 What is ironic about the conclusion of the story?
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Dark was the Ryzga mountain and forbidding; steep were its cliffs and sheer its crevasses. But its outward perils could not compare with the Ryzgas themselves, who slept within, ready to wake and conquer.... At sunset they were in sight of the Ryzga mountain. Strangely it towered among the cliffs and snow-slopes of the surrounding ranges: an immense and repellently geometric cone, black, its sides blood-tinted by the dying sun. From the other direction, the long way that they two had come, it was not difficult to sense the thought of Groz. For the flame that had sprung between them at the Truce of New Grass, she had challenged the feud of their peoples and had left her home, to follow him. Now, if her father and his kinsmen overtook them, it would be death for Var, and for Neena living shame. Which of the two was worse was no longer a simple problem to Var, who had grown much older in the last days. While she waited he spun a dream, attaching it to the crags that loomed over the pass, and to the frozen ground underfoot. It was black night, as it would really be when Groz and his henchmen reached this place; lurid fire spewed from the Ryzga mountain, and strange lights dipped above it; and for good measure there was an avalanche in the dream, and hideous beasts rushed snapping and ravening from the crevices of the rock. "Oh!" cried Neena in involuntary alarm. Now they were descending the steeper face of the sierra, and the way led over bottomless crevasses, sheer drops and sheer ascents, sheets of traitorous glare ice. Place after place had to be crossed on the air, and both grew weary with the effort such crossings cost. They hoarded their strength, helping one another; one alone might never have won through. It was starry night already when they saw the light from the Watcher's cave.
 The slave masters of the Ryzgas were ultimately eradicated by their own slaves
 The slave masters of the Ryzgas were ultimately eradicated by their own slaves  Humans seem to feel they have no other alternative than to kill and cause suffering before they can establish peace  Var will likely be killed or imprisoned for life, and Neena will bear the mark of shame for eternity  Despite the Watcher's message, Var continued his journey to the mountain in pursuit of personal gain