THE DREAM OF HELMOR
Kalamita and Ptah. He knew not wholly what they plotted, what plans
might lie in their brains. Yet whatever they might intend certain it
was that the death of Jason, son of Jason, was included in the plan.
And whatever that plan might be, Croft was assured that the priest had
taken time to weigh many matters while he bent above the entrails of
the tabur suckling, before he had given voice to his none too explicit
interpretation of their meaning.
Kalamita--beautiful toy of the Zollarian court, and Ptah, priest of the
nation's god. And when had there been a time or age wherein the lure of
woman, the craft of priest, had failed to largely determine the setting
of the stage, when both had not been involved in plot and counterplot?
He shivered again and sprang up.
Helmor alone, it would seem, stood now between Jason and destruction.
And in that stand Helmor must be encouraged. He must be doubly warned
that harm to the child meant nothing less than destruction to himself,
the overthrow of his house. Such word might be sent him by the
messenger who would carry an answer north to the borders of Mazhur. Yet
before he could be sent some time must needs transpire, and, in the
meantime, suddenly a thought seemed given birth in full form in Jason
Croft's brain.
Like another experienced long before when as a spirit he battled to
find a way to reach a physical union with Naia the one woman for whom
his spirit hungered, it fired him with its potent meaning, set a
light of deep-formed purpose in his eyes. Helmor of Zollaria could
be warned--and warned in such fashion that one of his nature could
scarcely fail to give heed--or so Croft believed. Meanwhile his own
work waited, work which in view of his latest knowledge more than ever
demanded speed.
He left the palace, entered his motur, parked now always in the red
court in readiness for his demands, and drove swiftly to the shops,
attended to such matters as demanded his immediate attention, and went
on to the place where, when once the blimps were ready the hydrogen to
inflate them would be formed.
From there he passed swiftly to a monster warehouse, formerly filled
with the merchandise of many galleys dragged up by harnessed canors
from the quays along the yellow Na through tunnels, but now converted
to his purpose--a hive of industry where dozens of men and maidens were
busily engaged in varnishing a most amazing extent of cloth.
And that night as he labored in the laboratory he called Robur and Gaya
to him and explained to their ready ears those things he had heard and
seen.
At the end Gaya's soft eyes were wide with sympathetic sorrow, and
Robur's square lower jaw was clamped hard. As Croft paused he broke
into exclamation:
"Now, by Zitu, Ptah was right. Naught but the child of Jason can save
his unclean nation indeed--and should harm come on him Zitemku will
have a foul pit full of Zollarian souls."
Croft eyed him, his heart warmed by Robur's ever ready up-flaring of
spirit. But in the end he shook his head. "Aye, if he be harmed. But
it were an empty revenge after all, my friend, and one which might not
bring him again to my house."
Robur nodded. "What then does Jason propose? Many suns must pass ere we
are ready to attempt the rescue, and meanwhile Kalamita plans."
"To warn Helmor of her planning," Croft told him and watched him widen
his eyes.
"Warn him? In what fashion may Helmor be warned in time--even were he
minded to give ear to any word out of Tamarizia? Jason, you speak in
riddles."
Croft nodded. "Nay--Helmor would pay little heed to Tamarizian words,
but were he to dream--"
"Dream--" All at once Gaya caught her breath. Her glance met Croft's
in a subtle understanding. "Jason, thou meanest--thou canst induce a
dream in his brain?"
"Aye." For the second time Croft nodded, well pleased at her intuitive
understanding. "Why not? Gaya knows how in the spirit I called Naia
of Aphur's spirit to me, before our marriage, and that nightly now we
speak so together concerning our love and this present thing; also that
I speak so to Zud of Zitra when the need arises, having taught him to
answer the call of my spirit. Wherefore, may I not visit Helmor in the
spiritual presence and by the same force inspire a vision of his and
Zollaria's danger in his mind?"
For that was the thought that had come to him on waking after his
return from Berla--the conception of the manner in which Helmor might
be warned and fresh caution inspired in his guarding of Naia of Aphur
and Jason, son of Jason, and even Helmor's self against the perils
involved in Kalamita's schemes.
"By Zitu!" Robur mumbled again.
But Gaya sat brooding the thought for a moment longer, presently
lifting her head to murmur, "Three times. Let the dream be repeated
once and yet again, Jason, until it takes possession of him wholly, nor
is absent from his thoughts at any time."
* * * * *
Croft started slightly. He had only considered the one inspired dream
of warning, but now, he realized swiftly the value of Gaya's words--the
weight attached to the repetition of a dream. Her suggestion demanded
acceptance. "Aye, Gaya," he assented. "Ga speaks through you to the
benefit of child and mother. The dream shall be repeated three times,
on as many nights--until Helmor is convinced of an agency behind it,
even though the nature of that agency he fails to suspect."
Robur rose. His manner was restless. Suddenly he whirled around.
"You can do this thing?" he questioned. "Is naught forbidden to you, my
friend? You can enter the mind of another and order the shape of the
pictures in his brain?"
Jason eyed him for a moment before he answered. "Naught is forbidden
to the seeker after knowledge, Rob, so he see not from evil purpose or
for merely selfish gain. All life is a rhythm--even as the sound of the
harp given off from a vibrating string. And if I alter the rhythm of
Helmor's mind to the preserving of the life of my child, the honor of
his mother, the estate of himself, and the lives of his people, were
the action vain?"
"Nay, it were a work of justice and mercy," exclaimed Gaya before Robur
found words in which to respond.
Croft lifted a tiny vial and held it toward both man and woman.
"Behold!" he cried sharply. "Fix your eyes upon it."
Arrested by his sudden words and manner, they complied, and in an
instant for them the room faded, gave place to another scene. A straw
covered dungeon appeared--a dungeon with every detail of which Croft
was familiar in his spirit--a woman, a blue girl of Mazzer--a child.
Briefly Robur of Aphur and Gaya his wife beheld that picture and knew
it for the room beneath Helmor's palace--and then the whole thing faded
and once more they were gazing at a tiny vial in the Mouthpiece of
Zitu's hands.
It was no more than an example of mass hypnotism as practised for ages
by the Hindu fakers, a trick learned by Croft while still as a man of
earth he had lived and studied in India for several years, but to the
two Tamarizians it was altogether strange.
"Zitu! Zitu!" Robur gasped, while his wife sat staring no longer at the
vial but into Jason's eyes.
"Think you that you have been to Berla?" he questioned, smiling
slightly. "Nay, my good friends, the thing was but a changing of the
rhythm of your minds into sympathy with mine; but a picture never
absent from my thought, which I excited in your brains. Think you now
that I may make Helmor behold a vision?"
"Aye." Robur's tone was thick. "Aye, Jason, thou man unlike any other."
"Aye, Helmor shall dream," Gaya echoed his assurance. She smiled, and
her smile was strange.
Yet no more strange than the hour passed by Jason, Mouthpiece of Zitu,
before he stretched his body on its couch of copper, in the formulation
of a dream--the careful marshaling of the various thought forms he
meant of deliberate purpose to instil into Helmor's brain.
Only when their sequence was wholly to his satisfaction did he relax
his body, his physical mind, will his astral form swiftly to Helmor's
palace and into Helmor's room.
A vast apartment it was, draped in saffron hangings, lighted by small
lamps to a dusky twilight, in which blue maids, slaves of the palace
kept up a ceaseless waving of noiseless fans above the silver couch on
which the emperor slept.
Unseen, unnoted any more than the trailing smoke of one of the
low-burning lamps he drifted to Helmor's luxurious bed and began
hurling his thought force upon him, seeking thereby to awaken a
sympathetic vibration inside his heavy head.
Over and over he drew the mental pictures he had formed, concentrating
all his power on them--Helmor defeated in every purpose--Kalamita
and Ptah as co-plotters--Helmor about to be dethroned--the child
sacrificed to Bel--and Tamarizia resorting for vengeance to the
sword--the Zollarian armies once more beaten into a bleeding
rabble--fleeing--leaving their own defenseless monarch to face the
future alone--Kalamita haughty and sneering--her mask of meekness cast
aside--showing at last as the one by whom these things had been brought
to pass.
And suddenly the lips of Zollaria's monarch moved. He muttered in his
slumber, "Lost--all is lost--defeat--dishonor." For a moment while the
slave girls eyed one another without stilling the sweep of their fans
there was silence, and then Helmor groaned.
He stirred, he knotted the fingers of a heavy hand. "Thou--thou
treacherous one," he muttered. "Through thee Helmor stands undone."
Croft thrilled. The thing was succeeding. In his mind Kalamita
answered. "Aye, Helmor, through me, these things have transpired to my
ends. Defeat have I brought upon you. Tamarizia would have held back
the sword, had you possessed the child to place safely in her hands."
And then suddenly, as though to point the moral, appeared Naia,
clasping the form of the infant the tawny siren had announced as slain,
lifting it toward Helmor in suppliant fashion, even as in the flesh she
had held it to him once. And she spoke sinking upon her knees. "Take
him and give him back to his father, O Helmor, and all will be well
with thee again." And Helmor, seizing the infant, lifted it toward the
skies and--Kalamita screamed, covering her face, and turned to stagger
out of his presence, while a multitude of voices sounded, crying; "Hail
to Helmor, saviour of his nation! Hail to Helmor the Wise!"
Whereat Helmor surged suddenly up in his bed, and sat blinking in the
half dusk of his chamber, from one to another of his attendant slaves.
So for a moment he sat, and then, throwing off his coverings, he rose.
"Go," he directed in a voice that quivered with the emotion of his
vision. "Rouse Gazar and say to him that I have dreamed, and require
his presence."
* * * * *
And on the instant one of the slave-girls dropped her fans and ran
lithely from the room, leaving Helmor to sink back to a sitting posture
on the couch, his heavy hands clasping his naked knees, his expression
a thing of brooding, introspection, excited by his dream.
So he remained until a man entered the apartment and advanced toward
him shuffling across the rug-littered tiles of the floor.
Old he was, bent, with no more than a fringe of ragged silver about an
otherwise bald poll. Reaching the emperor's couch, he paused and bowed
before him, in little more than an accentuation of his already stooping
posture.
"Helmor of Zollaria calls," he quavered, "and Gazar, servant of Helmor,
appears. Speak to me the things thou hast seen in a vision, O Helmor,
that I may make plain their meaning to your ears."
Helmor dismissed the remaining slave-girls and complied. Oddly enough
Croft had an opportunity to test the success of his endeavor at first
hand, as Helmor recited each detail of his dream, and Gazar listened,
nodding his head less in silent accentuation of the several points than
because of some form of palsy that continually shook him; watching his
patron with dark and observant eyes.
He spoke only when Helmor had paused. "Thou didst lift the infant in
thy arms, and Kalamita fled from before thee, shrieking?"
"Aye." Helmor inclined his head.
"In which is the meaning plain," said Gazar. "Let Helmor watch closely
this woman, sister to him who captains all Zollaria's army--and let him
guard closely the child of the Tamarizian Mouthpiece lest harm come
upon it through her, who hating the father because of a personal slight
put upon her in the past, thirsts now for an act of revenge."
Helmor nodded. "Gazar's words seem words of wisdom," he rejoined,
narrowing his eyes, and recalling, as Croft fancied, Kalamita's
scarcely veiled displeasure at his placing Naia and Jason under guard
in the palace, her more recent suggestion concerning the sacrifice of
the child. "How says he? Were this dream a vision?"
"Perchance," replied Gazar slowly. "It beareth the seeming of it. Were
it to be repeated, Helmor should deem it such beyond all doubt."
"Aye and will," said the Zollarian monarch. "If it comes again, I shall
safeguard the child, placing a double watch upon it, and also upon this
woman, whose beauty is too great to fail to sway men's minds."
Gazar appeared to consider.
"'Twere well to do so," he agreed at length. "The past sun it came to
my ears that since her return she has visited the house of Ptah."
"Ptah?" Helmor stiffened. "Now, by Bel himself, he appeared in my
dream--those together."
"Aye," the soothsayer made answer. Gazar did not miss the point. It was
as but the naming of something already known.
As in his sleep Helmor contracted the fingers of a hand. His lips set.
His expression became one of determination.
"Now, by Bel," he declared, "shall I indeed have this insolent beauty
watched. May Adita withdraw her favor from her for first having induced
me to harken to her plans. Gazar, I am half-minded that he himself has
shown me his pleasure, since, even though I myself have vowed him the
child did Tamarizia refuse our demands or seek to win him from us, yet
should she attack with her present weapons, not even Bel might save our
armies from them, had we not the infant itself to place in her hands.
Go. I shall ponder these things deeply. More lies within this vision
than the fancies of a sleep-dulled brain."
Croft quitted the chamber as Gazar turned to leave it. He was wholly
satisfied with his success and through it that Helmor, though
superstitious, held, even as Ptah had declared on the day before, none
too great a respect for his gods. Wherefore, he was determined that
the succeeding night would see the dream repeated with far less effort
since now the pictures of its sequence were printed on the surfaces
of Helmor's mind, and the man would go to his couch, considering the
likelihood of his dreaming again.
And being repeated, Helmor would take those precautions to safeguard
the price of his own and his nation's safety. This would leave Croft
himself free to continue his work on the means by which the eventual
rescue of his loved ones was to be brought about. A vast elation,
a reborn confidence thrilled him as he sought another room in the
palace--no sumptuous apartment this time where sleepless attendants
watched above a master's slumbers, but a deep-set room, soured by the
lack of sunlight, where Naia of Aphur lay on the soiled padding of a
battered couch, cradling Jason, Son of Jason, in her arms.
He told her of his progress, now he should take Koryphu to Zitra, how
there he should let him tell his story before Jadgor, how a message
would be sent north through Mazhur, bearing Tamarizia's demands for a
meeting between representatives of both nations, whereat Zollaria's
demands and Tamarizia's attitude toward them might be discussed.
And then he left her and fled swiftly back to Himyra and the form on
the copper couch.
* * * * *
Three days after Helmor of Zollaria dreamed of the loss of a throne,
and his ultimate salvation through the safety of a child, Jadgor's
galley arrived at Himyra with Koryphu of Cathur aboard. During the
interval Helmor dreamed again twice.
Koryphu's coming announced in advance from Scira was a somewhat stately
affair, but seemingly failed to give the one-time prince much pleasure.
His mien was solemn as he left the galley and met Robur and Jason on
the quays before an observant crowd assembled for the occasion. His
face was set into lines of somber consideration and there was a somber
light in his eyes. One would have said that Koryphu of Cathur held
himself as a bearer of bad news.
Bowing perforce to the welcoming people of Himyra, he took his seat
in Robur's motur and maintained the poise of a noble until the palace
was reached and he and his two companions were closeted alone. Then he
let his feelings loose in a flood of resentful speech, describing all
that had transpired at his meeting with Kalamita, and at the end of his
narration laying in Jason's palm the purple signet ring.
"Whether this comes from Naia of Aphur of her own choice, or was
forcibly taken from her I know not, O Mouthpiece of Zitu, but since
it was given to me with the command to say she sent it to you with
her plea for an early acceptance of the terms of ransom, I fulfill my
mission and place it in your hands."
Croft turned the trinket gently. It affected him strangely--and he had
little doubt of the thoughts unexpressed in Koryphu's mind. The ring
spoke to him with almost suffocating force of the slender hand whereon
it had been worn, of Naia of Aphur, and all she stood for to him. And
he sensed that for the Cathurian the sight of the purple gem had been a
most unpleasant surprise--a hint that a woman of Tamarizia had faltered
in her Spartan duty to her nation--had sent it to her husband to speak
to him as ever now it was doing of herself. Suddenly he whirled on
Koryphu with a question:
"Think you, man of Cathur, that Naia, daughter of Jadgor's sister,
cousin to Robur of Aphur, wife of Jason, sent this to him by the hand
of Kalamita, through any choice save force? In Zitu's name, let me have
your answer and promptly--son of Scythys's house."
Koryphu's face grew pale and he licked his lips, ere his pallor
vanished and gave place to a mounting flush.
"Nay," he stammered. "Nay, Jason--I meant nought save to make plain the
thought that Kalamita had added this to her efforts to persuade you.
May Zilla strike me if I sought to question her who is Jason's wife."
Croft nodded. "Then let the matter remain between ourselves. Koryphu of
Cathur, so soon as you are refreshed, we go to Zitra, to hold speech
with Jadgor in person concerning these things."
"Let not Koryphu delay you," Koryphu said quickly. "Refreshment were
not needful in a pressing matter or one involving the safety of Jason's
wife and son."
His response gave Croft satisfaction, and he took him at his word.
"Accept Jason's gratitude then instead," he made answer. "So quickly as
the galley shall fill her tanks with fuel for the motur, we shall go
aboard."
Already he had arranged with Robur to urge the work in Himyra during
his absence, taking up all foreseen details with him and assuring him
that he could answer questions by the wireless almost as quickly as
though present in the flesh, and even before her arrival he had seen to
it that the captain of the quays had orders to see the galley refueled.
Consequently, Koryphu having waived all formality in the matter,
afternoon found them dropping down the Na, and evening brought the
mouth of the mighty river, where its yellow waters tinted the clearer
flood of the Central Seas for miles. The galley pointed her trim prow
into the north and east at her maximum of speed.
Haste, haste, haste. The thing gnawed now at Jason Croft's heart. It
urged him, spurred him, fired his every thought and action. And as he
stretched himself on his couch that night with the signet of Naia of
Aphur a purple talisman on a silver chain about his neck, it was with
the determination to complete his task quickly in Zitra, and return in
haste to Himyra, there to once more speed his work.
Zitra rose white before them the morning of the fourth day, ringed
by its shimmering walls, fairylike as a mirage on first appearance.
Tamarizia's flag was broken out above the galley and it darted into the
inner harbor through the massive silver-faced sea-doors.
Jadgor and Zitra waited. Days before, Robur had warned his father
of Croft's coming, by wireless, and the word had gone out that the
Mouthpiece of Zitu was returning briefly to the city for the first time
since the loss of his wife and child.
Now as he stood on the after-deck, brave in his metal harness, with the
wings of Azil--the Cross Ansata blazing blue upon it--the azure plumes
nodding above his helmet, Koryphu beside him, and the galley swung
toward her mooring, a wonderful picture was spread before his eyes.
The quays were banked with life. Jadgor, Lakkon, and members of the
national assembly showed in metal harness or gem-incrusted garments;
Zud, the high priest, stood beside them, backed by a group of harpists,
a band of the Gayana, the vestals of the pyramid, mark of Croft's
semi-religious position in the nation.
White-clad they were, their hair loosened save for a binding silver
fillet, their lower limbs cased in white leather nearly to their rosy
knees. And back of them was the crowd, close pressed, necks craning,
restrained by members of the Zitran guard, who were patrolling the
quays or massed about the moturs, the carriages of the assemblymen, the
officials of state, in a glittering phalanx at the end of the street of
approach.
* * * * *
Croft saw it all with a swelling heart as the galley touched the quay
and a gangplank was run out. The trumpets of the guardsmen blared and
the harpists lifted their instruments into position, their voices
mounted in a chant of welcome and blended with the clamor of the crowd.
At the foot of the gangplank, Jadgor and Zud and Lakkon waited. Jadgor
and he struck palms.
"Hail, Jason, Mouthpiece of Zitu," said Naia's uncle, and turned to
Croft's companion. "And to Koryphu of Cathur greeting. It has come to
my ear that Scythys's son has served right loyally Zitu's Mouthpiece
and in him all the people of Tamarizia as well. Wherefore is he welcome
to Zitra and Jadgor's palace as an honored guest."
The face of the Cathurian twitched. As at the time Croft had approached
him, he seemed deeply moved by the mark of favor from the president of
his nation. "Now, by Zitu, O Jadgor," he replied in a tone of quick
emotion, "your words make the heart of Koryphu beat once more as the
heart of a man."
Zud spoke to Jason. "Thou must speak to them, lord." His glance turned
to the close-packed throng of faces. "For many days their thoughts have
been upon you. They await the Mouthpiece of Zitu's words at this time."
"Aye." Croft nodded. The thing was inevitable. He must speak--explain
his mission to the people, give them some definite understanding of the
situation and his motives. No matter how much he might begrudge the
time involved in even so short a delay, the thing must be done.
"Here?" he questioned.
"Nay," said Zud, "the matter is arranged."
Again Croft inclined his head and turned to lay his hand on Lakkon's
shoulder much as he had done the morning Jason, Son of Jason was born.
It was the first time the two men had met since the night he had sworn
to carry the present matter through to the bitter end, and he sensed a
mutual yearning question in the aged noble's eyes.
"Father of Naia," he said, "this coming marks a step toward the goal to
which both thee and Jason turn their hearts. Yet this sun shall make
all plain."
Then turning again to Zud, he followed toward the high priest's car, in
which the prelate indicated that he was to ride.
Jadgor and Lakkon entered their motur. The phalanx of guardsmen swung
about. The trumpeters took the van. The harpists fell in before Zud and
Jason. The Gayana--their arms filled with brilliant flowers--ranged
themselves on either side, and lifted their voices in song. The
procession moved off along the level floor of Zitra's pavements,
through the welcoming throng, to pause after a time in the midst of a
broad, open space.
Croft recognized it with leaping pulses as the square in which he had
been proclaimed as Zitu's Mouthpiece--saw that once more it held an
elevated stage.
Upon it he mounted with Zud and Jadgor and Lakkon, the men of the
assembly--the harpists--the Gayana--over a carpet of the flowers they
cast before his feet. His eyes swept over the faces of the concourse.
His heart swelled oddly at the sight. This was Tamarizia--her people.
This was Zitra--her citizens. These were the men and women of the
nation he had taken a hand in saving from the nation to the north,
in saving and making strong, and leading toward a greater progress,
a wider knowledge--a broader individuality than they had ever known.
These were the people of Naia's race. Of a sudden he stood before
them--the picture of a strong man in his gorgeous harness.
He lifted his hand. The throbbing of the harps--the liquid voices of
the Gayana died. Croft spoke. To those lifted faces he told the story
of all that had happened, the reason for his coming again to Zitra. To
them he gave the substance of Zollaria's demands. A sound ran through
them--deep, low-pitched--and unmistakable thing of amazement and
resentment. It was as if the multitude groaned.
He waited until it was past and gave them his word--the word of the
Mouthpiece of Zitu, that Tamarizia would never yield an acceptance.
He bade them to be of good courage, waiting until the steps he was
intent on taking could produce results--and then--should his plans
fail--should harm befall Naia of Aphur or Jason, Son of Jason--he
promised them to call on them to follow him into action--to lead them
once more against Zollaria with the sword.
And now the people cheered. "Harken to the Mouthpiece of Zitu. Give
heed to his words," a strong voice roared.
Other voices took up the words--they became lost to all articulate
seeming, blended into an acclaiming wave of sound, ran together into a
composite thunder in a thousand throats that spoke of acceptance, in
words no longer, but in unmistakable tones.
Croft lifted his arms, high-flung before them.
"My people," he cried, his face exalted by that mighty response, that
rising ululation of lifted voices. "Zollaria shall receive Tamarizia's
answer ere long."
Again the roar of voices beat back like the pulse of a human surf upon
his ears.
He dropped his arms and turned.
"Come," he said to Jadgor. Together they left the platform and entered
the president's car, with Koryphu and Lakkon. They made their way
through the swarming multitude, preceded by the trumpeters and guards.
"This night the assembly meets to hear Jason's pleasure," Jadgor said
as he took his place at Croft's side. "Robur bade me smooth the path
of your mission in a message. Wherefore I have summoned their number
to a special session, since he said also that I best could aid you by
arranging for your return to Himyra with speed."
"Aye," Croft replied, his heart warming toward Robur. "Speed in all
things, O Jadgor. So shall we solve this riddle. Speed in our work of
preparation--in the execution of our plans--speed so great that we
shall strike in terror upon the sight of Helmor and all Berla, and ere
they expect our coming, wake to the threat of our presence over Berla's
walls."
"Hai!" Jadgor's eyes flashed at the answer. Old war-horse that he was,
the picture fired his imagination, smacking as it did of the methods of
the sword. "Robur said naught save that once more the forges of Himyra
roar to the making of yet another marvel."
Croft nodded. "Which presently I shall make plain."
And he kept the promise, once the four men were closeted in a small
room of the palace, its sliding door covered by a scarlet curtain, its
windows partly veiled by crimson tissues, its floors half concealed by
gorgeous rugs.
* * * * *
First he called on Koryphu for his story of the meeting with Kalamita,
and after the Cathurian had spoken, he explained all he intended doing
and all that thus far he had done.
At the end Koryphu was standing rigid, wide of eye and flared of
nostril, with back-thrown head, Lakkon was watching, leaning against
the end of a table, and Jadgor had thrown a hand across his body and
was gripping the hilt of his heavy-bladed sword.
"Now, by Zitu," he exclaimed, his tone a trifle hoarsened, "to fly
above them, to rain death upon them--to bring them crawling for mercy
where they had thought to tie our hands and despoil us at their
pleasure! Mouthpiece of Zitu, O Jason, art thou rightly called. These
things fail of mortal comprehension, save they be by Zitu himself
inspired. Would Jadgor might go with thee on this avenging journey.
Fire? Hah! Let them call on Bel if they still desire it. Tamarizia
shall bring them fire from the skies themselves--clean fire--unlike
that their filthy priesthood builds in their stinking god."
"Aye," said Croft, well pleased by Jadgor's outburst of approval. "The
fire of Zitu's justice, O Jadgor--that shall destroy the guilty wholly
should the innocent come to harm."
Jadgor opened his lips, paused and relaxed the tightened muscles of his
throat by a swallowing movement. "By Zitu--this mission you shall ask
tonight is therefore no more than a blind, a means of gaining time?"
"Aye." Once more Croft assented. "Zollaria expects it. Let it be sent
to occupy her mind."
The lips of the Tamarizian president twitched. "Oh, aye--it departs for
Mazhur beyond any doubting. We shall demand the naming of an embassy to
confer with men of our choosing."
Abruptly Lakkon asked a tense-voiced question--"Thou art assured she
lies even now within Berla's walls?"
"Aye," Croft told him, looking him steadily in the eyes. "And the
father of Naia of Aphur knows well how Jason knows."
Jadgor nodded, quickly sensing his meaning, and that he cared not to
discuss the matter of his astral powers before Cathur's prince.
"Enough," he said, rising, "we have gained an ample understanding and
Cathur has been overlong aboard the galley. It were fitting now that he
refresh himself."
Summoning an attendant he gave orders that Koryphu be conducted to a
room.
Lakkon rose also, remaining until the Cathurian had quitted the
apartment, then turned to Croft.
"Thou hast seen her, Jason, my son?" he faltered--"thou hast seen her
and the child--hast spoken with her in the spirit?"
Croft smiled as he made answer--"Aye, since last I saw thee, Lakkon,
many times."
"She lies in Berla, indeed?"
"Aye--beneath Helmor's palace."
"How fares she?" Emotion thickened Lakkon's utterance. "Sent she no
message by thee?"
"Aye, the love and respect of a daughter." Croft explained the
situation from first to last, even describing the manner in which
Helmor had been warned.
When next he paused Jadgor's eyes were narrowed to rigid slits, and
Lakkon's features were pale and drawn.
"Zitu," he said in husky fashion, "I doubt not thy power, my son. Naia,
my own child, has named it to me and Zud himself confirms it a thing
accorded to thee from Zitu's hands--yet to safeguard your child and
hers, by causing Helmor to dream. This thing seems passing strange.
Think you the man will give heed to such a warning sufficiently long?"
"Aye--Tamarizia's messenger reaches him with a demand for parley,"
Croft declared from the depths of his inmost feeling. "Think you I had
taken time to journey thus to Zitra, save that to my mind the step were
one wholly needful to the full success of my plans?"
Jadgor spoke. "Nay, Jason is right. This step is that of a statesman.
Let Zollaria lie unsuspecting, while his devices are in the making.
Tonight the matter of the messenger and his message will be arranged."
Lakkon sighed deeply. His face was still pallid, but he seemed in a
measure reassured.
"Now, Zitu be praised," he said, once more addressing Croft, "since in
very truth he appears to guide and strengthen your mind."