Chapter II

"Is he dead? Oh, Martt, do you think he is dead?"

They bent over Degg and he opened his eyes. Martt knelt and lifted his head. It was evident that he was dying; and evident, too, that he knew it. He spoke, laboriously whispered words in Zee's language. He tried to gesture toward Zee; on his face was an earnestness, almost a desperation lest he might fail to give his dying message.

Martt said, "Zee, he's trying to talk to you. Bend closer--he's talking."

Zee knelt at his head. He was panting, struggling breathlessly with each word. "Rokk--was going to take your sister Leela to the--City of Ice. Now that the red things are loose--I think you will find--him and her--there."

His breath ended with a long sigh. But he began again. "Eeff will lead you. Tell Eeff--to take you through the--tunnel into the--stone tower. And--hurry!"

His eyes closed. Then they opened very wide. They tried to focus on Zee's face. She bent lower to hear his faint whisper. "Hurry! You understand--about Leela, there with Rokk. He means, for her, a thing very terrible. You must--hurry." He added, with a breath so faint she barely heard his words, "You are--so very beautiful, little Zee. I never saw--any woman so beautiful. But I am not Rokk--I could not have harmed you."

He stiffened just a trifle; then went limp, his head with staring eyes dangling backward over Martt's arm.

Martt laid him gently on the ground. Eeff went and sat by him, crying softly.