reason exists to keep you and yours from returning to your homeland."
Tharn solemnly agreed. He said: "My only remaining wish could be that your own daughter, the gomad
Yualla, had survived the perils of the north, so that you could rejoice in the recovery of your child as I
do in the recovery of my own."
Garth thanked his fellow monarch for the sentiment, and said nothing further on this subject. At this
time, my reader will understand, none of us had any way of knowing that Yualla still lived, or that
young Jorn the Hunter had survived his dive into the mountain lake.
Once we were fed and rested and had bound our wounds, we departed, to cross the plain and enter the
jungles. As explained earlier in these memoirs, the tribe of Sothar were homeless, for their country had
been devastated by earthquake and volcanic eruption, precipitating them into hasty flight, followed by
long wanderings. The two tribes had joined together out of a desire for the mutual protection afforded by
numbers; since then, they had become close friends, and Tharn had offered them room in his country for
their living places, for the forested plains of Thandar were broad and much land lay empty.
So the host that headed south into the jungles was far more numerous than the host that had originally
marched north on the trail of the lost Princess Darya.
And to this number had also been added the many slaves who had fled with the Professor and me when
the mad god, Zorgazon, had destroyed the Scarlet City of Zar. These were men taken by the Zarian
slavers from other scattered Cro-Magnon tribes which inhabited the little-known northern parts of the
subterranean continent. Tharn and Garth had offered them a place among us, which they had gratefully
accepted.
Several of them, in fact, had volunteered to join my own company of warriors, for I had become a
chieftain high in the councils of the twin tribes. Among these were my stalwart friends, cheerful, merry-
hearted Thon of Numitor and that stolid but faithful giant, Gundar of Gorad, who had become my
friends during the time we were penned up in the Pits of Zar, awaiting the Great Games of the God.
Also among my company were gallant Varak and his mate, Ialys of Zar, who had fled with us, and
Grond of Gorthak and little Jaira, his mate, who had been slaves in the island fortress of El-Cazar.
These, together with the other warriors of my company, such as mighty Hurok of Kor, had swelled the
numbers in my service until we jestingly described ourselves as a miniature tribe, not just a company.
Each company seeks its own camping place, and lights its own cook-fires, and marches together. Hence,
as we entered the edges of the jungle, we were a little apart from the others and forced to make our own
path through the dense undergrowth and heavy foliage.
I was in the lead, of course, with Hurok the Neanderthal on my right hand, and Gundar on my left. The
Cro-Magnon gladiator was the only panjani (as the Neanderthal Apemen of Kor refer to us) who could
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