The People of the Crater

Garin Featherstone is a wartime pilot hired on an Antarctic expedition to investigate an anomaly near the South Pole. When the expedition reaches its destination, Garin's mind is possessed by a strange power guiding him to fly his airplane deep within a crater. There he discovers an alien race that has brought him down to fight an ancient evil. "Send the Black Throne to dust; conquer the Black Ones, and bring the Daughter from the Caves of Darkness." These were the tasks Garin must perform to fulfill the prophecy of the Ancient Ones-and establish his own destiny in this hidden land! The PEOPLE of the CRATER is a sci-fi novelette by Andrew North (Andre Norton) that first appeared in Fantasy Book Vol. 1 in 1947.