'That is fair enough,' said Tanar, and then, turning, he called to the girl. 'Come, Stellara! Here is a warrior who would see if you are a Korsar.'
The girl dropped lightly to the ground from the branches of the tree above the two men.
As the eyes of the Amiocapian fell upon her he stepped back with an exclamation of shock and surprise.
'Gods of Amiocap!' he cried. 'Allara!'
The two looked at him in amazement. 'No, not Allara,' said Tanar, 'but Stellara, her daughter. Who are you that you should so quickly recognize the likeness?'
'I am Fedol,' said the man, 'and Allara was my mate.'
'Then this is your daughter, Fedol,' said Tanar.
The warrior shook his head, sadly. 'No,' he said, 'I can believe that she is the daughter of Allara, but her father must have been a Korsar for Allara was stolen from me by the men of Korsar. She is a Korsar and though my heart urges me to accept her as my daughter, the customs of Amiocap forbid. Go your way in peace. If I can protect you I shall, but I cannot accept you, or take you to my village.'
Stellara came close to Fedol, her eyes searching the tan skin upon his left shoulder. 'You are Fedol,' she said, pointing to the red birthmark upon his skin, 'and here is the proof that my mother gave me, transmitted to me through your blood, that I am the daughter of Fedol,' and she turned her left shoulder to him, and there lay upon the white skin a small, round, red mark identical with that upon the left shoulder of the Amiocapian.
For a moment Fedol stood spellbound his eyes fixed upon Stellara's shoulder and then he took her into his arms and held her closely.
'My daughter!' he murmured. 'Allara come back to me in the blood of our blood and the flesh of our flesh!'
VI THE ISLAND OF LOVE
THE NOONDAY sun of Pellucidar shone down upon a happy trio as Fedol guided Stellara and Tanar toward the village of Paraht , where he ruled as chief.
'Will they receive us there as friends,' asked Stellara, 'or will they wish to destroy us as did the men of Lar?'
'I am chief,' said Fedol. 'Even if they questioned you, they will do as I command, but there will be no question for the proof is beyond dispute and they will accept you as the daughter of Fedol and Allara, as I have accepted you.'
'And Tanar,' asked Stellara, 'will you protect him, too?'
'Your word is sufficient that he is not a Korsar,' replied Fedol. 'He may remain with us as long as he wishes.'
'What will Zural think of this?' asked Tanar. 'He has condemned us to die. Will he not insist that the sentence be carried out?'
'Seldom do the villagers of Amiocap war one against the other,' replied Fedol; 'but if Zural wishes war he shall have it ere ever I shall give up you or my daughter to the burning stake of Lar.'
Great was the rejoicing when the people of Paraht saw their chief, whom they had thought lost to them forever, returning. They clustered about him with glad cries of welcome, which were suddenly stilled by loud shouts of 'The Korsars! The Korsars!' as the eyes of some of the people alighted upon Tanar and Stellara.
'Who cried 'Korsars'?' demanded Fedol. 'What know you of these people?'
'I know them,' replied a tall warrior. 'I am from Lar. There are six others with me and we have been searching for these Korsars, who escaped just before they were to have been burned at the stake. We will take them back with us and Zural will rejoice that you have captured them.'
'You will take them nowhere,' said Fedol. 'They are not Korsars. This one,' and he placed a hand upon Stellara's shoulder, 'is my daughter, and the man is a warrior from distant Sari. He is the son of the king of that country, which lies far away upon a mainland unknown to us.'
'They told that same story to Zural,' said the warrior from Lar; 'but we did not believe them. None of us believed them. I was with Vulhan and his party when we took them from the Korsar ship that brought them to Amiocap.'
'At first I did not believe them,' said Fedol, 'but Stellara convinced me that she is my daughter, just as I can convince you of the truth of her statement.'
'How?' demanded the warrior.
'By the birthmark on my left shoulder,' replied Fedol. 'Look at it, and then compare it with the one upon her left shoulder. No one who knew Allara can doubt that Stellara is her daughter, so closely does the girl resemble her mother, and being Allara's daughter how could she inherit the birthmark upon her left shoulder from any other sire than me?'
The warriors from Lar scratched their heads. 'It would seem the best of proof,' replied the warriors' spokesman.
'It is the best of proof,' said Fedol. 'It is all that I need. It is all the people of Paraht need. Take the word to Zural and the people of Lar and I believe that they will accept my daughter and Tanar as we are accepting them, and I believe that they will be willing to protect them as we intend to protect them from all enemies, whether from Amiocap or elsewhere.'
'I shall take your message to Zural,' replied the warrior, and shortly afterward they departed on the trail toward Lar.
Fedol prepared a room in his house for Stellara and assigned Tanar to a large building that was occupied solely by bachelors.
Plans were made for a great feast to celebrate the coming of Stellara and a hundred men were dispatched to fetch the ivory and the meat of the tandor that Fedol and Tanar had slain.
Fedol decked Stellara with ornaments of bone and ivory and gold. She wore the softest furs and the gorgeous plumage of rare birds. The people of Paraht loved her and Stellara was happy.
Tanar was accepted at first by the men of the tribe with some reservations, not untinged with suspicion. He was their guest by the order of their chief and they treated him as such, but presently, when they came to know him and particularly after he had hunted with them, they liked him for himself and made him one of them.
The Amiocapians were, at first, an enigma to Tanar. Their tribal life and all their customs were based primarily upon love and kindness. Harsh words, bickering and scolding were practically unknown among them. These attributes of the softer side of man appeared at first weak and effeminate to the Sarian, but when he found them combined with great strength and rare courage his admiration for the Amiocapians knew no bounds, and he soon recognized in their attitude toward one another and toward life a philosophy that he hoped he might make clear to his own Sarians.
The Amiocapians considered love the most sacred of the gifts of the gods, and the greatest power for good and they practiced liberty of love without license. So that while they were not held in slavery by senseless man- made laws that denied the laws of God and nature, yet they were pure and virtuous to a degree beyond that which he had known in any other people.
With hunting and dancing and feasting, with tests of skill and strength in which the men of Amiocap contended in friendly rivalry, life for Stellara and Tanar was ideally happy.
Less and less often did the Sarian think of Sari. Sometime he would build a boat and return to his native country, but there was no hurry; he would wait, and gradually even that thought faded almost entirely from his mind. He and Stellara were often together. They found a measure of happiness and contentment in one another's society that was lacking at other times or with other people. Tanar had never spoken of love. Perhaps he had not thought of love for it seemed that he was always engaged upon some enterprise of the hunt, or contending in some of the sports and games of the men. His body and his mind were occupied—a condition which sometimes excludes thoughts of love, but wherever he went or whatever he did the face and figure of Stellara hovered ever in the background of his thoughts.
Without realizing it, perhaps, his every thought, his every act was influenced by the sweet loveliness of the chief's daughter. Her friendship he took for granted and it gave him great happiness, but yet he did not speak of
