And when Cherkis had had his will with my mother he threw her to his soldiers for their sport.
"All of those who went with them he tortured and slew--and he and his laughed at their torment.

But one there was who escaped and told me--me who was little more than a budding maid.

He called on me to bring vengeance--and he died.

A year passed--and I am not like my mother and my father--and I forgot--dwelling here in the great tranquillities, barred from and having no thought for men and their way.
"AIE, AIE!" she cried; "woe to me that I could forget! But now I shall take my vengeance--I, Norhala, will stamp them flat--Cherkis and his city of Ruszark and everything it holds! I, Norhala, and my servants shall stamp them into the rock of their valley so that none shall know that they have been! And would that I could meet their gods with all their powers that I might break them, too, and stamp them into the rock under the feet of my servants!" She threw out white arms.
Why had Yuruk lied to me?
I wondered as I watched her.

The Disk had not slain her mother.