Njrea raved for a day and a night while Trals and Vrem tended her. She fell silent as the sun climbed higher on the second day, and by the time the smoking, hair-tasseled tents of the Eethlek herd came into view, she was almost dead.

Trals Scarback did not worry - what did the life or death of another matter to one such as he? - but he had invested too much in the stranger to allow her to escape his plans so easily. Luna Meridiana would fall. The Slavers would suffer for what ...