CHAPTER 1GARDEN IN THE SAND
All day the great desert had baked in the heat of the sun-star, Kylix; now, towards the hour of sundown, purple shadows lengthened from the dunes and coolness entered the air.
Empty and dead lay the Sea of Sand, save for the small lives it nourished at its meager bosom. Scarlet lizards scuttled; desert-vipers lay somnolent in their cool, hidden lairs; a few carrion-hawks floated aloft against the fathomless blue.
A dark line of moving objects appeared on the horizon to break the monotony of this silent, grim and barren realm. As they came nearer, it could be seen that they were desert men in loose, flapping robes of black or dun or scarlet, called allots. Steel blades hung sheathed at waist and thigh, long spears were slung across broad shoulders, the gem-stu
