PTAR, PRIEST OF BEL
Koryphu of Cathur, under the banner of Tamarizia--with seven red and
white stripes and a blue field with seven stars--a thing designed by
Croft himself after the republic was established, fared north in a
gnuppa drawn conveyance with his escort of Cathurian guards.
Kalamita and Zollaria came down from the north in a similar fashion,
but with a vastly heavier escort--strong enough as Croft had suggested
to Robur to avoid any chance of surprise. Croft sailed south, but
watched their progress each night, when he let his consciousness steal
forth. The airplanes sailed north and found themselves a landing place
as best they might, to which, after each day spent above the mountains
north of Cathur's border, they returned.
Three days brought Jason to Himyra. Jadgor's galley was swift, indeed.
Each day he spent in the shops sometimes with Robur, sometimes without
him, when matters of state interfered, drafting designs with ruler
and calipers and stylus, supervising the makings of patterns, holding
consultations with his captains over the production of each part he
desired, calling for speed and more speed.
It was the thing that obsessed him now that Koryphu was going north and
Kalamita was coming south--speed in the production of the only thing
that seemed to his straining mind fitted to meet his desperate need.
And a part of each night he spent in the laboratory he had fitted up
in Robur's own part of the palace, experimenting in the blending of
reagents, the making of the liquid fire.
In Zitra, in Cathur and in Aphur, Tamarizia roared, and by degrees the
other states of the nation had the word of the last Zollarian outrage
and added their voices to the chorus of resentment and demand for some
retaliatory move. Croft had their sympathy and support in his plans of
rescue, unequivocally expressed.
Meanwhile Robur took what steps he advised to safeguard the secret
of how that rescue was to be made. Guardsmen established a patrol on
the banks of the Na, with a port of search at its mouth, where all
ascending vessels were compelled to stop by watchful motur craft. Other
guards once more went aboard each ship at Himyra's gates, both north
and south. For the time being the red city came to be an armed camp, as
closely guarded from entry by unvouched for outsiders, as though in a
state of siege.
And his labors ended, each night Croft stretched himself out on his
couch and closed his physical eyes and maintained weird observation of
events taking place in the north.
Three days after his return to Himyra, Kalamita arrived at her hunting
lodge. Rather the thing was a small palace, built of native stone from
the mountains and massive beams of wood--its central court fur-lined,
its walls and floors covered with trophies of the chase--skins of the
woolly tabur, which ran wild as well as in domesticated herds. There
were skins of the ferocious tigerlike beast, such at the sculptured
group in Jason's mountain home portrayed as attacking the man who
sought to keep its ravening jaws from the body of a kneeling woman.
And there the Zollarian magnet set herself down with her escort camped
about her to await the coming of the man she hoped would be drawn to
her out of the south.
She sent her guards farther in that direction to meet and escort him.
Koryphu at the time was still distant some half-day's journey, and
Jason was assured it would be noon of the next day before the Cathurian
appeared.
Wherefore he spent the succeeding morning in the shops and returned at
midday to the palace, retiring to his rooms after explaining to Robur
that he intended being present in the spirit at the meeting between
Kalamita and the Tamarizian agent, even if not in the flesh as the
woman desired.
Robur nodded. "Zitu--that such things can be. Not that I doubt you,
Jason, but the matter never ceases to excite my wonder. Yet shall I
wait with impatience word of what occurs when she beholds Koryphu,
brother of Kyphallos, in your place."
"She is apt to show displeasure," Jason told him, and he was thinking
as much--that the beautiful Zollarian was very apt to show marked
displeasure, covered perhaps as best it might be by a haughty
bearing--as he stretched himself out and closed his eyes.
To the mountains north of Cathur. The Central Sea a-sparkle in the
sunlight fled away beneath him. Scira was passed and the many weary
stretches of winding road over which Koryphu had passed until he
found him, advancing with the Cathurian footmen ringed about him, the
Tamarizian flag a glorious standard above him, led by the Zollarian
guards.
Swiftly then Jason willed himself into the hunting lodge where sat
Kalamita, dressed or undressed as one might prefer to express it, for
the occasion, in a huge chair draped with the black and tanhide of
some savage creature; Gor, her giant attendant by her side.
Fire--the fire of delayed purpose burned in her tawny eyes--there was
the suppressed litheness of the predatory creature already scenting the
kill in her every movement, the tremor of suppressed emotion in her
words.
"Thou understandest, Gor, that when this one comes before me, I shall
demand that we speak together alone. And I have given word to the
guardsmen that his men shall be surrounded and at a word from me, after
my purpose is accomplished, all save one be put to the sword. After a
time as we speak together I shall simulate anger at some word of his,
to the speaking of which I shall lead him by taunting speech, and then
fling thyself upon him and bind him. This is clear?"
"Aye, mistress, Gor hears and obeys," said Gor, curling back his heavy
lips.
Kalamita's breast rose and fell in a deep-caught breath. "See to it,
then. Let there be no mistake."
"Nay, mistress--when has Gor failed thee--or to do thy bidding?"
"None fail me save once," said Kalamita. "Enough."
* * * * *
Outside, a trumpet blew a ruffling blast. There followed a pause, and
then Cathur tricked out in his bravest armor, with the twin mountain
peaks of Cathur on it done in blue stones, appeared in the doorway of
the lodge between two Zollarian captains, and paused.
"Cathur for Tamarizia seeks audience with Kalamita," the senior captain
announced.
For a moment the face of the woman twitched with some sudden emotion
and then she replied, gripping the arm of her chair till her knuckles
whitened. "Let Cathur approach."
The captains fell back and disappeared. Koryphu advanced. A single pace
before her he halted.
"These tablets bring I from Jason, Mouthpiece of Zitu to Tamarizia, to
Kalamita," he said, and placed Croft's message in her hand.
She held them for a single instant, ere she hurled them to the floor.
Her lips twitched, hardened, her tawny eyes glared.
Once more, as in Berla, she was faced by an unexpected element in her
plans. The thing on which she had counted to win her country's ends
at least--to glut her own thirst for revenge in a measure, was here in
the person of the man before her, withheld from her outstretched hand.
Inwardly she raged as any vengeful person may rage when the object of
their hatred escapes their vengeance--and doubly because, despite her
assurance, Helmor had foretold some such ending to the meeting she had
planned.
But outwardly she strove for calm. "How are you called, man of Cathur,
who come to listen to my demands and carry them to this strong man, who
exerts not himself to come before me?"
"Koryphu, brother of Kyphallos, woman of Zollaria," Koryphu replied in
a somewhat husky voice.
Kalamita recoiled. Her body shrank back as from a blow, and then she
stiffened.
"Koryphu!" she repeated, staring at him out of widened lids. "Now, in
Bel's name, what trickery is this that sends before me the weakling
student brother, at whom Kyphallos laughed?"
"No trickery, Zollaria, lies in it, but rather purpose," Koryphu
returned, still more thickly, "in that Jason chose for his messenger
one who had sufficient knowledge of thee to assure his remaining
unmoved by your charms, no matter how shamelessly employed--one who
would hearken to your demands as regarding Naia of Aphur and Jason, Son
of Jason, yet give no ear to other words."
Mentally Croft applauded even while physically Kalamita, the magnet,
gasped.
"The Mouthpiece were a shrewd man," she said after a moment, "yet
might he have felt doubly assured in thy choice, had he considered thy
presence. Kalamita wastes not her wiles on aught less than a man. Did
he send also to guard thee, the things that fly over the mountains the
past two days?"
"Nay," said Koryphu as one who considered his answer. "They but seek a
place of hiding, since Kalamita said her whose terms of ransom I come
to bear to him, would lie hidden in the mountains until such terms were
arranged."
Kalamita smiled in crafty fashion, with a vulpine widening of the
crimson slit of her mouth. One would have said she was pleased by this
information.
"As he wills," she said more lightly. "I might forbid it, but it
disturbs me not. He will not find the place, and endangers the terms
himself, since a part of my demands were gained already if one of his
devices falls. Even now my guardsmen lie in wait for such a happening
in the hills, since I had conceived his purpose, and foreseen wherein
it might be turned to my advantage."
"Nay." Koryphu appeared unmoved by the information. "Let your guards
beware, since if one of them falls it will be destroyed. Does Kalamita
desire the secret of them for Zollaria or herself?"
His lips relaxed slightly in an almost taunting fashion as he regarded
the woman before him out of steady, unwavering eyes.
And again Croft applauded his choice of the man who was unveiling the
true state of affairs behind the present meeting, and yet leaving
Zollaria's agent at least in part deceived. For his words appeared to
flick her and she answered quickly:
"Were it not the same, Kalamita being Zollarian, man of Cathur?"
"Aye, perhaps," Koryphu assented. "If perchance the interests be the
same. It would seem then that as well as Kalamita's price to Jason, I
return to Tamarizia with Zollaria's demands."
"And thy shoulders can support so vast a burden, Cathur--these terms I
warn you are not light."
"I await them," Koryphu replied.
"Then hear Kalamita's price for the pale-faced one and her suckling."
The woman leaned a trifle forward as she named them. "Mazhur must be
returned--the Gateway must be opened without let or hindrance. There
must be no tax exacted over Zollarian traffic on the Central Sea. There
must be surrendered with men to explain them the secrets of your moturs
and your air machines, and of all other devices born of the Mouthpiece
of Zitu's brain--the fire weapons, the balls that burst when thrown
amidst an enemy's forces. Name these things as the price of ransom to
your Mouthpiece when you return."
"These seem heavy terms, indeed." Koryphu threw out his hands in
a helpless gesture. His face was pale, even though Croft in their
conversations had foreshadowed some such thing. "Were it not wiser
for Zollaria to ask less with a chance of obtaining somewhat than to
overshoot the mark by asking everything?"
"Nay." Kalamita leaned back well pleased as it seemed by the man's
quite natural confusion on being given a message that spelled little
less than his country's ruin.
"Nay, by Bel, Cathur--once there was a time when thy brother's plans
and mine went down in confusion when Tamarizia demanded and Zollaria
yielded. Now Zollaria speaks, and should Tamarizia not accept, or make
any move to resist her demands by force of arms, Naia of Aphur goes to
the mines with the blue men who labor in them and her puny offspring
into Bel's mighty arms a paltry sacrifice. So much herself the woman
understands--wherefore she sends this ring to Jason to plead as her own
voice that he hearken to Kalamita's words."
Stripping a signet from her finger, she extended it upon her palm.
* * * * *
Koryphu's features were strained as he took the ring. "These things I
shall carry to Jason's ears. Does Kalamita await his answer?"
"Nay--let Jason arrange the next meeting," said Kalamita. "I go to a
place he knows not of, despite his man-made birds and their spying.
Yet will a messenger on the highway north from Mazhur be met, and his
message accepted. So I shall arrange. Perhaps if he feel need, he may
employ one of these self-same flying devices."
She broke off sharply as a commotion arose outside the lodge, then
turned to Gor.
"Go learn the cause of this disturbance--"
Gor stalked to the door, and paused.
"Mistress, they come," he declared, and drew back as a group of
Zollarian guardsmen in charge of a captain entered, a man in leathern
jacket and helmet held captive in their midst.
With a start Croft recognized one of his own fliers. Disaster--already
one of the planes had fallen, he thought, and heard the captain confirm
his fears.
The man saluted with upflung arm. "Behold, princess, one whom we bring
before you--a Tamarizian dog--who fell with the device he rode like an
arrow-pierced bird from the skies."
Kalamita's smile was coldly gloating as she regarded the captive,
young, slender, grimed by the smirching of his fall and the struggle
attending his capture, his leathern flying-suit torn, and gashed where
some Zollarian, overardent, had slit it with a spearhead. For a moment
she turned her regard on Koryphu as if to say here was her prediction
already verified, and back again to the man.
"Well, Tamarizian, found you the hiding place you flew in search of?"
she sneered.
"Nay." The youth stiffened. "'Tis not always easy, Zollarian, to
discover the hiding places of Zitemku's agents. Nor have we searched
over long."
Kalamita's features hardened. She gave her attention to the captain.
"What of the machine?"
"The machine, princess, was by this one destroyed ere we could prevent
it. It lies burst and ruined by flames."
"So?" Rage lighted the woman's tawny eyes--once more she was baffled in
a purpose. "For that he dies."
Under his grime and sweat, inside the circle of his helmet, the
aviator's face went pale, but he maintained his poise of body even as
Koryphu spoke quickly--"Princess of Zollaria, unsay those words."
"Peace, brother of Kyphallos." Kalamita turned like a tigress on him.
"Who are you to interfere? Stand back and watch how Zollaria deals with
Tamarizian spies. Gor, take thy spear."
Gor's lips curled back as he advanced slightly, lifted his heavy weapon
and poised it.
Impotently Croft's spirit writhed as he gazed upon the scene--on
Kalamita, leaning forward in all her savage beauty, her sinuous body
panting, her nostrils flared, once more gripping the arms of her
chair with tightened fingers--at Koryphu, deadly pale because of the
contemplated outrage, at the figure of Gor, wonderful in its sheer
brute strength and proportion, set for the thrust on the word of
command, at the guardsmen, the captain, the figure of his flier, drawn
up now to its fullest stature, proudly erect in the face of death, and
knew himself powerless to intervene.
And suddenly the aviator threw up his hand toward the other man of his
nation. "Hail, Cathur, Aphur salutes thee," his voice came strongly.
"Long life to Tamarizia. Say to Zitu's Mouthpiece that Robur--"
"Slay!" Kalamita screamed.
Gor's spear plunged home.
"Carry off that carrion." The woman's arm rose, pointing at the body.
The captain growled an order. The guardsmen lifted the limp form in its
suit of leather and bore it out on their spears.
Kalamita swung her whole form lithely about to where Koryphu was
standing. "Say to Zitu's Mouthpiece that so we treat his spies."
"Aye," he made answer gruffly. "Small doubt but I shall narrate to
Zitu's Mouthpiece many things."
For a moment the eyes of man and woman met and plunged glances
lance-like one into the other, ere there rose again an outward
commotion, a burst of thunderous sound, which gave way in an instant to
groans and cries.
Koryphu stiffened. Kalamita started to her feet, as the outcry
continued. Some of the flush of anger faded from her features, and then
Koryphu, turning, ran across the floor toward the doorway and outside
it.
"The standard--the standard of Tamarizia, let it be unfurled," he
roared.
Out of the sky came down a drumming from where an airplane sailed.
On the ground lay some half dozen Zollarian guards--the same who had
carried out the aviator's body--some of them without motion, some
of them that groaned and moved. The vengeance of the flier's fellow
had been swift and deadly. But the flag of Tamarizia broke out over
Koryphu's party, the Tamarizian in the plane circling to drop another
grenade, altered his course, zoomed up above the nearest ridge of hills
and disappeared.
Croft quivered in spirit as he watched him. He could scarcely censor
his hot-headed action in dropping the bomb on the murderers of his
comrades and yet now--blood had been shed on both sides, and Gor was
approaching Koryphu where he stood.
"Go!" he commanded with a gesture of dismissal. "My mistress grants you
safety since you are of no value save as you carry her message. Take
thy men and get thee on thy mission."
"Aye--be you my messenger to carry her my parting greeting," Koryphu
returned, and stalked to his carriage, about which, under the banner of
Tamarizia, his Cathurians had already formed.
Entering it he gave the word for marching. Followed by the black
looks of the Zollarian soldiery he and his party moved off toward the
southbound road.
Bloodshed--bloodshed on both sides. Croft opened the eyes of his
physical body in Robur's palace and lay staring into the night.
Kalamita had slain one of his fliers. The man's death thrilled him as
he recalled it, even while it filled him with sorrow. He had died as
a patriot, a man loyal to his nation, his last word a wish expressed
for that nation's long life. And his fellow had retaliated swiftly,
dropping a bomb from the skies. And now Kalamita was returning, no
doubt--returning raging to Berla, cheated of the major object of her
journey south. And a representative of her nation would wait word on
the road that ran north from Mazhur's borders. He lay pondering the
matter until dawn, and then rose. He sought Robur and told him of all
he had seen.
"Send a message into Cathur, Rob, recalling the airplanes," he
directed. "Zitu forbid that I waste further the lives of such men. They
have served their purpose in a measure. Bid them return."
"And what of the further course of the matter?" Robur inquired.
"Kalamita returns to Berla, in my estimation," said Croft. "She must
make report. Yet thus far have we dealt with Kalamita only. Thus far
the matter has lain between herself and me alone. It was to me Bathos
was sent with his message. Wherefore, so quickly as Koryphu returns, we
shall ask Zitra to send one through Mazhur, calling upon Zollaria to
confirm or deny Kalamita's acts in a representative parley."
Robur nodded. "By Zitu, I sense your intention. In such a way you
safeguard our cousin and gain time for our own endeavors."
"Aye," said Jason, "time in which our work must be pressed with speed."
* * * * *
By day the forges of Himyra roared, and at night they blazed. Men
toiled and sweated. Croft planned, designed, and urged for haste,
instructing, advising, passing upon each part of the engines of swift
deliverance he had ordered made by day, by night watching in his own
peculiar fashion the progress of Koryphu back to Cathur, and that of
Kalamita north.
Two days after the meeting in the mountains he sent Jadgor's galley
to Scira, to await Koryphu's coming and returning to Himyra with the
Cathurian aboard, deeming it best to take the man with him to Zitra
to appear before Jadgor in person, that his own statements might be
confirmed by Koryphu's words. Himself he determined to be present
astrally in Berla, when Kalamita appeared before Helmor to make her
report. It occurred to him that at such a time something of importance
might transpire, and he wished to see how the Zollarian magnet would
seek to cover her defeat.
That her return empty handed was a bitter thing in her heart he was
well aware, since his nightly visits to her wayside camps showed her
cloudy eyed, haughtily exacting, acrid tongued to all, even her giant
bodyguard. Gnawed by her disappointment, she made her way toward Berla
in something like a baffled rage, reached it and drove straight to her
own and Bandhor's palace, refreshed herself from her journey and loaded
herself with jewels, as though thereby seeking by outward show to
mitigate the manner of her return in Helmor's eyes.
Jason, Mouthpiece of Zitu, and Bandhor watched, the former unseen yet
seeing, his body stretched seemingly lifeless in Himyra, his astral
presence alert to her every move and action, Bandhor sprawled scowling
on a copper and silver couch.
"Helmor was right. This Mouthpiece was too shrewd for you, my sister,"
he sneered.
"Or else lacking in the courage to meet me," Kalamita rejoined,
fastening the clasp of an armlet.
"Nay," Bandhor declared, with the respect of the soldier for one of his
own profession who had beaten him twice. "He lacks not courage, by Bel,
or the ability to look even on thy beauty unmoved, as you should be
aware."
"Say you so?" Kalamita whirled, stung by his reference to Croft's
refusal of her favor on a past occasion, and brought her hand into
stinging contact with his ear.
Bandhor sprang up, wagging his head, to tower above her.
"You devil--you yellow-eyed devil!" he roared with guttural laughter.
"No doubt you are angered, and with justice. To have sent Koryphu--the
brother of one who fell on his sword for love of thee--his messenger to
you. That were a master move."
Kalamita regarded his amusement out of narrowed amber eyes.
"Laugh, fool, an' it pleases you," she said at last, coldly. "A master
move indeed What lies behind it?"
Bandhor frowned. His attention seemed arrested by the question.
"By Bel I know not," he stammered. "Save to learn your price of ransom
without walking into the trap you laid, and thereafter to lay a counter
proposal before you."
"Counter proposal?" And now Kalamita sneered. "Such things require
time, Bandhor. This one seems in small haste to regain a wife and
child."
"Or become prisoner to Kalamita," Bandhor suggested.
Kalamita eyed him. Her own expression was brooding.
"Enough," she said. "Your mind reaches not beyond the sweep of your
sword. Go--say to Helmor I appear before him, and--say no more, save
that I will make all things plain when I arrive."
Bandhor nodded.
"Nay, and thou canst, thou canst do more than Bandhor," he declared,
once more frowning, and stalked hugely from the room.
Kalamita remained seated for some time after his departure, her
features cast into lines of consideration, tight lipped, a trifle drawn.
"Now Bel aid me!" she cried, at last rising and lifting her
jewel-circled arms in a body-stretching gesture, turned and went
swiftly down to where Gor waited with her carriage, and its prancing
green-plumed gnuppas. Entering the conveyance, she drew the curtains,
and reclined on the padded cushions, her tawny head supported on an arm.
Watching her, Croft sensed that once more her wicked brain was busy
with its schemes.
Bandhor met her at the palace and escorted her into a small and
sumptuously furnished room. Helmor of Zollaria sat there, his face
contorted into an expression of displeasure. As Bandhor and his sister
entered, he half rose, and Kalamita sank swiftly to her knees.
"Hail Helmor, emperor and lord," she faltered.
"Rise," said the Zollarian monarch. "Thy coming was expected. Bandhor
informed me as you bade him, yet seemed unminded to further use his
tongue. So, then, you appear before me alone?"
"Aye, Helmor." Kalamita lifted herself on shapely limbs and stood
with downcast eyes. Suddenly she had adopted a meekness wholly out of
keeping with her usual demeanor. "Helmor foresaw the outcome of my
effort in his wisdom. All things fell out as he advised."
"The Mouthpiece came not to the meeting?"
"Nay. Perchance he lacked the courage on which I counted." Kalamita
threw up her head. Her tawny eyes flashed for a single instant.
Helmor resumed his seat. His brows knit in a frown.
"I await thy story, sister of Bandhor," he said after a time.
Kalamita explained. Helmor's frown deepened as she proceeded with her
story. Once and once only his expression denoted satisfaction, and that
when the woman spoke of the airplanes flying above the mountains.
"It would seem then that he knows not the woman lies in Berla," he
said, nodding. "It was so I planned. In so much is he deceived. Go
on--finish the story."
"Nay," Kalamita resumed. "There is no more save that I stated the
requirements of her ransom as it was agreed upon between us, and gave
Koryphu her signet which I had taken from her finger, bidding him say
to the Mouthpiece that she bade him yield, and that one of the flying
devices falling, and the Tamarizian within it, being captured, though
not before he had destroyed it, was slain by my orders before Koryphu's
eyes."
"Slain?" repeated Helmor sharply. "Now, by Bel, were it wise to slay
him, or didst let thy judgment be consumed by rage?"
"Perchance," Kalamita admitted, still adhering to her rôle of meekness.
"Yet if so, the act was avenged and quickly, in that one of his fellows
flew above my lodge and dropped a fire-ball, which, bursting, slew two
in the number of my guard--and would have repeated the attack upon us,
save that Koryphu himself bade the flag of Tamarizia unfurled above his
party, whereat the flier altered his course and disappeared.
"Helmor of Zollaria--blood has been shed by Tamarizia in this matter.
Did not Helmor vow that such an act by the southern nation should give
Bel the child of the Mouthpiece, a living sacrifice?" And now as she
broke off she looked full into Helmor's widening eyes.
* * * * *
Croft's listening spirit quivered, sensing the dark turn in the woman's
mind, the deadly purpose of her plans. Tensely he waited while man and
woman confronted one another, his soul torn with the strain of the
delay that preceded Helmor's words.
And then the Zollarian monarch gathered himself together, controlling
what had plainly been no less that a swift shock of surprise. "Aye, so
Helmor promised," he returned slowly. "Yet meant he not the act of a
man enraged by the death of his fellow--a minor instance--a matter of
no consequence along the border. Sister of Bandhor, you appear over
quick to destroy what were a safeguard as well as a price of advantage
in Helmor's eyes."
Once more Kalamita lowered her face.
"There were no advantage to Helmor or the nation," she said slowly,
"save by favor of the gods. If Kalamita err, be it upon her own head,
yet thus far the matter had not gone overly to our liking--and were
Bel's favor purchased--"
"Enough!" All at once Helmor roared. "Question not Bel's favor. Has
he not placed these two wholly in our power? Is the way not paved for
parley and negotiation? Think you the man who waits on the road out of
Mazhur will fail to receive an answer to our demands?"
"Nay," said Kalamita, "there will be an answer. Yet now is it in my
heart to warn Helmor against permitting that these parleys--these
discussions of our demands--be entered into over long."
"What mean you?" Helmor's demeanor was uneasy. "Were time not needful
when a matter of so great importance is to be arranged?"
"Aye--none may deny it." Kalamita granted the point without hesitation.
"And I know not wherein lies the peril save that these be a crafty
people, depending more upon their wits than on their strength, and that
this Aphurian woman boasted to me aboard my galley that the one who
devised these things, the secret of which we are demanding, might well
devise a greater. Wherefore let Helmor be warned against protracting
his parlay to great length."
And now once more Croft's spirit quivered. Let Zollaria depend on the
power of might as much as she pleased, this tawny woman, standing
before Zollaria's ruler with hypocritically downcast eyes, was
possessed of craft at least. Again he waited while Helmor weighed her
words, until with surprise and a vast relief he beheld the emperor's
expression alter, grow from one of startled speculation to a thing
amused.
"A greater device?" he questioned. "Now, by Bel, what were it? Has he
not brought his fire weapons, his fire chariots across the earth, his
fire ships to swarm upon the water, his flying devices into the skies?
Where else shall he turn for a new field to conquer? Earth, water,
air--their mastery is his--and will remain his only unless Zollaria
wrests it from him.
"These airplanes, as he calls them, are our greatest menace--and now
they fly above the mountains, seeking her who lies safe inside Berla's
walls. Nay, sister of Bandhor, thy work is finished--leave what remains
to be accomplished in Helmor's hands, nor heed the words of a woman.
Perchance she meant to raise up a fear thought to affright thee."
Kalamita stiffened.
"Kalamita is not easily affrighted," she made answer. "And being woman,
may sense the meaning of a woman's words. Yet has Helmor spoken. May
Kalamita retire now that her mission is ended, less happily than she
wished, yet ended none the less?"
"Aye." Helmor inclined his head. "Ere the sun sinks I shall send to
your palace a chariot filled with silver. Bandhor remain. I would speak
with you briefly."
"Bel strengthen Helmor's mind." To Croft it seemed almost as though a
hidden meaning lurked in the woman's words as she sank again to her
knees, rose and passed from the room.
He followed. Let Bandhor and Helmor talk, plan, plot, devise. There
lurked not the danger he feared, but rather in the brain of the woman
now making her way toward the carriage across the palace court.
Seemingly she had taken her dismissal, had yielded to Helmor's
decision. Meekness had characterized her most surprisingly throughout
the major part of the conversation. Yet Croft did not believe she had
given over her more personal designs.
Little by little he was coming more and more to understand the woman,
and to realize that in all her sordid standard of existence there
lurked one sincere if superstitious strain. She believed in the power
of her gods. She had been thwarted in her purpose to honor the greatest
of them, by Helmor's resolve to hold Naia and Jason in safety, but with
the quick perception of the spirit, Croft felt assured she would try
again.
Hence it was with no surprise as she entered her carriage that he heard
her direct Gor to the Temple of Bel, before she reclined upon the
cushions and drew a gasping breath.
And he followed close behind her as she reclined upon the cushions and
drew to the pyramidal temple itself.
It was built of some dark-hued stone, in color nearly black, set down
in the exact center of a mighty open space. Pillared it was on four
sides, about a mighty central court, like a great rectangular funnel,
the sides of which were corrugated with steps, leading down once more
to the outer level of the mighty base. These steps could furnish a
multitude with seats, as he saw at a glance. And in the center of the
remaining level--huge--massive--smoke and fire darkened--horrible in
its grinning visage, its pot-bellied furnace back of extended arms, the
idol of Bel found place.
* * * * *
At the head of the inner steps on the side from which she had entered,
Kalamita paused. So vast was the structure that standing so alone
in her supple beauty, her figure became a pigmy thing, was suddenly
dwarfed. Her arms rose above her head. She bent, once, twice, thrice
from the hips in salutation to the monstrous thing before her, its
every detail thrown into revolting relief by the light of the open
sides above its uncovered court, turned and made her way among the
pillars of the surrounding colonnade toward the end opposite that the
idol faced.
It was built in, unlike the other three sides, and here Jason fancied
as he followed, would be the quarters of the temple attendants and the
priests.
Upon a door of silver, set in the ebon surface of the wall, Kalamita
hammered with peremptory fist, and waited, until the portal was swung
ajar by a heavy-muscled individual clad in no more than a leathern
apron tied about his waist.
"Go," she directed, stepping past him. "Say to Ptah that the Princess
of Adita desires speech with him at once."
"Aye, beautiful one."
The man saluted and hastened off along a passage, to return and beckon
her after him mutely until he paused before a second silver door.
He struck upon it. A voice rumbled from beyond it. The man set it open
and Kalamita passed it into the presence of Bel's priest.
Huge he was, powerful, heavy muscled, thick of neck and nose and lip,
with a knotted, shaven poll, gross, in seeming an unwieldly human
beast, as dissimilar to the lithe beauty as day to night. Yet she
spread her rosy, gem-banded arms and sank down with lowered eyes.
"Hail to Ptah, priest of the Mighty One," she spoke in salutation.
"Rise, Priestess of Adita," said Ptah, his small eyes nearly lost
behind the heavy lids lighting at sight of her kneeling figure. "What
seeks the Lamp of Pleasure in the house of Ptah?"
"Counsel, O Wise One," Kalamita answered, rising, and went swiftly on
to explain concerning her vow to Bel in regard to Naia of Aphur's child.
"So?" Ptah pursed his heavy lips at the end. "Helmor is headstrong nor
listens as closely as his fathers to the voices of the gods. In this
case hardly could even I defy him, Priestess of Joy."
"Not Bel's priest?" his caller questioned in a tone of unbelief, and
broke off sharply and went on again quickly. "Am I in this then to
stand forsworn? And think you what may depend upon it. Does Bel take a
promise lightly--and were his favor purchased--" Once more she paused.
Ptah frowned.
"True," he said at last. "Few are brought to the temple, since there
are fewer wars--and those in the greater part are children of slaves.
It may be--woman of Adita--"
"An augury--an augury, Ptah." Kalamita leaned a trifle toward him. "An
augury to foretell how this matter tends. I dare thee to put it to the
test--to gaze on the living expression of Bel's pleasure--to harken to
the Strong One's choice."
"Hah!" Ptah stiffened. Once more he pursed his lips, and then rising,
he took up a metal hammer and struck with it upon a gong which Croft
now perceived to be let into the substance of the door.
Casting the hammer aside he waited until the man with the leathern
apron appeared.
"Go," he commanded then; "fetch me a suckling tabur and the knife of
augury from the hall of sacrifice where it is stored."
Returning to his seat he waited, his eyes never shifting from the shape
of the woman before him until the man reappeared bearing the little
creature he had named, and a massive knife of copper with a weighted
blade.
Rising, he received both and held them until the attendant had
disappeared.
"Oh, Bel--thou Strong One--show us thy pleasure in the matter before
the nation and in the case of Naia of Aphur's suckling. Speak to us
through the life of this creature I, Ptah, am about to sacrifice to
thee," his heavy voice rumbled.
Seizing the tabur by the hind legs, he poised the copper blade, and
with one muscular sweep of his mighty arm, struck off his head, and
laid the carcass down.
"Let me, O Ptah!" cried Kalamita, seizing the reeking knife from the
hands of the priest and kneeling to slit open the quivering belly of
the tabur, so that the entrails were exposed. Plunging her pink-nailed
hands into the quivering mass, she wrenched them forth and spread them
writhing on the blood-stained floor.
Ptah bent above them, marking the fall of them closely. The woman
still knelt before him, watching his every change of expression out
of questioning eyes, holding forth toward him, palm upward, her
crimson-dripping hands.
For a time while Croft sickened both at the sight of the uncouth male
and the physically lovely woman--the spectacle of beauty and the beast
sunk in the unclean orgy of a filthy rite, and at the decision resting
upon it. Ptah said nothing, and after a time he straightened and lifted
his hands toward the ceiling. "Bel, I, Ptah, thy servant, hear thee,"
he intoned hoarsely.
"An augury--an augury!" Kalamita panted. "What says the Strong One?
Speak, Ptah, that I as well may know his pleasure."
Ptah lowered his back-tilted head. "Naught but the child may prevail to
save Zollaria in this matter," he made somewhat cryptic answer after
the manner of his calling.
But Kalamita sprang up, her red lips parted, her nostrils flaring--a
light of unholy satisfaction in her eyes. "Then," she began, her tone
tensely vibrant--
"Nay." Ptah raised a hand. "It lies with Helmor. Him must you persuade
to give ear to Bel's decision."
"Or"--she bent toward him, laying her blood-dabbled hands against his
mighty torso--"were the child brought into the temple--"
"Hah!" Ptah's eyes fired. "Bel himself has spoken to thee also,
Priestess of Adita. Were the child within this temple none, not even
Helmor, would have the power to regain him, and were Helmor to know a
third defeat, one more bidable to the gods might mount the throne."
For a moment there was silence, and then Kalamita said slowly, "An' he
listens not to Bel's message, perchance the Strong One will show me a
way to gain our ends."
Ptah nodded. "Perchance, Priestess."
A glance of understanding passed between them, and Kalamita moved
toward the door.
"Be prepared to act quickly should such time arrive," she prompted, and
was gone.
False--utterly false--to her womanhood, to her nation, Zollaria's
magnet would plot even treason if thereby she fancied she could serve
her ends. The realization burst on Croft with a force little short of
appalling. Filled with an intolerable sense of loathing, he followed
her back to Bandhor's palace, and then returned to Himyra, he opened
the eyes of his physical form, and groaned. Sunlight fell into his
chamber.
A semi-tropic warmth was all about him, and yet, all at once he
shivered as with cold.