Erix looked at the strangers with a mixture of fear and fascination. They were unquestionably savage and powerful warriors, for all around them were bodies of fallen Payit warriors and priests. She looked quickly but could not find Mixtal's corpse among them. The high priest, she assumed, had escaped with the rest of the warriors. The two soldiers who had held her while their comrades attacked now half-carried her to the company at the base of the pyramid.

Erix saw the tall one, Mixtal's prisoner with the sandy beard, and she was glad that he had not perished under the high priest's knife. She remembered the attention Chitikas had directed toward this stranger. She felt a strange sense of relief to see him among his fellows, as if she desired his rescue but had not wanted to perform it. He was, however, still bound with the hishna snakeskin.

Suddenly the two men who held her arms released her. The short one with the furry face gestured at her, indicating the jungle, and in that instant, she realized that they were releasing her.

She quickly stepped back from the two strangers while her mind whirled with possibilities and fears. She didn't trust these mysterious people. She had seen grim evidence of their fighting prowess. Yet she dared not flee here only to fall into the hands of Mixtal, who must still be near.

Gultec's rage almost compelled him to burst from the undergrowth and slay the invaders single – handed. Only the utmost exertion of self-discipline allowed the warnings of his brain to prevail, compelling caution.

His keen night vision showed him the bodies of a score or more Payits, presumably slain at the hands of the two dozen strangers now gathered at the pyramid. The invaders were clearly warriors of great prowess. Therefore, he would not attack until he gathered his warriors around them.

The men filed quickly and silently through the jungle. Ten ranks of hundredmen slipped along the periphery of the forest, led by stealthy Jaguar Knights on each flank. Gultec remained in the middle of the force, waiting only long enough to allow the spearmen and knights to gather behind him.

Soon a thousand warriors stood ready to attack.

"It's dulling the blade!" complained Daggrande after another attempt to saw through Hal's bonds. One of the legionnaires handed Hal his sword, but the snakeskin binding his arms to his sides prevented him from raising the weapon above his waist. The dwarf cast a glance at the jungle, and then to the trail leading down the bluff, to the beach and the rest of the legion.

"Let's get out of here. Maybe that elf-wizard – " he paused to spit, then continued – "can do something about this rope."

Halloran reluctantly had to agree, though he felt terribly vulnerable standing there with his hands and arms held tightly at his sides. He felt the eyes of the girl on him again. He tried not to stare, but he found himself looking back. Her wide brown eyes did not move away, as had those of the other native women he had encountered. He detected a hint of fear within them, but also a prideful challenge that seemed to mock him.

And then the night air exploded with a shriil chorus of screeches, whistles, and shouts. The sound crushed in from all sides, and the legionnaires saw movement in the darkness.

"Form square!" bellowed Daggrande. The captain was appalled at the volume of noise, but his movements were crisp and precise. He tucked his dagger in his belt, slung his battle-axe from his wrist, and raised his powerful crossbow.

The legionnaires stood shoulder to shoulder, longswords and crossbows alternating. Following Daggrande's command, they created a four-sided wall of steel, facing outward on all sides. Now they could see the attacking shapes closing in from the darkness.

"Fire!" At the instant of Daggrande's command, the ten bowmen released their missiles and seized their swords. There would be no second shot this night.

"Helm curse this thing!" Halloran roared his frustration, shaking his head like an angry lion. Despite his bonds, he tried to shoulder his way into the line.

He saw the girl move suddenly, stepping toward him, and he looked at her in astonishment. She stopped to look up at him with those wide eyes, which even in the darkness seemed to penetrate to the depths of his soul. Then she reached for him, and he saw that she held something in her hand, something that looked like a small cluster of feathers. Something gleamed like a shining stone in the midst of the plumage.

The shocking clash of steel against stone rocked the clearing. Hundreds of Payit warriors met Daggrande's two dozen and the legionnaires stood firm. The screams of the wounded joined the din, with some of the legionnaires falling as well as many natives.

The girl touched the feathered object to Halloran's side. His heart leaped as he felt the bonds give way, falling in a loose coil about his feet. He instinctively reached down and grabbed the ensorcelled thing that had restrained him. Hal was amazed to see that now it was a mere snakeskin, colorful and scaly but no more than six or eight feet long. He would have sworn that it was much longer when it held him. Nevertheless, he stuffed it into his belt.

In an instant, it seemed, the first attack fell away. Halloran stood at a corner of the square, watching the warriors waiting restlessly several paces before him. They were packed tightly to the limits of his vision, an uncountable number. He was vaguely aware of the girl standing behind him. For a moment, he thought of encouraging her to leave the square, to return to her own people.

Another volley of shrieks arose, this time to the side and above them. The bulk of the pyramid had vanished in the darkness, but he remembered the height and size of the object. He imagined the natives making use of that height.

Halloran instantly pictured the javelins arcing through the sky, and he stepped backward to seize the girl and hold her underneath the protection of his armored arm and shoulder. The missiles scattered around them, and then the spearmen surged once more to the attack.

Hal raised Helmstooth and stepped into a vacant space in the square. The captain faced a kaleidescope of attacking spearmen and club-wielders. His sword quickly grew slick with blood, his arm weary of battle, and yet he knew that the attack had just begun.

Kachin joined the rush toward the strangers, more out of curiosity than aggression. Indeed, he carried no weapon, but the priest of Qotal wanted to see these invaders up close. Like the warriors, he had been disturbed by the reports that the soldiers attacked a group of Payit at the pyramid. One panicked warrior had gasped a tale of a sacrifice interrupted by surprise attack.

This intrigued Kachin. A sunset sacrifice in this remote location was mysterious. He hoped against a cold, forbidding fear that the ceremony did not explain the disappearance of Erixitl. Yet he felt almost certain that it did.

Kachin saw the strangers standing in their tight line as the mass of warriors struck them from all sides. He saw flashing silver and waving feather banners. The air resounded with shrieks and crashes and whistles and shouts, and then a momentary still settled in as the Payit fell back, just far enough to avoid the deadly steel. The priest saw many bodies scattered around the invaders, but a few gaps had opened in their previously tight formation.

Through one of these gaps, Kachin saw a flash of black hair, and then he gasped. Erixitl! She was being held by the strangers!

More and more of Gultec's column emerged from the jungle, massing around the little square. Many spearmen climbed along the sides of the pyramid, not as far as the top but gaining positions high above the legionnaires.

"Hieeeiiii!" A volley of screeches burst from the warriors on the pyramid, and a hundred spears took to the air. The missiles, launched from the height of the pyramid, dropped among the tightly packed soldiers below. Several found their marks in the shoulders or backs of the legionnaires.