The Valley of Creation

warders of terrible powers left there by the ancients.

The Humanite went on broodingly, his face dark with rankling memory.

'They've kept that myth of the primal Brotherhood of man and beast alive here for ages. But in time we learned that it is not so in the outer world, that there man rightfully rules the animals.

'So we tried to claim for us humans the rightful dominant position here too. We didn't want to tyrannize the intelligent beasts. But we did believe that the governing authority should be in human hands.

'A third of the people joined us. But the other two-thirds, besotted by old myths, adhered to the Brotherhood. Finally we Humanites seceded from the Brotherhood and seized this city, Anshan. Here man and beast are not equal as they are in Vruun!'

Eric Nelson felt the shock of astonishment from the picture of L'Lan that had just been unfolded to them. A hidden valley guarding the relics of a once-mighty civilization, a valley in which beast-races claimed equality with man and in which a human minority was trying to right that!

'It seems incredible,' he said, frowning, 'that men and women would concede animals, even intelligent animals, equality!'

'Of course it seems so to you of the normal outer world!' Shan Kar exclaimed. 'But the people here who follow Kree and the Brotherhood persist in blind belief in the lying legends.'

All the passion of the man flamed into his eyes and voice as he continued with fanatic intensity.

'The equality of the Brotherhood is a mere sham that won't endure. As the beast-races learn more they'll aspire to rule man here! And some victorious beast-clan will, unless we prevent it.

'That's why we Humanites seceded from the Brotherhood and have brought the threat of civil war to L'Lan! That's why, since we're so badly outnumbered, I went into the outer world for weapons and fighters who could restore the balance of power for us!'

Nelson felt a strong sympathy with Shan Kar's burning passion. There was something repellent in the possibility he depicted. Beast-races demanding equality with men, aspiring to dominance over men! All his instincts rebelled against the idea.

'It gives me the creeps!' muttered Lefty Wister. 'You ought to kill all the brutes.'

Shan Kar looked a little shocked at that. 'We don't want to destroy the beast-clans. It's simply that they must learn the Brotherhood is a myth, that men are best fitted to govern.'

Nick Sloan's hard practical mind swung them back to immediate problems. 'We still don't know the strategic setup in this valley,' he rapped. 'How much of the valley do you Humanites hold?'

Hoik rumbled answer. 'Only the southern quarter of the valley, including this city Anshan and a few smaller places.'

Shan Kar added, 'Vruun is the great metropolis of the Brotherhood, humans and beast-clans alike. So far there's been armed truce between them and us Humanites. But the fight last night means war!

'Kree must have suspected my purpose in going to the outer world, and sent his daughter Nsharra with Tark and Hatha and Ei to block me. They failed and the Brotherhood failed again last night. But our capture of Tark and Kree's son begins open conflict now.'

Eric Nelson asked quick questions. The answers of the Humanite leaders gave him a discouraging picture. The Humanites, with their fanatic desire to establish human authority, were a minority in the valley. They could not put more than two thousand warriors into the field.

'The Brotherhood has twice that many men and five times that many intelligent beasts of the clans,' Shan Kar admitted.

'Pretty stiff odds — but we hold a joker in our machine-guns and grenades,' said Nick Sloan.

Nelson nodded. 'If there are only swords and bows and spears and the claws and fangs of the brutes against us we should be able to discount the advantage of numbers.'

He continued decisively. 'We ought to hit them with everything we've got before they get used to our new weapons — smash hard at the heart of this Brotherhood, at Vruun.'

Sloan voiced agreement. But the big warrior Hoik shook his head doubtfully.

'Our warriors might not follow you to a direct attack on Vruun. They're still afraid of Kree.'

'For heaven's sake, why?' demanded Nick Sloan disgustedly.

Shan Kar explained. 'The Guardian of the Brotherhood, as I told you, is reputed to be warder of terrible powers left by the ancients in the Cavern of Creation. That's mostly myth put out by the Guardians during the ages, of course!'

The Humanite paused. 'Yet the Guardian does have a few queer powers. He's known to have effected some terrible transformations, to punish those who transgressed the Brotherhood. That's left such a memory of horror in L'Lan that even our own fervent followers might hesitate to attack Kree's city directly.'

Nelson exploded. 'How can we lead a campaign for you when your own people are poisoned by superstition?'

'Let's pull out of this creepy place,' snarled the Cockney.

'Take it easy, you two!' said Nick Sloan. 'With a fortune here for the taking, we're not letting a few difficulties rob us of it.'

Shan Kar interrupted. 'There's one quick way to overcome that difficulty and that's to capture Kree and Nsharra! That would dismay the Brotherhood and remove our own people's lingering doubts.'

'Capture them?' asked Van Voss, his colorless, expressionless eyes on the Humanite. 'Why not just kill them?'

'That's out!' snapped Nelson. 'We're not murderers.'

'And killing them would so infuriate the Brotherhood that they'd never surrender,' added Shan Kar.

Sloan nodded. 'Besides, you said the old Guardian and his daughter know the safe way into that cavern where the platinum is. No, we don't want to kill them.'

Shan Kar continued rapidly, 'A few of us, only a handful, could penetrate Vruun secretly by night and seize Kree and Nsharra. We could make Tark himself lead us secretly and safely into the city!'

'You mean that the wolf will do that if we threaten to kill him?' Li Kin asked, his spectacled eyes wondering.

Shan Kar laughed mirthlessly. 'The Hairy One isn't afraid of death. But he doesn't want us to kill Barin, the Guardian's son.

'We'll offer him Barin's life if he guides us into Vruun, supposedly to liberate a Humanite prisoner. Tark may accept.'

'It sounds to me like a cursedly complicated and dangerous plan,' Sloan commented bluntly.

'But if it succeeded, it would clear the way for a quick blitz against the whole Brotherhood,' Nelson said thoughtfully. 'I'll lead the attempt if the wolf can be talked into guiding us.'

'Have the guards bring Tark back in,' Shan Kar told Diril.

The great wolf stalked back into the black hall, his chains held carefully taut by the sword-armed guards who walked on either side of him.

Tark swept them with his gaze. Eric Nelson felt a chill, uncanny shock in meeting those eyes that were like pools of cold green fire.

Shan Kar and the Humanites apparently found nothing strange in the scene. They were too accustomed to contact and speech with the intelligent beasts of the Brotherhood.

'You must choose now whether young Barin is to live or die,' Shan Kar told Tark.

His lips did not move, Nelson saw. He was thinking to the wolf again, and Nelson and his companions were picking up that thought through their thought-crowns. Tark's lips writhed back from great white fangs in a soundless snarl. His answering thought came fiercely. 'A trick! You want nothing more than to kill both Barin and myself!'

'That is quite true,' Shan Kar coolly agreed. 'But even more than to kill you two we want something else.'

His thought raced on. 'Hoik's brother, Jhanon, is a prisoner in Vruun, as you know. We wish to rescue him. We'll give yours and Barin's lives for his freedom.'

'I have not authority to release Jhanon,' Tark retorted. 'Only the Guardian can do that.'