CHAPTER 1THE MOUNTAINS WHITE AS DEATH
Kellory and the girl, Carthalla, stood and watched as Khun, and the Riders of Khun, dwindled into the distance across the ochre desert known to men as the Sea of Sand. Then the two turned their faces northwards and began their slow ascent of the mountain pass which led across the White Mountains into the grassy plains of Sarkovy.
“They were good friends,” the girl sighed, shivering a little at the caress of the cold winds that whistled down from the heights. The gaunt, grim man who strode at her side made no response. To his way of thought, every hand was lifted against his own, until the owner of that hand became a proven friend. And the desert-raiders were no different from the rest of the world; they had been tested, and the metal of their souls h
