Taarna flies to the ruined, deserted city. Its people have already been massacred but they can be avenged. She travels in search of the culprits. She encounters a small band of mutants and realizes that she has found the city's destroyers. They try to rape her but she slays them with ease. Now more informed, she travels towards the mutant camp but they are prepared. They surprise her and capture her and her mount. She is bound, stripped, whipped, and thrown into an open pit, unconscious.