CHAPTER 2A CRY IN THE NIGHT
They came to the oasis an hour before sunfall, and the sight of it was very welcome to Carthalla. As Khun had jestingly promised, the very sight of it was beautiful to the exhausted girl. Like a magical vision summoned by a conjurer, it seemed to melt into being before them, out of the sandy wasteland: a stand of feathery, blossoming trees encircling a pool like a mirror of sapphire.
Banks of dewy emerald moss sloped down to the margin of the pool, where tall reeds whispered, swaying to the touch of the evening breeze. The oasis was sheltered against the flanks of a tall, towering mass of stone, flat-crested like a mesa, but less large. In its shade, the garden flourished, drawing nourishment from hidden springs which fed the pool.
The desert-raiders dismount
