EXPLANATIONS
Croft frowned. "What one expects and what one meets are not always
one and the same, friend Murray," he rejoined. "As a matter of fact,
I returned to Palos after my conversation with you, to encounter a
situation of which I had never thought."
"You mean that it interfered with your marriage to the princess?" I
exclaimed.
He made a grimace. "I mean exactly that, both on the part of Naia
herself and because of something else. You remember Zud, the high
priest of Zitra, the imperial city of which I told you--who sponsored
me with Tamhys before the Zollarian war. And you recall no doubt that
I mentioned the fact that I left the body of Jasor of Nodhur, which I
had made my own, in Zud's apartments in the pyramid of Zitra when I
came back here for the last time, and that Naia was quartered during
my absence in the rooms set apart for the Gayana--the Vestals of Ga
the Virgin in the pyramid, too. Murray, when I got back there, fully
expecting to take things up where I had left them, I found that Zud had
proclaimed me the Mouthpiece of Zitu himself."
"The Mouthpiece of Zitu!" I drew a chair close to the bed and sat down.
The thing affected me oddly.
I cast back in my mind for what Croft had told me concerning the
religion of Tamarizia, which was the nation in whose affairs he had
taken an active part on the distant star. Zitu was God in their belief.
Ga was the woman--a virgin. Azil was her son--known as the Giver of
Life. And if Croft had been proclaimed by the high priest of the
central state of the empire, the head of the clerical college, as the
Mouthpiece of Zitu I began to sense dimly the position in which he must
have found himself on his return--just what it might have meant.
If Zud had proclaimed Croft anything of the sort, it was just about the
same as naming him the representative of the Divinity in the flesh--and
from what Croft had told me of his claiming while in Tamarizia to do
all that he did by the grace of Zitu---which was, of course, no more
than the truth in a sense--I could see how his very words might have
laid the foundation for the high priest's act.
Yet, Croft at our former conversation had said that he had induced the
Tamarizians to adopt a republican way of government rather than their
system of allied principalities, and had declared that when he went
back he expected to be elected president. All that flashed through my
mind, and then, "Rather changed your plans, I suppose," I said.
"Changed them?" he returned, with an almost whimsical expression.
"Murray, it almost wrecked them at the start--the most important part
of them, that is. Remember why I did what I did do really--that all I
had done up until that time was in order to win the woman who meant
more to me than anything else in life--and then picture if you can my
mental condition when I found myself trapped, as it were, by my own
acts."
"Your own?" I queried.
He nodded. "Oh, certainly yes--my own, of course--my acts and
my overthought--my failing to take into account what a terrible
impression I had managed to make on the high priest. I--hang it all,
Murray--I knew so entirely what I was up to that I didn't give proper
consideration to the effect of my words and acts must have on less
well-informed minds. I failed to put myself in the place of Zud, and
Magur, the head of the church in Aphur, whom I first enlisted in my aid
at Himyra, as I told you before.
"You remember the old saying, 'Whom the gods wish to destroy they first
make mad,' and one equally as true, that 'Pride goeth before a fall'?
Well, my friend, I was a bit like that, I think, toward the last of
the Zollarian war. Things came my way too fast. The completeness of
the Tamarizian victory, and her father's pledge of the girl to me,
backed up by the sanction of Jadgor, the Aphurian king, made me feel
altogether secure.
"It seemed to me that there could be no question but I carried the
destiny of myself and Naia and all Tamarizia in my hands. I had only to
speak to see my commands fulfilled.
"Honestly, Murray, in those days I couldn't have been more absolute
if I had been the Mouthpiece of Zitu indeed. Perhaps if I'd stayed
there and rushed things through, everything would have been all right.
But, as you know, I returned for a final visit to close up all matters
pertaining to my earthly life before I snapped the astral chord which
until then had kept my original body alive. And there was where I made
my mistake.
"As I've told you, I left my Palosian body in Zud's quarters, rather
magnificently placed. Zud saw to that. I suppose now he was turning the
elements of what he fancied the truth in his old brain. My form was
stretched out on a golden couch, covered with a sheet of orange-colored
silk, in the apartment set apart for my use. And I'd been planning,
as you know, many things I wanted to do. I'd drawn plans--designs for
things common enough on earth, but never before dreamed of on Palos.
And I left the drawing I had made in that room in a golden chest. You
remember I told you gold was as plentiful on Palos as iron on earth and
used as freely in the metal working arts.
"Night and day a guard was kept in the chamber where I lay in what they
believed was my knowledge-gaining sleep. But--the guard was a priest.
He would do anything Zud said, of course. I never thought of that. I
was anxious only to get back here and close things up and return and
claim Naia as my wife.
"So you see I fell into the error of not considering old Zud's thoughts
or his interpretation of my claim that everything I did was by Zitu's
grace. Of course that was plain enough, however, after I got back and
found that he had all along placed a literal interpretation on my
remarks and considered my sleeps as no more than a period of spiritual
communion with Zitu himself. Then it became very forcibly clear to me
that I should have taken Zud more fully into the truth of the facts.
And because I hadn't I found myself in a most embarrassing case.
"The high priest had got into that golden box. He had examined my
working charts. He had dimly sensed them as designs for things I meant
to make--and his wonder knew no bounds. And after that he played the
deuce, though I am convinced the old man only thought he was doing what
was absolutely right, according to his rights."
"And Naia?" I asked. "How did she view your elevation to such a lofty
state?"
Croft gave me a glance. "I told you Zud messed everything up," he
replied. "But--it's a long story. Murray, this ramshackle carcass I've
seized won't last out a great many days. The weakling soul who once
possessed it broke it down by every sort of abuse, including drugs.
But, I've got to learn certain things before I abandon its use.
"Suppose you send me up the latest works you have on internal medicine
and surgery and therapeutics, and drop in tonight. If you're willing to
sacrifice a few hours' sleep, I'll spin you the whole yarn."
"All right," I agreed as I rose. "I don't think I was ever more
startled in my life, but I'll send up the books, and I'll be right here
after nine myself."
"Right," he accepted. "My physicians wouldn't let me have tobacco,
though this body craves it. Bring some cigars when you come, and we'll
have a good long talk."
* * * * *
Before, however, I enter upon Croft's actual story, I think it better
perhaps to briefly describe, in some part at least, those details of
the Palosian world with which he had put me in touch on the occasion of
our former meeting to which I have already referred.
And toward a fuller understanding of that world itself, I think it best
to take up the geography of that part of Palos Croft visited first.
Mainly that which has to do with the Tamarizian nation--a series of
allied principalities surrounding the shores of a vast inland sea, with
the exception of a central state--the seat of the imperial capital,
embracing the island of Hiranur, located in the sea itself, and the
kingdom of Nodhur to the west and south.
From the central sea a narrow strait led west toward an outer ocean
beyond the continent on which the several principalities found place.
To the north of this strait, known as the Gateway, was Cathur, a
mountainous country and the seat of the national university at its
capital city Scira. East of Cathur was Mazhur, known at the time of
Croft's arrival as the Lost State, since in a former war it had been
wrested from the original Tamarizian group by the Zollarians, a hostile
nation lying still farther north.[1]
[Footnote 1: East of Mazhur, and circling the central sea to the east,
was Bithur, and Milidhur joined Bithur on the south. West of Milidhur
was Aphur, completing the circle about the sea and terminating at the
Gateway on the south. Nodhur lay south of Aphur, gaining an outlet
to the central sea by means of the River Na. This river had carried
commercial craft driven by sail and oar until Croft revolutionized
transportation with alcohol-driven motors.
North of Tamarizia lay Zollaria, inhabited by a far more warlike race
of whites. Its government was a despotism organized on militaristic
lines. Controlling the gateway to the west, Tamarizia had remained
the master, even after the fall of Mazhur, still collecting toll from
the Zollarian craft on her rivers, despite the foothold gained by her
foeman on the northern coast.
East of Zollaria and Tamarizia in the hinterland of the continent lay
Mazzer, populated by an aboriginal people of a complexion distinctly
blue. Due to an ancient conquest many of these people were now
constituted as a working caste in Tamarizia.
Each of these states was governed by an hereditary king.]
Croft, by defeating Zollaria, after his entertainment of physical life
on Palos, had brought Mazhur back. In fact, he had just completed that
bit of work at the time of our former conversation, thereby raising
himself to a very high position of influence and power, as I have
sought to indicate, and winning from Naia's father, Prince Lakkon of
Aphur, the promise of his daughter's hand, as well as the consent of
Jadgor, King of Aphur, and Naia's uncle, that the union should take
place.
On Croft's advent Scythys--a man old to dotage--had been king of
Cathur, with Kyphallos the crown prince, a profligate of the worst
type, for a son. Yet Jadgor of Aphur, scenting a danger unless it was
checked in advance in Kyphallos's ascent of the Cathurian throne, had
sought to bind the northern prince to the Tamarizian fealty more surely
by offering him Naia, his sister's child, to wife.
Kyphallos had, however, sunk under the enchantments of Kalamita, a
Zollarian adventuress of great beauty, until he had reached the stage
of plotted treason, planning to surrender Cathur to Zollaria in return
for being given the throne of Tamarizia with Kalamita at his side.
To win Naia for himself, and overthrow Zollaria's designs against
the southern nation had been Croft's main work, toward which he
strained every nerve. Besides his development of the motor on Palos he
introduced firearms as well, placed them in the hands of the Tamarizian
soldiery until then armed with spears, swords, bows and arrows and
shields, and defeated the flower of the Zollarian hosts on a couple of
bloody fields. The victory complete and Zollaria not only defeated but
forced to cede Mazhur after a tenure of fifty years, and it being the
end of the Emperor Tamhys's reign, he had prevailed upon the nation to
adopt a democratic form.
And now a word as to the Tamarizians themselves. They were a white and
well-formed race. In their social structure women held an equal place
with men. I have hinted at their religion. They believed in the spirit
and a future life and the resurrection of the dead. In the sciences and
arts they had made considerable progress.
The clothing of the women consisted of a single garment, falling to the
knees or just below them, cinctured about the body, caught over one
shoulder by a metal or jeweled boss, and leaving the other shoulder
and arm exposed. To this was added sandals of leather, metal, or wood,
held to the foot by a toe-and-instep band and lacings running well up
the calves. Men of wealth and caste and soldiers and nobles, instead of
these sandals, generally wore metal casings, which amounted to a sandal
and leg piece jointed to allow the ankle full play and reaching nearly
to the knees.
The men of caste also wore a soft shirt or chemise beneath a metal
cuirass or an embroidered tunic, as the case might be. Save on formal
occasions, the serving classes, men and women, wore either a narrow
cincture about the loins, supporting a small phallary or apron, or went
nude about their tasks.
Agriculture was highly developed, and as a people they had advanced far
in architecture, painting, sculpture, and similar arts. They lavished
much time and expense in beautifying their houses--making of each a
small palace, if the owner were rich. The highways along which the
sarpelca caravans and the gnuppa-drawn carriages and chariots passed
were models of engineering.
[The gnuppa is a creature seemingly half deer and half horse. The
sarpelca is not unlike some weird Silurian lizard, twice the size of
an elephant, with a pointed tail, a scale-armored back, a long neck
somewhat resembling that of a camel, and the head of a marine serpent
having a series of fleshy tentacles about the mouth. They are driven
by reins affixed to these latter appendages, and stream across the
Palosian deserts bearing merchandise upon their enormous backs.]
All these things I knew from Croft's previous talks. He had told me he
could go to Palos as quickly as I could think of it myself, and here I
was anticipating a resumption that night of his story concerning beings
I had never seen, with an eagerness amounting to impatience of the
dragging hours.
Here was I thinking of Naia--the golden-haired, purple-eyed beauty
of Aphur; of Lakkon, her father; of Jadgor, her uncle; of Robur, her
cousin, the Aphurian crown prince and Croft's loyal co-worker and
friend; of the sweet and matronly Gaya, his wife; of Magur, Zud's
deputy in Himyra; of Zud himself and others, as one thinks of people
well known--actually visualizing them before my mental eye according to
Croft's description--portraying their thoughts and acts and feelings to
myself, as I might with any man or woman on earth.
And to me in that moment Naia--glorious in her purity and youth,
waiting for her mate in the quarters of Ga--the virgin--where burned
the never-dying fires of life, on the altar before Ga's feet--was far
more clear in her seeming than a million mundane women, despite the
billions of miles between her and my present physical estate.
Billions of miles. My mind bridged it in thought.
And Croft had bridged it in spirit at first, until at last he had
learned how to cross the bridge and gain a life in the flesh--because
the lure of the woman had nerved him to that test. The thing thrilled
me, fired every element within me capable of responding to the stimulus
of romance. Sane or insane, true or untrue, I wanted to hear the rest
of the story.
Only remember--that if it wasn't Croft, his spirit--indwelling in
the new patient's miserable wreck of a body--how would he have known
the elements of the former story he had already mentioned--been able
to pick it up where he left it off, and preface what he had promised
to tell me, with his account of the actions of the Tamarizian high
priest? That argument alone seemed enough to remove the last shreds of
unbelief. Consequently I felt that when I entered my patient's room
that evening, it would be to hear not so much a story as a narrative of
life.
And at that I was to be amazed by what had happened to Jason Croft.