His own wrists ached with the strain of his
drumming as he lifted one hand and tried to shield his sight from the
glare of that pillar of fire.
Lumbrilo was chanting--a heavy blast of words. Dane stiffened; his
traitorous hands were falling into the rhythm of that other song!
Straightaway he raised both from the drum head, brought them down
in a discordinate series of thumps which bore no relation to either
the song Tau wanted or that which Lumbrilo was now crooning.
_Thump--thump--thump_--Dane beat it out frantically, belaboring the
drum head as he wanted to sink his fists home on the body of the
Khatkan witch doctor.
The pillar of fire swayed, fluttered as if a wind drove it--and was
gone. Tau, unmarked, smiled.
"Fire!" He pointed his fingers at Lumbrilo. "Would you try earth, and
water, and air also, wizard? Call hither your whirlwind, up your flood,
summon the land to quake. None of those shall bring me down!"
Shapes came flooding out of the night, some monstrous, some human,
streaming past Lumbrilo to crowd into the circle of firelight. Some Dane
thought he knew, some were strangers.
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