"Our friend Xask seems right at home," I commented sourly, nodding toward the enigmatic little man
mounted on the next dinosaur. Although his wrists, like ours, were bound behind his back, the wily and
cunning former Grand Vizier of Kor maintained an unruled demeanor. His aplomb was superb acting,
for the Professor and I were well aware that the Empress of Zar had long ago exiled him, banishing him
from the kingdom, never to return on pain of instant execution. And here he had been captured as
well . . . for, although Xask had not been one of my party of warriors, he had been stealthily following
us across the plains, for mysterious motives of his own.
Catching my eye, Xask smiled a cool, thin-lipped smile. I scowled and he glanced away serenely.
From time to time, the Dragonmen conversed among themselves, their leader, whose brows were bound
by a filet of odd coppery-red silver metal, giving orders and directions. Whenever this occurred,
Professor Potter listened closely.
"I can almost make out what they are saying," he murmured to me. "My theories on the nature of
Minoan as it was spoken are triumphantly vindicated! Very close to some of the archaic Greek dialects
of Ionia, yet with a large percentage of Mesopotamian loan-words with strong Semitic roots . . . ."
I grunted; actually, I've knocked around that end of the Mediterranean long enough, mingling with
Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Arabs, Copts, and the like, to have picked up more than a smattering of all
their various lingoes-and, as I still retained quite a surprising amount of my college Greek, I could make
out some of what they were saying myself. But then, I've always had a knack for picking up languages
easily, which has saved my hide more than once.
We had been riding due east across the plains for what seemed like two hours. I was hungry, thirsty,
tired, and in a dangerous mood. Spoiling for a fight. All I wanted was to get my hands free and tackle a
couple of the little brown men. I was heartily sick of being captured, and the weeks or months I had
spent in Zanthodon (and it had become damned hard to figure out how much time is passing when time
is no longer divided into days and nights, but just consists of one endless and interminable afternoon!)
had been nothing but one captivity after another.
First, the Professor and I had been captured by a band of Drugar slavers, which was bad enough. More
recently, we had been taken prisoner by a weird underground race of strange, vile little men who
worshiped as living gods a ghastly species of gigantic and vampiric leeches; these had designated us as
offerings-walking bloodbanks, you might say, and involuntary ones, to boot. We had only just gotten
free of the cavern-folk, when the Dragonmen of Zar had chanced our way.
You never miss your freedom so dearly, I have found, as when you have briefly enjoyed it, only to have
it snatched away again.
In a word, I was keeping my eyes open, trying to figure out a way to escape with the Professor. As for
Xask, let him save his own hide, if possible. I owed the treacherous little Machiavelli nothing-and, come
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