IN BERLA
Freedom of action, cooperation, a friendly understanding, marked the
following days for Croft. That night he visited Naia while his body lay
in a room in Robur's part of the palace, covered with a silken tissue,
worked over by Gaya's own maids, whom she sent to rub into its stalwart
muscles, soft, nourishing, perfumed ointments, such as the Tamarizian
nobles used.
He found the Zollarian party not far from Berla, confident that the
succeeding day would see them inside the city itself. He returned to
Himyra for a few hours, spoke with Gaya and Robur, stretched himself
out once more, and willed himself back to Naia, and slipped into the
conveyance where she rode with Maia and Jason, very much as he had sat
and gazed upon her, drunk with the beauty of her, the day he had seen
her first outside Himyra's lifted walls. So it was he had promised her
the night before he would accompany her into Berla when she arrived.
The entry itself was made a spectacle for the crowds. In fact, it was
clear to Croft that the thing was staged. Whatever doubts he may have
entertained concerning Zollaria's participation in Kalamita's abduction
of Naia and Jason as a state, vanished, leaving a cold conviction that
the woman had acted less as an individual than in an agent's place.
Outside the walls of Berla the party was halted by a patrol. The
curtains on Naia's carriage were drawn back, leaving the occupants
exposed. Guardsmen approached and placed golden bands joined by a
golden chain upon her slender ankles, and on her arms. A chariot such
as the Zollarians used in war, save that it was burnished to the last
degree, as it advanced behind green-plumed gnuppas harnessed four
abreast, emerged from Berla's gate and deposited a massively built
warrior, in splendid harness, beside the conveyance in which Kalamita
rode.
Croft recognized Bandhor, general of the Zollarian army, as Kalamita
appeared. She flung herself from her carriage, her face distorted with
displeasure, almost before his chariot had paused with lunging steeds.
"By Bel, what is the meaning of this interference with my entry into
the city?" she broke forth in a voice of passion.
"Interference! Nay, it is a triumph. They make a holiday of your return
with your captives, priestess of beauty," Bandhor roared.
"Holiday? Triumph?" the woman repeated with a curling lip. "Are we then
at war, Bandhor, since I departed?"
"Nay," he returned, viewing her rage with what seemed a sense of
amusement. "Nor will be--since Kalamita brings with her the guarantees
of peace. Come, I will lead you into the city."
For a moment his sister considered, tapping the metal of the roadway
with a sandaled foot. Plainly her displeasure in this change of
whatever plans she may have had was in no way diminished, but in the
end she accepted. "So be it. But wait." She turned and disappeared into
her carriage, from which after some few moments she again emerged.
She had altered her dress, and now in the Sirian sun she blazed.
Jeweled shields, supported against her fair skin by a gem-incrusted
harness, covered her breast--a green skirt embroidered with flashing
stones fell from a scintillating girdle about her hips and thighs.
Green were the plumes above her tawny hair, and the sandals on her
feet, the casings on her calves. A barbaric picture, she strode toward
Bandhor's car with its restive gnuppas.
"If we triumph, let us triumph fitly," she said in scornful fashion,
and stepped into the driver's place. "It is my pleasure, Bandhor, my
brother, to lead my triumph myself."
Gathering the reins into her hands, she turned the gnuppas back toward
the gate of the city in a swirling smother of dust.
"Thou tawny devil!" Bandhor cried, his eyes flashing with admiration
as he caught the tail of the rocking car and sprang aboard. "Forward,
Zollarians--into the city!"
The patrol that had stopped them formed on either side of Naia's
carriage. Kalamita's party fell in behind it. They passed through
the gate, and between the living banks of a swarming, jostling,
neck-craning crowd that lined the main avenue of Berla as far as the
eye could reach.
Their advent excited a roar. Small doubt but their identity was
known--or that this haling of the wife and child of the strong man of
Tamarizia, captive, seemed a triumph to the minds of the Zollarian
populace indeed. Yells, shrieks, and screeches filled the air. Curses
of every degree of vileness were mouthed. The mob jostled, pressed
closer to the carriage of the captives. Someone threw a stone. Naia
lifted Jason and placed him under the rear wall of the conveyances,
where it curved upward to form the canopy or top.
Her body formed a shield before him. For the rest, her pale face
remained unmoved in its haughty calmness. Watching her, Croft's heart
was filled with pride. Maia crept to her and crouched on the cushions
beside her, plainly frightened. But save for that instinctive guarding
of her offspring, Naia of Aphur gave no sign of fear.
"Hail to Kalamita, priestess of beauty. Hail Bandhor. Hail to Kalamita,
who brings to Zollaria those through whom she shall be made once more
stronger than the strongest," the populace roared.
It occurred to Croft to see how Kalamita herself was receiving
the acclamation. He left Naia's vehicle briefly and joined himself to
the woman, reining the prancing gnuppas with a practised hand.
He found her face wreathed in a forced smile, and her tawny eyes, back
of their fringing lashes, ablaze.
"Who has spread the report that these shall make Zollaria strong?" she
hissed at her brother.
"Helmor," he told her after a moment's hesitation. "So soon as your
advance messenger reached Berla, he commanded the success of your
mission announced."
"Helmor," said Kalamita thickly. "Him whom Tamarizia has most
grievously defeated. Is the emperor one to gain credit from my work
before the masses, or a fool to consider a thing as accomplished ere
it is done? Was it not agreed between us, Bandhor, that after she
should have been brought quietly to Berla she should be taken into the
mountains until I had tricked this Tamarizian Mouthpiece?"
"To a meeting?" Bandhor muttered.
"Aye, to a meeting," said his sister, "after which he also would have
been in our hands."
"Provided he came to the meeting."
"Came?" Kalamita curled her lips as she answered. "You, Bandhor, are
one to whom women are no more than a moment's toys, but to that one,
that pale-faced creature, behind us, means more. Aye, he had come, for
I sent word that _I_ held the woman, and bade him to a meeting to give
ear to _my_ demands."
"By Bel," growled Bandhor, "Helmor believes it not, and who was Bandhor
to stay his hand? Say what you will to me, my sister, but, once we
reach the palace, curb your tongue."
"Nay--I fear him not." Kalamita shrugged her shoulders. "This display
is a mistake, as I shall show him. The matter should have been
conducted in quiet, till it was past."
* * * * *
Vastly pleased that Kalamita's plans were already going contrary to
her liking, Croft returned to Naia, and remained throughout the noisy
progress until the palace was reached, and she was led inside between
double rows of guards.
Into the palace of Helmor, Emperor of all Zollaria, her golden head
proudly lifted, Naia of Aphur passed, walking with steady footsteps
once her shackles were removed. And Maia followed across a huge
interior similar in most respects to the Tamarizian structures, bearing
in her blue arms Jason's son. Palace guards opened a door before them.
They passed into an audience chamber to stand before Helmor at last.
He sat there on a silver chair upon a dais, the steps leading to which
were spread with gorgeously colored rugs. And as her guards led Naia of
Aphur toward him, with Kalamita and her brother close behind them, he
glowered.
Croft knew him by sight. There had been a time when he had forced
him on a stricken field to enter his own armored motur, prisoner of
war, and guarantee of an early peace, on the day Zollaria's hopes of
conquest over Tamarizia had gone down in red defeat. And now he watched
as he opened his lips to speak, in a somewhat taunting fashion:
"Greetings to Naia of Aphur, whose presence gives all Zollaria
pleasure, in that times are changed, and that where once Helmor was
held hostage for Tamarizia's demands, Naia and her child are now the
guests of Helmor until their ransom be paid."
For a moment the woman before him said nothing, staring straight back
into his gloating visage out of steady purple eyes. And then her lips
parted. "And were apt to be a guest overlong, should Zollaria ask more
than Naia of Aphur, or any other woman, were worth?"
"Say you so?" Helmor seemed somewhat taken aback by that haughty
response, at which the quick fires of admiration stirred in Jason's
spirit. "Yet perchance the Tamarizian Mouthpiece will place upon her a
greater valuation than she lays upon herself."
"Those things lie with the gods, Helmor of Zollaria," Naia said, though
at mention of Jason her delicate nostrils twitched.
"Did Helmor say that this woman lies as _his_ guest?" Kalamita cut into
the ensuing pause.
Helmor turned his eyes upon her. "Aye, priestess of beauty, now that
you have so faithfully accomplished the task entrusted to you."
"The first step, Helmor," Kalamita dared to correct him, advancing
close to the foot of the dais. "Naught save that is accomplished as
yet. And was it not agreed between us that she should remain in my
charge until after I had met this Mouthpiece and spoken with him?"
"Aye," Helmor admitted somewhat sharply. "But--since you departed upon
your mission I have taken thought."
"And Helmor has thought what?" Kalamita stiffened, drawing up her
supple, unrestrained figure to its fullest height.
Helmor's visage darkened. "That were this Mouthpiece as clever as he
appears, he will not fall into your trap. Wherefore, it were best to
retain the woman and child he values in a strong place."
"And forsake the meeting on which we were agreed and of which I have
already sent this Mouthpiece word?" Kalamita questioned further.
"Nay." Helmor smiled. "The meeting shall take place. Said you aught in
your message, save that she was held by you in a place he knew not of,
and that he needs must speak with you of her ransom?"
"Does Helmor think Kalamita a fool?" The Zollarian adventuress smiled.
"Nay--the question were useless, since it was in her mind the matter
first had shape," said the man on the dais.
"And Helmor, who changed his form, sending Bandhor and his guardsmen
forth to change into a paltry triumph what had been better carried
out in secret, nor mentioned until the matter were concluded, in the
judgment of her who, as Helmor himself declares, conceived it first,"
the woman before him retorted and broke off. Her tawny eyes were
flashing, the green plumes above her upflung head were aquiver, the
jeweled shields against her rosy bosom rose and fell quickly as she
panted rather than breathed.
For a time Helmor regarded her closely before he answered.
"Enough," he said at last. "Much may be forgiven to beauty--and much I
forgive to Kalamita. Yet lies there a point beyond which Helmor grants
it not to any man or woman to question his words. Wherefore give ear,
and heed to Helmor. This meeting shall take place. Since naught was
said of Zollaria's part in the woman's capture, wherein falls it out
any different from what was planned--save that she lies in Berla rather
than in another place, under Helmor's protection rather than in fair
Kalamita's hands?"
"Helmor does not trust his agent with a thing of so much value?"
Kalamita flung her challenge full at the emperor of her nation,
taunting him, daring him, as it seemed, to answer.
And all at once it seemed that Helmor evaded.
"Nay," he said slowly. "None doubts Kalamita's loyalty to the interests
of her nation. Yet were it best for her to lie doubly safe should
Zollaria's demands be refused, or this Mouthpiece fail to appear at the
meeting she has proposed."
Once more the form of Kalamita stiffened into a haughty posture.
"Refused?" she flared. "Nay, Tamarizia dares not refuse, since I
shall say to their Mouthpiece that I have taken an oath that unless
Zollaria's demands are quickly granted I shall offer the child in
sacrifice to Bel. And by Bel himself--"
Naia of Aphur caught her breath and drew back a pace, staring at the
woman before her out of widened eyes, as innocence may always stare at
the incarnation of vice.
So for a horrified instant she stood, and then, turning to Maia,
swiftly she seized the child, straining it for a moment to her breast,
and then extending it on quivering arms, uplifted to the man above
her.
"Helmor of Zollaria--in the name of Zitu!" she cried.
"Hold!" Helmor roared. "Peace, Naia of Aphur. It seems well I have
decided on your safety."
He turned to Kalamita. "And it seems clear to me, sister of Bandhor,
that in this you would serve your aims of vengeance as well as your
country's ends. Ere this it has come to my ears you have cause for
anger against this Mouthpiece because of a slight placed upon you.
And in that it is not my wish to in any way obstruct you, save only
as toward a glutting of your hatred against him, you would lessen
Zollaria's chances of gain. Yet an oath to Bel is not to be lightly
broken. And--should Tamarizia finally refuse to yield in this matter
or chance a resort to arms against us, we may surely need his favor.
Wherefore I pledge you the word of Helmor that, should those things
transpire, I shall place the child directly in your hands."
"Helmor has spoken." With an unholy light in her voluptuous face,
Kalamita knelt before him.
* * * * *
Croft writhed in his spirit, at the meaning of Helmor's words--the
picture of Jason, Son of Jason, torn from the breast against which
now he rested all unknowing, and fed into Bel's foul body filled with
flame. The thing was unthinkable to a man or woman of a nation where
the gods were no longer savage spirits to be appeased by blood and
suffering, but divinities actuated by mercy and love.
And, too, a sudden swift regret assailed him that though he had known
of Kalamita's purpose from the first, he had said nothing concerning it
to Naia, thinking thereby to save her from the consideration of it. For
now the horror came upon her without warning, and she swayed upon her
feet so that Maia put out a hand and drew her back against her body in
support, and Kalamita, noting the action, turned to her from Helmor.
"What now of that spirit you boasted would not break before me,
Tamarizian?" she hissed.
The thing struck Naia of Aphur like a whip and saved her from what
seemed an impending collapse. She forced up her head to meet her
tormentor's taunt.
"As yet it has not broken," she denied. "Rather will Zollaria's
footmen, her horsemen, her nobles, all that strength of which she has
boasted in the past, be broken if this thing is dared. And think not
the blood of a suckling will give Bel strength enough to aid you,
against the vengeance Zitu's Mouthpiece shall send upon you. Zollaria
may call upon Bel in that day, but--by Zitu, I swear it--she shall call
in vain."
"Enough," said Helmor. "Guards, let this woman be removed, with her
child and slave, and kept in a safe place under penalty of death
to them who watch her, if save by Helmor's orders, they be harmed.
Kalamita, arise. You will depart to the place appointed for this
meeting, so soon as we have considered together concerning Zollaria's
demands."
Kalamita rose to her feet. Naia's guards led her and Maia out.
Croft went with them. Already he knew in the main what Zollaria would
ask--knew in his soul that her demands must be refused for Tamarizia's
good. There remained then naught for him save to support Naia in so
far as he could in the spirit, and devise some means of freeing her
from her present position, other than any true consideration of what
Zollaria might propose.
And now it appeared to him that the best he could do was to bring about
delay in whatever negotiations might grow out of the situation--to see
them dragged out without a definite decision--to gain time, wherein he
might think and scheme. Or if there were no other way, seek to perfect
some such device with which to strike a counter-blow against Kalamita's
nation as that I had proposed.
Such thoughts held him, therefore, as he followed out of the audience
room and along a corridor and down a flight of steps to a room deep
amid the foundations of the palace into which Naia and her maid and
child were thrust.
A litter of straw was upon the floor. It was dimly lighted by a single
oil-lamp in a sconce against one wall. There was a copper couch with
a none-too-clean sleeping pad upon it, and nothing more. With a quick
rebellion of the spirit, Croft found himself thinking that it was not
so Helmor, when a prisoner of Tamarizia, had been housed.
Yet he had no fear of Naia's welfare, the measure of her endurance,
remembering how she had lain in the forests of Mazzeria, her fair skin
blue so that she might seem one of their own women to any Mazzerian
prowler, when she had flown to his rescue over Atla's walls, during
the Mazzerian war. Wherefore he waited until Maia had induced her to
stretch herself upon the couch, and taking the child in her arms had
crouched beside her on the straw, rocking it gently and crooning to it
a quaint Tamarizian song. And then as Naia's lips moved and he caught
her whisper, "Beloved," he answered:
"I am here."
She sighed, and her body relaxed as its astral tenant stole forth.
"You heard all, beloved?" she questioned as they sat together in the
weird communion of spirit with spirit that was theirs.
"Aye," Croft told her.
"Now Zitu help us!" Naia of Aphur cried. "For if my spirit be not
broken, as I said to that fiend in the form of woman, yet it is shaken
within me, Jason, because of that little life Maia now holds in her
arms."
"Nay--fear not." Jason drew her to him and told her his plan to gain
delay while perfecting his other plans. "Azil gave not the spirit of
our son to us, beloved, to be set free in Bel's unclean arms."
"Zitu grant it." Naia glanced about the barren chamber. "Forgive me my
weakness, Jason. If delay seems best to you, I shall endure it, so you
come to me frequently to tell me of all of your progress."
"Aye." Croft's soul rebelled at the thought of her durance in such
quarters, though there seemed nothing else for it. Still the thing
hardened his purpose, drove one more argument nail-like into the
determination forming in his mind. "Here we may meet in safety since
Helmor himself denies all access to you. And I shall visit earth,
beloved, ere I come to thee again."
"Earth?" Naia's glance flamed with quick understanding.
"Aye." For a moment man and woman looked into one another's eyes,
sensing those things as yet in the dark womb of the future, before
Croft concluded his answer with a grim assurance. "And when I return,
unless our good friend has failed in his efforts, strange things shall
come once more out of Aphur, and even as Naia of Aphur warned them in a
prophecy of horror, Helmor and Bandhor's shameless sister shall call on
their impotent god in vain."
"Zitu!" Naia's astral form lighted with comprehension of his meaning.
"Now are you Mouthpiece of Zitu again wholly."
Behind them the blue girl of Mazzeria still crooned to the child which
she was holding in her arms.
* * * * *
These things Croft told me on the night he kept his promise to visit
me again. From Berla he went to Himyra first, speaking with Gaya and
Robur, directing the latter to mobilize the workmen who had labored on
the airplanes, before the Mazzerian war. Croft also visited the motur
shops and gave command for the immediate inception of work on engines
of a somewhat more powerful design than any used on Palos heretofore.
Robur accompanied him on his rounds, his lips set, his dark eyes
flashing as he listened to Croft's directions concerning his as yet, to
Rob, not fully understood plans, his admonitions for the production of
a certain quality of cloth, the mixing of vast quantities of what was
in reality little more than a rubberized paint. But at least here was
work to hand in plenty--and work that spoke of more work to follow, to
the Aphurian's mind.
Furthermore, Croft requested that he see what airplanes were already
constructed, thoroughly overhauled, as part of the preparation for
Koryphu's mission into the mountains north of Cathur. And that part of
his intentions he explained.
"They follow a course of deception already, Rob, and two may play at
the game. Much must be done ere we attempt a rescue, and toward the
doing we must needs gain time. Wherefore since to the minds of Helmor
and Kalamita it is unknown that I am forewarned of their intent to hold
Naia in Berla, rather than in the place of which by Bathos she sent me
word, it appears best to me that we make it seem we are deceived. These
planes shall mount the air from Cathur, therefore, and fly above the
mountains in advance of Koryphu's party, as though seeking for some
place of concealment, wherein her captives may lie hid. Thus we shall
help Kalamita play her part to her mind at least, and perchance throw
at least some dust in Zollaria's eyes."
Robur nodded. "I sense your plan, Jason," he agreed. "Yet I have taken
thought that a plane may fall, and that it is the secret of the moturs
which Zollaria wishes in part to gain. How then if disaster comes upon
one of your men? Would it not in so much weaken Tamarizia's hand?"
Croft smiled rather grimly. "Aye, Rob. The point were well taken, nor
has it escaped my mind. To such an end each flier must be provided with
a device by which his motur may under such conditions be destroyed, and
with orders to burn his machine, escaping thereafter by the aid of the
other planes on duty with him, or in any way he can."
Once more Robur nodded.
"Aye," said he, "you think of all things. And this other device toward
the forming of which you are preparing?"
"Nay," Jason replied. "It depends upon my visit to earth, after which I
hope to give you plans and figures."
"Zitu grant you be successful," said the Governor of Aphur. "You will
seek this knowledge when?"
"Tonight," Jason told him; "after which Scira must be visited and the
consent of Koryphu to head the party to this meeting with Kalamita
gained. She will lose small time in hastening to it, hoping to add
another prisoner to her number, despite the fact that Helmor has
altered her plans."
"Aye, and were swift moturs or an airplane to descend upon her lodge
after Koryphu has reached it, it might be that Tamarizia would have
a prisoner to exchange with Zollaria without a longer waiting," Robur
growled, and laid a tense hand on the hilt of his sword.
Croft eyed him for a moment of heavy silence.
"That, too, have I thought of, Aphur, yet though we match craft with
craft and violence with violence, if the need arises, let none say that
Zitu's Mouthpiece counseled the violation of an embassy's seeming or
used it as a mask to another purpose than that to which it sets forth."
"But--if this Zollarian plans to trick you into her hands by such a
meeting?" Robur flushed a trifle under the implied rebuke of Croft's
words.
"Nay, she will fail," said Jason. "Yet think not, meaning to seize
me if so it falls out according to her wishes, she will come to that
place so poorly guarded that an attempt to make her captive would
result in aught save a clash of arms. Wherefore let her fail of her
aim and return to Berla the next time with empty hands. How stands
Zollaria then, save to deal direct with Zitra, which shall quibble with
her--neither accepting nor refusing, appointing a place perhaps for
a more representative meeting, while you and I, Rob, labor over our
designs?"
"I have talked with Zitra by means of the message tower you have placed
in Himyra and upon Zitra's walls," Robur replied. "Jadgor, my father,
stands ready to aid you in whatsoever way he can, and the spirit of
Lakkon writhes with thoughts of his daughter. May I say to them those
things with which you have made me acquainted?"
"Aye," Croft assented. "Say also that Naia sends a greeting to her
father, and that at present she lies safe from harm. Come, let us
return to the palace since things are now arranged."
Robur nodded. They entered his motur and drove back toward the red
court, and the residential wing of the Aphurian government buildings,
side by side, as they had on many another occasion when they labored
together in Himyra's shops.
And that night it was Croft made his promised visit to me to discover
what I had learned concerning the thing on which more than anything
else Naia's rescue appeared to depend.
I was ready for him. I had not delayed in instituting my efforts at
gaining the knowledge the use of which I had suggested, and I had been
fortunate indeed. I had found the man I wanted almost at once--one who
had served his country well in the chemical arm of the service, and
was therefore qualified to give me the information of which I stood
in need. My greatest difficulty had been in convincing him that I
desired the knowledge for no improper use, but in the end I surmounted
the task. And that night after Jason had roused me to his presence I
recited the formula to him, and he cried out:
"Zitu! Murray, the thing can be accomplished! Palos holds all that will
be required."
* * * * *
Considering the stage of life on the other planet, that was a
self-evident fact, but I knew he meant more than that. Before the
Mazzerian war he had established a laboratory at Himyra in which he and
Naia had gone more or less fully into chemical matters, and I felt he
was fully assured concerning the things of which he spoke.
"Good," I said, "then you can make it?"
His thought waves beat back at me in a very passion of conviction.
"Yes, and we'll carry it to them in something like your earth-born
blimps--isn't that what you told me you called them when I was here in
your institution as a patient?"
"Blimps--dirigibles, you mean?" I questioned.
"Yes," he said. "That's what I've been considering making, though I
haven't told Rob about it yet. They'll be far more stable for the
purpose than planes."
"Why, yes," I agreed. "Croft, it's a rather peculiar thing, but before
the armistice was signed in Europe each side was planning to blot out
the major cities of the opposing nations beneath a fiery rain."
For that was the thing I had proposed to Jason, and the secret for
the production of the unquenchable liquid fire which could be stored
and carried, and sprayed in a rain of death upon those against whom
it was used, was the thing I had gained from Captain Gaylor, formerly
connected with the department of gas and flame.
Horrible--well, yes, but surely subtly suited to Croft's needs for use
against the nation which, enraged by the defeat of its former plans
for aggrandizement at the expense of the country he served, had struck
against the most sacred, the highest and holiest interests of his
life--seeking in such fashion, rather than by any legitimate method,
to finally effect their aims--a nation, a representative of which I
myself had heard in the spirit at least vow that, unless those aims
were thereby accomplished, an innocent child should be sacrificed to a
savage deity by fire.
Yet because of Kalamita's oath and Helmor's agreement, a move to
exercise force in her rescue would be equally fatal, unless--well,
unless it was a force that could strike silently and swiftly--a
force in the nature of a total and terrifying surprise. And surely
the blimps--the dirigible balloons Croft suggested, equipped with
a flame-spraying device and plenty of liquid fire, might well
prove a terrifying, a paralyzing spectacle to even Helmor's and
Kalamita's eyes. Paralyzing not only to the body, but to the brain
itself--warranted to make simple any bargain which would preserve
themselves and Berla from a blazing rain of death.
His whole astral presence glowed with the intensity of his emotions,
the deadly determination by which he was stirred. For the first time
I realized fully how he had won Naia against all opposition, and had
carried all before him in Palos after he gained existence on the planet
in the flesh. No ordinary mind could stand against such concentrated
mental force.
"By Zitu," I cried, "I believe you!" I felt a quiver shake me. It was
as though already the doom of Helmor's plans and Kalamita's vengeance
was sealed. "Croft," I questioned, "you know the general nature of
these blimps?"
"Aye," he nodded. "But if you have any suggestions, Murray--"
"Well," I said, "Captain Gaylor gave me the general plan in describing
how the stuff you're going to demonstrate to Helmor was to be
carried--as well as a description of the fire bombs they meant to carry
aboard their planes. You know just before the armistice, Jason, there
was talk of a new deadlier gas. In reality it wasn't gas at all, but
this stuff of which I've told you. The gas talk was just a mask."
"Go on--tell me, Murray," he prompted tensely. "Give me all you can to
begin with, though if I get stuck I'll be back again, of course."
"Of course," I said, and told him all I knew myself, while he drank
in my descriptions, storing them in his mind for future use, his
expression firing now and then as he pictured the creation of the
monster envelopes, the suspended cars, the motive power by which they
should be flown across the Central Sea and Mazhur, to hang a sudden
embodiment of Tamarizia's answer, above Berla, freighted with their
deadly stores.
"Murray," he exclaimed when I had finished, "Naia of Aphur, and Jason,
Son of Jason, will owe you their salvation."
I couldn't answer, and I didn't try. I said instead, "The thing seems
plausible to me, Croft."
"Plausible," he repeated. "It shall be accomplished. Now, Koryphu may
start upon his mission, while every shop and forge in Himyra roars."
I asked a question. "By the way, how does the populace cotton to this
fresh Zollarian move?"
"They don't know it yet, old fellow." He gave me a glance. "You know,
Murray, Tamarizia, even yet, isn't earth. There's only the wireless
between Himyra and Zitra, and a telegraph across the Gateway to Scira
in Cathur--but in view of what's going to happen in Himyra almost at
once--the preparations, I mean--I think I'll tell them, and suggest
that in Zitra the masses be informed by Zud--that Zollaria has struck
at the Mouthpiece of Zitu in order to coerce the nation. It won't do
any harm to have the sympathy of the populace behind us in this."
"Nor in Scira," I said. "Cathur hasn't forgotten how nearly she was
enslaved, I imagine--or that her fate would have been the same as
Mazhur's for fifty years, if it had not been for the Mouthpiece of
Zitu's intervention in hers and Tamarizia's behalf. And see here,
Croft--if you've a telegraph up there, why don't you send Koryphu a
message instead of going after him yourself? You've enough to tend to
in the matter of the blimps without trapesing about."
* * * * *
He smiled for the first time. "It might do here, but not on Palos,
Murray. They're great for delegations, personal representation--the old
ways. You can't change them all at once. But--it won't do any harm to
announce my coming or its reason, or that the Mouthpiece of Zitu comes
in person to the house of Koryphu. That in itself might even serve
in preparing the mind of Cathur's prince for the proposition I shall
make him once I arrive. According to Palosian standards, Murray, even
though it sounds bald for me to say so, such an occasion should be an
important event in Koryphu's life."
"Yes," I agree and nodded. More and more it impressed me that Croft's
mind was working again in its normal fashion, now he had actually
decided on a definite course. "Being honored by a visit from the
Mouthpiece of Zitu, publicly announced in connection with Zollaria's
action, ought to impress him favorably, I guess. His fellow citizens
can scarcely fail to draw the connection, and besides it will give him
a chance to put a spoke in Kalamita's wheel, perhaps--at least to meet
the woman who brought disgrace and death upon his brother face to face.
If he's human, Jason, he'll accept."
"He's human enough," said Croft. "Murray, I actually feel as though I
were facing some positive action at last. It's a relief. Ever since
this thing happened I've been in an even worse state than I was after
I'd seen Naia first--and before I'd managed to acquire a physical
life on Palos. There was a barrier between us then that seemed
insurmountable, as you know, and yet I knew her, the one woman, in
all the teeming multitudes of feminine spirits I had ever longed to
know. I--I knew her--mine. And now there's another barrier between us,
scarcely less fatal, though of a different kind."
"But--you overcame the first, and--"
"I'll overcome the second," he interrupted in a flash. "I get your
meaning, and I'll do it. Zitu, what did I not overcome to reach her in
the first place! But I reached her, and I'll reach her again."
I didn't doubt it. Again I felt to its full the driving power in
the will of Jason Croft. And at last the man was aroused--at last
he had become less man, torn and harried by the loss of his dearest
possessions, than an intelligent fighting force. Or so he impressed
me as he sat there in the astral body, while his physical form lay
billions of miles beyond us both, in Himyra, at Robur's house.
"Aye, you'll reach her," I said, and looked him in the eyes. "You'll
reach her, Croft, and Naia and Jason, Son of Jason, will come back to
Aphur and to Jason's house."
"Aye, by Zitu! Murray, your words fire me. I go to make them true, and
Zitu guard you!"
He vanished, leaving me to open my bodily eyes.
Darkness met them. There was naught but the night in the room. Yet I
had seen Jason's figure plainly while we conversed, and I did not doubt
he had been able to equally perceive mine. What, then, was the answer?
Was there no darkness to the spirit, even as between Palos and earth
outside of the atmospheric envelope there was no time? Was the riddle
held in that? Was there no such thing as darkness, concealment to the
understanding mind?
Was it only the objective eye for which light was a necessity toward
making the truths of creation plain? Was it only the physical ear that
required the vibration of sound? Were time, light, sound, touch, but
material things? Was rhythm the basic principle of soul existence as
expressed in mind? Certainly Croft and I conversed as easily by thought
transference, a variant of astral vibration, as in the body we would
have used spoken words. What, then? Were life, consciousness, rhythm,
all, but expressions of a universal force--existing already bridgelike
between God's far-flung worlds?