza. Not now. Make haste--"
He jerked from her the fur covering, flung it across the room, and with the same gesture turned away impersonally. Trembling, she rose from the couch and donned the garments he had indicated, while he stood brooding by the window, gazing through its transparent pane at the glistening frozen city which was all that remained of his empire.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Thing in the Forest
"All in good time, Lady Elza, you will know where we are."
Alone, unnoticed, they had departed from the City of Ice on a small flying platform similar to the one they had used before. The night had passed; day, with a new warmth to the sun, came again. Flying low, with Tarrano in a grim, moody silence, and Elza staring downward.
The aural lights were overhead when at the last Tarrano brought the platform to rest. A thick, luxuriant forest. Huge trees with rope-like roots and heavy vines. Others with leaves like the ears of an elephant. And the ground hidden by almost impenetrable underbrush.
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